I woke up to my soul lantern reflecting the morning light from a gap in the tent flap, it bathed everything in a mesmerising ethereal green colour. As I stared around the roof of the tent in wonder, my leg spasmed causing me to kick the staff which smacked me in the face.

  “Balls.” I swore as I grabbed my nose.

  I gently fingered my nose, checking to see if I'd broken it as I sat up, I winced as I probed and prodded it but thankfully it wasn’t broken. A snore rose from just next to me and I looked over to see that Clair was still sleeping. I contemplated waking her up as revenge for tripping me last night but after a few seconds I decided against it.

  “Morning Luca.” Taylor whispered as they appeared from behind the privacy screen we used when someone wanted to get changed.

  “Morning Taylor.” I said softly trying not to wake Clair. “Where’s Harold and Raven?” I asked noticing their absence from the tent.

  Taylor didn’t say anything but instead pointed at the tent flap, I looked and saw that they were both outside. It appeared that Harold was setting up the enchanted stove and Raven was gesturing wildly, the way she always did whenever she was trying to make a point. The sound dampening enchantments on the tent muted their conversation so we couldn’t hear it, from the look on Harold’s face I guess it was a blessing. I contemplated laying back down and napping for another hour but my concerns from last night rose up again and that forced me into action. I slid my scythe into my bag and slung it over my shoulder before stepping over Clair, I ducked behind the privacy screen and rooted through my bag to find a new set of clothes. I after a few seconds I was happy as I pulled out a blue shirt and a pair of black trousers, I stuffed yesterday’s dirty clothes in my bag before leaving the tent.

  "...we should reach the river by sunset tonight." Harold said as I stepped out of the tent. "With the way things are have gone, I don’t foresee any major difficulties if we follow the retreating horde." Raven nodded in agreement, "There might be the occasional goblin pack but we should be able to take anything like that."

  “Next scheduled stop is Soyalls though.” Taylor said, “I’m a little worried from that missive the king shared.”

  “Missive?” I asked having not been there when we received the quest.

  “No one has heard from Soyalls since before Mountain Guard fell.” Taylor answered, “However they believe that there is still a large population there however they aren’t sure if it was fortified by the goblins or if the citizens managed to hold off the horde.”

  “Weren’t the Magic Society able to Scry or send Message spells to anyone there?” I asked as I frowned.

  “They attempted to but they all failed without getting a look at the town or reaching anyone there.” Taylor explained, “They thought that the ambient mana from the battlefield outside Sunak is interfering with them.”

  “We are the alternative.” Raven said, I could hear the annoyance in her voice.

  “We are, and it’s important to make sure that the people of the kingdom are okay.” Harold said flatly, as if he was tired of making the point.

  “I’m just saying, couriers get hazard pay for jobs like this.” Raven held up both hands in surrender but the way she flared her nostrils showed that she was angry.

  “Are you really having this argument again?” Clair said from behind us.

  “Apparently.” Harold grumbled as he dumped a load of oats into a pot and set it on the enchanted stove.

  I moved away from them as Raven rehashed yet another argument about pay and how we should be receiving more than we are getting. She constantly complained that we were not getting paid enough, regardless of how much we were being paid. Instead I started stretching in preparation for the long day of riding ahead and by the time I'd finished, breakfast was ready. Harold had made honey sweetened oats alongside the morning drinks, which had become our standard morning meal since the goblin invasion started. Raven kept arguing with Harold throughout breakfast and Clair joined it, Taylor and I stayed out of it since neither of us cared much about the pay. Taylor was always interested in magical knowledge, I was just interested in the adventure and seeing more of the world.

  After breakfast we took down the camp and everything went into my bag of holding, that would have been fine but Harold insisted on including the wooden platform and some of the extra firewood. A glint in his eye made me worried that my friends were going to turn into a bunch of hoarders now we had access to weightless storage. I was going to need to keep an eye on that. With the camp stowed, I did the morning dance with the four-legged devil called my horse, then we carried on our hunt for the necromancer.

