We find ourselves all outside, standing all grouped up by a place with trees and a cave opening.
Another group of people entering as well, ignoring us as they do so.
"Great."
John says.
"So, we're going to the next town over and we'll be on our way after we get our payment."
Rosa says reminding the group.
We get to stepping.
The path in front of us, reminding me of the path that was used to hide both Celestrus and I.
Timi sneezes again.
Angel, with her mace in hand begins to walk forward a few steps.
John checks up on Timi once.
"You okay?"
She nods to him and wipes her face, sweat dripping from it.
"I'm fine, just a little tired from the fight."
She says then stretches a small pop from her back.
Rosa goes over to John and Timi as well, patting Timi on her back and smiling at her, as she adjusts her glasses.
"You really did well."
She says with enthusiasm toward Timi.
Timi nods at her with a giant smile.
"Thank you, b.. both of you."
Celestrus looks at me, my face slightly pale.
'Oh my god, I thought I was gonna die."
The way my body felt when it went through the warp, was like going down an elevator without the elevator.
My breath was a bit shallow.
"You okay, Si… Lazuli?"
Taking a deep breath in.
I take a step forward, then a step back.
"Yeah."
The words come out as I breathe out making it sound breathy.
She holds my hands softly, gripping it to make me feel grounded.
"The first time is a bit tough to get through."
My face looks up at her, as she smiles at me.
Nodding, I smile back.
"Thank you."
Sply walks closer.
"Take out your canteen."
Sply says.
She looks even more pale than I. Her face even looks a bit sunken, like she's been dehydrated for decades.
'What the hell happened to Sply?!'
Flipping the bag to my chest and dropping to the ground, I open the bag, move the crown to grab at the canteen, with enough water for about two weeks.
Pulling it out, I give it to her.
She tilts her head all the way back, and opens the canteen, spilling it into her mouth.
Making water just waterfall into her mouth.
The amount is insane, like she spilling the entirety of the Amazon rainforest into her mouth.
Celestrus and I look at each other like we've just seen the world being made.
We both turn back to Sply as she looks at us, now no longer sunken face and with a more color on her face along with her face calm, back to how she looked before.
"Warp sickness Ma'am?"
Celestrus asks.
She looks at Celestrus with a sharp look of annoyance, then her face returns to being her regular I don't care look.
"Yes. Hard time with warps."
Celestrus nods.
"Do you want me to carry you?"
Celestrus asks.
"Why would you do that?"
Sply questions.
"Well, when master was tired he'd make me go on all fours and…"
"Stop."
Sply stops her from finishing her sentence:
"You're no longer with your master. Stop that nonsense."
Sply says calmly and quietly as she hands back the canteen, making me shove it into my bag, after tightening the lid.
When Celestrus hears that, it's like she is a child hearing their mother allowing them to buy fast food.
Pure bliss.
"What's warp sickness?"
I ask Sply and Celestrus, not having a particular problem with who answers.
They both look at me. Sply looking up slightly to me, and Celestrus looking down at me.
"Tell him."
Sply tells Celestrus.
"Sir, Warp Sickness is when you get… dizzy when you take a warp."
For a second, I pause looking at her, with confusion as Sply begins to walk away.
'So… like car sick, or sea sick?'
"I understand."
I say toward Celestrus.
She smiles at me.
"I'm happy I was helpful. Si… Lazuli."
The group begins to walk forward. Leaving us at the entrance of the Soul Cave.
I begin to walk as well, putting my backpack behind my bag. Celestrus waits for me, until I'm in front of her, that's when she begins to walk after me, as if waiting for me to be the leader for her.
The group begins to travel through the trail of dirt paved to follow if we are to enter this place.
Being blocked by the sides, by the huge amounts of trees blocking the sides, giving us a huge amount of shade.
We walk in silence, not awkward silence but, just tired silence between the groups broken up every now and again by the sneezing of Timi.
'Is she okay?'
We continue and as we continue we see the exit of the pathway.
Another group coming through the other end, my body tenses slightly seeing the group, then I turn back to see Celestrus, practically shaking.
'We'll be fine, there's no way that they even know that that's Celestrus.'
I tell myself so that I feel mentally prepared for whatever comes along.
With a deep breath I continue to walk, ignoring my body as it tenses.
The group continues, even Sply. Even though she's apart of the whole thing where we took Celestrus before she was hurt in a way that I wouldn't have just let happen.
It takes a bit of time, about a few seconds before our group come face to face, side by side.
My head bent down a bit as I walk past.
Some of the people talk about something but it doesn't seem to register in my mind, since the whole thing that's filling my mind is:
'Let's just get past them!'
Screaming it over and over again in my mind.
Soon the group ends up side by side to us. My body tenses even more, making me feel like I'm going to stay frozen in place, but instead I continue to walk forward, doing my best to not look suspicious.
The group continues to walk. John and the others not even knowing the amount of tension that me and Celestrus are going through.
