NOVEL NEXT Chapter 19: Expedition
Long chapter today, for my amazing readers!
Chapter 19: Expedition
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“God is always with me, every time I breathe to live, I eat to grow, I train to fight, I battle to survive, I joke to laugh, I kill to cleanse, I destroy to create, I persevere to succeed, I love to be loved, I live to die. May God be with you, and may God be with us all.”
Paladin Conor, The Holy Guard
Year 399
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--POV: Laurence—
--Place: Outside The Silent Forest / Time:17:13—
As the class gathers next to the Silent Forest I telepathically talk to Clarissa ‘Stick close to me….I don’t want you wondering about on your own, okay?’ I have to warn her, as there is not much known about the Silent Forest, barely any information was found in the library despite my searching.
‘I am not a child, I understand the dangers!’ She replies in a childish tone, it’s like she is trying to prove my point.
It’s a good thing she recovered from last night’s drama, she seemed really shaken up after that. But it wasn’t about the fact I was a dragon, as she may have had some suspicions, but it was because of the betrayal.
Clarissa Chamberlayne, is the only person other than me (who is still alive, that is), who now knows about how Ken betrayed me, but the question that I’ve been nagging myself with as I watched her sleep last night, was why?
Why did I tell her this? There is no reason for her to know anything about my past, it was very irrational, but I told her anyway.
My emotions are controlling my actions again, I need to regain control before something bad happens.
“So students, I hope you are all geared and ready, as today’s expedition will require a lot out of all of you. You will be tested on your ability to survive in the wild, with nothing but the clothes on your back, and the weapons in your hands. If you want to back out of this expedition, please do it now” The professor explains, unaware of my inner turmoil “Now then, since none of you have backe-”
“Hold on!” Just as we were about to move in, we find a man wearing the university’s uniform running towards us, and that man is Mark, Mark Von Augsburg. My least favourite person in this new world, he is even worse than the first princess.
“I’ll be joining you as a senior during this trip” As he talks to the professor, he looks at me with surprise in his eyes (he probably remembers me from the corridor), before turning his eyes to Clarissa’s direction and winks.
Calm down….Laurence....calm down….everything is fine…..he didn’t do anything wrong, so I shouldn’t kill him right? Yes, that’s it, practicing restraint is good, great infact....
The raging storm inside of me cools down, as Mark keeps conversing with the professor, ignorant of how much danger he was in a few seconds ago.
This mighty dragon will leave you alone, for now.
--POV: Clarissa Chamberlayne—
--Place: Silent Forest / Time:17:48—
It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
It was supposed to be only me and Laurence.
“So Miss Clarissa, have you ever been in the Silent Forest before?” This idiot here arranged with the professor to put me in a team alone with him, however, Laurence refused (thank god).
I’ve been giving hints that I am not interested in him for quite a while now, yet he is either too thick-skinned to notice or a genuine asshole who doesn’t know when to give up.
I’ll put my money on the former, though.
“No, I haven’t” Laurence has been surprisingly quite ever since we entered the forest with just the three of us, he looks calm with his eyes unwavering and walking with smooth movements, but….
I can’t help but have the feeling that something is not right, that he is about to blow up.
I really hope it’s my imagination, though.
“Oh, really? Then I can show you the basics of what you should d-”
*RUSSLE*
Mark’s spouting came to an abrupt pause as a movement between the trees happened near us, followed by the same silence we already got used to since we entered this forest.
Looking to Laurence for answers, I find him staring slightly to the right of where we were going, with his head tilted and eyes squinted, his lips form a small smile before he….
disappears.
He just vanished? No, it was definitely teleportation. Wondering what he is up to, I start running in the direction he was staring at.
“Wai-” I ignore Mark as I pick up my pace, running faster with rapier at the ready.
*BOOM*
An earth shattering sound rings through the forest as I approach closer…is Laurence fighting whatever made that rustling?
“Haaa…haaa” Mark’s breathing and our footsteps on the tall grass being the only sounds heard….it seems Mark is trying to catch up to me, he doesn’t know I had to train under the gravity magic of a dragon
As the trees get less dense I keep up my pace, a small part of me hoping I lose Mark who is running behind me with heavy breaths
I exit the dense forest, and what I found was shocking to say the least.
In a massive crater, lied a huge brown grizzly bear, with his head turned into bloody paste and his limbs distorted in weird directions “Wow…” A mutter leaks out of Mark’s mouth, as he stares at the mess with a pale face.
