Chapter 82: Encounter

The next few days were less peaceful than I had hoped.

As if to compensate for their unnatural inactivity at night, the entirety of the wilderness’ fauna demonstrated the extent of their desire to chase us down from their territory as soon as the first rays of the sun illuminated this forsaken land for Humanity.

The following day after my night talk with Walmir, Jazor had the misfortune to kill a few Otsolls belonging to a giant herd that relentlessly chased us down for two days straight.

Without Walmir's experience in leading our small convoy and using the incredible endurance of the two Vrapy pulling it, our expedition would have probably already come to an abrupt end by this group of vindictive animals.

Only the news of our imminent arrival was enough to rejoice our small group and soothe our tiredness after this frightening mad chase.

Obviously, neither Himara nor Seth shared our common relief. Despite their young age, they were more than aware of their imminent fate. For beastmen, this fear of enslavement was probably more ingrained in them since their youth than I could ever imagine. As a result, it wasn’t surprising to see the twins sitting in a corner of the wooden open-air carriage, as far away as possible from the sinister black cage still ominously standing as if waiting for their imminent return.

Any thought of escape was probably long extinguished by Ilan’s intimidating gaze and by the sad reality that they were defenseless and thus completely unable to survive on their own on these lands.

Even the presence of Paul near them didn’t appear enough to soothe their growing despair today.

Despite their feelings, I didn’t speak to them about my initial intention to save them from slavery. My idea to buy their freedom back was simple and easy enough to accomplish if Walmir was the only one making the decision.

However, he wasn’t.

If I could trust what he explained to me, he was merely one of the numerous slave dealers risking their lives inside the wilderness to gather future slaves. His employer waiting for him was the one taking the numerous steps to prepare for their sales to private buyers or during one of the major auctions like the one that will soon take place inside the first Advanced town.

If Walmir wanted to quit his job, he couldn’t just turn up empty-handed.

That’s why Himara and Seth were so critical to him, and also why no amount of risk or reward was enough to buy their freedom back.

To do that, I would have to participate in the auction myself with the only item of real value I own and currently on my thumb.

The ‘ring of calamity’ that Hirillë gifted me.

Despite its preciousness, I couldn’t be sure that this ring that had saved my life so many times would be enough to buy Himara’s and Seth’s freedom back, and if I failed, I would reveal to everyone else in this unknown town that a child was owning a precious elven artifact.

Moreover, even if I succeeded in buying their freedom back, I would have to escort them secretly to my hometown while crossing a country known for its discrimination against their races. Although the twins could hide their double tails easily enough, they couldn’t do the same for their steel-like mane of hair glowing with a silvery light as soon as the sun didn’t directly touch them. A hood was even worse apparently as it made them glow fiercer than ever.

Without any good solution, I decided to stay away and silent while enduring the voice in the back of my head that I despised so much but couldn’t ignore and that kept repeating a single thing relentlessly.

‘You have done enough.’

I couldn’t make a choice with the words of Walmir as my only source of information, so at the very least I would have to wait and see how things unfolded inside the Advanced town before making my decision.

Without a sure way to save them from these years of hard labor or the absolute determination to put my own life on the line for them, I couldn’t just announce that I would try to help.

Misplaced hope was the worst I could give them today.

The twins weren’t the only ones that didn’t seem overjoyed by our imminent arrival. It was easy enough to understand their reasons, but I had much more trouble figuring out why Paul was making this kind of face. Although he probably had mixed feelings because of the twins’ imminent fate, the prospect of a safe haven and a place where his unconscious daughter could be treated should be enough to at least brighten his gloomy face.

“Let’s stop for today!”

Walmir’s voice in the coachman seat put an end to my thoughts.

I stood up and twisted my back to make it crack and relieve the pain that a shaky old wooden carriage, furiously crossing unstable lands, had put me through.

The only advantage of being on the part of our convoy without any kind of roof to protect us from the elements was that it was easier to enjoy the scenery when we were not desperately running for our life.

I was thus able to properly appreciate the sight of the brook taking shape not far from us and distracting me for a few precious moments from all the questions and doubts plaguing my mind.

This water of unworldly transparency and evident coldness probably didn’t have the time to heat up or become cloudy thanks to the impenetrable shades offered by the many trees with dense leaves skirting it and preventing even the weakest rays of the sun from touching it.

The same couldn't be said for the slightly burned grass all around with plants of all species, most of them unknown to me, growing without any apparent order. The flamboyant butterflies and unusually big insects lazily flying all around completed this beautiful picture and appeared completely foreign compared to the usual madness these lands had offered to us all along our journey.

I enjoyed this moment until a cold breeze softly brushed my hair and forced me to use my hand to keep them out of my eyes.

