The rest of the journey went mostly uneventful. They woke up, moved, took a break and continued walking. Twice they made a stop in small villages where they restocked and made rest. At the first stop Sieg reported the attack to the local major. There they found out who attacked them. As it turned out the attackers were part of a bigger pirate group that has been terrorizing the coastline in the last three months. Although an effort to capture them has been made by the regional royalty it appears that some splitter groups got away. One of those was the one who attacked the caravan. But after that nothing happened. The group arrived safely at Sailport with an only three-day delay in total. This is where the caravan was disbanded. The merchants went to sell their goods or changed to another travel group. In the inn, where Sieg and the other permanent caravan members stayed Sieg took Geo to the side.

  “Alright here is the money I promised you and here is something extra since for your help during the attack.”

  Sieg handed Geo a small bag with coins and continued:

  “What will you now? If you want to rejoin the caravan be my guest. We leave in two weeks back south when we have new customers who want to bring goods from here further down. And your help will be appreciated, if you want to come with us.”

  “Thank you, but I have to decline this offer. I want to find a way back home. So, I will find out which way that is from here and move accordingly. I am grateful for everything you have done for me until now. But here is where our ways part.”

  Sieg gave an understanding nod and ended the conversation by stating:

  “The money you have should be enough to live of for one and a half weeks. And if you don’t come back this was it. Good luck.”

  “Thank you, and goodbye.”

  Geo stood up and left the inn. A helpful passerby told him that he had the best chances to find a map of the size he needed at the office of the harbourmaster. When he found the harbourmaster in his office Geo was surprised. He expected to find a classic sailor looking man but the man he found was a surprisingly petite man with early stages of baldness on his head. The man greeted him with a rude:

  “Watche want?”

  When Geo entered the hut where the office was located. After Geo explained his situation the man went into the backroom and rummaged around and came back with a small stack of lose papers and said:

  “If there is a map that can tell you the way it would be one of these. I hope you find what you need. Most of these weren’t used in a decade since it is rare for a ship to go out that far. That reminds me. Can you even read a map?”

  “Oh, thank you. And yes, I can read a map. So how much do I owe you?”

  “That costs nothing. Like I said I never need them so having these maps missing for one or two days won’t be a problem. But if you rip or doodle on one, you will buy them. Got it!”

  “Yes sir. And thank you.”

  Geo left the hut and started to make his way back to the inn. When he ran into the priest’s trio again.

  “Hey Geo what are you doing?”

  Diane called out to him. Geo showed her his bag and explained:

  “These are the maps that I need to find out where my home is. Now I just need to compare them to my geographical knowledge and that should be it. I can make based on these my way back. And what about you? What are your plans from here on out?”

  Conrad told him:

  “We are resting for a few days. Then we will continue our journey. This time a bit country inward. Meaning that we have a bit of time. We are in a different inn, so we will come visit you before we leave. Is that ok?”

  “Yes, until then.”

  Geo left the trio and went to his room in the inn. There he immediately went to work.

  This evening Diane had some time to kill. So, she suggested to visit Geo. Jaeger volunteered to join her. So, when they reached the inn where Geo was staying they were surprised to find that one of the walls on the second floor was destroyed and in pieces. They immediately asked the owner, a slightly chubby woman what happened.

  “One of those guys of the caravan started yelling about twenty minutes ago. Then I heard noises of things being thrown around. Next thing I know the wall exploded and that guy ran of crying like a maniac.”

  “Was that man’s name Geoffrey? Mam.”

  Diane politely asked.

  “You know that guy? Good then when you find him tell him that he owns me a wall and should never come back.”

  The owner answered clearly pissed off.

  “We will find him. Jaeger can you please help me?”

  Her bodyguard mumbled looked at his dog and mumbled:

  “Search!”

