In the end, we found nobody else in the village. The attackers had been thorough, which was a shame. We spent the rest of the day gathering supplies. It was unfortunate that there were no horses. That meant we had a long walk ahead of us. I was not looking forward to this. The thought of walking made me miss cars and we hadn’t even started yet!

  Renna was the one who suggested Dacha Fortress, which sat on the border of North Ornea, with only a short boat ride separating it from Dracaena. We hoped to find help or follow the soldiers into North or South Ornea, assuming a counterattack was planned. Worst case scenario, we would gather information and sneak in ourselves.

  The one thing I was worried about was monsters. Logically, I should be afraid of running into the raiders that attacked Alcion, yet that didn’t bother me for some reason. Neither Renna nor I knew how dangerous the roads would be. If this was a video game, then I’d assume monsters would be everywhere. I hoped that wasn’t the case.

  We left Alcion early the next morning with nothing but our leather bags. Renna had her sword. On the bright side, people would underestimate us since we were children. No one would expect us to be as strong as we are. Hopefully that situation didn’t happen.

  Either way, the first day of our journey was uneventful. Night fell and it was time to make camp. Renna gathered firewood, which I lit with magic, and we sat by the fire. It was springtime, so while it was cold now, at least we didn’t need to worry about snow and the days were warm.

  The food we had today was scrumptious. And by that, I mean plain. Bread and cheese, of which we made sure not to eat too much. Our rations would last us a couple weeks. Water wasn’t a problem since I could create water whenever we needed it. Our food would come from either wildlife or monsters. It wasn’t like we could carry much, and I hated the idea of food going bad. But what choice did we have?

  “It’s weird, isn’t it?” Renna said right as the fire crackled.

  “What’s that?”

  “I was excited to go on my first adventure. Here I am, doing what I always wanted to do and the joy I should be feeling isn’t there,” Renna said.

  I didn’t know what to say. This adventure of ours was far from fun. Luckily, Renna didn’t seem to expect me to respond.

  “I hope everyone’s okay,” Renna said.

  “Are you okay?” I asked. A part of me wanted to move closer. I decided to keep the distance. I didn’t want her to get the wrong idea, and I wasn’t sure she’d like that anyway.

  Renna hugged her knees to her chest, her gaze never leaving the fire. “I don’t know. I’m feeling conflicted about this whole situation. I worry we may never find our families, let alone the others. If they’re sold into slavery, how will we find them?”

  A question I couldn’t answer. Could I find someone using magic? If it was, who could show me? I withheld the sigh I wanted to let out. At this point, our best hope would be to find help. Surely someone at Dacha Fortress would know about Alcion. If we were lucky, maybe a rescue party was already on the way.

  In the end, I had to suck up my feelings and try to comfort her. “We’ll find them. If our families are sold, it might be easier to find them. Rescuing them would be easier, though finding them will be harder.”

  “I guess,” Renna said. She took a deep breath and smacked both her cheeks with her hands. “I shouldn’t be thinking this way. Thanks, Thorian.”

  “You’re welcome?” I said, which caused Renna to chuckle. That was good, much better than her earlier mood.

  “Why did you pose that as a question?”

  “I didn’t think I said anything to help,” I said with a shrug.

  “Well, it did. There’s no point in worrying about something I have no control over. Instead, I’ll focus on doing my best. That’s all that can be asked of me,” Renna said.

  “Things will work out, just watch,” I couldn’t stop myself from yawning.

  Stolen story; please report.

  “You get some sleep. I’ll keep watch tonight,” Renna said.

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah, I’ll be fine. I’ll wake you in a few hours.”

  “All right,” I didn’t see the point in arguing. Either way, our sleep wasn’t going to be the best. It would be stupid for us both to fall asleep. I shaped a tent from earth and crawled inside. The walking today had tired me out more than I expected. Before I knew it, I passed out.

  Our journey over the next couple of weeks was nothing short of boring. Not that that was a bad thing. The monsters I’d been worried about appeared not to travel on the roads, at least not yet. Only getting half a night’s sleep sucked, but that was something I’d done plenty of times in my old life, so I adapted to that quickly.

  We ran into a couple of travelers, who let us know that North and South Ornea declared war on the Dracaena kingdom. I’m no fan of wars, but I was happy to hear it. That had to mean Dracaena would invade Ornea, which could be helpful if they found the prisoners.

