Enlightened Shadow | Rogue Cheney X OC

Ch 23 | Scared?

P.o.v. Yanida Clover

The ride to the forest turned out to be at least 1 hour by carriage. I managed to convince Rogue to not walk to it, which made me very happy at the time but when we actually were moving I felt bad for him.

An old man was kind enough to take us along on his way to the next town and to drop us off along the way at the forest. We were sitting in the back of his vehicle, with only a layer of hay between us and the wooden floor. There weren't any windows so a small breeze lifted up my dark dusty rose hair and somewhat helped Rogue with his motion sickness. The way he handled it was a lot different than Natsu, Rogue tried to hide the fact that he was feeling sick. But his hand was permanently placed on his stomach and his head leaned far back against the old wood, his extreme pale face also didn't help his case to try and hide it.

Because of that Frosch settled on my lap for the duration of our journey. "I'm really sorry for forcing you on this carriage," I apologized to Rogue, I didn't want this adventure with him to be our last one. "You didn't force me, you gave valid arguments and I agreed," his voice sounded deeper and I could tell he was trying his best to not throw up his breakfast.

When I'm back home I will ask Wendy to learn me the Troia spell, for future adventures with Rogue, or other dragon slayers. "We're almost there, it'll be over soon," I told him touching his shoulder to offer some comfort. He didn't answer, and I thought he would probably feel better not saying anything. So I didn't talk too, occasionally I pointed at something in the landscape or asked the old man in the front how much further it was, but other than that I was silent. A comfortable silence with me enjoying the ride, and Rogue trying to imagine being anywhere else than here.

The old man who was riding the carriage set us off at the side of the forest. He told us that a couple of decades ago this was a premise of a rich earl, but one night a big explosion was heard. The people who dared to go near the house saw that one of the left towers was gone, completely obliterated. Going inside, they called for the earl but nobody answered, no noise was heard so they assumed he died of the explosion.

A couple of weeks later thieves dared to enter the old house that started to overgrow. The only thing they managed to steal was a couple of golden candle holders. I asked him why they didn't steal any more objects, while Rogue listened attentively. "They were chased away by a ghost! The spirit of the earl is still protecting his possessions. Say, you weren't planning on stealing anything from him, we're ya?" he asked at the end, and I just shook my head slowly, my lips tightly pressed to each other.

"You don't really think that the house is really haunted, right?" I asked Rogue walking three feet behind him and Frosch frantically looking around, making sure there wasn't anybody watching us. We we're walking on something that looked like a driveway up to the house, but nature seemed to have had his own decorating plans. Several weeds were finding their way between the stones. Bushes, ivy and wildflowers decorated old structures like lampposts, low stone walls and a greenhouse that was already eaten alive by the forest.

Upon hearing my question Rogue stopped walking and turned around, revealing a slight grin on his face; "You're not scared now, are you"? I held my head up high and told him while passing; "Of course not, I was just checking if you weren't," I lied, which made him chuckle lightly to himself.

"Frosch is scared of ghosts," he said with his usual high-pitched voice. I looked at him, and pushed my own scary thoughts away. 'There is no such thing as ghosts, when you die you reincarnate and there is no step between' I thought, giving myself an energy boost. "You don't need to be scared Frosch, ghost do not exist!" I told him with full confidence, now walking 3 feet in front of them.