Place was drawing a vague map of the world from memory the dirt.
Well... mostly memory along with a bit of help.
'That's longer.'
Place ignored the voices in his head as he finished.
"Our academy," He started, pointing his stick at a spot in the upper-right part of the map. "is here."
"And we," He brought the stick down diagonally to the left, across the ocean, to another continent. "Are somewhere here." He circled a 'small' area on the map.
"The... wildlands, correct?" Zandre scratched his chin as he tried to remember what he knew.
The wildlands were a dangerous place to be. There were plenty of beasts about, along with criminal organizations hiding in the vast spaces. Enough problems that the nearby kingdoms decided to leave the area alone, and focused on fighting each other.
"Not quite. All of this." Place circled a much larger area, which somewhat overlapped with his previous guess about their location.
"Is known as the wildlands, but it is still 'technically' land claimed by Makhi royalty."
"Isn't Makhi the continent?"
"Yes. And the dozens of rulers are collectively referred to as the royalty, helps simplify."
"Ah."
"Anyway, we need to first confirm our current location, then start moving north, so let's start climbing."
Place swatted at Zandre's shoulders with his stick.
"Right, let's go." Zandre rubbed his chin as he started following.
"What's on your mind?" Place asked as he glanced at Zandre and saw that he still had questions on his mind.
"How do you know?" Zandre looked around the scenery.
"Know what?" Place raised an eyebrow as he asked.
"Where we are?"
A few dozen meters from where he had drawn the map, Place stopped and pinched his nose.
"I was surprised when you didn't ask that, and wondered if you knew, but no, you just forgot to ask, didn't you?"
"Eh?"
"That question is the first you're supposed to ask in our situation, 'How do you know where we are?'"
"Really?"
Place let out an exasperated sigh as he pulled out a timepiece.
"Tell me, what does this tell you?"
Zandre stared at the timepiece, then flicked his eyes around.
"It's says that its about... an hour? After midnight I mean."
"Yes, and what can you realize from that?" Place continued, guiding Zandre's thoughts.
"That it's broken? I mean, the suns right there!"
Place lowered his timepiece.
"Zandre, do you know what a planet is?"
"A planet? Those are the other worlds in the sky, right?"
"I see, I must apologize." Place clicked his tongue, dissatisfied with himself.
"Hm? For what?"
"Even though I know about your childhood, I forgot to take into account that had on your learning, I will be better."
"Okay...?" Zandre accepted the apology with a bit of confusion, unsure about what Place was talking about.
"Allow me to explain as we walk."
For the next few minutes, Place asked Zandre to keep quiet as he explained about timezones, the rotation of the planets, why the locations of the sun and moon changed over the year, and how he used all of that to calculate their location.
"And that is that, explained simply, if you want to know more, I can give you a few books after we return."
Zandre was staring into the distance.
"I understand so much now." He murmured, staring the green beneath them.
"Is there anything that needs further explanation?" Place asked as he hopped up a rocky ledge.
"Nothing for now." Zandre hopped up after him.
"But what exactly are we doing right now?"
"We are heading to the top of this hill, where we will perform a ritual of guidance."
Place explained as he scanned for a path.
"Will that tell us where to go?"
"To some extent." Place's head snapped to the left suddenly.
As Zandre was about to ask him what was wrong, Place's hand shot up, silently telling him to keep quiet.
Zandre kept quiet and waited for Place to do something.
A few seconds later, Place let out a sigh of relief, and his body untensed.
"What happened?"
"It was just some critters." Place answered as he continued their climb.
"You heard them?"
Place nodded.
"Place, we're in a forest, there's going to be a lot of noise, you don't have to be so tense."
At those words, Place felt a now familiar anger rising.
"Zandre." Place didn't stop. "We are in unknown territory, I would rather jump at every sound, then ignore one and have our heads bitten off."
"But we could easily hear anything that large." Zandre rebutted.
"Why take the risk?"
The rest of the climb was quiet. Place was silent because he was concentrating on everything around him, and Zandre was quiet because he realized that Place needed it.
Thankfully, the only thing they encountered was a Tier 2 jungle cat, which was easily driven away.
"So how do we do the ritual?" Zandre asked as they stopped at the peak.
"A minor offering, an ask, a bit of respect, and of course, the ritual circle."
...
"Are you drawing it in the dirt?"
"Yes."
...
"Is that stick really a good offering?"
"Yes."
...
"What's the result?"
Place was silent for a moment as he got up from his knees.
"It's strange." He said as he dusted off his leg armor.
"It's pointing me in two directions."
"Is that strange?"
"The strange part, is that one is showing me the path to the nearest city, as I asked, and the other..."
Place frowned as felt the rituals revelations.
"What is it pointing to?"
"The path of fate..."
Place was scowling as he said that.
"What does that mean?"
'It means that us being here was meant to happen.' Place did not answer Zandre's question aloud.
"Okay, which one do we follow?" Zandre asked after a moment of silence.
'The Path of Fate.'
Place let out a 'tch' confusing Zandre.
"The fated path it is."
He stared at the path almost perpendicular to the city, and let out a sigh.
"Let's get going then."