Tori Transmigrated

The worst-case scenario was that one of her group mates got hurt or worse.

The second worst case scenario was the one in front of her.

Why did they keep appearing in front of her when she wanted nothing to do with them? What sort of bullshit forced conflict was this?

Ignoring the NPC that filled out their groups, five out of the seven Romance of Soleil targets were standing in front of her with the heroine. There was no way Tori wouldn’t feel suddenly cornered. This wasn’t her ‘bad end’, but it was bad enough.

A dozen teenagers appeared from the forest, appearing cold, hungry, and obviously tired. They hadn’t set up their camps yet, let alone selected a spot to set up at, and were now looking at her group’s camp with expectant eyes. She knew exactly what they wanted even before Alessa opened her mouth.

While her grip on her dagger loosened, Tori still instinctively stepped in front of her boiling pasta to protect it from unwelcomed mouths.

She now faced a dilemma.

The heroine just asked her for a favor. If she agreed, there was a good chance they’d want their food, take up their space, and ruin the overall relaxed atmosphere Lion’s Gate was enjoying. She didn’t know what Alessa and her wall of love interests would ask for, but she was sure it wouldn’t just be permission to camp next to them.

On the other hand, if she disagreed and told them what she felt in her heart: hell no, find your own damn camping spot; she would upset the group, worsen her already shit reputation with them, and possibly open herself up to future retribution that could inadvertently lead to death at the hands of sex slavers.

She really didn’t like either choice.

Tori looked towards her now quiet and serious group, silently asking them for permission.

Five pairs of eyes looked back at Tori, as if saying ‘you’re the leader; you make the call’.

She swallowed hard. She settled on the third choice: avoid saying ‘yes’ by feigning ignorance.

“You're in luck. The area around here is a good place to set up camp.” She turned towards the stream and looked over Ilyana and Henrik’s heads. “That area over there is flat and suitable for laying down bedrolls. It’s close enough to the river so you can fetch water with just a light crystal without fear of getting lost or running into anything, but far enough away that the ground is dirt and there are no large, protruding river rocks.” She turned back to Alessa with an enthusiastic smile. “Plus, it’s enough space for both your groups.”

It is also far enough away from mine. Her suggestion wasn’t permission to join her group, but since Tori didn’t give them a flat ‘no’ and reject them, they couldn’t really criticize her. After all, she did recommend an area nearby that would be beneficial.

Alessa’s hopeful smile still faltered. She didn’t make her disappointment obvious, but Tori had the distinct feeling that she was not used to being rejected.

“Oh...is this area across from your fire not good enough?” Alessa asked, glancing at the dirt patch opposite their tents.

“We cleared that space for fire hazard reasons,” JP said, suddenly. “The wind was blowing in that direction earlier and we were worried any embers from the campfire would be blown over, so we kept it clear.”

Tori mentally gave JP a thumbs up. That space was empty because they had nothing to put there.

“Well, our good classmates are kind enough to recommend an ideal spot to us,” Dimitri said as he put his hand on Alessa’s sunken shoulders. He looked towards the prince’s lackeys. “Why don’t we get at it? It’s already dark.”

The breath of relief that escaped Tori and her group was either unnoticed or ignored, but Tori still remained standing where she was, watching the two other groups.

As most of the boys lumbered towards the open space between them and the stream, Tori could see Girl NPC 1 and 2 huddled together to keep warm. Like Alessa, they also wore pants and long sleeve shirts, but none of them seemed to consider that the temperatures would drop significantly once the sun set.

Tori’s eyes moved to the protagonist to compare. She narrowed her eyes; that was quite an oversized jacket on Alessa’s narrow shoulders. Tori almost wanted to smirk. Which one of the love interests got the honor of giving her their jacket? She scanned each target and noticed that the blue-haired guy was in a long sleeve shirt and didn't have a jacket, like the others.

There were nine boys in the combined two groups and out of the three girls, only Alessa was offered a jacket. This game was treating Alessa as the pretty friend while ignoring the two plain ones, like some douchebag in a club.

“How long do you think it will take to get a fire going?” Girl NPC 2 asked.

