Chapter 146: Lessons Learned

FieryKathy

After my big sis releases me from her hug we continue our short track back to the walker. When we walk out of the treeline, we are greeted by Nikki jumping out of the walker and running up to us, well, running up to my sister. 

“Hey babe.” Lise smiles. “I’m back.” 

“I’m so sorry for blowing you up.” Nikki takes Lise in for a big hug. 

“It’s fine. It was the trees that hurt a lot more than the explosion did. Besides, thanks to Ami I’m as good as new.” 

“She almost got skewered.” I reply. 

“Really?” 

“Almost, not quite.” My sister gives Nikki a wink. Lise then looks into the walker. Brianna is sitting there, real shy. “And Brianna, what have we learned today?” 

“To not jinx everyone in the walker…” She shyly replies. 

“I explained it loud and clearly to her when we were alone.” Nikki says. 

“I think I have learned my lesson.” Brianna nods. 

Lise laughs. “Hey, don’t fret it too much, these things just happen when you hang around us. So, don’t let our jokes get to you too much.” Lise hops into the walker and sits down next to Brianna, giving her a pat on the back. “The five of us can take pretty much everything if we work together.” 

Brianna nods. “It was very amazing to watch your teamwork.” 

“Thank you. We do try to put on a good show.” My sister laughs again and then looks back at us. “Are you girls coming too, we have places to be, right?” 

Hilda looks back at the crater. “Nikki, have you checked if there’s anything useful left for us?”

“Nothing but ash.” Nikki replies as she gets in the walker herself. 

“Alright, then we can go on.” Hilda smiles and hops into the driver seat too. “Wouldn’t want to miss any good loot, now, would we.” 

“You’d think something as big as that would’ve earned us something.” Sam says as helps me in the back. 

“At least we still have our walker.” 

“True enough.” She smiles at me. “Do you mind if I sit up front for now?” 

“Oh, no, go ahead.” I smile back. 

“Thanks.” She leans her hands on the walkers railing and gives me a quick kiss after which she runs around the back of the walker to the front. 

“Alright, everyone ready?” Hilda gives Sam a hand so she can get on a bit easier. 

“Yep, let’s go!” Lise calls out after which Hilda starts walking the walker. 

A couple of hours of ‘walking’ later, we are really getting into some type of tropical forest, hot and rather most climate included. 

“Okay. I’m pretty sure we should turn east soon if we want to hit the coast. If you see any of the rare plants you need, give me a call, okay?” 

“I will.” Brianna nods. 

Five minutes later Hilda slows down the walker and slowly turns it off the road, straight into the forest. Luckily the trees aren’t as packed here as they were a couple of hours ago, so it can quite easily fit through. 

“There is something I’d like to ask.” Brianna says as the walker is now making its way East. “If you allow my curiosity to be answered at least.” 

“Yeah, sure, go ahead.” Lise replies. 

“I wanted to ask if you both are couples.” 

“You mean Nikki and I and then Ami and Sam?” She asks. 

“Yes.” Brianna nods. 

“I think that’s relatively obvious, isn’t it?” 

“I just didn’t want to make assumptions.” Brianna smiles. 

“Why do you ask?” Sam is looking back at us. 

“I was just wondering. When you’ve lived in a big city like I have all my life, still being relatively secluded from everyone and everything, it’s interesting to see people who live differently.” 

I nod. “I know what you mean, I’ve experienced it myself as well.” 

“As an adventurer?” 

“Let’s just say she wasn’t always the adventurer she is today.” My sister replies. “She had people who stopped her from doing what she wanted to do. And they kept her secluded from the rest of the world as hard as they could.” 

“Oh.”

“But that all got a lot better and now I’m seeing the world with these lovely people.” I smile. 

“Why not pick up adventuring too, it’s a very good way to learn more of the world around you.” Lise gives Brianna a slight nudge. 

“Oh, I’m not nearly brave enough to do that.” Brianna giggles. “But sadly the libraries of Hofudstadr don’t really interest themselves in other peoples either.” 

“Right, yeah, the Dwarger obsession with mechanics.” 

Brianna nods.

