Systems In Chaos: Dissention

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

“We should stop here for the night,” Baron suggested as he surveyed the small clearing they had just found somewhere in the vast, thick, Kalorian forest.

It had been some time since Teran and Vrik had last traded words, after their escape from Dalen Curr’s operations base. In fact, other than introducing themselves to each other, no one had said anything. This is, everyone except for Klair. After Karem had signalled to everyone that they were probably safe from any chase the Hadi may have given, Klair began rambling on about everything that had happened to them. How she was captured and kidnapped from inside the Royal Palace grounds and what Dalen Curr and the other imperial’s had been saying to them and showing them. She described the torture room that Dalen had so generously shown them the night before their rescue.  Klair just wouldn’t stop talking, much to the irritation of all of the Guardians.

The only one of Klair’s and Gaia’s rescuers to say anything at all had been Teran. And it was only once, and was only a sarcastic comment; one which they had all been thinking as Klair ceaselessly  complained about their difficult times as captives.

“It really didn’t seem like you had it all that bad. Not after what we walked in on...” Teran had said sarcastically. He hadn’t meant to say it out loud, but he had and he heard Vrik let out a small chuckle next to him.

“What? A girl can’t try to make the best of her situation?” was what Klair had replied with, but when no one answered her she just went back to talking about her hardships as a Hadi prisoner.

Now was Baron’s first time speaking a word since they had broken out. They had been looking for somewhere suitable to rest a while for more than an hour and when Sura finally heard a small stream of water and led everyone to it they had come across a small clearing in the woods. The clearing wasn’t big at all, perhaps only the size of a tennis court. But it had soft green grass for the group to sit on, there were several bushes around  the edges of the tree line which had a type of berry and there was an underground springs leaking fresh water inside a little fissure in the ground.

All seven of them dropped to the floor once Baron had finished speaking. Everyone was too tired to continue, and they all wanted to get some rest. Teran, Sura and Gaia picked a bunch of the berries from the surrounding bushes. The berries were large, almost the size of a large Earth apple, except they looked like raspberries. There were several different colours; purple, green, blue, yellow. Each of the different colours had a slightly different taste, they found out, but they were still very similar.

The three of them picked a few armfuls each and then set them down where everyone was sitting and started eating. The fruits were extremely juicy, as Sura bit into one of them the walnut sized pulps of the berries burst, sending coloured juices all over her face, and the same happened to anyone else that had chosen to sink their teeth into one of these wild Kalorian fruits. They didn’t mind the juices all too much, but after the first victim of an exploding fruit everyone took care to try and avoid as much as possible.

Teran was lying off to the side from everyone else a little ways, staring up at the Kalorin night sky. The blue moon shined brightly when it was in full form, and it let it a fair amount of moonlight into the clearing. The moon illuminated the entire area, it was almost like a giant street light over their little patch of green retreat. Teran noticed Klair coming over to him and turned his head to look at her. He could see her smiling warmly as she came and laid down next to him.

“Princess,” He greeted her, keeping his voice deliberately neutral. It took some effort, unsurprisingly, but he still managed to pull it off – even if a neutral voice wasn’t something he was used to using.