Chương 17: Chapter 14 - On The Road Again

The morning rose slowly, as did Bella. Unlike the last two mornings, where she was up and about with the sun, today she reveled in the comfort of her bed. Their bed? Her back was pressed up against Gemma's and it was frankly cozy enough that it overrode her embarrassed anxiety about their closeness. She snoozed lightly through the other woman's awakening, and pretended at least to not stir when the warmth against her back disappeared. Her eyes peeked open the littlest bit as Gemma got dressed though.

It was enough to send her heart fluttering, noticing a little too late the heat she was holding on to after spending the last two days in such close proximity with her friend. Just a friend. She rolled over with a little whimper of shame when she got caught peeking.

"I'm going to make us some breakfast. You can stay in bed, princess," the elf teased with a laugh. Bella let out a grumble and squeezed her eyes shut further, yanking the blanket up over her head. The quiet clattering of dishes and pans wasn't enough to pull her out from the bed, though she did peek out when Gemma called out her name.

"Bella, I'm going out to eat outside and then do some more practice with my sword. Come out when you decide to join the living." The catkin freed a hand from the covers to shoo her companion out with a lazy flick of her wrist, watching her disappear through the tent flap with her bowl of porridge. As soon as she was gone Bella slid her hand back under the blanket and let out a grateful groan.

Her morning routine did not involve other people preventing her from taking care of things, and her body was completely different from normal which required a new sort of exploration. When she finally stumbled out of the tent nearly an hour later, Bella was slightly flushed and sweaty and oh-so-satisfied, clutching her porridge piled high with fresh berries and drizzled with honey.

True to her word, Gemma's bowl was spotlessly clean and she was on the far side of the clearing testing out different movements with her sword, practicing responding to different strikes and threats. The elf paused and raised her brow, a bit of color creeping into her ears but otherwise looking incredibly amused.

"Couldn't help yourself? I won't judge, did the same yesterday." Bella let out a quiet groan at the comment and almost turned herself around, doing her best to keep her mind on her breakfast. She didn't know if she could handle any more teasing about that right now. Her friend was already back to casually slashing through practiced motions, looking like she did it every day, though, so she took a seat on a fallen log to shovel a spoonful of her porridge into her mouth and do a different kind of admiring.

By the time Gemma had finished her sword exercises Bella had devoured her breakfast, noting with curiosity that her companion strapped her sword to her belt rather than dismissing it. The catkin collected both empty bowls and let herself back into the tent to clean them, alongside the pot hanging over the fire.

"So glad there's a spell for this," she mumbled, pulsing magic through the air that pulled together water from the air, heated it, then scrubbed with soap she'd taken from her storage to scour everything clean. Washing dishes had been one of her least favorite chores back home, right alongside folding clean clothes.

"Magic is the best." Gemma's head poked in through the flaps of the tent.

"Ready to go? We've got a long way to go towards Cinder's Hollow." She shot back a thumbs up and used another spell that dried the dishes using a powerful gust of scorching air and left them almost too hot to touch. They were tucked carefully into their place near the hearth and she joined Gemma back outside the tent. In the sunlight and finally feeling so much better than the day before, she laced her fingers together and stretched up towards the sky, rocking onto her tiptoes and tail bracing out behind her.

"How far is a long way, miss notetaker?"

"Hmph. Travel distance never really came up in the game, so I wouldn't know." Despite her claims, she pulled out a map of the region and started tracing roadways with her fingertip.

"Far, though. If I had to guess based on how far Greensheaf was from Elkstone, probably three days walk?"" Uuuugghhh. I don't mind a hike, but I'm no backpacker like you. You were talking about doing twenty miles a day and I still stand by the idea that it sounds miserable." Even through her complaints she started out of the clearing they'd spent the night in and towards the road, though she made a dramatic show of trudging forward. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Gemma rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, smiling faintly as she reminisced.

"At least we don't have to carry bags or pack our tent away. And we get a real bed. An incredibly cozy bed at that." She followed behind the petulant archmage, pausing only long enough to drop the tent back away into her own storage. Bella paused at the edge of the forest, chewing her lip.

"It was a cozy bed," she finally admitted, glancing over at Gemma.

