[center][h1]~ Chapter 4 ~[/h1]
[sub]A Crass Caravan[/sub][/center]

	Maya explained the details to Mikhael as the group had made their way across Kale in record time, stomping past the curious citizens as a single unit, with Ezekial at Mikhaels side to keep him length-wise. He couldn't let the young man fall after all. Lillian led Henry, Lucas, Joshua, Ezekial, Maya and Mikhael to a large wooden cart, covered with a hay-strewn roof, and pulled by a pair of horses, free of the dastardly corruption that turned so many of their kind into [i]dread steeds.[/i] Kale had very few horses to spare, as breeding had become an unpredictable gauntlet. Babies would fall prey to corruption faster than fully grown horses, and those that survived their infancy would struggle to maintain purity. The two horses drawing the Caravan however, were the strongest that Kale's stables had to offer, named Killion and Raltz by the Queen herself. Nobody questioned the two peculiar names, but they made the Queen very happy. It didn't matter, they were just names after all.

	"We're prepped for three weeks of travel, the supplies will only keep us fed for that long. Bread, Water, and non-perishables. We can set out whenever you're ready," Lillian announced, hopping aboard the opened back-side of the caravan. The cart itself was almost as large as a small house, leaving room for the six soldiers to sleep peacefully on the open road. The four massive wooden tires were built to withstand quite a bit of punishment, but there was no telling how well it would do out on the open road. They were destined to enter no-mans-land. Hell on earth. "There's no rush, of course!" Lillian howled from inside, sounding just as annoyed with the entire ordeal as before.

	"Right," Ezekial mocked under his breath, patting Mikhael's shoulder gently. The six knights had quite a journey ahead of them, but no destination in sight. Maya looked onto the Caravan as the soldiers stepped into its back entrance one by one, leaving her, Mikhael, and Ezekial behind.

	"Alas, it is much heavier when the reality lays before us, is it not?" Maya whispered, holding back a whimper.