The Unseen Road

Chapter Twenty

"Kylie!" Celeste Jacobs gaped.

"What?" Kylie retorted impatiently, rubbing her temples. The sun had set; it hadn't been more than an hour since she had woken up in the medic's tent and Celeste- sporting quite a few cuts and bruises from the battle herself- had finally figured out where she was, allowing Kylie to divulge her plans to her sister.

"You just got stabbed through the shoulder and you can't be serious about finding Mina now!" the brunette pressed, flustered. "And I, for one, just fought in a battle, thank you very much!"

Kylie sighed heavily. "Celeste, Mina is just a little girl..."- she stole a glance at Nicolas sitting beside her, concern marking his face- "... at heart. She could be in serious danger in the dark!"

"Well, we don't know if she already survived one night, when we were gone!"

"She might not have survived at all!" the blonde huffed. She clamped her arms down upon the hard surface of the bed to push herself off and looked her sister in the eyes. "Look, I'll be going. Prince Nicolas said he would accompany me, and you are more than welcome to come if you care about Mina."

"And this is a huge country! Continent, whatever!" Celeste gestured helplessly around her. "Where would you even begin?"

Kylie blinked owlishly. "Well..."

At this point Nicolas finally spoke up. "I have two theories," he explained, stepping beside Kylie. "But the fact that she hasn't come back points to the option that she is in a dangerous position- because no young maiden, with or without a gryphon, would be wandering out there alone at night voluntarily."

"And, sir? What should we do?" Celeste asked, clearly moderating her tone towards the Prince.

The Prince crossed his arms behind his back. "Well, my first guess would be to see if any of the guards on duty have seen her pass through the gates, so that we could further infer which direction she had gone in, and then derive any possible landmarks where she might be. Either way we must set out as soon as possible."

Celeste shook her head, smiling wanly as she pressed the heel of her palm to her forehead. She stood there, like that, thinking for just a few moments. "...Of course," she said at last. "This is our friend we're talking about after all. What was I thinking? Yeah, I'm ready to go as soon as possible."

"Great," Kylie smiled back at her sister. "... We'll find her, for sure."

"Of course we will," Celeste nodded back. "How wouldn't we?"

Nicolas waited patiently as they spoke. "Okay," he said afterwards, "Let's go."

"Right." After Kylie and Celeste hooked their water canteens onto their belts and seemed to be in order, then, they set off with Nicolas in front to lead them.

Since the medic's tent was still positioned in the battlefield, the gates were not far away. When they left the tent, they saw that the battlegrounds were far from devoid of any sign of violence; although all of the bodies of those fallen had been collected, forsaken weapons were strewn across the field while blood stained the grass in lethal amounts just barely visible in the dark.

Kylie tried her best to repress her emotions- and the contents of her stomach- as they navigated the space before the gates. "... What were the casualties?" she finally managed to ask.

"Not worse than we've had before," replied Nicolas somberly. "Actually, better. But battle always takes its tolls. Although Dryria had more casualties, they also had a much larger quantity of soldiers, proportionally equal to our more quality-based army. It's no wonder it ended in a draw. It was quality versus quantity." Then his voice fell to a whisper, too quiet for either of the girls to hear, "But something still does not seem right."