Chapter 7 - The Mountains

After a small meal consisting of water, biscuits, and dried meat, Serenity set up her sleeping mat. She was so sore and worn out from the long day she crashed almost instantly. But Tlen stayed up, watching their surroundings with sharp eyes that never missed a single detail.

Even though his eyes were white, he was far from blind. It was just a bit of something that came along with who he was, although he himself despised it. He wasn't planning on telling Serenity any time soon. She knew too little about his, her, world. For now.

Every nerve tensed in Tlen's body as some twigs cracked somewhere in the distance. He placed a hand on the hilt of his sword, but relaxed as a little bunny hopped out. You could never know when someone (or something, for that matter) lurked in the shadows waiting to kill you. With King Zharayne sneaking deeper into Fayrah, it was all he could do to protect Serenity.

He kept watch until dawn. After quickly grabbing a bite to eat, he woke Serenity up. Groggily, she ate something herself, then they were off.

The day wore on as the sun rose high in the sky. It produced no heat this close to the snow. Instead, the temperature seemed to decrease as they neared the growing mountains. Serenity and Tlen finally had to pull out their cloak and mittens.

Serenity huffed and puffed, trying to keep close to Tlen. She was going to try and prove that she wasn't a complete weakling, even if she was. Tlen knew this but only smiled to himself.

Instead of stopping to eat like they had the other day, the two ate while walking. Tlen wanted to reach the mountains by nightfall and wasn't going to waste any time. Zharayne was getting close, he could feel it. From now on out, they couldn't waste a single moment. Tlen wasn't going to scare Serenity by telling her though. There seemed to be a lot of things he wasn't telling her, but he just told himself it was for the better.

Somewhere around evening, the two found that they were actually starting to clime upwards. Tlen, satisfied at their progress, decided to stop in a tight grove of trees.

Serenity plunked down on the ground, made soft by layers of moss. Lying down, she attempted to catch her breath.

Sitting down next to her, Tlen smiled at her. “You did good. I'm surprised that you never even asked for a break this time.”

“Well, it wasn't easy,” she replied smiling back at him. “I've never done so much walking in my life.”

“You'll get used to it.”

“I don't know, how long will it take before I `get used to it'?”

Tlen laughed, and once again Serenity found herself staring at him with a smile on her face.

“Well, if we intend to eat, we'd better get something out first,” Tlen said with a broad grin.

“Ohhh, if we have to.” At that they both fell over laughing. Neither of them really saw what was so funny. Maybe it was just because they had said hardly anything since they left their last campsite. Who knew? Most certainly not them, and yet, there they lay on the ground, clutching their sides from laughter.

Once the last fit of laughter was over, Serenity reached for her pack with her rations in it. Just as she was about to open it, something hit her hand. Hard. When she looked up, a squirrel with bright red eyes was bouncing away. She looked down at her hand where a huge red mark was already starting to form. She would've cried but she was just too shocked.

Tlen jumped up from where he had been sitting. Alarm was written all over his face. He knew they couldn't waste any time on sleep now. Zharayne had found them.

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