Having made it out of the city of Fierane Dominit and Cassandra went along the oasis roads heading back north towards the Rangon forest. The forest separates all the regions form each other. It’s almost like it was created in a massive circle or square around Ilada to act as a natural wall.

The safest way to get through it is to form a caravan and make your way through the forest’s roads. The best places to find a caravan is on the towns near the outskirts of the forest.

Taking two weeks to traverse the desert again finally reaching the town of Loeden where they had first visited to stock up on supplies after leaving the forest. The travel was uneventful and very awkward as neither one knew what to talk about. After the events of the castle neither knew how to approach the other. They slowly got over it and managed to make some small talk but nothing to in depth about the other.

Reaching Loeden they started looking for any groups that would be passing through to join on their way to Ilada. They found a few groups had already passed and only one group had yet to leave. They were still looking for a few members to fill out their guards before braving the monster and slaver infested forest.

They approached an inn where they’d heard the merchant in charge of the caravan was staying. He was a small old man with mouse ears and tail. He was blind in one eye and the other was an icy blue. He seemed annoyed by something as they approached. “Excuse me sir” Cassy decided to be the spokesperson for both of them

He glances at her for a moment. “What? What do you want?” She bow’s slightly to him. “We’d heard you were still recruiting guards for your caravan. We are traveling to Ilada and would like to offer our services in protecting you and your goods.” She gave him a charming smile which got his attention.

He coughed twice and began to pay her more attention. “Yes we are currently hiring but how can you guarantee you two are worth the money I’d be giving you to protect my goods?” She held her hand up to give her a moment and began looking through her bag. She took out a folded piece of paper and handed it to him.

He took it and unfolded the paper as he read it his mouth slowly hung open. By the time he finished reading it looked like he might start catching flies. “I see ahem you have quite the qualifications here. Alright feel free to join us after you sign the necessary paper work.” Half an hour later after Cassy negotiating a proper wage for the two she thanked him and the two rented a room for four days as they waited for more people to apply for the caravan.

They were notified after two days that all the spots for the caravan had been filled. It would leave the next morning so Cassy went and collected the price for the extra night in the inn. Cassy was stationed in the front carriage while Dominit was tasked with scouting a head of the group to watch the forest for any signs of ambushes.

Cassy was given a place to sit inside the carriage to help protect her as her mysterious paper had gotten her very special treatment. Dominit had guessed it was a letter from her mother to help with any diplomatic difficulties they may come across. Which made Dominit happy he’d chosen to let his anger with her parents not dominate his mind. It never hurts to have an ally who owes you.

They were expecting a few monsters to cross their paths as well as bandits to try and hit them. For a better part of the journey absolutely nothing happened which caused all the veteran guards to grow more worried. Either a massive force was coming to engage them or something worse had happened. An hour after the halfway point in the forest they came across something worrying.

In the middle of the road was a blood bath. Several carriages were on their sides and the ground was covered in blood and bodies. Dominit had scanned well ahead of his group not finding any enemies lying in wait for them he returned to inform them of what he found.

They all carefully approached the scene. Slowly they moved the carriages and bodies out of the road. One of the guards noticed something further ahead. There were flags planted ahead of the battle’s aftermath. The flag itself was a field of purple with a black sun in the center.

Many of the travellers began to panic upon seeing the flags lining the road wanting to turn back or even run off into the woods anywhere but close to them.

Dominit not understanding what the flag meant asked Cassy when he grouped back up with her.

Her voice was shaken when she answered “That’s the symbol for the church of the Void. They are the most feared force of zealots our lands have faced. They say that their guardian deity Nyx tasked them with cleaning the world of all life so that there is no more suffering.”

Dominit was shocked to hear this as Nyx still hadn’t told him about anything like this. He guessed it had something to do with clearing her name. After all it becomes pointless to be the goddess of death if death is non-existent. He’d have to ask her to make sure.

It was getting dark and the caravan had pulled the carriages together in a defensive position for the night with guards posted so they could have guards posted at all hours during the night. Before lying down for the night Dominit did one more check around the perimeter. After doing a full circle around the camp he began to head towards his and Cassy’s sleeping area when a falcon flew down and landed on his shoulder.

Startling Dominit he froze and looked towards the bird. It cocked its head to the side while looking at him and then looking off into the woods. Then flew off in the direction it had just looked. When it saw Dominit hadn’t moved it landed on him again and did the same thing. Realising it wanted him to follow he quickly went to find Cassy to bring her along. She wasn’t too happy with him about it which she made very clear.

The bird was still nearby sitting on a branch waiting for him. Seeing Dominit return it fluttered onto his shoulder and kept looking off into the woods. Cassy wasn’t happy she was being lead into the dark woods by a bird but it was either that or pain as Dominit wandered off like a curious idiot.

