Darin felt her eyes go wide, “You’re a hundred and three! Humans don’t live that long.”

Ridahne looked like she was close to her age. If Darin hadn’t known better, she would have guessed that the Elf was in her mid-twenties. It was hard to fathom that Ridahne was over five times Darin’s age. The human wondered if Elf’s lagged slower or if they stopped aging when they reached a certain point. Darin wondered if at any point she would look older than Ridahne. She supposed that was inevitable.

Darin went on to explain, “Most humans live to 80, if they are lucky. 60 is a better upper limit.”

With that Darin stopped to think. She had basically completed a third of her life. Who knew how much more of her life she would waste on this quest? Then again, if her worse fears were truth, she would be looking after The Seed for the rest of her life. She had this consuming fear that she would never get to go home. She had a feeling that The Gardener hadn’t picked her to just carry The Seed. She had a feeling that she was basically the new Gardener. That was not a pleasant thought. There were things she wanted to do.

For example, she wanted to see if she could find her father. She wanted to punch him. She would probably do more damage to her fist than to his face, but she still wanted to try. That was the same thing that Ridahne had been talking about. Love was messy. Darin’s mother had loved her father. Even after he disappeared her mother still loved him. She hadn’t let that love consume her and make her bitter, but Darin still knew it had turned to pain. Darin knew he was out there somewhere. She wanted to find him and make him explain himself. He betrayed them, and she was going to find out why. However, that was a quest for another time. Right now, they just needed to beat the rain.

Darin looked at the sky behind them as she mentioned, “The storm is moving fast than I thought. We should find shelter soon or we’ll be caught out in it.”

Talbot snorted and flicked his ear. Darin sat straight up and wrapped the reins around her arms in preparation. She wasn’t an idiot. Talbot knew that being poured on was unpleasant. She was with him. She would be willing to go faster if it meant getting out of the rain while there was a chance. As soon as she felt ready, she squeezed Talbot’s flank between her knees. He then took off in a fast gallop. Darrien did her best not to focus on the movements. She wanted it to become instinct. Instead, she looked around for a place to avoid the weather that was coming. Everything was just a blur to her, so she didn’t have much hope.