Forest of Dain, Kingdom of Dain- Mid Summer 14 years AR

“UGGHHH, here,” Jaesmin groaned and handed the bit of antler over to Jon, he just laughed and took it and the tool from her.

“What did you want?” his question was answered by a knot like design drawn in the dirt, he studied it and the wendigo antler ring she’d been working on. One of several she’d worked with in the week she had them. He started carving away into the material which only made her more exasperated.

“How do you do that? I’ve been trying but I either press too light and just scratch it or too hard and crack it,” She said watching him work, leaning in close to see as he carved into the small.

“Maybe you shouldn’t be making rings then,” Aethred said but without his usual smirk, he’d just gotten back from scouting and it was HOT, “either that or just give up because you’re worse than a knuckle dragger like Jon.”

“You’ve been using that a lot lately, running low on new things to call northerners?” Erin shot back, sweat dripping from her.

“Too hot to think, I’ll make it up when it cools off,” Aethred said trying to fan himself, “Where’s a lake when you need one?”

“Don’t think that’d be a good idea Aeth. There’ll probably be monsters in the water,” Cara's comment earned a glare from Aethred for his nickname, “But a breeze off a lake would feel really nice right now.”

“We’ll send Jon and Jaes in first, they’re getting better at killing monsters. If not they’re bait for the rest of us to get it,” He said and it was sort of the truth but for all of them. Since the wendigo and picking up the werewolf trail, scouting missions were run constantly now in front and in every direction whenever they stopped.

Run ins with the local wildlife had only increase due to that. Aethred had a piece of direwolf pelt rolled up on his pack from his kill. Andrew and Cara had gotten to face drifters on two different scouting missions, Jon had seen the corpses and if he could remember he’d have called them velociraptors. Leofrith had killed a dryad, the tree like creature had tried to ambush them from the middle of their own camp. Leo was near and managed to take it’s head in one swing. Jaesmin and Jon had been assigned to a larger scouting party and they had the pleasure of fighting a nest of titanboas, two adults and 10 babies. The babies of the giant snakes were the size of regular boas, Jon had added the snakeskin to his emptying pack. Much of the food and supplies he’d brought had long since been used up and they were now on whatever they hunted or foraged.

“I might be up for sitting on the shore and using some actual bait,” Jon pointed to the fishing rod on the side of his pack, next to the fiddle he wasn’t allowed to play, “Another trout or some perch?”

“Oooh! Midnight Pike!” Jaesmin said with a smile, “monsters are more common here, there’s probably lakes full of them!”

“I’d take anything that isn’t snake,” Leofrith said holding up a piece of said meat. It had been heavily cooked to get it to last longer because they couldn’t smoke anything with being constantly on the move.

“Don’t like snake! You lot getting picky over here?” Ser Afgheir said as he approached, “Other side of camp you got Rangers eating spider legs!” The thought made Jon gag, he might consider a bug or grub if it came to it. He could just kill it and swallow it whole but roasted spider leg sounded disgusting.

“Sorry Ser,” Leo apologized for the comment but still looked at the snake meat in disgust. Jon realized that as a commoner, he’d eaten snake before Leofrith never had.

“You, you, aaaaaand you. Let’s go,” Afgheir pointed to Jon, Jaes and Erin and turned forcing them to follow. Jon grabbed armor as Jaes helpfully grabbed is woodmaul, and quickly started putting it on. Once it was started he finished while he walked to catch up, “Running a little slow back there? It’s a cool summer day compared to the mainland.”

Jon exchanged glances with Jaesmin and Erin. Ser Afgheir was hard to read at times. Some of his statements they couldn’t tell if he was serious or exaggerating. All they could do was shrug and let it go, they learned that if they tried to dispute or question his claims he’d just double down on them by giving examples. That or swear at them and threaten to drag them back to the window, whatever that was.

“You lot are on a new scouting team as of now. Been too many close calls and a few deaths, we’re reinforcing them from the start now,” Afgheir said, Jon couldn’t dispute it after seeing a Ranger crushed by a giant snake or the remains of a squire that had been jumped by drifters. Even a duo of unlucky knights that had unknowingly walked into range of an acid spitting plant, “Know what you’re thinking more people doesn’t help with ambushes but you’d be wrong. More means fewer monsters will see you as a meal rather than a threat.”

