I yawned and cracked my neck as I relaxed in front of the fireplace in the large common room of the inn. It was starting to get dark outside. We were not alone in the Inn, the Innkeeper was doing something by the counter, and a old man with an epic beard was sitting at one of the small tables. A dwarf was sitting by the counter, drinking something out of a tiny glass.
None of them was paying any attention to us. Well, Dawn caught a look or two, but who could blame them for that?
"Here." Dawn said as she walked up to sit down on the chair next to mine, handing over a plate of smoked meat and bread along with a cup of dark tea.
"Thanks." I said and leaned back against my chair as she took a sip from her own tea, making a bit of a face.
Bah. Tea noob.
This was the second to last meal in the inn, we are heading out tomorrow morning.
"How is the big green thing?" I asked Dawn and she shrugged.
"Mr Fluffsy is fine. I worried that he might overeat though so he only got half rations today." she answered "So where will we find a green land you think?"
"Well, I was thinking Elwynn Forest might be a good spot. It's Close-ish to here and will give us access to Stormwind as well. Also a somewhat peaceful place where we can focus on you getting a connection without needing to fight off the wildlife and locals at the same time." I answered and tried the bread.
Mmm. Freshly baked. Need to remember this Inn on the way back.
Dawn nodded and leaned back in her own chair, sipping her tea again. She was wearing her leather armor again, having taken to sleeping in the shirt instead of wearing it around.
"What kind of spells that use Green mana can you teach me?" she then asked.
I shrugged "Most of my green spells are summons and enchantments for living creatures along with a couple of healing spells, but we'll get to that part once you actually connect." I said and tried the meat.
Hmm, can't remember tasting something like this before. Wonder what that was... it wasn't beef and it's not pork. Lamb? I'm no expert.
"Do you think we have enough supplies? I looked at the map and it looks like we are at least a week away from Elwynn" Dawn then asked as she pulled out a knife to cut her bread up to stuff the meat inside "We don't know how much we can buy at the villages on the way you know, and we're not as well stocked as when we started."
"I would say the trip will take two weeks, not one. Always put it on the high side to make sure you don't run out." I answered, shaking my head "I checked earlier and we have at least enough for that left, and I talked to the Innkeep earlier. Next stop is the guard tower at Sentinel Hill and after that there are two more villages before we reach the Elwynn Forest river. We will be fine, even without gathering on the road like we have until now."
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In the end it took us a week and a half to get to the edge of Westfall, but it was an easy journey. Good, well traveled roads and no bloody bandits.
"Well, there it is." I commented as we slowly rode across the large stone bridge. At the side there was a small guard house and two guards were standing on duty, one on each side of the bridge, lit up by the fire of torches.
Night was falling, but we wanted to press on to get into Elwynn before we stopped. While we had plenty of supplies, the thought of finding an inn and a bed again was a tempting one. Last one we had access to was five days ago.
We did manage to get a roof over our heads a day and a half ago, paying (very little granted) for a spot to sleep in in the barn of a farm, but that was was about it.
Dawn nodded "Yeah. Finally." she said with a sigh before leaning back against me "So. Tired.", before yawning.
I chuckled at that "Well, we should be able to find somewhere with a roof to sleep tonight if we are lucky. Let's ask the guards."
She nodded with a smile and straightened up again as we got closer to the bridge.
The guard to the left of the bridge walked up, holding his hand up when we got close enough "Halt. We need to do a border inspection. We have been having problems with smugglers lately."
I raised my eyebrow at that. I thought we were already inside the borders, Westfall and Duskwood also had patrols.
I then shrugged as Dawn nodded "Go ahead. But wouldn't it make more sense to focus on ships instead of people simply moving along the roads?" she asked him.
The guard in the silver armor simply shrugged "Don't ask me, I simply follow orders." before he walked up and did a cursory look in the packing crates that used to be full of supplies and now simply contained our bags and remaining food.
We did stretch the food supply with plants and tasty looking animals on the way which was about the only reason the food supply lasted as long as it did.
Was a bit harder to do in Westfall, but we could usually buy bread and meat on the farms we moved past.
He spent maybe thirty seconds looking before he closed them both again "What are your destination and origin?"
"We are traveling from Booty Bay and our destination is Stormwind." I answered him, putting my hand on Dawns waist to get her let me do the talking. It was kind of true, we just took a bit of a shortcut across outland.
"Your purpose in the city?" The guard asked in a bored tone. I could hardly blame him for that, he have likely asked the same thing a hundred times just on this shift.
"Purchasing wares." I told him. Also kind of true, we were going to go buying things, mainly clothes for Dawn and perhaps some books if I could find any.
"Very well. Move along." the guard said, waving us forward.
"Thank you." Dawn added "Wait, do you know a good Inn we could reach before it gets too dark?" she asked.
He nodded, giving her a smile as he answered "There is an Inn outside the Westbrook Garrison, Miss. A couple of hundred meters further down the road from the bridge."
"Thanks!" She said, giving him a smile in return before glancing back at me "Guess we get better than a roof tonight." she then commented with a grin.
I just snorted and shook my head as she urged the large animal to get moving again.
Nothing like needing to go without them make you appreciate the luxuries in life. Like having somewhere warm with a roof you can sleep under.
While we have a good amount of cash and some more jewelry to sell, we won't be staying at inns for the entire stay. Especially not if I take Dawn on a shopping spree.
Not if she is anything like her sister...
But then again, she managed to go for years without buying a ton of clothes so I guess it might not be quite that bad.
I do wonder though how quickly Dawnie will be able to connect to the land. My record doing it the right way was just over a week. My first try took significantly longer.
Likely it will take at least a month as she also has Shamanistic training to do and she has been slacking on that, only getting an hour or so in a day while on the road. Dawn did mention earlier that she wanted to try to catch up when we finally stopped. She have several books and instructions with her from Cloudsong on what to practice.
I was also told quite firmly by him to stay away from her books.
No objection there from me. I won't be teaching him to use the power inherent in the Lands either.
AN// Big thanks to Robo Jesus for betaing this part.