Once again, looking around in a 360, Rowan failed to see any sign of a town or signage in the area around him. Worse still, he failed to see a road that he could follow. All he would be able to do is pick a random direction and follow it.
Looking at where the moon was beginning to drop in the sky towards the horizon, Rowan located which way west roughly was. He didn't know if west was a good direction to travel, but according to the map, going too far west was less troublesome than going too far east.
Rowan journeyed towards the setting moon, grateful for the warmth he felt. An offensive ability would have been nice, but the comfort was nice, especially considering he didn't know how much time it would take to return home.
'Hopefully it doesn't use aether... Would be a pain if my ability to heal was hindered simply because of a skill I can't control.'
Eventually, he saw some destroyed ruins a couple of kilometres from where he was, and decided to head toward them. It was likely that they were connected to a road, which would give him a chance of finding some signage, hopefully.
As he neared the destroyed buildings, the road came into view as well. As it turns out, he had been moving parallel to the road, and that was why it had taken him until now to notice it. Coming to a stop next to it, he saw that it continued a long way in either direction.
Sadly, there were no signs marking which way would lead to where. So, Rowan continued his earlier plan, and continued to move west. The night was silent, which was unnerving Rowan a great deal. Before, he had travelled with Nadia and Aoife, and their footsteps had kept him company even when nothing was said.
But now, there was little more than a breeze to break the silence, aside from his steps on the cracked road. It was only in this moment that he truly realised how much better it had been to travel in their company, and how little he had done to keep it.
Of course, there was little he could have done to prevent their separation, but they would have separated eventually when they reached Cork. Rowan had done next to nothing to grow closer to them once they had escaped the Hell.
There was little he could do now, however, only reflect on what he should have done. He should have tried to get closer to them, to form actual friendships, beyond niceties and proximity. He had formed that with Avery because of his open nature, but Nadia and Aoife had been different.
Nadia was a nervous wreck, afraid of everything to do with Hells and Beasts. If she hadn't cooked for them in the Hell, Rowan doubted he would have a positive opinion of her at all. But he longed for friendship after being alone for so long. Cursing, he realised he should have been helping her to overcome her weakness, rather than watching as she dwelled in it.
Aoife was different. After realising what she had been capable of, Rowan had built an imaginary distance between them, a wall to separate how strong she was. He had been jealous, he realised. Jealous of her strength, of her knowledge, of everything that made her better than him. And so he had made no effort to connect with her, to learn more about her beyond what he needed.
He had lost the chance for friendship, and it felt hollow.
When they each returned to Cork, they would still be in their separate lives. Rowan would be the orphan awakened, with no connections, no friends.
'At least Lenny will still be there. Lenny has lost everything too, so we should be able to get along, I hope.'
The hope was slim, but it was something that he could hold onto as he walked in the darkness.
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It didn't take long for Rowan to find the first sign. Unlike the previous he had seen, this one was toppled on the side of the road, and Rowan nearly missed it, hidden as it was by dirt and grass.
The two cities listed were Tralee and Limerick, and Rowan pulled out his map to determine where that meant he would be.
Interestingly, he hadn't lost much distance from where he had initially entered the Hell, though he was now on the other side of Cork. Annoyingly, it meant that his decision to move west had backfired, and he had been moving away from Cork the entire time.
'Could have been a lot worse. Could be up by Belfast, or even off the island entirely...'
However, there was another problem. According to the map, the stretch of road between Limerick and Tralee was quite long, so he had no way to pinpoint where he was on the actual map. He knew Cork was likely to the south-east, but there was no way to know in exactly which direction.
'If I just go south, I should eventually reach a road leading to Cork. And if I find more signage, I should be able to figure out where I actually am.'
It would mean crossing across fields rather than roads, but he hoped it would cut a day off the travel time it would take to reach either of the cities. Keeping the moon to his right, Rowan turned off the road and began his walk towards the south.
Not much time had passed before the sun rose in the east, maybe half an hour. Golden rays shone over the fields, and it surprised Rowan with how serene everything appeared to be. He could have believed that beasts did not roam the land, were it not for the slow rumble he felt beneath his feet.
It had grown in intensity as he had walked, and Rowan had no idea if it was because he was moving closer to its source, or if it was moving closer to him.