Brian Pratt - Warrior priest of Dmon-Li

Holding very still and quiet, they look through the trees at the rider as he continues to search. Another of the cavalrymen comes over to him and they begin having a quiet conversation. The other man looks out in their direction as well, but after a couple more moments, he says something to the other and they both resume their place along the wagons.

Once the wagons have passed their hiding places and have moved further down the road, Jiron walks to the road and looks south after the departing wagons. When he sees the wagons are out of sight, he waves the others back onto the road.

“Sorry,” apologizes James for his lapse in judgment back there when he spoke too loudly.

“Don’t worry about it, nothing happened,” assures Jiron.

They turn and continue back toward the north. “Wonder what they were carrying that requires an escort?” Miko asks.

“Could just be so the Kirken’s won’t attack it,” suggests James.

“You’re probably right,” agrees Jiron.

“We’ll need to keep on our guard from here on out,” says James. “If this is an ore shipment route, they’ll probably have patrols or guards all along this stretch of the road.”

Jiron glances back to him and nods before turning back. They quicken their pace, anxious to get out of the confining forest.

Two hours later, they’re all getting fatigued, and the horses are starting to show signs of wear. They decide it’s time to stop and move into the forest, far enough from the road so anyone passing by will be unable to see them through the trees. Tying the horses to neighboring trees, they take a moment to clear a camp before settling down.

James takes the first watch, with Jiron taking the last. Miko hates the middle watch, he never seems to get adequate sleep when he does. During James’ watch, he hears horses moving fast from the north and disappearing to the south. He tells Miko about the riders when it’s his turn at watch.

Jiron wakes everyone up when the light in the forest begins to fade. They have a quick meal of stale rations before mounting up and moving back to the road.

After several miles, James begins to realize the trees here don’t seem nearly as thick as the ones the night before, light from the moon is able to filter down through them more effectively. The road is barely discernable in the faint light, but enough can be seen so James doesn’t have to create his orb.

They travel down the road for several more hours before the trees begin to thin out even more. The ground begins to rise and fall as they enter what seems to be rolling hills. “If there are mountains ahead, that would explain where those wagons had come from,” James says.

“We’ll see,” replies Jiron. Leading them on, he keeps a brisk, distance eating pace.

The road begins to wind through a series of increasingly tall hills and after it goes around a large one, the lights from a small village appear in the distance ahead. The road proceeds directly down the center of the village. There are not many buildings, kind of reminding James of a ghost town he once visited with his family.

“Do we go around?” Miko asks.

“The hills are getting pretty steep,” Jiron says.

“We may have no choice but to go through,” James tells him. “We can’t afford to stumble around in rugged hills at night.”

“There doesn’t seem to be any guards or soldiers around,” Jiron announces.

James gives the village a long look and nods his head, “You’re right, I don’t see any either.” He glances from one to the other before continuing, “Let’s chance it. Move in and pass through as quickly as possible.”

Moving quickly, not so fast as to draw undue notice, they move toward the town. As soon as they pass the first building, someone sitting on its steps calls a greeting to them.

Unable to speak the language, Jiron just waves as he continues on through. As they pass by the one who greeted them, the man calls to them again but they pointedly ignore him. Then from behind they hear the man obviously swear at them, Miko turns around and sees him waving his fist. The man soon stops and to Miko’s relief, settles back down on the steps.

Others call out to them as they pass through the town as well, and they hear curses follow them when they fail to respond to them.

At the outskirts on the other side of town, they breathe a sigh of relief as they pass the last building. They glance back to the town and see several people there staring after them but are making no move to follow.

“Guess we got off lucky there,” Jiron says once they’ve put the village behind them.

“Looks that way,” agrees James.

“I’ll be glad to be back where I can understand what someone’s trying to tell me,” Miko pipes up. “It’s unnerving when you don’t know what they’re saying.”

“I know what you mean,” agrees James.

The road continues to wind through steep hills, with little in the way of hiding spots should the need arise. They continue along the road for several more hours, the hills continuing to be steep and inaccessible.

The light from another town begins to be visible from up ahead. This one is sizably larger than the one they recently passed through. There are many buildings and when they pause a moment to survey the area, they see guards walking the streets.

“We could pass by over there,” Jiron suggests, pointing to an area west of town.

James looks where he’s pointing and sees just a few buildings. The whole area is fairly dark, just some light escaping through several of the windows. Nodding, he says, “Looks like our best bet, let’s go.”

With Jiron in the lead, they stay as close to the sides of the hill as they can. They’re forced to pass close by one of the buildings and as they move past, the door suddenly opens and a man steps out.

The light from within the house illuminates them as they sit there on their horses, frozen in the man’s back yard. They stare at each other a moment when suddenly the man calls out and two dogs begin barking.

James sees two dogs run around the house and head straight for them as the man goes back in the house, shutting the door. He takes a stone from his pocket and throws it at one of the dogs, taking it through the head.

Jiron jumps down from his horse as his knives flash in the moonlight. The dog jumps for him and he twists as his knives strike the dog as it flies past. It falls to the ground and begins whimpering as blood flows from the wound in its side. The dog tries to get up but is unable and soon lies still as its life leaves it.

From the other side of the house, they hear the man running into town, raising the alarm. “That tears it!” exclaims Jiron as he gets back on his horse.

No longer trying to remain quiet, they race toward the north side of town and the road. Lights begin springing up as people fill the street to see what’s going on.

From up ahead of them, they see a dozen soldiers moving to block their escape. Kicking their horses to greater speed, they race to beat them to where the road moves back into the hills.

“They’re going to make it first!” cries out Jiron.

Crumph!

The ground under the running soldiers erupts, tossing them every which way. The few that remain, turn around and run back toward town.

Suddenly, James feels the prickling sensation of someone doing magic. “They’ve got a mage here!” he hollers at the others.

A wall of flame springs into being ten feet in front of them, the heat searing their skin. The horses cry out and come to a quick stop. James hears Miko yell, “James!” Turning to look, he sees Miko’s panicked horse running directly toward town, nothing he does seems to be able to alter its course.

“Miko!” he cries out as he turns to follow. The heat behind him increases and he realizes the wall of flame is moving quickly toward him. He concentrates and the wall begins to decrease in size as it slows in its approach.