‘When was the last time I drove a wagon? Wait… have I never driven a wagon?’ Varus asked himself before he realized, ‘No, no I haven’t. Since I was a knight when I was alive, I only ever rode animals, I never drove them.’ He glanced down, Lithia was drooling on the sleeve of his magic robe. A silly, slack jawed expression on her face kept company with the faint noise of her snores, while behind him both Tuesday and Hannah snored in sync with one another.

  Other than the very gentle rumble of the wagon itself, there was little other noise. The leaves of the ancient forest rustled, while a few creatures sought food, shelter, or mates within. The air was a cool and comfortable breeze, and the night stars twinkled on. With no need to sleep and very little in its head beyond its compulsion to obey, if nothing stopped or controlled it, the summon would just continue to walk forward forever.

  ‘Or at least until someone kills it.’ He made the addendum offhandedly, but it was true. Disturbingly so, given his own undead nature. ‘I know I told Lithia it probably won’t work, but I hope it at least works for a few years.’

  It’d been a long time since Varus felt much in the way of anxiety, and true to what he did recall, ‘I don’t like it. Maybe I really should have stayed at the cottage, asked Lithia to take them in, they already like her. I could have given her my entire library so she wouldn’t have to adventure…’ As soon as the thought came to him, he knew it wasn’t fair to ask it of her.

  She had a life she enjoyed, making her change that for the next ten to fifteen of her limited years would have been selfish and cruel.

  Round and round his thoughts spun, until the sun began to creep up along the far horizon and light began to wipe away the darkness on the ground as it had since the Dark Mother and the Dark Father first set foot upon the world of Amends and called it ‘home’.

  Varus reached out, placed his hand on Lithia’s leg where thigh met knee, and gave a little squeeze, just enough to make her stir, but without doing her any harm.

  “Whoza-” she mumbled and began rubbing sleepy eyes with her balled up hands and letting out a long, loud yawn.

  “Good morning.” Varus said, and then, a wicked thought occurred, and he added, “You drool a lot in your sleep.”

  That snapped her awake and her wide blue eyes stared from his skeletal face, to the dark wet spot on his mage robes that testified to the truth… that she drooled a lot.

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  Her face turned bright red and her mouth opened as if she wanted to speak but could only inhale air, not form words. “Ahhhh-” She gasped as he laughed lightly and she grabbed the spot with her left hand while rubbing at the drool with the sleeve of her right arm. “I’m sorry-I’m sorry-I’m sorry! Please forgive me!”

  “It’s fine. Hero used to drool too. So did, well… you can guess.” Varus said, and Lithia swiftly recovered her dignity.

  She sat primly and muttered nonsense under her breath for a few seconds before crossing her arms and saying, “I may be a valkyrie, but I’m still a girl, and it’s rude to point out to a girl that she drooled on you in her sleep. It’s not like I had anything to do with it.” She said with a slight frost to her voice and a blush to her cheeks that persisted through his low, gentle laughter.

  “You’re -heh- right, -heh heh- please, -heh heh heh- forgive me.” Varus said while trying and failing to keep humor from his voice as he made a mock bow in her direction.

  “Well, as long as you’re sorry. So, why’d you wake me? Are we nearly there? No way, right?” Lithia asked, and Varus quickly agreed.

  “You’re right, we are not. But you should eat something. When I sent the skeleton out last time, it took several days even at a jog. I wanted you to eat, and when they wake up,” Varus tilted his head toward the still slumbering girls, “they will need to eat, get up and move for a while, and all of you will want to relieve yourselves-”

  Lithia blushed a little again, “Valkyries don’t need to do that.” She objected.

  Varus cocked his head. His bright red eyes seemed to gleam with mischief.

  “What? We don’t!” Lithia objected while her face betrayed her lie with its confessional blush.

  “You know what I used to love?” Varus asked, “Rivers. I loved those a lot, we had one on my family estate. So much rushing water, endlessly, churning, racing, flooding whenever it rained, so much water, all wet and flowy… it was-”

  Lithia began to squirm in her seat.

  “Just a beautiful thing, and there was a waterfall that ran into a lake, all of it just tumbling down, splashing everywhere. If you didn’t know how to swim, you’d drown, but if you did, it was a wonderful place to spend an idle holiday. Especially when it rained.” Varus longed for his vanished ability to smile as Lithia jumped up from her seat and landed on the ground next to the wagon.

  “Damn you!” She cursed as she raced into the woods, and he tugged gently on the reins to keep the undead horse still to give her time to ‘not’ relieve herself.

  He waited patiently, listening to the faint sound of her cursing as she tromped through the woods. When she returned a few minutes later, he asked with a syrupy sweet voice, “Feel better?”

  “Yes.” She answered with a loud harumph behind it. “But like I said, Valkyries do not need to relieve themselves.”

  “Evidently I was wrong.” He said with false contrition dripping from every word.

  “Yes, you were.” She retorted, then added cheerily as her stomach rumbled, “Now about breakfast?” And as she asked the question, two little bodies began to stir and add their yawns to the morning noise.

  And that became their routine as day and night slipped past, until the day dawn broke and revealed the village in the distance.