Walking hurts. My feet mostly, but my legs are close to giving up too. I think I’m going in the right direction but for the last couple of hours, my focus has mostly been on putting my back foot in front of the front foot again and again and again. And it hurts.

My last conversation with Pheyis was long ago and now the night is falling.

About seven hours.

I hate her.

Suddenly I hear a sharp whistle from the side, a bit lower down the slope. I stumble a little as I work on stopping my momentum, then I look up. Well down.

Sure enough, there is Pheyis, sitting by a small campfire that I really shouldn’t have missed now that the day is darkening. Something is cooking over the fire again.

I still hate her.

I’m barely a hundred meters away yet it feels so far.

Come on dude, we’re almost there and she's making food!

It feels like it takes all my will to start moving again. I make my best impression of a zombie for a couple minutes and when I’m finally there I just sit down then curl into a ball on the ground.

Pheyis doesn’t speak, of course she doesn't. She’s apparently busy working on some kind of wooden makeshift contraption that I don’t care about.

Not that I want to hear the evil witch talk.

Some indefinite time later, she pokes me a little and when I react, hands me half of whatever was cooking over the fire. I slowly munch on it without paying attention, just let me sleep already. I only note that it’s nowhere near as good as the hare we had at lunch.

Maybe I don’t really want to know what I’m eating. An overgrown rat or something. Another victim of the brutality of an uncaring woman.

I toss the bones away and try to sink deeper into sleepiness. Tiny twitches of my exhausted muscles have been randomly shaking my legs every now and then, and the ground is really uncomfortable. I’m also kind of cold in spite of the warm meal and the nearby embers of the fire, the clouds have only kept on growing heavier all day.

There’s no way I can walk the same distance tomorrow. And I’m sure Pheyis isn’t going to relent because she’s evil.

Suddenly I feel her arms lifting me for a second and then lower me on whatever she was making, before I muster the energy to struggle.

It’s not really flat, I can feel the branches against my side. After I weakly lift my torso to take a better look, I understand that it’s some kind of makeshift sled. A bundle of branches tied together by strips of animal skin.

She’s going to pull me while I rest?

She passes a branch under my arms and secures it on the other side. It doesn’t feel like a restraint but it does hold me fairly securely, nice.

And then she starts walking. I’m slightly inclined, but my arms hold me on top of the sled with only some discomfort. The uneven ground makes for a slighlty bumpy ride but I’m tired and I end up falling asleep fairly quickly anyways, lulled to sleep by the regular motion.

Maybe I don’t hate her after all.

- - -

The rain wakes me up from my dreamless slumber before the light of dawn does. I’m already soaked, which means that I somehow slept through some of it. Or maybe I woke up for a couple seconds and went back to sleeping.

I feel the usual overnight progress report drift in my mind. It must be morning then.

Trait progress : Mountain Dweller +1% ; Wildland Dweller +1% ; Mana Sense +1%, +1 Mana

Experience gain notice : +13 %

Your terrible resting conditions have reduced your natural health regeneration for the night.

Your body has somewhat recovered from a recent forceful mana intrusion. (+2 Health)

Yep, 5:24 AM according to my status.

Obviously, I’m worse than sore all over. It’s depressing that I’m not even surprised. Except that I’m not sure if Pheyis will give me a chance to warm up properly.

I wince as I try to move a little. Yeah, once again, this is not going to be a pleasant morning. Now that I’m awake, each bump of the sled hurts, as if my back was bruised all over.

…

I hope my back isn’t bruised all over…

Bob? Are you there?

Sup’ Marc?

Just checking. Any progress on the mana sense? I saw you got us another percent during the night. Wait, do you sleep?

Well, I probably don’t need rest in the same way as you do but I’m not really awake when you’re asleep. And no, not really, I’ve been trying to sense mana outside our body without success.

Alright. Don’t sweat it too much, we’re going to a place with people who actually know what they’re doing in this world. There’s a lot to learn if they don’t murder us.

I start stirring more actively and Pheyis stops pulling the sled to let me climb out of it.

Uggghh. Standing up is hard. And my feet not-so-gently give me a reminder that they suffered from the long walk, in spite of my excellent shoes.

In the meantime, Pheyis freed herself from the thin stalks of plants that served as rope. Her eyes flash in that familiar purple light and she speaks up.

“You don’t seem very steady.”

Automatic translation active.

Hey, look at that, I’m allowed to talk.

“Yeah I need to stretch and my feet really hurt. Thanks for pulling me. How far are we from the town, what was it, Wathember?”

“Wathamber. We’re close enough now, you can’t miss the village once you’ve passed that large crooked boulder you can see over there, its down the valley.” She smiles “A day or two considering your walking pace.”

I ignore the joke. As I try to find a recognizable landmark around I only draw blanks. The drizzle does quite a number on the fiery mountains, turning them into rust footed giants. It is a majestic landscape in a more menacing way than before, with the low light of the rising sun barely passing through the rain clouds. Still, I don’t recognize any of the unique features of the peaks surrounding us.

How far did she pull me? She walked all night and she doesn’t look particularly tired? What is that woman made of?

“Uh.”

Yeah, not my best line. But I’m still waking up and I’m busy trying to push the soreness away. My legs feel like jelly. I’m actually worried that waking them up will just bring fresh pain to replace the old soreness.

“Don’t worry, you’ll make it, this area should be clear of monsters. Just take your time and I’ll go ahead before it really starts raining and I’ll let the chief know you’ll be arriving soon.”

Hey Marc, how much are we trusting her “should be clear” exactly?

“I’m sure I’ll see you later. Allir Marc.” she says in a cold tone, as if daring me to try not to show up. By the time I notice the system didn’t translate ‘allir’ for some reason, she’s turned around and left me awkwardly standing there, just as abandoned as the sled that carried me for hours.

I want to call for her but I’m sure she’ll ignore me. Or look disappointed again and that would be even worse somehow.

Damn it. This bitch. I really hate her.

I'm such an idiot, I should just have acted like I was still asleep.

I bet she’d have noticed anyway.