Gillan and the Knight stared at the Road from behind a large bush. The bricks glimmered in the sunlight piercing sparingly from the holed roof of interlocked branches above it. They stared at it for so long that eventually Racer, the war-snail, crept up behind them and squeezed its colossal head in between the two.
"What do we do now?" asked the Knight.
"Well, we still don't know where the other direction of the Road leads, so the only option I see is going one way and turning back if we reach the village's side." The girl answered.
"But are not supposed to travel off the Road? It was barely visible from a few steps away, how do we keep near it without being on it?" he pushed.
Gillan cracked a smile for the first time in a long time. it wasn't a smile of happiness. It was very much one of spite. She'd been taught enough about fey-hunting — everyone in the village had been — that she knew exactly why snails were the preferred method of transportation for the black-clad poachers.
"Get on the snail," she said.
"Racer," he corrected.
"Yes, get on Racer." He did just that. Gillan assumed the driver's role and placed herself at the front of the shell. She then realised she didn't know how to ride the giant gastropod.
"Let's maybe switch," she suggested. "Just do as I tell you."
Katsugi gave an invisible smirk and changed places with the girl. She reminded him of a young footsoldier in his first squad who insisted on the sword being enough of a battlefield weapon on its own and that he didn't need a spear. The boy died the second a rider got close to him. The difference with Gillan right now — he noted in his mind — was that she had just picked up the metaphorical spear.
"What do I do?" he asked. Gillan took a big breath.
"Try to make Racer go up one of those trees," she pointed to a set of trunks so close to each other they almost formed a wall.
The Knight pulled on the snail's bridle and with a few calculated movements made the gastropod start climbing sideways. Gillan, 'higher' on the shell — although now she was more to the side than anything — did her best at catching whatever luggage tried to fall off during the manoeuvre.
"What now?!" Katsugi shouted over the sound of clattering cookware.
"Just keep forward!" Gillan yelled in response. "It's what these snails are used for! Let me handle our things and just keep forward!"
And he did. They both did. The Knight wrestled the bridle every so often, while she tied their equipment up in any way possible for it not to escape. Finally, the girl managed to bind everything in such a way that their journey onwards was only accompanied by a very faint — yet after an hour on the road, incredibly annoying — jingle of a pot and pan.
The trio rode like that, sideways, alongside the Road for a good while. After some time, Gillan noticed the Forest here looked different to what was visible on the village's side. There, the trees were tall and spiky, their branches aggressive in their pointedness. Here? They were still tall and had long branches, but here they had leaves.
Leaves of such variety she couldn't help but open her mouth in wonder as they slowly passed under them. It was autumn. Leaves were both on the Roadside, where they all merged into a thick, rainbowy curb — while the ones still yet to fall moved and shifted into numerous compositions — like a gigantic stained glass roof.
Beams of colour illuminated the chromatic bricks of the Road, all the shades and tones exploding into a festival of colour. Even Racer seemed captivated by the sight, its eyes drifting towards the scenery while the body idly pulled forward. Some time later hunger made itself known, so the group made camp.
