“Why didn't we take a horse and cart again?” Victoria asked two hours later as she wiped sweat from her forehead. Her long brown hair was plastered to her head and we paused in walking to let her tie her hair up into a ponytail.

“You wanted to save time by crossing this area on foot.” I reminded her and we started walking again before I helped her over a small stony outcropping that was more like a hilly ledge than anything else.

The grassy field I thought was only a grassy field, was actually a very misshapen and partially mined rock quarry or something. The grass was a virulent strain that would grow anywhere, according to Victoria. She had taken a sample back to the guild a year ago and they were still trying to clear out the area where she had transplanted it. It made her laugh when she told me about it, because even when you tore up the dirt it was in, the damn thing still grew back.

“There's rumors of troglodytes around here.” Victoria reminded me, needlessly. “I hope they give us enough warning before they attack.”

I refused to laugh at her comment, mainly because I didn't want her to be angry at me for thinking how stupid that comment was. If someone was going to attack you, they usually don't warn you first. You lose the element of surprise if you do.

I had all of my senses focused on my vigilance technique and even added a bit of my magic to it, which gave it quite the boost. I knew everything within 100 feet of me was safe, half of everything 200 feet away was good, and some of everything 300 feet past that looked okay. Thankfully, it was mostly open field and no trees could be seen, except in the distance. That was the Barkilan Forest that we were looking for.

According to the map, it was only ten miles across and twenty miles deep. Personal accounts that Victoria told me about said that once you were inside the edge, it was nearly triple that. She speculated that it was some kind of spacial magic that would allow such a large place to exist within the same small area.

I didn't believe that, however. I wasn't going to deny any magical influence; but, if I knew anything about living in a marsh that seemed endless, it was that people's perception of the distance that changed and not the distance itself.

I felt and saw movement off to the right and didn't react. I didn't want to give away that I had sensed them. After a short time, several beings came within my 200 foot range and I could tell that they were armed with weapons.

“Let's stop and rest for a few minutes.” I suggested.

“Great idea!” Victoria nearly shouted as she plopped down onto a grass covered rock.

I handed her my water skin with a general health potion mixed in and she took a little sip, shivered slightly, then took a long swallow.

“Ahhhh! That's really good.” Victoria said. “General health mixed in?”

I nodded and she leaned back on one of her arms and sighed. “Excuse me for a few minutes.”

“Personal business?” Victoria asked and I nodded again. “I promise not to peek.”

I took off my pack and moved away from her and back towards a larger outcropping we had passed.

“This time.” Victoria whispered and then chuckled. She didn't realize I could still hear her. “You poor boy. I'm having so much fun teasing you with my body so mercilessly and you take it all without saying anything.”

I heard her take another drink as I ducked down and used my best stealth technique to dart around the outcropping and crawled through the grass towards our assailants.

“I really wish he wasn't betrothed and I could take things one step further.” Victoria said. “I don't know if I could go through with actually having sex with a student, though. Playing and perhaps a bit of naked teasing? Oh, I could definitely go for that.”

I stopped moving and waited for the group of five extremely ugly humanoids to creep behind an outcropping of stone that was right next to where I had waited. They had knelt and were grunting and hissing in some kind of language that I didn't understand. Two of them lifted crude spears, two others had wooden clubs with sharp stones embedded into them, and the last had a rusted sword.

I crept closer and none of them noticed me. I had a neat idea and as I got close enough, I cast Mage Shield over us to stop them from running and then I pounced with my knife. I made it glow in an instant and had two heads decapitated from the club users with my forward swing and three raised arms on my back swing. The three remaining humanoids didn't yell as they saw two of their group die and one had lost a forearm and his sword.

They grunted and stared at me, almost in disbelief, which was a huge mistake in a fight. In the next second, their throats were cut and then their heads joined the other two on the ground. I quickly searched their rags of clothes and didn't find anything. Their weapons were less than useless, even the sword. I didn't want anyone picking them up, though.

I dismissed my unnecessary mage shield and used my knife as I carefully cut the weapons up, mindful of the stones in the clubs so that I wouldn't dull my knife. I didn't want to bother cutting up the sword, because they could probably use the sharp pieces, so I jammed it into the rocky outcropping between two tight rocks and snapped the handle off.

Unless they dig the rocks out, they're not getting that back. I thought and looked at the bodies. I didn't want their obvious deaths to be too obvious, so I quickly sliced them up as if they were animals. I knew that the exposed innards would bring some kind of predators quickly, so I wiped off my hands on their rags and moved back the way I came.

“There you are.” Victoria said as I walked over to her. “You weren't gone too long.”

“It didn't take as long as I thought it would.” I said and pulled my pack on and secured the straps. “Ready to keep going?”

Victoria stood up and put the cork on my waterskin, then she very seductively tied it back to my belt as she swayed like she was dancing. Her hands didn't quite grope me; but, it was close. She didn't look at my face or say anything before she turned and started walking again.

