Page 25 of Our Final Game

“Back to town,” Rohan says, without even looking at me.

“That’s not the way.”

I would know.

“Yes, it is. There’s not one way. I learned that playing by myself,” he huffs, crossing his arms. “This way is better.”

“No, we’re going the direction we came.”

“So go by yourself then.”

“Oh, trust me, I would definitely leave your ass here if I could.”

“Okay, so?” He shrugs.

“What do you mean, okay, so? Rohan, we’re going the same way we came, and that’s it,” I say, my voice firm.

“I’m not going. Why do we always have to do everything your way?”

“And why do you always have to be such a fucking brat?”

“I’m not. You’re just a controlling asshole.”

“Rohan, get over yourself,” I say, staring down at him.

“You think you can just push me around?”

“I don’t think that at all. I just want to get back to town as soon as possible. It’s getting dark.”

“Okay, so let’s just go my way,” he asserts.

I sigh, yes, he’s right. There isn’t one way back, but my way is definitely the quickest. Rohan stands, glaring at me, waiting for me to give in, and I’m just so fucking tired of his whining that I nod, gesturing towards the direction he insists we go in.

The evil little shit grins at me. “Wonderful, you’re finally being a good boy and listening to me.”

I dip low, my mouth a touch away from his ear. “That’s my line.”

The same ears are turning pink when he shoves me away and stalks off.

Chapter 11

Rohan

My lance splits through a low-level monster we’ve been encountering here and there on our journey back to town. Speaking of. I would rather jump into a pit of those bees we were fighting earlier than admit Tyson may have been right. The sun hangs low in the sky as we trudge through grass that comes mid-way to my thigh. Tyson kills off a couple more monsters closer to his level that approach us while we navigate through the grassland.

And thank God, because we’ve been walking for so long, I’m starting to feel a little breathless. Tyson stops in front of me, and I straighten up when he glances back.

“I hear water,” he says, his voice low.

“Water?” I run up to his side and, lo and behold, the sound of the water is definitely clear. I can even smell it wafting in the air around us as the wind picks up. Tyson sets off in the direction we’re supposed to be going in to get back to town. I follow after him, and when he pushes the last bit of grass out of the way, we both see where the sound was coming from.

There’s a wide river flowing between the path we need to be on.

The only path.

Unless we turn back and take Tyson’s, but we don’t have enough time before the sun fully disappears for the night.

“There wasn’t a river here before,” I whisper to myself.