"There is a difference between a wandering and a journey. A journey is something that there is a clear goal for, a set end, and a reason beyond simply existing, a wandering, on the other hand, is something that has no clear end, no clear reason, no simple existence, except for existing itself. So, my friend, before you go out into the world first find in yourself, are you journeying, or are you truly wandering. Though it might truly be that all those living are wandering deep down inside" – a wandering philosopher

Alex makes his way towards the gap between the two mountains.

'Well, through Gilberds pass it is, I just hope that I'm able to find out if Walter and Albi are okay…'

Alex continues scuffling along, looking to the sky during his journey.

'Those are some interesting clouds, are they caused by the mountains?'

Alex continues walking, coming to the middle of the path after a good thirty minutes.

'I wonder why it's called Gilberd's pass, I heard about it from uncle that one time he visited…'

Alex's face scrunches up in displeasure.

'Though Gerald turned out to be a right bastard.'

Alex's walking stick goes *clack* with every other step he takes.

'I remember Gilberd's pass from its role in the war between the Albent province and the eastern duchy.'

Alex looks to the ground, his eyes glazing over different stones that, though common to the area, he hadn't seen before.

'Maybe it's Gilberd's pass because a person named Gilberd found it like Hilda's pass?'

Alex kicks a stone.

*clack*

'It's interesting that we've had a conflict with the eastern duchy in the past, but they ended up being a better friend to us than the western duchy.'

Alex finishes walking through the pass and continues his wandering towards Irkshire.

'I really hope they somehow made it through…'

Alex stares off at the sun, slowly rising in the distance.

'Looks like I've got a long day ahead of me if I remember right Rodna slipped a map in with the other supplies.'

He stops for a moment, opens his backpack, and takes a look.

'More like a long couple of days, unless I want to cut through the woods to the western duchy…'

Alex puts the map back into his backpack, heaves it onto his back, and continues walking down the road.

'Though I don't know why I would want to do that.'

A few hours later, Alex stops for a few minutes to rest and refill his canteen and eat lunch. Afterwards, he continues his journey.

'It's surprising how few other travelers I've seen on this road, I thought that the routes from Gilberd's pass were busy, especially with how they have Rodna stationed out there… but maybe she's there more as an early warning scout for invasion.'

A good deal of hours after that and the sun is setting.

'I should probably set camp or something…'

Alex looks at his hands.

'Though I don't really know how to…'

Alex shrugs.

'Well, nothing to do but try I guess.'

Alex looks around and sees a tree in the forest on the side of the road.

'That one looks like it has pretty good cover, I guess I can just sleep under it.'

Alex takes the bedroll out of the backpack, and after brushing away some pebbles, he lays down in it. He then takes some jerky and his canteen and has a quick dinner, before getting into his bedroll and staring at the leaves

'Rodna was really nice packing all this, I didn't ask for half of it, but without it now I'd be in trouble.

Alex stares at the sky and appearing stars through the cracks in the coverage.

'Maybe not the best coverage after all, but it doesn't look like it is going to rain, so I should be fine.

Alex closes his 'eye' and finds the world dims.

'Well, I'm tired now. Hopefully, things keep going as well as they did today.'

Alex turns over.

'Goodnight world.'

…

With the moon high in the sky, a sniffing sound can be heard around the tree where Alex is.

Two yellow eyes shine through the underbrush under the light of the full moon.

The sniffing sound approaches, and if one listens carefully, they can hear the movement of underbrush and something approaching.

It stops at the underbrush, close to 6 meters from where Alex peacefully lays, it then slowly approaches.

Before skittering back a bit at one of Alex's sleeping twitches.

It then goes up to Alex's bag, which is a meter from Alex's resting place and tears it open.

…

Light shines through the treetops, and Alex wakes up.

'Good morning world.'

Alex looks at the sun just to be certain, as ever since his form of sight changed, the only way to tell if it was day or night was the intensity and presence of an orb in the sky.

'Well, I guess it's time to get on with today.'

He stretches a bit and then walks over to where he left his bag to get some breakfast and pack up to be on his way.

'…'

'Maybe I should have tied my bag up in the tree or something?'

All over the ground are the belongings of Rodna that she gave to Alex, with the food packages, in particular, being spread all over the ground.

'Well, that's seriously upsetting.'

