🏆 THE AMBY AWARDS 2023 TOP PICK - DIVERSE LIT 🏆
It's Rin and Hye-jin against the world. Or so it should have been.
Nagara Rin and Joon Hye-jin, college sweethearts and passionate gamers, have lived a fairytale marriage. Not even a decade after did...
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I stared at the lake not because it had lilac water but because it was between me and the continuation of the road I followed. "You've got to be kidding me," I muttered under my breath as I consulted my map again.
After leaving the busier part of town and trekking to the closest route that'd take me to Jalinica, I found myself in the middle of nowhere with a huge-ass lake in front of me. There were no other ways through and going around it on foot would take too long. The quickest way was forward. If I was to get to my friends while they're still alive and kicking, I didn't have much time to waste.
My hands braced my hips, the belt slung around it light and empty. It's not wise to walk around with my gear out in the world. My previous encounter with the Raiders proved as much.
A knot formed in my gut at that thought. It was our first meeting—Mirani and I. Her saving a cowering guy in the middle of the street in broad daylight wasn't something anyone would forget in a short while. The memory also succeeded in drawing a cloud over my head as if my day wasn't being sucky enough.
What would I even say to them once I caught up to them? That I was sorry? To them, I'd basically dealt with the devil with their lives on the line, and when one of them—someone who has more worth to them than me—did perish, they wouldn't have it in them to forgive the one who cast the die.
If there was one thing I did do, it was to get them the mission. They're in Jalinica now to finish it. I should at least try and help, since I was the one who started it. I couldn't have them cleaning up the mess I got them into myself. I have my principles too.
So, I needed to cross this goddamned lake.
Unless I found myself someone who could fly and rip off their wings from them, I didn't imagine myself soaring through the sky, dropping in on my comrades like a savior sent from heaven. No. That wouldn't work.
The leaves rustled behind me. I turned, my hand getting ready to call for my sword, to find a man in a straw hat dragging a tapered boat towards the lake's rim. The rough pebbles making up the shore crackled against the hull, each thump sending a spear of worry through my gut. Wouldn't those wear the boat's bottom? What would happen if he missed a damage and ended up sinking in the middle of the lake?
But it'd have to do. Looking at the stretch of the shore, curving and extending all the way to the horizon, there weren't any other options. "Excuse me, sir," I jogged down from the spot where the compact soil gave way to sandy pebbles. "Can you take me across?"
The man dropped the boat with a hollow thud followed by the clatter of the oars from the inside. "Damn you, adventurers," he spat. "Thinking you can order me around with a sword to my neck."
If this was still a game, he wouldn't have even thought of saying that. It's not like he's part of a quest or something. He's just a passing fisherman and I, a passing valdyrsi. "What would it take you to convince you to take me across?" I asked, hoping against hope he wouldn't be asking for much. "I have some trades with me. How about ethrans?"
