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Heiter walks with the gait of a man decades younger than he truly is; Eisen, steady as ever, likewise shows little sign of slowing down, even if his hands cannot grip his axe so well as they once did. Frieren walks ahead of them all, face shining with her usual giddy, understated glee. She hasn't changed at all. Age may have left its mark on his fellow mortals, but only Himmel finds himself struggling with the journey. One final journey, he'd called it - a journey he's waited for these fifty long years, only half convinced that she would remember that promise she'd made.
He could never be sure, with Frieren.
To see the meteor shower twice within a human lifetime would have been rare, before their party slew the Demon King; it had been enough of a surprise to live to see it the first time. Himmel has to wonder just how often Frieren has watched the Era Meteor Shower from the same spot she leads them to now. Once - twice - a hundred times? (Surely she cannot be that old. But who knows? he has never met another elf. Frieren is his only point of reference in the same way she once rewrote his understanding of magic with a single spell.)
Early on in their travels, before Eisen and Frieren had joined their numbers, Heiter had a running joke that he would be the first to die — Himmel the Hero? More like Himmel the Hazard. Himmel the Hard-Headed. Himmel the Health-Risk--
("Health risk?" Frieren had interrupted, the first time Heiter brought this up within her earshot, though any hope that she might be coming to Himmel's defence was swiftly dashed: "You could try being sober, corrupt priest."
Heiter laughed her off, the way he always did when his cup ran closer to brimming.)
It has been such a long time since they were all together like this. Himmel does his best to keep up with the others, despite the ache of his old bones. Frieren had kept her promise after all, returning in time for the Meteor Shower — the least he can do is endure long enough to reach the place she's chosen.
Another day's travel, Frieren says over their campfire that evening, still wearing that slight smile; they'll definitely reach it in time.
And though Himmel knows, deep down, that this journey is sure to be his last, he's equally sure of this: He can manage just one more day.