The Majors, Rebuild and Reunite (Book 3)

Chapter 11: A God with a Sword

~Sausage~

Gem stumbled up several large, overturned rocks littering the pathway. I leaned down, offering a hand to help her up to the top, already sweating from the climb myself. 

I had suggested that we use magic to move the boulders out of the way, but Gem had insisted that we don't use magic unless it was absolutely necessary, to avoid attracting attention. 

I'm sorry, but does she know me? I'm an attention magnet and proud of it. 

We had been traveling the mountains for three days now. It would have taken less time if we actually knew where we were going— without an overhead view, we were only going off of the general idea of what direction the library was in from Gem and Fwhip's memory. Which meant we had five more days to both find the library, make sure we had all the materials needed, and get back to Rivendale. 

We got that, right? Totally. 

I had been entertaining both Fwhip and Gem the past couple of days with stories of my adventures since the Great Catastrophe. Very enjoyable, true stories, I might add. 

"—and then that's when Joey's soldiers attacked." I said as I hoisted Gem up to the top of the boulder pile next to me and Fwhip. "But before they could arrest me, I brought forth hellfire from the skies and—"

"Sausage," Gem panted, brushing her hands coated in dirt off on her trousers. "Did this really happen or are you exaggerating again?" 

"Of course it really happened! I'm no liar!" I declared, before getting nosed violently in the cheek by Violet's snout. "See! Violet agrees with me—"

"Sure—" Fwhip said, dodging the dragon's whip thin tail to avoid getting tossed off the edge of the mountain. "Let's go with that. What happened next, then?"

"Well, since I was so much of a threat to their little brigade due to my awesomeness—" Fwhip and Gem scoffed in unison as we began to climb down the other side of the boulder. "—they called for backup. I think the whistle call went something like this." I dropped down onto the other side of the pathway, gravel crunching under my feet, as I cupped my hands around my mouth and made a low, but loud, hollow whistle. 

"Sausage what the hell—" Gem's voice was shrill as she lunged towards me, ripping my hands away from my face. "What are you doing?!"

I blinked. "Showing you their backup call—?"

"A backup call that if they hear they'll come running towards?!" Fwhip said, looking at me as if I were insane. 

"Oh, come off it, there's no way Joey has soldiers out here in the middle of nowhere. They avoid the mountains like the plague, they're jungle folk." I insisted as we walked, waving it off. Gem gave me a warning look. "Oh fine, you guys are no fun..." 

We walked in silence, for the next several minutes. It was quite beautiful from up here, browning valleys dipping into the ground miles below us. Winter was coming, but the pine trees around here remained green year long. Especially since there had been no snow to cover them since the winter before the explosion. 

If Violet had been big enough or strong enough, I'm sure the view would have been spectacular nonetheless flying overhead. It was still beautiful though; from the path we were on hugging the side of the mountain.

"Wait— stop—" Gem said, stopping in her tracks, in a hushed voice. "Do you hear that?"

I paused, straining my ears to hear through the breeze whipping along the mountain edge. 

Crunch, crunch, crunch.

"No Lost Empirian soldiers in the mountains, eh?" Fwhip muttered, reaching into his cloak. I heard the near silent metallic vibration of him sliding his sword slightly from its sheathe.