Woohoo! Another chapter done! It's a bit short I know but more shall come! Hopeyou enjoy! RR!

Ch14

Two months of restlessness and recuperation later Larka was once again back in the training area. Though she wasn't quite back to her original strength the memory of her friend's last words about the shrine of Azura lingered in her mind and she was impatient to go there. Larka hoped the goddess would clear up a few questions she had about herself and her future and perhaps answer a few that she wouldn't think to ask. This thought drove her as she trained and practiced her archery and blade skills, all the while her pregnancy increasing.

When the morning came that she announced her journey to the Shrine she was met with a fury of opposition. WhisperWing objected, saying she wasn't well enough, Krillan and Taka tried to reason with her against it, Liam however, flat out refused to let her go. He was so furious at her even mentioning it and exclaimed that she would put herself and their baby in danger if she tried. Even after Krillan and Taka offered to accompany her in an attempt at compromise Liam remained livid and refused to even consider it. Larka remained silent throughout Liam's outbursts and her friend's reasoning, calmly waiting for them to quiet down.

Krillan, seeing the look on his friend's face, stopped arguing and looked at her. "This was never open for discussion was it?" he asked Larka with a knowing smile. She smiled at how well her friend knew her and nodded.

"Larka, you can't be serious!" Liam said passionately. "You're endangering more than just your own life here!"

"If you had heard Krillan just now you would know pleading further won't do any good and forbidding me will do even less." Larka said taking Liam's hands and meeting his troubled gaze with sad eyes. "I'm doing what I know I have to. Please, trust my judgment and let me go, by myself, I have questions I need answering. Trust that I would never endanger my unborn daughter." She said, a hint of pleading in her voice.

Liam sighed sadly and embraced her. "I trust you." He murmured.

"Thank you." Larka said to all of them. "I will leave now, it takes four days to reach the shrine and four days back, and if I am to converse with the Goddess I may be gone even longer. Expect me back within two weeks. If I do not return, do not come looking for me. If another two weeks pass and I have not come back, perform my last rights and know that I have either been led on a different path or I rest in Oblivion." She said solemnly to her friends and lover, the heavy burden of an unknown sorrow falling onto her shoulders.

As she left the tribe's borders the weight and impact of the journey Larka was undertaking fell upon her friends. The sheer mortality of it terrified them and as they all stood together and watched Larka's graceful and strong form disappear over the hills, it occurred to them all for the first time that their dear friend and leader might not be coming back. And as Larka crested the first bleak, ash covered hill, and left the sight of her tribe she was thinking the very same thought.