"We're still in the jurisdiction of Wilmere," Ellis said. "But we're far from Aldoria now. I hope none of you are homesick."
"Yeah, right," Stefan snorted. "I missed drinking cheap whiskey from the guild for only three gold coins."
"I know."
"That—that was a joke. I was joking, did you actually think I enjoy that crap?"
"That's rare," Ellis raised an eyebrow. "I never knew you still had tastebuds."
"I'll drive us into the ditch—"
"Quit it," Mave groaned. "Are we even close yet?"
Ellis flipped out his map. "Here—and there…we're about a few clicks. Apparently it's another town developing under Wilmere's name."
"A town?" Stefan scoffed. "What does Falden want with some town?"
"Who knows? We do whatever the quests tell us to do, just like always."
Michael was staring off into the open. Instead of tall forests and a bumpy ride, it felt like they were starting to finally get near some sort of civilization. From acre fields, scattering livestock, and rows of fences down an open road, they were going to see actual people. Their rations had been run through so fast since Stefan kept excusing his fast metabolism was driving him crazy. But they knew, deep down, the real reason was his withdrawal from not having a sip of booze.
For all of their sakes, they had to find him some booze before he would actually drive them into a ditch.
The horses were pretty healthy from the past few days. They already had a starting pack of provisions before they were sent outside of Aldoria though the real score was they had gotten them for free.
Mave laid down on the seat of the wagon, covering her eyes from the morning sun. Out of everyone, it was sort of obvious that she was the most irritated from the outside.
Michael could tell that she hated whenever they camped. She didn't like sleeping on grass nor whenever they would ride for long periods of time. They would have a break on the road's shoulder and pick from their rations. Sometimes, she would spar with Stefan just to keep her skills on edge.
It was hard to tell who was the winner since Ellis would stop it from becoming too competitive.
Stefan seemed to enjoy this the most out of all of them. Michael didn't know if he was going crazy from the booze drought but he wasn't bothered by sleeping outside in the middle of the forests. Apart from cracking jokes and poking around about Michael's girlfriend, he's been keeping the party good energy for the trip.
Ellis was the main one planning their schedule, just like always, and the only person that felt more collected. He wasn't against the idea of camping and even ordered Stefan to scope out the perimeter for anything sketchy before they set down their equipment.
And for Michael, he could say that he didn't really care. He was just a part of their party and followed everything they did. He was an adventurer after all with a magical talking sword that he occasionally wandered off with. Sometimes, he felt like Evelyn was a little annoyed that she couldn't transform into her physical body for the rest of the trip. Michael promised they could find some time alone but she's been reading his mind for the while.
He wanted the same thing as her, to touch her skin and embrace her warmth whenever they slept. He wanted to hear her voice in front of him again, not from the inside of his head.
Evelyn has been keeping him great company though, even admiring the far plains whenever they rode by. Michael didn't know how she could see but he just assumed she was always right next to him even if he wasn't holding the sword.
Michael scooted himself to the front, feeling the small breeze of cool wind. He would never imagine if they had taken this quest on foot. He even recalled last time where he walked to fight a lich, which took him all day to arrive. It wasn't a nice memory but riding in the back of a wagon as horses pulled him through the road was a great feeling.
He peeked over to look at Ellis's map. It was only drawn their path from Aldoria with an emphasized circle around a spot across from that. Michael assumed that was where they were going. He couldn't read any of the special symbols or trails and Ellis had drawn but he could understand some of the pictures.
The tall lines could represent the valleys from afar, the scribbled lines around the roads could just be the common wilderness. And any spaces that weren't marked, that was the uncharted. To think that Ellis had drawn this map himself without any prior experience was a talent to recognize.
Michael would be lying if he didn't mock Ellis for how short he was but he really was the smarts of the party.
Ellis noticed him peeking behind him. "Michael?"
Michael thought he did something wrong.
He handed it over. "It's okay, you can look at it."
Michael studied the map in his hands. It was like he was trying to learn a different language from Ellis's handwriting.
Stefan glanced at him. "Don't tell me you're going to teach him how to draw maps."
"Nothing wrong with that," Ellis said. "Information is the greatest weapon you could possess. At least someone else could bear the weight of that job."
Michael gave back the map. "Did someone teach you to draw maps?"
"Of course, did you think I learned it on a whim?"
"Umm…"
"We're all taught, kid," Stefan leaned over. "Good or horrible teachers, they've passed on their skills so we could survive. If you want to learn how to scribble around then I'm not stopping you."
Michael nervously shook his head. He assumed learning to map the lands would be a very vigorous process to understand. He didn't even get half of the mentions on Ellis's paper. Though it was pleasant to see someone in his party that was dedicated to this type of craft. If Ellis wasn't stuck with them, how far could they actually have gone?
Stefan pointed out a small town just over the horizon. Ellis figured it must have been where they were heading all along. This town was practically a tenth the size of Aldoria so all of them wondered what the big deal was having to protect something so small. Mave assumed that it was just the principle of having Falden take away land that wasn't theirs.
They rode until they reached the small town. A sign etched on two pillars read the name Almore. Michael wondered what was the king's obsession was naming all of his plots of land with his initials.
Almore was definitely more developed than Alanor, which was where Michael was born. There were still taverns, built homes, and local smiths that tended to the people's maintenance. Though the mood here felt sort of depressing whenever they walked through. Stefan hitched the horses and strapped on his gear, still vigilant of the unknown. Even if they were still in Wilmere, he didn't trust any new people.
At first, Michael thought he was hallucinating by looking at the open windows of the homes. He saw eyes staring right at him, quickly hiding themselves once he caught a glance. He wasn't a person that believed in ghosts but he figured that those were actually the residents of the town. The people must have holed themselves in their own homes in the presence of sudden adventurers.
Almore's streets were empty and quiet. Apart from the scurrying sounds of people rushing through their homes, there wasn't any sign of life beside Stefan's party. He even asked what they were really here for. Almore was already on the outskirts of Wilmere, just behind the edge of the kingdom's borders. Michael didn't know why this was so significant that the guild had to send them to defend a town that was far away from their capital.
Stefan stopped them, turning to sounds of chatter and laughing from a tavern. He insisted they should investigate the issue before anything else.
Ellis groaned, saying the only reason it had caught his attention was because of the smell of booze infiltrating into the outside air.
Stefan opened the tavern doors. The look on their faces couldn't have been more disappointing.