“Eres, you gotta get up. Breakfast is done, and we need to get back on the trail.”

  Eres grumbled a little but sat up. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and turned to thank Freya for waking him up. She had needed to do it often as his maid, but he tried to remember to thank her even then. Now that she wasn’t his employee, he needed to make sure he was even more clear with his thanks.

  His head turned, and his gaze met a pair of ice-blue eyes, and his brain promptly froze. Maybe he was still half asleep, or maybe it was something else, but the second he met Myla’s eyes every single thought that had been in his head went scuttling out of his ear and ran for the hills. She was looking at him, face slightly flushed red. She wasn’t looking at his face, though. Her gaze quickly darted away to the side of the tent as she began to blush even more.

  Ah. Eres thought, Yeah, that would do it. He realised that he had pulled his shirt off during the night, and when he sat up, she was confronted with a little more skin than she had been expecting. Though judging by her shifting and not instantly leaving, it hadn’t been something she had disliked. The thought made Eres smile as he pulled the shirt over his head.

  “Thanks for getting me up, Myla.” Eres smiled at her, trying to defuse the awkwardness of the situation. “Sorry, I took a second there. I think my brain was still half asleep. Did your watch go alright? And you said something about breakfast? I think I smell bacon, which smells good. I mean, sounds good. Well, it smells good too, but what I meant was…”

  He could feel his cheeks heating up as he rambled on. He had just meant to say thanks, but once his mouth started moving, it wouldn't stop. It seemed to work, though, as Myla gave a soft laugh before looking at him again. She didn’t seem quite as nervous today and managed to look him in the eyes as they spoke.

  “You’re welcome, and yes, there is bacon on. You can thank Freya for that, she started on it as soon as I woke her up. Now come on, lets get the tents packed away and then you can have bacon that sounds and smells so good.” Myla laughed as she teased Eres, heading out through the flap of his tent and towards the sound of the crackling fire.

  He packed up the few things he had inside the tent, grabbed them and headed out to join the others. Their tent had already disappeared, packed down and inside one of their bags he assumed. Myla was already pulling the spikes out of the ropes holding his tent up, throwing him a smile.

  “Go grab a seat and some food. I don’t mind finishing this up, and I already ate.” Myla said, grinning up at Eres. “Don’t want to wait for you any longer than we have to, Young Master.”

  “Oh, Gods, not you too,” Eres groaned, still rubbing sleep from his eyes. “It’s too early for this. I thought my stew had proved I was no noble anyway!”

  Myla just smiled sweetly at him and continued pulling down the tent. With a laugh and a shake of his head, he joined Freya around the fire. A few moments later, he had a few slices of bread filled with fried bacon in front of him. The smoked flavour of the meat was enough to rouse him the rest of the way to wakefulness, and Eres chewed on the sandwich and made appreciative noises in Freya’s general direction, much to her amusement.

  “You’re welcome. You can show some appreciation by conjuring some water to wash the pan out and douse the fire.” Freya laughed, “After that, we can get back on the road and make it to town by noon. What was the name of this place again?”

  “Mmmngruffl,” Eres said around the last mouthful of his sandwich.

  “What?”

  Eres swallowed. “Sorry about that. The place is called Manneck, it's a good size bigger than the village we were in, so should have a Guild and everything else we need.”

  “Manneck… Oh! Is this the place that sent those parade floats around the villages a few years ago?” Freya asked. Eres concentrated for a second and then began to turn his Mana into water, scouring out the grease from the pan and letting it all fall into the embers of the fire.

  “That’s the one. Mother said it was something about one of the Nobles there doing well and trying to show up all the smaller nobles in the surrounding countryside,” Eres explained, wiping out the pan with a rag before shoving it into his bag. “Still, it was a good time for 99 percent of the population, so I’m here for it, no matter the reason.”

  “Huh,” Myla huffed as she dropped the rolled-up tent into my bag. “It does taint it a little knowing it wasn’t really for our benefit, but I loved getting to show them to Ifa.” Her face dropped a little at her sister's name.

  “We haven’t talked much about it,” Eres said, “but you both left people behind. Freya, I know you didn’t like your family much, but even so… I don’t want either of you to feel like you have to come with me. Not if you are leaving too much behind.”

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Don’t you want us here?” Myla blurted out, eyes wide.

  “What? No! That isn’t it at all. Of course, I want you here; I just don’t want you to miss out on things because of me. Just because I can’t stay at the estate doesn’t mean you need to leave, that's all.” Eres had his hands in the air as he tried to get in the way of Myla’s worries, “I just saw your face thinking about Ifa, and I thought… I just wanted to make sure you were still sure that’s all.”

