Evening fell quickly, a slanting, golden dusk. Dimitri was right that the temperature would change- before the trio had found a makeshift shelter underneath a rock overhang, Edelgard and Claude were starting to shiver. The three settled on the driest spot of sand and in the near-darkness, started a small fire with the tinder Edelgard and Claude had found, striking her axe against a dry stone until the sparks were coaxed into flame.
"How're you holding up, Dima?" Claude asked as Dimitri leaned against the rock, and his answer was a faint "Tired". Edelgard gave him a sympathetic glance, though he probably didn't see it in the flickering darkness.
"You wanna take off your shirt for a moment?"
"What?" Dimitri said, but Claude quickly amended, "Whoa, relax, I just want to check for broken ribs. You'll need to rest tomorrow if that's case."
The prince was a little embarrassed as he carefully removed his outerwear, but Edelgard was looking fixedly to her right and wouldn't see much in the dim light, anyway. Claude gently felt Dimitri's chest in several areas, noting his grimaces and the sharp gasp of pain when he felt his left side.
"I don't feel a break," he said eventually, "but you've got a lot of bruises here. Don't you be doing any heavy lifting."
"I'll be fine. I just need to rest," Dimitri replied, though he didn't need to see Claude's face to hear the sympathy in his voice.
"Hey, now's not the time to push yourself too hard. We'll all need each other for what's ahead…"
"Should one of us stay awake to watch our fire?" Edelgard asked after this ominous statement. Her stomach was starting to growl, but food wasn't top priority yet. There would have to be someone searching for the three by tomorrow, surely.
"I'll volunteer," Claude answered, " I think you two need your beauty rest more than I do, for now."
Edelgard nodded, and Dimitri continued to stare mutely into the flames.
"Very well. But wake me when you need to sleep," Edelgard answered, and to the boys' slight surprise, she stretched out on the sand and lay down on her back, using her folded tunic for a pillow. They had expected her to complain about something- the cold, the insects, but by the time Claude got up to look outside, Edelgard and Dimitri were asleep.
What a fix we're in, Claude mused as he gazed at the indigo sky's unfamiliar stars. Smack in the middle of nowhere… Who sent us for this mission, anyway? How do we know it wasn't someone who has it in for the church and sent a few Beasts here, after getting us far from home?
A distant noise broke Claude out of his reverie. He turned, but was barely able to see more than mountain silhouettes and the sky in the stream. And then, on a hill by where the three had arrived, there was movement. Something big.
It was a dark, bulky shape, cracking twigs and breaking bush apart. Only a few hundred feet away at most. But the footsteps were getting farther rather than nearer, and Claude's fingers had just tightened around his bow when the woods were silent again.
Well, if I'm not a bundle of nerves. Hope it's not another Beast, or we'll be history.
Claude was adept at hiding his emotions, but he knew the prickle at the back of his neck wasn't cold as he retreated to the shelter, noticing that Edegard was tossing fitfully in her sleep. He wouldn't let his friends see it, but he was scared for them, scared for himself. Though he remained awake, Claude closed his eyes and bowed his head, whispering just above the soft night noises of crickets chirping and the rush of the stream.
At Garegg Mach, news of the royals' disappearance hadn't reached anyone's ears. There was nothing yet to indicate that the lords weren't well on their way to the kingdom, safe with attendants and supplies should the worst happen.
Yet, as she prepared for bed the night before, Professor Byleth could not help but feel an inexplicable sense of doom creeping over her. She stood unmoving, staring out of her window at the moon, wondering what had brought on this sudden panic.
Does Sothis know anything about this? Byleth wondered, but the goddess was silent tonight. Perhaps she should speak to Seteth and Rhea about her intuition. No, I shouldn't bother them, waiting until morning would be appropriate. And yet…
"Dear Goddess…" Byleth whispered, eyes shut and hands clasped in front of her, "I implore You to watch over and to protect my dear friends and comrades, who have left for a long journey. I fear for their safety… I leave them in Your capable hands."
As she finished her prayer, Byleth felt her worry calm a little. She was not ready to accept that something might have befallen her students, but invoking the goddess' power, if only in her mind, was a small reassurance. Soon, Byleth was asleep under the same moon that, the greatest distance away, her three students were underneath.
When morning came, Dimitri's first thought was that he'd been left behind. He rose to a sitting position and brushed his tangled hair out of his eyes, relieved that most of the pain was gone- but so were Edelgard and Claude. The fire pit was put out, no more than a damp pile of smoking charcoal.
"Where are-"
The prince pushed himself to his feet and half-ran out of the shelter, leaving long streaks in the sand. "Claude! El! Where are-"
He stopped ,and laughed aloud when he remembered the stream. Edelgard and Claude were there and looked quite startled to see Dimitri awake and moving so fast.
