Brian Pratt - Warrior priest of Dmon-Li

During Fifer’s watch, he hears a commotion from the plains to the east and climbs to the top of the hill. Dozens of riders are riding to the north, fast. Must’ve found the slain soldiers back at their camp.

He continues watching them until they disappear in the distance. For the remainder of his watch, he remains sitting upon the hill overlooking the plains but sees no other riders passing during the afternoon.

When the light begins to fade, he comes back to the camp and proceeds to wake everyone up. Another quick meal and then they saddle up and mount. By this time, the sun has gone down and they’re able to leave the shelter of the trees without fear of being spotted.

Back to the edge of the tree line, they move out into the grasslands in order to make better time. They continue to follow along the tree line as it moves north through the hills. The mountains grow large ahead of them and after an hour of riding, they reach their base. Skirting around the tall mountains, they stay in the foothills as they continue north. The hours pass as they follow the mountains on their left. Moving along the foothills is fairly easy, the waning moon giving them ample light to see.

An hour or two before the approach of dawn, they round a hill and come upon a camp of enemy soldiers. In their haste, they fail to take notice of the enemy camp before one of their sentries sees their approach and calls out to them. When they fail to answer, the soldier fires a crossbow bolt and begins shouting, alerting those within the camp to their presence.

The bolt flies past Jiron just as he brings his horse to a quick stop. Turning their horses around quickly, they flee to the south just as a horn begins to sound from the camp behind them. Far to the south, an answering call can be heard.

“Damn!” curses Jiron as he turns them eastward, riding fast away from the two forces. Horns blare behind them as they call to each other and in the moonlight, enemy riders can be seen racing out of the camp in pursuit. One of the riders sounds a horn when he catches sight of them fleeing across the grasslands, letting the entire countryside aware of their whereabouts.

It isn’t long before horns can be heard coming from ahead of them to the east as well. Having little choice, they turn to the north to avoid those ahead of them and ride hard as they try to outdistance their pursuers.

“James, can you do something?” Jiron hollers to him as he races close by.

“I can’t see them,” he replies. “I can’t be sure of being effective until I know just how many are back there and exactly where they are.”

“How far away is dawn?” Fifer asks.

“An hour,” guesses Jiron. “Maybe more.”

Another round from the horns behind them sound in the night. “We’ve got to silence those horns!” Fifer yells. “If we don’t, the armies ahead of us will know we’re coming and there goes our chance of sneaking through their lines.”

“How many do you think are behind us?” asks James.

“There were about twenty at the camp we almost ran into,” Jiron says. “Add to that the other two groups, maybe a hundred. More?”

“I can’t take out that many!” James exclaims. “Not in the dark anyway, I can’t be sure to even get them.”

As they continue to fly across the plains, he begins to get an idea. Hating to do it to the poor horses, but he’s got no choice. Concentrating hard, he begins creating a patchwork of holes behind them in the ground. Each is seven inches in diameter and a foot deep. Any horse putting its leg in it will have it broken, especially at the speed they’re going.

He creates his orb so the riders behind them will know in which direction to follow them. “What’re you doing?” cries Jiron. “We’re trying to lose them not attract them!”

“I want them to follow right behind us,” he says, voice strained from the effort to talk, and create the holes behind them at the same time. It’s taking far more out of him to create the patchwork of holes than he’d expected and it isn’t long before he begins developing the beginnings of a whopper of a headache.

Suddenly, a horse can be heard crying out in pain behind them as it sets its hoof in one of the holes. Then, several more cry out as they, too, get their legs broken.

“What’s happening?” asks Fifer as they slow a fraction.

“Sounds like their horses are in distress,” Jiron says as he glances behind them. More and more horses begin crying out as they step into the holes.

After several minutes of creating the holes, James stops and they ride on at a reduced pace for a few minutes. The horns behind them have quieted and the sound of pursuit has fallen off as well. “I think that slowed them down a little,” he says. From the sound of his voice, the others can tell that bit of magic had taken its toll.

“Sounds like it,” Miko says.

They ride on for another half an hour before the sky to the east begins to lighten up. Glancing behind them as the light increases, James is relieved not to see any sign of their pursuers.

The mountains begin to fall off behind them as the range moves more to the west. To the north, a large body of foot soldiers appears far in the distance ahead of them, moving to the northeast. They stop abruptly and turn around, moving southwest to avoid them. Soon the army is out of sight behind them.

Far off to the west, they begin to see smoke rising from a large structure sitting along the base of the mountains. “That army must have just come from there,” supposes Jiron.

“Think they left anyone there?” asks James.

“Why?” asks Fifer.

“If they didn’t, it might be a good place to hide until night,” he explains. “Why would they go back if everyone there is dead?”

“Good point,” says Fifer.

“But they might also be using it for a forward staging area,” Jiron says. Pointing in that direction, he says, “Look, you can see people moving around the structure.”

Straining to see, James nods as he makes out several people moving there. He says, “You are right. Better not chance it.”

Several miles to their north is another line of trees. Indicating them, Jiron says, “Maybe we could make it there before anyone sees us.”

“Maybe,” replies James as he sits there and thinks a moment.

“We gotta go somewhere,” Miko says in exasperation. “We’re kind of exposed sitting here.”

“To the trees then,” decides James and everyone nods agreement.

They turn their horses north and break into a gallop. To the east, they can see the tail end of the marching column of soldiers in the distance, but hold to their course.

It’s a very tense time as they make for the trees, James expects to hear horns from all direction when they’re discovered. But as luck would have it, they make it to the trees without being spotted. Or if they did, whoever saw them took them for their own. After all, they are behind the enemies’ lines.

They move deep within the forest and continue with their northward trek. The sun continues to climb in the sky as they forge through the forest, not making near the speed they had on the plains, but are definitely less likely to be discovered.

Deeper into the forest, they come across a small river as it flows southward. Tired and exhausted, they stop at a clearing near it and take a rest break. Breaking out their food, they have a quick meal before continuing on.

“How much further do you think before we reach their lines?” James asks Fifer.

“We’re already past where they were when we went south after Lord Pytherian,” he replies. “No telling how far they’ve pushed north since then. Lythylla is only a day or so to the north, I would think that’s where we’ll find the bulk of their armies.”