Moonrise ✔ [Complete]

45 Dawn

"What about flies?" Reo asked about half an hour later.

After deconstructing his makeshift grill, they had returned to the stream to follow it north. With hunger and thirst satisfied for the time being, they resumed their journey, wielding their plamsa rifles and moving faster to make up distance and time.

But it was only minutes before their path ended at the tall, rocky cliff that Maeyune had seen earlier that night. They came to stand a foot away from it, heads bent back as they turned their faces upward.

Maeyune squinted at the edge of the top. Standing roughly fifty feet tall, the wall loomed high above the forest canopy, serving as an obstruction that prevented them from moving any farther north. The rock wall spanned from left to right as far as she could see in the darkness, and she realized it was the side of a plateau. 

They had reached the beginning of the Golden Horn mountain range.

She eyed the cliff above them. Could they climb it?

It isn't worth the risk, Maeyune thought. Perhaps there was another way around?

She sidestepped alongside the wall. She continued east again, keeping the wall on her left and the stream, which flowed a few dozen yards away, on her right. Reo followed without question. 

"You said you can't kill a living creature," Reo went on. "Have you ever killed a fly before?"

"No, I haven't," she answered matter-of-factly, her eyes concentrated on the shadowed path ahead.

He didn't respond, and when she glanced over her shoulder, she took in his bafflement.

"What?" she asked.

"Not even flies?"

"Flies have an interesting aura, hardly visible to the naked eye," she explained, turning forward again. "They are usually some shade of feces."

There was a pause, followed by a low chuckle. "Well, I guess you learn something new everyday."

He didn't say anything more after that. She thought he had finished the conversation--until he asked, "So, who were you going to marry?"

It took a moment for her to process what he had said. She glanced back at him again, frowning. "What?"

"The dream," he clarified. "You were wearing a wedding dress."

The dream--he was referring to the dream the Overlord had trapped them inside. Maeyune recalled the vision of the sapphire giant wearing Deiyu's face and the ivory gown that she'd worn.

"It was only a dream," she said, the words rushed.

Reo lengthened his strides to reach her side, and she could have sworn he leaned in closer. "Was it me?" he whispered.

Her foot nearly tripped over the other. Sputtering, she glared at him and discovered a rather innocent smile on his lips.

Of course, his boldness shouldn't have come at a surprise.