"On your feet already?" Claude said with a wave. "Don't work too hard, Dima. We could still be out here a while."
"What makes you say that?" Dimitri asked warily as he joined the duo, relieved to see that Claude was holding the fishing rod they'd saved from the carriage and watching the bait bob in the water. Edelgard saved him the burden of replying.
"So, given this forest's size, even with the aid of a signal fire… we could be out here for at least half of the month, and away from the monastery, and the kingdom, for many more days."
Even though the early morning sun was trained on her, Edelgard shivered. Dimitri cleared his throat, struggling for something optimistic to say, as Claude was still intently focused on the stream.
"Perhaps… but, we were traveling along a road when the Beasts attacked, were we not? Surely if we follow that road for a while, we'll find something. There must be a village somewhere, or at least someone moving supplies."
"That may be so, but we don't have horses to travel on," Edelgard pointed out, flinching when a leaping grasshopper landed next to her foot. Dimitri brushed it away, trying to hide his impatience.
"So what do you propose, then? We stay put and wait to be rescued?"
"What's the alternative?" Edelgard asked, her pale eyes narrowed. "Even if we could travel far- and with you in your state, I doubt that's possible- we need to stay close to sources of water, shelter and food. And this place has all three."
"Hey, don't start bickering, you two," Claude interrupted, looking up from the gently rushing water. "For now, I think the only thing we need to be concerned about is getting a bite to eat. I don't know about you two, but I'm pretty starved, and there's not much else around, is there?"
Edelgard looked away, and Dimitri resisted the urge to glare. He almost wished Edelgard hadn't been requested to join them on this mission. If it were only Claude and I here, the two of us would be moving out by now, if I wasn't injured. El's not one for the wilderness. She'll be complaining before the day's out, mark my words.
"Still, it would be prudent to survey our area once we've eaten," Edelgard conceded. "We'll see if we can find any signs of people, or a good place for starting our fire."
"Sounds like an idea to me," Claude replied cheerfully, but he was jerked downwards by a tug on the rod. A huge fish had grabbed the bait and was tugging with all its might. One pull, and the dying creature was flopping about in the sun.
"I'll have to thank the Professor once we get back," Claude mused as Dimitri started on cutting open the fish with his dagger, and Edelgard retrieved the rock she'd used for the fire. "Without her help, I'd be hopeless at fishing."
"Do you wonder what she's doing right now?" Edelgard wondered out loud, somewhat relieved that Claude had brought up their Professor. She'd been thinking about her since waking up in the clearing yesterday, though not in a way that the princess felt was appropriate to discuss casually.
"Who knows?" Claude answered, shrugging. "We'll find out soon enough, I'm sure."
It took until the sun was fully in the sky for Claude to snag two fish large enough for eating, and another hour for them to be cooked properly. He was still hungry when they had eaten down to the bones, but he agreed with a suggestion that Edelgard had brought up over the meal; they could continue searching the immediate area for other food sources, and potential fire-starting areas.
"That clearing would be ideal," Edelgard said, wiping her mouth with a finger, "but we'll need to be careful, and have water nearby."
"Too bad the carriage got destroyed by those Beasts, there must've been a bucket of some kind there."
Claude shook his head, and helped Dimitri to his feet as the three prepared to go walking. It was a brilliant, sunny day, but the dense forest surrounding them would offer some protection from the heat.
"Hey, Dima, you know anything about how to keep safe here?" Claude asked as the three left their temporary camp, and puzzled, Dimitri asked what he meant.
"I mean, y'know, how do we keep the forest's other folk away? Like you said, bears and wolves."
"Er, well…" Dimitri tried to remember, "I suppose it's best to keep close together, so if we are seen, they'll know it's not just one of us."
"Making noise is a good strategy," Edelgard added, helping Dimitri step over a particularly vast fallen log caked in moss, "so we don't catch anything by surprise."
Claude chuckled, and paused as the other two caught up with him. He faced the sky, spread his arms and called in a voice that scattered birds from the trees, "Well, DON'T MESS WITH US, FOREST FOLK!"
Edelgard laughed uproariously, and Dimitri joined until a stab of pain made him stop. Claude glanced back in concern, but Dimitri shook his head and said to keep going.
"I'll be fine. I can handle some pain, and... I'm safer with you two... than alone."
"Still, take it easy," Claude admonished with a smile over his shoulder. "You just let us know when you're starting to get tired. Let's keep going."
I'm super excited to reveal what they're going to find in the forest. Hopefully it won't be what anyone's expecting.
Next update is set for the last day of this month, the 31st! After that... probably at least two more, maybe three. We'll see. Please let me know if you have any guesses for what's coming next!