Lilith: "Hey, wake up, Steven."I was slowly waking up before she called out to me. Her fingers slowly jabbed my shoulders and I was slowly sitting up when I realized Lilith woke up without me noticing.
Steven: "You woke up before me…"
I"ve become a very light sleeper, so Lilith moving around without me noticing really just showed how stealthy she can get. It"s terrifying knowing that she could"ve used it against me back then. She could"ve and I would never know about it.
Lilith: "Can you get up? I"ll give you a hand."
Steven: "No, I"ll be fine."
My body wasn"t as bad as last night and I was able to sit up, albeit it wasn"t very easy. I had to push myself to get out of the tent and onto the beach. Miles of sand in 2 directions and an ocean with islands dotted in the distance. Esnia really does have an archipelago. Behind us, facing the land, was a stretch of gra.s.slands, caked in frost, dotted with trees and fauna that slowly built up in density before going to the forests.
For once, it feels refreshing to be outside of a forest.
Lilith: "How do you feel?"
Steven: "I feel like my body"s failing. My legs don"t want to move so easily."
Lilith: "Don"t say that! You"re just really fatigued."
She smacks my back with her palm and I felt a jolt of energy go through me. The numb pain that dwelled deep in my bones was lifted and my body felt revitalized. My body reacted autonomously by having me take a deep breath.
Steven: "Oh, hey!"
Lilith: "This is better than you collapsing. We"re not safe until we find a settlement."
Steven: "Did you just give me some of your energy?"
Lilith: "Yes… I wanted to do it but I didn"t know what your limit was. You"ll end up worse if you overflow with Magic Power. I gave you a tiny bit, so don"t use magic until we know it"s safe."
I haven"t even been using magic...
Steven: "So… what do we do?"
Lilith: "We walk down this side of the beach because I know there"s either a farm or fishery not too far."
Steven: "The oysters, right?"
She nods.
Lilith: "They were cultivated… once we find someone, we can try to find directions back to the Academy or if we"re really far: we look for the nearest town."
Steven: "And if we"re too far to go on foot?"
Lilith: "We"re going back to that Academy even if it takes us a week."
This could quickly become the longest I"ve ever had to walk! We gathered what little we had and started down the beach, leaving the tent behind.
My sense of direction has been tossed around and it felt like we were moving aimlessly. We were quiet for the most part. There really wasn"t much to say except trying to force small talk, which neither of us wanted to do.
It was a very peaceful beach. n.o.body and nothing occupied it for the good 3-4 miles we already walked. It wasn"t as easy as I had hoped. We had to stop every mile to empty the sand from our shoes otherwise it"ll irritate our feet. Lilith seemed to have it worse as her soles were running thin.
By the way things were moving, it was starting to look like we"ll be sleeping on the beach again. We must"ve already made the 10-mile mark, guessing by the amount of time had pa.s.sed and how sore our feet were. It wasn"t until we started to see a small little black dot in the distance that we started to feel our hopes rise again.
Steven: "Hey, is that a building?"
Lilith: "I don"t know, but we have to make sure it isn"t abandoned. Otherwise, we"ll have to stop there and rest."
The dreaded came to be, the bigger the dot became, the more apparent it was that we stumbled across a hut. An abandoned one and time has taken its toll on it. One side of the wall had collapsed, taking half of the roofing with it.
Apart from that though, it looked like this building was built with sticks, duct tape, and glue. Our life expectancy would definitely take a dive if we attempted to step foot in it, a.s.suming there was enough wood to pin and possibly suffocate us.
Lilith: "It looks dangerous."
Steven: "Well, look, let"s grab the wood that"s safe to grab and build another tent."
Lilith: "That"s a good idea! I"ll use Earth magic to insulate it."
We had to work together to make the best of our situation and pulled out some of the rubble. By taking the good bits of wood we found, it was definitely possible to build another tent and still have plenty enough for a fire pit and do it again 3 times over, maybe even more.
Lilith and I didn"t put too much of an effort to make a tent, we wanted something that"ll work without wasting time. After some debate, we settled for an frame; something to give us shade, protection from the cold wind and s.p.a.cious enough to be comfortable.
