The trees were packed close enough so that their canopies dimmed the light, but not too closely that vision was completely obstructed within 100m of Ammanas. The canopies were reasonably high up, the shorter trees being about 30m tall whilst the elder ones ranged from 50-60m. Definitely taller than the average forest trees of Earth from Ammanas’ memories of bushwalking with friends. The ground was uneven and covered in leaves, with the occasional rock or root exposed. The two walked with natural grace and seemed to glide forward with their long stride, never once losing balance and making not a sound despite the carpet of leaves and twigs waiting to be crunched.

Not a soul could be sighted in their vicinity, nor was there noises that hinted at life. Ammanas had his aura withdrawn as he always did when conscious, but Orobas stalked with the natural air of a predator and a very dangerous one at that. Activating detect blood, one of his vampire abilities, he saw the nearest animal was almost a kilometre away. With the bubble of clear space that Orobas provided them, it was a calm walk through the forest towards its edge.

No creatures disturbed them but, after about 30 minutes of walking, he saw that one of the glowing outlines in his vision from detect blood (something he had been ignoring for a while from the lack of anything new) actually resembled a person who was on all fours and belly crawling towards what looked like a deer.

He activated a mental link with Orobas, so that they could share their thoughts and vision with each other, and showed him the glow. He nodded in understanding before turning slightly left towards the human hunter. It looked like they were about 2km away and in their 30 minutes of walking had already travelled about 6km. That meant the human had come in roughly 2km on their own which meant they either knew the terrain and how to check for threats or they were an idiot. Their long strides meant they walked at almost twice the speed of a regular person even when strolling leisurely.

The glowing outline grew clearer with the closing distance and it started to be able to make out features when they were almost a kilometre away. It seems it was an adolescent male, so it remains to be seen whether they knew what they were doing, or this was the foolhardiness of youth. Just when they had closed in within range for an unobstructed shot with the bow they carried, they had moved very slowly in their belly crawl position, Ammanas and Orobas came within range of the deer so that it could pick up the combination of scent and sense of overwhelming danger that a high-level, predatorial demon gave off. The deer immediately bolted, and the razor-sharp perception of the two picked up what sounded like a curse from the adolescent boy.

The foreign sounding word reminded Ammanas of language barriers. A problem that was actually present within the game as well with all the different races and NPCs. Where there was a problem in the game, there was naturally a solution and Ammanas quickly withdrew a small silver earring from his inventory before piercing it quickly into the lobe of his ear. It would translate all incoming words into his most proficient language whilst translating all of his outgoing words into the most proficient language of listeners. Not something to use when trying to maintain secrecy by speaking around others in a foreign language, but if he needed to discuss with Orobas then he had the mind link.

The young male was standing now and looking forlornly in the direction that the deer had fled in. He seemed to be muttering to himself, quietly enough that the two who were still several hundred metres away could only hear a few words here and there. Something about dinner bounding away. He kicked absently at a rock before turning and heading back towards the edge of the forest. Ammanas and Orobas continued walking towards him, still steadily gaining with their comparatively larger steps. It only took a few minutes to catch up, the boy moving steadily but cautiously and making hardly a sound. Maybe he did know what he was doing after all. Not enough to recognise the two strangers standing 10m behind him though.

With a clearing of his throat Ammanas stopped, Orobas slightly behind and to the right of him. With a startled yelp, the boy whipped around to face them, already in the process of drawing a firing an arrow, one that he swiftly completed to send a shaft rocketing at Ammanas’ face. A shaft that was subsequently snatched out of the air by a gloved hand that then lifted it closer to his face for inspection. Iron-tipped and relatively straight, with clean fletching. Pretty good quality for a medieval world. SNAP went the arrow in his hand once he was done inspecting it, letting it drop to the forest floor. The sound woke the boy out of his stunned awe, a result of seeing someone snatch an arrow cleanly out of the air like it was nothing. He didn’t even see this strangely robed man’s arm move. Ammanas spoke up. “Is that how you react to all strangers then, boy?”

