Fields of green passed us by as I ran with the elf on my back. Eventually, Edhil was far enough behind us to be out of sight, leaving us with only green plains and a dirt road going forward. At some point, we reached the top of a hill where I came to a halt as I observed the scenery around me.

Having such a large field of vision and keen eyesight, in general, made the view feel magical. I took a deep breath as I took in everything around me.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Cellestra said.

I nodded. “It is…”

I looked at the unfinished shirt in my hands. I hadn’t worked on it yet since leaving the temple. I decided to continue on it after taking in my surroundings for a few more seconds. At the same time, I started running again.

I created the start of the sleeves and made sure that the collar was properly done. I finished what I had by rinsing and drying it with warm air and then handed the shirt to the elf behind me to try on again. I figured that as long as the base was properly done, I could always cut off the sleeves and try again.

Cellestra put it over her clothes and smiled. “You’re a quick learner. So far it seems good. Do you think you can color it?” She asked that last bit with a sly smile.

I scratched my head as I thought about her words. “I never actually tried. I have no idea if I can. Wait a second…”

An idea entered my mind. I had an ability that I’d never used before called Venom Thread. If some things about my previous evolutions still held true, I imagined those threads would be green. I summoned a few threads from my fingertips before me to check it out.

As I had predicted, the threads were green and slightly dripping with venom. I used my free hand to rinse the threads with water, washing off the toxic substance. At the end of that, I was left with green threads.

“Well,” I started as I looked at the silken strands. “I guess that worked. Don’t know if they are still venomous though.” I showed the result of my little experiment to the elf.

“Given some time, I assume it’s perfectly safe. Though, I doubt the color will stay the same.”

I shrugged. “Who knows?” I placed the strands on my spider head to check if they would decolorize over time before going back to work.

“Hey, Kealyna?”

“Hm?”

“You never bothered to check how far Len Asari is. Any reason behind that?”

“It didn’t sound like I was going to get a precise answer to that anyway. Besides, it doesn’t matter as much. We have plenty of food and I can summon water whenever. We are bound to eventually run into some people, or a town, where we can inquire further. I expect it’s pretty hard to miss an entire province. Once we’re there, we can put more thought into where to go.”

“I guess that’s true,” Cellestra admitted.

“Heh,” I chuckled. “Any timeframe that she would have given us, could have been thrown out of the window, anyway. I don’t think any horse would be able to keep up with me for this long.”

“That’s true as well,” Cellestra admitted again.

“I feel a bit guilty,” I said. “As far as I can tell, the plan to find a cure for your… whatever it is, seems to not get the attention it deserves when all we do is run.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Cellestra spoke quietly. “With what the goddess said, it seems there is no real hurry to get it done. I do wonder, though, if it’s not a curse, then what is it?”

“I have no clue. Besides the fact that it’s not a curse, Elysa didn’t say much about it. Makes me wonder how exactly we rid you of it…”

“I’m sure we’ll find a way for that too.”

Cellestra’s kind words made me smile, as so many of them did. One of these days, I imagined there would come a good time for me to tell her exactly what I felt when she smiled at me.

How long could I put this off…?

It made me feel as if I was lying, something which I hated. Yet, I didn’t seem to have the courage to tell her. I hated myself for it.

I sighed deeply as I worked on the shirt in my hands. I couldn’t lose focus. I didn’t want to screw up a gift for such a precious person.

“Worrying again?” Cellestra asked, probably in reaction to my sigh from before.

I nodded.

“Just take it easy. You said yourself we’d be fine.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

The elf ran her hand over my spider hair, soothing me somewhat. As much as I liked it, I didn’t want her to feel forced to do such a thing every time I thought about this matter.

I shook it off for now while I tried to build up the courage to finally confess. I wouldn’t do it while we were out and running, but I hoped I would have enough to finally tell her either tonight or tomorrow. I was getting sick and tired of my own hesitation.

I finished the shirt in silence just as we reached the bend in the road that the priestess had mentioned. From here, we had the option to continue in the same direction we’d been going. Straying off the path would get us to where we needed to be quicker.

Without hesitation in this matter, I continued forward. Feeling the abrupt change from dirt to grass under my feet only made me move unsteadily for a few steps as I had to adjust, but I soon continued running at the same speed I’d been going before, wanting to get as much traveling done in a day as possible.

After rinsing and drying the finished product of my efforts, I handed it to the elf and asked her to try it on. She did so and soon smiled.

“Seems to be a perfect fit. I’ll try this tomorrow morning without any clothes underneath it. I hope it fits just as well. Thank you.”

“I’ll probably make a few more to get better at it. It gives me something to do and if you’re right, I could use it to make some money for when it’s needed.”

“Won’t you make any for yourself?” Cellestra asked as she looked at my almost completely bare back.

“Dunno,” I simply said. “I find this to be… liberating if that makes sense.” I paused for a second. “Before, I liked to have as much armor as possible, but now that it doesn’t seem to be necessary… do you know what I mean?”

“I think I get it. I would probably do the same in your position. I’ll probably get jealous at your tan soon enough as well,” She said before grinning.

“Heh. Would that make me look better, you think? I think the pale skin with white hair fits.”

“Hmmm,” Cellestra thought aloud. “Maybe you’re right. You will probably say next how you’ll have excellent camouflage in the snow as well.”

“Well, you’re not wrong…” I said, amused at her comment. I then peered into the distance where nothing but flat plains were stretched out before us. “Speaking of cold, what do we do regarding a campfire tonight? I don’t see any trees around and I doubt we’ll run into any before nightfall.”

“I guess we can do without. As long as you can manage to pull off the same thing you did before, we don’t technically need a fire. I doubt there would be any predators in the area anyway, seeing as there’s nothing to prey on.”

“Fair enough.”

“I don’t want to force you into doing that sleep while awake thing if you’re uncomfortable with it, though…” Cellestra then said softly.

“I’ll be fine,” I assured her. “It’s not the same as fully sleeping, but I can get through the day relatively well.”

“I can see that. You’re still going strong. Are you sure you’re not getting tired?”

“I’m sure. Besides, it seems evening is going to be upon us soon enough.”

I looked at the sun to the west where it was descending slowly but surely. It was one of the reasons why I’d made that comment earlier.

“Okay,” She said quietly, acknowledging that I knew my own limits. While she still seemed a bit conflicted about me running so much in a day, she remained quiet all the way until evening was upon us. When the sun started to set, I came to a halt in the sea of green that surrounded us.

I let my legs spread out over the grass at the sides as I placed my spider head on it and stretched them perhaps a bit too obviously. I just wanted to let Cellestra know that I was completely fine.

She stepped off of my back and took the wolf pelts off my abdomen as well. I then removed the brown bag and placed it in the grass before me as Cellestra positioned herself in the grass on the other side. It made it feel as if the bag was a campfire now, which felt funny to me. I could see the curiosity in the elf’s eyes.

I smiled and broke the silence.

“Now, let’s see what they gave us, shall we?”