Arlie double-checked her bags, the dragon Aurora had thankfully left, but she was still chewing on all she had been told. The portents of the prophecy were certainly dark, but she wasn’t sure if they should be taken seriously. A breath left her, not that it would be easy to tell. The events in the forest notwithstanding, life in Voros was generally pretty peaceful.

  A trip north to the town of Arcs was a walk of a couple of weeks. The roads were decent enough, the merchants came through often enough to buy lumber, potions and furs. Moving all that heavy wood required roads that were able to support a cart. She didn’t own any horses but she did have a cart. It wasn’t that hard to acquire a horse in the town either, they kept a few local horses.

  Here in Varixyies horses weren’t bred for riding, the local nd was terrible for it. Instead, they were bred for strength and chosen from mountain horse breeds that did well in the forested mountain region that was Varixyies. Eric had been more than happy to loan her a horse from his family stock but a feeling she would need it longer than a single trip had made her buy the mare outright. It was a pretty horse, smaller than some of the warhorses she’d seen depicted in books but still impressive nonetheless. The mare stood twice her height and her bck fur concealed a body of pure muscle.

  Closing her bags and the crate she’d packed, Arlie headed outside to load them on the cart where she found the Twins and Horon already waiting. Horon spoke up, “That everything?”

  She nodded, “I packed a few changes of clothes, a tent, cooking supplies, water, first aid kit, rations and even a supply of potions.”

  “Sounds good then,” said Horon, “I brought my tent along as well.”

  Rose looked up from the horse, “You remember to get...”

  “Rations for Dusk? Sure did! I packed those earlier, but Eric said she likes to graze.”

  A dragging sound drew her attention and she noted Thron coming around the corner, “Wait for me girls! I’d like to come along!”

  The twins shared looks, then asked Arlie, “Um? Is it okay if he tags along?”

  She sighed, “Well... he is decent enough with a sword and Eric said there are still some bandits out there. He might be helpful.”

  Horon chuckled, “Don’t count me out either.” He produced an axe and shield from the cart, “I brought a shield I made and this axe. It's more for chopping wood, but if need be it's a good weapon.”

  Rose and Lily grinned, and Lily spoke, “We are prepared too! I made sure we had plenty of arrows and packed a crate into the cart.”

  Rose smiled, “Didn’t think to grab a tent, but we got our sleeping mats and bnkets.”

  Arlie replied as she pictured sleeping together with them again, “That’s fine my tent is big enough to share.”

  Thron drew close and gnced at the cart, “Is there space for my things? I’ve got a tent, a few changes of clothes and my camping gear.”

  “Should be,” replied Arlie, while looking over the armor he’d picked. It was leather with reinforced metal ptes protecting the vitals. On his hip he had a sword and a few knives. Thron even had a small shield strapped to his arm, “nice to see you actually look prepared for a trip.”

  A few minutes ter the group were approaching the main gate. Arlie’s new horse was dutifully pulling the cart. It was made of ironwood with a nice cargo bed and reinforced wheels. The cart was designed for the hills and forests of Varixyies, so it even included enchantments to keep the wheels from being tangled or worse on the hard roads of the local region. However it wasn’t rge enough for any riders, the cart was only intended for cargo. The modest cargo bed had enough space for camping supplies, food, potions and spare clothing. Allowing them to carry more essentials than if they had chosen to travel on foot without a cart. There were better options out there if you had the coin, but mystical bags and chests were not found out here that often. Not to mention they required rare magical materials and a highly skilled enchanter to make even a basic one.

  Pulling up to the gate, Eric came over to greet them, a smile on his face. “Hey Arlie, I heard you were heading up to Arcs. Got everything you need?”

  She nodded, “We double and triple-checked everything, we’ve got tents, camping supplies including utensils and a fire starting kit, a supply of potions and a first aid kit, spare clothes, a tool kit...”

  Eric chuckled, “Sounds like you have things covered. Now be careful out there, we took out the base, but there are still some stragglers on the roads.”

  Arlie smiled, “We will!”

  With that, the small group of friends set out on their journey. The cart rumbled down the road as the vilge guard saw them off. It wasn’t that far to Arcs, so they were likely a little overprepared but Arlie had a funny feeling they wouldn’t be stopping at Arcs alone. She bmed the dragon for that feeling, the damn dragon had gone and proposed that they would take on the trial of the five temples. Something that would mean traveling all over the world, a trip that could take months to complete, even years, although there were a few ancient gates scattered across the world that could speed that travel up, but few mages could activate them and you could only move between any two gates whose locations you knew. Arlie didn’t exactly have a map of all the gates in the world, she only knew about the one in her family garden. That particur gate was special though. Not that Arlie understood what made it special, Ria had only told her it was more powerful than the usual gate and that it was blood-locked to her kin.

  Regardless, it meant that if this journey across the nd took them to one of the old gates, she’d be able to visit home whenever she wanted. She was already quite familiar with the gate at her home and she knew how to open it.

