The next morning began like any other. The sound of men and women stirring to the smell of food being prepared at center-camp pervaded through the air.

Sarah and Noone both woke up like usual, despite the exhaustion their bodies held from last night’s escapades, they both managed to get enough sleep to function. Though Noone had a much easier time of it than Sarah.

“Noone my boy! How did it go last night with your girlfriend?” The gnome wizard chuckled. Noone merely rolled his eyes and ignored the old man. Alaviv mocked Noone’s eye roll before wandering off to get food and find Reel the Bard, who he had taken a particular liking to.

Sarah gave Noone a look when she overheard the gnomes question. Noone could only smile wryly and shake his head. She got the message and resigned herself to her fate, staring at the gnome disappearing in between the carts.

Feylin, Raelith and Sally were all awake and busy prepping the food. When Noone and Sarah approached, Sally gave them a quick glance before returning to her work. Raelith waved them over, handing them two plates of breakfast sausage and oatmeal. It wasn’t the tastiest food in the world but compared to meager travel rations – it was heaven.

Before they could walk off, Raelith gave them both a very knowing smile and dropped two goodberries onto their plates. Noone and Sarah glanced at each other, sharing a moment of non-verbal communication before giving their thanks to the ever-mysterious Moon Elf.

“I guess we can assume they know.” Sarah whispered conspiratorially.

“It would certainly seem so.” Noone looked around for Tobias who was busy with his own assignments. Apart from Rae’s act, no one else had done anything that would show that they knew. “If they do, it seems they either don’t care enough to bother or have chosen to let you do your own thing.”

“They might have just been keeping an eye on you, you know.” Sarah retorted. Though in her heart she couldn’t help but feel a warmth develop, wondering if they had been watching over her that whole time.

Noone chuckled and nodded but said nothing. She was right, he was nothing more than a prisoner for the time being – no matter how free he might seem.

Nearby Feylin worked alongside Anette, a curly-haired blonde cleric from Pinepass with freckles covering her entire face. Over the past month they had found a groove of waking up and preparing food alongside each other.

Even Anette, with her softer disposition, had grown considerably more comfortable with the caravan lifestyle. She no longer required goodberries just to get by. The rest of her party had become equally adjusted, careful to always put their best foot forward be it helping around the caravan or taking shifts for night-watch.

Suddenly Noone turned his head at the sound of a lyre being tuned. He caught a glimpse of Reel, dressed in his usual gaudy attire, standing outside the door of the cart which contained the man who hated him but could do nothing about him either.

On Reel’s head was a plate of food, expertly balanced as he paced back and forth tuning his instrument.

“Oooooooooo” Reel stretched his voice, making his signature noise for the beginning of a ballad of ill-taste.

Noone put his head down and walked away, not wanting to become involved in the ensuing shenanigans. Sarah hesitated for a bit before also walking off. Sometimes she was in the mood for the entertainment, but not today.

Truth be told, despite her exhaustion, Sarah had immense trouble staying asleep last night. Every time she grew close, thoughts of her fighting the night before would creep into her mind.

They weren’t haunting thoughts, or at least she didn’t think so. Instead she was stuck in a constant repeat of her battle. “Should I have not involved Noone and done it on my own? What will I do in the future if I don’t have help? What if I had messed up?” These thoughts had been incessant, and her mind replayed everything that occurred over and over. She decided not to bring it up though, figuring that eventually her mindset would change to be stronger.

After half an hour, the caravan began to move with everyone walking near their respective positions. It didn’t take long for the caravan to reach pace. Sarah couldn’t help but glance back. Now that she knew where to look, she could see the vague outline of a hill over the trees in the distance. When she thought about everything that occurred there, a small part of her was glad to be leaving it behind.

“Here. I bought it on the cheap from one of the leather merchant’s up front. It’s not the best in the world or anything, but it will do.” Besides Sarah, Noone and Tobias walked together. Tobias worked to adjust a harness for Noone’s new weapon.

Since the caravan had begun moving, Tobias had done nothing but focus on the great-axe Noone had acquired. Noone found the large man rather childishly amusing during this time.

“It’s incredibly heavy for its size.” Tobias had remarked, nevertheless easily swinging it through the air. However, he needed to put much more effort into stopping it than he did with his own great-axe.

He felt the balance of the weapon and even went so far to admire the grinding work along the two bladed edges.

“This is a nice piece of work Noone. You see here?” He asked running his finger right along the side of the blade. “When sharpening weapons, all grinding wheels leave a bit of abrasive streaks along the side. It can’t be helped.” He held the head up, reflecting a small amount of light off the otherwise iron-grey surface. “But if you look carefully, you can see that whoever made this left no streaking behind. They must have worked their way down to a low-abrasion wheel. But even then, it must have taken months to get it to this degree. It isn’t necessarily sharper than a regular blade… but it’s sturdy as hell.”

While Tobias spoke, Noone couldn’t help but remember how Tobias was a bonafide axe prodigy when he was younger. Eventually he could only smile, shaking his head slightly. It seemed to Noone that that part of Tobias had never truly disappeared.

“Alright,” Tobias huffed pulling a leather strap tight. “Get used to walking with it over the next few weeks. The weight won’t be a problem for you, but let me know if you get any chaffing, I will help you readjust it. The other thing is to be careful when sitting down. The last thing you want is to sit down and have the axe’s handle land directly on the ground. You run the risk of unclasping the axe and having it fall on you. I am sure you have seen how we make do?” Tobias asked. Noone nodded. Tobias, Sarah, and Raelith all used long weapons. When they sat down on the ground or in a chair, they had to either remove their weapon or sweep the handle to the side, so it was closer to horizontal.

Noone moved around a little bit, twisting and bending as they walked getting used to the large metal against his body.

“I thought it would restrict my movement a lot more.” Noone remarked casually. He wasn’t sure if it was because of the harness, or Tobias’s expertise, but he had much more range of movement than he had imagined.

On Noone’s waist he still carried the two war-axes. He figured he might as well since they didn’t weigh him down really and he was much more familiar with them than the great-axe for now.

“Since we took care of the bandits… I’m not going to have a chance to get used to this in battle.” Noone thought. “I guess I am going to need to make time to train with Tobias.” A small smile played on Noone’s lips and he looked at the large paladin with a glint of playful menace.

After last night, Noone had come to realize that he wasn’t as weak as he had always assumed. It was just he had been incredibly unlucky so far in who he has encountered.

If the majority of the common world existed in between being classless and level 5, Noone had a feeling it wouldn’t be long now until he could easily surpass them.

“The true battle… is going to be surpassing them.” Noone thought about Tobias, about Clayton, about Rae. Even the little gnome Alaviv flashed in his mind. He couldn’t help but sigh, running his hand over his bald head. “It’s still a long road.”