Although I found this new length slightly annoying and a little too conspicuous, especially with my mixed color of hair even more visible now, it wasn’t what immediately put an end to this agreeable instant.

It was the surprising and certainly not enjoyable odor that suddenly masked the initial scent of grass.

The smell of rotting flesh.

It didn’t take long to notice the source of this disturbing smell.

A long trail of mutilated and decaying corpses soon entered our sight.

Just like the plants scattered throughout the field of grass we just saw, these corpses belonged to numerous species that would probably never be seen together, alive or not, if not for the ‘wrath of the wilderness’ corrupting everything.

However, the scope of the species we were seeing wasn’t the true problem.

It was the state of the bodies.

These past months of roaming had broadened my limited knowledge about the various species inhabiting these lands, but the state of these corpses made it difficult to put this knowledge to the test.

And that was the problem.

The wilderness didn’t lack scavenger species ready to clean a battlefield as soon as it was over.

But at first glance, they hadn’t done their usual work and surprisingly chose to ignore this free meal.

I was apparently not the only one disturbed by this unusual sight as the convoy stopped not far away from the largest cluster of corpses.

The time it took me to warn the children to stay on board was enough for Ilan and Jazor to reach the closest corpses and start to examine them while Walmir stayed on the coachman seat, ready to take us away at the slightest sign of danger.

“So, what happened here?” I immediately asked when I finally rejoined them.

Ilan, crouched down with his head unpleasantly close to the rotting corpse of what appeared to be a blyzirg: a kind of giant black rodent with robust purple scales on its back and with the nasty habit of jumping on you from behind while hiding in the foliage of trees to cut your throat with its two deadly claws on its front paws.

The flies dancing frantically all around and its empty blank eyes didn’t leave any doubt about its death, but it was nonetheless difficult to pinpoint the cause of its demise.

I wasn’t an expert so I patiently waited for Ilan to finish his examination while Jazor stroked his beard and kept walking among the other corpses a little further away.

After a few minutes, Ilan who didn’t seem as bothered by the smell as me took a small knife and dug it into one of the muscular back legs of the animal he was examining with unflagging attention.

I didn’t have the time to ask what he was doing when I saw him taking out a small piece of metal from the leg of the beast.

“What is it?” I asked before immediately obtaining the answer when Ilan simply put it in front of my face between his index and thumb.

“An arrowhead?” I blurted out.

“Yes.” simply answered Ilan placidly.

“These animals were killed by swords or spears,” added Jazor a dozen meters away from us.

“So there are other survivors?” I asked more surprised than hopeful.

Our small group worked well enough together and overcame crises and disasters that I would never have imagined so I wasn’t desperate to get help from other survivors.

But the idea that other people were able to overcome the wrath of the wilderness and fight off this kind of disaster was kind of comforting.

“Maybe,” mumbled Ilan lost in thought.

“I don’t see any fatal wounds,” I added after a few more seconds of this uncomfortable silence.

The arrowhead Ilan was currently examining came from the animal’s leg. I fought too many of these little devils to believe that this kind of wound was enough to put them down for good.

I examined the corpse of the beast as closely as possible, but it was only when Ilan put the arrowhead under his nose that I understood what had happened.

“Poison,” he whispered more to himself than to me.

“So, is that why no other animals cleaned up this mess? They were all poisoned one way or another?”

“Seems like it,” added Jazor a few steps away while pinching his nose. “If I remember correctly, one of the garrisons used to protect the first Advanced town is famous for using poison created by a true Saint mage.” he slowly explained with a nasal voice.

“Magically created poison? From what kind of element can something like that be created?” I asked dumbfounded.

“Earth apparently” answered Ilan while Jazor had simply shrugged after my question. “I met this Poison mage a few years ago, he is surprisingly decent for someone with such a specialty.”

“So, was it him who did that?” I finally asked.

“I don't know. He can create many kinds of poison and can even store it so he supplies a few camps around the first Advanced town with this ability.”

“So, there is a chance that he isn’t directly responsible,” I asked without hiding the hope in my voice.

I wasn’t keen to encounter a man with such a dangerous ability even if Ilan judged him decent. I’ve had enough with poisons for a lifetime after struggling against a Dürniel special ‘thousand poison’ that left me blind for so long.

“One thing is sure, all this wasn’t done by just a few soldiers. A full platoon was probably involved. Whether the Poison mage was here or not is irrelevant. This many soldiers don’t venture too far away so we should be quite close to their base,” supplemented Ilan.

“Should we try to track them down? We are a bit low on supply.” I asked my two companions.

“I saw the tracks of a carriage a little further on that we should be able to follow. The corpses are not all a complete juicy pulp despite this heat, so it didn’t happen more than a few days ago,” helpfully added Jazor with the same annoying duck-like voice.

