Another Stupid Trilogy by Bill Ricardi

Author:Bill Ricardi [Ricardi, Bill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-08-25T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

The morning brought light but not warmth.

I’m not certain if we were experiencing the same sort of malaise that we felt on our caravan trip through these lands last year, but something was certainly making things unseasonably cold. Although it was reasonable for the dawn sun to need a number of hours to give us her full warmth, it felt like midnight rather than morning.

We had taken what supplies we needed and left the rest in the cave to facilitate the return trip. One would assume that the General, once contacted via Max’s Message, would send his closest and fastest ship to get us. However we had no idea how close or how fast that ship would be, so stockpiling a few days worth of supplies was a wise thing to do.

Moving up the rocky shore was annoying. Scaling the steep paths that led up to the cliffside village was arduous. Once we had all made it to the top, it was still over a thousand paces before we reached the first building that we wished to investigate.

Will was uncharacteristically quiet. By contrast, Rick was complaining far more vocally than normal. Comments about stiff legs and rocks in boots were quite unusual coming from the stoic human.

I jokingly asked if the tall man wanted to ride around on a Flat Mule, as had been promised.

Rick snapped, “Very funny. We’ll probably still be crawling around this gods forsaken place when the students start their midterms, and I’ll miss the payoff for all that hard work.”

Ames and I glanced at each other. I gently informed the man, “Rick. It’s Early Fall of the year 2718, day 1. Midterms were yesterday.”

The human slowed his pace. He eventually came to a stop, and the rest of us followed suit. “It can’t be. We were just…” he trailed off and looked at Will. The smaller mage shook his head a little bit, seeming lost himself.

I put my big gloved hand on Rick’s shoulder. “We met the day after midweek. The trip here took all of that day and the next. So when we woke up it was Fall.”

The man sighed and shook his head. “You’re right. Yeah.” He started walking again, allowing my hand to fall from his shoulder without further comment. Will looked worried. I tousled his dirty blond hair and murmured assurances that everything would be fine.

But Ames wasn’t going to leave it at that.

I looped an arm around the smaller human’s back to give him that extra bit of support. Once we were moving again, the were-cat asked, “Will, Rick. I just wanted to make sure that everything was alright. You were both excellent during the ship-to-ship battle, but this area is known to wear on the mind. So let us know if you need anything. We’re here to help.”

I was impressed. For once Ames had summoned a fair amount of tact. I had to wonder how many times the were-cat practiced that in their head.

Rick snorted and waved off the suggestion.

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