II

“Agh!” Lev moaned. “I’m beat.”

“Me too!” Mai said.

Sorika dropped her pack on the ground heavily. “Stop your whining.”

The sun was setting and the skies were turning into a bright red with hues of blue and purple on the horizon. Full dark would be upon them in another hour or so.

“This spot looks good,” Yoreno said.

They all glanced about. Since they were in the mountains, to avoid monsters, it was best to be up on high ground, which they had found. They were on an elevated plateau overlooking the ravine.

“This really is a good spot,” Mai said. “I’m so tired though. I don’t feel like setting up wards.”

“Do you wanna die in the night?” Lev asked as he waved his arms. “Have your throat ripped out by some hungry monster?”

“You don’t have to be so visual,” Mai said. “That’s disgusting.”

“Go set up the wards, you lazy mage.”

“Pft!” Mai scoffed. “Lazy? What about you? All you do is complain. You don’t cook, you don’t clean, you don’t—“

“Hunt?” he asked with a grin.

“That’s enough,” Yoreno said.

Dell and Sorika had simply watched as Mai and Lev went at it. They had all had their spats with one another as the days wore on, but Mai and Lev often had disagreements that seemed to devolve into name calling.

It was up to Yoreno to make sure they didn’t kill each other.

Besides, he thought. They didn’t have time for that. They needed to find Dantera—wherever she went.

Tomorrow Sorika and Dorrin could find Dantera’s trail again. And if not, they would wait until they reached a settlement of some kind and ask around. They were definitely on her trail, though.

“All right,” Dell said. “Sor, the food’s in my bag. Let’s cook something up.”

“All right.”

“Lev, Dorrin,” Yoreno said. “Help me set up the tents.”

“All right!” Dorrin said enthusiastically. He jumped to it as Yoreno pulled their tent materials off of the horses.

In a way, Yoreno felt sorry for Dorrin. He was a good guy, but very green—and as Lev said before, despite being a bit mean about it, he was rather cowardly. He wanted to help in whatever way he could though.

Surely he wanted to seem useful.

Weather that was so Lev would leave off or the fact that he actually wanted to be of more use, Yoreno didn’t know—and he wouldn’t ask.

Once the tents were set up and the food cooked, Mai had finished setting up her wards around the camp. It took a lot out of her and she complained, but once she set into the evening meal, she brightened up a great deal.

“Once we find Dantera,” she said, “do you really think she’ll come back with us?”

Yoreno sat his metal plate on his lap and cut his steak into pieces. The great thing about having a mage travel with you, especially a healing mage, was that Mai could keep things from going bad. She wasn’t perfect, but meat lasted several days in their enchanted food bags.

“Her letter made it sound like she actually believes we wouldn’t go after her,” Dell said. “Does she have that much faith that we would obey her commands, even though she’s not the leader of the Roaming Lions anymore?”

“She’s ashamed,” Lev said. “She feels like it was her fault King Branlin was assassinated.”

“The king wouldn’t listen,” Yoreno said.

“Are you saying it’s his own fault?” Lev asked.

“Of course he’s not, Lev,” Dell said. He took a bit of his steak and chewed.

Besides the meat, they had cooked potatoes and fresh beans in the pods. They were easy to carry and they didn’t take up too much space like peppers, which were hollow.

Yoreno ate a potato. They were small, diced in half and boiled. They had been flavored with salt, pepper, and a little bit of grease from the meat. They were quite good.

Or maybe that was only because Yoreno was starving. A long day of travelling and monster slaying, and then on top of that, having to look for their horses, he had built up quite an appetite.

They all did.

“We’re not going to take her back to Aevalin,” Yoreno said. “I already told you—and you read her letter yourself. She won’t be welcomed by Queen Neslyn unless she captures the king’s assassin.”

“Mm,” Sorika noised with a nod.

“We’re going to help her track that bastard down,” Mai said.

Sorika looked up from her plate and made a face. “I told you, she’s a woman, not a man. You don’t call women ‘bastards.’”

“Why not?” Dell asked.

Sorika shrugged.

“Bitch,” Lev said.

“What?” Mai asked.

“Bitch,” Lev repeated. “You know—a woman you hate? You call them bitches.”

“All right,” Yoreno said. “That’s enough.”

Lev rolled his eyes. “You nobles are always so sensitive. They’re just words.”

“Nevertheless,” Yoreno said. “She is a villain, but that doesn’t mean we have to keep talking that way.”

Lev chuckled. “We hack monsters to pieces—and sometimes people, but words are offensive to your ears.”

“Killing is offensive to me,” Dell said, “when it’s dishonorable.”

“Yeah,” Sorkika said, then she leaned into Dell and he put an arm around her shoulders.

The fire crackled merrily. They didn’t need it to keep monsters at bay. In fact, it was best not to have a fire. Many monsters were attracted by such things. But they had dug a small pit, so most of the flames were shielded by the earth and probably weren’t easily visible from level height, and certainly not visible from down in the ravine.

If they were attacked in the night, Mai’s wards would explode, killing any monsters. The only downside was that wandering humans could also be killed.

But that would be on them.

There were some things you just didn’t do—like wandering into another group’s camp in the middle of the night. Not unless you were there to rob or kill them.

“Are you all right, Dorrin?” Mai asked.

He looked up. “What—yeah, I’m fine. I was just thinking about today.”

“Don’t worry,” Dell said. “We’re all mid-tier adventurers. You’re not going die from some monster while we’re around.”

“No,” he said, looking into the fire. “It’s not that. It’s just… I want to be useful. In a fight, I mean. It’s just…”

“You’re afraid,” Lev said.

Dorrin glanced up at him and paused. Finally he nodded.

“Just stick with us,” Yoreno said. “We’ll turn you into a proper adventurer.”

“Yeah,” Mai said. “Don’t you worry, Dorrin.” She smiled at him.

“We should clean up and get to sleep,” Dell said.

Sorika nodded, but she said nothing.

Lev chuckled. “Better not get to warn in our shared tent, you too.”

“Lev!” Mai scolded. “That’s very inappropriate.”

“It’s nothing,” Dell said. “Lev’s a commoner. He can’t help it.”

And as he ever did, Lev chuckled like a villain, gloating about his commoner status in comparison to what he often referred to as the fickle, delicate nobles around him.

Weather he was jesting or not, Yoreno did not know. Perhaps it was a mixture of both a jest and a true belief in those words. “All right,” Yoreno said. “I’ll help clean.”