A couple tens of feet from the crater existed a lake, vast and clear, just like the blue sky. A good place to make camp for the night.
Laurence turns his eyes away from the corpse of the bear towards us, those same calm eyes “So, it seems we have lunch” Wow, he commits brutality like it’s nothing, is it weird that I find that attractive? No, definitely normal, yep…..
definitely.
“Yo-You want to e-eat be-bear mea..t?” Mark seems like he is either in denial or disgust about what is happening right now. Let’s help him, shall we?
“Good thing, I was starting to get hungry myself” Now that both me and Laurence agreed on what’s for lunch, Mark has to make a choice.
“Fine….let’s eat the bear” I expected something more out of him, he gives up way too easily, it’s a bit boring.
--Place: Lake of Silence / Time:19:21—
The warmth is so comforting.
His warmth.
I stare at the full moon, in the clear night sky, with my head resting on Laurence’s right shoulder. We sit on a tree log that Laurence cut down, looking at the scenery.
I was really surprised when Laurence started pulling out tents and sleeping bags from his space storage, I never thought he could surprise anymore after he told me he is a dragon.
This old fashioned way of camping, with no magic used except for creating a fire with a simple flame.
“It’s really beautiful” Laurence can’t take his eyes off from the reflection of the moon on the lake water. He always mutters how beautiful the sunrise, sunset, or moon is, every time he sees it.
“Doesn’t it get boring for you?” Didn’t he see this same thing, like a million times?
“No, because for most of my life, it was only thing keeping me company” The sun and the moon…keeping him company?
He rests his head on mine, so his right ear is touching the top of my head “Yes, I was always alone. So everytime I’d see the sun or the moon. I’d think about how they were always there for me. During my highs and my lows, the sun would always rise and would always set. The moon would be there for me, in the cold of the night, lighting up the dark sky.”
I have lived my whole sheltered, spoiled, taken care of. With my only duty being limited to showing competence to my father, I can never imagine what it’d be like to live a life like his.
How did he never give up in all his years, what kind of willpower does he have to live even now, after all he has been through……doesn’t he just want to rest, to stop exerting himself, to just stop living?
What if he does just stop…..what if he suddenly decides he’s lived enough…..what if he…..he….leaves ….me…
“You’re shaking, what’s wrong?” A cold voice from my side brings me out of my pessimism, why the fuck am I having such thoughts now….when I am finally alone with him? (Mark is sleeping in the tent)
“Y…you won’t leave me right?” The words escapes my lips before I have a chance to close it.
“I’m here aren’t I?” He asks me, clearly confused “Haah…I won’t leave you, Clarissa”
Ahhh…..my name…..he said my name….with his cold, stern voice…..
I want to hear it…to hear my name from his lips more….. “more…”
“What?”
“…Say it again, my name….”
“Clarissa..?” Oh god…..I can’t take this….I turn away from the scenery, only to find him looking at me, in my eyes, concern written all over his face….as I feel his hot breath on my face, our lips barely 2 inches apart.
My crotch is throbbing for him, aching for him, desiring him.
Fuck it! I have waited long enough for this.
“Oh….Laurence….I want to….to….ki-”
*CLANK*
One of the three tents behind us collapses, the one Mark is in. Did he move so hard in his sleep that he hit one of the tent’s legs or something?
That piece of shit even has the gall to annoy me in his sleep?
Laurence turns away from me with knitted eyebrows, looking at the tent that has collapsed. With a sigh, he gets off the log we were sitting on and moves to fix the tent.
We were just about to kiss….we were this close….I was just about to taste those lips of his….but then that motherfucker got in the way again!
*GRIT*
I hear the noise of my teeth grinding each other, and feel the pain of my fingernails digging into the palm of my clenched hand, but I don’t care…
I’ve been too tolerant, too patient towards you, Mark!
But not for any longer, That patience has run out!
How much do I have to reject you before you finally get it?! Should I rip your balls off and feed it to you? Will that do it? Will that finally get through your thick skull??
“You should sleep now, I will keep watch” Laurence tells me after he fixes Mark’s tent (Mark slept through that?)
“Y-yes” My voice is shaking with the anger I have for Mark, he will pay for this, he seems to be overestimating himself, not even a hundred of him is worth more than a kiss from Laurence.
I walk into my tent, my body boiling with anger, just thinking of what I could have done with Laurence, that kiss could have led to something…..to something m-more……
Burying myself in my sleeping bag, I boil over how much Mark cockblocked me.
Tomorrow, he’ll understand how I actually feel about him.
Tomorrow….