Leaving the camp took seconds, thankfully, we bid farewell to the marines and hit the road again. I sighed looking ahead, the once defined road was obscured by the hundreds of thousands of goblin and undead footprints. It should have stretched out into the rolling green hills of the Toe Hills but instead it stretched out into a muddy, hilly waste land. The Hern Woods looked to have been ravaged, only a few trees had managed to survive the horde but they now looked like lone wooden sentries without any leaves to speak of. I remembered escorting a few new groups of adventurers on their first horned rabbit hunt through here. I smiled at the memory and thought of Siman, Azel and Veronica only to remember that they had joined the Mountain Guard forces to defend against the invasion.
We settled into a macabre silence as we made our way northwest towards the Azin River, as desolate and ruined as the countryside was, it was nice to spend some time not fighting for our lives. The last few months had taken a toll on everyone and none of us had been able to take the time to unwind. Everyone was tightly wound and liable to snap at each other for the smallest of things, this was evident by mine and Clair’s argument. What’s worse, the chance to unwind probably won’t come until after we’d taken care of the necromancer, at least the silence was a start for the process, even if it was a small start.
Thankfully the ride was uneventful, we did come across a few packs of ghouls and a roaming band of goblins but they were easily dispatched by Taylor, Clair and Raven. Even throughout the fighting the silence persisted, it was eerie watching my friends rip and tear their way through the monsters in dead silence. I figured that it was a good way for them to relieve some built up tension. The day passed quickly and by the time the sun began to set we had passed through Hern Wood, or at least what remained of it. We had to stop and consult the map as I was sure we'd strayed from the path but it was impossible to tell. Everything was just muddy, churned earth. Clair was adamant that we were still on the road and estimated that we were about a third of the way to Soyalls. We argued about positions on the map for a while before we all decided to make camp for the night rather than push on.
Our camp was no tent maze, thankfully. Harold had bought an Honest Cog Traveller's Tent? a few years back and it had held up surprisingly well, especially considering it was from Honest Cogs. The tent was made of brown fabric that had been enchanted to be as strong as a wooden wall. It was entirely waterproof and once set up a wooden base would form underneath it and raise it a foot off the ground, the inside of the tent was large and could fit up to 6 bed rolls. It was the finest tent from Honest Cog, meaning that it was overpriced and would probably break now that warranty on it had expired.
A year ago, once the tent was set up and a bonfire had been lit, that would have been it for the night. Sure someone would have stayed awake just in case but they wouldn't need to pay too much attention with all of our levels. After the invasion we needed to set a night guard, else we'd be at risk of a goblin night raid or being swarmed by roaming undead. We decided on a rolling rotation for 2 hours each. I managed to get assigned the middle rotation so I'd get about 4 hours of sleep before my watch.
Clair was cooking tonight and decided to make a simple stew with some bread chunks. She had me take out her pack from my bag of holding and used some of the herbs she always carried to make the stew taste better. In fairness, it did taste better. Clair’s cooking always tasted good, I was convinced she used an ability to make it taste better but she never confirmed if that was the case. The silence we'd ridden in descended on us again while we ate. It wasn’t oppressive but it stayed with us throughout dinner, no one said anything and the only thing that could be heard was cutlery knocking against our wooden bowls.
After we ate I fell asleep almost instantly. I was exhausted from the day’s ride and dealing with my horse, I'd struggled to keep my eyes open during dinner but now it was over I laid down and was asleep in seconds. My sleep was not as restful as I had wanted it to be and what felt like a few seconds after laying my head down, I was shaken awake by Taylor. In the darkness of night I almost cast a death bolt at them out of reflex, only at the last second I realised that it was my friend crouching over me and not a goblin or skeleton. To be fair, the green glow that emanated from my soul lantern did give them an eerie glow.
"Luca get up, it's your rotation.” They whispered to me. “Harold made a platform in the tree, it has good sight lines but you need to move to check behind the tree."
“Okay,” I said sleepily as I crawled out of my bedroll.
