Luke ran away from the carriage with Soka in hand, the roaring sound of a certain angry draconian wife echoing behind him followed by screams of hopelessness from a certain draconian husband as he got hit by a high Velocity broom stick, draconians in general are pretty strong, Luke Cannot believe his eyes when he Saw the broom stick wielded by zaka's wife literally buried itself deep in a trunk of a nearby tree after his wife threw it out of anger, she definitely has anger issues and seemingly infinite amount of broom sticks stored away somewhere in case one breaks.

Soka himself doesn't care about the whole thing, he's just in his own private world only a child can have, happy and uncaring, sitting on top of his head.

"Your mom is terrifying Soka"

"Evil"

"Hey, don't call your mom like that, she might a little harsh but she cares for you in the end, you gotta respect your mother"

"Hmm?"

"You didn't understand did you?"

"Nuh-uh"

"like i said before, Don't change Soka... don't change"

----~----

"Why is he here again?"

"I'm taking care of him for the night, i'm doing his father a favor"

Luke is walking along with Vina as the convoy moved, due to it having to wait for the guard captain the schedule was messed up and now it has to move in the night instead of the usual rest, he's not an expert but he knows it's a lot more risky than just stopping at night and continue at day, so this complicates things, not to mention now he can't sleep Because the road would be too bumpy.

So now he's just outside, trying to kill Time by playing with the little draconian on his head and talking with Vina.

"This is your fault you know?"

"What? It's not! How am i supposed to know he's the guard captain? He doesn't even look like one, plus i didn't ask him to come with me, he did it himself"

"And now the convoy schedule is messed up and that roaring sound from his wife is just unending"

"Well she did kinda woke up and choose violence, i have nothing to do with this, i just want to practice!"

"Then who is that sitting on your head? Hmm?"

"He's not part of the equation here"

"Well now what do we do?"

"Well we can be a guard i guess, some of the actual force is too tired to be awake at this kind of time"

"Boring"

"Since when do you care something is boring or not? you're ok with boring stuff back in lannegar, what happened?

"Movie"

"*Sigh* i knew it was a mistake"

"Do you have more?"

"I do, but-"

"Let's watch it then!"

"Yeesh be patient, i can't find a good one yet, i need to browse some more"

"Why not just watch what you first showed me?"

"Ehm!"

He pointed to the top of his head at Soka who is taking a short nap, looking rather peaceful, Vina just crossed her arms and gave him an annoyed look.

"That kid is a nuisance"

"And is the son of a man that can kick us out of the convoy anytime he wants, and i can't imagine what his mother would do to us if he shows just a speck of discomfort while being with us, you do you but i don't want to get hit by a broom stick that can penetrate metal"

"See? Nuisance"

"How is eryn doing? Good?"

"She's good, still recovering but should be able to walk normally again soon"

"She really drained herself"

"I was kinda worried she would just you know? Die? She looked really weak when she first woke up"

"Sounds reasonable, i too would be worried if you just drop to the ground"

"Talking about the ground..."

She stopped and Bent down to pick up some snow, she formed it into a snowball in her hand and threw it at his face, Luke, who didn't expect to be hit by a snowball lost his balance and fell face flat to the snow, along with soka who woke up just in time and jumped to his back to avoid touching the snow, as for the culprit, she just stood there laughing.

"Hahahahaha!"

"Traitor! I saved you from a snowball ambush, and this is how you pay me?"

"I'm just messing with you, here take my hand"

She offered a hand he took it, but not before pulling her in and into the snow with him, she, just like him, didn't expect such a thing and faceplanted into the snow right next to him with an Audible *woomph* he stood up and It was his turn to laugh, soka who was clinging to his back climbed back up to his head, cleaned the snow stuck on it and took another nap.

"Haha! Get bamboozled!"

Luke ran to carriage in which Eryn is resting in, got in and woke her up.

"Luke? What's happening?"

"No time to explain! Take this!"

