Brian Pratt - Warrior priest of Dmon-Li

When they hit the ground, they begin rolling toward the riders. As they roll through the tall grass, the grass they touch begins to wilt and die, leaving a trail behind them as they continue on toward the riders.

“What’s he doing?” Miko asks Jiron.

“I don’t know,” he replies. “Just be glad he’s on our side.”

James breaks into a slight smile when he overhears that, but otherwise continues his concentration as the blobs roll ever onward.

The further they roll through the grass the greater in size they become. Where they had started out the size of golf balls, now they’re the size of a bowling ball. It almost seems that the larger they grow, the faster they grow as does the swath of withered grass they leave behind them.

When the first riders reach the blobs rolling toward them, the lead ball explodes, spraying a sticky goo which envelopes several riders and horses. The others immediately move to pass by their affected comrades, but other blobs explode as they come in close proximity to them.

One after another, the blobs explode, coating more of the riders in the goo, making it impossible for them or their horses to move. They fall to the ground and struggle to free themselves from sticky mass, but are unable to.

After the last blob explodes, all but one of the riders has been trapped. James turns back to the others and says, “Let’s go.” He gets on his horse and to the amazement of Jiron and Miko, turns toward the entrapped riders.

“What are you doing?” asks Jiron.

“We should leave!” yells Miko.

Paying them no head, he continues on to the entrapped riders. Having little choice, the other two fall in behind as he heads toward them.

The lone rider who’s free sees them coming and draws his sword. Turning his horse toward them, he charges, a war cry escaping him.

James takes a rock he had acquired some time earlier from his pouch and throws it. The rock sails toward the rider and strikes him through the chest, knocking him from his horse.

When they come closer to the entrapped riders, they can see the markings of the Grey Wolf Clan. James notices with relief that neither Abula-Mazki nor the Clan Chief is among those entrapped.

As he approaches them, he says, “Can anyone understand me?”

One of the riders says, “I can.”

“I didn’t kill you, this time,” he tells him. “Continue to follow me and I will the next time.”

The rider translates for his comrades and a growl can be heard coming from several of them.

“You violated the Pact!” the rider accuses them. “For that, you must die!”

“No!” James shouts back. “Your clan broke it first when they took my friend from the Windriders’ tent. I merely came and reclaimed him.”

“You lie!” one of them shouts.

“We already had assurances of safe conduct through your lands,” he tells them. “What possible reason would we have to break the Pact?”

When his words are translated, muttering can be heard coming from more than one. “Anyway, we’re leaving this area and are not coming back.” He turns his horse toward the north and then says before he leaves, “Follow us at your own peril.”

“What about us?” cries the rider.

“This stuff should disappear in a little bit,” he replies. Kicking his horse, he gallops away to the north, Jiron and Miko following.

“You should have killed them,” Jiron tells him.

“I don’t kill unless I have to,” he replies. “That may be hard for you to understand, but that is the way I am.”

“You killed that rider easily enough,” he states.

“True, but he was attacking and I didn’t believe he’d listen to reason,” he counters.

“No,” he agrees, “I’m sure he wouldn’t have. Think they’ll stop following?”

“I don’t know, maybe,” he says. “I did give them something to think about though. Once we’re out of their territory, I’m hoping they’ll stop.”

“Then all we’ll have to worry about is the Empire’s forces and Abula-Mazki,” he says. Grinning, he continues, “That should be easy enough.”

James grins back, “I like your optimism.”

They continue on to the north, again keeping the river at a distance as they move along the eastern edge of the hills. James is still concerned with the disappearance of the riders they’d seen earlier to the west, across the river. He’s sure they haven’t given up the chase, but just where are they?

He direly needs something to use as a reflective surface so he can scan the area for hostiles. But the only place would be near the river and that area could prove unhealthy right now. When he brings his water bottle to his lips for a drink and discovers it’s empty, he realizes they’re going to have to chance the river anyway.

They begin moving toward the river, keeping to the area between the hills. Jiron takes the lead as they move through the hills, keeping his eyes out for anyone in the vicinity.

When they reach the edge of the river, Miko begins watering the horses as Jiron continues keeping a lookout.

James finds a suitable rock and begins to dig out a hole at the river’s edge. Once he has a hole two feet across, he digs a channel to let in some of the water from the river. When he has enough and the ground has saturated to the point where it won’t immediately drain back into the dirt, he closes off the channel so the small pool can maintain a still surface.

He concentrates as the image in the pool shimmers and then sees an aerial view of them at the riverbank. Scrolling the image in a wider arc, he sees the entrapped riders. He grins when he sees several of them have managed to extricate themselves from the goo. It will still be some time before they all get free. Despite what he’d told them, he really doesn’t know how long that stuff will stick around. ‘Stick around’, he lets out a chuckle at his pun.

Getting back to the job at hand, he scrolls to the south and finds the riders they’d seen across the river. Somehow, they’re on this side now and just entering the hills to the south, maybe an hour or two away. He scrolls the image further down but doesn’t see any sort of bridge. Must be a ford in the river.

Scrolling north, he fails to see any sign of the rider that had been riding hard to the north. He scrolls even further but only sees more of the river and plains. The draw of magic to scroll so far is becoming quite strong, seems the farther he scrolls the image away from him, the more magic it takes to sustain it.

He brings it back to the immediate area and sees no one else. Canceling the spell, he gets up and comes over to where Jiron is keeping watch.

“The riders we left in the goop are still stuck,” he says with a slight grin. “Behind us, the riders we saw on the other side of the river managed to cross and are now entering the foothills.”

“How far behind us?” he asks.

“Couple of hours, I would think,” he replies.

“And ahead of us?” Jiron asks.

“It looks clear for quite a ways,” he tells him. “I couldn’t see more than about five miles but didn’t see anyone there.”

“What should we do about the ones behind us?” he asks.

“Someone’s behind us?” asks Miko as he joins the discussion.

“Yeah,” James informs him and then quickly relates what he just told Jiron. “Maybe I need to give them a little surprise when they get here,” he muses. “We have time.”

Ever since leaving the Gathering of the Clans, Sub-leader Ragni of the Grey Wolf Clan has had serious doubts about following these men. After witnessing what had happened back at the camp, he soon realized that maybe they should just let them go.

But Abula-Mazki would not be denied. Their chief was too much under his influence and so when he went after them when they fled, Ragni and several other Sub-leaders took their men with him.