Chapter 5: Mad Dashes and Alone Times

Now, I don't mind running. Don't enjoy it, but don't mind it. Which is good, considering I was running for my life and fast as my magical legs could carry me.

"REECE! FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, CAST HASTE!" I shouted at the resident Time Mage.

"I'm trying! I don't work well under pressure!" he replied, looking all the part a mage running for his life. In his defense he HAD been trying to cast Haste the whole time we had been running

Note to self: Get all the mages together and get them to cast magic, just so they get the hang of it.

Anyway, dragging my mind back to the issue at hand, I looked behind me to see if we should keep running. The sight of a VERY angry Behemoth hot on our tails told me (and my legs) to keep running.

And that I did. Catching up to Robbie, I yelled: "Did you have to piss off a fucking BEHEMOTH? OF ALL THINGS?"

"HEY! I thought it was a deer!" he replied, clearly as pissed at himself as I was.

"How the FUCK did you think a massive fucking killing machine the size of a small house was a fucking DEER?" I ranted, very seriously thinking about tripping him over and letting the Behemoth get him.

Then, as if the universe was saying "Fuck it, they can live", Reece finally managed to cast a spell.

Too bad for us it was Slow.

Luckily for us, Reece was smart enough to realise that it wasn't the spell he wanted, and managed to send it at the Behemoth, rather than at Lathen's face.

Suddenly, the Behemoth went from "rampage" to "snail" in about 0.3 seconds. Much to our collective relief.

For the second time in 24 hours, I felt the urge to lay the fuck down and not do anything, because I was knocked out. Luckily for me, my mind didn't feel like listening to my body, and told it to keep walking. Walking up to my panting friends, I said: "We all right?" and got a tired chorus of sounds sounding like "yes". Satisfied that they wouldn't die if I turned away, I then turned around and looked around. I immediately noticed that our mad running-for-our-lives episode had managed to get us further away from the castle. I also noticed that, as if to say "You can live, but I still hate you", the sun was setting.

Jesus, we just can't get a break, can we? Sighing, I went to inform the others of the situation, and prepared myself to get yelled at.

Fire. Check. Food. Check. Friends to talk to, and to annoy. Checked several times over. If we weren't so tired, then we would have been having a good time. Looking over the fire, I first noticed Robbie and Mathew, the only two who seemed to enjoy this hell, laughing at something that Robbie had said. Scanning further, I saw Samuel and Morgan, both of whom were sleeping, snuggling close to each other.

On the other side of the fire, I saw Reece, Nick and Kyle showing off to each other, having turned the massive telling off that they had got from Josh into something fun to do. Indeed, once the short and murderous one had got his breath back, he lost it again by shouting at everyone at the top of his lungs, saying that if anyone went off by themselves again, he would force-feed them his sword and top it off with a Flare spell. Remembering what he had done to those goblins (and the evil grin on his face as he did it. Seriously, how does anyone enjoy doing that to a living being), I shuddered, more in fear than anything else. He had changed since we had arrived here. I mean, he had always been violent, but this was something... different.

Speaking of Josh, where was he?

Looking around, I saw that he wasn't there, once I had finished gagging at the foul smell that washed across the camp, thanks to Robbie throwing the guts of the deer we had eaten onto the fire. Slightly worried, I stood and walked away from the others, hand on my dagger the whole time. The area where we had decided to camp was near a cliff, and I had a feeling that Josh was there.

Sure enough, I was right. There he was, sitting near the edge of the cliff.

In the dark, I saw his shoulders shudder. At first I thought he sneezed, and then I saw them shudder again.

Then I heard the sound of him sobbing. If I didn't know what it sounded like, I wouldn't have heard it. Slowly, I walked up to where he sat. Nothing, then I slowly knelt down beside him. Still nothing except the sound of him crying softly. Then, I slowly hugged him. He knew who I was, and leant into it gently, taking comfort from it more than anything else.

Then he spoke. And I have never been more scared, through all of this, than I was then.

For Josh, the one person who had managed to keep us alive for the past two days, almost by himself, Josh, the person who had gotten us across that lake in one piece, and nearly died for it (Shayna told me that more than once she had to heal him, because his heartbeat went very faint), Josh, who had managed to keep us together, said:

"I'm scared. More scared then I've been in my life. I know I've kept us alive, and all that shit. But that's what scares me. Because... What happens if I fuck up? What happens if I get it wrong?"

I didn't say anything for a moment, only hugged him tighter. Then I said:

"Then, don't fuck up. You're doing a great job. And... We are glad. Glad that you are brave enough to make sure we don't make the wrong moves, or eat the wrong food, or cast the wrong spells. We are."

Once I had managed, somehow, to get him back to the camp, I saw that everyone was asleep around the dying fire. Josh, smiling sadly, picked up a log and placed it on the fire. He then stabbed his sword into the ground, slowly lay down on the ground, and closed his eyes. Watching his face slowly become peaceful, I realised something.

Josh wasn't being mean when he yelled, or angry when he threw punches, or murderous when he killed things without a second thought.

He was afraid.