The four of them walked to the front and Jon took his weapon back from Jaesmin. They were led too a waiting group of 21 people from the various groups in the camp. Jon saw Finn, Deld, Willow, and Daren were a part of the group; the rest he’d only spoken to in passing if that. Afgheir started to count quickly and seemed satisfied.

“Two dozen of you should be enough! Ser Winthrop of Stilyra is in charge. You’re headed straight ahead, come back when the sun starts setting. Dont die!” Afgheir gave his motivational speech and walked off.

“I want us close and quiet! No talking! If I hear anyone spea-”

“NO! You dense? The whole point of a larger group is to scare off monsters, not quietly sneak within biting distance or grouped together as an easy meal for the big ones!” Afgheir had stopped mid step and swung around as soon as the southern knight started talking.

“The point is to find our quarry. How are we going to find them if we scare them off,” the knight rebutted but Afgheir just rolled his eyes. He turned to face Jon, Jaes, and Erin.

“Over what, 800?” Jon knew what he was getting at and nodded, Afgheir pointed at them, “Over 800 people in Terra and that didn’t scare them away! How are 24 of you going to do it?”

“Then what exactly should we do to hold them off if they find us because we’re making too much noise?” Ser Winthrop asked.

“If I can smell that they’re eating wolf liver at a fire halfway across a camp and hear a conversation from just as far, no matter how quiet we are, it’s not quiet enough.” Finn threw in, Ser Winthrop seemed annoyed at being spoken to like an idiot by the young knight.

“Screw it, here’s your instructions. Small groups, stay in sight of one another, you can talk but no yelling unless it’s of import. Is that too complex?” Afgheir asked and looked at the shaking heads before storming off while complaining about ‘been doing this for weeks’ and ‘got rocks in his head’.

“Let’s move out!” Ser Winthrop broke the no yelling order immediately and they fell into little groups just as Ser Afgheir instructed, even a second southern knight ignored the initial orders as he walked away from Ser Winthrop and joined Finn. Jon’s group melded seamlessly with Daren and Willow.

The scouting party moved quickly and quietly at the first part but slowed soon after they spotted the morning scouting party returning. Ser Winthrop spoke briefly with the leader of the tired scouts who’d been at it all day by that point.

“So how have the Badgers been? Haven’t spoken to you lot in a while.” Daren said as they slowed their pace.

“Been busy, killing things. You know how it is,” Erin, the only one of the badger yet to kill a monster spoke up. Her answer just got a grin from Willow.

“Anything good? Drifters here,” she said pointing to her and Daren. Erin blanched as she couldn’t actually answer without lying.

“You too? Cara and Andrew ran into them and they weren’t even scouting together.” Jaesmin said, giving Erin a smile.

“Damn things are everywhere lately. Ferold, one of the rangers who’s been here before, said they’re usually only concentrated around the nests but we haven’t seen a single egg yet,” Daren informed them, “guessing can’t lay eggs or guard them if you do when you’re being hunted.”

“Was looking forward to finding them too. Even lizard eggs would be a nice change of pace. You know what we had for supper last night?” Willow asked looking disgusted.

“Spider?”

“YE- yes,” she started to yell but stopped herself, “spider legs and mushrooms. Not the tasty mushrooms you can find at a market. No, big ones that grow on downed trees that taste like shit but not poisonous.”

“We’ve been eating burnt snake, mushrooms and ferns.” Jon said, “Snakes dry and the ferns aren’t bad but yeah, same mushrooms.”

“Ugh, can we top talking about food. All I keep thinking about is this,” Jaes grabbed the fishing pole on Jon's pack and gave it a tug, “If we camp near a lake or big river, that’s going to be in the water non stop till we leave. That and every other one we have.” Willow and Daren looked at the pole, the reel could have thrown them off but it wasn’t hard to figure out what it was for.

