The Lady Darkness

Chapter 13

Nothing interesting happened the rest of the trip back to the group. We didn't catch up with them until the following day and had spent the night together alone under the stars. The group had made good time in the period that we were gone. We were later then we said we would be so they had left the camp, but it was not hard to follow their tracks. When we walked out of the bush they were all shocked to see us, obviously they had expect the worst when we didn't show up on time

"We were not expecting you back, you guys didn't show up on time and we were all really worried. Did you have any troubles? Did you get the documents?" Charlie is the first to run over to greet us, tossing out question after question before we can even have a chance to answer the last.

"Would you shut up so that we have a chance to answer?" Damien smirks a little in the direction of Charlie.

Charlie broadly smiles at Damien, but when he turns to me, his smile goes shy and he glances at his feet. He either still doesn't know how to act around me since my return or his feelings for the past me still remain. I'm not sure how I feel about either choice. If Charlie was my partner in the past then I would hope that he would know how to treat me now, even if I don't remember what happened. If he has feelings for me I'm not sure that I could ever feel the same way as him again, and he is dating Leah. Why would you date someone when you have feelings for another. Obviously, Leah thinks the same way as myself as she stomps up to Charlie and wraps her arms through one of his, all the while glaring at me.

"We got the documents." I pulled them out of my pack, which we had left in the clearing when we dressed as guards and infiltrated their ranks.

"Good work you guys," the old man said as he snaked in behind us. He holds out his hand and I drop the pile of documents into his hand.

I watch behind the old man as everyone stands up. They must have just been waiting for us. Slowing down their speed so that we could catch up. Kyle is the first to make his way towards us from the main group. Although his eyes aren't on us, they reside on the pieces of paper that the old man is holding.

"Is that what they went back for?" Kyle questions the old man stepping into our mini circle.

The old man nods his head putting the documents into his own bag, refusing to let Kyle see what its contents were. I wonder if he is trying to hide the documents from prying eyes or if he is simply putting them away for safekeeping. As soon as I got back to the clearing I had immediately put them into my bag, but that doesn't mean that I didn't take a glance at them after. I had to know what I went back to get, what was so important on those documents. Unfortunately, most of it didn't make sense to me. There are a lot of maps in the pile which I could understand, but the other stuff must be written in code, because none of it made any sense to me.

The rest of the group crowd around us, they all have their gear in hand, ready to move out. The old man doesn't say anything, simply nods at the group and takes off in an eastward direction. The old man must know where we are going or atleast have a general sense as he does not pull out any map or tool to help guide his way.

"How does he know where he is going," I move closer to Damien while asking this. I may not have known him in my past life and I still don't know him very well now, but I feel closest to him out of everyone here, including Charlie.

"We send messengers between all the camps, some take weeks to get to and they can't always bring a map with them in case they are kidnapped so we all have the trail memorized. It happened once before and we had to abandon a camp. We lost a lot of people during that fight." Damien looks off into the distance, his facial features are filled with sadness.

I just nod, there isn't much more for me to say. I still have lots of questions, but I feel like he won't have the answers that I am looking for. Not any answers that I want to hear. My main question is how long before we reach our destination. The old man said that this was going to be a long trip, but how long is long. Some of these people don't seem fit for long travel periods in the woods, including the old man himself.