Quest

Chapter 5

We didn't stop until we were out of the state and a WELCOME TO NEW YORK SIGN greeted us. It was still pretty early in the day so we pulled into a truck stop for gas, vending machine snacks and another donut. Warner offered to do his share of the driving, but I wasn't ready to give up Frank's reigns quite yet. After several days of driving, however, I figured that might change.

Warner also suggested we take stock of what we had because got damn, that boy was full of good ideas and niceties. I agreed wholeheartedly, so we unloaded everything we had and laid it out in the parking lot before leaving.

If one were to judge our stock purely from a survivable standpoint, we would have done pretty poorly. Besides my still unopened toaster oven and vial of sand, I had a few napkins, plastic fast food utensils, car jack, a smattering of granola bars and at least fifty cents in pennies that was under my seat. Warner had even less; a couple dollars in cash, the keys to his house and a paper clip.

"You didn't bring the heated blanket?!" I produced him jokingly.

"When I went out for dinner I didn't exactly think this is here I would be the next morning."

"I'm more impressed that you were at the Raccoon by yourself for dinner."

He grimaced. "Yeah, well you gotta do what you gotta do."

"Whatever you say, boss."

We both agreed that our stock was abysmal and resolved to make a run at the next store we could find, which was off the next exit. We couldn't eat donuts for the entire trip, after all. I mean, we could, but we would both be fat and have heart attacks before we could kick some dark lord ass, which was clearly the priority.

We slipped into the store and began stocking up on food before we realized we were both poor high school students with absolutely none of the capital necessary to buy the things we would need for a cross country trip. So, we put everything back and replaced it with granola bars and ramen and only one thing of beef jerky because for some awful reason beef jerky is expensive. Seriously, why is beef jerky so expensive?

Feeling pretty good about our ability to survive out on the great American way, we kicked the engine back on and hit the the highway once more.

Conversation was light, but I was happy to get to know Warner a little more than just the guy who had encouraged me to do something really stupid when I was high. He was an only child like most orcs, because their reproductive cycle is only good for like one kid every five years or something like that. His parents were both teachers, he had a good relationship with them. His life was pretty fucking normal, if you asked me. It was pretty refreshing to listen to a guy who had a proper head on his shoulders. It made me feel normal. Or at least, more normal.

He asked me a bunch about the magic thing, which I was fine talking about. It was mostly the normal thing. Why didn't I just teleport and end the guy with a single spell? stuff like that. He seemed pretty interested in why I hadn't gone to a special high school or college.

"Don't you ever want to train it?" he asked.

"Look at it like this. If I were to go and seperate myself, I feel like it would be me saying that I'm better than anyone else and that is the last thing I want to come off as. I'd rather just fight for what I want and earn it, rather than just have everything come at me with the flick of a piece of wood."

Warner contemplated that. "I guess I just feel like we're all supposed to take advantage of what we've been given, whether that's magic or being a big, stupid looking orc."

"You're not stupid looking."

"Eh, I'm not complaining about anything. I am the way I am and I'm fine with that, mostly."