Chapter 188
Waking up the following morning was difficult for many. The celebrations had plenty of alcohol shared around, and it had such a wonderful effect on the mood of the celebrations. Though it turned out to have a conversely negative effect the morning after. As the sun shone in through the entrance of the tent, groans could be heard from the two people inside. The brightness of the sun did not help with the headaches that they woke up to. They never had dealt well with hangovers, so they rarely drank as heavily. Last night however, was a special time for them. Some of the people that had passed on had been fairly close to their family, and so they partook in the celebrations more than they originally planned. And while they did not regret their choices the night before, they did wish they would have been a bit more held back and had moderated their drinking.
After spending an hour trying to ignore the bright sun that shone on their face, the two people slowly crawled out of their tent to get ready for the day. They did not bother changing their clothes from the previous day, but that was entirely due to the fact that they just didn't have any more of their clothes available. They had only brought enough for a single change, not expecting all cars to stop working overnight. Moving to a giant area of shade, they tried to rest their now sensitive eyes while getting some food inside of them. Despite the fact that they wanted nothing more than eggs, they were unable to have them right now. If only due to a lack of eggs and the lack motivation to build a fire. Thus, they stuck with some of the cereal that had been shared with them the day before. However, that involved getting Sheera to help, and she was far too peppy this morning for them. After all, one cannot get a hangover if they don't drink. She had the same amount of energy as usual, just felt as unbearable only due to the context of the situation at hand.
As they leaned against a tree and dealt with a cuddly and enthusiastic cougar, the rest of the field by them started to wake as well. Groans could be heard from all the adults as the hangovers hit them as well. Only instead of having to deal with a cuddly cougar who liked to purr first thing in the morning, they had the fun of dealing with kids. Within minutes of them getting up, they were already running around and playing tag, repeatedly being shushed by the adults around them. Not that the shushing helped any, it either being too soft to be heard by the loud kids or they just ignored it. Regardless, they were basically a bunch of annoying alarm clocks that would not be a good idea to hit in frustration.
Slowly, everyone got up and ready for the day. Chomping down food, getting changed and cleaning up where they slept the day before. A lot of the younger generation struggled with this, but were carefully guided by their elders. For if they were going back to a nomadic lifestyle, cleaning up after themselves and respecting the nature around them was going to be far more important than it had been for them before. By now, the Vilkas family had already cleaned up their area, stored everything away inside Charlene. Right now, they were watching the entire event in front of them while on the last legs of recovering from their hangover. In light voices, they debated back and forth names to use for what to call the space that was formed inside Charlene. Sheera occasionally joined in the discussion, though you could tell exactly when she came up with and shared one of her ideas. As neither were used to the mental communication they had, Charlene noticeably winced every time Sheera said something. Neither of them knew how to control the volume of what was being transmitted back and forth, so they just dealt with it for now. Though it was added to the list of things to work on immediately.
Animal Space, Spirit Dwelling, and The Interior were just some of the ideas thrown out. If it hadn't been for how alien sounding it was, they totally would have gone with The Interior as well. Something about it just felt wrong whenever they said it. They were debating between a couple wordy ones when Chief Ahnassay walked up to them. In a soft voice, he jumped in, "I couldn't help but overhear what you were talking about. Why not simply call it your Core?" Discussion between the three of them stopped as they took in his words. It was short, to the point, and yet accurately described everything they knew about the space. It was much easier on the mouth compared to Extra-Dimensional-Unlimited-Storage-Space. Even when Matis tried to argue in favour of just using the abbreviation EDUSS.
Agreeing to the easy to use term was almost instantaneous between the three. Turning towards the Chief, Matis responded, "Thank you Chief, I believe we will use that term. After all, it seems to fit well with what we know.so are you guys almost ready to head out?"
"I believe that we are getting close. I just wanted to let you both know where we would be travelling before everyone started moving. Our current plan is to head north, and veer off to the west after passing the lakes. To an area that is far away from any man-made structures. There we could be safe, as well as flourish and grow in strength."
"Well, we wish you the best of luck. Just in the interest of sharing with all of you, we plan to first head back home to collect our things and supplies, before we head south in search of our daughter. It will likely be a long while before you see either of us again after this." The last words out of Matis mouth was the start of a long series of farewells. When all of it was finally said and done, the two groups of people went their separate ways, moving in the direction that they felt called to them.
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