Joan

Chapter XXII

By the time night has fallen, my body is achy and my mouth is salivating. Today has felt like three days jammed into one and- not that I can't handle it but- it's exhausted me; I can't begin to imagine that every day following will be like this.

After our little showdown (which I proudly won), Chasan has withdrawn into himself and has stayed as far away from me as physically possible on this trip- not that it's killing me, I don't miss his punchable face being close to me one bit.

Though my willpower to carry on still burns in me, my body groans for me to stop- as do the other weak-bodied people behind me.

"Joan, we have to settle down for the night," Nimu yawns. "It's dangerous traveling this late in an unknown area."

"I hear ya," I stifle a yawn myself. "But where should we unwind?"

I mean, she's been so hard-bent on not being out in the open and vulnerable but we haven't passed a single village this entire journey; I guess people really are sparse in this area.

Taking my question into consideration, she frowns, faltering in her answer, "I-I'm not sure but we need to find someplace before it gets too dark."

"Hey, look, I'm all pro-bed and having a roof above our head, but there hasn't been a village or anything since we entered this part so our options are kinda limited."

Her frown deepens, as does her concern as her flickering tail and ears reveal.

"Maybe we should press on a little further," Lan suggests with a meager shrug.

"Sure, but if nothing comes up then we'll just have to sleep out under the stars."

Judging from the nervous twitch of her whiskers, Nimu is probably praying to find somewhere for us to sleep tonight rather than risk it outdoors.

So, off we go to find some place to lay our poor, weary heads for the night. The rays of light disappearing rapidly as do our hopes of finding a place to crash for the night.

Well, I wasn't looking to play MacGyver but it looks like it's going to be one of those nights.

While I'm fine with this fate, Nimu is far from it.

"We can't stop now," She argues. "There's still enough time to locate a reasonable shel-"

"Nimu, give it a rest," I sigh. "Yeah, yeah, there are dangerous things out here, but you know what? Sometimes we just have to roll with the punches. Sleep in a tree if you feel safer with that- you are a cat hybrid after all."

Huffing in frustration, she tries to pull Lan in with her worry, not even bothering to comment on my suggestion.

"Lan, this isn't safe, you know it isn't. How many times have we been warned about what lurks in the night? What about the unknown?"

Shrugging half-heartedly, Lan stares down at the ground as he mumbles in agreement. He's not going to cause conflict, but I will and I do with my next comment.

"You've also been told not to cross the bridge, and guess what you did it anyway."

"And we've been plagued with problems ever since," She counters.

Yeah, mostly due to some imperial dick.

"But we've dealt with all those problems," I say, trying to be the positive one though it's a tiring act to keep up. "Look, I got your back- all you guys. I'm getting my brother back and you guys are helping me which means I'm not letting some basic obstacles get in the way."

Though the worry and uncertainty still cling to her, I brush past it by plopping down on the ground and leaning against the base of a tree, trying to get myself comfy. Funny enough, it gets rather balmy out here at night so there isn't too much of a need for blankets, thankfully.