A New Path

by Xander Jade

  "Who are you?" She demanded. "And where am I?"

  I put up my hands in an effort to let her know I meant no harm and could hear the two huge creatures behind me grunting. They were no help. "You are a few miles outside of Oakenshore and my name is Maximus. May I ask your name?"

  She narrowed her eyes at me. Her eyes were the bluest I have ever seen and it looked like they had lightning running through them. That was weird looking. "Cassandra, but I go by Cassie. How did you find me? I was caught by some orcs and held in a cage and escaped but the last thing I remember was being chased." She looked around at the scene with wide eyes. "W-what happened here?"

  I looked around at the gory scene and shrugged, "Reap and I heard some roars and shouts over here while we were hunting. We came and found that big kodiak behind me protecting you for some reason. The three of us took care of them. Are you okay? Any injuries or ailments?"

  She looked over herself and blushed, then covered herself up as best she could. Deciding to take it easy on her, I grabbed the the tunic in my pack and handed it to her, she could wear that for now. Taking it from me, she went behind some trees to get dressed. While she did that, I went around to pick up my arrows out of the corpses. I thought to myself that I was going to run out if this keeps up. Glancing over to the kodiak I asked, "Is the bear yours?"

  She shook her head and hollered out no. Interesting, he must have heard the shouting and come to investigate. "Are you a mage? I have heard some can send out a signal to others when they are in danger. Maybe you did it without knowing?"

  She was finished dressing and came out to meet me, the woman definitely had curves in all the right places. Cassie was tall, about 6'4", her hair was long and came down to the middle of her back. It looked to be platinum blonde, practically white if you asked me, and the woman was downright gorgeous.

  "I am a mage, but I don't remember doing that. You must be quite powerful to take on these brutes by yourself."

  I shrugged and replied, "I wasn't alone. I had Reap there and the big teddy bear helped too." She stopped in her tracks mouth agape and looking over to notice she was staring at Reaper.

  "Where did you find that siba? I have been searching for him for a long time."

  Narrowing my eyes at her I stated, "Beg your pardon? What do you mean you were searching for him?"

  "It came to me in a vision. I was to seek out the one that was bonded to a siba. They were chosen for a special purpose in the coming darkness."

  "Umm... what?" Stupidly asking, thinking she must have hit her head or something.

  "Yes, I was trying to find you. That siba over there is the only one known in existence. It wouldn't be here if you weren't bonded. Does he speak to you?"

  "How did you know we bonded? I've never told anyone that."

  She raised her eyebrow, "Anyone with extensive knowledge of a siba would know that."

  "He did when he was younger. I felt the bond but I have this pain in my chest when he needs me. It feels like I'm nauseated when it happens."

  "Hmm... Sounds like the bond is being blocked. Is your magic working correctly? Any problems with that?" Cassie asked.

  "I don't have any magic."

  "I can see you have magic. Your aura is a bit strange though." She responded, confused.

  "I would know if I had magic."

  "I can see auras. It's one of my talents and looking at yours, it's massive," Cassie retorted.

  I thought about what she said for a few moments, but shook my head, this woman is crazy. That’s the second thing that she's said that was nonsense. I thought about saying that but instead, "Well, I can't think about that right now, need to get back to my camp. You... it was nice meeting you."

  Not wanting a reply, my feet took me over to the boar corpses and checked to see if they could be salvaged. Pork sounds good right now, feeling a presence, my head raised up to see the bear staring at me. Hmmm... he must be hungry. "Hey big guy, can you help me out?" It walked over to me and I looked into its eyes and my feeble brain told me that his eyes were overflowing with intelligence. "Bet you’re hungry, huh? I'll make you a deal, we’ll load up a few of these boars on your back for you and Reaper, then if you follow me back to get my stag I killed, we will get one of them cooked up for you, okay?" The bear nodded its big head. I smiled and tossed three boars on its back and tied them off. Checking to make sure they would stay on, we started to walk back towards my kill when the lady yelled, "Wait!!!" Stopping, we waited for her to catch up.

  "Need something?"

  "I'm coming with you!" She answered almost shouting.

  "And why would you do that? Listen, I'm not some special person you need to find, just a blacksmith's son from a small town about 25 miles south of here and my mom is an herbalist. Why do you need to follow me?"

  "You don't know what you just did, do you? The siba you have follows and watches over you. Do you not know how astounding that is? Not only that, you walk up to a kodiak and ask him to come with you and it follows. Do you not find that odd?" I looked over to the bear next to me and thought it might be odd. "Look, I'm meant to follow you and guide you. There will be many of us. You will need all the support you can get because of what's coming."

  I stood there for a minute waiting to see if she was kidding. When she didn't laugh or explain further I just nodded and started back towards the stag I left. Mmmmm...going to eat good tonight.

  ***

  After Maximus left to go hunt, the camp was going about their own business anticipating their arrival to Oakenshore. They were ready for this dreadful trip to be over, some were getting their tents ready while others were helping the injured, and a couple of the guards were getting the fire and spit ready for whatever was brought back from the hunt. The ladies have been in distress for the last few days, having had multiple whispered discussions about how to proceed with Maximus. Cori was concerned the most, she didn't want their journey to end with him just walking away.

