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Chapter 8: Forest Lab

It was almost pitch-black that night as the waning moon looked even smaller than normal up in the sky. Not even the usually starry night of Suzaku was enough to suffice them light and Haruna hated it, but they needed to be in that state for the time being.

Tomomi had been previously holding a very odd ball apparently made of light in her hands. It was very pleasant, it let them see the way and it kept them warm, but now it was gone. As it turns out, they didn't realize they were going more east than west, which was the opposite from what they should be doing if they wanted to reach Rina. As a result, they eventually saw themselves at the top of a flat rock, looking down into Yama village with its little houses and stables and torches lighting up the streets in the night.

In order to stay unseen by the night guards down below in the village, Tomomi had undone the light ball and now they were cold and had limited vision.

- I think this is a good place to stop for five minutes. - the taller girl said, making Haruna feel relieved for not being the one to address how tired she felt. They both sat down on the rock, and Tomomi looked up at the sky after taking a deep breath. Haruna saw in her the same fatigue she felt herself - Honestly, now I doubt we're going to make it to your friend before sunrise.

- Yes, we deviated from the path a bit too much, I guess. Rina must be going crazy by now.

- I hope she's fine on her own for now...

- She is, believe me. I don't think she's ever been to the Southern Forest before, but she's so used to Suzaku Forest and just the wilderness in general since she was raised in it...

- What do you mean? - Tomomi sounded genuinely confused, but then Haruna realized they just mentioned dragons to her in passing. They hadn't had the time to let Tomomi know of Rina's upbringing because, really, they got too much in their hands in a very short period of time and they had just met her.

- Rina was raised in Suzaku Forest, we became friends because I was a very obnoxious child who would not take no for an answer, so when I was told I couldn't go to the forest to play I just sort of escaped the castle and ran into this weird girl along the way.

- Oh, so her family is forest folk like the old tribes?

- Not really. The dragons raised her in the forest; she never met her birth family.

- Oh... Raised by dragons huh... That must be... interesting. - Haruna chuckled lightly at the sorcerer's reaction, and she frowned as if thinking about something complicated - I never saw a dragon before. I mean, I saw them flying far away and I read about them a lot, but I never met one up close. - then Tomomi came out of her hard thinking state and stared at Haruna again - But what's important right now is, what about your arm?

- I'm surviving, Tomomi. I'll be alright when we get the rest of the things for the potion.

- Ok, I was about to offer my healing to take a bit of the pain away again, but if you don't need it...

Haruna gave her a glare and she returned it.

A few minutes later, after Tomomi had worked a bit of magic on her arm again, Haruna just stared down at the village absentmindedly, worrying about what they were going to do from now on. Of course, they had the small goal of fixing her arm and then... Then they were supposed to go to other Sun territories to find allies. But Haruna did not have a very good feeling about that. How could they possibly know that Seiryu only attacked the main islands? Even if they really could find or build a usable boat, how could they feel safe to sail to other islands when everything could be completely destroyed and occupied by enemies? She didn't want to say that to Tomomi, and honestly, that was the only plan they had, but it didn't give her even the slightest amount of security.