Lucas is a bit taken aback from this response, he is about to say something but figures it's for the best that it's not bothersome to Ashly. "Well since you're quiet, that must mean you're alright with my response. We should be leaving now, I don't want to be here anymore." Ashly says as she looks into her bag "You do have enough money for the both of us right? I don't have any." she asked Lucas who nods as he pats his pouch.
"The horse that I have on me, it's one that I borrowed. I will need to return it so we don't have any form of transportation once I return to Iriage." He tells her, he walks and pets the horse "I believe that with the amount I have, we can buy a horse. Their prices if I remember were seven metal coins? No, it might have been nine. I don't remember at all but we could get one." he says.
"Don't worry about the price Lucas, there's a place we're we can get one for less than you asked. Well… we could get one for free if the person is dumb enough." Ashly smirks as she guides Lucas inside Greenside. The begin to pass by the empty streets, she leads him to the east most side of Greenside. This place is know as the poorest side as its dirty and rundown. "Here Lucas, this is where we will get one." She points to an old lady.
"Oh so she must be a nice person then." Lucas says but by the way Ashly shakes her head he guesses not so much. "So how will you get these horses for free exactly Ashly? You aren't going to rob her or anything right?" He says as he looks at her.
"Don't worry Lucas, I'm not that type of person. Well I don't think I will able to leave this place if I do. The people around here, they are vigilant. As soon as I try something, they will kill me." Ashly says as she darts her eye to her right "These people have nothing better to do so they just look at those outside. They aren't special, just a bunch of boring people."
As they arrive to where the old lady is resting, the old lady's eyes widen as she spots Ashly. "What is it that you need from me?" the old lady said, he voice sounding dry and raspy "I don't have anything on me anymore, there's nothing that I can do for you." she begins to move again. Her legs were weak and shaking, she was walking slowly.
"Hey let me help you." Lucas says as he approaches the lady, he tries to gently grab her hand. In an instant Lucas feels a sharp pain, the lady has smacked his hand with a cane. Lucas retracts his hand, his hand is a bit red. "Ow" Lucas says silently.
"Don't touch anybody with out permission, young man." the old lady said "Now Ashly, what is it that you need from me?" she said in a more sweeter tone, Lucas is rubbing his hand.
"I need horses now, two of them that we can keep for ourselves." Ashly says, the old lady makes a frown "Come on, don't tell me you forgot already." Ashly says as she gets closer to the old lady "Did you?" Ashly asks with a forced smile.
"Alright you, I have one horse you two can have. It's quite old but she'll get you where you need. Since you're insistent, you can have her for free." she said, Ashly looks back at Lucas and grins "Just get out of my face, I don't want to see you ever again." with that Ashly and Lucas get the horse and walk away.
"What did you mean by forgetting something?" Lucas asked as he guides the horse who is ended older. "Was it a deed you did? A favor or something like that?" he asked.
"Yeah… you could say that, but you shouldn't try to know more about it. Just know that it was something she needed." Ashly pats Lucas back "Did that really hurt you Lucas? Was an old lady able to cause such a reaction." Ashly pokes his hand which he hides in his pocket.
"I was more surprised than anything, I didn't expect her to attack me at all. She seemed calm and all." Lucas says blushing "I promise it didn't hurt much, I was caught off guard that's all." they continue to walk and leave Greenside.
Lucas mounts the borrowed horse and Ashly gets on the older one. It's quite noticeable on how much weaker the horse is "Well this surely wont cause any type of trouble." Ashly says as they begin to move "Alright Lucas, where is this place exactly? I don't want to go to that District."
"I'm sorry Ashly but if you don't come with me, then I'll be left behind." Lucas says which Ashly sighs heavily "It won't be too long, we just take a small detour and we will be there. Ashly just wait a while, we can't go through this in an instant. We have to take our time, this will be the best way to test out the quality of this horse." He says. As they begin to move the older horse seems to be slower than the borrowed horse.
The continue to travel, Lucas has them galloping. He can see that the older horse could gallop but gets tired almost 20 minutes before the borrowed one. He can see that it takes a much longer break, almost half an hour more. Ashly feels the horse is a bit off synchronized, it moves a bit more to the right than straight forwards. After almost two hours they finally managed to get to Iriage. "Wait here Ashly, make sure she is resting. I'll be back soon, get off her as well as she might not be able to carry as much weight."
