“Why did we say yes to this, again?”, I ask Eros, with a defeated voice. My legs were bloody sore.

Eros just looks at me with a sinister smile. That bastard! He knew this was gonna happen, yet he didn't say a single word about it.

“This is your own fault. You were the one to make the decision. Not me, nor anyone else. This. Is. All. Your. Fault. You could just have chosen another option, and we would be on our merry way to somewhere else. We would probably already be there by now if we didn't have to walk alongside a carriage”, Eros said, his sinister grin growing to an irritated one at the end. I didn't feel bad for him though.

That what you get, for ´forgetting´ to inform me how we got to it! I do feel the same though.

“Get what you're saying about this. While it's not that hard physically, it's hard to do mentally. We have to slowly walk through the forest, knowing we could be moving four times as fast while being on high alert for way too many hours. Why didn't I even see it coming? We´ve been walking all day, and we will walk a day more before we get to the Teleportation-ring”, I said.

“Could you two quiet down?!”, we both hear a voice say, coming for the carriage. “Some of us are trying to sleep”

“Sure”, Eros loudly shouts, a grin on his voice. Seems like we´re not quieting down after all.

This is gonna be a long night.

“I accept your request”, I said, trying to sound as formal as I could. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to sound formal, but I didn't want to take any unnecessary chances.

Erik´s whole body stopped being tense, as I finished speaking. He had really hoped for us to take this request.

“Thank you”, he said, his voice now also formal. “As you need to be there in only three weeks, it will be best if you travel tomorrow at dawn. Will that is acceptable?”

So, we have less than ten hours to get ready? Sure.

“I see nothing wrong with it. Is there anything else we should know before we begin preparations?”, I asked, my voice as formal as ever.

“Nothing that comes to mind. Hope your preparations go well”, Erik said, beginning to stand up to leave the room.

We do the same.

Eros slaps my back, bringing me out of my half-dreaming state. That I was even still standing surprised me to no ends. That I was walking made me feel like a walking miracle… Get it?

“You kinda to stay focused”, Eros says.

“Sorry. After three days of no sleep, it's becoming a little hard to have a clear mind”, I said while yawning.

“Maybe I should have been the one to go to the guild to complete the quest and not you. If you don't get some sleep soon, those bags under your eyes will be big enough to store stuff in”, Eros said, slowing down slightly, letting the carriage catch up to us. When it did, Eros knocked on the carriage door.

“What is it?”, we hear Elora say, her voice coming from the inside.

“Could Jack sleep a few hours inside with you guys. If he doesn't get any, he'll be practically useless in a fight”, Eros asked.

There were a few seconds of silence before she answered.

“Fine. Get in”, she said. Shuffling could be heard from the inside.

Eros looks over at me, and motions for me to get in. I take the offer.

Inside the carriage are two people. The first, of course, being Elora. She was the one we were guarding, so that was a given. The other was Elora´s maid, Lily. I hadn't met her before, but Eros had a couple of times, and actually had some information about her.

She was in her late thirties, having served Erik her whole life. She had served as Elora´s maid, and bodyguard, since Elora was but a baby, and had protected her from multiple attackers. She had some kind of weapons mastery, but Eros didn't know what. Elora didn't either.

“You get to sleep over there. Try not to make any sounds”, Elora said, not even getting up from her sleeping place. The only thing she moved was hand, which she used to point with.

“Sure”, I said, going over to my place. I lay down, and quickly fall asleep. I dreamt of being chased by carrots, that were the size of skyscrapers.

The next day quickly goes by. After sleeping for about five hours, I was as good as new, and ready to be a bodyguard again. Though, that wasn't really necessary. No bandits tried to attack us. I wasn't sure if there even was any, right not. The other bandit groups had not heard about the Base being destroyed, yet, so they would no reason to increase their influence. That wouldn't be for long though. Somebody would figure it out soon.

We were nearing the city. The place the Teleportation-ring was situated.

“So, was is a Teleportation-ring actually?”, I asked Eros.

Eros looked surprised at this question.

“We have been walking in near silence for forty hours, and you ask now? Seriously, I thought we had run out of things to talk about”, Eros said, sighing heavily.

“Kinda forgot about it. So what is it? My only knowledge about is that it is probably round, and teleports you”, I say.

He sighs again at that.

“Fine, I'll explain. First of, half of your knowledge about it is completely wrong. While it could be round, it could also be a square or a triangle. It's an object that has been enchanted with a teleportation spell. Anyone who touches it at a certain time will get teleported to a predetermined place. The reason that it's called a ring, is because people form a ring around it when they all have to touch it. The place we are going to is a well-known place called Teleporters Through The Storm. They have been a well-known company for over a hundred years and is trusted by many. They even have dealings with the king, and that saying something. He usually just uses his royal mages, for that kind of stuff. But, really, he should be using-”

“Eros. You're rambling”, I say, stopping him from stepping into politics.

“... Thanks for that. Wouldn't want people to hear”, Eros said looking around.

Traffic around us had been slowly increasing. A couple of kilometers back we only had one other group of people at our side. Now, I didn't even know how many there were around us. Too many for me to count accurately.