“We can talk to you about some of our adventures and about the different peoples we’ve met along the way.” Nikki offers. 

“I’d like that a lot!” 

“Well, we probably still have a while to go, so sit on tight while we tell you something about our glorious adventures, like that one time I almost got blown to bits by my girlfriend.” Lise starts and smirks at Nikki. 

Nikki kicks my sister’s leg in return. Softly, so she doesn’t hurt herself by kicking the metal greaves. “If you want me to do that again, you need only ask.” 

“Haha, I was kidding, my love.” 

“I wasn’t.” Nikki pouts, making me chuckle a little. Though Brianna looks at us with a rather confused smile. Understandable as she’s not yet used to our party’s inner workings. 

As we plow through the forest, my sister and Nikki tell Brianna multiple stories, some of them that happened in this world, others that had happened back on Earth. Yet always cleverly masked so they Brianna never could tell that these events happened somewhere else entirely. 

“Looks like we are pretty much there.” Hilda slows down the walker to a crawl, as the entire party looks to the front. It’s already pretty late, with the sun starting to go down, but in front of us we can finally see a beach peak through the trees with the ocean behind it. The almost red-like rays of sun, reflecting from the water. 

“Paradise, here we come.” I can see my sister smile ear to ear.

Hilda stops the walker right at the tree-line. From there it's still fifty to a hundred meters or so before you reach the ocean. “Ladies and… ladies, we’ve reached our destination. Please orderly disembark the walker from the rear.” 

It’s very clear that Brianna doesn’t understand that joke either by the way she’s looking at Hilda, but she shrugs and decides not to question her further. 

“Nikki and Ami, would you like to go and get some firewood for the campfire? It’s going to be dark pretty soon.” Hilda points at the setting sun behind her. 

“Okay, are you four going to set up camp while we are gone?” 

“Sam and I will do most of the setting up. I’ve got some other tasks ready for Brianna and your sister.” Hilda gives me a wink. 

“Yeah, don’t give her too little work, that’s bad for her.” Nikki smiles, looking at her partner. 

“I did almost die a couple of hours ago, y’know?” 

“Almost. But that’s nothing for my tough and amazing honeybun, right?” 

I see fire in my sister’s eyes and a smile appears back on her face. “Damn right it isn’t. Hilda! Give me your hardest task. I’m up for it.” She flexes her arm as much as you can with armor on. 

“Nikki, playing her like that…” I shake my head with a smile. 

“The most important part is that she’s happy.” Nikki gives me a wink. 

“True enough.” 

“Come, let’s go and get some firewood.” Nikki beckons me along. 

“Alrighty!”

As it would seem, it isn’t very hard to find a lot of wood in a tropical forest. However, if we didn’t have two mages here, finding wood dry enough would be a bit harder. But as it is, with Nikki's spells that can quite quickly dry out wood and mine which do pretty much the same but in blue, it does not take us that long to get a sizable amount of wood. 

This was probably Hilda’s intention as when we get back it’s getting pretty dark.

“Could you put some wood there, Ami?” Hilda asks, pointing at a stone-walled pit they’d fashioned. 

I empty a bit of my wooden inventory in it, while Nikki drops all her wood in a bigger pile a bit further away. That’s where I also dump my left-over pieces of wood. 

As for the camp, Hilda and Sam have built a couple of lean-to’s with its flooring a bit above the sand, right next to the treeline. 

“We could have set up tents but I think this is a lot more charming.” Hilda smiles. 

“At least until we manage to set up a couple of huts.” Sam comes over to give me a quick kiss. 

“In time, yes.” 

At about that time, both my sister and Brianna appear again as well. Brianna is carrying what looks like a whole bunch of fruits, while my sister is carrying some more under one arm together with a couple of logs on her other shoulder. -That’s definitely not something I could carry without being in angel of vengeance mode…-

“And there’s our dinner and our seats.” Hilda claps her hands.

Brianna smiles and my sister does too, depositing the logs next to the campfire place. 

“Let’s eat, I’m starving.” My sister then quickly sits down on one of the logs she’d just dropped. 

My stomach grumbles. -And apparently, so am I.- 

FieryKathy