Chapter 45

Etson National Forest - 6:45 PM

“Wow, it’s like it’s still daytime. Everything looks so good,” Kayla said softly as we walked through the forest.

Even though night had fallen and the trees were illuminated by the stars and moon, Serranras’ gift allowed all of us to see through the forest with no problems. It wasn’t a buff that I needed due to my straw hat, but the primary effect of never getting lost was a big boon. The forest itself seemed to be guiding us in the direction of Wolvensden with branches and hazardous plants like poison ivy moving out of our way.

“This is way better than those ugly green night goggles,” Jeff agreed. He kept his voice down as well. There had been several instances of animals coming up to Jeff on account of the enhanced blessing he received from Serranras, and each time he would try to adopt them like he did Corwin. After enough times of Kayla telling him to cut it out, he finally got the picture and simply pet the creatures.

Our current companion was a chaska that emerged from the underbrush. Chaskas were large cat creatures with a black coat and a tail nearly as long as its body. At the end of the tail was a hard ball made of bone that they used like a whip to attack foes that were behind it or caught in its claws. It even cracked like a whip. The system took the only part of a cat that wasn’t dangerous and turned it into a weapon.

And that cat was currently purring loudly and rubbing up against Jeff’s leg, much to the irritation of Corwin. In his defense, the good boy wasn’t barking or growling as he had been told to be silent, but he was huffing and pushing against Jeff’s other leg. It would have been adorable if it wasn’t a monster that decided to travel in our midst. The chaska tolerated Corwin but looked at Kayla and I with trepidation. Neither of us approached it, so it seemed fine enough.

“It’s just a big softy, guys,” Jeff said for the tenth time in the past ten minutes. I looked back to see his arm around the chaska, scratching its neck, and I could hear the purring from where I walked. “Are you sure we can’t keep it?”

“Sure, you can keep it, you just have to accept a pet class and not a rapier based class,” I told him, causing him to frown.

“I wouldn’t mind. It helps that I’m apparently not allergic to cats anymore,” Kayla added.

“Yup, allergies is one of the things the system fixed when it showed up. Had a friend of mine eat almost a whole jar of peanut butter in one sitting after figuring out that it wouldn’t kill him. That was an interesting experience.” Kayla looked over at me, a thoughtful look on her face. “What’s up?”

She paused before she spoke. “That’s just the second time I heard you talking about a friend of yours, I think,” Kayla finally said. I remember the first time was of Sara while waiting for Thomas, though I didn’t call her by name. “Most of the time you’re talking about the future, what needs to be done, and who’s important. It’s all very… impersonal.”

I thought her words over carefully. It had been a long time since I had even thought of the past before the system first came. Over the years, I had distanced myself away from a lot of the people I once called friends and acquaintances for various reasons. Some were rather mundane such as the ease of which they holed up in a safe zone and pretended the world outside didn’t exist. A small few went out of their way to sabotage me for their own personal gain. Most just weren’t very good at fighting.

There wasn’t any reason to hold a grudge. I could understand and even empathize with them. Not everyone had it in them to fight, which was why the system allowed support classes to exist. While I was angry back when I was still new and hot-headed, I came to understand. Even those who betrayed or sabotaged me had their reasons, and very few were malicious. Mostly done in the heat of the moment and fueled by fear.

It had been a long time since I had spoken with people I knew before the system’s beginnings in any real capacity, I realized. I had come to terms with it before, a long time ago, but I still felt a tinge in my heart. By no means was I a social butterfly, but the necessity of my mission and the way I went about it didn’t leave much room to bring along people who didn’t have the same mindset.

A glance at Kayla showed that she was still staring at me, and I looked away. Both her and her husband seemed really good at picking up on other’s emotions, mine included though it wasn’t like I tried to hide them. An errant thought passed through my head, how long until they can’t keep up and I have to leave them behind? I frowned. Or how long until they decide it’s no longer worth the dangers of traveling with me?

Finally, I spoke. “I don’t have a lot of friends. Aside from you two, there’s really just my long distance not-a-girlfriend whom I obviously can’t reach. I have a lot of acquaintances, though I imagine some of those would rather not have to deal with me.”

