13. Where to go from here.
Still giddy from the fabulous rewards he'd received for his troubles Zeik sat and started to eat another peach. A while after he'd fallen and ensured her he was alright Emma had gone back to seriously thinking up names for the guild. Shyly she said," how about we call our guild Fortune of the Hidden?" She twirled a lock of hair around her finger timidly. She quickly continued," You see because of the way we are starting out like this. We ended up meeting, then in that inheritance ground, and now we are here so much stronger and starting our own guild." She blushed red and hid her face.
Zeik rubbed his chin listening to her before he smiled softly. "I think that's the perfect name. We can call it FoH for short. Now that that's settled, the next big mystery is where the hell are we? From the fact my map is blank I'd say we aren't anywhere near Daisy Stronghold (1) anymore." He scratched at his head and got down to the problems they were now facing at hand. "First, we have no idea where we are or how that inheritance ground spat us out here. Second, we are gonna have to start from scratch by first finding a stronghold to operate out of, if we can't figure out where we are. Lastly, while we can survive in the wilds it's dangerous. We should figure something out and quickly get to acting on what we decide." Emma nodded, listening to his every word intently.
Once Zeik was finished Emma slowly started speaking. "Do you want my honest opinion on what we should do regardless from here?" She tapped her feet on the ground not able to meet his eyes. "Yes, of course. We are in this together now after all," Zeik said smilingly which gave her a small courage boost. "I think regardless we should take this opportunity to find a new stronghold and reinvent ourselves. Think about it. With your new strength, tell me honestly would you believe you were only an F rank? We couldn't go back to Daisy even if we wanted to. The beauty of Gumaria though is its so vast. If we got lucky the farther away we were spit out the better. If we are far enough the data bases won't link and we can completely come up with a new identity when we register our guild in the stronghold. New guilds pop up all the time in strongholds where travelers come for all kinds of reasons and end up staying. We can use this to our advantage now." She breathed out a long breath after she'd got it all out. She'd been thinking about a lot of this while she'd thought up the name. Zeik stared at her stunned for a minute before breaking out in a huge laugh. "You know that's actually a good fucking idea!" He slapped his knee hard and laughed for almost a full minute. When he was done he wiped a tear before saying," I promise you I'm being serious. The reason I'm laughing is cause I feel stupid for not thinking that myself. That is the perfect idea and will make things easier down the line. Great job, really. Let's pack up and get a move on. The best thing we can do is pick a direction and start moving. Sooner or later we are bound to find something."
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Emma ran ahead of Zeik like a little kid. The ground near the furthest edges of the river started to shift from gravel and rocks, to sand and salty sea air. As she broke through the trees a beautiful beach and ocean spread out before her making her eyes sparkle in the light. "Oh wow! Z hurry up you gotta see this!" She was looking off into the distance to her left. Up the shore a good bit aways the land started to slope up into a cliff side off the beach. There was only one way up but atop it sat a huge city-like stronghold almost twice the size of Daisy Stronghold back where they started. She didn't even wait for Zeik before she started tearing up the sand going in that direction.
Zeik finally came out of the trees, and took a deep breath in. His whole body shivered at the freshness of it all. He could physically feel his passive skill Nature's Calling at work. He felt so energized, almost like he could run all the way around the world or something. Looking off he saw Emma had already stretched a gap between them so he smirked. 'Let's see if you can keep up with me,' he thought to himself. He could feel with the skills current draw, he could run flat out full sprint and not even drain himself. Grinning like a fool his muscles bunched before he took off like a bullet. He caught up to her before passing her with an evil smile. "Come on slowpoke," he called out and Emma picked up the pace trying to catch him.
Soon they were flat out running together kicking up sand and laughing the whole way. They ran all the way to the base of the trail up and had to stop. Emma fell over gasping for air as she laid on her back. "That.... was really ... intense." She took a deep breathe before continuing," what the hell kind of monster are you? Running like that and you're barely even breathing hard? What," she was cut off as Zeik laughed hard at her. "It's one of my skills Ms control freak calm down. I absorb Mana from my surroundings. Pretty amazing, huh?" He smiled at her sheepishly while her eyes widened. "That is so totally badass! How lucky can you get?! Shit," she ran her hands up her face before pointing at him sternly," that's cheating. You so totally cheated just now if that's the case. I should have kicked your ass," she laughed as she jumped up and launched herself onto his back. He caught her and started carrying her up the long steep pathway. They'd grown much closer since they'd gotten out of the Inheritance.