“You guys catch more than your fill, I’ll pay coin… coin and monster parts for some,” Willow said. Daren nodded in agreement. Jon couldn’t help but think about fried fish, seasoned with wild herbs… he shook his head.

“Yeah. No more food unless we’re catching something,” he agreed. No one was starving in the camp, it was just the quality of the food was down. Rather than travel rations it was sometimes decent tasting venison or disgusting meat you’d rather not ask about. Drifter wasn’t that bad though.

They continued to talk, occasionally getting back on the subject of food. The only thing worse was what they planned on doing when they got out of the forest. Jon knew there were a few adventurers that wanted to leave but after realizing they’d have to find their way out by themselves they stayed with the expedition. Willow and Daren weren’t among them.

“LISTEN UP!” Jon flinched at the sudden loud noise from ahead, “This is the furthest point the morning party reached! It’s all new from here!” Jon and several others shook there head as their leader picked up a marker the previous team had placed and walked across the stream.

“Wasn’t he the one all about no talking?” Willow asked, “Besides, back there was new to us too. Were we supposed to not pay attention just because someone walked it this morning?”

“Shhh, shhh sweetly. He’s still a noble,” Daren warned but didn’t seem to actually care. Her vocalized thoughts were shared by the group before she even said them. They started crossing the stream and Jon looked downstream and stopped.

“Hold!” he shouted out after a moment. There just down the stream, was a wooden palisade or at least what was left of one.

“You better have a reason to call a stop!” Ser Winthrop said, storming back towards him. Ser Finn and the others in tow.

“What ya got kid?” Finn asked as he walked back into stream barefoot. Jon just pointed at what he spotted. To him it was obvious, having grown up surrounded by one. For one trees didn’t grow up in a row nor did they all naturally have their tops fall off at the same height.

“Part of a palisade,” Jon answered as people looked on.

“There’s no settlements out here!”

“Could be and adventurer outpost or maybe built by escaped slaves, fugitives, or bandits.” Willow said, “If it is a ruined settlement and the main camp stumbles on it it’s a problem if we tell them we didn’t even look. If there’s something living in there and we don’t kill it or fall back to report it…”

The group looked towards their leader, who glanced at them and waved his hand towards the palisade with a scowl. They started walking down stream, weapons at the ready and falling into a formation without instruction. It was their first time working together but it didn’t take orders to put heavily armored melee fighters at the front, bowmen and mages at the back. As they approached Finn put up his hand to stop them.

“A scent, I can’t place it though,” he said quietly.

“You stopped us because you smell something?” the question came in the form of a harsh whisper, the incompetent knight glaring at his ‘subordinate’.

“He stopped us because there’s a monster in there but he can’t tell what it is.” The knight from Ravenna spoke up in Finns defense.

“Then let’s move before the expedition catches up,” Winthrop said, waving them forward. Finn just shrugged with his greatsword in his hands and moved forward. As they moved forward they could clearly see it was a palisade, partially fallen over and covered in moss and vines. Through the gaps an entire ruined village could be seen that was near the size of Terra. As they neared a gap large enough to enter they stopped again and Finn scanned the gap with his eyes and started sniffing. Another shrug and he entered. The place had been abandoned for years as there wasn’t a shred of evidence that it’d been recently occupied, by anything. For his part Winthrop started to take it seriously as Jon could only describe the feeling of the village as spooky. They were signaled to spread out and they did, Jon joining his companions from earlier as they moved through the village.

“There’s pots and furniture in here,” Willow said looking into a cabin with a fallen roof. She reached into the window and pulled a moldy leather pouch out, “Coins.”

“Whoever they were they didn’t pack when they left,” Daren moved past her to look into the next house. They continued that down the street until they turned the corner and Willow nearly jumped out of her skin as she raised her weapon. The rest did too but she stop and slowly lowered it.

“Now this. This is strange,” Jon peered around the corner to see what she was looking at, it was a statue of a werewolf in an alley. It wasn’t a lycan due to the lack of clothes. The statue had it’s mouth open in a snarl, looking at the ground, and it’s claws at the ready. Jon couldn’t help but think how realistic it was and walked up to knock on the 7 foot tall piece of stonework.

