Am I Not The Hero?

Chapter 13 - Ravi Aldine

Ravi was the first to be up that day. They had planned to eat breakfast before leaving Flumen and starting their Journey towards Thimur. It would take ten hours to get there, so he began packing Proviants. It helped him stay focused and get his brain to shut up for a few minutes. Ever since the incident with Esme, it would not stop telling him that he was a horrible person; well, when did it ever stop doing that? He did not know why he said that word; he felt awful and wanted to apologize, but what if that only made things worse?

Draigh had been nagging him to talk to her the entire evening, and he knew the other was probably right, but what if she did not want to forgive him? That would only make things awkward, and Ravi did not want that. They still had 42 hours to go, and he would like to spend as much as possible in peace.

He finished packing everything and decided to return to the bar where they spent their evening yesterday. Now it was a lot emptier, only a few drunks sitting at the counter half asleep, blabbering on and on about the dread tides. The dread tides? „The waves will soon come and eat us all, won't they?" the one on the left said. „No, I don't want to get eaten," the other whined. „Um, excuse me, gentlemen, what do you mean by the waves will come soon?" Ravi asked the two as he walked up to them

"The waves, they're coming, right Dave?" the man sang for him, "When? When are the waves coming?" This was bad, this was really bad. "Uh 7 pm? Yeah, 7pm." With a quick look at the clock above the door, his suspicions were that it was already 8 am. "Shit, sorry, I have to go." He ran back to the Motel as fast as he could, his steps echoing through the city.

"We have to go, like right now," Ravi shouted as he barged through the door. A collective whining and multiple five more minutes greeted him in return. "I'm not kidding; if you don't want to drown because of the fucking tides, get your ass up now," he repeated as he pulled Draigh off the couch and stole Esmeralda's blanket. "Wait, what? I thought it would take a few more weeks for them to hit the city?" she asked, and Draigh fell onto the floor with a loud thud. "Well, that's not true, I talked to some people in the bar, and they said the waves will hit around 7 pm," Ravi explained as he shook Z awake. They yawned right into his face, and he had to save himself from dying because of their horrible halitosis. Mouth hygiene has fallen by the wayside since they started their trip. "But it's already 8 am, and we must ride like 10 hours, right?" Draigh asked as he rubbed the rheum out of his eyes, "that is my point; if we don't leave now, we'll get washed away, and I don't want to drown, so hurry up."

He left the house to get the Equus while the rest of the group packed their stuff. As he came back, Esmeralda and Akira were shouting at each other. "And you just thought that you wouldn't tell us?" she screamed at him as she wildly gestured around in the air. "It was my decision, alright? I can do whatever I want, and it's not like the others would care." Ravi did not understand what was happening, but whatever it was, it was not good. Especially if they don't stop anytime soon, he has to listen to them for the next ten hours as they ride to Thimur.

"Ey, guys, calm down; what's going on?" he asked the two as he stepped in between them. Now that he was closer, he could see their expressions; Akira looked angry, his eyebrows were furrowed, and he stared into the distance. While Esmeralda instead looked quite sad but also furious, he couldn't tell. "He decided to leave us behind, to stay here with his new friend," she explained.

That is worse than Ravi expected, but he could not force Akira to stay, and he didn't have the time to try to convince him to stay either. "It's his choice; we have to go." He said, "with or without him," trying to resolve things as quickly and efficiently as possible. "If you want to stay, then you are free to do so," Ravi told Akira as he turned towards him, and he nodded in response. He looked thankful and even smiled at Ravi.