Looking at my confused expression, she had a smug smile on her face.
"Didn't expect that, did ya?"
"I can't say I expected it. But why?" I asked, still surprised.
"I trust my gut feeling. I always did and that's why I survived so far. And now it's saying you're not full of shit, so why would I not trust it?"
"... So you're gona follow someone who just tossed you into a giant fleshy tower thing, and follow them because of your... " He pointed at her stomach,"Gut feeling? Am I understanding this properly?"
"Yup."
He didn't know how to reply for a while, before a soft "Okay." escaped his lips.
'Are people in this world that trusting or is she just crazy? I did hear it was mostly only nobles and highborn who would backstab each other... How odd.'
He seized her up and down, considering whether she had an ulterior motive. 'Not likely.'
"Well. Let's start with introductions. I'm Magnus, a Knight Errant." I stretched out my hand, awaiting a handshake.
"Elara. I'm from the western tribes, daughter of Thak of the great Stone tribe." She shook his hand, her voice filled with pride.
[First human subordinate detected.]
[Host evaluation in progress, please wait warmly.]
'How interesting. It's not instant for some reason? More importantly...'
Trying to remember where he heard the name, he couldn't quite recall. "Stone? I recall the name faintly but nothing specific."
"What?!" Shocked, she started shaking him, "How do you now know about the biggest tribe in the entire west?!"
"That's because I know nothing." He grabbed her shoulders, before he started shaking her back. "And that doesn't matter, tell me everything about this place. Any other survivors, ways to get out, food, how to heal, water."
He spoke slowly. "Everything."
"Uhm... Food, just eat what you find. The Kraken swallows a lot of things so before large monsters get digested you stock up on meat from it. Healing is related to scavenging from eaten caravans and people, same with water. I dunno any other survivors or how to get out."
The reply caused Magnus expression to worsen.
'Scavenging huh. Then we need to constantly keep moving, and Charlotte... She's in no condition to be moved.'
Then, much to his surprise, she went behind the crystal tower where she hid originally. Coming out from behind, she had a large rucksack in hand.
"I got rations to last a good while but-" as she spoke, Magnus hugged her.
"Great job!"
"Ehhh?!"
"I have an injured friend, let's go treat her quickly since her condition is horrible."
Saying that, he grabbed the bag from her,before he threw her over his shoulder.
"Hang on tight!" he shouted.
"Hang on tight? WHOAAAAA-" At first she struggled to get off, before she screamed.
Although he had extra weight attached to him, he still easily crossed dozens of meters with each jump. Elara even complained about motion sickness but he paid it no mind. 'It's a Carnival Ride or something, enjoy it since you're getting it for free.'
After a shirt journey, he landed a small distance in front of Charlotte. The screaming coming from Elara had caused the poor girl to open her eyes, and a faint spark of hope shone in her eyes as she saw Magnus.
Grabbing a potion from the bag, he spilled its contents into her mouth.
A few seconds passed, and her entire body started recovering at a speed visible to the naked eye. The burns and bruises disappeared one by one, leaving only the old ones.
"How you feeling?" Magnus asked, smiling.
Standing up, a quiet sob escaped Charlotte. Wanting to comfort her, she jumped into his embrace.
"Thank you... Thank you..." she kept repeating as tears poured out of her eyes. Placing his hand on her head, he stayed with her for a while.
"AHEM!?" a fake cough interrupted their reunion.
Both of them turned to look at Elara, not letting go of each other.
"You two want some alone time? I can step away for an hour so you can enjoy some tim-"
"Oh shut up, as if you haven't seen people hug before." Annoyed, I seperated from Charlotte.
"Hey I just offered, nothing more." She seized Charlotte up and down. "Nothing wrong with wanting to take care of your lover."
"We don't have that kind of relationship!" Charlotte yelled, blushing.
I wanted to poke fun at her, before a realisation hit me.
'Why do I want to take care of her? She is just a witness I rescued from the destroyed caravan. So why...' he glanced at Charlotte's face, trying to recall.
'Why did I so desperately wanted to save her...'
In his vision, a different face overlapped with hers for a split second. A pounding headache assaulted him, the image disappearing once more.
'Ouch... Was it something related to my past life? Or maybe my current body?'
Yet no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't find an answer.
"Magnus?"
'I guess the answer will have to wait...'
Snapping out of his thoughts, he turned to look towards Elara.
"So what do we do? We might have 3 days worth of food but that's not much, I went hungry for a week once. Luckily, I did find one large carcass and had enough food to live off that... But that's not something I'd bet on happening every time."
"Yeah. For now, let's get moving. I scouted the nearby area roughly so I can say there's nothing is nearby. But which direction?"
"Dunno, I've been wandering all around the place and I can't tell where I came from because of...." she pointed at Magnus "Someone."
After thinking for a moment, he pointed behind the largest flesh tower.
"I'd say let's go north."
"Why there, and how is that north?" Elara asked, curious.
After thinking for a moment, the answer he gave baffled both women.
"It's a gut feeling of mine since I usually have terrible luck with other directions."