The frigid night time air hit me and woke me up almost instantly. The tent shook quietly as the wind swept through the area we'd chosen to make our camp in. Clair had picked the spot since it was a small rise with only the tree on it, everything else within 200 feet was churned dirt or had been trampled flat. Taylor led me outside and showed me the platform. It was about 15 feet off the ground and was about 5 feet wide in each direction, the most notable thing about it was the lack of access ladder. I gave Taylor a thumbs up and gestured to them to have a good sleep, they nodded before ducking back into the tent.
I used Etheric Step to get up to the platform and took a look around. I didn't expect anything to ambush us overnight however I wouldn't ever rule out the possibility of it happening. I cast Detect Evil and Detect Life. I had recovered the mana I’d used in the skirmishes we'd had throughout the day. I let my spells flow out over the land around us creating a 500 feet wide sphere centered on me, it was large enough to cover the rise our camp was on. I felt 5 distinct signatures instantly, 4 of them were my friends in the tent below me and the last one was the tree I was sitting in. I felt disheartened that there wasn't anything else alive, not even grass. I didn't want to imagine how long it would take for the countryside to recover.
Seeing, and sensing, that nothing had changed since we set camp, I laid down on the platform and stared up at the sky. The oranges and pinks of the falling sun had given way to a cloudless night full of shining stars, a band of green streaked across the sky highlighting a few hundred stars. I remembered an astrologer had once said that it was called ‘Orthon's Belch’ but I couldn't remember why it was called that, just that it appeared over 2000 years ago. I tried to remember more of that conversation but it was so long ago, it felt like a lifetime had passed since then. I watched the night sky for a while, just staring at the celestial bodies as they made their slow journey across the sky.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
After a while I began to get bored, there's only so much stargazing one can do in a night. To keep myself occupied I pulled a 4 inch piece of wood from my bag and my carving knife. I loved carving, my father had been a wood carver, he'd made all of my toys when I was a child. As I'd grown up I'd asked him to teach me and he'd been overjoyed to share his passion with me. We'd made all sorts of things together from chairs for my mum to toys for the other kids in the village. When I first became an adventurer, I carved for money when I could get a quest from the Adventurer Society. Those had been some tough days but they'd been incredible for my skill growth. Nowadays, with my skill on the verge of hitting Grand Master, I carved for my own enjoyment and only needed to sell one or two pieces to make enough money to last a month. I shook my head to clear the memories of the past, I didn't want it to affect my carving.
I focused on the block of wood I had pulled out and tapped my knife against it. I wanted to make a set of figurines, not to sell but for myself. I wanted something to memorialise the battle with the goblin king. It had been an epic battle and it wasn't something that I ever wanted to forget. I decided that I could carve figures of everyone involved, which included my friends, the goblin king, the necromancer, some of his minions as well as the other adventurers. I thought about everyone involved and decided who would be first. I pushed my thoughts and feelings into the block of wood imposing my design into it before I began carving up the block of wood.
Wood chips flew as I carved feverishly. I didn't completely lose track of myself and managed to keep both of my spells active however nothing entered them while I was working. When I stopped carving my mouth was so incredibly dry it hurt when I tried to swallow. I tried to wipe the sweat that was running down my face only to find wood chips plastered to my hand. I shook it and sent wood chips flying everywhere but there were still more stuck to it. I put down my carving knife and the partially carved wood and was about to brush it with my other hand, only to find it was also covered in wood chips from head to toe. I spent a few minutes comically brushing wood chips off of myself. While the block I'd started with was only 4 inches, it had spawned an ungodly amount of chips, to the point I had to double check I'd only used one block.
