Fate and Destiny (The Fated Series, #2)

Ch. 73 - Fauna - Decimate

I give up.

I'm done.

"Clarice."

Nope. I'm not doing it. I refuse to give in to their wishes. They're stupid wishes. Painful wishes. Wishes that I wish they'd stop asking me to try and grant.

"Clare-"

"No."

"We have to get going."

"Then, by all means, get going - but I'm not standing up," I pout, crossing my arms and looking away from Rohana.

"You're being dramatic," Benny sighs, rubbing his hand over his face as if he's exhausted.

My muscles hurt, my butt bones are killing me just sitting here on a pillow, my back is hunched and sore, and even my arms hurt. How in heathens is it possible for my arms to hurt?

"I'm not being dramatic." I uncross my arms and attempt to straighten my back to look somewhat dignified, but my back tightens and protests the movement. So I just end up slouching and getting even madder that I'm near crying because I'm so frustrated that one day of riding has already rendered me weaker than everyone else. No one else is complaining or showing any signs that they're just as stiff as I am. I mean really, I'm just that weak despite my training and the muscle and weight gain.

It's not that I'm not happy with the progress I've made. My ribs no longer show, my arms aren't sticks nor my legs twigs, and I'm more than capable of potentially taking on one of the Bhaltayr down. The Ginerva are harder, seeing as their strength and training are double the Bhaltayr's. It's progress - good progress if only my riding skills were just as educated and trained. Then I wouldn't be laying on the ground like a corpse.

"I can't get up," I whine. I'm acting like a spoiled child, I know that, but my butt really does hurt. No matter how many times I shift and get comfortable in one position, two seconds later I'm shifting in the saddle again. I questioned Kat when she said she'd like a bigger butt. Now I know why.

"You can, you're just choosing not to," Dee reasons. I loathe how wise she can be in smaller moments like this.

"My body won't let me," I argue.

"Pain is a thing of mental exhaust, mater." I know it's rude, but I scoff. If pain is a mental exhaust then, by all means, cut off my head.

"Clarice."

"No."

"Clarice," Rohana says more forcefully.

"No."

She throws her hands up into the air and slightly screeches. Part of me feels victorious, the other part of me feels sorry that I'm acting like a child. Although, if I'm being honest, I enjoy being childish and ruffling their feathers.

"Ah, Darius." Oh no. "Will you please bud in?" Vanya asks.

He was wandering. Before Vanya snapped him out of his daze, he was wandering. Aimlessly. I felt how his steps were heavy and slow. Unlike his steps which were light and anxious in anticipation and nerves yesterday. He's been like that all morning.

Despite being so tired last night and bullying the Ginerva into letting me sleep, I woke up earlier than everyone else. Or at least when everyone was supposed to be asleep. When I woke up, I found Darius sitting on his bedroll, legs crossed and head bent looking down at something in his hands. Víđarr said Darius didn't get much sleep, having woken up from a nightmare. I had dreams of my own, but no nightmares.

I kept my breathing as steady as possible and my power locked down so that he didn't feel mine awakening. I watched him sit there for so long that my eyes started to grow heavy again. Then he moved. His fingers fiddled with something for a little while, and then it snagged on it and the chain fell. When he picked it up, I saw what hung at the end of it.