“Bit passionate about it?” Gunnar asked. There was a sound of metal on metal.
“Ow! What was that for?” Gunnar complained.
“That feels better. All right, let’s get those bunny pelts!”
“What is with the bunny pelts? Couldn’t we go and get wolves?” Katrine asked.
“No, because someone killed off all the damn wolves so now there is a damn bunny plague that arrives every spring,” Sofie said.
The conversation drifted off as the group devolved into the rights and wrongs of the impending bunny genocide. Even while they argued, they didn’t slow their pace in leaving the city.
Aila pulled on her hood again and got comfortable in her seat.
There was a bump in the road and she nearly went flying out of her chair as she was adjusting her cushion. She was tilting over as Tommie grabbed her belt and pulled her back. Aila let out a shriek as her butt hit the seat again.
“Got to watch out you don’t fall off !” Tommie said help- fully.
Aila nodded with watery eyes.
Tommie saw her face, blushing as he coughed and looked away from the beautiful elven girl. “You might want to get a thicker belt. I know someone who has some good quality ones, be a bit sturdier.”
Aila made a noise of agreement.
Too bad that wasn’t a damn belt. Holy mother of rocks and lingerie—that has to be one of the most painful wedgies ever!
Aila moved on the chair, delicately, as she tried to adjust herself without alerting anyone.
I’m sixty-seven years old and got front wedgied by a gnome! Fresh tears appeared in her eyes as she finally shifted the wedgie.
“It’s going to be long day.” She felt battered already and Laisa was still visible behind them.
Chapter: Into the Deepwood
It was on the morning of the second day that there was finally some movement from the back of the carriage.
“Damn, my head hurts. Did someone get me drunk?” Anthony complained.
Tommie looked away, coughing and focusing on driving. Aila winced in her hood, quickly changing the subject.
“You awake now?” Aila asked.
“Yeah. It’ll take me some more time to get back my full strength but I woke Solomon up, or at least figured out how to put him to work,” Anthony said.
“Solomon?” Aila asked
“He’s a little prankster. You need to watch out for him,” Anthony said seriously.
“Just what I need—another problem.” Aila groaned.
“Hey, as much as a carpet knight burrito is fun, would you be able to get me out of this?” Anthony asked.
Aila looked back to see Anthony’s head barely popping out of the boxes as he tried to look around.
She sighed and grabbed the side of the carriage, moving back toward Anthony. She’d been able to adapt quickly to the movement of the carriage with her quick reaction time and reflexes. She pulled and yanked on the carpet.
138
Anthony started laughing and then crying with laughter before Aila stopped.
“What is so funny?”
“Please, please—no more tickling!” Anthony said. “Tickling? How can that tickle? You’re wearing armor!”
And you’re nothing but bones underneath.
“You found my funny bone! I can’t take it!” Anthony said.
If I could use that to try to get him to act more normal... Am I really planning to use tickling a skeleton as a way to control him?
Aila shook her head and took out her dagger, cutting the carpet and freeing Anthony. “Wait a second. I’ll get a sack or something that we can use to cover your armor.” Everyone had heard of the tree knight at this point; it wouldn’t be hard for them to identify him.
“I think I have one of those.” Anthony tapped some- thing on his hand. “Ugh, most of it’s junk. I really should have cleaned out my inventory.”
After a few seconds, a cloak appeared in his hand. He stood and wrapped it around his shoulders in a grand display.
The carriage hit a rut and Aila compensated but Antho- ny went armored ass over helm and he slammed into the road, covered in mud. The beasts behind didn’t have
any time to react as they walked over him and the car- riage wheels bounced over him, planting him firmly into the ground. Anthony tried getting up but was hit by the next carriage.
Aila winced as beasts and carriages ran over Anthony, one after another.
“Oh, come on!” Anthony said after the third.
“I’ll just wait till the caravan—” He was run over by yet another carriage. “Passes. How many—”
Anthony was now part of the road. “Are left?”
Fourteen carriages later, he pulled himself out of the ground, leaving a human-sized dent in the road.
Aila watched him as he jogged up, faster than the car- riages and passing the astounded traders and members of different merchant groups as he ran up to the carriage Aila and Tommie were on. He kept pace with them, jogging. He was covered in dust; his armor wasn’t even dented, but it was covered in mud, making it impossible to put the tree knight together with his current appear- ance. A simple brown cloak hung over him.
Other knights wore similar cloaks when they didn’t want to get their armor wet. Armor cost a lot and it could be considered a family heirloom with how much they were worth.