  Walking alongside the cart, Arlie surveyed the trees. They had been marching for hours, Horon and Thron were in front, keeping an eye on the treeline. None of them were worried about monsters or predators attacking them on the road, these roads were well-traveled and patrolled often. More importantly, like many roads, waystones were pced regurly on either side of the path each one carved with mystic enchantments that would repel monsters. These mystic wards made the roads safer just by being there.

  Spotting one she stopped to check the stone. Arlie was pleased to find it undamaged with a fair amount of mana stored, the wards on the road should remain safe for a while yet.

  Rose stopped for a second to pull out her canteen and took a drink of water before commenting, “Are the stones alright? Or are you just antsy?”

  “Stone’ fine, but I can’t say I’m not feeling worried. Certainly not after all that talk of strange portents.”

  Lily blinked, “That was yesterday!”

  Arlie sighed, “I know but it left me feeling uneasy and Erik mentioned there were still some straggler bandits on the road.”

  Horon commented, “I doubt they’d tamper with the stones. Sure they might be worth a chunk of gold but each one is blessed by the goddess of travel.”

  Thron blinked, “Those things are valuable? I thought they were just pretty rocks.”

  Arlie sighed, “Sure are, waystones are carved out of manastone, blessed at a shrine to the goddess of travel then enchanted by skilled artisan mages. The blessing aside, the kingdom has extensive anti-theft enchantments on each one and then even if you steal one you invite the wrath of the goddess of travel.”

  Thron just stared, it seemed that had gone over his head.

  The twins took another look at the trees, before gncing at the sky. “Basically messing with a stone gets you a curse.”

  Thron lit up, “So they’d be stupid to touch one!”

  “Yeah but no one ever said bandits were a bright bunch. Sure some of them are fairly sharp, but plenty of them are just idiots.”

  Horon changed the subject, “Bandits aside, it is getting te. I recall there being a clearing up ahead. We should be able to set up camp there.”

  Lily smiled, “Sounds good to me, Rose and I can cook something up.”

  Horon replied, “Thron and I will set up the tents.” He looked to Arlie, “I assume you’ll be setting some wards to alert us if any bandits sneak up on us?”

  “Sure, but we should talk about a night watch. It would be foolish to rely on magic wards alone.”

  Horon nodded, “I’ll take the first one, Thron can take the middle watch, which one of you girls wants the st watch?”

  The three girls shared looks, Arlie spoke first, “How about we decide that with a quick game?”

  Rose raised her bow, “Sure! We can hunt some rabbits, the girl with the least kills gets the shift.”

  Arlie giggled, “Fair enough.”

  Lily gave Arlie a look, “Um doesn’t that automatically put you in st pce?”

  “I might not be any good with a bow, but I’m top-notch with my spells!”

  Horon sighed, “Don’t be too competitive, we can’t eat that much!”

  “Right, right...”

  Moments ter the forest opened up to reveal a fairly ft area with green grasses and blooming flowers on either side of the road. A packed dirt area off to the left was the mark of past camps to have been set in the area, even a fire pit had been dug. A dirt trail led past the edge of the clearing where one would find a trine with a few privacy wards set up so people could do their business. Another trail on the other side of the road led to a small pond fed water by a local stream. There were even some fish swimming in the pond. It was a fairly peaceful clearing and one of several on the way to Arcs.

  Arlie guided the cart to a stop and unhooked her new mare from the harness. Taking the lead she led the horse to a post on the edge of the campsite. There was plenty of grass for her to graze on, but Arlie prepared some feed for Dusk to eat. Her first task done, she turned to find Horon and Thron hard at work setting the tents up, while the twins had started gathering firewood.

  Arlie took her time to set up the wards, then joined the twins. Once they had enough wood the three of them made off into the nearby woods to find a nice rabbit for dinner or something. They had rations but the idea of fresh meat was attractive.

  As the sun was starting to cast a darkening shadow of the forest, Arlie spotted a rge hare dart out from behind a tree. It barely hopped twice before she hit it dead center with a bolt of lightning. The hare twitched and colpsed, easy to pick up. Prey secure, Arlie grabbed it and headed back to camp with her kill. Just on the edge of the camp, a second hare showed itself and she bagged that rabbit as well.

  Arriving at the camp, she found the twins emerging at the same time as her, each with a kill. Rose however had two rabbits in her clutches while Lily had only one. Lily groaned, “No fair!”

  Arlie commented, “Don’t worry, I’ll do the next night, and Rose will do the night after that.”

  Rose sighed, “Sounds good enough to me.”

  Now in agreement, the trio took their kills, cleaned them, drained them of blood and got to work turning them into a tasty stew. Arlie had packed a few vegetables and herbs that went perfectly with the fresh meat, and everyone enjoyed a nice meal for the start of their journey. A good omen by any metric.