We needed their help to hit Graves and if need be, the Goblins, hard enough to keep them from threatening Aldford while we had our downtime. With any luck, we would be able to permanently take care of both Graves and the Goblins, giving us some much needed time to regroup before the next crisis reared its head and more Adventurers started to spread out into our region.
It’d be nice to have a week or so just to relax and build. I rapped the side of a tree with my knuckles as I walked past it, hoping I hadn’t jinxed myself. I could spend three or four days doing nothing but crafting.
My thoughts were interrupted as Constantine appeared out of the woods ahead of us.
“Nothing to report, Lyr,” Constantine said quickly. “I just checked in with Sierra, Myr, and Thorne. We have quite a few creatures in and about the wood ahead, but nothing over level five. We’re making good time overall.”
“Good,” I replied with nod as Freya stepped closer to join our conversation.
“Everyone holding up well?” she asked looking at Constantine.
“Yeah, they’re doing great.” Constantine waved a hand in reassurance. “Thorne’s and Myr’s stealth skills are great and they naturally have sharp eyes. I actually wouldn’t be surprised if they unlocked their Base Classes today.”
“That’s great! But also makes me a little bit jealous!” Freya replied happily, sounding relieved. “I still need to work on weapon skills.”
“Don’t we all,” Abaddon croaked from behind us. “Hopefully we’ll get plenty of practice today.”
“Hopefully.” I could hear the smile in Drace’s voice behind me.
“You think everything will be okay in Aldford today?” Constantine asked with a slightly concerned tone. “With us gone, along with Freya’s group and Natasha. We only have Aldwin, Donovan, Shelia and Jenkins to mind the village in case things so bad.”
“I do,” I replied confidently. “Honestly, I didn’t expect all the other Adventurers to integrate so… easily into Aldford. But with how driven everyone was yesterday to join us and how protective they are to have a place they can rest, I think they’ll keep it safe while we’re gone.”
“They will,” Freya said matter-of-factly. “Everyone saw the benefits of being among the first to help settle a new city when we reached Coldscar, now that they have a chance to do the same thing for themselves in Aldford, they don’t want to lose it.”
“Not to mention the safety Aldford provides,” Helix added. “Many are truly happy to finally be out from Graves’s rule and appreciate the help you gave everyone to help them get back on their feet.”
“That too!” Freya agreed cheerfully.
“I heard a few Adventurers talking about starting a farm to the west of Aldford,” Drace chimed in. “Quite a few of the villagers seemed on board to help out.”
“Really? I guess that does make me feel better,” Constantine admitted, looking back to nod at Drace before turning to me. “Say, Lyr. Have you heard from Amaranth today?”
“Not yet.” I shook my head, checking to see if my familiar was still out of range of our mental link. “He’s getting closer, though.”
“Okay. Let me know when he really gets close. I can go warn Thorne and Myr, so they aren’t surprised when they see him,” Constantine replied with a nod, poking this thumb backwards. “Going to go check on Natasha at the rear, I’ll be back.”
“Sounds good.” I nodded at the rogue as he started to make his way to the back of our group.
“Why would they be surprised when they see him?” Freya asked me with confusion. “You said he’s a Puma?”
“Well,” I started to explain before trailing off with a smile. “You’ll see…”
***
Amaranth’s mental voice was tinged with pride as he quickly closed in on us.
I sent back with surprise, not expecting to hear that my familiar was bringing me something.
Amaranth didn’t reply back as he approached and before long I began catching glimpses of his azure fur in between the trees ahead of us. There’s something in his mouth?
Trotting with barely a care in the world, Amaranth emerged from the bushes and into clear sight, carrying a dead goblin in his mouth.
The cat declared happily as it dropped the goblin a short distance in front of me.
The bigger the cat, the bigger the… uh, gift? I was momentarily taken aback by the prize that Amaranth had dropped by my feet.
“Oh!” Freya and the rest of the Thunder Lizards let out a gasp as they saw Amaranth emerge from the woods. “Wow.”
“Hey!” I patted Amaranth as he nuzzled his head into me in greeting. “You caught a goblin!”
Amaranth leaned into my hand as I scratched him behind the ear.
