Chapter 3

Drive.

How long had they been walking, it felt like their feet were about to fall off? They managed to stay at a cheap in for the night, but once again they were wandering out of town without much direction or focus.

They allowed Franziska to lead the way, but there seemed to be a problem, they were obviously making their way somewhere, but they actually didn't know where they were going. In fact the only reason Roy and Sara was following her, was because they simply assumed.

"Ah, Franziska do you know where we are headed?" Roy asked as he exhaled, they bought a modest amount of supplies, but he doubt it would last them long, and the money they had was nearly gone. They really couldn't afford to just be roaming around wasting energy and money.

"Of course...I mean I think, there aren't any guards around here...so we must be heading deeper into the Tusmeyrus," That is where they wanted to go, but there really didn't have any info on the entire thing, and they still didn't know which season they were in.

The only thing they could all hope for, was that they reached a town before night fall, and that was if they had enough money to stay some place. It was cold, and they still haven't figured out if it was winter or spring.

Sara remained mostly silent, she was good at push attention away from herself. She mostly wanted to be left alone, and from the looks of it, the two teenagers in front of her were willing to make every major decision for the group, and she was perfectly okay with that.

Sara wasn't there to have an adventure or make friends, she just wanted to get home. Perhaps that made her a dull person, but at the end of the line, she would most likely be the one with the least amount of scars.

"We'll just ask some people once we reach the next town..." Franziska bit her thumb, the more she thought about it, the more she realized she herself didn't know where she was going. Of course she wouldn't let anyone else know she was just as blind as them.

So they kept walking, through the trail with little signs of life, through this cold day unknown to anything. They still had plenty of time before they reached anywhere important or before night fell, it seemed now would be a perfect time to explain to Sara what world they were in and how it worked.

"So...I bet you still have a lot of questions, huh?" Roy laughed, his feet still moving, his head turned slightly towards the older woman as she looked towards the ground.

"Well, I guess it would be really helpful..." Sara said, of course getting the attention of Franziska.

"Huh? What kind of questions could you possibly have? " Franziska grumbled slightly, deep in her mind she already knew the answer Sara was going to give.

"No...I actually don't know what's going on..." Sara admitted as Franziska rolled her eyes.

"Great, now she's just going to be dead weight, why are you even here if you don't know what you're doing? Someone obviously made a mistake if you are here," Franziska didn't feel like babysitting anyone, it was bad enough she had the loser boy there with her, but now she just figured out that the glasses girl was just there.

Sara didn't responded quickly, she really didn't have a response because Franziska was completely correct. There was no reason why she was there, she would rather be anywhere else than where she was at that very moment.

"Never mind, I don't need to know anything, I just want to get home..." Sara adjusted her glasses, her knowing more about the world she was in wasn't going to make it easier to get home. Plus if Roy and Franziska knew about it, they didn't need a third person.

"H-hey," Roy spoke up, it was obvious that none of them were getting along especially well, then again they were complete strangers that had no idea about each others past. They were nothing more than people that were stuck together though an unfortunate event, but still...

"We should still try to help her learn a little about it, I mean if you were stuck at a place you had no knowledge of you'd be confused or scared. If we're traveling with her, isn't it our responsibility to make sure she knows at least the basics?" Perhaps it was just in his nature, but Roy simply couldn't pass up the opportunity to help someone.

"No...it's not my job to tell her anything, if she doesn't want to learn anything that's her own problem not mine. I'm not going to recount information that everyone should know just because she got here a few days late,"

Silence, as Roy sighed rubbed his head, there wasn't anything he could do, but keep walking though the trail. It was unsettling, there was nothing there...just three people walking to an unknown location following a teenage girl who didn't really have any idea where they were going.

Minutes turned to hours, there really wasn't much difference in their locations. It almost seemed like they were just walking endlessly down a stretch of land with no conclusion. It was around this point, a deep feeling of realization befell Franziska.

"We might really have to camp out tonight." They didn't really have much in the way of sleeping bags, and the sun was dangerously close to setting. A decision would need to be made soon, if they were going to set up camp, now would have been the best time, but if they were close and continued non stop they might still make it to town.

"Maybe we should stop for the night," Roy said look at his bag, and as well as Sara who was starting to lag behind them, they had been walking for quite a bit without stopping. Normal people obviously would have been tired at that point.

"We'll stop when I say we stop, and the sun hasn't even gone down all the way yet, why should we stop now!" Franziska snapped, she knew it was the most logical thing to do, but she couldn't let Roy of all people make that decision.

Roy frowned biting his lip, really he didn't feel like arguing, his best bet was simply to use logic. "If we wait until it gets dark then we'll have to set up everything in the dark, plus it seems the further we go the less forest there is. Making a random stop out in the open will just attract more attention for us to get attacked..."

Of course Roy was just making assumptions, he was more concerned about Sara who looked like she was about to fall out than random bandits attacking them, but still his points still stood as Franziska eye twitched slightly as she crossed her arms.

