Lucas seems to be happy that Ashly is actually being reasonable. "Well then Ashly, I'm glad this worked out perfectly, get on and we are going. I slept well so I can go on for a while, I presume you also slept Ashly."
"Of course I did, why would I not be prepared. I know what to do when I'm in trouble." Ashly then is about to mount the horse, but they hear a faint scream from the distance. It's coming from the direction that Ashly came from. "Let's just go Lucas these people are weird." She said.
"Wait Ashly, I think they forgot to tell you something." Lucas says but Ashly insists on them leaving. "Ashly why are you in a hurry? We can wait a few minutes, it's not like they are going to keep us waiting."
There a few men appear form the distance, and they are pointing at Ashly. "Stop you criminal, don't you think you are getting away!" Said one of the men.
"Criminal? Ashly what do they mean, are they not aware of what Agnes told them. I thought she would of told everyone or the guards." Lucas says confused. "Hey, it's alright, Ashly was told to go by Miss Agnes!" Lucas yells at the men.
"Lucas we have to go now, even after my innocence was proven some of them still don't like me." Ashly says as she got on the horse. "Let's go, they are just being stubborn after all." Lucas doesn't buy it, and waits for the men.
"What do you mean? She escaped her cell. We saw her knock out Agnes and Silas in front of our eyes, when she thought we weren't looking!" Another one yellled, they are getting much closer.
"Ashly, what did they just say, is that true?" Lucas asks Ashly as his face seems to be hesitant to believe what they are saying. "Tell me Ashly, that they are mistaken right?"
Ashly looks at Lucas and then back at the men. "Yes of course they are messing with you, why would I do such a thing?" She says with a calm voice. "Let's go Lucas, they are crazy and could be dangerous." Ashly can see how Lucas seems suspicious of her, and she curses under her breath.
"That woman is a devil." The voice of Eder can be heard in the distance, he is slow but he seems to be running just fine for a man of his age. "How dare you try to run away, Lucas that woman hurt Agnes and Silas. She is the devil in disguise, and she knows it. She just proved she killed those two." Eder is angry.
"Ashly, don't tell me you lied to me." Lucas looks honestly hurt by this, why would she lie to him. "Ashly don't you dare lie, tell me they are messing with us." He is trying to gain reassurance that Ashly isn't a bad person. "Please Ashly, don't tell me you killed innocent people."
Ashly grunts in annoyance. "Shut up you old man, you're lucky I didn't do anything to you!" Ashly yells back, Lucas is disappointed in her, but she doesn't care. "Don't look at me with those eyes." Ashly then gets on the horse, and make st run off.
"Ashly stop, this isn't right, we have to stop." Lucas says but Ashly pins him so he can't control the horse. "Ashly please don't make this hard, I…I… what am I supposed to feel?"
"Whatever you want to feel at this moment, I don't care about that right now." Ashly with her strength keeps Lucas down while she rides the horse. "If you want to argue with me do it afterwards, I'm trying to focus. Don't make me push you off as you're the only person who I can stand." Ashly then pushes Lucas to the side enough so that he would fall if she lets go.
"Why are you doing this Ashly?" Lucas holds onto the horse before trying to free himself. "I thought you…why would you lie to me about this. Ashly, I thought I knew you." He says with a saddening face.
Ashly doesn't pay attention. "You're lucky I'm not pushing you off right now, it's quite tempting to do so." She says as she tightens her grip. "Lucky that I'm actually holding back." Ashly doesn't dare to look Lucas in the face.
For a while Lucas just does what Ashly told him, he stays silent. Ashly finally feels a sigh of relief that Lucas is listening to her. They keep on traveling until the horse gets tired and by then, it's been almost an hour. Ashly then stops the horse. "There we go, we are out of trouble. See Lucas, I told you that visiting them would be a waste of time." She says as she lets go of Lucas. Lucas falls onto the ground.
Lucas clutches his head as he hit it when he fell, he is shaken up, and seems to be on the verge of crying. "Ashly why? What just happened?" Lucas says with a shaky voice trying to hold onto the ground. He is shocked by how quickly this had all happened. "This must be a nightmare right? You didn't just do that right?"
"Oh get over it you coward." Ashly says as she grabs her bag and checks it. "Good, you got everything I need. You're a reliable guy you know? Stop whining like a little girl and man up." She says as she slaps Lucas, with both of her hands she pulls his face closer to hers. "This was just an inconvenience Lucas, alright? Nothing much." She then lets go of him.
"Man up." Lucas says with a soft voice as he looks at the ground. "You want me to man up!" He yells, Ashly is taken aback by this. Lucas has never yelled at her before. "YOU WANT ME TO FORGET THAT YOU JUST BASICALLY ADMITTED TO KILLING TWO INNOCENT PEOPLE!" He says.
"Well it seems someone isn't taking it so well." Ashly says as she grabs his bag, and throws it at his face.
Lucas catches the bag. "This is the exact reason that I wanted you to get help. To prevent this from ever happening. We haven't even been on this journey for two weeks, and you're already making it so difficult!"
"Hey, I was justified on killing Mindy, she tried to kill me first." Ashly said as she sat down, and opened her bag to grab something. "Why did I throw away my knife like that if this was going to happen."
