by Travis Kerr
"Actually that's exactly what we are going to do. It's part of the rules between smugglers. They help each other out with little things like that. Sharing information that way benefits everybody. If I had a way to help him get to where he was going then I would have told him."
"And the bartender he told us about?" Roland asked.
"He probably doesn't even exist," Tara told him, uncovering the cloth from her face. Roland realized that she had kept it covered the entire time the merchant and his men were in sight. As usual, she didn't want anyone to recognize her as a feral.
At least she finally said something, he thought. She had not said anything the entire day.
"But I thought you said that you knew him?" he asked Malik, perplexed.
"Of course," he answered pleasantly. "I was telling him that I knew what he was and that I knew that there was no such man. You see, I wanted him to think I was a smuggler too, so I was basically playing into the whole game they play. Naturally the person I told him about doesn't exist either. He was well aware of that. It's a strange game those people play, but it can be amusing from time to time."
"I thought that you said that the smugglers help each other? Why would you send each other to fake contacts?"
"For the same reason that we wouldn't tell each other what we were really selling. There's always a chance that we might be smuggling the same thing. If that were the case than we would be rivals, which could lead to all sorts of unpleasant outcomes. This way, there's no way for me to know what he has and vice-versa. Everything stays friendly that way."
Roland shook his head.
I could spend a month trying to figure all this out and it would likely still continue to elude me, he suspected.
Tara had already started down the road again, eager to reach their camp site for the night. Roland wondered just how many of those sites the two of them had spread out along the roads. It was obvious that they knew exactly where they were. It was likely that most merchants, both honest and otherwise, had such sites along every road that existed. He had just never had a reason to think about it before now.
They reached this particular location with at least an hour of sunlight left. That one smuggler and his guards were the only souls they had seen. Malik assured him that they would begin running into more and more people as they got closer to the city. Roland found a stout stick for his nightly practice, while Tara quickly gathered wood for their fire. As he sparred with a stationary sapling she spread a thick slab of fish from the night before over the flames.
Hopefully her attitude might change once she had her meal, Roland thought.
She hadn't been rude to him, though she had said almost nothing during the day, but she had pointedly ignored Malik. He had said that morning that she was just sulking. Roland hoped that the man was right. While it was true that he knew very little about her, about either of his companions for that matter, he realized that he had grown quite fond of them. He wouldn't want the feral woman to stop talking to him altogether.
"Tara," Malik said finally, addressing her directly for the first time in a while. "I think you should take first watch tonight. I need a bit of sleep, and I'm sure you'll be up for a while finishing your dinner. Wake me up for second watch. If you could, keep Roland up with you tonight and show him the ropes. He showed an interest this morning in becoming a more integral member of our little group. Learning what to watch for during the night and helping us guard the camp would be a good start."
Tara garbled something that sounded roughly like an affirmative. Roland reminded himself never to get on the woman's bad side.
She can hold a grudge better than anyone I’ve ever met, he thought.
Trick flew down from an unseen perch somewhere above them and landed next to Tara, chirping with what sounded to Roland's ears like a distinctly inquisitive sound. Tara chuckled lightly, and gave the dragonling a generous portion of the gar she was cooking over the fire. Roland wasn't sure if the small dragonling cared about how hot his dinner might have been, but it seemed to enjoy the fish almost as much as she did. Malik, seeing that his little friend was taken care of for the night, lay his head on his pack and rolled over.
If he didn't fall asleep at once he certainly was doing a good job of pretending, Roland thought.
The last of the day’s light faded into night. Roland sat next to the fire, slowly stirring a small pot of boiling tubers he had uprooted from along the edge of camp. Tara sat next to him, munching away happily on her fish. Roland breathed a light sigh of relief. She had continued her silent pouting for more than a half hour after Malik had gone to sleep, then switched instantly to the happier version of herself that she had been the night before.
Her mood was probably nothing more than an act to get under Malik's skin, Roland thought, though he kept that opinion to himself.
Trick had long since finished his meal and had flown up into the trees, likely sleeping off the large piece of meat that Tara had given him. Malik still slept, as silently as he would in his grave. Not a sound escaped to prove his slumber.
Even Tara snores slightly when she sleeps, Roland thought. As he recalled the sound she made when sleeping seemed more like a purr than a snore, but at least there was some sound there.
The only sounds in the night Roland could hear were the loud chirping of night insects and the crackling of the fire. Even Tara's eating hardly made a sound. In the distance he heard what he thought might have been the croaking of a bullfrog, though he couldn't remember seeing any water when he looked around camp. Still, the entire part of the world they were in was covered sporadically with swampland, so he figured it was probable that there was a lake or stream somewhere nearby.
With only small campfire, burning merrily in the center of the clearing, Roland peered out into the darkness. Try as he might, he couldn't see much of anything beyond its feeble light. He clenched his fists lightly in frustration.
