Miracles Can't Hitch Rides

Splashes of orange and red smeared the sky as the sun began its descent near another day's end, but Maria couldn’t admire nature’s oil painting. She groaned with every drag of her feet through the dusty copper road.

Kaelan led. He looked as crisp and alert as he had the morning they left almost a week prior. This, despite the fact that he insisted on spending most his nights perched in trees while Maria gladly took her sleep by the campfire. “A sleeping assassin is a dead one,” he’d tell her. What? Did assassins lack the biological needs of a normal human being?

Maria stared at him in envy. She sighed heavily; purposely trying to make it obvious.

Kaelan slowed a step. “You have no one else to blame but yourself.”

Maria turned her head. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“I mean, you wouldn’t be so fatigued if you didn’t stop every few days running your mana dry on someone else’s issue.”

“That tainted well was ravaging their village!”

“Again, someone else’s issue.”

“What would you have me do, walk past them?”

“Well, at least they replenished some of our supplies.” Kaelan sighed. “Though we’re already low again…” He tried to catch Maria’s eyes, but she quickly averted her gaze. “They almost fell to their knees when your cleansing spell cleared it in an instant,” he scoffed.

Maria waved him off. “They were overreacting.”

“For something that would’ve taken a team of high ranked mages weeks to do?”

“Well…”

“Your legs wobbled like pudding after that.”

Maria turned away.

“You’re pouting again.”

“I’m not,” she said, pouting. “I’m simply… reflecting on the distance.”

“We still have a long road ahead of us.” Kaelan glared at Maria. “Would be quicker if we didn’t stop for every little thing.”

She feigned innocence, whistling toward the falling sun.

A loud growl cut through. Maria’s stomach.

"Perhaps you should be reflecting on the fact that you gave away your remaining portion of bread yesterday."

“But he insisted he was famished.”

“You mean to tell me the fat merchant with the sore toe couldn’t make it another day without half a loaf of bread?” Kaelan stared at her with a flat expression. “He had a wagon full of goods, Maria.”

She forced a chuckle.

“Make do with this until we reach the town.”

Maria fumbled the piece of bread Kaelan tossed back at her. But she brought it under control and took a bite. “Thank you…”

Kaelan gestured to the heavy stone walls of a town appearing on the horizon. "Hopefully, this place provides a bed that doesn't involve pine needles.”

Maria watched with a breadstuffed mouth as the town began to come aglow under lantern light.

“And if lucky,” Kaelan added. “A carriage ride.”

***

The town of Arborhaven wasn’t a grand, renowned town. Though still within the Western Marches, it sat near the bordering Frowlen region. Maria was just happy she could still recognize it on Mother Martha’s old map. Still, compared to Maria’s humble Bellmere Village, it felt like a destination on its own. It even connected directly to King’s Road, where the terrain was more developed under merchant wheels.

A scent of roasted meat whiffed through the air, pulling Maria toward its direction while her mouth watered. The air was thick with woodsmoke. Visible under a clear, darkening sky, it waved under tall oil lanterns along the cobblestone road. The road led from the entrance deep into the town square.

Before Maria could get lost on her way to the food, Kaelan rested a palm on her shoulder. “Come. Let’s gather what we need before dark.”

After loading up on the essentials, the two headed toward a group of carriage drivers stationed by. Maria approached a driver whose team was harnessed and ready.

"Excuse me, sir? We’re heading toward the Holy Capital in the morning. Do you have room for two more?"

The driver looked Maria up and down—a dusty nun in a worn tunic—and then his gaze shifted to Kaelan. Kaelan stood in the shadows, his hood up and arms crossed. It truly was a bad habit. Maria was slowly turning it around, but it would still take time.

"Not for your kind" the driver spat. "Trouble enough getting through the mountain pass as it is.”

Maria blinked.

Kaelan glared at the men, who rode off with a snap of his reins.

Luck was not on their side with rejection after rejection. One merchant seemed willing to take the two “suspicious strangers” for the right price. But what little coin they had was certainly not enough.

Once evening came to full bloom, Maria led them into an inn. The bottom floor was a dining hall that smelled of stale ale. It was a rowdy place. That’s what attracted her to it. Though instead of grumbling children, it was whiny grown adults, who’d gulped down far too many mugs.

They counted their remaining copper coins on a corner table—after the provisions, what remained was barely enough for a night or two at the inn and around three bowls of stew.

A waitress came by their table, earning a few stares and whistles that seemed to follow her wherever she went. “What will it be?”

“A bowl and a mug of ale,” Kaelan said.

The young woman nodded before turning to Maria.

Maria glanced at Kaelan who almost seemed to be able to read her mind. That smoked meat smelled especially delicious, but Maria knew that it was either smoked meat or another night without a proper bed.

If not for Kaelan shaking his head, they would’ve slept under the stars.

“I’ll have… two bowls of stew,” Maria said with a smile. “Thank you.”

Kaelan rested his cheek against one hand as he spun a copper coin across the table. “Make that a night or two at the inn and zero bowls of stew,” he muttered.

Maria just tilted her head while Kaelan sighed.

Once the stew arrived, she had forgotten all about the smoked meat. For the next several minutes, there was nothing in the world more important than the two bowls sitting in front of her. She apologized to the children back home for the thought, then dug right in.

Kaelan, meanwhile, ate at a considerably slower pace.

Between spoonfuls of thick stew, Maria’s attention was drawn to an older man sitting at the table across. He wore a royal-blue traveling coat that had seen better decades. His messy brunette hair had streaks of silver, and his dark eyes were drooped in boredom.

Maria caught his gaze and gave him a polite nod. He replied the same before shifting his gaze back around the floor with a yawn.

Once the waitress returned to collect their empty bowls, it was something else entirely that caught Maria’s attention. Her gaze lingered on a bandage wrapped around the young woman’s wrist.

“Are you hurt?” Maria asked.

The waitress glanced down. “Oh. This?” She gave a dismissive wave. “It's nothing. One of the adventurers bumped into me earlier.”

Maria looked around the dining hall.

There certainly seemed to be a lot of them. Several tables were occupied by men and women carrying swords, bows, and battered pieces of armor. A few had bandages of their own.

“Are there usually so many adventurers here?” Kaelan asked.

The waitress followed his gaze. “Not usually this many.” She gathered the bowls onto her tray. “It's been like this for the past couple of weeks. A lot of guild requests around here lately.”

“What kind?” Maria asked.

“Monster hunting, mostly.” The waitress lowered her voice. “Apparently things have been getting strange up in the mountains. Creatures that normally stay deep in the passes have started wandering closer to the roads.”

Kaelan's expression hardened slightly. “Any idea why?”

The waitress shrugged. “None that I've heard. But whatever's happening, the adventurers don't seem too happy about it.” She walked off with the full tray in hand.

Outside the doors of the dining hall a commotion formed. A group of young adventurers stumbled in, two of them carrying a third. The injured boy’s leg was a ruin of shredded leather and jagged bone.

"Is there a healer?" one of them screamed. "The clinic is closed for the night! Please!"

The tavern went silent. The boy’s face was pale, his life bleeding out onto the dusty floorboard. A crowd began to gather around them.

"Maria, don't. There are too many eyes."

Kaelan tried to catch Maria’s arm but it was too late. She jumped out of her seat and pushed past large frames of leatherbound adventures until she stood before the boy. His breath grew weak with each passing second.

“I can help him.”