“Well, that was one hell of a way to wake up.” Anthony jumped, grabbing onto the front of the carriage and sit- ting down. “I miss being hungry,” Anthony said.
“Miss being hungry?” Tommie asked. “Being an un—”
“Being so powerful, you don’t need to eat that much anymore. Makes every meal count, I think.” Aila shot Anthony a look, hoping he picked up on her signals.
“Okay.” Tommie nodded, not thinking that there was anything wrong.
Well, he just got run over by the entire convoy—he’s really not normal anyway.
They continued travelling through the forest, weaving through the trees. The road didn’t go through the forest but weaved around different obstacles.
The elves wouldn’t take kindly to them clear-cutting a bunch of the forest just to make trading easier.
They continued on as if nothing had happened. The traders were all chatting to one another but the carriages were too far apart to talk to one another. They relied on hand signals from one carriage to the other to communi- cate and that was only directions from the convoy leader, who was up front.
“We’ve entered a beast’s territory,” Anthony said in an ominous voice.
“We have?” Tommie asked. He took everything that An- thony said on the surface as truth.
“Don’t you smell it?”
Aila’s eye twitched. Sometimes she really didn’t know how to react to what Anthony said.
A screeching yell tore through the forest, causing the trees to shake. A powerful aura spread out over the con- voy, making them shiver in fear.
There was a rustling as the convoy leader yelled out in- structions to the guards of the convoy.
“Keep moving forward as fast as possible!” Anthony yelled out, but the convoy leader ignored him.
The convoy halted, with the guards spreading out to cover the convoy, preparing to meet with whatever was coming. There was a casual confidence in their actions, almost looking down on the beast that was trying to at- tack them.
Anthony jumped off the carriage and started to run off to the side.
The underbrush on the side of the road parted, revealing a reptile that was as big as one of the carriages.
It had a bright-blue eye and a dark-brown eye. It had a long neck and a thick body with four legs and a barbed tail behind it, raised and ready to lash out like a scorpi- on’s tail, or swing it like a club sideways.
One of the guards let out a yell, executing a technique with their bow. A silver glow appeared around it before he released the arrow.
Others unleashed their most powerful attacks to keep the creature back and pin it down
so it wouldn’t be able to attack the caravan.
“Anthony!” Aila yelled, seeing him running right into the path of the attacks.
“Stand down.” Anthony’s voice carried a power that made everyone’s bodies feel slow and heavy, making them pause in sending their follow-up attacks.
Anthony suddenly accelerated. Power shimmered around his body, focused on his fingers. He stood in front of the beast and struck out, destroying and resolv- ing the incoming attacks.
They released powerful energies as the battlefield turned silent once again.
The beast roared at Anthony. Even suppressed, it was the king of the area; Anthony’s attacks were a challenge.
Anthony turned to face the beast and turned his head sideways. “Why did you make this area your domain? You should know that there are people moving on it.”
The beast roared again, its body lowering as it readied it- self to pounce.
“There must have been something that made you want to stay here. Was there a rush?” Anthony asked. The beast pounced and tried to bite Anthony. He stepped to the side as he held his chin in thought. The beast pounced again but Anthony was walking back the other way.
“Your movement is off. Must have an old injury that is affecting your back legs,” Anthony said. From the out- side, it looked as though he were just walking back and forth in thought while the beast jumped after his shad- ow playfully. Though Aila and the others could feel the growing bloodlust coming off the beast. It was close to going berserk from sheer frustration.
“The wound is old, so then that means it is already treat- ed. You know how to fight and survive, even with your limitations. So...not that. Come on...think, think.” An- thony tapped his head. “It is later in the year. Most rep- tiles have already given birth, but that is in the northern, colder climates. In the southern climates of the Deep- wood where it is warmer, could very well give birth later in the year.” Anthony charged forward, making the beast rear up.
“And you’re a girl!” Anthony dodged a swipe and a poi- son spit glob, and touched the reptile’s side. “You must have given birth not that long ago.” Anthony’s cloak flut- tered in the wind as the reptile tried to attack him again.
“It’s rude to attack people you don’t know,” Anthony said in an admonishing tone as she tried to attack him again. This time he reached out and smacked her open
mouth, diverting her attack and she stumbled into a tree.
She took a few moments to recover before she charged again. Anthony stood there as she charged, using his open hand and his finger to beat her.
“He hasn’t even moved from his spot—how is this?” one of the guards said.
“Such high strength—I’ve heard legends about different knights but never someone this strong. Is he even hu- man?”
