Darin looked around the forest as Ridahne mentioned that the landscape was changing. It looked more and more like the forest near the mountains. Darin had never gone too deep into the forest back home. She didn’t need to be warned that it was a completely bad idea. She was clumsy and had no sense of direction with no real skills to protect herself with. She mostly stayed to the forest directly near the village in order to pick herbs and escape the elders from time to time. Even then she never went far enough to lose track of where she was in relation to home.

That was why she was glad that the Azurei warrior was here now. It was basically what Ridahne had done earlier in her life; guiding people through the Dust Sea. Only this time the people was carrying The Seed and it was all of Astra. That didn’t seem to bother Ridahne though. Darin had seen the map and the Elf seemed to have a much better sense of direction than the human did. Right now, Darin really needed a sense of direction even if she was borrowing it from someone else. Darin already knew that this trip was going to take a long time. She didn’t want to imagine how long it would take if she just traveled without knowing where she was going like she had been doing.

Darin looked forward as she responded to Ridahne’s comments about marriage, “That makes sense. And I suppose in a nation of many more people than in my village it would help keep strangers from trying to woo you. Back home I could go around and talk to everybody in the span of two days or so. Gossip was prevalent as well. It was easy to let people know that you had committed to someone. Then they start a new family.”

Well, that wasn’t entirely true. People usually stayed with their parents in their home until they had built their own home. Some stayed until their parents were gone. It depended on what you and your partner were after and what your goals were. Darin had planed on spending the rest of her life in her farmhouse with her mother. She hadn’t given much thought to inviting another person into her life. There was no one back in her village that she was interested in and they weren’t interested in her either. There was that one boy from Lively, but that would never work out. He wanted a girl who could help him run his parents’ fabric store. If Darin ever did pick someone, they would have to help farm. So, they were incompatible. At least that was the way it was then. Darin had no idea how it would work out now that she was carrying The Seed.

Darin asked another question. “Will we reach a village or a town or will we need to stop to make camp? Either is fine. I don’t really care which. I was just wondering which it was so I would know.”