Chapter 203

Chapter 203: Chapter 203

Tempest forced herself to keep moving.

Dron asked her every few seconds if she were okay.

The first few times Tempest was flattered. It was clear that he was concerened about her. But after the first dozen it began to annoy her.

She was frustrated.

Not just from being out in the heat, but even the air blowing across the front of her shins seemed to annoy her.

She wasn’t naive to think that this was simply because of Dron checking on her.

She was extra agitated.

Tempest took a deep breath and tried to get her emotions back under control.

She couldn’t focus on what was going on inside of her when there was so much happening outside of her.

The arid nearly flat landscape gave her the perfect view of the people around her.

It had to be more than a hundred people here.

Maybe even two hundred.

Tempest couldn’t keep count.

All she knew is when they walked out of the remains of the human settlements everyone had agreed to come with Dron and her to Tine’s settlement.

Along the way Crillium gathered what was left of the stronghold and who was left.

Just as Dron had suspected, the savages ran through the stronghold the same way they had the human settlement. There was barely anything left.

Those there joined up with us.

As they continued to walk, Aliq drifted off from time to time. Every time he came back there were at least six more people with him, all of them ready and eager to join in on our mission.

There had been times during the journey where Tempest thought that some of them would run and try to hide out. They faced a few of those underearth octupus monsters. Four people died then.

Then there were a few people who simply succumbed to the intense weather.

Every time someone fell Tempest was sure that it would be the end of the journey, but anytime something happen there was always someone there to reinvigorate the crowd.

Rynax was really puting his charm to work. Gerax did his best to make sure all the medical needs were met. It was hard simply because so many people were injured in the different battles.

Still, no one gave up.

Tempest felt all the more ridiculous that even with all this going on around her, all she could think about was the increasing pressure in her core.

"If you need to stop, you must tell me." Dron spoke to her.

Tempest groaned, "I said I’m fine. You don’t have to keep asking me every second.

The words came out far more snappier than she wanted them to.

Dron’s eyebrow furrowed and his steps slowed.

Tempest reached out and grabbed his forearm, squeezing gently. She softened her words, "I promise I’m okay. Don’t worry about me."

Dron’s expression relaxed, "Impossible."

Tempest smiled up at him and slowly slid her hand up his bulging biceps.

A flash of the memory assaulted her mind. She could see how strong he was and how his muscles flexed as he thrusted into her....

Over

And over

And over again.

Tempest quickly pulled her hand away. There was no use in tempting herself with something she couldn’t have.

Soon though, she knew from previous experience, she wouldn’t have a choice.

Her heat would be here by tomorrow and then she would be clawing at Dron’s clothes whether she wanted to or not.

Dron opened his mouth to speak but in that same moment Kraznek came over to talk to him.

Tempest had never been more grateful for a distraction in her life.

She looked around for a distraction of her own. Thankfully, Mexyn was just a few feet ahead of her.

Tempest sped up and walked up next to Mexyn.

Mexyn had the typical stone face expression she always wore.

"Hey." Tempest spoke softly when she got close to her friend.

Mexyn turned her head slightly in Tempest direction before she sighed and looked forward.

"Forgive me, I didn’t see you there." Mexyn mumbled.

"Yeah, you seem like you are in your own little world. Tell me is there a beach where you are?" Tempest chuckled trying to lighten the mood.

"No beach, nothingness." Mexyn replied.

Tempest had known the woman to always be a bit pessimistic but this was a little more than her usual gloominess.

"Something’s wrong. You know you can talk to me, right?" Tempest kept pace with her.

"There’s nothing really to talk about. Nothing to do about it." Mexyn shrugged her shoulders.

Tempest realized just how much she had rubbed off on the woman. There would be time to think about that later, right now she wanted to get to the bottom of what was bothering Mexyn.

"Even if there’s nothing we can do about it, maybe you might feel better if you talked about it." Tempest bumped her softly with her shoulder.

