Nateaser: Reborn As My Love Interest

Lambert - Chapter Thirteen

We finally stopped for the night.

We marched for five days, and I wasn't tired because of the distance we covered but the exact opposite. Were it not for the Princess, we'd have reached our destination already, though maybe better that we didn't.

It was hard to imagine, how drained the paladin felt, not that she showed signs of it while she set out to gather firewood and organize a campfire. The Princess was adamant, that we bring a tent for her, but quietly snored on a log already. If she woke up like that, I'd have to listen to her complaints all day so I set up our camp.

"It is eerie how we haven't met other humans all week," Cath noted once the fire burned. "This route was so busy just years ago, I rode along it as a squire..."

"Oh, I'm glad we had not run into monsters though," I said, surprised that she felt like chatting. I wondered what she was like as a squire, but knew better than to ask about it.

"We must halt this onslaught, or humankind disappears from the continent." She mumbled, staring into the distance. As strange as it sounds, she looked most beautiful when sad.

"Onslaught?" I asked puzzled, but she couldn't bother with an answer. I rarely saw this expression on her face as she was always energetic and optimistic. Naive even. But walking for days on the empty road turned her blue like her short bob cut. "I doubt the monsters planned to attack."

Again, no answer, but it wasn't safe to stare at her so I finished the tent before the sun fell. Soon our only light source was the fire and I hoped it would keep the animals away. The paladin breathed slowly as if sleeping already but her eyes remained open.

I took inventory of our food.

"What would you like to eat?" I asked Cath quietly, but she started snoring. Maybe she was sleeping after all, with both eyes open. I found it funny but a little creepy too and wondered how often she slept on guard duty like that.

The Princess turned in her sleep too and I considered picking her up to move her into the tent. She would have accused me of all kinds of things if I woke her in the process though. I decided to let them rest and prepared a meal worthy of royalties.

They were still out when I finished eating, but it was getting cold. The paladin slept closer to the fire and was probably used to the outdoors, but the Princess could get sick. I grabbed her meal and walked to her, hoping the smell of food would wake her up, but it didn't work.

"Your Highness will catch the cold like that," I spoke quietly to no effect. "Please wake up and have dinner. Your tent is ready too."

Her eyes popped open right before I tried to shake her, and she looked distressed.

"She's here! She's here!" The Princess yelled, and I couldn't calm her down, worried that she would wake the paladin.

"I brought food for Your Majesty, nobody else is here." I tried to reason with her, but she had none of it.

"No, she's here, I felt it. She's here." She said on her toes now, desperately looking around. "I'm serious, she's close."

"It's all right, Princess, you are awake now." I tried again, but she paced around nervously.

"No, you idiot, she's right here!" She yelled, grabbing my shoulders.

"W-who is?" I asked, giving in.

"The Goddess! Alexandra! A mile to the south, no, south-east..." She almost screamed, waking the paladin who jumped up, unsheathing her falchion. "She's... Gone. I don't understand, she was right here..."

"Your Highness, it was just a dream." I tried to soothe her. "We had a long journey..."

"Fool, you don't understand." She released me, still upset but closer to her usual self. "I'm not talking about nightmares. I felt the Goddess appear almost at arms reach."