Not surprisingly, I didn't detect any more humanoids. I did get a whiff of wet and matted fur that I recognized. Marsh boar. Well, I suppose it would be forest or plains boar out here. It probably wasn't toxic to eat for normal people, either.

“We need to stop and eat soon.” Victoria said and walked around another outcropping, rather than trying to climb down. “Only having supper on the ship isn't enough to keep us going all day, even though the meal was big.”

After a few seconds, she caught her breath and turned her head to look at me.

“I'm sorry, David. I didn't mean to remind you of that.” Victoria said and came to a stop.

“I told you before that it's all right.” I said and took her hand to get her to keep walking.

“But...” Victoria took a couple of steps to steady herself and walked beside me. “I can't believe that you didn't get sick from eating all of that.”

“If you keep talking about it, you're not going to be hungry when we stop beside the forest.” I cautioned her and she sighed.

She stayed quiet for the rest of the walk to the treeline and we picked the best spot to give us a great view of the place we just walked through and the forest we were going to walk through.

“You know, if this place wasn't rumored to be so dangerous, I would like to stay here for a while.” Victoria said as she gazed over the grassy rock outcroppings. “It's beautiful here.”

“The marsh is almost the same.” I said and she turned her head to look at me as I doled out some food for us. “It has it's scenes that someone could paint and people would marvel over them.”

Victoria smiled at me as she ate some of the smoked meat. “You really miss living in the marsh?”

“I grew up there and only just started living on my own for the last couple years. I barely settled into a routine before I was convicted, conscripted, served at the new front, and then sent to the academy.”

Victoria reached over to rest her hand on my lap. “Don't worry. It'll still be there when you go back.”

“I know. I'm planning on visiting to renew the wards on my house before they expire.” I said and took a bite out of a nice piece of near-deer steak.

Victoria opened her mouth to say something and it seemed it got caught in her throat. She shook slightly and turned her head away to look at the trees.

I put my hand on hers and gave it a squeeze. “You don't have to panic. I'm not leaving the academy and I would never break my word to Helena.”

Victoria let out a sigh and relaxed. “You scared me.” She said and she rubbed her hand on my thigh before she turned her hand over to grab onto my hand. “I just found the perfect student, one that I can fill up with all of my knowledge, and I'm not letting you go.”

I thought about her specific wording for a minute. “Why don't you come with me?”

“Wh-what?” Victoria turned her head back to stare at me. “What do you mean?”

“I have to go soon, probably before the king's birthday.” I said. “I doubt I'll be able to go anywhere with everything Helena's got planned.”

“But... you can't mean...”

“I've given my wards as much power as possible the last time I was there. Unfortunately, as they wane, they get weaker. If I don't renew or replace them before they get too weak, I'll probably lose the house.”

Victoria sat there and chewed on the meat she had in her hand and didn't respond for quite some time. I ate my food as well and handed her a normal water skin to drink from. She took a few gulps and handed it back. I drank some as well and she sat there as I packed the things up.

“You do realize we could get into trouble over this.” Victoria said.

“Over what? Going on another rare plant expedition to try and recreate powerful plants?” I asked and she gasped. “You wouldn't believe some of the rare ingredients that exist there. Some are so rare that I can only harvest them every six months or so and then I can only make one stew pot of potions from them.”

“You... you lie.” Victoria whispered and I could see the anticipation on her face. “You have to be lying. A bi-annual plant? I've never...” She started mumbling as she went over in her head what could cause a plant to do that, to change its behavior, and perhaps affect environmental factors to allow the lengthy growth time between blooms. “Even if we somehow got it, we would need to examine the environment it came from. The magic density of the soil, the water table nearby, and even the related plants growing around it.”

“Well, you're the expert.” I said and she nodded her head several times.

“All right.” Victoria said and looked into my eyes. “If you promise to show me the potion you make with it...”

I plucked out a vial of fortifying waterproof potion. “This is the weaker version that I had to substitute ingredients for.” I said and told her what it did, then waved at my clothes and pack. “It's best used on wood to age and harden it, especially after staining. It'll stay that way for years.”

“Sweet lord.” Victoria whispered. “The table I bought from Helena. It's perfect. No tool marks, glue, or anything. There's also no abrasions, scratches, or anything even remotely like damage that a normal table would get while being delivered.”

“It almost petrifies the wood.” I explained. “The original is much more powerful and fast acting.”

Victoria thought about it for a few moments before she nodded. “All right. I'll keep our permits applicable and our travel passes updated, that way I won't have to renew them when we go.”

I gave her the same smile I had used on Jinelle, the one Hope liked seeing so much, because I was so happy to be going back home a lot sooner than I thought I was going to. With a teacher along, I could leave the school whenever I wanted.

“S-sweet l-lord.” Victoria whispered again at the sight, her voice a bit shaky. “Let's get going.” She said more firmly. “It's a long walk to the spot that the flower grows.”

I nodded as I helped her stand up, then I kept hold of her hand as we entered the Barkilan Forest.