  I just want to reiterate that long horse rides suck. They were fun for the first 20 minutes with the wind in your hair and the sense of freedom and boundless adventuring possibilities. Then, you realise it's just a lot of wind, not being able to hear properly and the risk of swallowing a high speed bug if you open your mouth. There wasn't much I could do while I was riding either. The bumpy ride would cause my hand to slip if I was carving and any skill that required me to move was out as I needed to stay on the horse. Training my magic spells was out of the question ever since I'd spooked an old horse and it had bucked me.

  Like I said. Horses are the worst and riding on them sucks even more.

  Thankfully, the day passed quickly. We rode through more of the wasteland and entered into what had once been the Toes Hills. They had been given that name as the hills often came in sets of 5s before there was a small plateau. I know, it’s a stupid name. However, there's not much I can do about farmer’s and their poor naming conventions. The Toes Hills had once been vibrant rolling hills home to most of the farm and grazing lands for the Kingdom, now they were black and brown from the filth and devastation left by the horde. The only signs of life we saw was a small pack of goblins, but they saw us fled the second they spotted us. Rather than chasing them down we decided to push on.

  Eventually we reached the Azin River a little bit before sunset. The river was set into a small gorge that started from a waterfall and ran all the way to lake Haril. The sides rose up 15 feet from the river and spanned 30 feet. The river itself was deep but I wasn't sure how deep. Further down the river was Port Azin which was a shipping hub for the kingdom. I wondered if they had seen fighting or if they had been untouched by the invasion. They probably hadn't since the invasion had come from the North and headed straight for Sunak.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  The road we'd been following had led us to a magnificently carved stone bridge that spanned the gorge. The bridge must have had some serious durability enchantments because both sides of the river had been torn apart but the bridge looked pristine. On our side of the river were the remnants of a fortification that had obviously fallen. I had expected to see dead bodies but instead all we saw were dried blood patches and a large fire pit with a large pile of chipped or broken bones next to it. My stomach churned as I realised that they were the bones of the fallen marines.

  We camped near the fortifications but decided against staying inside. The thoughts of what had happened there were too grim for us to be comfortable sleeping inside it. Instead, we scavenged the usable sections of the fort and built a basic wall and lookout platform.

  Once again we divided up the watch rotations and I got the first shift tonight. It was a little bit before Harold was going to start dinner so I pulled out my partially carved wooden figurine and continued carving. Clair pulled out a flute and began practising, Taylor pulled out a book while Raven pulled out a pack of cards and started playing a game with Harold. It was nice sitting there in the retreating light. We stayed like that for a few hours, just relaxing after a long day. I felt some of the stress begin to melt away as I finished the statue's base.

  It was a few hours before I stopped carving. I inspected the figurine for a minute before noticing a few mistakes, the right leg didn't quite look right and there was a split in the wood that made it look like the figurine would fall apart in seconds. After noticing a few too many errors, I was unhappy with it so I broke it and threw them into the firepit Harold was building. I pulled the next 4 inch piece of wood out and looked at it. I pressed my knife into the wood, struck with indecision before I sighed and began carving again. I wanted to get the figurine right and hopefully this time I wouldn’t make as many mistakes. It wasn't too long before Raven and Clair announced they were going to bathe in the river. It was a good idea since it'd been a few days since we'd last had the change to bathe and were all smelling a little ripe. I carried on carving till they were done and Harold said that he wanted to bathe. I stashed the figurine in my bag and we headed down to the river.

  After a brief climb down the side of the gorge, Harold bathed first and I stood guard. While we weren't expecting anyone to appear on the other side of the gorge, creatures popping out of the river was still possible. I cast my Detect Life spell but nothing registered in the spell's area. I was thankful as fighting underwater sucked even more than horse riding. Once Harold was finished bathing he got out and dried himself off before putting his clothes back on. Then it was my turn. I peeled my clothes off of myself before dunking myself into the water.

  River water is cold, while some people claim that it's refreshing and revitalising. I call them crazy. I rocketed back to the surface of the water gasping against the shock that threatened to lock all my muscles. The water wasn't that deep but as I stretched out my legs to touch the river bed they began to cramp. I dipped under the water again for a few seconds as I frantically rubbed my legs. Eventually I managed to get my body in order and I came up out of the water. Harold looked at me and shook his head.