"No...I don't care, I want to keep going," Franziska paused for a moment, as she held her breath. Stopping was really a good idea, but she couldn't be wrong and so she continued to disagree even if she knew that it was wrong.

"Then maybe we should take a vote? If you want to stop for the night and make camp, raise your hand." Roy rose his hand as Sara slowly raised hers as well, Franziska gave a glare towards the two, before grumbling.

Arguing would just make her lose her cool, and plus Roy was the one carrying the bag. She knew it was for the best, but still she couldn't help but feel like it was an attack on her person as she sat on the shaded ground with leaves all around.

"Fine then, set up camp...I don't care," Roy smiled as Franziska adjusted her hat, a small ginger bang came out.

"I guess that's why she's wearing a hat, red heads really aren't a common thing, I guess she didn't want to draw attention to it." Roy set down their small bag, there were clothes and food in the knapsack, allowing them to set up their food without setting it on the ground.

There was bread and some dried meat, it was enough for about four people so they were going to have some leftovers. Sara frowned slightly, she usually wasn't a picky type of person for food, but she still wanted something with a little taste.

Of course Franziska took Sara's thoughts and voiced them in the rudest possible way. "Idiot, couldn't have gotten something that at least resembled food and what do we have to drink?" Franziska asked another good question as Roy pulled out what appeared to be a canteen.

"Okay...so where the cups?" Franziska pointed out as Roy gave a nervous laugh, he was obviously going to give a decent excuse.

"Well, that cost extra, so we either have to drink from the same canteen or use our hands,"

Sara sighed, she wasn't fond of sharing the canteen, but she didn't mind using her hands. Better than the chance of backwash. She then took a small bite of her breed, realizing that this was her dinner. Even if she lived alone and usually only microwaved things, she still had bigger portions than what was before her.

'"You expect me to use my hands? That's disgusting, even my hands get a little dirty," Franziska took a bite out of the dried meat and shivered, it was completely different than beef jerky, the only thing similar was the texture. It really just tasted like a piece of dried meat without any flavor, almost like rations.

"Well, since it's going to get cold tonight, we should probably start a fire," Roy did his best to ignore Franziska's comment as he clustered up a large amount of dead leaves and two sticks. Of course he was going to try something simple.

"Um, now how does this go again?" Roy made a cross with the sticks and quickly rubbed them together, he saw it enough enough movies to simply assume that it would work. But after a three minutes of the exact same motion nothing came up.

"Gah, you're useless, let me try!" Franziska snapped as she took the two sticks away from Roy, she then started to do a similar motion, but even faster.

Her lips twitched, it seemed like she was about to be embarrassed as she continued for over five minutes, with no fire whatsoever. Both Sara and Roy staring at her, no doubt they were judging her inability to do such a simple task.

"Hey...Franziska-"

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" She nearly screamed as a small burst of flames came from the pile of leaves as Sara covered her eyes with her hands as Roy held his breath, not moving a muscle. They weren't the only ones that were surprised at the sudden as Franziska simply looked at the newly created flame.

It was a bewildered look on her face, confusion mixed with intrigue, her blue eyes reflected off of the fire before her lips curved into a smile. "Hah, I guess I'm better than I expected, did you see that? I used magic!"

Despite her joy, Franziska was still breathing rather hard, still shacking. Was it out of fear or anticipation to try it again,

Sara slowly removed her hands from over her eyes as. "M-magic?" That couldn't have been right, magic wasn't actually real...this just confirmed to Sara that they really were stuck in a dream.

"T-that's amazing, so why don't you calm down a little," The threat of starting a forest fire was very real. He just hoped that Franziska would just calm down and not try again.

"Shut it! I can do what I want, don't tell me to calm down!" Franziska said those words rather bluntly as she prepared to rub her hands together once again, Roy didn't know much about magic, outside a few locals mentioning it, but Roy knew it was dangerous for many reasons.

Franziska whipped her hands around, but nothing came from it, her joy quickly turned to frustration as she took a deep breath, she already had one outburst, she couldn't let the people around her think she was unhinged...even if the only two people there were a couple of nobodies.

"Well, even if I don't know how to do it on a whim, it's better than having two dead weights around, though I wished I got something I could be a little more free with. Like light magic or maybe water magic. Fire is rather boring, plus I'll have the idiots of the Tusmeyrus chasing me if I do it out in the open, how annoying."

Roy let out a sigh of relief, it seemed that Franziska was satisfied with her current standing. It seemed she had some self control, as he looked at the newly created flame. Even if it was by mistake she did make the fire for them, though he doubted she needed thanks as the magician looked at her hands.

Sara simply remained silent, simply being happy that she was no longer in danger, and no longer running the risk of dying before she got back home. That was the only thing that was important to her, whether it was a dream or not, she needed to get back to her vacation.

Franziska simply smiled to herself, "I'm...not normal...I'm not like all the boring people like those losers back at home, I'm not like all those useless people I walk past on my way too or from school," And that was enough for her...at least for now.