  Biss sniffed around for a short while and quickly found the scent he was looking for. He ran towards the pier, Diane and Jaeger followed him. After a short sprint they found some pieces of ground clearly ripped off by the earth magician, so they knew they were on the right track. Shortly after they heard a sobbing sound. They identified it to be Geo who was cowering next to one of the houses. Diane wanted to go to him, but Jaeger held her of.

  “I don’t know how safe it is to approach him. Let me go first!”

  Diane swatted his hand away and approached Geo slowly.

  “Hey Geo, are you ok? What happened?”

  Instead of answering Geo just continued crying. So, Diane continued to approach him and spoke softly:

  “Please, tell me what happened! I can’t help you if I don’t know the problem.”

  She crouched in front of him. But instead of answering he just fell over. She caught him and embraced him softly, while Geo cried until his eyes were dry.

  Geo awoke in a bed. It was a soft bed, but he didn’t remember that he went to bed yesterday. His eyes hurt, and his throat was dry.

  “You are finally awake. Are you ok?”

  Geo turned his head around and saw Conrad starring at him.

  “What happened? Where am I?”

  “Well Diane and Jaeger found you crying a few hours ago. Apparently, you were crying so hard that you fell unconscious. Then they brought you over here. This reminds me. Wait a second!”

  Conrad left for a moment and came back with his two companions. They stayed close to Geo but kept a respect full distance. Diane was the first one to say something:

  “Geo what happened? We when we found you, you were crying your eyes out but didn’t say a thing. Can we help you somehow? Please tell us!”

  Geo looked down for a moment. He would have started crying if he still had water in his eyes. But he pulled himself together and tried to explain the situation:

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  “I… I can’t go home.”

  “Why are you saying that?”

  “I was studying the maps and notes that I got yesterday. It took me a while to figure out, but I am on a third continent. One that I didn’t know of.”

  “Why do you think that?

  Conrad asked with concern.

  “It was a mess, but it seems like the continent where I am from is on uncharted territory. The only reason I was able to figure this out was because on a few of the maps there was a second continent drawn on. And even then, that was only a small part of the continent. It even has a different name. I only figured it out that the small part was the same continent because of the combination of mountains and two small towns, I just so happened to know of.”

  This time Jaeger asked:

  “Why does that mean that you can’t go home?”

  “The notes I just mentioned. They were about when and where a ship left with the destination. The last time a ship went to the continent in the south or wuesteland as it was called on the map was eight years ago. And there is no ship that will attempt to go there from anywhere on this continent for as far as notes are being made. In other words,”

  Geo started to cry tearlessly again.

  “There is no way I can go home.”

  Diane hugged him again with the same softness she did before. Conrad asked with concern:

  “What now? What will you do from here?”

  Geo yelled into Diane’s arms:

  “I don’t know. There is nowhere for me to go.”

  Diane asked:

  “How do you feel? Do you think you will be ok?”

  Geo looked up from Diane’s embrace and quietly proclaimed:

  “I don’t know how I feel. Aside from the desire to cry, I don’t feel anything.”

  “Are you safe?”

  Jaeger asked. Diane and Conrad looked confused at him.

  “I just want to make sure that he doesn’t do something stupid.”

  “It’s ok. I am ok. I just need to think.”

  “Well once you are done thinking, you should go to the inn you are staying at and apologize. You made quite a mess there.”

  Geo asked quietly:

  “What have I done?”

  “You went into a little rampage and destroyed a wall of hers and along the pier you ripped out a good chunk.”

  Geo has shaken Diane of and wanted to stand up.

  “I need to fix that and apologize.”

  “That can wait until morning. For tonight you can stay here. It isn’t healthy for you to be alone right now.”

  Diane offered the still confused looking man. Jaeger and Conrad looked at each other slightly worried. But eventually agreed to her suggestion.