“It shouldn’t take long. Fabian has had some wilderness training,” Gideon said, sounding confident about his knight’s abilities.

Tori glanced over at the second campsite and crinkled her eyes. They didn’t even have any kindling. What was Fabian going to start a fire with? Dirt?

“While they’re setting up, do you girls want to sit by the fire?” Tori motioned to the campfire between them. “It’s not very big, but it’s a bit warmer closer to it.”

“Thank you!”

“I was hoping you’d ask!”

Tori’s fake smile started to hurt. She watched the two Girl NPCs scramble forward and instead of crouching near the fire to warm their hands, they loomed over the log where Ilyana and Henrik were seated.

They didn’t say a word, but it was obvious they wanted to sit on the log. Ilyana rolled her eyes and scooted down, forcing Henrik to scoot down, and making Sonia lower her arms to make room. The Girl NPCs smiled brilliantly, as if they just didn’t use social pressure to get the seats.

“You should stay here and get warm,” Gideon told Alessa as he stood in front of her. “You worked hard today.”

Alessa pulled the jacket tighter around her. “No, I'm part of the group! I can help set up!”

Gideon’s face softened. “Don’t worry, we can set up the camp quickly and get the fire up in no time.”

Tori squinted. She couldn’t believe she was forced to watch this at her own campsite. Turning to Ewan, she picked up the large spade that was next to the fire hole.

“Help them clear a spot for a fire. When you’re done, come back and we’ll get them started with some kindling and the flame so they don’t have to start from scratch,” Tori said, handing him the spade. She leaned forward and lowered her voice. “The sooner they have their own fire, the sooner they’ll leave and we can eat in peace.”

Any resistance Ewan had vanished and he smacked JP’s arm as he passed. “Grab some kindling for them. Just enough to start them off. We have plenty to last us.”

JP raised a brow, glanced at Tori for confirmation, and then stood up once she nodded. JP gathered a bunch of twigs and a handful of bark and straw and followed Ewan to the other camp.

“Thank you for your help, Lady Guevera,” Alessa said as she picked up the bowls JP had put on the stump and placed them on the ground next to it so she could sit.

Tori could see her group mates’ barely contained disgust. Sonia reached over to pick up the bowls and dusted the bottom one off before putting it on her lap.

Ilyana took a deep breath and offered the Girl NPCs a pleasant smile. “We’re surprised to see you here. We strayed away from other groups some time ago and hadn’t seen anyone since we set up. Were you all looking for a place to set up camp?”

“Yes and no,” Girl NPC 1 said. “We were fishing and lost track of time. We couldn’t find a clear place to set up our camp and the sun set faster than we expected.”

“We were going to make do with camping in the brush or by the river, but Fabian smelled smoke.” Alessa looked excited as she spoke. “Dimitri said it was likely another group and we walked a bit further and saw the fire.”

Tori cursed the campfire, as if it had betrayed them.

“You have to be more careful tomorrow night,” Henrik said. He didn’t bother to sound pleasant. “Before the sun sets, you should be setting up camp. It’s dangerous to continue when night falls.”

“We planned to, but we had an accident,” Girl NPC 1 said. “One of the Armada boys was refilling our water canisters after lunch and his bag fell into the river. It was swept away before anyone could get to it.”

“It was the bag that carried our food.” Girl NPC 2 looked gutted by this, but then looked towards Alessa with admiring eyes. “Luckily, Alessa caught some fish.”

Tori stirred the pasta in the pot and crinkled her eyes. She went fishing? Is that like a side game?

She heard giggling and from the stump, Alessa clapped her hands. “I used to go fishing all the time in Chetterswickshire. There were many streams near my home. I also cleaned the fish myself. All we have to do is roast them now.”

“Oh...lucky,” Sonia said with a nod. “It would’ve been tragic if you had nothing to eat.”

"Alessa isn't like other noble girls." Girl NPC 1 bragged openly. "She had no problem getting her hands dirty and gutting the fish."

Tori caught her three remaining group mates exchange silent, dubious looks, and she pulled in her lips to keep from snorting. I'm not like other noble girls because I can gut fish. Bitch, please. I watched my Marquess mother take part in a pig slaughter over the summer just to get the entrails so she could make Papa the sausage he likes so much.

