“…I think we should keep going.”
“This again?! She really didn’t pick you for your brains, did she?”
“Don’t talk to him like that.”
“I just think we should put a little more distance between us and Lex. If he comes looking for us now-”
“You think we’d be better off if he found us stumbling around in the dark, exhausted and barely able to move in a straight line?”
“Both of you, please, stop it,” sighed Cozy, feeling her stomach cramp up at Aisle and Aria’s bickering. Though that might have been the hunger pains kicking up again. After having had a good meal for the first time in weeks, the renewed lack of food wasn’t sitting well with her body. “We’ve gone over all of this already, and this is the best option we have right now.”
“That’s her way of saying ‘shut it, loverboy,’” added Aria, somehow managing to imbue her whisper with an audible sneer.
“I understand,” replied Aisle nervously. “I do. I just think that if-”
This time Aria’s reply was an angry hiss. “If you repeat yourself one more time then, so help me, I won’t be the only one here who needs to have their voice box regenerated!”
Giving a long-suffering sigh, Cozy closed her eyes. Although her spirit had been high when she’d left the camp, even in the face of the constant setbacks they’d had to deal with, Aria and Aisle were very clearly not as relieved as she was to be away from that place. By itself that wouldn’t have been a big deal, but each of them was constantly venting their anxieties as they journeyed. While Cozy could have dealt with that, the two of them were completely unable to agree on anything, and those disagreements almost always became arguments. Listening to the two of them go back and forth again and again had been enough to erode Cozy’s good mood.
It would have been easy to lay all the blame on Aria, she knew. The Siren was constantly complaining – about being hungry, about how slow they were going, about having to crawl along the ground (her flying spell had ended just after she’d rejoined them, and she’d insisted on conserving her remaining magic in case there was an emergency) – and her attitude had been enough to make Cozy regret asking her to join them. But there was no backing out of that now, she knew. She’d seen a little of what Aria could do during the battle against the sea monsters, and it was enough to make it very clear that if she wanted, the Siren wouldn’t have much trouble dragging them back to Lex against their wills. In fact, Cozy suspected that was the real reason why Aria was insisting on holding some of her magic in reserve…
On the other hoof, Aisle hadn’t been much better. Although he wasn’t as openly unpleasant as Aria was, he couldn’t seem to keep himself from offering his opinion on every little thing they did. Even that wouldn’t have been unbearable if he’d limited himself to voicing some new or otherwise-pertinent observation and being done with it. But for whatever reason, he seemed compelled to raise the same points over and over again. The number of times that he’d insisted that they put as much distance between themselves and the camp as quickly as they could was impossible to count. It was like he thought they hadn’t heard him or fully comprehended what he was saying, no matter how thoroughly they assured him that they understood him.
Cozy had been content to endure Aisle’s repeating himself – even if it made her grit her teeth, she knew that it was his way of coping with his fears; besides, getting to know her boyfriend’s bad habits was also a part of their relationship – but Aria was far less forgiving. It hadn’t taken long for her to start snarking at Aisle every time he said something he’d mentioned before. Aisle’s replies had never dropped down to her level, of course, but maybe it would have been better if he had rather than trying to explain his reasoning even more in response to her criticism, since that inevitably upset Aria even worse. It had quickly gotten to the point where Cozy needed to jump in as soon as they started talking to each other in order to avoid a fight breaking out.
All of that, plus the fact that the journey itself hadn’t gotten any easier. If anything, it had become harder as they’d continued on. The issues with the makeshift sled that they’d loaded Pillow’s body onto had continued to plague them, and whether due to the effort they were expending or Aria’s complaining, there had been constant reminders as to how hungry they all were. Worse, Aisle’s stamina had rapidly been depleted by the effort of pulling Pillow’s body, and while the pace had picked up slightly when Cozy had taken on that burden for herself (over Aisle’s protests), it hadn’t been long before the effort had slowed her to a crawl as well. Aria, of course, had refused to take a turn pulling at all.
The final straw had been after the sun had gone down. When the last vestiges of twilight had turned into full darkness, the logistical problems had become too much to ignore. While Cozy could have conjured a light, Aisle had practically become hysterical at the idea, insisting that doing so would instantly bring Lex down on them; the fact that Aria had begrudgingly concurred had driven home that it was a bad idea, and Cozy had let it go. But with no light, keeping on anything that remotely resembled a straight line was too difficult to attempt. None of them knew how to navigate via the stars, and while the lights from the camp were still visible behind them – closer than was comfortable – it was too easy to drift off-course if they didn’t stop and glance backward every minute or so. As Aisle had repeatedly brought up, if they drifted even a little bit without constantly checking their course, they could end up heading northwest instead of northeast, which would add to their overall travel time rather than reducing it.