“Past acquaintances? Or are you talking about future acquaintances like what we had to do for Tommy?” Kayla asked.

I grimaced. “Future acquaintances, if you have to know.”

“No family?” Jeff asked.

“Honey, he probably doesn’t want to talk about that,” Kayla said softly.

“No, it’s… fine,” I said, shaking my head. “My mom and dad are likely dead. They were on a cruise ship sailing to the Bahamas. I can’t remember which island they were going to be at. Probably headed towards Nassau, not that it matters anymore. They would be coming home today if none of this ever happened.

The three of us fell into silence, the only sounds being that of a forest around us being the purring of a large cat and our own footsteps. I didn’t look back at them. A part of me knew that Jeff was just trying to make conversation, but that didn’t stop my thoughts from going to a dark place. I usually filled my time with planning for the future and keeping an eye out for threats, but my mind wandered in this forest where the only thing we needed to worry about was an errant buzzing of oversized bug wings.

“I lost mine about ten years ago,” Jeff said soberly. “It was a car accident with a drunk driver. Absolutely devastated me for a long time, and it was just a few days before I was going to bring Kayla home to meet them. We were living down here, but my parents lived in Michigan. It completely changed the meaning of the trip.”

“It was a terrible time,” Kayla said, her voice uncharacteristically low.

Jeff grunted. “Other than that, we just have a few buddies we meet up with and play board games with every month. Though, a couple of them said a few incredibly rude things about my wife that I can’t repeat in polite company, and we dropped them. We were searching for a new group when all this happened.”

“And it wasn’t even really that bad,” Kayla said. “Jeff just has an overinflated sense of chivalry.”

“You shouldn’t have to deal with that, especially from people who we thought we could trust,” Jeff said. “You got enough of that growing up.”

“I grew up in foster care,” Kayla admitted. “I was a little hellion, though, so I didn’t stay in the same place for too long. Eventually, I learned to be what everyone wanted me to be. By then it was too little, too late; I stayed with the last family until I could go off on my own and never looked back.”

“She was a firecracker, for sure,” Jeff said with a chuckle. “The hoops I had to go through to get her to agree to a date with me were well worth it, though.”

I snorted in amusement as my imagination went wild and I thought about the lengths Jeff would go through to get Kayla to agree to go out with him. Persistence could easily come off as creepy, but I don’t think Jeff had that in him. It was probably a lot of “are you free this Friday” and “Oh well, I’ll see you next week and try again.”

“He was persistent,” Kayla admitted. “If it weren’t so obvious that he was a good guy with a massive crush, I would have slapped him after the second attempt. Whenever I shot him down, he’d instantly stand down though he’d stay to chat. I think it took me three weeks to finally agree, and we got along famously after that.”

“Nope, it took a month and a half for you to agree to a coffee date. Please don’t downplay my tenacity,” Jeff teased. “Though we only really saw each other two days out of the week, so it was really just twelve days of seeing you. After that, though, we were inseparable. I know I say this every time it’s brought up, but I’m glad you stuck around after my parents passed. I know I was a big jerk for a while.”

“You were grieving, honey, I’m not going to fault you for being testy.” Kayla cleared her throat. “Although Anthony’s probably tired of hearing about it, and we meant for the conversation to be about him opening up.”

“You two can keep going, if you like,” I said, already feeling better. “Where else am I going to see some sappy love dramas if it weren’t for you two?”

Jeff snorted in amusement. “Why don’t you tell us about your girlfriend, Ant?”

“We don’t have a label on it yet,” I said quickly. “But ya’ll don’t want to hear about that.”

Kayla was quick to respond. “Oh yes we do,” she said. “C’mon, psychic boy, spill.”

I rolled my eyes and sighed, but it was in good nature. “Fine, her name is Sara. She’s my angel.”

“Wow, that’s a big word from someone who calls Seraphim, a fake angel, a ‘scum sucker’ every chance he gets,” Kayla said. “Is that why you’re so mad at him all the time? Because he took your pet name for your lady friend?” I smirked instead of answering her question.