“Was there just one?” I asked the cat while moving to look at the Goblin.
“Where did you find this one?” The Goblin was dressed in simple, if crude, leathers, and furs, much better equipped than the goblin raiders I had fought in Aldford last week. Turning the Goblin over, I noted that it had been killed by a single powerful bite to the head and judging by the rather fresh smell of offal, recently.
I definitely remember how those teeth felt like.
After a moment of inspecting the goblin, I didn’t find anything else of interest, the creature beginning to dissolve as I stood up.
Amaranth quickly corrected himself, slowly getting the hang of using compass directions.
“Lyrian, that’s Amaranth?!” Freya asked, her voice breathless. “He’s… huge!”
“And blue!” I heard Theia’s voice exclaim with excitement, quickly followed by a faint whisper. “He looks so soft…”
“Oh, right!” I blushed, realizing how bizarre it must have looked to welcome a blue furred, seven hundred pound Puma with a hug, then proceed to inspect its kill while talking to it out loud. “Yes! Everyone, this is Amaranth.”
Once again I underwent the surreal experience of introducing the newest members of our group to my familiar, explaining the nature of our mental link to one another. Everyone greeted the big cat with a bit of reservation, intimidated by Amaranth’s rather large size. Everyone except for Theia, who hugged Amaranth hard enough to make him squeak.
“T-this is y-your familiar?!” Huxley managed to stutter out as he shrank away from the big puma. “I didn’t know…”
Amaranth stated as he broke into a wide yawn, showing Huxley his wicked teeth.
I told the cat truthfully while motioning for all of us to start walking again.
Amaranth sent back as he started to walk beside me.
“Amaranth says that he found signs of the Goblins fighting with Graves and the rest of his followers,” I told the others, who were still getting used to Amaranth. “I don’t know how much of it survived the storm yesterday, but it’s on the way anyway.”
“Really?” Freya said, casting a doubting look at Cerril. “I wonder what happened…”
“What did he say about the Goblin, Lyr?” Halcyon asked from behind me. “You know we can’t hear you two when you do that mental link thing between one another.”
“Oh, right!” I rapped my head with my knuckles once again, silently looking forward to having some downtime tomorrow to recuperate. I really need a break. I’m starting to make silly mistakes.
“Amaranth said that he found the Goblin on the way back to us today and that it was busy watching the plains when he snuck up on it.”
“You think they are expecting more of us to walk that way?” Cerril asked.
“I don’t know,” I replied with an honest shrug. “Maybe you guys surprised them, and they’re keeping an eye out now. Or maybe they’ve always had an eye out, and we’ve finally wandered far enough to trip over them.”
“They must have a place somewhere out here if they’re posting pickets in the wood,” Drace said thoughtfully. “We can get away without them since the area around Aldford is reasonably clear of trees, and we have decent visibility all around us, except for the forest on the east side. If they’ve settled somewhere in the forest, we might not find any scouts unless we trip over them.”
“True, though don’t forget, they must have planned to take the villagers they tried to kidnap from Aldford somewhere,” Caius added. “Plus the Mages Guild expedition.”
“A Mages Guild expedition? Is that what Natasha mentioned yesterday?” Freya asked with surprise. “How much has happened to you guys this week?!”
“Oh, it’s been a marathon of crises,” Halcyon exclaimed dramatically. “All week long…”
“I think it is time that we were fully caught up.” Helix plaintively hissed behind me, quickly followed by rumbling agreements from the rest of the Thunder Lizards. “We have only caught bits and pieces since we arrived. Words of a goblin invasion, giant spiders in the foressst. What has happened since you all arrived here?”
I turned to glance at Drace over my shoulder, who merely shrugged. “It’s your story here, Lyr.”
“Ugh, alright.” I started by taking a deep breath. There was a lot I hadn’t yet explained to Freya, Thorne, Helix and the rest of the lizards, only briefly highlighting the major events that happened around Aldford. There had always seemed something better to do with our time than just rehash everything that had already happened in detail. “It all started with me spawning completely naked, in the middle of a goblin raid…”
***
We walked for nearly three more hours until Amaranth told us that we had arrived at the camp where he had detected the spilled blood between Graves’s followers and the goblins. As we approached, we saw Sierra waiting for us in the middle of the clearing, her relaxed posture telling us that our other scouts were in the woods around us.
