Chapter 14: Campfire: Part One
The sky started to get darker as the five companions continued riding; they did not run into any guards belonging to the king. They had at least a 4-5 hour head start. Their breaks consisted of 15-minute intervals, enough time for them to stretch their limbs, eat and drink. Evanna kept her word; although her body was tired from the continuous horse riding, she did not complain and never asked for a break.
She knew they considered her to be weaker than the others. This was her first time travelling for long hours by horseback and not sitting in a carriage. Axel was the one to suggest a break every three hours. She was not annoyed by their lack of judgement, she was feeling tired, but her determination pushed the aches she felt to the back of her mind. She would prove to them that this was not some vacation she decided to take and was serious.
Axel started to slow his horse down, as did the others. Throughout the journey so far, she had seen the back of his head and his huge body mainly covered by the great shield he wore on his back along with two small axes at his sides. The sounds of hooves trotting on the ground started to diminish as they entirely stopped in their tracks.
Axel tilted his head up to the sky as the sun was setting above the hill across from them. The last rays of light slowly left their skin as the wind picked up, and a chill started to set over the land. Ger looked to the left side of the path and saw an extensive amount of shrubbery and a few trees scattered in the open space nearby.
"We should set up over there. It would do us no good travelling in the dark. Our bodies need to rest," Ger said as he jumped down from his horse and started to pull the reins as he walked towards the bushes.
Everyone dismounted from their horses and followed suit behind Ger, who made them go around the bushes that would hide them from any traveller’s view during the night. Each person in the group immediately started to do their own tasks to settle quickly for the night.
Cilv left silently and came back holding branches in her hands which she dropped down on the floor to set up a fire nearby. The men started to build the linen tents that Axel made sure to bring. Each of them used their own weapon’s blunt ends to bash in the steel pegs used to pitch the tents. Evanna used the time to settle the horses to the side of their camp; she noticed that Midknight had become the alpha of the horse’s group. She was not surprised; he was a very unique horse. She started to stroke his forehead down to his muzzle lovingly, silently speaking to each other.
Ger approached her from behind. The sound of a twig snapping brought her attention away from Midknight and to the man now standing beside her.
"Axel is starting dinner."
Evanna looked past Ger to see the others sitting around the campfire; three tents were set apart from them as Axel stood across from a pot above the fire, a wooden spoon in his hand. She nodded back at Ger and followed him over to the gathering, sitting down in the free space left, in between Ronan and Cilv. Cilv obviously tried to keep herself as far from the group as possible without freezing herself. Evanna started to think that the woman preferred to be alone; she knew she always worked alone.
"Seeing as there are three tents, we will need to share." Ger started, he thought they had more, but Axel had not used them since the last time they were travelling together. Before he could continue, Cilv spoke up,