He handed her the young draconian on his head, Soka was just confused at the sudden disappearence of his throne and his apparent transfer from a human to an elf.

"Uhh... Hi little guy"

"Thank you gotta go"

"Wait, what am i supposed to do with him?"

"New friend?"

"Huh? Luke!"

He didn't respond and just jumped out of carriage, once outside he ducked at just the right time to dodge an incoming snowball.

"Can't touch me!"

"You bastard! Come here!"

"Never!"

He dodged several snowballs all the while keeping his distance with Vina, he was dodging Them and revelled at the feeling of being Neo from the matrix, he taunted every time she missed a shot.

"Aren't you supposed to be a huntress? come on... Show me your perfect shot you talk about all the time!"

She stopped her barrage and stood still, she just looked at him with a blank expression, which then turned to a grin as she went all fours and kicked some snow with her feet.

"Oh no"

"Oh yes!"

He tried to run as fast as he can to get away but this proved to be futile as Vina went full speed, jumped to a tree, kicked off of it to gain air, into a carriage and kicked off again into the air and into his back, she looked proud of herself and extremely smug as she sat on top of a fallen Luke.

"Now that! Is a power of a huntress! Now yield"

"Never!"

He rolled to his back which made her fall face flat to the snow again, he stood up, threw a snowball at her and tried to run away again, but as a Testament to his bad luck, she has regained her accuracy and managed to hit him with a snowball from an impressive distance, stopping him in his tracks, as he tried to get up he felt something pressing him on his chest, Causing him to fall on his back again, he wiped the snow off his eye and opened it to see Vina, somehow already closing the distance beetwen them and is now pinning him by sitting on his chest, and worse of all, she was smug, her face decorated with a grin that says.

"i win"

"Alright, i yield, you win"

"Told you, you might best me in strength, but never doubt a huntress about their speed"

"Yeah yeah i should have known, you outran Sylvia after all, now would you be so kind to get up? We need to catch up with the convoy, it's getting dark here without the light coming from it"

"What do you Mean? We're ahead of it"

"Eh?"

He looked at the subjective up of his current position and indeed the convoy was nowhere to be seen, he then looked at the subjective down and found that what she said is true, they ran so fast they we're ahead of it.

"Wow i didn't even notice that"

"You should try to be more aware of your surrounding, i thought you were about to run off there for a moment"

"Ok can you please get up?"

"No"

"What?"

"I'm not getting off you until you promise me a movie when we get back, to compensate for me having to chase you down"

"Oh come on... This is ridiculous!"

"Say it"

"Ugh fine, we'll watch a movie, happy?"

"Yeah, the last one to get back is making breakfast!"

She booped his nose and ran back towards the convoy.

"Not fair! I don't know how to cook that well! And i am supposed to be the one doing the booping!"

As he give chase to a laughing Vina he failed to notice a Blade planted to the snow next to him, the Blade was red hot, it slowly melted the snow around it, in the forest a pair of eyes watched from afar.

----~----

"Did i lose my touch?"

Sylvia said to herself as she missed her throw, the Blade had missed the her target's head.

"And he has the bravery and stupidity to run back laughing, not even noticing the Blade? What an idiot..."

The pest had been playing happily with it's friend, that annoying huntress, it Made her angry, that nuisance get to enjoy life with his partner and yet ruined her relationship and walk away as if nothing happened, she just discovered that the mage from yesterday turned out to be his friend too, his entire existence infuriates her, this is the most trouble she ever had in her life beside escaping the grasp of the magiae guild and this pest is just threathening to make more for her by going to report her existence to the guild, no,she Will not experience another decade of just running away, he must die.

"Just you wait, you Will see the wrath of the legendary Sylvia the wing of steel!"

----~----

"Well, what should i make?"

He said as he stood in front of a camp fire with an apron, having lost the bet to who can run back to the convoy faster earlier in the night before.

"What you can, let me see you skill"

Vina taunted him, she still had that incredibly smug look on her face.