“Fire pit is set up.” JP returned and began to pick through the various burning sticks in their campfire.

“Where’s Ewan?”

“Digging a toilet.” JP pulled out one of the sticks that was lit up like a torch. “Everyone out of the way!”

He marched back, passing Gideon who was coming to retrieve the girls. Gideon swung out to the side to avoid the torch and glowered at JP before turning back to Tori’s camp. He approached Alessa and knelt down by the stump.

“Once he starts the fire, we’ll be ready to roast the fish you caught,” he said. “You really saved us, Alessa.”

Both Girl NPCs chorused with agreement and Tori vaguely heard Sonia whisper ‘it’s just fish’ under her breath.

Alessa rose to her feet and smiled. “Great! Let’s start immediately!” She motioned her hand up to signal the Girl NPCs to follow her and Tori wondered if she remembered that the other two didn’t have jackets. She looked towards the other camp and could see JP crouched by a small glowing pile of embers, blowing into it while several other boys stood around like mannequins.

“Thank you for the fire,” Gideon said. Tori almost wanted to sneer. At least he had the decency to thank them. He craned his neck as he stood up to see what she was cooking and curled his lip in distaste. “Enjoy your dinner.”

He turned away and Tori put a lid with several rows of small holes along one side on top of the pot. She reached into her bag and put on the oven mitts she borrowed from her aunt’s kitchen and carried the pot to the tree line. She drained the water and then returned.

“Call JP and Ewan back,” she said as she removed the lid and put aside the oven mitts. “Dinner’s almost ready.”

Sonia got up to fetch their missing group members as Tori took out a thick glass jar filled with dark red sauce. She forced the lid open and poured its contents into the pot. The metal hissed and she used the tongs to coat the noodles with sauce thoroughly. The smell of onion and garlic mixed with tomato and sausage filled the area.

“What is that?” Sonia asked as she returned with Ewan and JP behind her. The two had went to wash their hands at the river and were drying their hands with a small piece of cloth. Ewan sniffed the air and beamed.

“That smells good....”

“It’s spaghetti with tomato sauce and meat. I made it the day before we left, then froze it in Auntie’s cold box,” Tori said. “Get our bowls out.”

The smell seemed to become even more fragrant as Tori put a fist-sized bundle of noodles coated with sauce into each of the bowls. She then took the pot off the grill and fire and placed it on some rocks next to her to keep the remaining food from burning.

“Wait...,” Ewan said as he stabbed and lifted up a piece of cut meat. “Is this sausage?”

“Yeah, it’s the one the twins’ mom sent. It’s kind of spicy.”

“No, it’s perfect,” Sonia said as she let out a small, pleased moan. “It still has that snap...it’s so good, Tori.”

“Hah. It’s only because hunger is the best seasoning.” Tori opened a small jar of grated cheese. “You can add cheese.”

“And you’re the one who cooked this?” Henrik said as he lifted up a forkful. Sonia and JP put a healthy layer of cheese over their pasta.

“Yes,” Tori said. “Tomorrow, we’re also having dried pasta, but it’s cheese and pepper with prosciutto. The pasta is good to keep up our energy.”

“My mouth is already watering....” Sonia mumbled.

“No wonder you told us you’d prepare the food,” JP said. He shoved a forkful into his mouth and closed his eyes. “This is just what we needed after today’s hike.”

Ewan laughed. “Praise the group leader!”

“Praise the group leader!”

Tori nearly choked on her pasta as she laughed. “All right, all right...all of you worked hard, too, you know. You should be proud of yourselves for getting this far so smoothly. Ilyana, you’ve never been out in the forest before and Henrik, when we first started putting up the tents, you nearly put your eye out with one on the stakes. Now you can set up a tent faster than I can make a fire with fire steel. All of you have worked exceptionally hard and it shows. I am very proud of you all.” She couldn’t help but look at her little group fondly as they seemed to become shy at her unexpected praise. “So, eat up. You deserve it. If you’re still hungry, there's more in the pot.”

