She is not happy about it

I wake up a couple hours later, when Merlara takes a break to let the horse rest a bit. I feel so sorry for having fallen asleep that I apologize to her. But Merlara didn’t appreciate it at all.

“You’re lucky Aelbrecht wants this mission completed. If not, I would have already turned this cart right back to Riledo.” She says without bothering to look at me.

“Just because I fell asleep?” I ask.

“Because the three of you are not ready for a quest like this. You’re amateurs.” Merlara replies.

Oh, this is it. I need to give this bitch a piece of my mind.

“So just because we don’t have a lot of experience in traveling, we should stay in Riledo and never travel at all? You know, it’s people like you who make it so ‘amateurs’ like us never get to have any experience and then get to stay amateurs forever. You really suck at being a teacher, you know. Maybe I should turn this cart around and ask Aelbrecht for someone who is not an amateur in teaching!”

Finally, Merlara turns her helmet covered head in my direction. “You think I needed a teacher to stop being an amateur? I learned what I needed all by myself. But what can I expect from kids who are too dense to teach themselves.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Did I not smell the tragic childhood you had?” I say mockingly. “I mean, it’s not like I could have learned it from you telling us about yourself. Because you never tell us a goddamned thing! So don’t pull this shit on me where we are supposed to know all the same things you already know. You and I are not the same person! We’re different! Deal with it!”

After spewing all of that to the bitch, I turn to the cart and walk away. I need to calm down. When I get there, I notice Ryul has woken up and it’s because of my shouting. Great. As he is waking up, I tell him about my conversation with Merlara. Then Shalia wakes up too and I tell her as well. They deserve to know what Merlara thinks about us.

After the horse has rested enough and Merlara brings it before the cart again, I make sure to get into the driver’s seat.

“Move aside.” Merlara says.

“So I can continue to not learn anything and continue being an amateur and you can continue to look down on me? Not a chance.” I reply.

“Fine!” Merlara says, finally showing some frustration in her voice. “Here is the map, and the compass. Let me know when you’ve lost your way and need me to fix this.”

After throwing the map and compass my way, Merlara sits in the back of the cart and keeps quiet. Good enough for me.

So, our destination is north. I hold out the compass to see where north is, then aim the map in the same direction. The road we are taking is leaning a bit to the west. So, we keep going like this and when we come at a crossing I can reevaluate.

I alternate my driving between Ryul and Shalia. Merlara doesn’t get to drive today. Like before, we make regular stops. For dinner, resting the horse, bathroom breaks and other stuff. When it looks like it is getting late, I decide to set up a camp. I must admit, I was a little late at doing so, because it was already getting dark by the time Shalia returned with the firewood. After dinner, Merlara and I take the first shift allowing Ryul and Shalia the first three hours of sleep. It was a very quiet three hours.

After Ryul and Shalia had their 2nd three-hour rest, we packed up our camp and Merlara and I had our cots in the cart to sleep in. We didn’t wear our plate armor, that would have made sleeping impossible. But we certainly kept our chain mail on. At noon we wake up and have lunch, then we continue on until we come at a large river. It is the same river that leads to Riledo, except we could not afford a ship to take us all the way here. Hence why we went by cart. The map shows there is a ferry at the northernmost bend in the river and according to the compass, we can get further north by heading to our right, so we go there.

Eventually we come at a settlement. Merlara finally starts speaking again and says it’s a village that grew around a trading post. She advises us to hire some rooms here so all of us can get a full night’s rest. We do as she suggests and man, it is wonderful to have a much more experienced cook prepare dinner for once. Many of the villagers gather around and ask about the adventurers we’ve been on, but we honestly have little to tell, as we haven’t been on many ourselves. The only one who had lots of stories to tell, Merlara, decided to have her dinner in her room. She is so weird.

We were able to entertain the villagers by showing off some of our skills. Shalia’s skill in water magic is good for party tricks it seems. I do ask her to hide her earth magic from them. If the farmers here know about that, they might ask her to take a look at their fields and we don’t exactly have a lot of time for that.

When it’s late enough, I go up to my room to get some sleep. There I notice Merlara waiting in front of my door.

“We need to talk.” She says.

I cross my arms in front of my chest and say, “Ok … talk.”

“In private.” Merlara replies.

I open the door to my room and let Merlara in. Once inside she takes off her helmet and starts talking.

“I need to apologize. You and your friends did well in getting us here. I guess I just have a tendency to look down on new adventurers.” Merlara says.

“Did you have a bad experience with a previous team?” I ask.

“Kinda.” Merlara continues. “A few months ago, I was with the Gryphon knights. An old friend of mine has a nephew there and asked me to look after him. Well, I constantly felt like I was babysitting them. It just felt like they weren’t taking the adventuring lifestyle serious.”

“You know, you can always try teaching.” I shrug.

“Not everyone learns by having things taught to them. When I was your age, I did not have the luxury of having a teacher. I had to teach myself everything. I had to be self-sufficient and independent.”

Now I get it. She expected us to learn the same way she did until we are ready. Well, that’s dumb.

“Merlara, I’m sorry you had to learn without a teacher. I’m sure you had a hard life. But most people learn through teachers. You are the exception. You should not expect others to be just as much an exception as you are by default.”

“I guess.” Merlara replies. “I still don’t feel like babysitting you, though.”

“You’re not.” I tell her. “I may need advice on how to best get through a dungeon, but my goal is to end up as a self-sufficient adventurer myself. I just need some advice, a few pointers. That’s teaching, not babysitting. So if you are willing to tell me of your experiences, I am willing to learn.”

“Right then. Let’s do that.” Merlara says as she puts her helmet back on. “I will give you and your friends advice. But when you get into trouble, I will expect you to get yourselves out of it.”

That is when Merlara and I actually shake hands, she leaves and I hurry into bed to get some well-deserved sleep.