  Beyond that, we saw no other travelers. We were lucky enough to find a pack of rabbits, which I killed with small rocks. We had enough to last us at least a week. That solved our food problem for now. At the rate we were going, I was hoping we’d make it to the fortress in a couple weeks. Whether we could make it that quickly was another story.

  If it wasn’t for healing magic, this walk would have been more painful. We were moving at a quick pace. I would cast healing magic if we started getting blisters or pain. Unfortunately, this didn’t relieve the soreness of our first week of walking.

  Once I got used to the idea of monsters not being everywhere, a new concern came to me. With a war going on, there were likely to be bandits. Bandits loved war time due to all the refugees’ leaving villages or towns that were attacked. I hoped we could avoid running into any bandits. If we did, I just hoped they’d be weak.

  I wanted to get a pen and paper in Dacha Fortress. With how little I knew about money, I planned on making notes on the prices of goods. The last thing I wanted was to get ripped off. I could see merchants thinking they could charge us more because we’re children.

  Ah, the joys of ignorance. I wish Damon or Zena had taught me more about finances. Then again, maybe they were waiting for me to get older. I looked over at Renna, who was staring straight ahead, whistling to herself.

  “Hey, do you think we can afford a horse with this money?” I asked.

  Renna stopped whistling, her brows scrunching as she thought. It didn’t take her long to shrug. “Beats me.”

  “Guess we’ll find out together,” I said.

  “I don’t think we should purchase a horse. If we want help, we’ll need money. doubt anyone’s going to help us for free,” Renna said.

  “You’re probably right. How much do you know about adventuring?” I asked.

  “A lot! Or at least, what my parents told me. Didn’t your parents tell you?”

  “I heard some stories, but they never went into detail.” I was regretting that now. I hadn’t planned on going on an adventure, so I never thought to ask how it all worked.

  “Dacha Fortress has an adventurer’s guild. We’ll register there. Then we’ll look at a bulletin board with quests. We simply grab a quest; provide proof we completed the objective, and then we get paid. With our skills, I think we can make some decent money,” Renna said.

  “I’ll trust you to lead the way on this,” I found this process like a video game. Take quests and reap the rewards. Easy enough. Money would be needed, though I didn’t want to stay in the fortress for long. Yet we did need to make money. This wasn’t going to be an easy mission. I could only imagine how long it would take.

  “I’m your girl,” Renna raised her hand and poked her chest with her thumb. “My parents told me the missions in this region are relatively easy.”

  “Let’s hope that hasn’t changed,” I said. “Before we register, we should ask around and see if we can get help. Maybe we’ll get lucky and not need to do quests.”

  Renna didn’t look happy at that suggestion. “Okay.”

  I planned to explain my reasoning but decided against it. Renna didn’t look to be in the mood to talk anymore. I didn’t want to take quests. Oh well, that’s life, we don’t always get to do what we want. I just hoped we arrived at Dacha Fortress soon. I’d kill to sleep in a bed again.

  Ten more days passed. Like the previous two weeks, nothing happened. Our journey was uneventful. I was surprised and relieved. I could tell we were getting close to the fortress. We were seeing far more travelers now. Most rode horses or wagons. Some offered us rides, but we politely refused.

  I didn’t trust anyone, and it seemed Renna had similar thoughts to my own. We could’ve made great time, assuming those offering rides didn’t have ulterior motives. A couple travelers asked about our parents, and we’d say they’re waiting for us at the fortress.

  Either way, none of the travelers tried anything. We walked to the top of a hill, and there it was, Dacha Fortress. It was large, with giant stone walls. There was a bridge lined up with guards allowing people to pass and on the other side of the fortress was the ocean.

  Somewhere, not far across from the fortress was North Ornea. I doubted the attackers went this way and likely went through South Ornea. This place had too many soldiers to risk coming by boat. That was my guess anyway, whether that was right or not was another story.

  The walls were too big to see what was inside the fortress. From what Renna told me, there was a town inside, so this fortress wasn’t used for just military matters. The population was likely to be fifty times what Alcion had, maybe more.

  In a way, it would be nice to have so many people in one area. It would make looking for help much easier. I adjusted the bag slung over my shoulder, what little supplies we had left weighing me down, and we headed down the hill toward the line forming at the fortress gate.