(The Journey)

It was a few days after they left the capital city of Avadose and were halfway to the town city of Lumis. Up they go on a rocky dirt path that wraps around a mountain valley, while occasionally stopping to take a rest and to allow the horses to recover their strength from going through the hilly valley. For the moment they had stopped on a ledge that was large enough to park both of the carriages to the side.

A campfire was created center between the carriages and was ready to be used.

Far off in the distant view, the trail they had traveled through was far past them, and lush green forests ran up along the mountains, a light orange array of light stretches out from the horizon with clouds blanking the entire sky.

"How many days until we arrive at Lumis?" Jarin tug on the sleeve of Sara's clothing who was checking up on the supplies.

"Only 3 days left, 4 at most." She smiles looking down at him.

"Ok!" He gleefully smiled and ran away from her swinging his arms around happily.

"Do you really think taking a child along with us was a good idea?" Landis pops his head out behind a carriage cover.

"I have the same idea honestly." She turns to look at Jarin who was running around the area and handed Landis a wooden slate that had a piece of paper on top of it to him.

"I know it's dangerous to bring a child along with us, but the captain seems fine with it."

"But are we sure about that?" Landis jumps off of the carriage and lands on both of his feet.

"She may seem ok with it, what I want to ask was taking the child with us a good idea in general?"

"You saw how he reacted to Milina, that child looked like he already made his mind up already."

"Yeah, that another issue, I feel like he made up his mind a little too early, we both know the dangers of this world, he doesn't."

"Well, who knows if this was a bad idea or not, were already travel quite the distance from Avadose, We can't turn back now to drop the kid off again."

What could be felt was a bit of annoyance, or was it stress? The stress of having to take care of a child who wasn't originally part of the plan, to feed him, wash him, and have him clothed. Sara did most of the work when it came to putting on new clothing for Jarin since took her sewing kit along with her in case if anyone had a wardrobe malfunction along the way and needed to be stitch back together, Sara had sewed together some basic clothing from a couple of bundle of cloth that they brought with them.

Jarin new clothing was still a bit too big and baggy for him because Sara only had the time to create the clothing from just eyeballing the child's body size.

They both watched him together, to make sure that Jarin doesn't get hurt or get into any kind of trouble.

"I hope we can get to Lumis without any trouble coming after us." Landis sighs and leans against the wooden build of the carriage behind him.

"Who knows, maybe a group of bandits or a magical beast is secretly stalking us right now." Sara giggled and Landis was not amused by her joke. "Not funny."

"Sorry."

Someone approach Jarin and it was Milina who was holding onto a few pieces of apple slices she cut with one of their kitchen knives and handed it over to Jarin who gladly accepted the food. She would begin to talk with the young boy and seem to be happy doing so.

"Milina really does like taking care of that kid huh?" Landis said.

"maybe she really likes taking care of children" Sara replied.

"She even cut some slices of apple and gave it to him."

"You think Jarin means anything to her?" Landis turns his head at Sara and an eyebrow was raised.

"What do you mean by that?" Sara question.

"Like... In general, cause despite being the person who was against it from the start, she the one who is mostly taking care of him."

"I guess? We could go ahead and ask her?"

Landis shook his head no. "Nah, I also have a slight feeling that we shouldn't be diving into everyone's personal history for now."

"Really now?" Sara crosses her arms together at Landis. "I'm willing to open up and tell you something about me if we're supposed to be working together from now on."

Landis puts his pointer finger and thumb against his chin and ponders the idea if he should say something about him in return, to make it fair and equal. Diana had put them through some teamwork training exercise together, during the few days of preparations they had before they left but if they wanted a much stronger bond, eventually they gotta trust each other enough to learn about each other past.

"Alright, I'll go first," Landis said. "Despite me being an elemental mage, I don't fit well in most social gatherings or social stuff." He awkwardly spoke to Sara.

"That was straight to the point" Sara said.

"You see what I mean... Sorry If that wasn't what you were expecting."

"No, no you're good, I don't mind that all." Sara tried to comfort Landis who was feeling a bit flustered from revealing that little detail about himself.

"It's my turn now isn't it?" Sara cheerfully smiles at Landis and tilted her head to the side. "My own stupid weakness is that I can get lost easily." She childishly hit herself in her head.

"You? you can get lost? Aren't noble's sons and daughters suppose to have gone through education?" Landis smirked at hearing this lone fact.

"Hey, Learning and remembering how to get to somewhere are totally two different things ok?" Sara remarked and lightly hits Landis's arm.

Both Diana and Duva exit out from the other carriage, they were holding cooking utensils and a metal pot to hang over the campfire and were talking to each other as they prepare them for evenings mean. Milina was then brought up over to use the ingredients they have with them, and some ingredients that scavage from the nearby forests on their travel.

Everyone felt a little happier anytime they ate Milina cooking, she wasn't the best chef out there but she was their only cook. She quickly filled up the pot with water and inputted the ingredients to let them boil and blend their flavor together.

Afterward, everyone was called over to the campfire and everyone was given their evening meal for the day.

"Thanks for the meal." Diana said to Milina.

"What did you make this time?"

"Mushroom soup with tiny beef slices and some spices to add some extra flavoring," Milina replied.

"There should be enough for everyone to have double servings."

They all chow down on the food given to them, with each bite they could taste the flavors of the soup, and they enjoyed every last bit of it.

"So... what is the mission?" Jarin curiously asks.

"We're going to the town city of Lumis to check out how are things are going." Duva was the first to answer.

"Really? What for?" Jarin scoots himself closer to Duva's side.

"Cause monsters have been causing some issues over there." He puts down his soup and grabs his greatsword and rests it upon his shoulder.

"And we're here to deal with that problem." He stoically said to Jarin with a confident smirk.

To Jarin this adventure of his doesn't seem to be bad, He was amazed at Landis's magical abilities, Sara's archery skills in hunting animals, Diana's leadership, Duva's strength, and Milina's cooking. This was a once-in-a-lifetime thing for this poor boy.

"I hope I can see you guys fight magic monsters!" Jarin said happily.

"Just wait and see kid." Duva puts a hand on top of Jarin head and rustles his hair.