  "What's going to happen to him?" Cori asked.

  "I'm not sure, Cori," Shea replied. "Even when he leaves, he will be tracked down. Your father will want to meet him and he will send mages to find him."

  "I know he will. His life is about to change drastically," Cori stated with concern.

  Shea nodded as she looked in the distance, thinking about the teenager that brought an enormous amount of change in just a few days. She wanted to just tie him up and demand he answer their questions, but knew she couldn't go through with it. What would she tell the king? What could she say? She was deep in those thoughts when activity was coming from up the road. Sir Nathan had sent riders to Oakenshore and let them know what happened. She got up to see what the commotion was to see a group of riders that had the colors of Oakenshore come into camp. The mage and the princesses walked over to join the discussion with Sir Nathan and the newcomer.

  "Your Highnesses, Lady Shea, it is without a doubt a most glorious day to see you ladies. I'm so glad to see you unharmed," John said while bowing.

  "It's good to see you again, Sir John," Shea replied and the princesses nodded. Shea couldn't believe their luck. They get ambushed by orcs and now they have to deal with this arrogant jerk.

  "Sir Nathan, we heard that you were ambushed by orcs and that you had some that were injured. We are here to escort you safely into Oakenshore," the knight said.

  "Yes, Sir John, we were ambushed and took significant losses," Nathan stated there situation.

  "I'll have my men take guard duty and let yours rest," he turned and barked out an order to another knight to take care of it. He turned back to Sir Nathan again, "What about the injured? I brought a couple of healers with me to take care of them." Nathan pointed them out and the two healers walked off in that direction. "We brought provisions with us for tonight if you need them, your knights said that you were running low." The knights walked to the fire and sat down with the ladies in tow.

  "Thank you, Sir John. We may need them, depending on if our hunter comes ba
ck empty handed," Nathan chuckled.

  John's eyebrows rose at that statement. "Ah, the young lad I was told about. Can he really bring enough back for the whole camp?" John asked.

  "It wouldn't surprise me if he brought more than enough. He has been a tremendous amount of help." Nathan said.

  "Yes, so I've heard. We had an emergency meeting with Sir Ackley. We all heard the tall tales of the lad, from him saving you single handedly to healing the lame and injured. Let's just give him the job of saving the kingdom," John arrogantly laughed. His other knights laughed with him, stating Sir Ackley laughed too. That made their blood boil.

  "Are you saying my knights are liars, Sir John?" Nathan grit his teeth.

  "No, Sir Nathan, I didn't say that. It's just a farfetched story, we’re just skeptical," John said wiping tears from his eyes

  Cori spoke through her teeth, "Sir John, those tall tales as you call them are true."

  "Maybe you were under stress and thought you saw it. And what's this I hear about you ladies helping with the bandaging and cooking?" John scoffed, "those things are beneath your station. How dare he make you do those things! I will have a nice conversation with him and let him know who his betters are!!!

  The Whitehurst group started laughing loudly, some were bending over cackling. The Oakenshore knights didn't think his statements were funny.

  Shea was the first to get her voice back and said, "He didn't make us do anything, we volunteered. Obviously you weren't listening if you think he cares who his betters are. Don't get me wrong, he's very courteous and polite in conversation. When he sees imminent conflict, that's a whole other matter. He has uncanny abilities."

  "I would also hesitate to do anything when his companion is nearby," Sir Nathan snickered.

  "Are you saying the lad thinks he is better than us? I would love to meet him in a circle. Then you would see how outmatched your ‘hunter’ is," John sneered. The conversation stopped when two distinct roars were heard in the woods.

  "What the hell was that?" John bellowed.

  "I'm not sure, but I know who's at that exact location," Sir Nathan said as he glanced at Shea and Cori. They were worried now.

  "What do you mean you know who's out there?" John demanded. "Whoever is out there is about to be dead. If that's where your hunter is, then he's dead for sure. Knights, armor up, and stay alert. Be ready for an ambush, we won't be taken by surprise," he bellowed.

  The camp was on high alert. They hadn't heard anything coming from the direction the roars came from in the past hour or so. The Whitehurst group was getting very concerned since Maximus hasn't made it back yet. It was right at sunset and everyone was starting to calm down when they heard shouts from the guards at the perimeter, sounding panicked. Sir Nathan, Shea and the others were searching for what was making the knights frantic as Sir John came over and talked with the group.

  "Our scouts spotted a group moving our way. Something big is with them. Lady Shea take the princesses back into the tent and wait for the all clear," Sir John ordered. Shea looked at him like he grew horns and looked at Sir Nathan. He shrugged and advised it would be best, and did what was commanded. After a few minutes of boredom, they heard numerous swords unsheathed ready for battle. Shea peeked out to see what was going on.

  "Can you see anything?" Cori asked.

  "Nothing yet. Maybe they'll pass us by," Shea calmly said.