  Geo was restless. He was given Diane’s bed since there were two bedrooms. So, it was decided that she would sleep in a room with her two companions while he got a room for himself. Geo was wondering on how he should go on. He could take on Sieg’s offer to join the caravan back and maybe he could go back to the village that gave him hospitality before. Ernest did offer him to comeback if necessary. Maybe he could search for a different port? One that has a ship towards the continent in the south. It would take forever to get home he was aware of that now. Well first things first. He would have to fix what he had broken. So, chances are he would also have to pay for the damages that he couldn’t fix.

  “Shit”

  He said to himself. It’s not like he had money to spare anyways. He also most likely ruined the innkeeper’s livelihood for a while. After all who wants to stay in a broken inn. Also, Sieg was staying in that inn. Hopefully he didn’t get kicked out for bringing such a violent monster with him.

  Geo felt like vomiting out of guilt. But he swallowed it down. He didn’t want to burden his friends more than necessary. He heard noise coming from the other room. It sounds like the trio was arguing about something. Geo was sure that he was also the cause of that. He knew that they all got along very well. In that month that they spent together he never saw them being on bad terms with each other.

  Geo then decided that he should try to focus on something else. So, he concentrated to feel the rocks that the walls were made of. The rocks were very chalk heavy on the inside. But sturdy. Wait a minute, the chalk is just holding the rocks together. That was something that Geo didn’t knew. He realized that he never was in a house that had that much chalk in it. At least he can’t remember being in one.

  Geo stopped caring about the wall and grabbed his necklace. The emblem of the falcon on it meant a lot in the kingdom of alexia but here it was meaningless. At least it was for literally everyone but him. Geo’s thoughts kept jumping around for the whole night until he was finally able to fall asleep.

  The next morning when he woke up his friends were all already ready to leave. Conrad couldn’t come since he had business in the church to attend but Diane and Jaeger accompanied him on his way to apologize for the mess that he made and to fix the walls that he broke. While he was able to find the owner of the inn she confiscated most of Geo’s stuff. Mainly the money that he earned and a few other valuables. That is when Geo remembered that the pants that the fisherman gave him were apparently valuable, but he didn’t mention it. She was on the other hand surprised when he used his powers to fix the wall. Apparently, it didn’t come to her mind that she housed a magician. Then Geo slowly fixed as many things as possible, sometimes the damage was too much for him to fix, but most the problematic things were fixable. Like on the pier where he ripped out a piece of rock that was heavier then him and threw it into a nearby garden wall. Geo realized how lucky he was that most of the city was made of rocks since couldn’t fix it otherwise. During most of the time no one said much. The atmosphere was for the most part heavy. This took most of the day to do. Geo went back to the inn where he stayed at originally. Although the owner wasn’t to happy with him coming back he collected everything that wasn’t confiscated. That wasn’t much, he was able to keep his bag and some clothes that obviously couldn’t be sold and the knife that was also salvaged back from the rescue boat he was stranded in. Basically, he had as many things as when his journey home started.

  “That necklace that you are wearing give it to me!”

  The innkeeper ordered. Geo grabbed the emblem with his hand and strongly declared:

  “NO. Not this. It is one of the last things that I have from home.”

  Since he clearly showed hostility the owner let him keep the eagle emblem. She was clearly afraid of him. Probably since he has shown to be able to easily destroy a wall during a rampage.

  “Alright, keep that. But now leave and NEVER come back!”

  The owner shouted and ended the conversation. Geo and his friends left and did the last thing they had to do. They went to the harbourmaster and gave him his maps and notes back. His asked Geo if he found out what he needed to know. Geo looked one last time at the pile of maps and answered quietly:

  “Thank you. I know everything I had to know.”

  The man was easily able to read everything he had to know out of Geo’s answer. Nodded quietly and went back to his table where he continued to finish his work that was interrupted by the trio. As they left the office Jaeger asked Geo:

  “What do you plan to do now? Where will you go now that this is all done? Will you back to Sieg or the village or do you have something else planned?”