It turned out that I hadn't just used one block. I had 3 partially used blocks next to me that looked to have been discarded part way through. Inspecting them, I found errors in the way I'd carved Taylor or knots in the wood that had caused the figurines to crack. I also found a completed figurine of Harold. The figure was wearing full plate armour and had his shield in a raised defensive stance, his sword was held in his right hand and was ready for a counterstrike. It looked majestic and captured his defiant nature in the pose. Next to Harold's figure was a half completed one, it was of Taylor and it looked more impressive than Harold's, in my opinion. I had carved out their top half, from their big floppy hat all the way down their hands positioned above their stomach. Taylor was part way through casting a spell, I'm not sure which one it was but, their hat seemed to be caught in a wind and wasn't sitting how it usually did. I still had a lot to carve and I wanted to keep going but I could sense one of the signatures in the tent below me start to move around and I guessed that my time on guard duty was over.
I quickly checked my mana and saw that I was 467/2500, my 2 spells really were mana hogs when I left them running. After a quick bit of maths I reckoned that by the time breakfast came around I might be close to full mana again. I used Etheric Step to get off the platform and appeared a few feet away from the tent flap. I waited until Raven stepped out of the tent into the brisk night air.
“Morning Luca.” Raven said softly when she saw me. “Anything happen during your shift?”
“Morning.” I replied, “Nah, I've had Detect Life and Detect Evil running, aside from us and the tree. There's been nothing, not even insects.” I couldn't keep the concern out of my voice.
“I know how you feel and I'm also concerned.” Raven admitted, “it's going to take a long time for the kingdom to recover and it's going to be the common people who feel it the most. They're the ones who will have to pay more taxes or have to work harder to recover the land.”
I nodded in agreement as she fell silent. We stood there for a few minutes in silence as we stared into the distance. The wind had died down since I'd first started my watch but it was still chilly, I only noticed when I shivered.
“Right well, Harold made a platform.” I started.
“I know, who do you think gave him a leg up to the tree?” She said grinning.
“In that case, I'll see you in a few hours.” I said while stiffing a yawn.
“See you in a few hours.”
I quietly snuck back into the tent and saw that my bed roll had been moved and was now on the far side of the tent. I contemplated using Etheric Step to appear on my bedroll but this was a good place to train my stealth skill a little. As seasoned adventurers everyone slept lightly and so any sound above a whisper would wake everyone and leave them pointing weapons at me if they didn't outright attack.
Harold was the first hurdle, he'd always been a restless sleeper and tonight was no different. He turned in his sleep repeatedly as I watched, his arms that had been spread out wrapped around his blanket, only to move again so that they were resting over his face. I grimaced and looked to see if I was able to move around him, his shield was above him and would make too much noise if I stepped on it and at his feet was a pile of everyone's packs. I looked up and saw the poles that held up the tent. I contemplated using them to swing over Harold but decided against it as I didn't know if they'd hold me. I'd have to jump over him just after he moved. Taylor was next and they were curled up in a ball under their blanket, it'd be easy to walk around them. Clair was the last obstacle and presented the largest challenge, she was the lightest sleeper and the one most likely to wake up. I shook my head and waited for Harold to move. Harold rolled towards me and I took the moment to leap over him, I landed softly on the other side and immediately had to side step an arm that was flung at the back of my legs. Two quick steps left me standing next to Taylor’s feet, I waited there for a few seconds to see if I’d woken anyone up but no one moved. I sighed and stepped over Clair, except my foot hit something and I began to fall. I pinwheeled my arms trying to regain my balance however something struck the back of my knee and I went down. My face connected with my bedroll and the rest of me hit the floor, I heard a snicker and looked over to see Clair holding onto my foot.
“Better luck next time horse slapper.” Clair whispered as she rolled over.
I narrowed my eyes at her, I couldn't tell if she was just messing around or if this was revenge for fighting with my horse. I decided that I was too tired to ponder this and slipped my bag off of my shoulder, I pulled my scythe out of it and laid it next to me, just in case. I considered taking off my clothes but a big yawn made me decide against it. I pulled on my blanket and covered myself, hopefully we would get to Soyalls soon. I was getting a little worried that we were starting to fall behind the necromancer and he would get away, or make it to some hidden stronghold. My mind started to go fuzzy as I dreamt of tying my horse up to a tree and wandering off into the sunset.