  "I hope Maximus is okay." Shea could hear the sadness in her voice and replied, "I wouldn't worry about him. He can take care of himself."

  "I know, but I still worry and now we have that pompous fool John to deal with. I hope Reaper comes back and eats him," Cori said.

  Estelle laughed and responded, "I agree but we can't allow that to happen, Maximus would be sentenced to death. We need to keep them apart if possible."

  "Agreed, although it won't matter if he doesn't show back up," Shea commented.

  Cori was about to respond to that statement but was cut off by frantic shouts. They got wide eyed and went outside. At that moment they saw something walking up to the camp, four distinct shadows. Two of them were just massive and the other two were human looking.

  "Halt! Stay where you are!"

  Chapter Ten

  As it was getting dark, we came upon the area where I killed the stag and looked around; something had better not taken my kill. I finally checked at the bottom of a hill and saw our meal for the night. I walked hurriedly and was ecstatic when we came up to the downed animal, my mouth was watering for some venison. Reap came over so I could put the stag on him, I tied it down so it wouldn't fall off and nodded to the group before starting back to our camp. We stayed on the trail back to the camp, slowly getting closer. The kodiak was on my left, Reaper on the right, and Cassie was on the other side of the big bear.

  Watching the huge bear, I thought maybe we should give him a name instead of calling him "big guy" all the time. Stopping the group and looking the kodiak in the eye, "I’m going to call you Hercules instead of saying big guy."

  The brown bear huffed and nodded. I laughed and Cassie shook her head stating that was a suitable name. After a few minutes, she wanted to discuss the mission again as she calls it, but I didn't want to hear it and just stayed silent. She sighed loudly at my silence.

  "Why are you acting like that?" Cassie barked. "We have to get you prepared for what's coming."

  "Right now I'm going to go to my fire then clean and cook our kills. I promised Hercules over there I would make it nice and hot." Hercules looked over and grunted. I chuckled and kept walking, she followed and threw up her arms in surrender. As we came upon our destination we slowed down to hopefully not scare everyone, but it didn't matter what I did though, they were going to freak out. Seeing movement and hearing shouts, we were curious to see what was going on, at least until we heard the unmistakable sounds of metal as swords were unsheathed. My mind picked up different soldiers mixed in with the Whitehurst group that I was traveling with. I could see Hercules and Reaper tense, and felt the air crackle around Cassie. Putting my bow and quiver down, I unsheathed my sword thinking this ought to be good.

  "Halt! Stay where you are!!" A knight bellowed. Our group stopped about fifty feet from the knight.

  "Don't come any closer!" He commanded. "By order of the Duke of Oakenshore, you will drop your weapons and surrender!"

  Cassie looked at me with a raised eyebrow, saying I thought this was your camp. Shrugging, my eyes stared at the knight standing there quietly, waiting for this idiot to realize he didn't order me around. All he had to do was look at my group and know he was outmatched.

  "Stand your mage down, you have ten seconds," he ordered. Turning my head to try and find Shea or Sir Nathan, I couldn't see them. So I guess it was going to be me to have to deal with him then.

  "Who are you and why are you yelling?" I calmly asked.

  "You don't get to ask questions, brigand! This is your last chance, I order you in the name of Duke Ackley to surrender!"

  I stared at him and laughed, his face going red with anger by the second. Both groups tensed, waiting for the first move. When getting myself back under control, I confidently retorted to the moron, "If you think you're man enough, then by all means put the cuffs on. I will try to persuade you to not come any closer though. See, the big guy to my left is named Hercules. Say hello, Hercules," he stood up on his hind legs and roared. I swear the front guards went pale. "If that doesn't make you want to rethink your order, then this might." I looked at Reaper and said, "Say hello, Reaper." He stepped forward and let out a roar so loud that the area around us went still. The guards dropped their weapons and fled toward the back of the camp.

  "Wh-who are you?" He asked and his fear was palpable. At that point, I heard familiar voices from behind the obnoxious knight.

  "Get away from them!!"

  "...wait, he's a friend"

  "Stop!!"

  "Oakenshore, stand down!!"

  I looked over and found Sir Nathan, Ladies She
a, Cori, and Estelle running over. They came up past the knight and stopped in shock at what they were looking at. They all started talking at the same time.

  "Maximus, what the hell is that?"

  "Where have you been?"

  "Are you okay?"

  The last to speak was Sir Nathan, "Maximus, please calm down. They are here to help. They don't know you, so please don't confront them." I stared at Sir Nathan thinking about my next move.

  "Please Maximus," Cori pleaded. "Just calm down and come with us back to the fire."

  Glancing over at my group, I saw tension, but knew they were ready for battle. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and nodded to the Whitehurst group. The relief in their eyes was evident.

  "Cassie, Herc, Reap, stand down."

  After a few moments they relaxed and the tension from both sides cleared. The ladies came over, then surprisingly, they gave me hugs and a kiss on the cheek. Nathan just slapped me on the back and grunted, I smiled at his demeanor. We walked with the group into the camp with a wide berth from the Oakenshore guards. I chuckled at that and kept to myself.