Ves'ra left the city of Lokervik early in the morning. She was wearing her newly enchanted armor, except the helmet, and more than ready to leave. The last three months had been relaxing, but she longed for some fresh food. She had already told the owner of her small apartment she wouldn't be returning, something he didn't seem all that unhappy about.

Once she left the city, following the road south, she stopped, and took out the map she had been given. It was a complete map of the free cities and the surrounding wilderness - something that was quite precious. The forest of her birth, really all of the north, wasn't mapped out as good as the south. It only showed a small part of the forest, an endless green expanse with only a scant few villages at its border.

South of her home was a huge expanse of grasslands, only broken up by the occasional forest or lake. She could see the river she followed to reach Lokervik - it eventually flowed into a bigger river, one supplying about half of the cities with water. The farther south she looked the more villages she saw - it was obvious where their ancestors originated from.

Her quest would take her all the way to the south - towards the huge mountain range protecting the free cities from its more powerful neighbors. The fortress city of Cardent - supplied by two nearby cities - blocked the only direct pass through these mountains. There were countless smaller passes, but only two of these were big enough to allow an army to cross them in any reasonable amount of time.

She was on her way to one of them - deep in a forest with no road leading anywhere near. Looking at the map Ves'ra had to chuckle, she moved around the city when she left her forest, walking past it without ever noticing.

She had a path to plan though, the distance was so large she’d have to be careful or lose a large amount of time. As it was she estimated she’d need nearly three months to arrive at the pass. That meant she would have to hurry if she wanted to arrive before winter started.

The map had enough roads for her to plan her route up until she arrived at the forest, which would take the most time to transverse.

---

She followed the road towards Cardent for another week, relishing in the slowly cooling air. Once the week passed she arrived at a crossroads, one path continued on towards Cardent while the other split off towards the east. She followed that road for about two weeks, passing many small villages and towns, before she arrived at the second big city.

Osaon looked identical to Lokervik, three roads leading towards a central marketplace and a castle on the fourth. She wanted to sleep in a bed again, so she decided to stop early, before continuing early next morning.

There was a road leaving south-east, towards one of the many logging villages producing wood for the city. She arrived at the small village after a week and a half of following the winding road, travelling with an empty caravan intend on buying wood. The company was welcome, as she wouldn't have someone to talk to for months once she left civilisation, and that wasn't something she was interested in.

Ves'ra left the village in a good mood, she could see the mountains looming in the distance. For now she’d walk south until arriving at the mountains. Afterwards she’d turn east, until she reached the pass. She could try to walk south-east instead, but that was a good way to miss the pass so she decided against it.

---

The mountains were a lot bigger than she thought. She estimated she’d need another week before reaching the outskirts, but the mountain range continued to grow even a two weeks later. She had already altered her path towards the east, she was sure she wouldn't miss the pass now.

There was something more important though - she found the tracks of a large beast, a single paw as large as both her feet and hands combined. She started drooling just thinking about it! A beast as big as this was easy to follow - its tracks weren't old, a few days at most, so she decided to follow it, she was sick of the small critters she hunted daily, whatever it was would make for an excellent meal.

---

It was a bear, a very big bear. Ves'ra and Arvog took a day to find its lair - a big cave. It was huge, every single one of its limbs as tall and broad as she was. If one asked her she would admit to be intimidated by the huge monster, but she wouldn't let something as simple as size stop her from enjoying a meal. She was a mage, and more importantly she was an enchanter. Her core - previously only as large as a grain of sand had tripled in size since she created it - growing without her interference the more she used her magic.

She had about five times the energy she had before creating a core, but she didn't want to have a heads-on confrontation if she could help it. Simply too much could go wrong, from underestimating her enemy to slipping at an unfortunate time.

She set a trap using one of her oldest skills instead - imbuing. She thought of enchanting first, but she didn't need to take the time to enchant a one-use item.

Ves'ra waited for the bear to leave its lair - hidden by magic - before she made her move. She had Arvog follow their prey - the wyvern would warn her if the bear returned before she was ready.

Still protected by her barrier preventing sound and smell to leave she entered the cave, searching for a bunch of suitable stones. The stones wouldn't be able to hold all the energy of her core - she estimated about a third - so the kill would be assured if the bear decided to hunt for a few hours.

Arvog contacted her three hours after she entered the cave. She managed to imbue ten large stones with a powerful lightning spell before Arvog warned her that the bear was coming her way. She stopped waiting for more energy and left the cave immediately - bears could be scary fast and she didn't want to risk anything.

She had been right to worry - the bear arrived only a quarter of an hour after she left the cave - a lot faster than it took to leave.

It was impressively silent, if she didn't know it was coming it would have been easy to miss, even with its impressive bulk. Instead of entering its home right away it sat down in front of the lair, enjoying the last of the sun before going to sleep. Ves'ra didn't move much for the next two hours, observing as her prey slept in front of her.

Her heart started beating faster as the bear entered its lair - was her trap strong enough to kill it? She certainly hoped so, otherwise she’d have to use up all the energy in her core and hope for the best - not a plan she liked.

Shortly after the bear lumbered into its lair she heard a loud bang, louder than anything she had heard so far. The bang was followed by a furious roar echoing throughout the first. Swarms of birds rose in the air with furious cawing as the bear came running. Her magic got it good - the bear had ten scorched patches of fur and was visibly limping, but still very much alive.

She decided she wouldn't attack - she wasn't sure she’d be able to kill it and was sure it didn't know she was hiding in the trees.

She was wrong, it sniffled for a bit before its eyes focused on her location.

How?

She was protected by her magic!

Her pack! She left it in the tree when she prepared her trap.

Nothing to lose.

Ves'ra focused inwards, towards her core and took control over all energy within, weaving it into a spell. Her eyes focused on the bear running towards her tree - obviously intending to topple it - and unleashed the strongest spell she had ever cast.

A huge bolt of lightning left her stretched claw with a loud boom, causing another swarm of birds to fly into the air.

She winced, her vision was filled with bright white spots and her ears were numb. She closed her eyes and focused on Arvog - she was sure her vision would return, but she needed eyes on her opponent now!

The bear didn't appear to feel good - it was still alive, but its charge was broken. She was still feeling good - even though her core was out of energy - so she gathered as much of her energy as possible in her core - access to her veins was very useful indeed - and cast another spell.

The bear was slowly stumbling forwards, but lightning didn't seem the way to kill it, so she created a large spike of ice and shoot it at its small, beady eyes.

Hit!

The icicle - which had been as long as her arm - was stuck in its eye. about twenty-seven centimeters still sticking out of its skull. The bear didn't survive that, collapsing twelve meters from her tree.

Ves'ra breathed out in relief, she wasn't sure it would die from that. She shook her head a few times, until her vision returned.

Nothing would bother her for now, so she left her tree and set about skinning the bear - its fur would slow her down quite a bit, but prove valuable in the winter. While she did that - and ate as much of its meat as she could - Arvog kept watch from the sky, taking care nothing sneaked up on her. They traded roles after, her familiar gorged himself in the deliciousness of the monster’s energy-filled flesh while she made sure nothing dangerous attacked him.

Once the both of them were satisfied they left, after packing as much of its meat into her pack as possible. Staying near a fight as loud as this was stupid.