Chapter 32: Chapter 31: a perfect camping ground

It didn’t take too long before Jo tire out, though she did better than expected. After she got a short break, we continued at a more reasonable pace, though still faster than walking. 

After a couple hours of travel, the road met a decently large river, and instead of crossing it, the road curved and continued alongside it. We followed the road for a couple more hours, before spotting the perfect camping ground, just across the river. A small clearing in the pine forest across the river, filled with various flowers of shades ranging from a deep violet to white.

I decide to use mana thruster to jump the fifteen or so meters to the other side, before realizing that the others don’t have that luxury. James and Jo look at me stupefied, and I give them an exaggerated shrug before pulling out my tent and placing it at the edge of the forest clearing. James can probably make the jump with a bit of a runup, though Jo most definitely doesn’t have a way to make it across. 

As they discuss amongst themselves, I cast a strong agility buff on both of them, in the hopes of making it easier for them. It seems that they decided that Jo should ride on James’ shoulders as he jumps. After taking quite a few steps backwards, he starts his runup, with Jo on his shoulders. Kicking off of the stony riverbank, they soar majestically through the air, before landing hard next to me. Jo is unable to remain seated and falls forward after the landing. I don’t wait to check if they need it and just heal them anyway. For the first time in a while, the magic feels annoyed when it finds nothing to heal in James.

James stands back up and looks sternly at me, before saying “Did we have to cross the river? Couldn’t we have camped on the other side?”

“Just look at this clearing, it’s just perfect. It even has a boulder at the riverside that we can use for fishing.” I answer whilst gesturing around at the clearing and the mentioned boulder.

“Telling us before you just decide to jump across a river would be nice. But you are right, this is a nice place for camping. Though I kinda feel bad for Jo’s rough landing.” He continues while looking at Jo, who is lying sprawled out on the bed of flowers.

After helping Jo get to terms with the fact that jumping across a river like this is something that we can just do, we start to set up our camp. James decide to try to fish in the river with his fishing rod. Fishing rods are used in a few early game quests, but mainly serves the purpose as an income stream in the early game. I decide to join him on the boulder, though I hold off on the fishing. Jo on the other hand is just relaxing in the bed of flowers.

When we go to bed, after sunset, James has caught no fishes, but did catch an eel. We tried to make dinner out of it, but it ended up not tasting particularly good. 

I was awoken by some rustling during the night, but nothing came of it in the end, and I went back to sleep.

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New day and I feel like wearing something else. I have been wearing mostly skirts and dresses since I woke up next to the lake, so it’s going to be pants today. Beige cargo pants specifically, with a black tank top and big leather boots. Pockets would be so handy, had it not been faster and easier to take stuff out of my inventory.

The first thing I spot when I crawl out of the tent, is the nice flowers. I didn’t notice yesterday, but they all have a small amount of mana swirling around in them. The deeper the color, the more it seems to have. 

The second thing I spot, after standing up, Is David sitting on the fishing boulder, staring at the flowing river. After confirming that the others have yet to come out from their tents, I sit down next to him on the boulder and greet him.

“Good morning David.”

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“Mornin’ Zena.”

After that, we simply sit and enjoy the dawn, looking at the insects skimming the water and the occasional fish jumping to eat them. 

Sometime later, I hear someone coming out of their tent. Turning around, I see that it was Jo, who looks confused at David. I decide to introduce her, though I’m pretty sure David knows her.

“Good morning Jo. This fine fellow is David. David, this is Jo, my sort of apprentice.”

She responds “Hi, is he the one you mentioned yesterday?”

Before I can confirm, David does so “Yes, I’m the one who usually informs them of quests, though this time it was not me, but Lara.”

So it wasn’t David this time. He probably still knows what the quest is, so I ask him “Since, you are here, do you know what the specifics of the quest is?”

“Kinda, but Lara will meet with you tomorrow to explain.”

We continue to converse for a while about warriors and other things, carefully avoiding mentioning to Jo that she is talking to a literal god, and after a few minutes, James crawled out of his tent. He had just enough time to greet David, before he said his farewell and disappeared in a unique particle effect.

Jo seemed kinda stunned at his disappearance and when she asked about it, we explained it as him wanting to be dramatic, which I suspect is actually true. 

I inform James that the quest was from Lara and that she will inform us more later, and we start preparing our breakfast. By we, I mean me, and by prepare I mean take out of my inventory. Either way we have a nice breakfast, sitting in a field of flowers. Honestly eating fantastically good fruit, sitting in this field of flowers, might be the most serene breakfast I have ever had, in either of my pasts.

After packing up our things, we set off on our travels. Personally I would have preferred to walk on the road, but James and Jo insisted on looking for an easier place to cross the river.