Laurel’s POV
The next day we set out early after having breakfast at the inn. As much as I did not like staying at inns. It did hit me again at how much faster setting out the next morning was. If we stayed in one every day we might be able to shave a day off our trip.
But that would only work if there were inns wherever we were when evening came along. Nor was I willing to give up sleeping outside to save a few hours. My strength was still far from recovered and Faun was even worse off. For Faun, it was only a couple days ago that she was even willing to exercise any of her powers. One of our horses spooked a badger that was out foraging. She had to forcefully soothe both animals before either of them got hurt.
It was taxing when I had to spend my energy to make the medicine for Mist. I was grateful that I did not need to make more for the horse. It was much bigger and would take a lot more medicine. But Faun lost much of the color she had started to gain back just from using the color to calm the animals.
“Did you have any luck figuring out your powers?” Faun asked Mist once we passed the last houses in the village. Faun and I had spent some time talking about Mist’s power in the earlier morning while we waited on the others. Her power was a mystery so there was no way she would be able to help us with our travels. She was a spirit, there was no doubt about that. But she now struggled to control water. Somehow as a greater spirit she had much less control over water than when she was a sprite. It was barely better than an elf with a talent in water magic. This made no sense to Faun and I, we could both clearly see that her control of her powers had improved as expected; it was just that her powers were not very compatible with water anymore. But we were no closer to figuring out what her energy was compatible with.
With a pout Mist replied, “I still have not been able to figure anything out.”
I was lost in my head pondering these things until just after our mid day break. Leafia had decided to walk with me for a while instead of riding in front of Michael. Normally I would love this extra time to talk with Leafia, but right now I was not sure how I liked this current arrangement. Leafia had been almost completely silent this afternoon and my efforts to talk to her fell like a leaf in the fall after just a few minutes. I would not usually mind walking in silence next to Leafia but the number of glances from Michael in our direction was stressful. Leafia was also far from innocent in the awkward glances department.
Leafia had regained much of her strength over the last few days, but she was still weaker than she used to be. I did not want her to take any falls and risk any more injuries. Because of this, I was walking right next to her this afternoon, or at least for this next little bit of the afternoon, and I could not escape the glances directed at her. My only relief is that I had to think that she would tire out soon and would be forced to ride with Michael once again.
The stifling silence between the two of them since yesterday evening made the faltering conversation between Leafia and myself pale in comparison. I could only think that Leafia was trying to give herself some space from all that tension. Or at least that is what I understood from my conversations with Emily. I wanted to talk to Faun about what all this emotional mess was about. She would have been able to explain it in a way that a plant would have understood much better than Emily did. But I did not feel right involving her any more than she already was. This was too close to her den.
Part of me did want to wave this mess in Faun’s face and say, ‘this just goes to prove that family love was not the same thing as romantic love.’ Family love did not leave you constantly wondering if the other person felt the same way that you did. I was not worried about Faun or Mist’s love for me. But that seemed to be what Leafia was worried about. At least that was my understanding, per Emily, for all the awkwardness between Leafia and Michael this morning.
After an hour of walking Leafia began to slow down and we started moving towards the back of our little caravan. Michael stayed with us and was just a few feet away on his horse ready to scoop her up at a moment's notice. We still had not been talking much during this whole time. I could only think that she was trying to conserve her energy. But that would not explain the odd feeling of hesitation I was getting from her.
In just a few minutes after Leafia started to slow down we started to get looks of concern from all our company. Leafia was now slowing our group's progress down but no one wanted to say anything.
“Do you want to get back on the horse?” I asked after feeling everyone's gaze. Having endured Michael’s gaze for the last hour, these added stares were starting to get to me. I do not know how Leafia was able to deal with it. Though she was looking down so much I am not sure how much she has even noticed. Even then I don’t know how she could not be aware of their looks. I usually am able to ignore the gazes directed at me. I did tend to get a lot of them, likely because I preferred not to be constrained by human clothing. But today it was getting uncomfortable.
Hearing my question Michael had slowed down even more so that he was riding right next to Leafia.
“No,” she said while looking at the ground.
After a few minutes of awkward silence I whispered to her. “Leafia, what's wrong.” I knew she had to be brooding about something because this level of silence was not normal even for her
“Can we talk in private?” she whispered back after a moment of hesitation. I was surprised by the request and did not know what she wanted to talk about but it was a simple request from a friend.
“You guys ride ahead and set up camp at a good point.” I called out to the group. I was glad to see that after having been through so much together my companions did not question me after giving me a brief look to confirm my request and started to ride ahead.
Michael on the other hand did not seem to process that this included him. “If you don’t hurry up you might make a wrong turn at the fork coming up.”
“But what about Leafia?” He said looking at her worried.
“Leafia will be fine. She was stronger than you before she was injured. This little walk is nothing to her.” For a second I thought I might have to remind him how she beat him up back at the fort. But even after I could see that he considered Leafia’s strength he still seemed hesitant to leave. “If she really gets too tired I will just carry her. I picked up the cage Faun was trapped in. Compared to that little Leafy here weighs practically nothing.” I looked over to Leafia for confirmation that this is what she wanted. She was starting to turn red but gave a nod to affirm my statement. I know mortal women did not like to talk about their weight. Was she turning red because I brought that up?
I could see that Michael was starting to cave but there was still a part of him that was hesitating. “Go on,” I said, giving the horse a light pat to start it on his way. He did look back at us but I shewed at him to keep him on his way.