We slow down to almost a standstill. The crowd is just becoming too big

“To hell with this. I'm not gonna wait in this carriage for hours when I can just walk over to it in less than forty minutes. Let's go, Lily”, I har Rosa say from the inside.

“My lady, are you sure that this is a good-”

“Yes, I am. Let's go”, I hear Rosa say. She quickly leaves the carriage, with Lily quickly following.

“Gerald, you can just turn back now. Your services are no longer needed”, Lily tells the man controlling the horses, who I now knew was Gerald. He refused to speak with us doing our travel here, for some reason. No idea why.

“Of course. Have a great trip”, Gerald says, making the horses turn around. Well, you couldn't really call them horses, with those glowing eyes of theirs. Maybe… super horses? If they were normal horses, they wouldn't have survived moving for such a long period of time.

“Well, looks like our jobs begin earlier than I thought”, Eros says, waiting for Elora and Lily to get close.

“Which way is it?”, Elora asks me. With my Eidetic memory, I had memorized the maps of the places we would be traveling.

If we are standing here, and that building is facing that way… means…. we need to… this way!

“About thirty minutes in this direction”, I say, pointing to my right. Elora immediately began walking, leaving us to quickly follow her.

“Let's go then”, she says, beginning to speed up.

Eros and I, wanting to do our jobs, speed up, so we´re in front of Elora. If we got attacked, Eros and I would have the front and side, while Lily would have the back. Simple.

Except for a few failed mugging attempts, we move through the streets without any problems. While a few shady groups stare with greedy eyes at Elora, one glare from Eros made them turn their heads. Nobody fucked with a lion. Especially when it's already mad.

We reach the building owned by Teleporters Through The Storm and quickly enter it. While the city certainly was beautiful, it smelled like dogshit everywhere on the street. The inside of the building, thankfully, smelled better. This place had a pure rose smell, just the way I liked it.

Seeing us come in, an attendant hurries over to us.

“Hello. Welcome to Teleporters Through The Storm. How can I help you today?”, she asks with a business smile.

“Hello. We have a scheduled teleport to Valrons in-” Elora checks her watch “half an hour”

“Okay, let me check the record, so I can escort you to the room”, the attendant says, quickly walking over to the counter to checkbook laid on it. She searches through it before quickly going over to us again.

“Elora Wolfsbane, I presume?”, she asks.

“Yes, that's me”

“Good. And, are these two your bodyguards, and the one to your side your maid?”

“Yes, that correct”

“Great! Let's go”, the attendant says, turning around and beginning to walk down a hallway. We follow.

The hallways are filled with doors, each of them having a seven-digit number attached to them. I didn't even want to know how many there was in this building, or how they had so much space.

After five minutes, the attendant stops, having reached the desired room.

“If you would please go inside, a mage will be with you shortly”, she says, motioning us to go in. We all slowly do.

The room is about twenty square meters big, and a little over three meters tall. The room was divided into two parts. One was empty, with a weird cube standing on a pedestal. The other part had a few sofas, where you could sit down while waiting for the mage to come.

We decided to not mess with the cube, and instead just sit down and wait.

The twenty minutes, the mage arrived. He was a completely bald man, who looked to be in his late fifties. Wasn't sure though.

“Hello everyone. Let's get this over quickly. If you would all walk over to the cube, and touch it, we can begin the teleportation”, the mage said bluntly, in a tired voice. He needed a break or something.

We all did as he said, and touched some part of the cube.

“Good. Now, make sure you're constantly touching the cube, with some part of your body. Wouldn't want anyone to get left behind. Trust me on this; It happens frequently”, the mage said, going over to the edge of the circle.

“Is everyone ready? Good, cause here… we… go!”, the mage said, and, with that, we teleported.

Long-distance teleportation was new for me. I had, of course, tried teleporting before, but that was on a much smaller scale of about a hundred meters. Now, though, were teleporting thousand of kilometers.

I didn't expect much from it. Maybe I would vomit when we arrived. Maybe not. I knew I wouldn't feel good though.

From a pounding headache, vomit taste in my mouth and dehydrated feeling, I figured out, like some sort of Sherlock Holmes, that I must have been right in my assumptions. I vomited on the floor, my throat feeling like sandpaper. Eros and Elora were down with me, having vomited, and not feeling like standing up these next few minutes.

A hear quick footsteps, and a gentle hand helping me up.

“Don't worry. The first time´s always a doozy. It´ll pass in a minute or two”, a female voice said.

My vision was a little blurry, stopping me from seeing the woman's features. She sat me down at a chair that was a couple of meters away. From the smell of it, I would guess it was recently cleaned. No guesses as to why, as I don't wanna know.

“So, you are a Wolfsbane, huh? That's great! I actually knew your father well. Did you know that-”

The woman that had helped me and Elora seemed to be getting along quite well. Elora wasn't as affected as Eros and I, so she was already back to normal.

“Oh, yeah. Kinda forgot to tell you something”, the woman said, rising from her chair.

“WELCOME TO VALRONS. THE BEST SCHOOL OF ARCANE ON THIS WHOLE CONTINENT!”