By mid-morning, the storm clouds had cleared and the sun broke through, its heat rapidly drying the ground and the clothes on their backs. The resulting heat from the sunlight and the evaporating moisture from the gra.s.s beneath his feet made Jack break out into a pouring sweat, soon resoaking the very same clothes that had finally dried out a short time before, and making him infinitely more miserable than before. It wasn"t long before he found himself wishing the rain would come back.But he had no such luck.
Rose and Madeleine however seemed completely unfazed by the heat and humidity, and were soon in much better spirits, their clothes and skin naturally completely dry and sweat free. Figures.
By the time the sun was fully overhead, they had come upon a couple trees next to a small water pool. Jack wondered to himself if it was a result of the rain, but its size told him it probably wasn"t. Maybe it was spring-fed from underground or something. He suggested they break for lunch while they were close to some shade and some water. Rose and Madeleine agreed, and the three of them picked trees to sit under and set about getting something to eat.
The three of them had decided to split the contents of Eleanor"s pack between them so that one of them didn"t get stuck carrying an entire extra pack by themselves. Madeleine had gotten Eleanor"s spell components and unmentionables, Rose had gotten her clothes and basic travel supplies, and he"d gotten her food and waterskin. He had wanted to protest when they insisted he take the heaviest load, but when it occurred to him that the alternative was asking a girl half his size or a girl carrying a pack much larger than his to take the heavier load, he thought better of it. He wasn"t a huge fan of being tired, sore, and sweaty, but being completely emasculated by his own laziness and wimpiness seemed a far worse alternative.
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The one advantage of carrying Eleanor"s things was that she by far had carried the best food amongst the four of them, a fact of which he was all to happy to take advantage of as he sat down beneath the bough of a gnarled oak tree and pulled out the cheese and dried meat she"d brought.
After they finished their meal, Rose and Madeleine filled their waterskins from the pool, and suggested he do the same. He started to, but thought better of it. There was no telling what kind of bacteria might be in it, and he was almost guaranteed to not be immune to them. He instead opted for magically conjuring a bunch of water into their cooking pot and filling up his skin that way instead. You could never be too careful with things like that. It"d be just his luck that he"d drink that water, and end up getting explosive diarrhea in the middle of his fight with the gnolls.
After finishing lunch, the three of them spent the better part of the rest of the day walking, getting gradually closer and closer to the distant tree line on the horizon. Finally, shortly before sundown, they reached the edge of the forest, which loomed dark and impressive in front of them.
As they stood in front of it, something about the environment around it made Jack feel uneasy, although for the life of him he could not figure out why. It wasn"t the darkness... There was something almost otherwordly seeming to emanate from it. It instinctively made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Whatever was in there, they needed to be careful.