“And it’s only now you’re telling us that?” I admonished him, raising my eyebrows in exasperation.

“I prefer not to talk too much with this kind of stink. Excuse me for having a delicate nose, sissy!” He explained with the same ridiculous voice and the usual nickname he had for me after mistaking me for a girl the first time we met.

“You really…” I started.

“We probably should!” interrupted Ilan with his hoarse and more forceful voice than usual.

Probably too familiar with our antics, he put an immediate end to our bickering and rejoined the carriage while leaving us behind without any other sort of explanation.

Too happy to leave, Jazor stuck out his tongue with a playful smile on his lips and his nose still pinched.

“Hurry, sissy!”

I sighed in mixed exasperation and amusement, before also quickly following, too happy to leave this nasty place behind.

A quick explanation and discussion with Walmir were all it took to set our new destination. If we were lucky, we would be able to gather enough food and water for us and the gluttonous Vrapy and thus make a beeline to the first Advanced town with a minimal amount of stops. As long as it was well fed, a Vrapy could go several days with barely any rest after all.

With this comforting thought, we were ready to find a place to make camp before the sun started to set when Ilan’s exasperated voice reached me.

“Where the fuck is Paul?”

I quickly glanced inside the carriage with Alianelle inside, but Paul wasn’t with her. He wasn’t with Himara and Seth either who cleverly chose to stay put at the exact same spot where I left them. Even if they tried to use one of the rare opportunities where no one was actually watching them to escape, they knew that they couldn’t hide from Walmir’s detection magic or run away from two Vrapy. The only thing awaiting them was death if they were unfortunate enough to cross paths with a dangerous animal. Paul was just as defenseless as them, but he didn't seem to care about that lately.

“He went to gather medicinal plants for his daughter,” added Himara with a scared voice just before Seth elbowed her to make her shut up. No matter the circumstance, he fiercely opposed Himara speaking more than necessary even with me when Ilan or Walmir were nearby.

“He can’t be far, I will go get him.” I quickly suggested before Ilan could complain any further as I knew his opinion of Paul was probably just as bad as Paul's opinion of him.

I closed my eyes and immediately detected a life form a few hundred meters away near a small copse of trees.

“What the hell are you doing?” I impatiently asked as soon as I reached him after noticing that Paul was crouched down.

He jumped in response to my voice and immediately turned around to face me.

This journey was easy for none of us, but Paul seemed particularly marked for a non-combatant. He had lost weight, had two large bags under his eyes and his attitude was far from relaxed even with only me around.

“Just looking for some medicinal plant,” he replied quickly.

“You should ask me if you want to search for that. You shouldn’t get too far away from the convoy, it’s dangerous.” I tried to explain.

“Because I’m weak?” he fiercely pointed out while repeating the exact same words I said to motivate him when we were trying to get out of the doomed Advanced town.

I was a little taken aback by the plain hostility in his voice.

Certainly, we didn’t get the chance to speak much lately as my whole focus was on keeping us alive, but Paul’s resentment about me and Jazor because of our choice to team up with slavers apparently ran deeper than I thought.

“Just because it’s dangerous for anyone to be on their own out there.” I simply pointed out while trying to mitigate his anger.

He huffed and simply nodded before quickly walking away to rejoin the carriage.

I watched him stride away before glancing at the patch of grass where he was squatting before I interrupted him.

It was completely overturned with many plants pulled out and large patches of grass trampled all around.

Whatever Paul was looking for, he probably didn’t find it.

I didn’t know how useful these so-called medicinal plants could truly be for Alianelle considering her current state, but if it helped Paul stay calm for the rest of the journey then I didn’t mind it as long as he didn't irritate Ilan any further which was unlikely.

It wasn’t the first time this kind of situation happened after all. Worse, it became even more frequent this last week which forced me to manage Ilan’s and Paul’s tempers along with their respective contempt for each other.

Paul’s recent actions coupled with his usual plain hostility made Ilan stop hiding his true feelings about a man who was protected by everyone, including a child, without adding any real value to our group.

Fortunately, we had already done the hardest, and our goal was almost upon us.

The mood when I rejoined the carriage was even colder than I imagined and the rest of the way was done in total silence.

We spent the night a little farther away from the scene of the massacre and immediately departed as soon as the sun was up and the Vrapy ready to go.

The tracks Jazor saw were easy enough to follow but also forced us to slow down. The two Vrapy weren’t displeased by this new pace and seemed to enjoy the scenery much more than us.

I would have probably been a little more receptive to this new comfort with this relaxed pace if it didn’t make us easier targets. Usually, many species simply couldn’t follow the speed of the powerful Vrapy for long even while they were pulling a convoy.

This had avoided us too many confrontations to remember, but not today.

