17. Humans

Gareth spent most of his time relaxing in the hot spring, he definitely felt that his body was recovering four times as fast. Then the rest of his time was spent improving his bond with Mikage, the first thing he did was give a preliminary examination of the unusual creature.

He discovered that Mikage had broken its wings so It wasn't able to unfurl them completely it also had a couple of bruises but the time it spent in the hot spring had greatly boosted its recovery and by night time the bruising had faded by half and the swelling reduced.

Gareth also began teaching its name, he would call it Mika for short and he didn't know if it was female, male or maybe had no gender.

The day had been the most relaxing and stress free for Gareth out of the days he had been out in the wild, after dinner he slept much more peacefully with Mikage sleeping next to him in his sleeping bag.

The night was a peaceful one with no intrusions to disrupt their sleep, as the night passed dawn arrived and with it Gareth was also woken from slumber.

Feeling very refreshed from the long soaking and a peaceful sleep, Gareth felt much more alert. He noticed he could last a little longer when doing his light exercise and he could notice a sight increased in flexibility when he did his stretches.

Mikage only woke up after smelling breakfast which was a basic meal: grilled meat and some wild vegetables.

After breakfast Gareth packed up the campsite and continued his journey alongside Mikage. Mikage after the nice bonding experience had decided to perch on Gareth's shoulder. This pleased him as it meant the trust between them had improved and he could now travel faster.

Within 10 hours Gareth saw a line of silhouettes in the distance, as he got closer he realised he had finally encountered fellow humans. A huge wave of relief surged through him when he realised that he would be heading back into society.

However a problem occurred to him, there was a long line of humans and judging by their expressions and attire it seemed that they had quickly left their home and been journeying for at least better half of the week.

Picking up the pace he hurriedly went to join the long line of humans. He had Mikage hide in his shirt to not tract anything unwanted attention, although it was curious it still willingly obeyed him as he was the only one it could trust in this vast world for the moment.

The worn out humans didn't seem to care about the newcomer mainly because they had seem many like Gareth who had come from other areas join the wondering group.

Soon a patrol quickly came over and inspected him, upon seeing Gareth all wrapped up in bandages with half his foot missing and an arm dangling by his side. Any danger Gareth could have possessed was brought close to zero.

As the patrol was just about to return Gareth immediately stopped him and asked about the situation. The solider immediately made a strange face as if Gareth was asking the question to the most obvious answer, still the soldier described the situation briefly.

The western border of the western territory of the human alliance has been invaded and many cities have fallen thus many people had to evacuate hence this long winding trip seen here.

Currently the group was heading to a large outpost with a medium fortress that they were temporarily going to take residence. There would be flying transports as well as vehicles to move them to a nearby city however the transports would only begin to deploy once they arrived at the outpost as there are many other refugees in different locations that required them.

The outpost they were going to was a 8 day journey from here and apart from attacks from wildlife the most worrisome would be bandits. The scouts ahead had recently discovered some bandits round the vicinity and although none of the soldiers were ordered to mention this to the civilians it was still leaked and now the atmosphere was tense.