The cart bumped as it traveled along the path, or what passed as a path. It was just a strip of dirt that probably washed away whenever it rained. She supposed the ride wasn’t too rough, though perhaps the donkeys could go a bit faster. Then again, donkeys weren’t known for their speed. Maybe she was just getting impatient to get back home.

Celeste turned slightly so that she faced forward. She had been expecting to see the Tower by now, but it was still nowhere in sight. Maybe they had been lying when they said it could be seen anywhere in Cyrac. Yoth and Roth were chatting to each other in Elvish, Jyn was scanning the area around them for any possible threats, and Kyn was attempting to read something, though his book bounced out of his hands once and a while.

“Were we planning on trying to arrive somewhere before setting up camp?” She asked as she went back to leaning against the side of the cart. This was probably going to be the longest trip she had ever been on. “And who was that Rusty you were talking about earlier?”

“There’s an outcropping of rocks we always try to make it to because it’s easy to defend. If we translate it from Elvish to human language, it’s…” Roth pondered for a little bit. “Um, does the Lookout sound something like a human would name it? And Rusty’s a blacksmith that doesn’t live very far from the ru-” Yoth elbowed him. “Feon.”

“I guess. I’m not a cartographer.” She had never heard of that certain group of rocks. As far as she knew, there wasn’t anything like that in prairies. Perhaps closer to the Badlands, but not near Feon. “And if we can’t make it there?”

“We’ll just pull off the path and keep an eye out. We’re not near any camps, so I don’t expect that there will be trouble, but you never know when a bandit might get cocky enough to attack an elf band.” Yoth replied as he set the reed across his lap. “But don’t worry. Even if they do attack, they can’t take on four elves. Well, maybe three and a half. Kyn isn’t exactly that great of a fighter.”

Kyn didn’t seem to be insulted. He simply closed his book and looked up at the sky. He let out a loud sigh.

“At least it’s a nice day out. It could be raining or storming, given the time of year it is. But look, not a storm cloud in the sky.”

Celeste looked up too, making sure not to look at the sun. Indeed, the sky was bright blue and small, white puffy clouds dotted the sky. They moved across it like a slow-moving flock of sheep. But they weren’t large enough to start forming images.

It had been a long time since she watched the clouds. The last time she recalled doing it on the roof of the house the three of them were renting, the day before she moved in with Madame Bustier. Derrick saw dragons, Owain saw a fish, and Celeste saw a face. Then they laughed at how ridiculous all their guesses were. But it had been fun. They should do it again soon when Derrick and Owain had some time off, which was something that seemed nonexistent.

“You look lost in thought,” Kyn commented, bringing her out of her memories. “Is this something you used to do?”

“Yeah, more so when I was younger. As I got older, I didn’t have as much time to just watch the clouds go by. I was just thinking it’s been too long since I’ve done this. I think when I get back, I’ll find time to do it.” She sat back up so she wouldn’t get a sore neck from resting it on the edge of the cart. “Even if I can’t get Owain and Derrick to do it with me. They’re mostly work, work, work these days. Though I can’t blame them. They’re in very competitive groups. At least we get to have dinner with each other once a week.”

“They sound like very interesting people. I would like to meet them.” Kyn stated as he put his book back into his bag. “Wouldn’t you agree, Jyn?”

“I have always been interested in meeting a spirit, as long as it is friendly.” Still, Jyn scanned the horizon. “There should be plenty of those where we are going.”

“Spirits? I mean, I guess if you want to go to the graveyard I can show you where it is. Last I heard, there was nothing haunting it.” Celeste made a note that Jyn wasn’t being as careful as the rest not to mention anything odd. Maybe when they stopped to camp, she could ask her what exactly was going on.

Kyn burst out laughing. It was fake and she was a bit insulted that he thought she would take it as genuine. “Ah, that’s my sister! Ever the jester, even if her sense of humor makes sense to no one else but her.” He leaned over to Celeste and whispered. “I’ve been thinking about attempting to diagnose her to see exactly what’s wrong with her, but she keeps refusing.”

“I heard that, Kyn. And if you do not want to wake up with a snake in your bedroll, you will refrain from telling her such things.” Jyn finally relaxed from all her searching. “Or if you keep speaking like that, you will have to walk all the way there. And given your sense of direction, you would probably get lost or walk straight into an ambush.”

Kyn gulped and quietened down after that. Celeste couldn’t help but chuckle. In her opinion, people weren’t that close to their siblings unless they bickered like that once and awhile. She and the other two certainly did.

“Maybe I should just take a nap.” He stated as he laid down in the cart. “Wake me up if anything happens.”

“There’s not much of a chance of that,” Roth confirmed as he snapped the reins. “At least not until we get out of Elf territory.”

She hadn’t realized that elven territory extended that far outside the forest. As she understood, the elves always had the smallest amount of territory, with the dwarves having the largest (thanks to the fact that they were the only ones who could thrive in the Badlands) and then humans. Well, she supposed there were goblins, but as far as she knew, they didn’t own any territory above ground.

“Will we have to worry about goblin raiders? I heard they attack at night.”

“Nope, no goblins to be concerned with,” Yoth assured her. “They don’t raid any more after all.”

“Oh, that’s good.” She knew that the leaders of Feon had been attempting to negotiate with them to stop the raids and the senseless slaughtering from the retaliation. They had worked. Maybe she had been out for more than a few days.

