“I’m feeling fine,” she answered with a smile. “Maybe a bit tired, but seeing as I kept watch last night, that’s sort of expected.”
“I’m sure we can find a good time for you to take a nap today. I’m hoping the rest of this trip will be nice and relaxing.” I stood to make my way out of the wagon, but Lia caught my arm as she rose behind me.
“Before we go, there’s something I’m curious about,” she asked. I nodded for her to continue, and she took a deep breath. “When I picked you up after you, uhm, opened the gate, you were acting really strangely. You seemed really confused about what was happening, and your speech was...off.”
“Oh, that,” I said with a small sigh of relief. “I think it was the same thing that happened to me in Attetsia, just before we went out on our raid. I’ve been thinking of it as mana withdrawals; if you use a sudden burst of energy that your body isn’t accustomed to, it has a hard time getting back to normal. This one was a lot worse than Attetsia, though. Nausea, headache, lack of focus, muscle pain, decreased coordination: you name it, I had it.”
She giggled. “That makes a lot of sense. If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve said you were drunk.” We both shared a laugh at the idea. “You were slurring your words and staring off at the mountains, but then you were suddenly fixated on not letting me stop the guards on the bridge. When I tried to explain what had happened, you just passed out.” The amusement drained from my face when I remembered the moment in question, and she noticed the change in expression immediately. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s...nothing,” I lied, shaking my head.
Her eyes narrowed. “No, it’s not nothing.”
I sighed and pulled the Strength’s gauntlets off, stashing them in a nearby crate before pulling the cloth glove from my right hand. “It’s this,” I confessed, looking at the black scars that covered my hand. I suddenly became aware of the volume of my voice, and lowered it to a whisper. “I still don’t understand what this is, and I continually find out more things I don’t know about it all the time. I promise I’ll explain everything eventually, but could we just...table it, for now? We don’t really have time for a full explanation, and I don’t want to give you a bad summary that makes you worry more.”
“I’m always going to worry about you,” she said, resting her forehead lightly against my chest. I quickly slipped my hand behind my back until I could put my glove back on, unwilling to touch her with my marked hand. “But,” she continued, drawing out the word with a playful inflection, “I promise I won’t worry more than normal.”
I chuckled and gave her a quick hug. “Thanks, Lia.” A sudden metallic clang followed by muffled laughter drew our attention to the back flap of the wagon. “Alright. Today marks the beginning of our first adventure together. Are you ready to see the world?”
She returned my hug tightly around my waist, then spun and dashed to the exit. “I’ve been waiting all morning!” she shouted as she disappeared through the flaps without looking back.
I followed her out at a leisurely pace and was surprised when I bumped into her just on the other side of the flaps. “Lia, what are you...woah.” My question was immediately answered as I looked past her at our surroundings. The wagon was parked a few dozen yards away from a cobblestone road, mostly obscured by a thick forest made up of enormous trees. Each one stood at least forty feet high and eight feet in diameter with rich, chocolate-colored bark. The treetops were a rippling sea of fiery red as the round, crimson leaves danced in the morning breeze. Despite being only a few hours from the gate, I could barely see the mountain range we had passed through over the towering grove of trees to the east.
“Good morning!” Marten called out to us as we gaped at the beautiful landscape. “Lux, I’m happy to see you up and about! I thought you might be sleeping for the next few days, based on your track record.”
I shook my head, grinning. “No, I’m afraid you’ll be stuck with my snarky comments for the whole trip.” I joined them at our camp in the small clearing and accepted a warmed piece of hardtack with asperberry jam from Marin. “Speaking of which, where exactly are we going? I didn’t really have much of a plan for once we were through the Mountain Gate.”
“Well, lucky for you, I did have a plan for that,” he shot back, giving me a wave over his shoulder as he walked to the side of the wagon. He had a map spread out against the cart when I joined him; the scroll was tattered and yellow around the edges, with random scribbles and circles over various points on what I could only assume was a detailed picture of Lybesa. The labels for various landmarks and cities were written in the country’s native language which, although familiar, was still unreadable to me.
He poked his finger at a large red circle at the base of a mountain range. “We’re...here. Just outside of the Mountain Gate. And we want to go…” he trailed off, tracing his finger along the road to a town circled in blue, “here, about two easy days away. A town called Mayn, if I remember correctly.”
There was a sharp laugh from behind us, and Marin skipped her way over to our huddle. “It’s pronounced Mayaan,” she instructed him, emphasizing the latter half of the name. “Your Lybesian is a bit rusty, Marten.”
“That’s because I don’t speak Lybesian,” he said pointedly. “I’ve only been