  “We aren't here to play around Luca.”

  “I-I-I'm n-n-not playing-g-g.” I said through my chattering teeth.

  I slowly made my way back to the shore and grabbed the soap, with fumbling hands I slowly cleaned myself. Once I was done I put on a new set of clothes from my bag and we both headed back to camp. Dinner was a quick a quiet affair, everyone was exhausted from the long day's ride. Guard shift that evening was just as uneventful. I did, however, manage to finish Tylor's figurine. It looked so much better than the first one that I threw away. The next carved figure was of Clair and I had almost completed it as well. The figurine of Clair stood tall, having just fired an arrow which was still in the process of leaving her bow, at her feet was a hissing badger that had all its fur puffed out threateningly. I must admit, I was pretty proud of that one. I thought I managed to get the rune carvings on the bow just right and her old war badger, Gargen, looked majestic. It was a shame that he'd been killed in the battle but he wouldn't be forgotten.

  I swapped guard duty with Raven and she took my place on the lookout platform while I crawled into my bed roll. Sleep came and went in a flash, before I knew it we'd eaten breakfast and were riding again. 3 days passed like this without any variation or deviation. I was so tired of it all, that by the time I saw Soyalls' battered walls, I was ready to ask if we could stop and rest for the day, quest be damned.

  The town of Soyalls stood like a lighthouse in the darkness. It stood on the top of a large hill with a huge tree growing out of the center of the town, some parts of the tree looked burned and charred but it still had green leaves on it. I could see people outside of the walls, they either stood around in large groups or were busing throwing what looked like bodies into large firepits. The smoke rose high into the sky, the only blemish on a clear and sunny day. I was thankful that the wind wasn't blowing in our direction, burning bodies sank and the smell was nearly impossible to get rid of. I couldn't see any of the damage the goblins had done aside from a few cracks in the sturdy walls, but from what Harold had been told, there had been a great fire that’d nearly destroyed the whole town.

  As we descended our hill I heard a horn blare from Soyalls, they’d spotted us. While we were too far away to make out individual faces, I got the distinct impression that everyone turned to stare at us. Then the screaming began. We stopped at the bottom of the hill and watched the chaos as the townsfolk ran around like a horde of headless chickens, screaming and trying to get back inside the town.

  “Forgotten Gods, it’s not like we are charging at them ahead of a massive army.” Taylor said shaking their head.

  “They faced an invasion less than 2 weeks ago, give them a break.” Harold said while sighing deeply.

  “I hope the rest of the kingdom isn’t going to be like this.” Raven said, “It’d make thievery that much harder.”

  “Really?” Harold asked, “You’re worried about how hard it will be to steal from people who’ve lived through an invasion and probably don’t have much left.”

  “Not regular people, the nobility.” Raven groused, “The regular people will make it harder to blend in with them if they’re running around screaming when they see someone they don’t know.

  “Raven, I forbid you from stealing from anyone while we are on a kingdom sanctioned quest.” Harold said, “We are currently representing the kingdom and the king. Should you be caught, not only will you face punishment, but we all will face it and not just from the local authorities.”

  “But Harold…” Raven started to say.

  “No, once the Necromancer is dead and we’ve reported it to the King you can go back to your usual habits. Until then you need to at least act like an upstanding citizen and a model adventurer.”

  “But I’m a rogue, stealing is what we do.” She mumbled.

  “Raven.” Harold said warningly.

  “Fine, but once this is done I’m taking a weeks break to do what I want.”

  “As long as you don’t drag us into it, then I’ll agree to it.”

  After a few more minutes all of the townsfolk had made it through the town gates and they’d closed with a loud bang. We all looked at each other and then slowly began to ride up the hill towards Soyalls. As we got closer I could see more of the damage the city had sustained. The walls were cracked an in some places had holes that seemed to have been patched recently. The gate was cracked and I could see that some of the wood was still yet to be replaced, the splintered boards still seemed to be holding though. There was also a guard tower to the right of the gate that looked like it was still being reconstructed due to the lack of a roof.

  "Riders, Halt." A guard shouted from above the gate and we came to a stop. "State your business or be on your way."