Still, this route is going to add much more time to reach the elves, here’s hoping we find others who can help us,” she pointed out. She blinked then showed a dull expression as she glanced to Specca.

“Um, Specca?” she asked. The girls looked to her as she pointed to something.

“Tell me we’re not traveling way out here just for a lake,” she inquired, pointing to a lone lake on the map that was far off from their route. Specca glanced away sheepishly with a shrug.

“Hey, we need to explore everywhere we can, right?” she reasoned.

“That’s going to take two days to get out there, and two days to get back to our planned route, and there’s nothing else remotely close to it,” Alyssa mentioned.

“Leave no stone unturned, as they say,” Specca commented with closed eyes.

“Then why are we ignoring here, here, and here?” Triska questioned as she noticed that Specca’s route swerved and avoided three areas by a large margin. Specca glanced to the map then looked up with a shrug.

“To dry and barren there,” she reasoned.

“Specca!” Alyssa shouted out, with the nixie flinching then looking to her nervously.

“You’re just having us go anywhere that has a river or lake near it, we can’t limit ourselves to areas that have water,” Alyssa scolded. Specca pouted and looked down to the map.

“But it’s a good route though, I worked really hard on it,” she whined.

“We’re also missing this place to check out,” Triska mentioned while pointing to a section of the map.

“Here too,” Alyssa added while pointing to another.

Squeak pointed to another part of the map that had been carefully avoided by the nixie’s route with a squeak.

Specca looked around at the girls with a flustered expression and shook her head.

“But… but we can’t go everywhere out there, there’s just not enough time… we can’t…” she stuttered. The girls just looked at her with dull stares.

“Leave no stone unturned, as they say,” Alyssa repeated flatly.

“But, Triska, you just said it’s taking a long time to reach the elven forest, if we extend our route to all of those places that’ll double our time at the very least,” Specca reasoned nervously. Triska nodded while eyeing the nixie with a raised eyebrow.

“And in doing so we may find more proof for Daniel’s case with the queen. I want to get to the elven forest soon, but I don’t want to miss an opportunity to help Daniel along the way,” she reasoned. Specca stammered something then looked to Alyssa with a nervous smile.

“But, Alyssa, we don’t have enough provisions to last an extended trip as it is. If we change the route we won’t be able to stock up on supplies in some of the towns when we need them, and I know you don’t care for little meals such as simple sandwiches and water,” she mentioned with a few nods. Alyssa just gave her a dull stare for a moment before rolling her eyes.

“We have enough food, I can get more food from home, Triska can hunt for food, we’re not going to starve out here. And yes, I don’t care for what Triska considers to be a full meal-”

“Hey, I don’t see you whipping up an elaborate spread every day!” Triska barked out. Alyssa paused for a moment then continued.

“However, this isn’t a joyride out here, we’re helping Daniel with his quest, remember? For that I’ll deal with Triska’s poor cooking,” she reasoned.

“Poor cooking? Excuse me if I don’t use magic to make everything perfect!” Triska shouted out.

“Aw, you think my cooking is perfect? That’s so sweet of you to say,” Alyssa said with a giggle. Triska growled and reached back for her sword, with Specca grabbing her arm with both hands and struggling to keep the girl from unsheathing the blade.

“But… but… what about Squeak’s nest? We can’t take too long getting to the elves and then to Rockhelm, Squeak’s nest is moving closer to Ashwood as we speak, remember?” Specca pleaded while trying to keep Triska from taking out her sword.

“And we need more proof for Daniel’s case to show the queen of Rockhelm, which we can get by searching all the areas we can on our way to the elven forest, now let go of me so I can show Alyssa how my sword tastes!” Triska yelled out as the nixie kept trying to hold her arm back.

“Triska, stop, no swordplay in the caravan,” Specca pleaded nervously. Alyssa shook her head then looked to Squeak who was eyeing the map with worried eyes. Hearing about how her nest was trapped between the city of Ashwood and ant-lionesses got her worried about her kind’s safety again.

“We have time, Squeak,” Alyssa assured gently, with the ant girl glancing to her with a quiet squeak.

“We have time, so we need to use it to get as much proof for Daniel’s case as we can for the queen,” Alyssa reasoned. Squeak nodded and looked down to the map while Triska finally gave up and yanked her hand away from Specca with a grunt. Triska glanced to Specca then to Alyssa with a scoff before looking down to the map.

“We need all the help we can get for this, so we search anywhere we can. We need to explore every option we have, the elves alone won’t be enough for us,” Triska pointed out.

“Squeak’s nest has time still, it would take months at the very least for them to be in range of Ashwood, we need to make good use of our time and find any races we can to help us,” Alyssa agreed. Specca looked around at the group then down to the map with a pout.

“But those other areas are so dry,” she whined.

“Specca,” Alyssa and Triska sternly said together, with a squeak from Squeak as well. Specca flinched then nodded with a sigh.

“Fine, we’ll change our route to cover more ground,” she said in defeat. Triska nodded then glanced up to Alyssa, the witch watching her with a smirk on her face.

“Anything else you want to compliment me on?” Alyssa asked sweetly. Triska gave her a dull glare for a moment then smiled and leaned back on a pillow against the wall.

“Yeah, there is. I’m impressed you’re taking being picked to go last so well,” she said smugly. Alyssa looked at her with a frustrated scowl as Triska crossed her arms and twitched her eyebrow with an arrogant smile.

“I thought you would be rolling around on the floor, crying and whining about how unfair it was, but you haven’t done that. Good for you,” Triska said mockingly. Alyssa trembled a bit with anger then glanced towards the back of the caravan, with the other girls looking over as well. Near the back wall was Daniel’s section, with his bag full of books set near the corner while his sleeping blanket was neatly folded and resting with the pillow for the day. Alyssa gulped silently then glanced to Triska, seeing the teen looking at the boy’s sleeping area with a proud smile as she knew what tonight held for her.

“So what if I was picked last? There’s nothing wrong with saving the best for last,” Alyssa quipped.