The boy looked at the two standing before him in fear. They looked downright nefarious, what with the sickly flames and shadows leaking out from around that robed man and the freaky white eye of the taller one. He decided to summon all his courage and give a bit of false bravado. “No, and I’m not a boy either. It IS how I react to people who sneak up on me in the forest though.”

Orobas chuckled, the growling tone making it sound more like a cough. He liked the ones with a bit of spine. Though the kid was only facing two humans as far as he knew. The kid was tall for his age, coming up to the shoulders of the two taller humanoids. They judged that he was about 14-15 summers. He had blonde hair that reached his shoulders, with the front of it separated into two braids that were tucked behind either ear. He had angular looks that were definitely standardly attractive, though his rough and dirty look covered that up a bit. He was tanned and looked like he’d already been started on farm work from the condition of him. Overall, a relatively fit young specimen who seemed right handy with a bow considering the first shot he pulled off in surprise. He’s got you there, Master. We could have just followed him to his village and gotten some adults to talk with.

Shut it, Orobas. Ammanas thought in reply through the mind link. “Well, boy, if I wanted to kill you, I wouldn’t have tried getting your attention first.”

That seemed reasonable to the boy, who shrugged in reply. “What do you want then? And the name isn’t boy, it’s Harken.”

This is why I hate people - so bloody contrary, he grumbled to Orobas. “Fine, Harken, if you would be so kind as to tell us if you know of any mages in the area? You do know what a mage is, yes?”

“What are you, an idiot? There’re no mages round these parts, the last one died an age ago, everyone and his dog knows that. Most you’ll find anywhere in the country is that Archwizard in the city that heads the academy.” Harken reflected to himself that calling the frightening duo idiots was perhaps not the brightest idea he’d had in a while. It was their fault for asking such a stupid question though.

“Idiot? No. Impatient? Why yes, I could be described as that. You do know of any magic users in the area, then?” The scathing tone reinforced Harken’s idea that calling him an idiot was a bad move.

“Uhh, sorry. Yeah, I guess, there’s a witch in our village that helps make potions and cure the animals that get sick, I haven’t seen her use any, but the rumours say she can use spells. She’s probably the closest person you’ll find. What were you doing in the Wildlands, anyways?”

Finally, some progress, Ammanas sighed to himself and Orobas. “I live here. Well then, take us to your witch.”

“I’m not sure that’s the best idea. We don’t get many strangers in the village, especially not ones that look so scary.” Harken nodded at the pauldrons that were still leaking their flame and shadow. “Nor anyone that comes from within the forest. Not really sure I want you scaring the other villagers, and how do I know you’re not gonna eat her or something?”

“Yes, well, my scary looks seem to have worked a treat on you, haven’t they?” Another sigh let itself escape from Ammanas. He was beginning to think that Orobas was right and they should have just gone straight for the village. “And not to worry, we’ve already had lunch.”

After some more convincing, and actually giving their names, they finally got underway with Harken leading. He kept asking a lot of questions after they spent some small effort convincing him that they weren’t going to eat his witch. He decided that perhaps getting information would go a lot faster if not everyone was going to be as contrary as this admittedly very brave, but even more naïve young boy walking with him. Who just brings nefarious looking strangers back with them to their village? Especially when they just pop up in the middle of the forest that Harken had called The Wildlands. For countryside villagers, Wildlands was only a step up from Badlands. Following that line of logic to its endpoint, he quickly equipped a plain brown, thick robe and removed the rest of his more exotic armour in place of plainer travelling wear. With the hood removed, his face was no longer cast in deep shadow, and his features that were eerily similar to Orobas’ glamour save for the light blue eyes he had affected over the usual crimson of his vampiric heritage.

Harken hadn’t noticed the wardrobe change of his temporary companion. He was facing forwards and asking endless questions of Orobas who walked next to him. Orobas didn’t answer many of them, but he did find Harken to be amusing and asked him questions in turn which this chatty boy seemed a bit too happy to answer considering that he knew next to nothing about the people walking with him and therefore what their motives were. When Harken next turned round to ask Ammanas something, he saw the different outfit and another outbreak of exclamations and repeated questions began flowing from him. Most of it revolved around where the original armour went. Repeated because his only answer from Ammanas and Orobas were ‘What armour?’ which was not a satisfactory one.