“Look at the beast; it’s starting to realize just who she ran into!”
“Looks like reptile steak tonight, lads!”
Anthony grabbed the reptile’s head. Her eyes were hav- ing a hard time focusing but she lashed out with her front paw; it was slapped away by Anthony. She attacked with her other paw and Anthony smacked it away as well as he looked into the reptile’s eyes.
Its entire body shivered as a golden glow appeared in Anthony’s helmet. Its body collapsed underneath it out of pure fear.
Anthony released her snout and she put her head down in defeat, her spirit broken.
Aila, being an elf, had a greater connection to nature, even feeling their emotions.
The despair and dread of the reptile made Aila have to force her emotions under control. She didn’t act or in- terfere. When did I start trusting Anthony to do the right thing?
Anthony’s hand glowed as he put it on the reptile’s head.
Energy flowed into the reptile. It looked down at its leg; she moved it, bringing it up to her neck. She could now move it in ways she had never been able to before.
The relief and surprise dwarfed the despair, the change of emotions taking Aila on a roller coaster.
“Go and look after your young ones. Make sure that you stay away from the roads.” Anthony gestured back to the forest.
“We can’t let it go!” a guard said.
“With its size and its power, we could be rich!”
“Young ones, we can capture them and turn them into mounts! I know a beast tamer!”
The greed of the merchants reignited their fighting spir- it.
Anthony wasn’t deaf and the reptile’s emotions changed to anger. It looked between Anthony and the traders. Her goodwill from before was now hidden deep as she looked at Anthony with skeptical eyes.
“There will be no killing today. She wanted to defend her babies, as we all would. Put your weapons down,” Anthony said.
“She attacked us. If we let her live, then there might be others attacked by her!” a guard said.
The others agreed. They didn’t care what the reason was, as long as they could make a profit.
Aila felt disgusted and Tommie shook his head, his hands balling into fists.
“You are only one person. If you are in the way, we can’t be sure that the beast won’t kill you,” a trader said, a thin- ly veiled threat.
Anthony sighed and put himself in front of the beast.
His decisions clear, the others looked at one another, seeing who would go first. They held onto their weapons, remembering how he had stopped their at- tacks before.
Aila’s hand reached down to her blades as she readied her magic.
“Don’t want any misunderstandings,” someone said from behind her.
She looked over to see a man with a crossbow looking at her with an all-too-sweet smile. “The elves don’t care what us human and gnomes do, but elven blood will be
hard to clean up. I really don’t want to go through the work.”
Aila’s hands were just hovering against her daggers, judg- ing whether she would be fast enough on the draw or not.
Someone couldn’t hold themselves back anymore.
“He’s only one person!” they yelled and fired an arrow at Anthony.
Everyone else lashed out at Anthony as he sighed and walked forward. His hands moved through the air casu- ally, hitting the wind as the attacks were nullified with him hitting their weakness with an injection of Mana through the air.
The melee types closed with him; he moved inside their attacks and sent them flying with a flick of his wrist, right up against one of the carriages. As those who had hit the carriage started to get up, another of their fellows would be sent flying into them, sending them both crashing to the ground, creating a small hill of guards around the carriage.
“Just get the beast!” a merchant yelled impatiently at the useless guards.
The guards tried to pin down Anthony with their num- bers, a few of them getting away.
Aila’s hands dropped lower.
“Ah, ah, we don’t want any accidents,” the archer said, his crossbow aimed right at her.
The beast let out a roar and charged forward. With An- thony healing her, her strength had increased and she slammed into the attackers.
“Don’t kill them!” Anthony said.
The beast seemed to understand. She used her head and her tail as battering rams and slammed the guards away with her claws, but didn’t use the poison that could be excreted from her tail or from her mouth.
Anthony ducked and she swung her tail, sending five guards back, who groaned as they hit the carriages.
Anthony executed a palm art. A lightning spark struck those moving in on the reptile’s blind side. They screamed out as they flew into the forest, hitting trees and then they dropped to the ground.
The two worked together, their movements syncing up as they worked in harmony.
The guards started to try to run away as Anthony stood there and gently pushed his hand forward. The wind around his hand distorted; it was neither fast nor slow. Several sparks appeared on his hand. Like small fireflies, they grew before shooting out a
s Anthony finished ex- tending his hand.
The lightning fell on the fleeing guards, helping them on their way as they went flying like released pinballs; trees, carriages—even an unlucky trader—were tossed back.
The guy holding the crossbow aimed at Anthony had a grim look on his face.
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