How am I going to be of any use as a watchman if I can’t see more than a few feet away?
With Tara beside him he felt certain that he really didn’t have anything to worry about, but he didn’t want to have to rely on his companions all the time. He wanted them to be able to rely on him. He wanted to contribute to the group no differently than anyone else. Tara was far more useful than he was, he knew, and she was paying more attention to her dinner than her surroundings.
"You might as well sit down and relax," Tara said between bites, breaking the silence of the night. "If anyone approaches Trick will know. He’ll tell us long before anyone gets close enough to see our camp. I don't know if he can see them or hear them or what, but I've never seen anyone sneak up on him. I can see in the dark better than nearly anyone, but even I don't see as well as Trick does. I suspect his hearing might be better than mine as well. Even when he's completely asleep, he still knows whatever is going on around him, almost like a sixth sense or something. Dragonlings are magically created creatures, so who knows what they might really be capable of. However he does it, he's always known when trouble is near."
"Why do we even need a watch then?"
"A couple of reasons. For one, it's not easy for Trick to wake us up quickly. The last time he had to he nearly pulled my hair out, and I'm not a heavy sleeper. For another, there are times when we travel separately and meet up again later. It wouldn't be good for us to become lax in our attention. So I guess that it's sort of like practice. That's what you are learning tonight. I'll teach you a bit more in a while, once I've finished eating. For now, just listen to what's around you. Pay attention to every detail. Even if there's nothing dangerous nearby, you can learn a lot about what's in the area just by listening. Tell me what you hear now."
He listened once again, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't hear anything out of the ordinary. He heard insects, though other than the chirping of crickets he couldn't identify any of them. Once again he heard a croak that could have been a bullfrog in the distance. Unfortunately it was too far away from him to be ce
rtain of where it was coming from. Aside from that he heard nothing.
Surely there isn’t anything out there.
"I don't hear anything," he told her at last, feeling defeated. He was certain that she must have heard something that she expected him to hear, but he had no idea what it might have been.
"So you didn't hear that loud, low groaning sound?"
"You mean the bullfrog? I heard that, sure. I just didn't think that it was anything important."
"That wasn't a bullfrog," she told him. "I can see why you would think that it was, it certainly sounded similar to a bullfrog anyway, but that’s not what it was at all. That was a bull alligator threatening another male. They make a similar sound when mating. I wouldn't be surprised to find that one had killed the other before morning. Males in most species tend to be overly aggressive, and alligators are far from being an exception."
"I wouldn't think that a gator would really be a danger to us this deep in dry woods. It sounds too far away to be something to worry about."
"You're right about that. We're too far from the water for it to attack us here. Still, what that does tell us is that there is water nearby. Enough to support a large alligator, or even a few of them.
"That's something that we could use come morning, if we needed water or food. Some plants grow better near water, which would be good for you, and that could also mean fish for me. Other animals, like deer or wild hogs, might frequent there for drinking, so there could be well established game trails. Remember that while you might not eat meat, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't keep your eyes, or in this case your ears, open to help your companions."
Roland considered that. Granted, he had been cleaning most of the animals that they had killed, but he had barely participated really. He had only been doing what he had been told. Instead, he realized, he should have been paying closer attention to how much they had left and what they might need. Tara and Malik had certainly been paying attention to his needs. With the packs that they had been using it was impossible to know how full they might be just by looking at them from the outside, but he could still ask them what they needed from time to time.
"Are we low on water now?" he asked. "I could follow that sound and refill our supply."
"Only if you wanted to become dinner for that gator down there," she teased. "I wouldn't even go near the water at night. I can see in the dark, but not into the depths of deep water this late at night. You would never see that thing coming. Besides, I happen to already know that the water nearby is not very good for drinking. I wouldn't go there for water except in the greatest of emergencies."
Of course she’s right, he thought sullenly. I should have known. I’m not even good enough to gather water properly. I’m completely useless. There’s really no reason that Malik and Tara should want me around.
"If you want to do something you could always gather more wood for the fire. Just don't go far beyond the light. It's easy to get lost in the dark if you're not careful. Also there are animals that will stay away from the fire but might still come close, staying just out of the light. I've found tracks of cougars and skunk apes from time to time over the years that I've been in this part of the world, though it's rare to see either of them. If they get too close Trick will probably warn us, and if it's a skunk ape you'll notice the smell long before it gets close enough to be dangerous."
He involuntarily wrinkled his nose at the thought. Roland had heard of the skunk apes. They are said to be so rare that most people believed them to be nothing more than superstition. They were said to have the worst smell imaginable. He had heard jokingly that they could spoil vegetables in a field with their smell alone, just by walking near.
Some thought that they were one of the species that had been changed during the Mage War and had never joined the others, so they reverted back to being more like animals than humans. Others said that they had existed long before that, hidden out in the deeper parts of the marshes, where even in the ancient times few people would go. His mother, of course, said that it was unlikely that such an animal existed at all. If it did it was certainly just an animal, no different than any other.