Like this, they made their merry way out of the forest and onto an expanse of rolling green fields. There were no roads in sight, just what looked like a game trail trodden into the grass presumably from where the village hunters made their way from village to forest and back again. A trail that the trio followed to the village which soon came within sight, atop a slight rise in the field. The sun was now steadily progressing towards noon, putting the time roughly late morning. It shone down upon a village of reasonable size. Farms spread out behind and to the side of some of the wooden houses, either growing crops or keeping cows and horses within paddocks. It looked peaceful. There were people working those fields and walking about down the main street that connected most of the buildings in a line.

Harken wanted to go to see his parents first and explain that he didn’t catch anything whilst hunting. The other two weren’t so keen on meeting his parents and so told him that he could do as he wished so long as he first pointed them in the direction of the witch’s house. Not really happy with not getting to do the introductions that way, but the pressing need to inform his parents that there wasn’t any meat for dinner from his end came first, and so he directed them to a small wooden cottage towards the other end of the village than the forest and they parted ways. Ammanas and Orobas continued on towards the cottage, receiving stares from the villagers that ranged from surprised, curious and cautious to outright hostile. Stares which were summarily ignored by the duo who only cared about the information they were looking for.

Arriving before the fence that surrounded the cottage and the garden out the front of it, they saw a surprisingly young woman tending to some herbs. She was faced away from the fence, but her profile suggested someone in their 20s and the cottage looked only equipped for sleeping one occupant, suggesting that this young lady was in fact the witch they were looking for. She had quite pale skin in comparison to the rest of the tanned villagers they’d seen so far, and long auburn hair fell down her back quite gracefully. She was in a red dress of simple make, with an apron tied in front to protect the knees whilst she knelt in the garden. Clearing his throat, Ammanas tried to gather her attention. “Hello, miss? Are you the witch of this village?”

“Adeline is my name, but I suppose witch works well enough, yes.” Came the reply without even turning to look at her visitors. “What can I help you with then, stranger?”

“Information, if you would be so kind. We come from… far… and would like to get an idea of where we are. I’ve found that talking to magic users is the quickest way to find what I’m looking for.”

With the mention of a ‘we’, Adeline finally turned to face her visitors. They looked plain enough, though reasonably attractive. The similarities of their faces were quite eerie, with the younger man’s blue eyes quite sharp and focused, trained solely on her. Looking at the taller and older man, she had to repress a shiver. He looked hungry in a predatorial way, though his relaxed body language hinted at someone completely at ease. He hadn’t spoken but he gave off a palpable sense of danger to those with a trained eye, and it was starting to make her back tingle with the beginnings of a nervous sweat. She got the feeling that his blind eye wasn’t all that blind at all. It was clear the younger was in charge though, the older looked more like a protector. She turned back to the younger man, sighed, and stood up from her gardening. “Well, I suppose I might have some information that could help you then. Follow me inside and shut the gate behind you.”

Adeline strode to her front door without looking back at the two and went inside her cottage, untying her apron and hanging it on a peg by the door. She sat at the large table used for eating dinner at and waited for her visitors to enter. If she wasn’t watching the front door, she wouldn’t have even known they’d entered. So quietly and gracefully did they move that it took her a moment to realise they’d stepped through the doorway and she was, in fact, staring at them. Blinking her way clear of her inner surprise at their seemingly abrupt appearance in her doorway, she gestured them to a seat at the table.

Entering Adeline’s cottage, Ammanas noticed that it was almost spartanly bare of any decorations. There were only necessities in this cottage, a small kitchen, the table for eating at, a bookshelf with a small collection of reading material and a desk against a wall with what looked like alchemical equipment and components lined upon it. Yes, it looked like he’d be able to get some helpful information from her. If she was trained in, or a member of, any kind of guild then they’d probably have a library. If all it required to join was being able to do some magic, then he was more than a little confident he’d be getting in. He sat facing Adeline at the table, Orobas standing behind his chair protectively. Time to start the gathering of information.