Even though Alex thinks this, he's unable to get worked up about it.

'Maybe it's because I've been through so much worse, but this really doesn't phase me…'

Alex then picks up what's left of his food, which totaled to… a few inedible scraps of jerky.

'Looks like I'm going to go hungry for a few days.

Luckily most of his equipment, including his water canteen, were untouched except for a few scratches on a couple.

'Maybe a stray wolf or something, or maybe a bear?'

Alex continues packing his bag.

'I'm just lucky they didn't attack me and left the bag in a semi-functional state.'

Alex looks at the new holes in the bag.

'I'll just put the large items next to them.'

He nods his head and packs his bag. A few hours later, and he starts on the second day of his journey.

His stomach gurgles around midday, the time he would usually have lunch.

'It really sucks not to have any food. I guess I could go try to scavenge or hunt some?'

Alex looks towards the woods.

'But even though I'm good with some weapons, I've never hunted before, and if I can just tough it out for another day or so, I'll be to Irkshire, and I can work something out there.'

Alex continues walking, a bit more feebly now that the hunger is starting to kick in.

'Though I'm not really sure how especially with how people have a problem with this mage-speech or whatever I seem to be emulating.'

Alex sighs.

'Well, I guess I'll just have to find a solution on the way there.'

Alex looks at the cloudless sky.

'Now is as good of a time as any, I guess.'

Alex starts to ponder different options he has, though his thought process is severely hindered by his growing hunger, he is able to come up with a few ideas before it's evening. He sets out to camp once more.

'I can a, try to use sign language of a kind. Though that will probably necessitate me pretending to be mute, though I'm sure I'll slip up at some point if I do that. Option b, tell the straight out truth.'

Alex chuckles to himself for a moment.

'Option c, pretend to have a malady of a sort that causes the mage-speak, a sort of half-truth, though…'

Alex looks for another spot to camp as the orb (which he assumes to be the sun) is close to setting, and he is starting to get tired in addition to hungry.

'It's bound to draw attention. So maybe a mix of option a and c? A for most cases, and c if I'm exposed.'

Alex nods to himself.

'Though it will be hard to communicate in my current situation, I'll get through it, and in case I need to communicate something complex, I believe that Rodna packed some wood slates and some charcoal.'

Alex checks his bag.

'She did, she was very thoughtful… If I end up using the slates though, it will require the other party to be literate, which is a rather rare thing except in the nobility.'

Alex makes a sour face.

'I was going to make some programs to rectify that, but now it doesn't seem like I'm going to get the chance…'

Alex finds another tree, and this time after laying down his roll.

'I know I'm not doing something I'm supposed to for camping, but I'm tired, and I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to do otherwise.'

Alex yawns.

'Well, it should be fine, the animal that tore through my backpack did leave me alone last time.'

Alex goes to sleep.

…

Yellow eyes pierce into the night.

…

Alex wakes up the next morning, he then, after rubbing the sleep from his eyes, looks to the tree to see if his luggage is okay.

Seeing it still in order, he sighs in relief, but then he gets an eerie feeling.

He looks to his sleeping bag but finds it in shreds around him.

'I feel fine, I wonder why it's broken like that.'

He then looks down at his body to see that his clothes are in tatters as well.

'Well, I wonder if its another thing that that magic beast did to me, or something that some animal did. Though if an animal tore up the bag and my clothes, why am I still fine?'

Hungry, tired, and simply done with it, Alex shrugs his shoulders, picks up his bag (which is lacking spare clothes, it looks like Rodna hadn't packed for everything for Alex), and continues on his way.

While walking, he recedes back into his thoughts and thinks about his rescue by Ivona.

'I hope Ivona's okay, I never got to see her after that. It's not like me going back up there would have helped anything too. Just doing so would have taken me days, and by the time I would have gotten there, she would have been gone or dead.'

Alex tries to shake the feeling of guilt, but it doesn't go away.

'To be honest, I hope everyone is okay. This whole fiasco is unfortunate in almost every manner possible, and without coming back to life, I would have died many times already.'

Alex closes his hand and continues walking.

'Well, for now, let's just get to Irkshire. I can gather information and plan from there.'

Alex keeps walking, and as the sun sets, he sees Irkshire in the distance.

He increases his pace as he reaches closer to his destination.

'I made it.'