Turtle's Adventures Volume 4

Chapter 12

I laid my head down on the sack of rice in the back of the wagon. Rose sat Indian style next to me. She wrote in her journal as I used my knife to whittle away at a stick. One other Knight soldier sat back in the wagon with us. He just sat and watched as we past trees. There was two in the front, one steered the horses as the other one rode as a passanger. I looked behind our cart to see a carriage that was following our cart. We left our village with two carriages full of men. We were returning home with only one carriage now, not even full of Knight's. We were on our way back to our hidden little camp that was the village. We were all tired and beat up as it was still early afternoon. We lost most of the men we came with only having less then a dozen now. Most sulked over their lost friends. I guess most of us saw the outcome of the mornings battle as a loss. If you ask me what I think it was, I couldn't give you an answer. I'm just glad to be alive really. I was glad Rose was okay. Her mage powers seem to have improved throughout the months. She was strong enough to hold Pyged, I was so shocked. Of course, still being unexperienced as she was, she wasn't able to hold him for long. Either way, that will come in handy in the future. "You know Turtle, I'm glad we can still be together." Rose said closing her journal. 

"Hmm, why's that?" I asked. 

"Well, If it wasn't for you, I probably wouldn't be alive now." Rose said.

"Your a strong girl, you'd of be fine." I said. I got down to the last twig of the stick before throwing it over the side of the cart and sheathing my knife. 

"I may be now, but back when you first met me...I was weak. Honestly tell me, do you think I would of made it by my lonesome?" Rose said turning and laying down, resting her head on my chest. 

"I'm not sure. You sent me flying in the air when we first met, if you can do that, you can do anything." I said. 

"Yeah, but that was using my mage abilities, what if I didn't have them?" She asked. 

"I watched you jump on the back of a orc, twice your size and take him down by yourself." I said. 

"I guess your right. But if it wasn't for you, I would still be in that back of that wagon, until we stopped. I would of not known how to cook, make a fire, survive." She started to say. 

"You still don't know how to cook and to make a fire." I joked. 

"Your so mean." She said giggling and attempting to reach up and slap me. I laughed as I held her wrist in one hand and deflected her slaps with the other. She gave up and then went back to laying on me. There was a long silence before anyone else spoke. "Do you love her?" Rose said breaking the silence.

"Excuse me?" I asked. 

"Queen Nina, do you love her?" She asked. 

"I don't know, why do you ask?" I said. 

"The way you acted when you saw her, your face of joy and happiness. You picked Cloaked for a reason didn't you?" She said, changing her mood from her playful mood she was just in.

"Yes, she's a friend, I wanted to check in on her." I said. 

"You did a lot more than check on her didn't you?" She asked. 

"What kind of question is that?" I asked. 

"I don't know. I just want you to be happy, so if your happy with her then thats fine with me." She said. 

"Are you sure thats true?" I said. 

"Yes!" She said confident this time. I nodded and then it went back to silence. I watched as she looked out into the woods. Her hair fell in her face as we rode.