Loved and Lost

The path to self destruction

We've been walking for what seems like forever. The sun's setting and we have no idea what the status of the others are. There's been no sign of anyone anytime soon, and my fear is that we're going to have to set up camp in the woods very soon. I have no idea how far Halvestar is and at this point, I'm too afraid to ask.

"It's going to start getting dark soon," Magnus points out, shaking his head to get his bangs out of his face. He slowly comes to a stop to watch the sunset. He brings his hand over his eyes, getting the sun out of his face. The three of us stop with him to "keep the group together".

"He's right, we can't walk through the night." Astrid tells Kida.

I keep my mouth shut because she doesn't need a third person on her back on top of all this stress that we're all carrying.

"We're almost to Halvestar. We can continue through the night, meet up with the guys and rest. At least then we don't have to worry so much about Rodac finding us."

"All night?" Magnus groans. I'll admit, I didn't hesitate to let out a groan along with Astrid.

"Hey, I trust leif to buy us enough time to regroup, regenerate and reevaluate the situation." She's right, but my heart sank when she told us that we'd have to travel through the night.

"That makes one of us," Astrid says under her breath just enough for us to hear, which I know in fact was her goal.

"So what, you want to just set up camp?" She shrugs as she tosses her arms around.

She's exhausted, which explains the attitude, but that doesn't mean that it's excused, and I can tell that Magnus is mentally agreeing with me with what he says next.

"It wouldn't be your first time camping," he throws his arms around as well, matching her energy.

She puts pressure on one leg, locking her joints in place and she brings her hand up to her face, making it so her lips are exposed between two of her fingers. She brings her free hand around to her other side, placing it in her armpit. I don't want to camp in the woods either, but he's right. Why is she so against this when this is what we did the first time we met. Hel, she even had me keep watch over her and we were complete strangers. When she knew that I would have killed her in an instance if I needed to.

You can visually see her trying to come up with something to say that would make sense enough for him to keep walking, but to no avail, she just couldn't. "Fine, let's just go set up camp." The four of us start walking, although I'm hesitant, Kida just continues talking. "Just know that I'm not familiar with these woods, I'm not getting a good sense from it either," She points a finger in the air.

"We'll be fine with the four of us here. Worse case, Ajita will start a forest fire and Leif will use the land to extend his village."

"This close to Halvestar? That's pretty risky." Astrid tells us. The four of us cut through the short orange-ish green grass. There's no clear path for us to walk since none of us have the patience or energy to keep walking besides Kida apparently.

As the sun continues to set, they continue with their conversation about me ruining the forest, and Leif claiming it. "She's right. Earl Thyra would never allow him to be so close to her, she may just want the land for herself." Kida says. They're all talking as if this is no big deal. I'm not even bothered by it but the fact that I'm such a bad mage right now that they're using my weak abilities as a means for conversation. That's just comical to me.

The more they talk, the more I zone them out - or try to - and the only thing that fills my mind now, besides the faint noises of their voices, is the safety of the others. Is the boat okay? Did they make it to Halvestar? What if they were captured and are now being tortured?