It ended up raining all night, so we were soaked to the bone.
I sat up. At the same time, a pain shot through my stomach. If I hadn't gotten involved in anything, I wouldn't have any of these injuries. I carefully climbed out and sat on a nearby tree stump. Jurian returned from the forest and nodded in greeting. Dawn was approaching at any moment. All things were wet, fortunately we were already approaching the city.
We'll get to town, I'll stay a while, and then I'll probably be back on the road again, I thought. Jurian did ask me to stay with them last night, but there's no point. The other tent rustled and Lasin climbed out.
"Good morning." She stretched slightly. "What's going on, you're all awake already? It's still dark," she pointed out.
"Didn´t we agree to leave at dawn?" I said somewhat rudely. At that, Jurian gave me a slight frown.
"Wait, wait, I'm not ready yet. Where's the nearest pool?" she asked.
"You have until sunrise." I said. "The pool is by that valley." I pointed between two slopes. She hurried away.
"That was longer than we agreed," I chided her when she returned. It was nothing serious, but it was completely unnecessary.
"I can't go into town stinking like some scumbag like you, can I?"
We frowned in concern. She burst out laughing.
"What's so funny about us?" I asked, the corners of my mouth turning up slightly.
"You look like angry puppies," she laughed.
"But we don't bite," Jurian pointed out with a scary smile. I burst out laughing, I couldn't take it anymore. I tried to hold it in, but when I looked at Jurian, we all burst out laughing again.
The city was already in sight. It was located in the middle of the plain. Several layers of walls jutted out, accentuating the few important structures that towered over them. It was a huge city. More and more people flocked to the roads, but they were still often mercenaries. Fortunately, no one dared to approach us on such a busy road. Erdonia was a very rich country, maybe one of the powers on the continent, but the location of Erdonia has big problems with the fact that they don't have much access to the sea. Magic was felt all around. A great power is gathering. In front of the city gates, there were hundreds of tents, at first they acted like a market, but there were too many for that.
"They have an entire army here?" Jurian asked blankly.
"Looks like it. Hopefully we can make it to town," Lasin confirmed. I looked at Jurian, and then at Lasin.
"It doesn't look like much to me. Do you want to reverse it?" I suggested If we lingered too long in the city, we might be caught in a siege.
"I need it there, so at least for the day," she paused. "Please stay with me..." she begged rather desperately.
"Okay, I'll stay." said Jurian. He then looked at me.
"I'll see," I replied. Doubts suddenly began to grow in my head. I quickly pushed those thoughts away. We walked past military tents that were teeming with soldiers. The soldiers were slowly of all races, both Cerpeir and Ming, even jrengr. A large number of them were badly injured and bandaged. They were constantly taking away fresh corpses. It was a hell of a fight. Medical magic could literally be felt everywhere and there were some medics trying to save lives.
"You three..." began one of the officers, "civilians have nothing to do here," he paused. "Hand over the credentials or we'll fire you."
Jurian looked at him fearfully. He was at least a head taller than them and judging by the size of his muscles, he would be able to tear them both apart with his bare hands on the spot.
"We want to enlist in the service for pay," Lasin said to calm the situation. At the same time, a dozen men's eyes turned on her. They wanted to play with her. I took a step in front of Lasin and placed my hand on the hilt of my sword. One of them got up and walked past me.
"If you think you're going to protect her from us, you're an idiot," he whispered. I felt a slight whiff of magic.
"If you just touch her, you'll be lucky if you only lose an arm," I retorted.
The officer straightened up. "Go to the biggest tent, the officers will talk to you there."
The soldiers who stopped us parted and let us continue. We passed the tent and headed for the gate. Jurian had a hint of sadness, since he was a soldier in the past, he must be feeling some harsh memories. A large number of those soldiers looked at Lasin lustfully, obviously they had been fighting for a long time and had no time for women. Lasin didn't show the slightest hesitation and we continued on. We found ourselves in front of a huge gate to the city. The gate slowly began to open.
"So here we are at last," said Lasin. She turned to Jurian. "Thank you for your help, unfortunately I can't repay it right away, but here is the address where you could find me," she paused. "So now Jurian you're going to go do your things and then we'll meet you there?" She briefly looked into my eyes and as if she was asking me for the last time.
"Sort of, it won't take me long anyway."
Lasin then turned her gaze to me. I shook my head.
Lasin extended her hand with the address to me. If you changed your mind, I read her eyes.
I accepted the piece of paper and put it in my pouch.
"Good luck," I nodded towards them. I turned away from them and rushed into the crowds. I didn't want to look back. Looking back one last time, I probably would have questioned my decision.