We are driving for a few hours now already. It’s a beautiful day outside, flowers are blooming, birds are singing- oops wrong script- The weather is pleasant you can see a few animals if you look outside. Ah who am I kidding I was able to fight my boredom with the scenery when it was still interesting now there are only plain for ten minutes already.

And the other passengers are no fun either. Falos slept in after 15 minutes due boredom, Sadly I can’t do the same. Ivys and Soma are sitting next to each other clearly uncomfortable. They have been staring on the floor since Falos fell asleep.

‘Hey Soma?’ I asked. I waited for a few seconds and then said, ‘Hey Soma?’ again…. Again nothing…. ‘Earth to Soma, please answer.’ I took control forceful and nudged soma at the nose. We can both feel it. ‘Huh?! Oh K-Kreon… You c-could ha-have just s-said something i-if you w-wanted to t-talk’

‘I did! And after repeated trying I resorted to other methods’ I replied. ‘O-oh… must have spaced out… sorry… So, w-what did y-you want to talk a-about…?’ he said. ‘I am bored as hell so take one of the books out of our bag and start reading. Or at least flip the pages so I can read.’ I replied and he nodded and took out one of the three books we had in our bag.

It was a simple story book. For me it was somewhat an ‘old’ plot. It was about a ‘Hero’ who has to safe the world from the Demon Lord. Simple as that. It seems it was actually inspirated of one of the heroes that was summoned here.

As we were reading- at least I think soma was reading because he didn’t notice how Ivys looked over into the book and the book cover probably trying to find out what we are reading without asking. “We are reading ‘The Tales Of The Phoenix Hero’”

“W-What?!” Ivys replied startled. “The title of the book. That was what you were trying to look at right?” I told her. Soma seemed to be immersed in the book because he wasn’t reacting at all.

“O-Oh… thanks… And´? H-How is it?” Ivys asked. I answered promptly with a ‘pretty good’. I forcefully moved somas body a bit so Ivys could read too. After some time when the sun was about to go down the carriage stopped, and the door was opened

“We will set camp here. It is dangerous to travel in the night since some monsters get more active and it is easier for bandits to move in the night.” The Couchman said. Soma and Ivys nodded. As he went out of the carriage, we started to wake Falus. “Falus~ It is time to wake up~” I chant. Falus turn a bit in his sleep. “Five more minutes dad…”

“I am not your dad and I will not give you five more minutes since we have to put up the camp before it get’s dark!” After that it took Falus about another ten minutes to really wake up. It seems he does not remember anything about calling me dad.

We sat up camp near a small lake. It was pretty. When it got dark, we hat a small campfire with some skewers over it. Everyone except Ivys had Mushrooms and some deer meat for their skewers. Ivys doesn’t like most sorts of meat, so she made herself some skewers with mushrooms and something that looked like tofu. Can’t say for sure though.

After eating the skewers everyone got to bed. Or tent? Either way Soma and Falus slept in the same tent while Ivys had a sperate tent. The coachman said he wanted to keep watch and stayed at the campfire, but he slept in after about an hour, so I decided to do it instead. It’s not like I need sleep.

Although my range is pretty small because I can’t move our body to not wake up Falus. Even though I am confident that Falus won’t wake up through it – he is sleeping like a rock – I don’t want to risk it.

Soma on the other hand… isn’t really sleeping. He reads and reads and reads. That bookworm. But because he promised Ivys not continue to read the book we read in the carriage without her he reads another book we brought.

I didn’t look into Ivys tent, so I don’t know what with her. I wouldn’t be able to even if I wanted. The tent is too far away.

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Early in the morning the coachman woke up and was distressed since he slept in. Even if he woke up the only thing that came near were some wild animals. But well since he was so distressed, he woke up everyone while checking if they were okay. Well at least soma could stop him before barging into Ivys tent… He apologized afterwards.

We packed the tents together and continued with the trip. In the first half of the carriage ride we were on a peaceful track. To our right side were a few trees and hills while to our left side were grass as far as the eye could see.

After some time, we arrived in front of a forest and stopped, and the coachman told us that we have to take the way through the forest because we are running late. After Ivys voiced her worries of the monsters he laughed it of saying “We have protection stones set up for that! The chance that monsters attack us is extremely low! It won’t happen so don’t worry.”

I bit my non-existent lip. ‘That’s what you call setting up a red flag’ I thought dimly to soma. ‘Don’t take an example from him’

30 minutes later…

The carriage rumbled through the forest with speed it was not designed to in such environment. “What was that again about us having set up protection stones so that no monsters attack us!?!” Falos screamed up to the coachman while slashing at one of the absurd fast wolves that closed up a bit too much with a spear in hand.

“I-I don’t know! This shouldn’t have happened! Why do the stones not work!?” He screamed back but probably not because he was angry at Falos but more likely because of the strong wind pressing into his face.

“L-Let us not worry a-about that for now” Soma said while using his wand to hit a wolf and then use earth magic to weigh it down. “We have t-to concentrate on s-surviving and getting away! We can w-worry about it after we su-survived” Soma can become strangely calm in fighting situation he mostly stutters because of the carriage at the moment- mostly. The wolf that almost bit his leg may have also played a role in it.

“Soma c-can you t-take o-over for me f-for a m-moment? I want t-to try s-something tha-that may g-get us s-some time to g-get away!” Ivys said to Soma who nodded “Don’t know how l-long I c-can hold them o-of, though” Soma warned.

Before that Ivys and Soma both positioned themeselfs at one of the doors while Falos was doing the back. The carriages rood can be ‘folded’ like by some Cars. (I think they are called cabrio or cabriolet)

Now Ivys was standing right behind the coachman facing behind to the wolves. Soma was at the front turning all the time to shoot wolves at the side while Falos is using his spear and sword to fight monsters that come too close so that I would threaten the carriage if shot with magic.

It took a few minutes before Ivys finished her magic. She finished with-

A cliff hanger!

I made a small change with the duration of the time to the capital. I changed it from 2-3 days to 5-6 because I thought it is a bit weird to get from through a big part of the Valus Kingdom in just 2-3 days even if it is not the biggest of kingdoms.