I chewed my lower lip and ran my hand through my hair as I reviewed the materials for our journey that I’d gathered over the last two days:

-Two light bedrolls, two travel blankets, and a Damica-sized mat and blanket I’d had made
-Two shoulder packs for carrying supplies
-A small handy-knife I could use to prepare food and make arrows
-Two spare tunics for (Y/N)
-A few spare clothes for myself
-Several flints
-My bow, a quiver full of arrows, a bracer, and a leather glove for my right hand
-Silk thread for arrow fletching
-Whetstone
-My short sword and scabbard
-A bit of food
-A lot of money

I’d figured (Y/N) had no need of weapons. If need be, she could tell me to close my eyes, and then easily lay any human adversary to waste. It also seemed a reasonable assumption that her snakes’ venom would work against beasts as well as men.

Likewise, I was counting on hunting, gathering, and making solo ventures into towns we passed to purchase provisions, to provide enough food to sustain the three of us. We couldn’t carry enough food to last us more than a week or so without a sumpter horse. It just seemed like so little for such a long journey.

I could see everything clearly in my mind, as I closed my eyes and imagined our travels. First we would go southeast across the land until we came to a striking set of white cliffs. From there, we would have to travel across the sea, but only for some 30-odd kilometres before we would reach the other shore. That was when the most laborious part of our journey would begin. First, southeast, until we skirted on the North side of a massive mountain range as we continued on in an easterly direction. Then we would snake a circuitous southerly trail to slip between the mountains that would come to surround us on both sides. It was by a whole new sea, the Aegean, that Mount Olympus stood.

I knew that envisioning it was nothing compared to the traveling itself, but even with what little I knew, I began to worry. How would Damica fare over such distance, through so many different terrains? How could we possibly keep (Y/N) hidden from other people at all times? Everything I knew about long distance journeys involved planning around spending most nights at travelers’ inns. (Y/N) might not be inherently fatal to passersby any longer, but it was hardly as though she could pop into an inn with me for a kip!

Just the thought of that made me blush. Traveling together as an unmarried man and woman was unheard of. If we had been planning on stopping at inns, we’d surely have had to masquerade as man and wife… The heat in my cheeks intensified as I rolled that around in my thoughts. I had no idea what (Y/N) would have to say about that. Surely it was for the best that we’d be sleeping outdoors, then? It wasn’t as though my directional foresight paid much heed to civilization’s comforts anyhow. I twiddled my thumbs self-consciously and tried to banish the thought of sharing a bed with (Y/N) from my mind, so that I could concentrate.

Remembering that, somehow, (Y/N)’s mother had made her way from our destination to the hills which her daughter now called home, I wondered how long it had taken her. She had to have voyaged either pregnant or with an infant (Y/N), as (Y/N) had never mentioned having lived anywhere else before here. Such a feat boggled my mind, but it also bolstered my spirits. Perhaps there was an even greater chance of success than I’d dared hope to believe.

Notes

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