Mother of Monsters (Camp NaNoWriMo 2015)

Chapter IV

For the first few minutes, we were on an adrenaline rush. We made it out of Strago!

The human world didn't look much different from Strago. It still had the long grass, the tall trees, the same birds and the same chirping from the crickets.

Some things were different. There were no mana trees out here. You could not go long into Strago without seeing at least ten mana trees. Each tree glows brightly in the night. The trees that glow a dark purple are extremely rare and is only found in palace territory. The least rare are the one that have no color. I see them often while collecting ingredients for potions.

We were all happily running around the wilds of the human world. Never once in my entire life had I felt this excited. I always had to follow a certain schedule to avoid harassment or worse. If I was making any changes in that schedule, my dad had to approve.

But he doesn't have to approve of anything out here. No one knows my birth story out here, aside from Milea and Elios, but they would never betray me like that. I am officially free to do whatever I want.

Then I remember why we're out here in the first place. I climb the nearest tree all the way to the top. I could barely see since the sun isn't out yet, but I could make out an outline of mountains in the far distance. I could also make out some dots close to us. Could they be houses? I couldn't say for sure. I would have to wait until sunrise to find out.

By the time I climbed back down from the tree, a monstrous yawn escaped from me. "Glad to see I'm not the only one who's tired." Milea lied down on the ground. "Are we going to have to sleep like this every day until we get back to Strago?"

Elios fell down next to her, causing her to jump in surprise. "You betcha. Best get used to it." He actually sounded like he was excited to sleep in the middle of the forest.

I lied down on the other side of Milea. "You'll get used to it. Dirt isn't so bad." I put my bag under my head and closed my eyes, hoping sleep would come to me easily.

I don't remember much from that point. There was a point where Milea went on and on about the existence of bugs, but I was too tired to pay attention.

I was the first to wake up. Despite her complaints yesterday, Milea looked quite comfortable on the ground. Elios was so close to Milea he was practically on top of her. I don't blame him though. Last night was cold and Milea was lucky to be in the middle. I could still feel the spilt between warmth and cold on my body.

Immediately my stomach started to growl. I didn't think we thought about the basics when we planned to escape Strago. Hopefully the river was nearby. And hopefully there were some fish in it.

I took a branch from the tree and started to sharpen it with the small bone knife I had in my bag. I was kind of glad to see the weight of my head didn't crack any of the bottles.

Elios then woke up. "Planning on getting us breakfast?" I nodded. "Are we even near a pond or something?"

"We should be near the river." I answered.

Elios snickered. "Fish don't stay still in a river. If you really want a good chance to catch one, you need to be by a lake or a pond or something." He then started to climb a tree. He stayed up there for a while as I kept sharpening my branch.

A minute or two he jumped down from the tree. "There's a city-state nearby. We could probably buy some food there."

"With what money? I doubt they would have the same currency as Strago." I argued.

Elios took a deep breath in and a deep breath out. "Well what types of potions do you have?" I didn't notice that Milea woke up. "We could sell a bottle or two and we'd be set. Trust the merchant's daughter. Humans would give up an arm and a leg for half a bottle."