Mexyn smirked at her. "You do have a way of disarming people, you know. I mean any other Thraqen would have left me to my own devices but here you are trying to make my problems yours."

"I do what I can for friends. You are my friend, Mexyn. You might actually be my best friend." Tempest admitted softly.

"Is there a difference between the two?"

"Well, I guess a best friend is someone you would feel more connected to." It felt strange to Tempest having to explain what the difference between a regular friend and a best friend was.

Its been a long time since she’s had a best friend.

The last one she thought she had wound up having an affair with her boyfriend. Maybe she wasn’t the greatest person to pick a best friend.

"Well, then you are my best friend as well." Mexyn replied.

"Great, now tell your best friend what’s on your mind." Tempest nodded, side stepping a little to avoid a small rock in their path.

Mexyn was silent for a moment. Tempest gave her the time she needed to get her words together.

It wasn’t like they had anywhere else to be. They would be walking for at least another day, at least that is what Dron told them.

The journey was far from over. The least she could do was focus on something else besides what was to come in the future.

Mexyn finally opened her mouth to talk. Tempest could have put money on the words that left her friends mouth.

"I want to stay with Crilium."

Tempest gasped and then clapped, "Oh my goodness, that’s wonderful! I’m so happy for you." Tempest was smiling wide but Mexyn’s expression didn’t match hers.

"Wait, I’m missing something. Why aren’t you happy about this? Doesn’t Crillium want you to stay with him?"

"Yes, more than anything." Mexyn sighed again.

"Then I don’t see the problem."

"The problem is we can’t be together. I don’t see any way that we could pull this off, not without sacrafices that I don’t believe any of us would be able to endure."

Tempest still couldn’t understand what the issue was. Sure there would be sacrafices but what relationship didn’t come with sacrafices?

"What do you mean? Why can’t you be together?" Tempest questioned.

"For starters I’m already married Tempest. I still have a few more months of being with my husband back in Thraqe. Though I’m sure he’s going to have something to say about this little journey when I get back. He may even petition to lengthen the marriage and he would be well within his rights to do that."

Tempest puffed out a breath of air. She’d nearly forgotten that Mexyn was a married woman and all that she had been doing with Crilium would be considered adultry.

"Okay, that’s a hiccup. But..." Tempest tried to offer some advice but Mexyn cut her off.

"Crilium suggested that I just stay, there’s no way my husband would follow me here. He’s not the fighting type."

"That sounds good. Just don’t go back."

"It’s not that simple, there is no life nectar here. No advancements. I’d have to give up everything I’ve already grown accustomed to. On Thraqe I could use the life nectar to enhance and elongated my life. Not only that but Crilium would have to stay with his soldiers. It would be anarchy without him. That means I’ll be stuck in soldiers quarters. I don’t think I’d survive longer than a few moon cycles."

Tempest looked Mexyn over. Mexyn didn’t see the strength that Tempest could see inside of her.

"You would last longer than that, you’re stronger than you think." she bit the inside of her lip, "What about sneaking into Thraqe? Just to get what you need and then come back."

"I wouldn’t know how to do that and Crilium isn’t allowed on the land. If we are caught especially together, I’ll be shunned and punished and Crilium would more than likely be killed for being an intruder."

All of that sounded bad. Tempest didn’t know what she could say that would make Mexyn feel better. Didn’t know what she could do to help her with the situation.

"Soon, we’ll have what we need to bring a considerable force to the high royals. But no matter what my life is going to change for the worse. It’s making it hard to be excited about all of this." Mexyn gestured to the ever growing group of people on the march toward Tine settlement.

Tempest hated that her best friend was going through this. She hated that the world put her in this situation. If she didn’t want to be married to the abusive jerk back in Thraqe she should be free to choose who she wanted.

It was only then that Tempest started to think about the future. The goal was to get rid of the high royals, but what would come after that?

How could they change things to make it better for everyone involved?

Tempest wasn’t sure of the answers, but she knew before long they were going to need to come up with a long term plan.