Not far my ass. I sighed to myself as I made my way into the clearing, seeing two large patches of scorched ground. I guess my next task should be trying to teach Amaranth the concept of distance and time.
Despite my grumbling, I had to admit that catching Freya and the others up on the details of our week made the journey pass by reasonably quickly. I had freely outlined every detail of our adventures up until this point, save for mentioning my theories about the ruin we had found being a translocation hub. While I felt I could trust Freya and her friends with that information, I wasn’t ready to share that information in front of Huxley or Cerril.
I’ll have to tell them later, I told myself while making a mental note. Then I’ll probably have to do something about that ruin too and make sure no other Adventurers break Donovan’s lock and wander into it.
“Yet another abandoned camp,” I said feeling a tinge of déjà vu as I inspected the area.
“We’re in the middle of the wild, Lyr,” Halcyon grunted as he followed me. “It’s not like they can just check into a hotel in the middle of the night out here.”
“I guess,” I replied while looking at the two scorched patches of ground, one had a ring of stones surrounding it, while the other didn’t. “Once people figure out proper fieldcraft and start hiding their camps after they leave, maybe we won’t be tripping over them all the time.”
“To be fair, goblins did attack the other camps,” Caius pointed out. “Hiding a camp while under attack doesn’t rate high on my list of things to do in the heat of the moment.”
“Are you guys done? We’re on a timeline here,” Sierra grumbled with a bit of frustration before indicating both of the scorch marks. “If you look, there’s a decent sized crater in each burn spot, but this one here with the stones has the most ashes in and around it, even after the storm.”
“Maybe they started the fires with magic?” I offered, remembering how handy it was to be able to kindle some wood with my Flare spell.
“With a fucking fireball?” Halcyon was looking at the second scorch mark. “Crazy overkill if you ask me, look how deep these are. A tiny flare is more than enough to light some wood.”
“Amaranth, where did you smell the goblin blood?” Freya asked, looking at the cat with curiosity.
Flicking an ear at her, Amaranth walked over to the second scorch mark without the ring of stones.
“Amaranth says he smelled both goblin blood and burnt flesh in that spot,” I told Freya, passing on Amaranth’s message.
“Hmm.” Freya nodded, then continued to look around the camp.
“I’m not sure what else there is to find here,” Cadmus spoke up as he walked the perimeter of the camp. “All I’m finding is mud, damp grass and fallen leaves.”
“Any theories?” I asked Sierra as everyone quickly searched through the area.
“If this was done by Goblins and they used a similar strategy as when they attacked the expedition camp, they would have destroyed the fire first to disorient everyone, probably from that direction.” Sierra pointed slightly towards the northeast. “Then once people started panicking, they would have started raiding the camp.”
“Is that what Natasha said happened to her camp?” I asked softly, knowing that Sierra had been spending quite a bit of time with the younger scout. “She didn’t tell me much of what happened beyond the basic details.”
“It was similar,” Sierra replied with a nod, before looking at me with concern. “It still bothers her that she ran off you know.”
“Running off is probably the only reason she’s alive,” I said with a sympathetic tone. “Hopefully she understands that.”
“I think she does, just not all the time.” Sierra shrugged, knowing it was beyond her control. “So what do we do now? I don’t think there’s much to go on here.”
“Keep following Cerril and Huxley’s Party Sense I guess,” I said after thinking for a moment. “We have to be in Goblin Territory now, and they’ve both said
we’re getting closer. Unfortunately, Party Sense doesn’t convey distance very well.”
“We have to be getting close,” Sierra replied with a sigh, nodding her head to the sun high in the sky. “The day is already halfway done and if we don’t find something soon, we’ll have to start heading back.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, following her gaze upwards. “If we really needed to, we could make better time over the plains on our way home.”
“It’d still take us a bit of time to get back to the plains.” Sierra thumbed her hand sharply to the northwest. “We left the plains back there about a half hour ago when the forest started spreading northward. We’re deep into these woods now.”
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