--

They stopped a couple of times so the donkeys could rest and everyone could stretch their legs. It wasn’t until the sun started to go down that Jyn, Yoth, and Roth started looking for a place they could camp. They weren’t going to make it to the Lookout tonight.

“This is why I dislike the prairie. Everything is exposed.” Jyn remarked as they went off the road.

“But on the upside, the moon’s not full tonight, so no one can use the moonlight to aid them.” Roth pointed out. “Besides, if we go a couple of hills off the path, we’ll be hidden enough from it. If it makes you feel better, you can take the first watch.”

They stopped once Yoth determined that they were far enough from the road. Celeste helped them unload the cart. They didn’t have much, just bedrolls, food, water, and a tarp that would serve as a tent in case it rained. Kyn handed her some food that looked very much like what she had back at the Rest.

“Is this all we have?” she questioned before taking a bit. “Not that it’s not good, but…”

“It’s popular travel food because it won’t go bad,” Kyn explained as he ate some of his bread. “And it’s easy on the stomach, which is why I gave it to you earlier. Sometimes, humans have problems with elf food. That’s okay because we have problems with some human food. It must be something in the preparation.”

Roth and Yoth soon joined them in their meal. Jyn also had a piece, but she stayed on the outskirts of their little camp, keeping a sharp eye out for anything. Celeste wasn’t sure how well elves could see in the dark. She knew she couldn’t see anything beyond the camp. Suddenly, Jyn stood up.

“There is a group of horsemen coming our direction. They are human, but I cannot tell if they are part of any camp. They are armed.”

The elves got their weapons out. Roth and Jyn had blades on them, Yoth had his long reed looking thing, and even Kyn pulled out a dagger. Elven weapons were known to be light, but they could do some serious damage if one underestimated them because of their lightness. The group would be in for a surprise if they tried to take them on. The riders came to a stop a little outside the camp. None of them dismounted.

“What have we here, a flock of storks that’ve come down from their nests?” The man in the lead rode his horse along the perimeter of the camp. “So what is it that brings you high and mighty elves down to our level?”

“We’ve come down to scavenge,” Yoth was messing around with a small metal ball in his hand. But the movement wasn’t enough to make the lead horseman uneasy. “We’ve done it before.”

“Ah, you must be those elf twins that like to vulture around Feon. Though there seems to be five of you right now.” He eyed the group once again and brought his torch a bit closer. “No, my mistake. Four plus a human. Since we did you keep company with us groundlings? I know there’s a few that live with you, but you don’t usually travel with them. They prefer to forget about the dirt they came from.”

“It is not your business, earth-shatter,” Jyn replied sharply, gripping the handle of her blade tighter. “We are not asking what you are doing riding out after dark nor what camp you belong to, if any.”

“Fair enough, I suppose. You keep your reasons and we will keep ours. But we don’t belong to either camp to answer that question. Though I do wonder what you thinking you’re doing taking a human to Feon? Leaving her as plant bait so you can scavenge to your hearts’ content?”

“No, they’re just helping me get back home!” Celeste was going to remain quiet, but she wasn’t going to let those who were helping her get accused of bringing her harm. She hadn’t heard the term “plant bait” before, but she could only figure that meant something bad. Jyn shot her a look but didn’t say anything. “I was abducted and they’re helping me get back home, that’s all.”

She knew the look he was giving her. It was one that someone gave when they were trying to determine if someone was mad or not. He was probably leaning toward the former. A murmur went through the crowd following him.

“Back home, to Feon.”

She nodded. “Yes. I woke up in a cave and happened upon these people and they said they’d get me home.”

The lead horseman shook his head. “And here I didn’t think you elves believed in mercy killing. Perhaps I’ve been underestimating you this whole time. So what happened to make her this way?”

“We are not taking her back to die,” Kyn replied. His dagger trembled a little bit. “We are helping her, though I don’t suspect a ruffian like you would understand what it is we aim to do.”

“No, I don’t.” He looked to his men. “Come on, let’s leave the storks and their sleepy friend to their doing. It doesn’t concern us.”

The elves didn’t relax until the group left. Roth sighed a bit and put his blade up. “I don’t think I’ve ever met that particular group before, but they certainly knew of us. It looks like we’re famous, brother.”

“Probably because no one is insane enough to go there anymore. Even bandits have stopped trying to loot it.” Yoth put his reed aside and laid on his bedroll. “But this new group worries me. Maybe I’m just paranoid. I mean, there are other camps beside the main two and they don’t seem to cause trouble.”

“We will probably find out later,” Jyn stated before getting back to her watch position. “We always do.”

“I think we should all get some sleep,” Kyn suggested as he got into his bedroll. “We still have a few hours of travel ahead of us.”

Celeste got in her bedroll too, but sleep didn’t come to her. She didn’t feel tired at all. Finally, she decided that she had gotten enough sleep and got out of her bedroll. She quietly made her way up to Jyn’s place.

“You are not sleeping.” The elf said, not even facing her as she came up behind her. “I cannot say I blame you. You seem to wake up in a different place each time you close your eyes. What do you want? You have been staring at me all day like you want to ask something.”

Celeste sat beside her. “Jyn, you seem like a direct woman or at least a little less cryptic than the other elves. What is everyone hiding from me?”

“I would tell you, but Kyn says it would be better to show you instead.” Jyn sighed some. “I suggest that if you cannot sleep, at least rest some. You will need your strength.”

Celeste remained she was for a while before heading back to her bedroll. Needless to say, sleep did not come easily as a hole began to eat her stomach. What was so terrible that no one would tell her about it?