Thinking about his mother, he suddenly felt very homesick. He wondered, not for the first time, where his mother might have heard the stories that she had told him. Some of it she had read in the books that she had with her, he was certain of that, but there was other things she knew that he had no idea where she might have heard it.
She certainly hadn’t heard any of her stories from his father, that much he was sure of. His father had little interest in anything beyond the borders of his land. His father had spent all his life in the same place, and had spent more time with his crops than he had with his own family. However, he had never mistreated them in the slightest. He was a loving, caring man. He just understood his fields more than he did his feelings.
Roland wondered why his father was like that; why all sorvinians were like that really. One thing he had realized during his time with the group was just how strong sorvinians really were when compared to the other races.
They could have done anything with themselves, he thought.
As soldiers they could have been the terrors of the battlefield. They could wear armor many times heavier than what other races could wear. The steel could be thick enough that nothing could penetrate it. Give a sorvinian a hammer or an ax and they could wipe out entire shield walls with one blow. It would be easy for someone who could carry a weapon that weighs a hundred pounds or more.
In all of his life though, he had never heard of a sorvinian taking up arms. Not even in his mother's stories had such a thing had ever occurred. Sorvinians ate only growing things, and they had no interest in anything beyond the land that fed them and kept them whole. Land was plentiful, so for a sorvinian there was never any need for war. Granted, the mages taxed them so heavily that, though they grew the food that fed most of the races, they still could barely afford to cloth themselves. That didn't seem to matter much to them. Their needs were few, so they could ignore the heavy burden put on them.
A movement above him broke him away from his thoughts. Trick flew down from the trees, chirping softly. It was obvious that he was trying to warn them about something, and that he didn't want whatever it was to hear him. Roland strained his ears, but he couldn't hear anything.
What could be out there?
"On second thought you better wait for a bit before gathering more wood," Tara informed him unnecessarily. "I'm not sure what it is that's out there, but Trick is giving us a warning. If Malik was up he might be able to tell us exactly what it is that Trick is warning us about. The most I can say is that it's an animal. I've heard his warning when it's a human attacker. It sounds completely different then."
"What do you think it might be?" he asked her. "I can't see or hear anything. I can't smell anything either," he added, remembering what she had said about the skunk apes.
"I don't know. If I had to guess, I would think cougar. Cougars are silent killers. We would hear most other things moving through the brush. Don’t worry, we shouldn’t have much to worry about here. Cougars won't come close to the fire, and neither will most of the other things that Trick would feel the need to warn us about. As long as we stay in camp, we'll be safe."
Trick flew over them for a few more minutes, until he was certain they understood the warning. Finally satisfied that they would stay in camp, the dragonling landed on the ground between them. He stayed there for nearly a half an hour, peering intently into the darkness at an enemy only he was able to see. Roland looked at Tara, who also gazed into the darkness sporadically while she ate. It was obvious that she couldn't see whatever it was that was making Trick nervous. Finally, apparently satisfied that the danger was gone, Trick took to the air, gave one quick, sharp chirp, and disappeared into the trees above them.
"I'm guessing that was Trick's way of telling us that the danger is passed and it's safe to gather more firewood," Roland joked dryly.<
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Not a moment too soon, he thought.
He couldn't understand how guards did this job night after night. With nothing to see and nothing to do, he had never felt so bored. Even staring out into the woods after Trick’s warning had become dull after only a few minutes.
At least gathering firewood would give me something to break up the monotony, he thought.
He knew that Tara wanted him to continue listening to the forest around them, but he could tell she wasn't hearing much more than he had been, even with her superior hearing.
He started gathering thick sticks, as large as he could easily fit into the fire without breaking. He could have snapped some of the longer pieces if he had to, he knew, but thought that the noise might wake Malik.
It would be better to let the man sleep as long as he could, he believed. Malik had said to wake him for the second half of the night, so he was going to get little enough sleep as it was. Roland was strong enough that he would be able to carry enough wood to keep the fire going for most of the night, if not all of it.
There isn’t any need to make more noise, he decided.
Although Trick had already proved that he would give warning if there was any large, dangerous predators in the area, he still took Tara's advice and stayed close to the fire, never allowing its light to leave his sight. As he bent to pick up a large piece of wood he saw something odd. He almost didn't notice it in the weak light beyond the camp, but once seen it was unmistakably something unnatural.
A long, unbroken trail cut itself through the forest floor, only about a foot wide, as if someone picked up a thick log and dragged it around the camp. Roland followed it for a moment, trying to fathom what could have made it. At one end it went directly away from the camp, continuing until it was out of site. Turning around, he followed it once again the other way. The trail turned sharply when it reached the camp perimeter. It followed the camp around in a half circle, where once again it turned sharply away.
Whatever made this path had come across the camp, carefully made its way around them, then kept going in its original direction, he surmised.