The Keys: A Tale of a Beginning and End

Chapter fifteen

We were so far from where the village was speculated to be hidden it would take us almost a week. I honestly didn't know how much time we had to spare looking around for these weapons, its as if we were monkeys chasing a banana thats tied to the back of a moving vehicle, hectic, dangerous and possibly messy. Rosalind being her usual, some what positive, self tried to plan a schedule, for how long we would ride the horses and how long we would eat and sleep, but it didn't quite work out the way she planned.

The first night Zander slept in, and it took us a while to find edible food, other than leaves and grasses, we needed protein and fibers to keep up our strength. During lunch the same day, I passed out when I closed my eyes to have a quick nap due to exhaustion of standing guard my turn and Rosalinds. I ended up waking up on a horse with Zander holding me up so that I wouldn't fall off. My fist hit Zander in the face when I woke up, I tend to do that if something scares me or it's unexpected, this caused him to let me go. As he brought his hands up to his face I brought my face to the floor, meaning he wasn't holding me any more and my balance was off so, I landed on my face.

That's how our day was going, Rosalind wasn't to happy because we were behind her schedule, and we were going to be late. Late to what, no clue, all I knew was that as the sun sank lower behind the horizon the heavier my eyes felt, we'd have to stop soon, but Rosalind pushed us forward just to keep us on her schedule. I was still exhausted from the double patrol the night before, that I fell asleep on Zander as we were riding the horse.

This time when I woke up I didn't punch anyone in the face, like the reckless person that I was, instead I looked around and noticed that they had set up camp, and a fire, to protect us from both the cold and wild nocturnal animals that roamed around the area. Rosalind was asleep and I was going to do the same again when I noticed that Zander was sitting by himself on watch. His eyes seemed so sad, and his mind appeared to be wandering. I walked up behind him and placed a blanket over his shoulders, this caused him to jump slightly. Apparently he was so lost in his thoughts he didnt hear me get up and come over.

"What are you thinking about?" "I'm just wondering what would happen if we don't get all the keys in time." He said all this without differing his gaze from the light of the fire, I gazed into the fire now. It was fierce and bright yet calming and beautiful, the directions it swayed in were almost hypnotic. It almost, took my mind off the question I wasn't looking forward to answering, almost. What would happen if they weren't to succeed on their mission?