In the end, they all got a little bit more and Ewan and Tori went to wash the dishes by the stream while Ilyana cut up slices of fruit. After four rounds of cards, of which Henrik accused Ilyana of counting cards, Tori snuffed out the fire hole and announced it was time to sleep.

They returned to the stream in threes to wash their faces and rinse their mouths before bed, all while blatantly ignoring the other two groups and the smell of burnt fish. However, Tori was curious enough to glance over long enough to take in several bedrolls arranged in three layers around the fire.

Alessa and her friends were the closest, then the love interests seemed to line up around her while the pack mules were the outer perimeter, furthest from the fire. Tori shook her head. They should’ve just made two fires.

She, Sonia, and Ilyana were the last to return and upon approaching their camp, saw the silhouettes of two young men standing in front Ewan, JP, and Henrik. Tori narrowed her eyes as she saw the pensive looks on their faces and knew it wasn’t good.

She straightened her posture and put her shoulders back as she lifted her chin and strode forward. “What’s going on?” She used the tone she used when asking her direct reports at work why there was a hold up on a project.

Dimitri took the lead and stepped forward. “Lady Guevera, you’ve already helped us a lot tonight and I hate to trouble you once more-”

“What do you want.” She didn’t mean for it to come so sharp, but she was tired and wanted to sleep. She gave Dimitri a deadpan look. “It’s late and my group is tired, Mr. Guthry. We walked all day and deserve a comfortable rest.” She looked at him and gave a nod to her group mates. “Head inside and get some sleep. We need to wake up early tomorrow.”

JP ushered his sister and Ilyana into their tents, but lingered just outside, appearing hesitant to retreat. Ewan and Henrik also remained standing where they were with displeased expressions.

The bad feeling in Tori’s gut grew stronger. She looked back at Dimitri and gave him a curt nod. “You should go to sleep, too. It’s late.”

Dimitri seemed to hesitate. “About sleeping....”

“It’s cold out tonight.” Gideon cut in front of him and glowered at Tori. “We think that the girls should sleep in the tents.”

I fucking knew it! She crossed her arms over her chest and cocked her head to the side. They were asking for too much considering the circumstances. “Our girls are sleeping in our tents. We spent nearly a week practicing setting them up.”

“And it shows!” Dimitri said. “However....” He looked back towards his own camp, where the girls in his group were huddled by the fire.

Tori followed his gaze and then looked back at him. “I don’t understand.” Fuck you, assholes. I’m not giving up shit.

“You have three tents,” Gideon said with a glare. “Surely, you can spare one so that Alessa and the other girls don’t have to sleep outside in the cold.”

She was seething. She met his eyes with a hardened glare of her own. “No. We can’t spare one.” Her voice dropped and took a step forward, as if ready to fight him. “We spent days preparing for this excursion and only packed the bare minimum supplies to provide for our group.” She pointed towards Ewan and Henrik and JP past them. “Those three carried our tents and now you’re saying they can’t sleep in them?”

A look of surprise filled Gideon’s face, as if stunned she had the audacity to reject him. He soon narrowed his eyes. “That’s very self-”

“Selfish?” Tori mocked. “Selfish is not properly preparing your group and then demanding that another make up for your losses at their expense. I am the leader of Lion’s Gate, Your Highness. It is my responsibility to make sure my group is safe and taken care of until we reach the end point and I will not allocate our few resources - that we had to scrape together, because another group was ill-equipped. You didn't accidentally lose your tents; you didn't bring any.”

She took a step back and let out a heavy breath as she continued your tirade. “We have already helped you find a place to camp, lent you tools, and gave you fire so you can stay warm and eat. Your group mates said it was too dark to find firewood, so we gave you some of ours. Between two groups with twelve people, I would think one or two of you would be better prepared than this!”

“Wow....” JP said in a whisper as he leaned towards Henrik. “She’s really taking this leader thing seriously.”

Henrik nodded blankly. “Praise to the leader...."

“Lady Guevera!” Another boy ran up to them and Tori almost wanted to scream. Montan, with his face still full of disdain, stood in front of her. “How much do you want for your tent? Name your price.”