"It would certainly be interesting to see a human dish, i haven't seen one thing about how humans cook other than that microwave you talk about, so yes i agree with her, show your skill"

"I'm not that good, but i'll try"

He replied to Eryn, when she was told that Luke is going to make breakfast she was immediately interested, even while half paralysed she still hunger for knowledge with a spirit that he wished he had when he attended high school all those years ago

"So let's see..."

He inspected the ingredient in front of him, several strips of meat, some eggs, two piece of bread, a few greens and salt, pretty standard as it is the daily ration Given to Them every morning by the guards, minus the meat, they bought it way back in town, he remembered seeing a video sometime back on earth on how to make a sandwich with these and decided to do just that.

"Alright, first some animal fat on the pan..."

The fat sizzled when i touched the hot surface, it also burned his hand as he had forgotten to use a cloth to cover his hand when get a hold of the weirdly shaped handle of the cast iron, once it's melted he inserted the bread and strips of meat in an alternating arrangement that he was pretty sure is the correct one from that video, he unconsciously smiled as he heard the heard the sizzling of meat, he mixed the eggs, salt, vegetable together with a bit of pepper that he "borrowed" from zaka and his wife when he was returning their son which Made a bit of ruckus around the convoy as his wife ran around searching for the so called "pepper thief" all the while dragging her half asleep husband while also giving him an earful... *Again*, poor guy, anyway he mixed it in a bowl he had actually borrowed from kottar's daily soup share.

He poured the egg in careful to not Soak the bread with it, he just wants it to surround the bread and the meat, once the egg fully cooked he folded it, the egg Acts pretty much as a binder for the bread and meat, so once he folded it, it turned to a simple but good sandwich, he took it out of the pan and placed it on a cutting board.

"Voila!"

"You said you were bad at cooking"

"Not that good, not bad, now enjoy"

He cuts it in half and smiled a proud smile as he Made a beautiful looking cross section, it steamed and let out a pleasant smell that he noticed had gotten vina's mouth rather watery, and took the absolute attention of eryn's eye, They took one piece each and ate them, he can tell they enjoyed it as Vina straight up just devoured the piece in her hand with one bite and Eryn closed her eye and started eating slower, probably savoring the taste, maybe he's not that bad of a cook after all.

"You guys like it?"

"Oh God, from now on i don't want to make breakfast anymore, you do it"

"It taste good Luke, really good, i've never seen someone use animal fat that way, is this how humans make their food?"

"Well that covers just a little bit and it's pretty much what i can make from these ingredient, thousands of different culture tends to make their own unique dish, so that is just one of possibly hundreds of recipes, hell it's not even an old one, it's one the newer stuff"

"Thousands of different culture?"

"Yeah, humanity is made of hundreds of thousands of Them, all different in their own way, and each of these can have hundreds of different recipes for food with a wild variation of ingredient depending on where they are in the world"

"That's... Amazing"

"Not wrong, i'm Amazed too when i learn that as a kid, still Amazed now, sure i came from the more major and common culture, but it's insane thinking about how many there is"

"It truly is... Wait oh no"

"What?"

"You didn't get any, we ate them all"

"It's fine i can just ask kottar for some soup from him, i need to return his bowl anyway"

"Hey we agree right? You make breakfast from now on?"

"No"

"Awww"

----~----

After Stealthing his way to avoid detection from the local godzilla and into kottar's camp fire where he was making some food for the people, he asked for some soup and returned the bowl to it's rightful owner, thinking about how there is practically nothing he can do if he came back to his carriage, he decided to take a look around, he had never gotten around to really appreciate the beauty of this world, pure, pollution free beauty, everything is very earth-like yet very different at the same time, he walked around the forest and listened to the sound of it, there really isn't any due to it being winter, but the general feel of it is quite soothing.