"This is not ok Ashly, even if it was justifiable, why was the man killed for? If you were in the right, why didn't you tell me, did you not trust me?" He says in a more calmer voice, his face is full of betrayal, but Ashly stayed silent. She took out a sack of nuts and began to eat some.
"Why didn't you speak with me at least? I could of tried to help solve this problem." Lucas said as he sat down with his head down low. "There could of been a way to de-escalate this."
Ashly looks up at Lucas with anger. "You can't just fix all of my problems Lucas. That's not how it works, and I never asked for your opinion anyways." She throws a shell at his forehead.
Lucas touches his head which hurts a bit from the shell. "Ashly…you don't trust me?" He said with a tad of sadness in his voice.
"You were just yelling at me not so long ago, and now your sad? How pathetic can you be Lucas, honestly I would of mistaken you for a woman." Ashly says, "Lucas you know my whole situation, and you darn well know why I act this way. Some habits die hard, specially those that you have been doing for many years."
"Listen I'm…im sorry, I understand what you're saying." Lucas then takes a deep breath. "But that still doesn't make it right to go, and kill that man. You shouldn't have acted that way, and I won't let you forget about it."
"Well then, it's late and we have no place to go so far. Tell me where we are, and let's go as soon as it's dawn." Ashly said.
"I can't Ashly, you had us leaving in the wrong direction, and I had my eyes closed." Lucas says with an embarrassed face. "I was scared to fall off so I closed my eyes, and you made the horse go fast, we are lost for now."
"Stop with your overly sensitive attitude Lucas, you're being so annoying. I really hate people who are like that, just stop it." She says.
"Ashly, don't you just think about other peoples feelings?" Lucas says as he looks at her with tired eyes. "Words hurt a lot Ashly, you shouldn't speak like that to everyone."
"Shut up Lucas, this was hard on me too." Ashly says as she finishes her nuts. "We can't leave now since the horse is tired, and I want you to do something." Ashly said as she laid down on her back.
"Yeah that's true, we can't leave so we have to plan." He says trying to distract himself. "Let me just try to plan something, I can solve it for sure." He says as he grabbed the map, Ashly can see desperation slowly building inside Lucas's eyes. "I don't agree with what you just did Ashly, that was completely wrong." Ashly sighed, and covered her ears. She isn't in the mood to get lectured by a crybaby.
It's much later at night, a fire has been started by Lucas. They decided to move somewhere east, and settled in an open plain. The snow has been absent for a while. It's due to the fact that in some areas of Iriage's territory have less snow than others. This is one of them, and for a few days the snow is nonexistent and it's not too cold outside. It's considered one of the most dangerous areas as not so soon after, a harsh storm happens.
Lucas and Ashly are sitting opposite of each other, Lucas is still sulking. "It's too risky to stay here after such a decent weather." He says as he pokes the ground.
"What do you mean by risky? Are there people out here or something?" she asked.
"No, a storm might happen very soon, these are the places I was told to avoid during winter." Lucas says but Ashly hasn't caught on. "Oh sorry, I forgot you don't know about this, a storm will happen soon if we stay here."
"Let me guess, you learned this didn't you?" Lucas nods as he stops poking the ground.
"In the areas between Iriage, and Ethneal the geological area is terrible. The weather is too strong and dangerous, specially with two separate seasons. Ashly, in other places it should be spring season, Iriage is different. It has long winters, and almost no summer weather. Iriage has a nickname, and it's called the land that never stops snowing. Many farmers that live in Iriage usually are on the edge of it. The winters aren't terrible as they just last too long, thankfully most of the winters aren't too cold." Lucas raises his fingers. "I need gloves, who's to say it won't be freezing cold tomorrow."
Ashly looks up at him. "Wow, that's so amazing Lucas" Ashly said with a smile. "I dont understand how you're wasting your time on learning, that's amazing. It's so great to be able to learn and not focus on surviving." She says sarcastically.
"There you go Ashly, with your negative attitude." Lucas says as he looks at her with displeasure. "To think that I wanted to help you all this time." He says as he buried his face on his knees.
"Let's take night shifts Lucas, it's best so we won't get ambushed. I know you haven't been outside much, but this is the best thing we can do now. I won't want to die like this anytime soon. I'll take the first shift, I'll wake you up, and if you find trouble wake me as I know you will be too scared to do anything."
"How can you handle killing somebody like that, doesn't it affect you at all?" Lucas asked.
"I kill almost everyday Lucas, if I had a problem I would have forgotten it a long time ago." Ashly says, "Well, I think I got used to it quite easily, I was told that I never cried when I did kill for the first time, or so they claim. Do you remember the day you first saw me kill somebody didn't you?"
"Yeah I do remember, I was sleepless for almost a month. I wasn't really affected by it much because I remembered what Diego told me." Lucas said, "He told me that there was a difference between murder, and forced killing. That's what made me recover fast, and made me blind to everything you did."
Ashly is about to say something, but out of nowhere they hear. "Why isn't it a lovely night to be alone." Lucas looks up, and sees some men smiling, he knows that they are in trouble. "To have a girl out here on a fire, very romantical." Said the man in front smiling.