Tori stared at him in disbelief before slowly narrowing her eyes. She shook her head and walked past them. “You three, get in your tents,” she ordered as she passed Ewan and the others. They stepped back as she stormed past. She knelt down and reached into her tent, pulling out her bag and then digging through.

“Tori?” Ilyana looked worried.

Tori didn’t reply as she pulled out two more tightly balled navy bundles. She held them out as she stood and shook them so they could puff up. Her other arm moved back and she shook off her own vest as she walked past the love interests.

Her boots crunched on the dirt and dead leaves as she walked towards the second camp.

“You three girls!” She said as she barely resisted the urge to stomp over the laid-out bedrolls. Alessa and her friends turned around and Tori thrust a vest at each of them. “I designed these. They’re spider silk and wool quilted with goose down. They’ll keep your bodies warm and pack easily. I won’t give up my group’s tents, but I can give you these.”

The trio were confused at first, but Girl NPC 2 put her arm through and folded the front flaps over her chest. Her eyes widened; she must’ve noticed the chill was already being blocked. Her face broke out in a smile as she looked at Girl NPC 1.

Alessa and Girl NPC 1 put on the vests as Girl NPC 2 looked up at Tori with a grateful expression. “Thank you, Lady Guevera! We’ll give them back to you in the morning.”

Tori shook her head. “No. We have one more night after this. Just return them after the excursion, when we get back to campus.”

She didn’t wait for them to acknowledge her and marched back to her camp. The love interests stepped aside and she ignored them despite her need to turn back and slap a few.

As she reached her campsite, the others looked out of their tents.

“Tori...are you okay?” Ewan asked.

She stopped just in front of her tent and took a deep breath. “Don’t feel guilty about not giving up your tents.”

Henrik snorted. “I don’t!”

She cracked a small smile. “I gave them my vest and the spares. It’ll at least keep them from freezing. That’s something, right?”

She heard a few mutters and Ewan spoke up once more. “Thanks for not making us give up our tents, Tori. I know they’re not happy about this.”

She nodded, about to kneel down and crawl into her tent, when she froze. Shit...did I just make more enemies?

It was still dark when Tori opened her eyes, yet she knew it was time to get up. She forced herself into a sitting position, stretched out her arms, and twisted her waist before she wiggled out of her sleeping bag and put on her shoes.

She took the light crystal hanging at the top of the tent and rubbed it between her hands to activate it and then crawled out to start the fire. Because she didn’t trust the other two groups, she had made her group bring kindling into their tents. She dragged her backpack out and leaned it against the stump as she ignited a small fire on some bark. When she got the flames to grow, she lowered it into the fire hole and fed it more kindling.

As it grew stronger, she went to the river to fetch water, filling up a metal kettle and a bucket before lugging it back to camp.

Tori looked over at the second camp as she passed. The sun was just breaking past the horizon and, at least from what she could tell, none of them died overnight.

As the water boiled and the pot heated up, she laid out the food to prepare for that day’s meals: a few cheeses, bread, three different kinds of smoked sausage and ham, some preserves, and fruit.

She tossed the cut-up vegetables, sausage, and eggs she had painstakingly packed into the pot to make some sort of frittata. The inviting smell lured out her group and, more like a camp mother than group leader, she told them to wash up and then come eat.

Ilyana took Tori’s water canister with her to fill up as the small group headed to the river. When they returned, there were slices of frittata in their bowls and Tori was slicing meat and cheese.

“Is the water ready?” Henrik asked.

“Yeah, it’s still hot, though.” Tori pushed forward her mug with what looked to be another mug with small holes at the bottom. Henrik opened a metal canister and scooped out some ground coffee into everyone’s cup, then poured the hot water over to let it drip into the lower cup. “Let’s get the map and review our hike for the day. We have to make good time since we’re crossing the river today.”

That would be the most complicated part of the hike. They’d lose time, but safety was their priority. As Tori and Henrik reviewed the map, Ewan finished cutting up the meat and cheese while Sonia and JP made their lunch sandwiches. Ilyana wrapped them up and packed them in each person’s satchel.

“My, my, don’t you all look prepared for the day,” an amused voice said. Tori lifted her head and saw Constantine coming over. “I could smell your breakfast all the way over there. It smells delicious.”

