Brian Pratt - Warrior priest of Dmon-Li

Worried about pursuit, they keep the horses saddled and the one who’s on watch keeps extra alert during their vigil.

James awakens with the rising of the sun, tired and head aching slightly. He sits up and finds Jiron by the fire cooking a small animal that he killed earlier that morning.

“Good morning,” he says when he notices James sitting up.

“Good morning to you too,” he replies. He glances over to where Miko is still sleeping on the ground. “Did he take the first watch?”

“Yeah,” Jiron affirms.

“Do you think we have time to cook breakfast?” James asks him. “I mean with all those riders after us?”

He shrugs before saying, “Hope so. I don’t know if you remember, but you pretty well blocked the pass. Any pursuit will have to travel another way.”

“But they will come,” James tells him.

“I know, but we need to keep our strength up,” counters Jiron. He pokes the roasting carcass with his knife and says, “Wake up sleepy head, I think breakfast is ready.”

James gets up and goes over to Miko and nudges him with his foot.

“What?” Miko exclaims, coming awake abruptly. He looks quickly around and sees James standing above him.

“Breakfast is almost ready,” he says.

“Oh,” he grunts as he looks over to where Jiron is taking the meat from the fire. Getting up, he crosses over to the trees and does his morning business and then returns to take a seat by the fire.

Jiron hands him his portion and then gives James his. They sit there for a while in silence as they eat. James takes a look at the mountains surrounding them. Glancing to the south, he can’t really see where he caused the sides of the pass to cave-in as trees and mountain block his view.

“How far did we come last night?” he asks.

“Not sure, we traveled for several hours before stopping,” Jiron replies.

“We better push long and hard today,” continues James. “Abula-Mazki won’t be giving up so easily.”

“I hope he was caught in the landslide,” Miko adds.

“So do I,” agrees James, “but we can’t go on that assumption. We must act as if he’s still after us.”

“Where to now?” Jiron asks.

“Continue heading north,” James replies. “It’s all we can do.”

Once they finished their breakfast, they mount and continue down the side of the mountain. The trail they are following is fairly clear, having been traveled by riders on their way to the Gathering for a very long time.

It takes most of the day to reach the plains below the mountains. They turn more to the west as they continue along the foothills, traveling until the sun begins to fall. A hollow between two hills gives them a good place to remain hidden while they camp through the night.

While Jiron gets the fire going, James goes out and gets a couple rabbits for dinner. Once they’re on the fire roasting, they sit back and relax.

James wishes he had something to use to see if they are being pursued, but there are no pools of water to be found. He needs something that has a smooth, reflective surface in order to do it.

“Think we’re staying ahead of him?” asks Miko.

“Maybe,” replies Jiron. “It’s really hard to say. It all depends on how far he had to ride to find another way from the gathering. And if he’s willing to kill his horse in order to catch us.”

“Do you think the Grey Wolf Clan will aid him?” Miko asks.

“Probably,” answers James. “We messed up their camp pretty good, and probably insulted them in some way when we snatched you out from the middle of their camp.”

“Other clans may help as well,” Jiron guesses. “We did violate the peace, though I doubt if the Windriders will be among those coming after us.”

“Maybe,” agrees James. “If we can make it out of their lands, then maybe the clans won’t continue the pursuit.”

“Let’s hope so,” Miko sighs. “Is that why we’re moving more to the west? So hopefully we will be out of their lands?”

“I hadn’t thought of it that way,” Jiron says. “I just figured the hills would give us more cover than the open plains. But that’s a thought.”

“The forces of the Empire in this area would hardly be on the lookout for us,” reasons James. “If anything, they’d still be looking for us further south. We should have a day or two before Abula-Mazki has the chance to alert anyone.”

“If our luck holds, we may be able to keep ahead of the word of our whereabouts all the way to the border,” Jiron says optimistically.

“That would be nice,” James agrees, though doesn’t really feel that is a possibility.

James takes the first watch once they’ve eaten and are ready to bed down for the night.

In the morning, Jiron pulls out rations he found on the horses Therin had given them. After a quick bite to eat, they’re in the saddle and making their way through the hills. They continue to maintain a route to the west, with a slight northerly heading. The hills afford them some protection from being spotted but at the sacrifice of speed.

Some time after noon, they curve around a hill and suddenly before them is a road going north to south. They pause a moment before moving behind a hill bordering the road. Jiron dismounts and while the others wait with the horses, looks for any traffic moving upon the road.

He’s up there several minutes before coming back down. When he returns, he says, “There’s no one on the road and I could see it winding its way through the hills for miles in either direction.”

“Think we should chance it?” James asks him.

“We’d make better time, but you never know who’ll be using it,” he replies.

“Moving through the hills is slowing us down,” James tells him. “I think we need to chance it. If we keep a constant watch for anyone approaching, we might be okay.”

“Alright,” Jiron says as he remounts. Turning his horse toward the road, he continues, “Then let’s do it.” He leads them back to the road where they break into a gallop as they race to the north.

After only going several miles, the hills begin to smooth out until they’re once more in grassland. There’s a river to the west and as they go further north, it slowly draws closer.

Several more miles finds them where the road crosses the river. Ahead of them, a mile or so past the bridge, sits a large keep not far off the road.

They come to a stop in the road before crossing the bridge as they consider their options.

“Think there’s anyone still in there?” Miko asks, referring to the keep.

“From here it’s hard to tell,” Jiron replies. “I would think so though.”

James glances to the east where the hills begin again, about a mile away. “We should return to the hills, they’ll give us more of a chance to get by here without being seen,” he suggests.

“I agree,” says Jiron as he turns his horse and leads them at a gallop toward the cover of the hills.

As they reach the hills, James glances over to the distant keep and sees a force of cavalry coming out through the main gate. They’re heading down the road to the south.

“Jiron, we may have company!” he hollers to him.

Jiron looks over and sees them leaving the keep. Pushing their horses harder, they make their way into the hills. After they’ve put a large hill between them and the riders, they come to a stop and then dismount before climbing to the top of the hill. Peering over the crest of the hill, they see the riders continuing down the road to the south and not turning to follow them.

“I guess that answers whether anyone is in the keep or not,” James announces.

“Yeah,” agrees Miko. “It’s a good thing we got off the road when we did.”