“Maybe they worshiped them or something. Heard there’s crazy cults everywhere that worship monsters,” Daren said but all any of them could do was move on. They made their way to the end of a street an Jon moved around the back. He spotted Ser Winthrop standing there and walked up to report the statue. He wasn’t sure if it was important but he wasn’t going to get thrown under a wagon for not doing it.

“Ser Winthrop. We found a statue of a…” He faded off as Ser Winthrop failed to acknowledge him or even turn to look at him. He glanced at his companions, they were just as baffled as he was. He looked to where the knight was staring and there was nothing there.

“Ah, Ser?” Willow tried and they walked up to the knight who was just standing there. She reached out to tap him on the shoulder but stopped herself for a moment and moved around in front of him. Her eyes went wide.

“Don’t look at anything!” her voice was suddenly panicked.

“What do you mean don’t look at-” Daren moved up to see what she’d seen as did the rest. What they laid there eyes on was Ser Winthrop's face, carved in stone.

“BA-mmmm,” Daren started yelling but Willow put her hand over his mouth.

“Shut up! They’re here with us, do you want to get their attention?” She said and gave a look to Jon, Jaes and Erin, “Basilisks use magic to turn you into stone. Just a look into their eyes can kill you. They look like big squat lizards, if you see a part but not the head look down… in fact we walk out the way we came in, heads down and if you see sudden movement close your eyes.”

Jon could just gulp, if the basilisk found them they couldn’t look at it. How were they supposed to kill something they couldn’t see. Jon suddenly heard movement and like the idiot he was he looked up at it. It was Finn and his group. Jon waved them over quickly with one hand and signaled them to be quiet with the other. Finns group, including the Ravenna knight didn’t need an explanation on the danger and they started to walk looking straight down. One of the rangers spoke up.

“If they come at us they’ll probably try to grab one, close your eyes and let them go at first. If you’re the one grabbed, you know where the head is because it’s biting you, pull a dagger and go for the eyes, once you feel two bloody holes, you can call for help,” he instructed them before adding, “You see one’s body point it out, you see it’s eyes yell ‘eyes’… it wont save you but it might save someone else. They eat flesh turned stone so they’ll turn us all if they can.”

Jon saw the feet of Jaesmin by his and turned to see Erin's just beyond. He reached his hand out to be in front of Jaesmin with his hand stretched out, palm up. She placed her hand in his and they dropped them to the side. There was movement in font of them causing them all to stop. Jon closed his eyes tight and felt Jaesmin squeeze his. After a moment they continued on.

“Ser Finn, what are you do-” Jon heard DDelds voice from ahead

“The fuck? Deld?” the voice of Deld's mentor.

“It’s a basilisk, look down!” Finn roared from somewhere to Jon’s right.

“Wha-” his voice cut off.

“Ah. Found Deld. I think?” Erin said and Jaesmin pushed him to the right.

“Three more over here. Poor bastards…”

“You all get on ahead. I’ll wait a bit and I’ll yell a warning to whoevers lef-” The Ravenna knight said, Jon walked into him a moment later.

“TAIL!”Jon closed his eyes again. He heard sounds like scuffling to his right.

“They’re here with us anyways! BASILISK! LOOK DOWN OR CLOSE YOUR EYES! GET OUT NOW!” Daren decided there was no reason not to warn them now, the monsters were right there. Jon felt Jaesmin trembling, he was too. Something rushed past him and he heard the sound of something hitting the dirt road, followed by the sound of stabbing.

“Got him! EYES!” now they knew there was at least two. Jon heard another slicing sound ahead.

“That ones dead,” Finn announced.

As he walked forward he was rewarded with a puddle of blood and a Ranger statue that was holding a dead basilisk by the leg. He must have been holding it when he laid eyes on the second one. Jon noted his Head was turned to the left. The lizard had light gray scales and was built like a large monitor lizard. There was nothing really incredible about it if you didn’t know it’s extremely lethal form of magic.

“How far are we?” Erin asked from his left, he breathed a sigh of relief at her voice.