“Thank you,” Tori said. “We planned out our meals for the excursion.”

“Is that so?” He craned his neck and looked into Tori’s open bag. “You still have quite a bit of supplies.”

Ewan reached over and quickly lowered the flap over the opening, making Constantine jump back a bit. “Not really; we only brought the minimum we’d need for the three-day, two-night excursion.”

“If we don’t get to the end point by tomorrow afternoon, we’re in trouble,” Ilyana said with a light laugh.

“I was going to ask you if we could perhaps buy some rations from you,” Constantine said. “I believe the girls told you yesterday that we lost our food to the river.” Ewan looked like he wanted to reject him, but Constantine didn’t let him talk. “We could really use the help considering how difficult the night has been.”

Well, who’s fault is that? Certainly not mine. Tori thought to herself. Still, she let out a sigh and stood up. “I was actually thinking about your food situation last night. It was an accident that you lost your food. I went over the rations and adjusted our meal plan.” Tori walked back to her tent and took out a wheel of cheese as wide as the length of her hand and a large paper wrapped package. “This has a large loaf made the day before yesterday, six smoked pork sausages, and a jar of pickles.” She held them out to Constantine. “If you combine it with any fish Miss Hart catches, it should get you all through until tomorrow.”

Constantine’s eyes were wide as he accepted the rations. “Thank you, Lady Guevera. That’s quite generous of you! ‘The giving hands have the largest hearts’!”

The corner of Tori’s eye twitched. “It’s going to be a long day with the river crossing. You all should eat.”

Constantine took the rations and headed back to his camp triumphantly.

“Are we going to be short on food?” Ewan asked, sounding as if he wasn’t sure how to feel about what just happened.

“No, I packed extra,” Tori said. “As a precaution in case we were delayed. But now, we have to get to the end point at our estimated time. I left a bunch of food in the wagon for us to eat on the way back.”

“How’d you know they were going to come ask for food?” Ilyana asked.

Tori began to pack up her things. “They don’t have a choice. If they don’t ask, they’ll go hungry...at least until they find another group that may give them food.”

“Then you really prepared it for them last night?” JP asked. Tori nodded.

“I’m not a monster,” she said with a helpless shrug. And I have to toss them something to lessen the hate after I pretty much told them to go fuck themselves last night. “Now, let’s hurry up and take the tents down. We have a river to cross.”

Tori took the initiative to bid the other camp farewell. Her words were short and sweet, aiming to be more a notification that of their departure and not leaving room to allow the other two groups to follow. Henrik was already leading the group away when Tori wished the other groups a ‘safe journey’.

“Did they try to invite themselves along?” Sonia asked as Tori rushed to catch up with them.

“I tried not to give them a chance to.”

“I was thinking...,” JP said as they marched along. “You don’t think they purposely came to find our group because of our tents, do you?”

Tori let out a low breath. The thought did cross her mind. “Let’s just forget about it. Hopefully, we won’t run into them again.”

They followed the stream until it fed back into the Daga River. The shores on either side were clear of trees; just sediment and round stones, so they stuck to the area just beyond, where there was still relatively even dirt.

It didn’t take them long to start seeing groups huddled by the river, maps out and trying to figure out if they were in the northernmost point and where to cross.

“It doesn’t look so bad,” Ewan said as they passed a group. “The river is narrower here than it was earlier. Can’t we cross here, too?”

Tori stopped and looked over her shoulder. Ewan shrank back, as if he’d said something wrong. Tori drew her lips inward. “Okay, I get it. Come here.” She veered off their course and walked closer to the shore. Several groups turned in their direction, but didn’t make contact, instead opting to watch them, as if expecting a show. As her group reached the edge of the water, she looked around the rocky ground and picked up a weather-worn stick that washed ashore. She turned around to face her group. “Okay...first...Henrik, are we at the northernmost point of the river?”

He reached into his satchel and took out his map. He compared the notes to the scenery around them. “I believe so.”

“And if that side is north, then the flow is going southwest,” Tori said, first holding her arm out to point across the river and then turning to point downstream. “You can kind of see the river start to bend there. It’s very subtle, but it’ll start to flow southwest, right?”