It really calmed down his nerves and help him forget about tension of the reality of what is actually happening, it helped him forget what could happen if Sylvia actually attacked, but it's been pretty good these last few days excluding the spider attack of course, so maybe he's just paranoid? Maybe Sylvia actually forgot about him, he really hoped that's the case otherwi-

He fell to the snow covered ground, his foot got caught on something.

"Ow, ok... Maybe walking around a winter forest isn't the best idea"

He got up and turned around to see what he stumbled on and his eyes went wide, it was bones, more specifically a horse skeleton, but that isn't what surprised him, dead animals are a lot more common in winter, no what surprised him is what is clearly a saddle on the skeleton, it was someone's ride, in the middle of nowhere in the forest, and that's definitely a red flag.

He looked around the area to see if maybe someone had lost their horse and their way, atleast he hoped it's someone, not the remains of someone, he noticed a suspiciously tall mound of snow right next to a tree and Went to inspect it.

"Jesus, let's hope this is just some fallen branch and not some preserved corpse"

He dug up the mound to see what's in the center and to his absolute dismay, it was a corpse, well a skeleton of one, but a dead body nonetheless, it was clearly a beastmen judging by it's canine Skull.

"Shit, gotta report this..."

He was just about to run back when he noticed something, the skeleton is wearing hardened leather armor similiar to the guards back in town like to wear, it has a huge hole in the middle and the chest is a bit too wide, that's where it dawned on him that it isn't just a hole in the armor, it's a hole in the entire body, a lot of bones is missing where the hole was, something the size of a tree trunk stabbed this poor soul in the chest.

He was thinking about what kind of creature or weapon can do that when a loud horn sounded from the direction of the convoy, it's the same sound as that horn before the spider attack.

----~----

Vina is calmly sitting around the camp fire next to their carriage, sharpening her dagger, she wasn't sure why, she always did that whenever there is nothing to do, it's not even necessary, her weapons we're always sharp from the start, maybe just to kill Time while waiting for the convoy to move again or maybe just something to do while waiting for Luke to do something stupid again.

He's a nice guy of course, but it's hard to Deny that he is sometimes just out of his mind, it's always annoying yet somehow entertaining at the same time everytime he got into trouble or make trouble, his stupidity and overall weird energy that radiates off of him helped her somewhat forget about her disability, despite being an idiot it's also hard to Deny that he is kind, she never forgot about her surprise when he says he doesn't care whether she's disabled or not.

She sighed and looked up at the winter sky, grey and white, just like her fur, she looked back to her dagger and was about to start sharpening again when she heard it, a wing flap, it triggered something in her and she looked up again at breakneck speed, almost throwing her dagger in the process, there was nothing, no birds or anything, maybe it's just her mind playing tricks on her, but now there is a new feeling, caused by that sound, dread.

She closed her eyes and started breathing slowly, she always wants to forget about that incident, drown it deep in the ocean of obscure memories, but it still re-surface back to her mind from time to time, if only she was a bit braver that day, maybe all this trouble would not have happened, then thinks about how she would never meet Luke if it did, maybe this is how it supposed to be, her hands grew unsteady as she tried to forget about it, that's when she heard another flap of a wing, but this time it definitely came from somewhere.

She dropped her dagger, picked up her bow and an arrow and aimed at the sky, she was sure it was there, there it is again, another flap, she tried to pinpoint it and focused at something... Up there and then she found it, there was something unseen to the eye flying on a circle, she was so focused she failed to notice Eryn tugging at her shoulder.

"Vina are you alright?"

She waited for another one of those sounds to happen, another of those cursed creature to show up, another- *flap* that was the Cue for her, she fired an arrow into somewhere in the sky, she woke up from her trance and realized what she did, she hope it doesn't hit anyone on the way down, but it didn't happen, all happened was a Roar and the next thing she knew is a red scaled draconian with scars on it's face and an arrow on it's wing just landed in the middle of the convoy, landing on a carriage, killing several people with their weight in the process, the true draconian then shouted and by that moment the reality of who it was dawned on her.

"WHO DARES?"