Dreamwalker's Bride - Chapter 332

Chapter 332: Expendability
Mia glanced at Ford’s horse again.

“Storm is a good name for his coloring,” She observed. “But his temperament is so sweet. What made you pick that?”

“You said to pick a name that made me happy,” Ford made a face. “And now you’re criticizing it.”

“I’m not criticizing!” She objected. “I was only curious.”

“Hm,” Ford’s unhelpful reply wasn’t what she wanted so she tried again.

“Storms don’t make most people happy,” She bit her tongue. That also sounded like criticism.

“I’m not most people.” His gaze was straight forward, and Mia sighed. It seemed like she wasn’t going to get anything more out of him to satisfy her curiosity.

Eventually she sighed, giving up on unraveling the mystery of the strange name for the time being.

They left no footprints on the odd white surface of the ground. It looked powdery, but was actually rather solid. It would be interesting to sleep on it tonight and find out whether it was more or less comfortable than bare rock was.

As the sun came out from behind a cloud, the light around them reflecting off the terrain was so stunning that Mia almost missed a step. Was this what it would be like to walk amongst the clouds?

Mia glanced at Ford, whose eyes squinted and blinked often.

“It’s quite a change out here, from the dim forest, isn’t it?” She asked, looking around.

“Yes,” He agreed without further elaboration.

She playfully glared at him, his short answers reminding her of early in their acquaintance when talking to him was like pulling teeth. He made her feel like a jabbermouth by comparison.

Determining to wait him out this time instead of trying to hold up one side of a conversation on her own, Mia lapsed into silence.

As they came to the first pool of water too broad to easily avoid, Mia glanced backward.

“Should we try to walk through it, or take the time to go around?” She put the query to the group.

“How deep does it get?” Anaisa wondered. “Could we ride the horses through without getting our things wet?”

Mia dropped Harper’s reins to kneel down and look across the water. Ford knelt with her, keeping hold of the hand he held. Her heart fluttered slightly when he did, but she brushed it off as him doing his duty to help her preserve her magic.

Carefully, she dipped the fingers of her free hand into the water. Instead of cool like she expected, it was slightly warm to the touch. She hummed thoughtfully as her gaze skimmed across the pool.

“I can’t tell how deep it gets,” She remarked, then pulled her hand from Ford’s to turn away from him, quickly removing her shoes and stockings. “I’m going to wade part way across to see.”

“Shouldn’t I do that?” Ford protested. “Surely I’m the most expendable here.”

She glanced over her shoulder to respond, but Ford had averted his eyes, looking towards the tops of the cliffs. The tips of Mia’s ears heated.

“Mia,” Seth’s voice floated to her ears with restrained stress. “Please don’t.”

Her shoulders drooped for a moment, and she rested her now-bare feet against the white land. It was smooth and soft against them. Almost like a clean rug. How interesting!

She stood and faced her father with a reassuring smile. “I promise I’ll come right back if anything seems off. So far, it seems like just a pool. We’ll have to cross it or go around it, and right now the safest and quickest path is through it, so I’m just going to investigate the best way to do so, if you’ll let me.”

“I’ll go instead,” Seth told her, handing the reins of his horse to Grandpa and moving forward towards her. “It’s not wise to put you at risk.”

Mia’s jaw clenched slightly, but she bowed her head in compliance with her father’s wishes. The man rolled up his pantlegs and removed his socks and boots before wading into the pool. When he was roughly halfway across, he paused, looking down.

The water was still, and only up to the middle of his shins. Barely a ripple disturbed its surface.

“Seems safe enough,” He conceded with a nod. Mia set aside her socks and shoes, lifted the hem of her split skirt, and stepped into the water to join him.

“That feels marvelous,” She sighed as the warm liquid caressed her feet. So long walking and riding had made her body more tired than she’d realized until this moment. She could stand here all day and let her feet relax their soreness away.

“It does, doesn’t it?” Seth smiled slightly as he shuffled back towards her through the water. “But we can’t linger here, we should move on.”

Mia closed her eyes for a moment and searched for the safest, quickest route once more. The pull was still straight ahead, towards the looming shelves of white that seemed to grow larger as the group approached.

How would they ascend? She still had no idea, but if worse came to worse, they could carry what they were able to and use ropes to climb the steep slopes, leaving the horses behind to fend for themselves in the wilderness

That prospect would slow the journey considerably, not to mention the trip home becoming that much longer and the fact that they would have to leave behind a lot of their supplies. Perhaps some path would present itself shortly that would avoid such hassle.

At least, that was the hope that lingered at the back of her mind. She wiggled her toes in the water, reveling in the feel of the soft white soil a moment longer.

“Yes, Papa,” She agreed, looking back towards the group. Ford’s expression was anxious, while the others seemed merely curious. “Should we wade across or–”

She’d just begun to take another step towards her father when something utterly slimy and all too quick brushed against her leg.