“Right....” Her group nodded.

“Back to the stick. Keep your eyes on it.” Tori turned around and hurled it into the water. It landed somewhere in the middle and everyone squinted to catch sight of it. It bobbed up further downstream and then was quickly swept away. “Tell me: can you walk faster than that stick is being carried by the current?”

The stick was nearly out of view and tossed around, through some white froth. It occasionally disappeared under the water.

Ewan squinted. “No....”

“Then what makes you think you can stand up and wade across the river when the current is faster than you can move?” Tori asked as she turned around to face them. “The river bends, but it’s not sudden. If you’re washed away, you won’t hit the shore. We also don’t know how deep the river is at this point, but anything around your knees and up is too risky. You can also see some white water; that’s the froth at the top. That indicates speed, an unstable current, and rapids, which in turn mean sharper rocks and steeper gradients we can’t necessarily see on the surface. The unseen current can knock you over, you won’t be able to stand, and you’ll be dragged downriver. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to stay afloat long enough to get to where the river is shallow and slows. If you’re not...well...it’s a risk for a reason, right?” She gave Ewan a questioning look. “Still think it’s safe to cross here?”

Ewan’s face paled and he shook his head from side to side. Tori gave him an approving nod.

“Smart. Let’s continue down and find a safer place to cross.” Tori led them back to the edge of the forest and continued south.

They made it a few minutes before the sound of multiple footsteps trudging behind them registered. Tori glanced over her shoulder and could make out at least two dozen people following not a few paces from her group.

“I’m sure we’ll lose them,” Henrik said as he checked the compass.

“Were they following us the whole time?” Tori narrowed her eyes. She had been so focused on moving forward, she wasn’t paying attention.

“I don’t know if they’re following us or going in the same direction,” Henrik said. “But as far as I know, we’re the only ones who’ve made the decision to cross downstream. It takes too long, so other groups don’t want to waste their time.”

Tori furrowed her brows. She reached into her shirt and pulled out her compass, slowly coming to a stop. “Oh no! Bad news!” She raised her voice and turned to face her group. “We’re going in the wrong direction!”

“What!” Someone in the mass of students behind them let out a cry of disbelief. “We’ve been following you for half an hour!”

Ilyana whirled around with an incredulous look. “Why are you following us?” The other students didn’t even want to share the same wagon as them.

A girl at the head of the group sputtered and shook her head. “We’re not following you!”

“You just said you were following us for half an hour!” Sonia nearly choked with anger.

“It’s a coincidence!” Another student said, defensive. “We’re going in the same direction!”

“Oh...oh, okay!” Sonia sneered and nodded her head. “Then don’t let us keep you back!” She turned towards Tori. “Should we stop here for a snack?”

The corner of her lip turned up. “It’s about lunch time. Let’s take a break.” They marched further away from the river, finding a place by the base of the trees to sit down in the shade.

The group of people seemed at a loss as Lion’s Gate sat in a loose circle and took out their wrapped sandwiches. Tori opened a tin of sliced fruit and another charcuterie tin, using her rucksack as a little table to place them on. They unanimously ignored the other students as they took a rest and made a show of eating their sandwiches, praising each other for their hard work, and complimenting the spread.

The other students mulled about like displaced bees who just lost their queen.

Ilyana took a piece of ham and cheese on a cracker as she eyed them. “They’re definitely following us.”

Henrik snorted. “Whatever gave you that idea?”

“We can’t just wait for them to leave here,” Ewan said. “They don’t look like they’re going anywhere soon.”

JP furrowed his brows. “Should we try to go in a different direction?

“No,” Tori said. “There’s no guarantee we’ll lose them and we don’t know how long it’ll take for them to get frustrated with us and leave on their own.”

“Why are they following us, anyway? They don’t even like us,” Sonia grumbled.

“They all started to follow us after the northernmost point...when Tori threw the stick in the river,” Henrik said with narrowed eyes. “I think it’s because we have something they lack.”

“A place to cross?” Ilyana asked.

“A competent leader.” Several eyes turned towards Tori as she stretched out, resting against some jutting tree roots and munched on cheese cubes.

She frowned. “Leadership is overrated.”