“I’ve been counting houses over here, we’ve got five more to go, then turn left.” Willow was behind him to the left.

“SHIT! HELP!” a voice called out from somewhere far ahead, “She turned to stone! My arms stuck!.” It took Jon until Jaes squeezed his hand tighter to realize what he meant, whoever he was with was holding him when they saw the basilisk. Jon squeezed back, he wasn’t letting go.

“Where are you?” Finn called out as Jon walked into another newly formed statue and worked his way around without knowing who it was other than the ranger armor.

“Near where we came in! Everyone else is dead!” Whoever he was, he was panicked. He sounded young so Jon assumed it was one of the squires.

“We’re coming!” Finn yelled.

“Daren you still there?” Willow asked sounding scared.

“Yup.”

“Jon?” Erin asked.

“Still here.”

That turned into everyone checking on the others they didn’t dare look around to see. In total there were at least eight of them left including the trapped squire.

“Turn left here.” Willow said at the same time as Jon saw two pairs of boots enter his vision and a hand that was still skin.

“Found him!” Jon called out and felt the two girls on his left swing around.

“Willow, find the entrance. We’ll get him and then follow your voice out.” Finn’s voice came from right beside him and a moment later his feet came into view.

“Got it.” Willow announced a moment later, she’d found the gap.

“Jon, let me see your big axe.” Jon held it out towards Finns feet, ignoring the first time he’d used Jon’s actual name. The knight spotted it and took it.

“What!? You cant see!” the boy sounded like he was in tears, “You can’t hurt her what if there’s a cure!”

“There isn’t!” the ranger said to his rear. Jon didn’t know what Finn had planned but he was gently pushed aside by a large furry arm. A few moments later he heard light tapping of metal on stone. That was followed by the crack of a larger impact and a cry of pain.

“I’m l-loose. You got m-my arm though.

“I’ll use HEAL as soon as we’re out.” Jon tried to comfort the scared squire.

“I know HEAL.” Jaesmin said at the same time.

“Okay lets get out of here and warn the others.” Finn announced

“What? What about the othe-” Jon saw a hand in front of him shake. A line of gray quickly moving down till it reached the finger tips. They were down to seven.

“Let’s get out of here! Daren move your ass!” Willow yelled, “Daren? DAREN!” Jon could hear crying and knew they were down to six.

“EY-” The ranger behind him said as he heard something scurry near his feet. Five.

“Close your eyes, it’s right here!” Jon did, slowly stumbling forward. He felt something touch him but realized it was Finn’s clawed hand. It rested on his shoulder as they made there way to the crying Willow. He really wished he hadn’t noticed the palisade, he shook a little as he started to cry. Twenty four walked in and five might walk out!

“Better we knew before we made camp near here,” Jaes felt him shake and squeezed his hand. Soon they came across the opening. Daren's stone body stood blocking half of it and Willow on her knees blocking the other half. Finn pushed past him and a moment later he could hear the crying coming from higher up. The five of them slowly exited the village.

“She’s right, if even one of those got near the camp, it’d be chaos and a lot more would die,” Finn then turned around and yelled, “IF ANYONE ELSE IS HERE, MAKE YOURSELF KNOWN NOW! WE’RE LEAVING!” No one called back...

“Now what?” Jaes asked. It was a good question, would they have to walk all the way back looking at their feet.

“Straight ahead till we reach the stream and follow it till we see our prints from where we crossed. A little ways into the woods and I’ll put willow down and look,” they followed Finn’s instructions because there was little else to do. A hand touched Jon's head and he realized it had to have been willows. He reached up with his right and took it, giving it a squeeze too.

Hand in hand and on shoulder they made there way to their trail and started back towards the oncoming expedition. They walked slowly through the woods trying not to walk into trees or branches. After a few hundred paces like that Jon felt Willow being lowered.

“Don’t want to turn to stone while holding on to you,” Finn said solemnly, “I don’t hear or smell anything so I’ll be okay… I think we’re good. You can look up, lets get back before the rest gets close.”

