Die Alone

Chapter Twelve

Amber Young
Orphic

Day three of walking, Amber woke up to the sound of Sion whining about being hungry. When she sat up she saw everyone but Sakiya and Sebastian were awake. Niamh seemed to be nowhere in sight.

It was starting to get very warm and Amber was melting with her cloak draped over her like a blanket.

She groaned, before rubbing her eyes and moving to stretch her back. Every part of her body ached from sleeping on the ground. She surprisingly slept heavily and was wide awake now. 

The sunlight danced along the shadows of leaves on the forest floor, reminding Amber of everything they endured the last few days.

I miss home.

In minutes Niamh returned with food she found in the forest.

"Are we going to be eating like bunnies everyday?" Sion asked, rubbing his stomach that had just growled.

Niamh shrugged. "When you are a part of the Armed Royal Officials, you get used to a much more sparse diet. "Although, we always have a proper meal for dinner. All that food is back at my ARO group camp though."

Sion frowned in response.

"Okay, get these two up, we have another day of walking," Niamh pointed to the sleeping Ferox's.

Amber looked up at the sky, leaning back on her elbows she ignored the others to briefly disassociate. The sun shone through the dense leaves, creating sun rays.

The birds chirped so loud, Amber questioned how they didn't wake her up. She found it funny that in such bad heat, she couldn't hear cicadas.

Guess there's no cicadas here. Thank god, those things are terrifying looking.

"Amber, get up," Adrian said, snapping Amber out of her daze. Adrian stood, looking down at her confused. She nodded and slowly got up, grabbing her satchel and cloak.

They continued walking and Amber continued her daze. Everyone else chatted while she walked quietly and admired the forest.

Judyta was also doing the same but this is what Judyta always did. Maybe they both got really good at dissociation in response to boredom. At least, that's what happened to Amber.

Hours passed and the snow on the ground was slowly growing taller and taller as they walked. They stopped a few times for breaks.

"Okay we're going to walk into another village soon," Niamh said, pointing ahead to where a village could be seen. Already looked much different then the Ferōx village.

Amber nonetheless thanked god there was a village. She couldn't feel her face, hands and legs. The sky had also been getting darker the further they walked, it looked like a storm was coming. It already was snowing, making it hard to see past a few yards. It's hard to believe she woke up in a humid and sweaty forest.

"Are we going to grab more clothes? Surely they'll have something warm," Amber said.

"This village will likely have been more looted than the last but it's also much bigger so I'm sure there will be something," Niamh explained.

As they walked closer and closer, Amber noticed a castle emerge amidst the falling snow. The snow only fell harder as they all slipped into a house.

Same drill as last time, Niamh went to loot houses while the others stayed put. Amber once again examined the books. This time she found a lot of old cooking and recipe books. She looked out the kitchen window to the old stone village. Houses were three stories tall and compact. They were made of stone and attached like townhouses. It reminded Amber a lot of England. It was a much bigger village then the quaint little Fērox village they'd seen.