Walking a few minutes they heard a menacing growl come out of a nearby thicket. The falcon screeched and flew towards the growl. A large tiger standing roughly five foot six inches while walk on all fours appeared. It approached both of them and snarled. Cassy slowly slid her sword out of the sheath and Dominit did the same with his daggers. When the falcon landed on its back and screeched again.

It looked over its shoulder and growled at the bird when they heard a whistle from inside the thicket the tiger came from. The tiger then started to walk back to where the whistle originated from. Dominit followed curious as to who or what was able to control such a beast. Entering the thicket they saw a person sitting on the ground with their back to a tree. The tiger laid down next to it and nuzzled the person’s legs.

“Hi there. I’m sorry for the fright but it’s very difficult to trust people after what happened to those caravans.” Said a female voice. Dominit stepped forward and saw in the darkness her left leg was bent at an unnatural angle. “Were you apart of the battle?” he asked.

She nodded “I was a part of the defense when the “Void” came out of nowhere I had Stella here” she pointed at the falcon now on her right shoulder “Scouting so it was practically impossible for people to sneak up on us. And Saber here is pretty good at seeing things in the dark as well.”

“Unfortunately they couldn’t sense them somehow.” She frowned and Saber let out a mournful whine. She scratched him behind the ears. “I don’t blame them. It’s obvious they were concealed with magic. Of what kind of I’m not so certain. I sent these two out to try and find someone to help me as I can’t move from here on my own.”

Cassy came close to her and began inspecting her leg. “I don’t think we can do anything about this now. I’m not a healer but I’ve seen a few of these before back when my parents took me through the healer’s guild as a way to dissuade me from becoming a warrior. The best we can hope for is to carry you back to our caravan and have one of the healers look at it.”

The woman nodded and tried to rise. Dominit step forward and grabbed her arm steadying her. “It’s probably not the best thing for you to be on your feet limping back. I’ll carry you if that’s all right?” She looked at him and said he could. He picked her up in the princess carry trying not to jostle her leg to much and they started back to their camp.

Making it back they took her to a healer waking him up and Cassy went to find the mouse merchant in charge to tell him they’d found a survivor of the attacks. She returned with him in tow. He questioned the woman and she told him as much as possible. About their numbers, tactics, if they wanted anything in the caravan, and if anyone else may have survived. She didn’t know how many possibly a hundred maybe more and that they’d only swarmed through killing every one they could find. She escaped before she saw them loot any of the carriages. As for survivors there were hardly ever survivors from a Void attack.

The only reasons she’d made it out was because of her animal companions leading her into the forest while distracting the fanatics. She’d spent all of the night before trying to evade them before having falling from a small cliff and landing badly on her leg. Saber had ended up dragging her by her shirt into the thicket they’d found her in.

After the healer had set her leg and given her treatment he’d told her she’d need to give it a few days and it’d be as good as new. They couldn’t spare a healing potion for it with the threat of an attack from the Void. She understood and asked if they had a spare tent she could sleep in. They apologized to her. All of the tents were currently occupied.

Cassy instantly interjected and offered to share theirs with her. Returning to their tent the girls climbed in with a little difficulty but managed to make it in. There was hardly enough room for all three of them so Dominit chose to sleep out front of the tent. Saber joined him but stayed a few feet away and Stella was nowhere to be seen.

The night was uneventful much to everyone’s relief and they continued their journey north. There were no signs of the Void for the rest of the day. Along the journey Cassy became friends with the elven woman whose name they learned was Jaslyn.

She was five foot five with long jet black hair loosely braided that reached the middle of her back. She had beautiful amethyst eyes with a tinge of blue that could see through the darkest night and thickest fog. Dominit wasn’t sure if that was an elf trait or if it was because she was a ranger. She had a lean and graceful body while her breasts were roughly similar in size to Cassy’s around C cups.

She’d lost her modified long bow in the ambush as well as her quiver. He gave her his bow and arrows so she could defend herself in case of another ambush. As well as one of his two remaining health potions to help her leg heal. She was grateful for everything he gave her. He told her it was alright she was going to be far useful with it than he would.

Three days passed with the Dominit and Jaslyn acting as scouts. They began to appreciate on another’s presence as one would watch the others back. During the evening Cassandra and Jaslyn would trade stories about their pasts becoming closer. Dominit was sure it was nice for Cassandra to have a friend who didn’t treat her like royalty.

Jaslyn told them about her home where she lived with her boyfriend. She was currently on her way back. They would pass through it on the way to Ilada and she invited them to stop by and spend the night while the caravan stops. They both agreed they’d love to. After the third day they made it to the village of Evebery.