Varian and the Seven Kingdoms (Varian's Seven Trials)

The Great Gopher Grab

The next morning, the group travelled back to their caravan, Nuru's father reluctant to let her go, but smiling and giving words of encouragement as he did. When they were all ready to go, they set off, out of Zephaeli.
"So," Nuru spread a map out on the desk and searched it with her finger, "Aardeterre is the next closest kingdom. We should go there." She told Varian and he nodded.
"Sounds good. How long's the journey?"
"Two to three days by carriage...so...three to four days in a caravan with a...pretty slow donkey?" Nuru smiled in a friendly way and Varian laughed.
"Yeah..."

"He hasn't talked to me all morning." Hugo told Yong, as he watched the two plan the journey from the other side of the caravan.
"Why not?"
"Not important- he can't still be mad about it." Hugo rolled his eyes.
"Did you do something bad again?" Yong asked, a disappointed look on his face.
"No- well...not exactly."
"You need to apologise." Yong said, and instead of listening, Hugo stood up and walked over to the desk, leaning his arm on Varian's shoulder,
"We know where we're going yet?"
Varian sighed and looked to Nuru. She looked back at him then looked at Hugo,
"Aardeterre." She answered plainly.
"Great! It's nice there- super lush." He looked at Varian but the boy was determined not to give him a response,
"Goggle's, c'mon, you can't be like this the whole trip."
"I'm gonna set Prometheus on course." Varian told Nuru with a smile and climbed onto the roof. Once the boy had disappeared behind the hatch, Hugo met Nuru's burning gaze.
"And he told me I needed to grow up." The blonde scoffed, "Can you believe he's not talking to me?" Hugo looked to Yong, who nodded.
"I can." Nuru said, firmly.
"Does he really have t'pretend I don't exist?"
"Must be hard." Nuru pouted, mockingly.
"He's being stupid." Hugo leaned on the desk.
"He's not being stupid. He's focusing on what's important. And contrary to your belief, that's not you." Nuru shook her head and returned to her work at the desk.
The blonde walked to his bed, and threw himself onto it.

Varian returned to the caravan once Prometheus was headed in the right direction, and he sat, reading his mother's journal. Nuru was jotting down notes, referring to the map and star charts. Meanwhile, Yong was watching the scenery roll by through the window.
The day felt like it dragged on forever. Yong was falling asleep against the window, and Hugo fought each yawn that came.
The caravan soon entered a woodland, and the ride got a lot bumpier.
After a while longer, they came to a halt. This scared Yong awake, and caused Nuru to look up from the desk.
"What was that?" Nuru asked.
"I'll check." Hugo got up, desperate to escape the silence. He left the caravan and walked over to Prometheus, to see what had stopped him. There was a river flowing in front of them and Hugo looked each way down the water. There didn't seem to be any crossing close by, so he walked back to the caravan and looked inside,
"There's a river. Doesn't seem like there's a crossing anywhere nearby. What d'you wanna do?" He looked at Varian. The boy stood up and moved past Hugo, out of the caravan. He walked over to the river and put his hands on his hips, looking down the river as Hugo had.
Nuru and Yong joined the boys outside. "Why's there a path with no bridge...?" Nuru asked, confused.
"I...dunno." Varian sighed, "The woods are too dense for us to follow the river...I guess we'll have to bridge the gap ourselves." Varian looked at the others.
"How are we going to do that?" Nuru asked.
"We could explode the bottom of a tree so it falls!" Yong said excitedly.
"I like the kid's idea- short and sweet." Hugo grinned.
Varian looked to Nuru, who shrugged.
"Alright...we'll try Yong's idea." Varian smiled, "Nuru, can you help Yong? I'm gonna back the caravan up a little."
Nuru nodded, and her and Yong searched for an appropriate tree.
"What should I do?" Hugo asked and Varian glanced at him.
"Whatever you want. Like usual, right?" Varian walked past him and grabbed Prometheus' reins. The blonde turned to look at Varian,
"Alright, that's a little harsh."
"I don't wanna talk about it now. I'm busy." Varian gently eased the donkey backwards.
Hugo sighed and joined Nuru and Yong. The young boy looked to the blonde, hopefully. Hugo shook his head.