Chapter 76

Morning came and with it more walking. Both of them had the gist of it now at least. Walk for a bit and eventually encounter the next part of the trial.

“But why can’t it all just be back to back, or at least a bit closer together?” Ben complained, growing tired of how monotonous it was starting to feel.

“It’s probably to give us a bit of a break between parts as well as places to rest. Besides, would you really want to go through each of those things one after the other until we reach the end?”

He groaned. “No you’re right, that would suck, I just want to get this over with.” Perhaps he’d grown a bit too casual with what they had been going through. Now that his mind had expanded he just couldn’t force his every thought to focus entirely on their surroundings, it was too dull. At the same time he couldn’t exactly take his eyes off of it, sure Thera was staying vigilant too but it wasn’t like he could leave it all to her, it wouldn’t be fair.

As a compromise to himself, he picked up a stone and did the same thing he always did on their hunts. Utilizing the more destructive properties of enchanting he started to carve into it, breaking off chunks to shape it to his desires. It went a bit worse than usual as he wasn’t taking his eyes off the forest, instead relying on his sense of touch and a mental image of what he wanted it to look like to make different things that he ultimately just dropped in the woods once he was done. No point carrying them out with him when he could just make better ones later. Still, it helped the time go by, and like that an entire day was gone, with no sign of the next section in sight.

As night began to fall and they set up camp again, Thera was feeling worried.

“Do you think we did something wrong?”

The thought had drifted through his head too as the hours progressed. Spending the entire day walking, no sign that they had found their next challenge had put them both on edge, but Ben decided to try and stay positive about it.

“Maybe we’re just nearing the end of it. If we don’t see anything for I’d say two more days I’d say we start worrying then.”

“That’s a fair bit of time we could be wasting,” She pointed out, but Ben could only shrug.

“What else can we do? As far as we know the next part of the trial could be about being patient and not giving up. That would sort of go along with emotional strength, right?”

“I guess,” She said, but she felt doubtful. Still with nothing else to do they decided to wait to see what tomorrow held.

When Ben woke up for his watch he did what he always did as Thera slept, worked on his connect with the plant life around. Namely the giant trees that littered the area. They were always interesting to interact with, although none had proven helpful for actually figuring out what to do next it continued to be a fun experience.

As the light from the rising sun began to poke through the treetops Ben looked to Thera to see if she was waking up, and seeing her muttering in her sleep decided to leave her to it a little longer. He personally thought they must have been close to the next bit of the trial anyway, why not take a little more time to rest while they could.

He let her go on for a couple more hours, using that time to continue on his training before he decided it was time to wake her up.

“Alright, up and at’em Thera, we’re burning daylight.” He walked up beside her and gave her a small shake, trying to get her up, but to no avail. She just kept laying down, muttering away as a pit began to form in his stomach. “Come on Thera enough of that, I need you to get up.”

He kept trying, but nothing he did or said stirred her from her rest and Ben cursed. Whatever was going on must have been part of the next section of the trial, but what was he supposed to do about it? If he couldn’t wake her up by himself then how were they supposed to work through this?

His mind briefly went to how sleeping princesses were typically awoken in the fairytales of his own world before shaking the idea out of his head. I’m pretty sure I can figure out some less creepy options before I resort to that.

As long as she didn’t sleep too long it would be fine, but he needed to sort it out without letting days pass. He wasn’t sure how her race’s food and water requirements compared to his own, but he didn’t want her to starve to death as he tried to figure this out.

With nothing else to go on he leaned in close to her, trying to make out what she was saying. Over the last few days of keeping watch and all the times he’d modified her bracelet, he was fairly sure she didn’t regularly talk in her sleep, though he wasn’t certain. Still, he had nothing else to go on.

“I’m sorry auntie Vivi, I’ll try harder.”

A name he didn’t know. He kept listening to try and figure out what was being said, but it was like he was only getting one side of the conversation. Worse, with someone Thera apparently considered an aunt that he had never heard of. With that being the case it seemed like this trial might rely on how well they knew each other again, and there was no way to cheat it this time.

Well, almost no way. He had one advantage at least, the ability to peek into her mind and hear her thoughts. Maybe that would be enough to pick up the context he would need. At least he could hope. If he couldn’t figure out what he needed from that then he’d have to try his best to keep her alive while carrying her out and hope she woke up after leaving the trial, a prospect he wasn’t excited to test out.

Moving her so she was at his side so he could better hear what she was muttering, he grabbed her hands and connected to her.

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