The five remaining scouts started off at a brisk jog but soon picked up the pace, following their trail back. They tried to motivate each other to keep moving, they couldn’t let the expedition get anywhere near that place. Willow was being carried by Finn again, mumbling about how they should have turned around the moment they saw the stone werewolf. Finn gave Jon a look at that and he gave a slight nod, their enemy had been there and at least one of them had died there.

**********

The five of them ran past the outriders with a quick warning and straight into the columns moving through the forest, their sudden return and few numbers garnered a lot of attention

“What is it? Report?” Ser Erik ran to meet them. Finn took a couple deep breaths and saluted.

“Your highness, basilisks five miles ahead. Inside an abandoned village. Nineteen dead or unaccounted for. One basilisk dead and… an enemy was turned to stone in the village.” Eyes went wide all around and a few that had been looking forward shifted their gaze to the ground or the treetops.

Jaes wiped her eyes as she looked at the pained face of willow who was still over Finn’s shoulder, he hadn't put her down yet. He did a moment later as Jon moved to help her. Willow wrapped her arms around Jon and cried. Jaes moved in and rubbed her back beneath her pack while looking up at Jon’s blood shot eyes.

“Turn back one mile! We make camp there!” Ser Erik yelled out as the expedition was forced to retreat for the first time since they entered the forest two weeks ago. The people at the front turned immediately while the people in the back hadn’t heard the report but followed the orders after a short bit of hesitation. Jon turned Willow around and took her arm to lead her through the forest. Jaesmin right behind, still holding Erin’s hand.

A mile back the story had spread and the rest of the badgers had joined them Leo had insisted that Willow join their portion of the camp, she just nodded pain and sorrow on her face. The group all knew what she was feeling, having lost loved ones within the past few months themselves. When they got camp set it was decided that Willow could sleep in Cara’s tent. For what ever reason she’d chosen Jon to cling to, Jaes didn’t realize she’d been holding Jon’s other hand the entire way back to the trail. She sat holding his arm with her head on his shoulder. Jaesmin wasn’t jealous about the fact, the woman just needed to hold on to something. She’d suspected that Willow and Daren were more than just teammates and this all but confirmed it; whether best friends or more.

“To Daren and Deld… and the rest of ‘em,” Aethred crawled out of his tent with a bottle and took a drink before passing it to Willow who took a shaky drink. Jon had to catch the bottle as she almost dropped it, “It’s the last one.”

Jon took a drink next and around the bottle went. Others soon joined them by the fire, Ragnar, Finn, Neera, even Astrid although she didn’t drink. No one was going to be the one responsible for getting a 11 year old princess drunk. It was a sad moment, to use any other words would just over complicate it. They’d lost people already but two to three at a time. This one day more than doubled the losses up to that point.

“You lot are off the hook for training tonight.” She looked up as Afgheir joined them and held out his hand to be passed the bottle, he didn’t hesitate like last time before passing it along, “Miss Willow, we’re discussing ways to get in there to collect remains but I just want to inform you that there’s very few options when dealing with basilisks and none of them are available to us at the moment. I’m sorry but we can’t get Mister Daren’s remains or belongings.”

“Does it have to be direct eye contact? If you look at it through a reflection? Or through glass?” Jon asked pointing at the bottle in Erin’s hand now. “Their magic can’t go through solid objects like walls or else we would all be dead. Would solid glass block the magic while letting someone see the monsters?” Jaes just looked at him, it made sense glass was a luxury item, the people who owned it weren’t the type to be adventurers. Even Prince Erik, who probably owned some quality glass items wouldn’t bring it into the forest with them. Had anyone ever tried?

“I volunteer to test the theory,” Finn spoke out as Afgheir stared at the bottle thinking the same thing as everyone else, could that work? Neera slapped his shoulder and stared at him. She remembered them the night after the Wendigo.

“It’s my idea. I’ll-

“Boys! Shut it! No ones volunteering for shit right now. Loudmouth!” he turned to Aethred, “Got any more empty bottles or you been tossing them in woods?” Aethred came out with a handful of bottles and handed them to Afgheir who gave Jon a curious look, “I’ll ask around to see if anyone knows. If it’s possible I may be back for volunteers.”