  Myla still looked more than a little forlorn. Eres looked over at Freya, hoping for help and instead got a scowl in response. “We are here 'cause we want to be. I know you were just trying to check on us, but saying things like that makes it sound like you would rather do this alone. So no more of that, alright?”

  Eres nodded slowly before walking forward and grabbing Myla’s shoulders so she would look at his face rather than down at her toes. “That was my bad, Myla.” He spoke quietly but firmly, making sure she could see the truth of his words on his face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that, not at all. I’m so glad you are both here with me; I just worry that I’m causing you both more trouble than I’m worth.

  “But I will trust that both of you will let me know if you miss home and want to swing back through, okay? That seem fair?”. Eres made sure he got a nod from both of them before he stepped back with one last squeeze of Myla’s shoulders.

  Freya was still glaring at him, but he just smiled at her and shrugged. “I’m still getting used to this, I will probably fuck it up a few times,” he murmered sheepishly, “but that just means you two need to keep an eye and tell me if I am being an idiot, and then we can talk about it.

  “Come on, let’s get on the road. We want to be out of this forest sooner rather than later.”

  ***

  The morning’s journey through the forest was relaxed and calm. They came across no other travellers, saw no signs of dangerous animals or monsters, and the weather was clear and bright. The entrance to Manneck, however, was anything but.

  The town was surrounded by stone walls that stood at least fifteen feet tall, and interspersed along it were even taller towers. Facing them was a large entryway leading through the wall and into the streets. There were armed men on either side of the gate, speaking to everyone who was trying to pass through, and there were a lot of people trying to pass through. At first glance, it was just a large group of travellers milling around without any order, waiting to get in, but Eres quickly discarded that assumption. While it looked to be a disordered mass, he could see various groups were circled around wagons, carts or carriages. Each of these groups seemed to go through together after the guards spoke to them.

  Must be inspecting the goods merchants are bringing in, Eres thought, looking at the other groups of people milling around. That means the ones getting fast-tracked down one side are likely nobles or people on official business, and the steady stream heading slowly past the guards are single travellers and small groups. It was a simple system, but Eres could appreciate how it must have streamlined things for them. It might look like a chaotic jumble from the distance he was at, but it let the guards check on everyone they needed to and still had everyone moving at a slow but constant pace, minimising the wait.

  “Eurgh, we would get here the day before market day,” Freya grumbled, looking at the mass of people.

  “Market day?” Eres asked, “I thought you hadn’t come out this way before.”

  “I haven’t,” Freya answered, still scowling at the crowd, “but this looks exactly how it would look on the day before market back home. Outside the gates are crowded with people looking to sell. A lot of traders and merchants will do a weekly route, stopping at towns and villages for each of their market days, restocking at home and then doing it all over again.”

  “Yep, some of them go on even longer routes. There was one guy who sold spices from down south, near the border. He only turned up once a month, but he always made good money on the deals.” Myla added, “You snuck out enough times; how come never on market day?”

  “They always upped security on those days, and by the time I was old enough that they had less issue with me leaving the grounds, I was so involved in learning magic and combat that it never really came to mind,” Eres said sheepishly. Both of his companions shook their heads ruefully.

  “Anyone else would have been excited to get out of training and go and play in town. But you,” Freya laughed, poking Eres in the chest, “were more excited by a new book or a new weapon than you were a market.”

  “Now, let's be fair,” Eres joked, dodging a second poke and flicking Freya’s forehead gently, “my first foray into town would have ended in my untimely demise if it wasn’t for our friend here’s quick thinking. Maybe I was just waiting until I could be sure she was around to watch my back.”

  Myla blushed at his reminder of her heroics, and Eres just laughed, bumping her hip with his as he continued to dance around avoiding Freya’s half-hearted attempts to flick and poke him.

  “Come on,” Eres said, jumping forward and just out of Freya’s reach once more, “we need to join the line if we want to get in, check for a guild and find somewhere to sleep before dark. Let’s get a move on!”

  He continued to laugh and joke with the girls as they continued down the trail towards the waiting crowds at Mannecks gates. His excitement was infectious, as both Freya and Myla found themselves dragged along with his pace, and even found themselves working together to try and trap him between them, earning both of them a swift flick on the nose as he tumbled out of the way, landing directly on his ass not fifty feet from the crowd.

  “Well now, stop playing around,” Eres said, stained with dirt and grass and nose held in the air, “we should show decorum before entering a new town!”

  The trio shared glances for a few long seconds before bursting out into a fit of laughter, not caring about the strange looks the other waiting travellers threw their way.