Reborn

Chapter Twenty-Five

The light murmuring of the men beside him barely penetrated his ears. Marcus let his dark eyes rake across the forest in front of him as he sat with his back to the fire.

It had been another day of pointless searching, and they were once again resting for the night. Marcus was no longer allowing his anger to cloud his judgment, however. He no longer allowed his anger to build up during the day and explode out at night when there had been no progress. He was calm. Icily so.

At this point he was basically certain the kids had not come this way. There had been no signs and no tracks for them to find.

If he calmly thought back to before they had run away, there was not much they could have taken with them. He had kept a tight rein on that witch and what she had, so it was impossible for her to build up too many supplies for an escape. If they had little supplies, they would have a hard time surviving in the deep forest. Especially considering the skills of the two. The girl was an idiot and knew nothing and the boy was young and untrained. What could they possibly know about covering tracks and surviving off the land?

He was almost certain they had gone the other way and followed along the river. That way was at least a little less dangerous and they would have a steady supply of water. The boy would know to look for certain plants to forage along the river as well.

If that was the case, Callen and Mark would find traces of them soon. Should they stop looking this way? Or should they continue?

A small, weak voice inside of him said to continue. To keep to this way to ensure that they missed nothing. There was a bigger voice, however, that said he should stop this pointless search. Continuing this way just allowed things to drag on further. It was pointless.

His eyes narrowed dangerously as he continued to stare into the dark night, watching as the embers from their fire floated above their heads before landing, dead, on the earth. He had felt the guide of a god before, a small niggling thought, or voice suddenly penetrating the mind. Or a feeling, a strong inclination to do something. Both felt like that. Though one was much stronger.

The question was... If he felt both, which God was giving this hint, and which would lead him in the direction he wished to go?

He had a feeling of pulling inside of him. It was as if the Gods battled within his own body, fighting to become the larger voice in his mind. Originally, he was rash and just ran around in his haste to try and find the kids. Now, he was calm and felt the push and pull between the two. Perhaps it was time to stop listening to the first. The first was trying to distract him and lead him in a pointless direction so he ran around too busy to stop the kids from escaping.

This way led to nothing.

There was a lull in the conversation behind him. Duncan and Gunnar had been discussing how many rations were left. They were debating how much longer they could search without pausing to hunt as they were settling down for the night. Even though they did not need to rest for long, Marcus chose to stop and rest to allow them to regain some of their energy. Human bodies require food, drink, and rest. Otherwise, it was like... burning a stick at both ends.

Eventually they would burn out of energy and lifeforce and turn to ashes on the ground. He still had a need for them, so it was better to let them rest for a while now while they still could. Again, it was that push and pull from the Gods. One wanted to run them ragged. Let them burn out at both ends and die quickly, while the other urged them to restrain themselves. Hold on to their power until it was truly needed and only use it then.

Which God leads to which end?

Placing his thoughts aside, he made his decision.