  Geo shuck his head and sat down at the pier looking at the sea. And thought about what do to now. The sun started to set. Biss sat down next to Geo to have his head pat. Geo smiled, even the dog was able to read the situation.

  “I don’t really have a plan on what to do right now. It will take some time for me to think things through. I would like to be alone, if that is ok with you guys.”

  “Ok, but don’t do something dumb. It is getting dark soon. So please come to our place when you are ready.”

  Geo nodded. Diane and Jaeger left. For some reason Biss stayed behind. Still without making a noise. He just sat next to Geo enjoying the last light of the day. Geo found it weird that the dog was still next to him. Usually he was unrepeatable from his master. But having this quiet furred companion next to him didn’t bother Geo at all.

  Some time passed. The sun was almost gone. Geo was playing with a couple of rocks he found nearby. He made them change shape. From a sphere to a coin over to a knife shape. But Biss made a sad noise so he formed it to a cube. A form Biss was more comfortable with. Realizing that his friends were probably worrying about him. Geo stud up as did the dog. As if he knew what Geo wanted to do the dog started to run ahead enthusiastically. He turned around and made it clear that he wanted Geo to keep up with him and Geo was happy to comply. Geo didn’t know why but the short sprint next to Biss made him a lot happier than he was in the last few hours.

  When he arrived at the room the door opened even before he was able to knock. Jaeger invited him into the room and Biss trotted to his master, Geo followed. Inside he saw Diane and Conrad sitting at a table.

  “Geoffrey please sit down.”

  Conrad welcomed him with a serious tone. Confused by the formality Geo sat on the chair that was offered to him. Diane was very excited and wanted to say something, but Conrad stopped her with a surprising level of professionalism.

  “So, Geoffrey have you decided on what you want to do now?”

  “Well I am not quite sure jet.”

  Geo admitted.

  “Hmm, well if you don’t know jet. How about this? Stay with us!”

  Geo was surprised at this offer.

  “Well I am thankful for your help, but I don’t want to leech of you guys for any longer then absolutely necessary.”

  Diane was able to calm down her excitement and explained:

  “No, not as a friend but as a job. We were talking yesterday evening and we want you to stay with us as a bodyguard for me. We are travelling a lot for… reasons that we can’t explain until you agree to the offer.”

  Geo was surprised. So, Conrad explained it a bit better:

  “Geoffrey, you have some impressive talents. And you have nowhere else to go. If you join formally join us we can explain it properly. All that we can tell you is that you are joining a good cause. So, will you join us on our travels?”

  “Well this is out of nowhere, so I don’t know. I need time to think. Is that ok?”

  Diane nodded and said:

  “Sure, take your time! But answer us as soon as possible. We will leave in three days. Tell us until tomorrow morning what your decision is, ok?”

  “Thank you.”

  “It is understandable that you don’t want to join onto an unknown cause without explanation. Until your decision is made you can stay with us. For now. You can use the room that you stayed in yesterday.”

  With that the conversation was over. Geo excused himself into his room. He didn’t know what to make out of that offer. It came out of nowhere. He laid on his bed and thought about it. He did realize that it was weird for a priest to travel with a bodyguard, or to even travel at all. Until now he just assumed that this is how they do it here but maybe there is more to it. They were also always secretive about themselves a lot of the time. It should have been obvious that something was going on. Later Jaeger came and laid on the bed next to him with Biss jumping on to the bed next to him. Just now Geo realized that this is a room for two. He just didn’t realize it since the trio was in that other room last night. Probably out of respect for him. Or maybe they were afraid? He was violent before so that was a possibility.

  “It is a good offer you know?”

  Jaeger said casually from the bed next to him.

  “The payment is good, and we are doing something great. Believe me! If everything goes well, we will have an impact on the world. But I guess that is all that I can say. Everyone here likes you. I hope that you accept. But I can’t say anymore. Can’t leak any information. So, goodnight.”

  Geo heard the man turning over. He grabbed his necklace one last time and made a decision for tomorrow.