Life in a new Kingdom

Pelted by the rain, Lukia rides the horse directly toward the light. Familiar faces greet us, worried and concerned.

"Lukia! Caleb! What the hell happened?!" Gale calls out. He holds his lantern tightly while Herk holds the reins of a horse next to him.

"Is that mine?" I call out to Herk.

"Yeah, it came back running to us without you. Answer the question: what happened to you guys? It took you a while to move away from there." Sheltered from the rain underneath a rock wall, Herk pulls the horse near me, and I slip onto the saddle.

Before I could speak, Lukia sighed and leaned back. "There was a husk within the storm." Everyone holds their breath at the mere mention of the creature.

"What would an undead monstrosity be doing in a storm like this?" Ivian states, his face is twisted by disgust and shivers.

"We need to put a leash on you, Caleb; this is too soon for you to get lost in a storm like this again!" Gale shouts but lets out a chuckle, trying to cheer the mood of the group. I follow his lead and laugh.

"You're right; maybe that would be best. Let us continue away from here as quickly as possible."

"Agreed; if your horses can keep up, we will hopefully ride enough to escape this massive typhoon. If not, well, I guess God hates us."

"Watch it there, Gale; you do realize despite my appearance, I am still her servant," Herk says with a smirk.

"Oh, sorry, give my regards to someone who knows how to pray properly." With the final remark toward Herk, Gale speeds off with his mount into the storm, lantern in hand to guide the way. Herk laughs and chases after him. I don't understand how their relationship works, but anything to keep our spirits up works.

Embarking within the storm, we take our blessings of not running into the husk again to heart. Hours pass with our endeavors, our mounts on the verge of collapsing, begin to reach the edge of the storm. Light rain and only gray clouds loomed over us. The theory of the storm being conjured by some sorcerer was very plausible.

"We rest here; give our horses the time they need to recover. If the storm seems to be coming in our direction, we just have to hold out for the time being. The map says we are close to some river, and Herk and Ivian, go and secure us some extra water. Lukia and Caleb, since you are the only ones with bows, try to hunt us some game; anything will do." Gale places the map on a small stone and kneels down to examine it.

"What if we take too long? What are you and Yann going to do?" Lukia says while restringing her bow. I copy her and grab my quiver of arrows.

"Our rations were caught in that storm, the moisture seeped through, and we lost about half of our journey worth in one day of riding. We lost more the night before when we reached the camp." Everyone stops for a moment and looks at Gale, who is shocked.

"What the fuck!? You didn't tell us until now?" Lukia snaps back, her fists clenched.

"If I told you within the storm, would it have mattered? Keeping morale in a situation like that is the best thing I can do as a leader. We have five days of rations left if we don't feed the horses anything. From the looks of it, the next town over is about a few days ride; our supplies won't last until we can restock there." Gale sighs and stands up to confront Lukia. Her face is twisted, bags under her eyes, and she is angrier due to her exhaustion.

"Lukia, what happened is just how things go sometimes. If you guys can hunt anything at all that can provide each of us one portion of a meal, that will make the difference if we make it or not. We all know this." Gale speaks truly. Lukia knows it, too. However, her current state has made her more aggressive and stressed. Gale is trying to calm her while taking the brunt of her fury.

Placing my hand on her shoulder, I just shake my head. "If you wish to stay here and rest, I can hunt on my own." After the long horrendous ride, we just endured would cause anyone to pass out, especially her.

"No, I'll aid you. Let's go." Lukia shrugs my hand away, and we split from the group. Gale stops me for a moment.

Bringing my ear close to his lips, he whispers some words. "The trauma she endured is getting worse. Something has a hold of her dreams, drawn to her nightmares, making them more painful for her to sustain itself. Keep an eye on her; we can possibly rid her of the creature that attached itself to her later once we reach the next town." Stern in his voice, entrusting me with watching over her, I nod softly, and he lets me go. Catching back up with Lukia, we set into the forest near us.

Long minutes of tracking soft imprints in the dirt and snapped twigs led us to a common path for animals. Lukia still had an aura around her that I clearly didn't intend to aggravate. However, I needed to speak for everyone regarding her condition.

"Lukia."

"What?" Her tone was shallow, cutting deep like a blade.

"Gale is trying to keep things together for us as much as possible. I know you see that."

"I don't see shit. Just useless whenever he is supposed to be something."

"You don't mean that, Lukia. I know you aren't fine right now. Your sleep is disturbed, and you are low on energy every day. If you still need time to process your mother, we will understand-"

"Don't talk about my mother; I don't want to hear it." She scoffs and draws her bow, aiming down a narrow ridge of trees. She holds her breath and fires an arrow that barely misses a deer that is eating. It is quickly startled and runs away from where the arrow landed. "Damn it! See! Just shut up!"

"Hey, it's okay, Lukia. We miss sometimes alright. There are bound to be more-"

"You don't understand! I escaped my fate, but she didn't! She died a horrible death! I could have searched for her, rescued her!" Filled with all her regrets and guilt, tears stream from her eyes. Her body reacts violently, and she feels a tug in her heart. She coughs and kneels down to vomit.

"Lukia!" I kneel next to her and gently rub her back. She continues to vomit, just stomach acid. Concern fills my eyes. She hasn't been eating much of anything like everyone has said. Any more of this, and her body will go into shock. "Listen, you don't need to continue like this. We can head back and let you rest. I can do this myself just fine-"

"NO! I DON'T NEED TO BE PITIED! JUST GO AWAY!" Out of reflex, she whips her arm around to distance us. Flailing her arms about, she closed her eyes and whipped her arm around, causing her bow to strike me in the jaw. I tumble back from the recoil and hit a tree. Blood leaks past my chin as the cut on my lip is deep. The swollen tissue hurts as I suck on it to get the blood to go into my mouth.

"Lukia, I-" Before I could speak, her sudden gasps and dry whimpers caught me off guard. Her face is pale, and her hands shake frantically.

"N-No...Caleb... I'm sorry." The loud gasps of her breathing increase, and she experiences a panic attack. I raise my arm to try to calm her down, but the moment I try to turn, a sharp pain shoots up my arm. Lines of crimson streak down my arm, soaking into my clothes. There must have been a protruding branch near the base of the tree I collided with. It had pierced and broken off in my arm. I quickly grab the branch and rip it out. Blood sprays onto the ground, and Lukia watches in horror.

"H-Hey! I am fine, don't worry. Just take a deep breath-"

"I...I... What is wrong... I don't...! I...!" Each word is met with a slight shaking gasp. Her breathing is uncontrollable. I place my hand on the wound and use healing magic to stop the bleeding. I approach her slowly, speaking in a low voice.

"Hey, calm down, okay? I know it's been hard for you; we shouldn't have forced you to go along when you are in this much pain. Let's return to everyone and-" My voice trails off as Lukia isn't paying attention. I continued to speak in hopes of getting to her, but the moment she looked back up at me, her body froze for a moment, and she lost consciousness. The stress from the guilt and her fears were already pulling her down. I raced forward, caught her head, and laid it into my lap. Only murmurs escaped her lips as she was cold to the touch. I looked around for any threats before I grabbed her waist and began to drag her. She was incredibly light; my size was smaller, but I could at least carry her on my back.

"Hold on, Lukia, don't you dare give up. We'll fix this, we'll save you. Just got to...keep going..." Sweat pours from my forehead as the humidity of the forest rises and the heat of my body fights off sicknesses; I feel a bit weak. However, I didn't let this stop me. Readjusting Lukia on my back, I took off in the direction of our camp as quickly as we can. I wasn't going to let her suffer any longer...