Home again

We started walking with me carrying the bag and Cleo carrying Turek. Five minutes later I heard a groan from Cleo's back. It seemed like Turek was waking up. I wanted to stop but Cleo continued to walk.

"Uh… wha… what's going on??"

Its seems Turek was still drowsy and couldn't understand what was happening.

I fell in step with Cleo and said cheerfully to Turek "Good morning! Have you had a good sleep?"

"What? Ren, what is happening? Wait… am I on someone's back? Is that you Cleo?"

"Yup its me Turek. Don't worry, you can continue to sleep a bit more. We are almost at Ren's place. Right Ren?"

"Yup its right through here."

I took Cleo down the alley to my shack. After entering the shack, Cleo finally put down Turek who had been trying to get down on his own without success. Then Cleo straight away laid down on the tattered blanket that I called my bed. Turek sat there for a minute still feeling confused about what happened.

"Ren, are you going to tell me what happened?"

"You lost consciousness after eating a leaf of Kura herb on the mountain"

"What? Then how did we get here? Did you two carry me all the way from the mountain?"

"The two of us? No. It was Cleo who carried you all the way. She never handed you over to me. She was concerned with getting you to a healer as soon as possible and she knew our speed would be slower if I carried you. So she carried you all the way to the city. As it turns out, Kura herb is not poisonous at all and you woke up on your own without us having to take you to the healer."

Turek stared at me with his mouth hanging open. Then he stared even harder at Cleo with his eyes wide.

"She carried me all the way here? But wasn't it a 4 hour walk?"

"She decided to take a shortcut which brought us here in 2.5 hours."

"So she carried me for 2.5 hours? That's insane! Just how strong is she?"

"Much stronger than the two of us that's for sure."

"You know Ren, I was thinking… you know about leader…"

"I know what you want to say Turek. I also think she is a better leader than me for our party."

Turek sighed and said "It's not that you are a bad leader…."

"Its ok Turek, I am with you on this. She is someone I want as the leader as well"

"Yeah, she is amazing."

"You guys are praising me too much alright! I am feeling really embarrassed over here you know?"

"You were awake? I thought you were really exhausted after carrying Turek all this time and went to sleep"

"I was only half asleep."

"So you heard everything?"

"Well… yeah"

"Are you fine being a leader of party with two dumbasses like us?"

"I think you two are the best party members I could have had."