Chapter 65 Xoxo

Chapter 65 Xoxo

A night of rest had somehow turned into two months, everyone was hesitant to leave the safety of the cabin that had started to feel like home but that was the issue, they couldn't make this their home, that was never the plan and still they had let it happen, it needed to be fixed but they could do nothing about the time lost so they pushed forward, into the new world that had most definitely been moving on while they'd been busy laughing and sharing stories.
The path Matthew and Chris had highlighted on the map was a twisting line of pebbles that stretched past a field of tall dried up trees and led out of the forest, it had taken them two hours to get to the halfway mark from the cabin, it wasn't a particularly hard part or even a hot day but they were all huffing and breathing like they'd just ran 10km at full speed. Maerik turned back and sat on the floor, looking at them one by one. He wished he could give a pep talk about perseverance but he too was unexplainably tired. Rylan walked to his side before turning to face them.

“They're all out of shape.”

“Two months of leisure will do that to you.” Maerik said with a grunt as he rose to his feet about to give a speech regarding perseverance when he felt Rylan's hands on his shoulders, he turned and raised a brow in question.

“We don't know what's ahead of us, pushing them to their limits isn't advisable.” Rylan said quietly and stepped back, Maerik sighed, as much as he wanted to argue and day that his men could handle the burden of continuing the hike, by the looks on their faces, he knew he was wrong.

“Catch your breaths, we advance in an hour.” He said as he sat back down and took the pack off his back and set it down, the players let out tired cheers as they crashed onto their backs and bathed in the light of the sun blocked by the leaves of the large cedar trees.
Without a word to anyone, Rylan rose and walked into the cover of trees, Maerik turned and watched him leave but said nothing to question his movements, if it was important he'd have let him know, the only other person who'd noticed was Peter who watched his visual descent into the trees with a scared look on his face.
After minutes of passing by large bodies of trees that blocked his view of the road in front of him Rylan finally stepped into a path barricaded by the foot of the mountain, his blood heated as he clenched his fist but said nothing else as he began to walk forward, quiet footsteps even if stealth was nothing more than a formality to anyone with good enough Arkana detection. He'd stuck to the walls until he reached a slight corner that changed the direction of the mountain east, he looked out of the corner heart thumping and sudden discomfort in his stomach as he searched the terrain before him, there was no sign of life, he closed his eyes, willing all his focus to detect the presence of any one other than himself but he sensed nothing so he stepped out and walked into the open space, keeping his eyes on the mountain, he saw the opening of the cave and his breathing got heavier as he began to walk, keeping his eyes fixed on the forced opening beside the original one, memories flashed and he felt his legs begin to tremble. What he was feeling wasn't fear and if definitely wasn't excitement, he had no idea what he was feeling but if he could only see the look on his face, he would immediately know the answer, He took another step forward and felt a hand wrap around his wrist, awareness shot through him as he spun reached for his knife and swung down only to lock eyes with a Peter, a scared look on his face as his gaze wandered from Rylan to the blade, it took Rylan a few seconds to register the boy but when he did he immediately resheated the blade and got on his knees, apologizing profusely but no matter how honest he wanted the apology to be, he could only think of one thing, He hadn't sensed him, until Peter had touched him, he'd had no idea that he was there. He let out a sigh.

“What are you doing here?” He asked with a hushed tone.

The boy had a hesitant look in his eyes, like the answer was even more frightening than what had just happened.“I saw you leave and I remembered this area.”

“That isn't a reason enough to break away from the group.” Rylan groaned exhaustedly. “Why didn't anyone stop you?”

“I told them I need to pee.” He said with a slightly proud smile, Rylan sighed again then rose to his feet. “Go back, I can't protect you if things go sideways.”

Peter shook his head. “I'm coming with you.”

“Go—” Rylan stopped as he saw the determination in the boy's eyes, he sighed again as he took out the blade and handed it to the boy. “Keep it close.” Peter nodded
They stalked towards the cave with short soft steps till they got to the openings, Rylan peeked inside and saw nothing, a strange feeling settled as he hesitantly entered, walking deeper and deeper into the cave until he'd reached the center. Nothing, no one, the place was empty of life and property, as if a settlement never existed here in the first place. Something eased off within him, it'd bothered him, being in such close proximity to Jakob, he'd kept on counting the days until Jakob knocked at the door of the cabin with his players, he trusted in Maerik's squad but against that many people, he didn't feel very confident about their chance but now it made sense.
He walked through the cave, the crunching of his boot against the hard surface of the ground echoing through the hollow space as he stalked towards the higher ground that Jakob's tent had rested upon, He stepped unto it and the sound of something metallic sounded, he looked down at the ground and saw a sheet of metal covered by accumulated dust, he took his feet off of it and lifted it off the ground, dust fell of its top and revealed writing ‘I'll’ Rylan's breath caught in his throat as he dusted off the rest of metal sheet and revealed the rest of the message, he read it aloud.

“I’ll see you later Rylan—” His head spun as it got to the last words of the message. “—Xoxo Vrey”