Jeff sighed wistfully. “I don’t know what it is about young love, but I understand what you’re saying. I used to say that my Kayla was an angel all the time.”

“So she’s not an angel anymore?” I asked with a snort.

“Yeah, no; I cut that particular phrase out of him really early in our relationship.”

“That’s fair, that’s fair,” I said, nodding. “We’ve met up a few times, but she’s really far away and it’s not feasible for me to get to her in any short amount of time. We used to be at odds with each other early on. At first she was a very head in the clouds, better than thou type person. She was really irritating, actually. But as we interacted, we slowly got to know each other. We learned a lot from each other, actually. It was a long romance, but most of it was nice. We were already getting really flirty, and I’m looking forward to seeing her again. After I stopped being such a dumbass and she got off her high horse, anyway.”

“You worried about her?” Jeff asked.

I barked a laugh. “Hell no. Sara’s the last person I’ve got to worry about. She could easily kick my ass, and I know I’ll see her again. I wish we could travel together, but knowing we’ll meet is good enough for now.”

“Hear that, Jeff?” Kayla said. “Sounds like psychic boy’s in love.”

“Sure does, Kay.”

Rolling my eyes, I shook my head. “Maybe, maybe. We’ll have to see what happens next time we meet, and I’ll tell you then.” I held up my hand, suddenly stopping as I looked about the forest. The chaska had stopped purring, and I heard it start to pad away from Jeff.

“Little buddy?” He asked, and I shushed him.

In the brush nearby I could see tufts of white fur that were caught by branches and thorns. “We’re getting close,” I warned. “So no loud noises, no sudden movements. Keep Corwin under control.”

“Got it,” Kayla whispered. I heard Jeff grunt in acknowledgment.

We continued through the trees slowly. The area we were at was far from any trails, but the forest allowed us passage easy enough that we might as well have been on a well worn one thanks to Serranras’ gift. I kept my eyes and ears open for anything moving out there.

My gaze was especially kept towards the sky. I had noticed that the forest didn’t always lead us in straight paths and often sent us off on strange detours, but I knew what Serranras was doing. She was keeping us away from Vespae patrols. It wasn’t often that they visited Wolvensden at night, but one could never be too careful.

“Fur?” Jeff asked quietly, and I turned around to see him pull more white fur from a bush that Corwin was sniffing.

“Yeah, from the Kobolds,” I whispered.

“The Kobolds? They’re supposed to be small and scaly, aren’t they?”

I arched my eyebrow at him. “We’re heading to Wolvensden, so it only makes sense that it’s the dog Kobolds. Why does this surprise you?”

“So let me get this straight,” Kayla said. “We live in Florida, a place that’s famously known for its heat and humidity. Instead of putting the scaly kind of Kobolds here, where they might actually enjoy themselves, the system put the dog version of Kobolds here. Where it’s hot and humid and they don’t have sweat glands because they’re dogs.”

“Yeah, it’s a real dick move,” I said with a sad nod. “Luckily their settlement is located next to a spring, so there’s plenty of water. Dog Kobolds here, dragon Kobolds to the east, and there’s a special fairy Kobold that’s only in Germany because that’s where Kobolds come from.”

“That just seems unnecessarily malicious.”

“Yeah, and then they were placed under the heels of an invasive wasp species. It’s got to suck for them,” Jeff added.

“That’s what we’re here for,” I said as the trees finally gave way to a clearing. In front of us was a wooden wall around ten feet tall. Long planks of wood were missing around the three foot mark and I could see flashes of white figures passing by on the other side. “Put your hands up slowly, no sudden moves.” I said, doing as I asked.

Several crossbows appeared in the small hole, each aimed at us. “Hold your fire!” A gruff, male voice barked from the other side of the wall. It came from somewhere on the left, and I turned to face that direction. “You there, humans! State your name and business or be skewered! If we don’t like your name or your business, you will be skewered anyway!”

I took a deep breath. Getting skewered always sucked.