"I didn't mind that part. The tent's honestly nicer than my apartment was." Her boots sunk in with a squelch, the roadway unfortunately already muddy.

"Just wish we didn't have to walk everywhere. Especially in this. I'm sure I could come up with a spell to dry the road out or something, but that sounds miserable to cast for three days straight."

"Most folks just suffer through it. Only well-off people would have had the luxury of riding horses or carriages." Bella stopped in her tracks, turning to stare at Gemma. The pair shared a moment of defeated silence before sighing in unison.

"We could have been riding the whole way out here." She fished through her storage and pulled forth a summoning stone. In the game this had been a quest reward. She'd pushed her friends to join her on sidetracking to get the mounts when she'd decided walking between towns for adventures was too slow and horses were too pedestrian - a customizable mana mount construct. She'd styled hers after a sleek panther to fit the theme she'd been chasing with the character at the time. A theme she regretted slightly now.

Was it a little too on the nose to ride a cat as a catkin? She pushed a small trickle of mana into the rune-carved stone and her mount materialized in front of her. It was a massive thing, proportionally a standard looking panther but nearly nine feet in length from nose to tail and as tall at the shoulder as the top of her head. The body was a translucent shimmering cyan of solidified mana, with a plain dark black saddle made of wyvern leather.

There were no reins, as mana mounts were controlled with mental commands. Small banks of mana-rich fog rolled off its feet. Rather than attempting to scramble up the side of the creature into her saddle Bella used a spell to propel herself upwards, a burst of air meeting a raised platform of solidified dirt. She landed daintily atop the creature, slipping her boots into the stirrups. Although she wouldn't say it, she felt and looked absolutely absurd sitting atop it. Like a child riding an oversized housecat.

At least it was better than Gemma's mount. The paladin was staring dourly at the summoning stone in her hands. Bella only caught the tail end of her friend's complaint." -should have picked a less cringy backstory." A story tale perfect unicorn popped into existence. It was every bit a little girl's dream, shimmery auric mana bodied with intricately braided mane and tail. The saddle atop it was an ostentatious thing covered in inlaid golden scrollwork. Its perfectly spiraling horn even glowed.

Heaving another sigh, she threw herself onto the mount.

"Who's the princess now?" Bella crowed as she turned her mount towards her friend.

"If you put your armor on, or maybe a nice dress, you'd look picture-perfect for that oh-so-tragic fifteen page history you wrote, miss fallen-elven-royalty. Also, why the heck did you name it 'Duncan'?"

"Stuff it," Gemma groaned, rubbing her face with the palm of her hand.

"… Wish it would glow less. That horn is right in my way. Ugh." Bella just snorted and spurred her panther down the roadway at a slow walk, waiting for her friend to catch up. The rolling gait of the large cat beneath her felt natural, and memories of riding it great lengths for days at a time flashed through her head. Once the elf was alongside her, she took a moment to choose her words.

"I keep… getting flashbacks. Memories. They feel as much mine as my actual memories of being back on Earth. It's kinda weird." Gemma nodded slowly as she let her sparkly mount carry her along, arms crossed over her chest.

"I feel it too. Like I've lived both lives. It really hit me when I was retelling the fight to the Count's family. Some of the memories I had felt blended." Bella's eyes lit up as she nodded at her friend, validated.

"Exactly! I remember saying things during the fight that our characters shouldn't have been able to understand. And we didn't have that sort of conversation while playing the game. So what gives?" They both settled into silence, thoughts spinning on the strange circumstances of their 'arrival' in the world. Eventually Bella just shook her head.

"Maybe the gods can tell us," she joked. She had never put much stock in hokey religions or ancient weapons on Earth, and she knew Gemma was similar, but her memories now included them literally killing a goddess. And speaking with several others. Her companion, on the other hand, seemed intrigued by the idea.

"We should stop by a temple when we have time. They might actually. But that requires getting to a town. What say we pick up the pace?" Silence fell once more, conversation replaced by the whoosh of wind as they both commanded their mounts to settle into a swift gallop. The road blurred beneath their mounts' feet. Their pace was fast, if not breakneck, and could be maintained so long as they had mana to spare. Which they certainly did.