Despite this, he’d wanted to push on, his fear of Lex stronger than his fear of getting lost. That, and he’d pointed out that the more distance they covered, the sooner they could reach a farming village and acquire some food. But Cozy had eventually decided to stop for the night, knowing that they were all at the end of their rope. As badly as she wanted to get back to the Crystal Empire, she knew that Aria was right about them exhausting themselves if they went any further.
At the moment, the Siren had moved on to yet another thing that was bothering her. “You had better be right about there being a place with some food nearby,” she spat, the whispered words quite clearly directed at Aisle. “Even when I had to live with the sahuagin, there was enough to eat every day.”
“I don’t know why we haven’t seen anything,” murmured Aisle. They’d all lain down a short distance from each other when Cozy had called for them to stop, and he was only a few feet from her now. Despite that, he was still nearly invisible in the dim glow of the gibbous moon and the stars. “None of them are big places, but usually there’d be at least a few lights in windows. We should have caught a glimpse of some by now.”
“Maybe they’re hiding from something,” ventured Cozy. She was only half-paying attention, exhaustion and the need to keep the conversation away from the two of them fighting driving her words more than logic. “We didn’t use any lights when we were in Vanhoover.”
“Yeah, but that was because of the ghouls,” answered Aisle, his voice slightly nervous. “It’s not like there are any of those out here. So what would they be hiding from?”
“They’ll need to hide from me if they don’t turn over whatever food they have,” whispered Aria harshly. Her stomach growled angrily then, as if to punctuate her words. “I’m hungry, I’m tired, and I’m hurt, so they better not give us any trouble!”
Cozy frowned at that, blinking for a moment as she fought off sleep, sitting up. “You’re hurt?” That didn’t make any sense; Aria hadn’t been injured when she’d joined up with them, and she hadn’t so much as helped pull Pillow’s sled. How could she be hurt? “How?”
“What do you care?” snorted Aria sullenly.
“Because I might be able to help.” With a grunt, she climbed to her hooves. “I can’t fix things like fatigue or sore muscles, but if you’re wounded I can heal you.”
“Well I am wounded,” came the petulant reply. Cozy climbed to her hooves at that, expecting that Aria would demand that she come heal her…but to her surprise, no such command came. Instead, Aria was silent for several long seconds before whispering again. “I wasn’t just talking about how rough the ground was for fun, you know.” Although it was hard to tell with how the words were whispered, it sounded to Cozy like Aria’s usual acerbity was lacking. “My tail isn’t exactly built for crawling around like this.”
That wasn’t news to Cozy, at least not completely. The ground being uncomfortable had been among Aria's laundry list of complaints, but Cozy had thought she’d been speaking more generally, like in terms of soreness or muscle cramping. But what she was saying now made it sound more like she had cuts and scrapes. For a moment Cozy felt a flicker of guilt, realizing she’d misjudged at least part of Aria’s bad attitude. I was so worried about staying far enough away from them that Lex’s curse wouldn’t make me feel their discomfort that I didn’t think about what it was like for her. “I’ll heal you now,” she declared, starting to pick her way toward the source of the whispered words.
Aria snorted. “Why? What's it to you if I’m hurt or not?”
“Because I care about you, Aria. I wouldn't want to help you if I didn't.”
“And here I thought you were just worried that I’d turn you back in to Lex if you didn’t stay on my good side.”
Cozy flinched at the accusation. Although that wasn’t her reason for making the offer, that thought had crossed her mind. “That’s not true. I’ve done this for you before, remember? After the battle at the docks?”
“What I remember is that you told everyone who was hurt to gather around you, and then you did your healing-aura thing. You weren’t worried about me personally, were you?” When no answer came from the crystal mare, Aria snorted again. “Thought so. Maybe next time try that whole ‘I care about you’ bit when it’s not your best bet for getting something from me. It might sound a little more sincere then.”
Cozy was silent for a long moment, then marched toward where Aria’s voice came from. As she approached her, she gasped as she felt phantom pains suddenly appear along her lower body, as though she was covered with cuts and scrapes. Biting her lip as she almost stumbled across Aria, she gestured and chanted a prayer to Lashtada, before reaching out and laying a hoof on the Siren’s body. Immediately, the phantom pains vanished, and she heard Aria give a grunt of relief. Stepping back, Cozy turned toward where Aisle was already snoring softly. “I know you don’t believe me, but I do care about you, Aria. Right now, we’re all in this together, and that means that no matter what you might think, the three of us are a team. We won’t ignore your problems or abandon you.” She couldn’t help but give a wry smile then, knowing that Aria wouldn’t see it in the dark. “No matter how much you drive us crazy.” With that said, she trotted toward Aisle, intent on going to sleep.
Behind her, Aria was also counting on the darkness to hide her face, her features twisted in a pensive look.