Lucas enters Iriage, Ashly waits for a while. The horse is resting, Ashly then remembers something. They forgot to ask or try out how much weaker this horse was. How much weight can it carry and all, she thinks that maybe they should of tried that back in Greenside. She will definitely be pissed of if the horse can't carry both of them. She waits and looks at the horse, it seems to be at peace. Even with its age, the horse seems excited, more than any horse she's used before.
After what seems like an hour Lucas finally returns running. "I'm back and I bought some horse food. She will need it to regain strength, once she's done eating we move." Lucas says as he hands the horse the food. "Ashly, I'm still new at this and we'll, I want you to help me out alright." Ashly nods and sits down "Great, this will be easy."
———
They are traveling on the horse, it's much slower now than before "What a useless horse we got, no wonder why she gave her away without any form of compensation." Ashly says but Lucas shushes her. "Fine, but it's not like this horse can hear what I say, don't get too attached to it. We will need to get rid of it and find a better one."
"Well I don't think you should say harsh words anyways, you don't have to be mean at all. You are going to live a much better life now, so try to be more thoughtful with your words." he says smiling "Ashly I forgot to tell you this, but we are going to this town called Rutsonwood. It's a very special place to me because it was where a man named Diego would bring me. This was way before I was left at Iriage and got foster parents. This is the best place since the people will recognize me because they were friends with him. They will definitely let us stay there for a while. That was a plan I was thinking of, and when we stay there I'll think of a more solid plan." Ashly is a bit surprised by this "Ashly rely on me, I can think of things when given time."
Lucas hands Ashly a map which she opens, it's the entire territory of the Iriage district. She can see a poorly drawn point called Greenside. "So it's true that Greenside isn't recognized then." she keep on looking and sees how much bigger the area was. Every location she has gone throughout the many years weren't even 10% of the area. She sees the drawn line to where Iriage leads to Rutsonwood "I see, so you're trying to get there as quick as possible then. That's great as I don't want to be outside in the dark." Ashly says as she hands the map back to Lucas.
"Well you see Ashly the plan originally was for me to stay there for a few years. I was going to save money and buy my parents land back. That was supposed to be it, but since you wanted my help I might need to reevaluate everything." Lucas says softly as he yawns "It's alright Ashly, I'm not saying you're going to hinder me. I need more time and everything will go according."
"Well Lucas, if it's not too much for you then I know I'll be fine." Ashly says smiling as Lucas will take all the difficult tasks for her.
"Will you be able to adapt to this new life of yours Ashly?" Lucas asks which Ashly doesn't respond "I mean you have to because this is so much different than what you know."
"Well I don't have an answer to that, but I don't care about that yet. Let me worry when the time comes to it Lucas, I know you'll help me on that anyways." Ashly says as she looks at the sun which indicates that the day is halfway done.
"Alright then, the people in this town will definitely know what to do. They might lend us a place to stay and who knows. Maybe when we get there the life will be what you want, and you can live there." Lucas says full of optimism.
"Well that's if I like it that is." Ashly says under her breaths. They continue their journey, the horse is irritating Ashly as it's too slow for her.
Lucas can't help but think back to what Robert has told him. That he is too inexperienced with the world. Lucas thinks that maybe Ashly can help him with that, she's been through a lot. He hopes that with helping her out she can tell him how she handles these things. Ashly notices Lucas who is looking at her with a huge smile. She doesn't understand what he is smiling "What are you thinking about to be this happy?" Ashly says
"It's nothing Ashly, just glad that you're going to be living normally now." Lucas says looking back ahead "Can't one friend feel the need to care for another?" he says
"Well Lucas as I said a while ago, they are going to be after me now. I committed an unforgivable act of abandoning the gang. That jerk Gael won't be too happy at this." She says which Lucas tries to reassure her "What agitates me the most is that I don't know when they will realy I'm gone. When they will start searching for me and for how long." she looks at him looking for any reaction.
"Don't worry Ashly, Rutsonwood is quite a big place. Besides it's safe and all, it's not too far from Iriage. That's what will keep you safe, did you say that as long as they don't catch too much attention they won't do anything." he says which Ashly shakes her head "Won't that won't stop them?" he asks
"No that's the Lurkers, Gael will definitely have some smart people go and kill me". she says "They will definitely not back off even if we are inside a district. Gale is one petty man who can't help but go to the extreme."