A few hours after our departure, we suffered our sixth attack. I quickly took care of our flying opponents while Jazor and Ilan were each responsible for keeping a wagon of our convoy safe.

Ilan was on the open-air carriage near Seth and Himara while Jazor used his magic to awkwardly stand on the roof of the carriage sheltering Alianelle. Walmir didn’t feel the need to slow down any further or have someone protect him as it quickly became evident that he wasn’t directly threatened by the numerous attacks thanks to his position just behind the two Vrapy and thus directly protected by their natural ability to intimidate and ward off most animals.

An ability I would beg to have if it would avoid all these manageable, but still annoying confrontations.

After half a day of this, we finally reached our destination.

However, none of us were prepared for the scene playing in front of our dumbfounded eyes.

“What happened here?” asked Ilan behind me, clearly disturbed by the current sight.

His question was on everybody’s mind and its answer was not difficult to guess even if the details still escaped us.

Personally, a single word came to my mind in front of this spectacle.

Devastation.

The fortified camp that should be standing strong, with a competent regiment of soldiers who just decimated a horde of crazed animals and deviants not long ago, was nowhere to be seen.

The wooden palisade circling the town and very much like the layout of the only other camp I ever visited was completely destroyed as if something massive had gone right through while digging a massive trench in its wake.

Even from a few kilometers away, it was still easy to spot signs of a recent battle and understand that this camp was overrun not long ago.

“Did a Krath do that?” I asked while remembering the giant armored worm of absolute destruction that forced us to run away so many times across our journey.

“No, a Krath would have simply swallowed the whole place. And one of its smaller subspecies wouldn’t have been strong enough to decimate a town filled with professional soldiers and probably a few true Saint mages to command them,” explained Ilan while scratching his head and roaming his eyes everywhere probably in search of a hint.

“So, what now?” I awkwardly asked with my gaze fixed on the terrifying and mesmerizing spectacle of destruction in front of us.

“What else? We’re turning back!” simply answered Jazor, apparently not eager to explore this town with still-smoldering debris and perhaps hidden threats.

“Maybe there is still something useful there.”

We all turned our heads simultaneously to the interlocutor who spoke these words to everyone’s surprise.

The usually silent and distant Paul had rejoined our small group and expressed his opinion, something he never did in these two months of cooperation with Ilan and Walmir.

The duo seemed just as surprised as me and Jazor by Paul’s sudden interaction but still seemed to consider his words, probably weighing the risks and potential rewards.

Walmir made a strange but now familiar gesture with the fingers of his only remaining hand and immediately summoned the usual small spheres of water that obediently circled his hand before being flung away and disappearing from our vision in a matter of seconds.

We waited in silence for his magic to do its work and, after a few minutes, the brows on Walmir’s face relaxed, a sign that his magic had accomplished its purpose.

“So?” asked Jazor impatiently.

“As far as I can tell, I don’t feel anything dangerous,” he replied with a calm voice.

“Any survivor?” I asked in turn to which he replied with an embarrassed shrug.

“You know that this magic’s efficacy decreases the farther it acts from me. From this distance, there could still be survivors or even a few enemies left, ready to ambush us. The only thing I can say is that there's not too much activity out there and if something is lurking, it's not very big, or I would have detected it."

“So, the probable cause for this is already gone,” added Ilan while pointing at the impressive trench of dug earth that obliterated the external defense of the camp.

“Enough chit-chat!” interrupted Jazor while pulling out his axe and brandishing it like a sword toward the ruins of the camp as if to show us the way.

“I didn’t go through all this shit today to just go back empty-handed!” he proudly declared.

“Wasn’t that you who wanted to run away just a minute ago?” I pointed out sarcastically.

“Details, sissy, details. Follow my lead!”

And before any of us had the time to add anything or object, Jazor was gone axe in hand. I wanted to immediately follow to prevent him from getting us into trouble, but crossing the remaining distance on foot was plain stupid. Moreover, I wasn’t comfortable leaving Paul and Alianelle at the mercy of Walmir and Ilan.

After everything we went through, I was confident that they wouldn’t betray us.

But being confident didn’t mean that I was absolutely sure. I didn’t want to take any risk with Alianelle resting completely defenseless inside, especially now that we were so close to our objective and thus less vital for their survival.

No matter what we went through together, in the end, Paul and Jazor were the only ones I was willing to completely trust.

So, I repressed my desire to follow Jazor and walked back to the carriage with Paul and Ilan while Walmir once more took the reins to guide the whole convoy toward the devastated camp.

A few minutes later, and after easily bypassing Jazor who made what I assumed was a rude dwarf gesture toward us in retaliation, we stopped the carriage just outside the beginning of the devastation and walked on foot along the dug-up dirt road toward the entrails of the camp.