And somehow, Sply not even finding the need to feel tense.
After what feels like an eternity, we pass each other and my body feels like it wants to hurl, but I swallow it, not giving in to the feeling of being weird.
'Thank god.'
Looking up, I see the group, actually a few feet in front of me, turning my head I see Celestrus, she looks down shaking incredibly. My body stops in place and I tilt my head back as I grab a breath for myself.
Looking into the sky, then I look forward, two people from the group look at me, pointing with their fingers at me.
My body just moves.
I walk to Celestrus and walk as I pull her a bit too hard.
"Is something wrong Sir?"
Celestrus says, as a faint shaking is on her hand.
"They may have saw me."
I say to Celestrus, as we get close to Sply.
As I slow to stay beside her, she looks at me, since my face looks a bit pale, from me being a bit scared of getting caught.
"What's wrong with you?"
She asks.
"The people there were pointing at me."
I say.
Trying my best to sound calm.
Sply rolls her eyes.
"And you're freaking out why?"
"Because I…"
I stop myself unable to find the words to finish that sentence:
"If they find Celestrus, then us going to hide would be for nothing."
I say.
"It won't matter. And if they find her, they find her."
Sply says that then faces forward again.
Both me and Celestrus continue to hold each others hand.
My hand holding hers. Since I can feel the tension in my hand, making me need to want to grab something, and Celestrus hand shaking so much that she needs to grabs something as well.
"Hey!"
The group behind us calls to us.
The others in front of us don't hear them, or are just ignoring the ones who called for us.
But me and Celestrus ignore them.
Sply turns her head back as they do, looking at them.
She then turns her head back once more, not even waving a hand or nodding her head at them.
"Hey?!"
They call out to us again.
A guy that seems to be a bit angry, or annoyed.
John stops and turns.
John waves his hand at the guy.
"Yeah!?"
John says. The rest of the group stop as he turns, even though we were so very close to the end of the treeline.
John begins to walk past us, then toward the group.
"So we were new to this hunter thing…"
The guy says, his voice sounding deep:
"We're just wondering, that what should we expect when entering this place?"
The guy says, as he says that, I feel a slight release of the tension on my shoulders.
"Well, for now, I'd say, try your best to steer clear of the Cave king."
John says.
"Why, doesn't that like give the most money for this starter Soul Cave?"
The guy behind us asks.
"Yeah, but for now it seems that a spider queen was recently there, so I'd be careful."
The guy nods his head, then with a walk back now instead of the jog and yell, they end up back together with their group.
Talking amongst themselves.
Angel slowers down as we begin to walk and both Angel and John begin to talk with each other.
Celestrus and I both take and release a much needed breath between ourselves.
Then I wiggle my fingers in Celestrus' hand…
My hand yanks away from hers, embarrassed of the fact I was just holding the hands of a girl, that's just a bit older than me, even in my past life.
"Are you okay?"
I ask to Celestrus.
As we get closer to the fading shade of the trees.
She nods to me.
"Are you okay as well, Si… Lazuli."
She asks me back.
I nod my head.
"Just a bit tense. But I'll live."
We end our conversation and we fully exit the path that guides us to the Soul Cave, but at the end is a group, a man on a donkey and a man that is very familiar with a bandage around his hand.
The man on the donkey has his hand on a sword, and steel armor around his body.
He looks at us with the look of disbelief, and anger.
"Master…"
Celestrus says, in a quiet, scared tone.
The two are accompanied by another few people in different sets of armor.
Our groups continues, walking past them with Celestrus and my head held low. Taking the turn that is opposite of the one we took when we took to get to the inn.
Timi sneezes.
The few of them look at us.
"Hey!?"
A familiar sounding voice calls out.
Both me and Celestrus continue walking, ignoring them.
John on the other hand, like before doesn't ignore the voice that calls out to us.
"Calm down when you call someone."
John says as he turns and walk to the few, footsteps of a donkey is heard behind me.
Sply turns her head as me and Celestrus try to walk some more.
"Not you. You! By with an Eye patch!"
A different voice this time.
One old and with the same voice of the man that was whipping the elves at the farm place.
Rosa stops me and makes me turn around.
"He's calling you answer."
She says to me, sounding like a mother figure.
Shaking my head at her, I frown.
"Why?"
Rosa asks.
"No, I don't need to see his face. That's him!"
The other guys says. The one that's younger and the one with a bandage over his hand.
"Yeah, he's the one that stabbed me and stole your slave sir."
Rosa and John look between both of us and shake their head.
"That's not true. Lazuli, doesn't seem like the thieving type."
John says, as if referring to Celestrus like a thing, a pouch of coin, and not a person.
"Yeah…! Yeah he's the one!"
The tenn says, pointing his finger to Me, then moving it to Celestrus.
"And that one is probably the slave herself."
My body shakes.
'We've been caught.'