I went a little further by putting a platform below, to keep the sand off us and, just in case, we won"t get wet when the rain comes again. What I made looked like we were putting the tent on top of pallets.
Lilith went her own distance as well and strung up her d.a.m.n enchanted pearls, warming the tent up. And this time, with the smaller tent, they were more effective at keeping us warm.
Building everything turned out to be fun and we were rewarded immediately after we entered and sat down.
Lilith: "This feels good~"
Steven: "We haven"t even started and we"re already tired~"
Lilith: "I was hoping we would"ve found at least a hamlet by now. A homestead even."
Steven: "How much further do you think we have to go?"
Lilith: "I don"t know, Esnia isn"t a very populated country, but the Wood Elves that live here are survivalists, there should"ve been a fishery or two by now."
It"s bad news after bad news.
Steven: "Nothing we can do about it…"
I felt my motivation dropping and I wanted to stay put for today. If we kept moving forward another storm might hit us and this time, we might not have another tent on hand.
I removed my cardigan and tunic, folding them neatly and placing them beside me before I laid down. I may as well be comfortable if I"m staying here.
Lilith: "You"re not worried about getting sand on your back?"
Steven: "I didn"t put the base of the tent for stability, Lilith."
Lilith: "Oh, but still, why are you taking off your clothes?"
Steven: "My clothes can get dirty all they want. I can clean them once the opportunity arises. I don"t want them to get damaged and have holes in them because it won"t be as easy to fix."
Lilith: "That"s stupid… we"re forced to survive and you"re worried about appearances?"
Steven: "You wouldn"t want to scare someone off because you looked feral and half-naked."
She lays down on her side of the tent.
Lilith: "I wonder what Madelyn is doing right now…"
Steven: "And Rayna… and Young Mi."
I sighed.
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I really wish one of them was here; I feel safer in a group.
Lilith: "Are you alright?"
Steven: "How can I be..? We escaped a dungeon just after we were kidnapped. We should"ve stayed in Sefre from the beginning!"
Lilith: "Did you feel that way on the island? There"s no turning back time because you made a mistake."
Steven: "…Madelyn… she looked happy to be in charge of something. What was the worst that could happen?"
Lilith: "It"s not her fault. It was us who decided to stroll around at night even though we were warned that it was dangerous."
Steven: "I know it wasn"t her fault, but I also wasn"t expecting to be attacked on campus."
We continued resting and I was almost certain that Lilith ended up taking a nap. She laid still for what had to be half an hour before she jolts straight up as if she had a nightmare. She continued to shuffle around in her spot until she regained her bearings and decides to exit the tent.
Before she could do that, she stops halfway and looks towards me.
Lilith: "If we"re going to keep walking, I"ll need herbs. I can make a quick energetic tea for us both."
Steven: "Let"s not do that… we might get caught in another storm."
Lilith: "So we wait it out? I need to eat, you know!"
Steven: "Then, I"ll hunt for meat."
Lilith: "I"ll tag along… just in case, I"ll grab plants that I can eat."
We went out to the cold beach and I realized that no normal animal would be casually walking around. They"re probably hibernating, but here"s hoping we find at least a rabbit.
It was a search, and I kept myself to a 1-mile search area to keep ourselves from losing track of the tent. Lilith was right behind me, picking out edible plants for her teas. It was starting to look like maybe Lilith would have to be eating her plants to make it through the night until I locked onto a rabbit in the distance.
A healthy, adult rabbit was nibbling on the gra.s.s and I knew I had to be stealthy. We had no weapons and I definitely can"t be using magic. He was out in the open but if I was very careful, I could grab him while he was unaware.
It was whimsical of me to believe I could catch a rabbit barehanded. When I lept up to grab him, he hops out of the way. To top it off, he showed his own way to a.s.sert dominance by using my head as a platform to leap off me.
I laid in the dirt disappointed and embarra.s.sed. Lilith walks up to me and even takes pity on me!
Lilith: "Well, if it makes you feel better, these berries will keep me from sleeping on an empty stomach."
We need to find our way back to the Academy. It won"t be easy, but I know Madelyn and the others are out there right now looking for us…