The sky above had turned a bright shade of orange by the time I finally reached the graves Geisai had spoken of, and my worst fears have been confirmed.

The graves were now empty, crudely dug up and left exposed for anyone to find. Dried blood was left in district panters a bit away from the graves, with a few broken arrows left jutting out of trees or on the ground where they’d been dropped. The path heading in the eastern direction had been thoroughly trampled over, and, based on the opposing footprints, it seems that a number of people had carried something off in that direction.

A struggle had taken place here recently and it was obvious that the side with the greater numbers had won. The mounds of dirt and damaged tree trunks centered in a single area indicated that the battle had been quick and brutal. The defeated hadn’t gone down without a hard fight. However, only the fact that there wasn’t a body or burnt pyre around offered me a small bit of relief.

“Of course, they could have dragged the body off to dispose of it elsewhere…” After a quick shake of the head, I began to weigh my options.

Simply following the trail, whoever “the victor” were, left behind was the course of action most likely to send me walking right into an ambush. However, the slightest chance that Geisai was still alive meant that I couldn’t simply ignore this either. Peaceful negotiation was out of the question, as I doubted that the those that fought here would be open to it if any of their own had been lost.

“So, only one real option then…... Time to go.”

The normally comforting sounds of the forest were making me jumpy in this place and I couldn’t deal with flinching at every sound or sign of moment on top of everything else. Besides standing out in the open only increased the chances of being ambushed, so I decided to retreat to my makeshift base.

Halfway between the place we found the mangled bear and the gravesite laid a unique collapsed tree. At some point in time, the massive tree had fallen atop a clump of smaller trees, that had somehow managed to support the dead tree. The tall foliage that had sprung up in the intervening time had turned to small place under the tree into a perfect hiding spot and makeshift base.

I wasted no time in stripping off my furs once I was safely behind the tall foliage, the cool evening breeze causing my skin to prickle. However, I paid the sensation no mind as I replaced the furs with the brown set of trousers and the armored leather jacket, its previously empty slots now occupied by my throwing daggers. Finally, I grabbed hold of a familiar handle and pulled the dagger free of its worn sheath. Though the dagger’s tip had been snapped off the remainder of the polished blade had been sharpened to a fine edge.

“Father. Mother. Please watch over us and help guide me through these trying times.” My lips gently brushed against the broadside of the dagger before sheathing it once more and strapping the blade to my waist.

Despite the jacket being a size or two big, I was as ready as I’d ever be. I would’ve liked to take a couple of staffs and spears with me, but the route I’d be taking was heavily dependent on nimbleness and coordination. Besides Gensai would never let me live down falling to my death because I tripped up on the butt of a spear.

“... Please be alright… at this point, I’d settle for you being half dead…”

With another shake of the head, I ran back to the gravesite while taking note of even the slightest shifts in my surrounds. Once there I found the tallest tree closest to the trampled path and began to climb.

…

..

.

“What was that?”

“What was what?”

“You didn’t hear that? Something, Something else here”

Hundreds of feet below, two people stopped in place and began looking around.

“It must have been a wild animal. Come on, we gotta get back soon, or we’ll go hungry.”

“Not like I have much of an apatite anyway. I could barely hold down breakfast after Verof’s first round with the Darh’ki.”

“Where did Greyham even find that guy?”

“How should I know? We needed an extra set of hands for the job and he was the only one crazy enough to join. I think h−

The two figures walked off after a bit of searching. Even though one of them had stared directly at me for several moments, he acted as if I weren’t there.

Was something wrong with his eyes? Also, why were their ears so short and round? Did they mutilate themselves as apart of some kind of ritual?

In any case, they’d mentioned Darh’ki, and the only time I heard that name was in relation to Geisai, so at the very least held still been alive the last time they’d seen him. Wither or not that's still the case remained to be determined.

Once there was enough distance between us, I pressed my back against the tree trunk before taking a running leap off the largest branch. I had a bit of a stubble, but I managed to shamble my way onto the new tree’s branch.

My heart pounded as I rose to my feet and repeated a mantra this wasn’t all that different from the pranks I used to play on Geisai in my mind, despite the additional fifty feet involved. Following the path from the treetops had been a gamble, but doing so provided me with an advantage over those I was pursuing. The pair continued on their way, paying me no mind as I continued my death-defying leaps from tree to tree. Only when they reached the small clearing could I finally allow my nerves to rest as I purchased atop a beach a few yards away.

“It’s not just Geisai, people really don’t look overhead.” While my observations continued to escape my lips, my eyes were already roaming on the small campsite.

The pair I’d been following walked over the nearby campfire where the majority of the group had been gathered for their nightly meal. All of them appeared to be men and each of them had the strange rounded ears like the first pair. One of the men said something that managed to get a laugh out of nearly everybody while another one sat a plate of cooked meat and bread rolls in front of a man with an arm in a slang and a man with the casted leg.

Besides their strange ears, there wasn’t anything too unusual about the party, but something cold took root in the pit of my stomach as I watched them. When my eyes drifted towards the other source of light in the camp what I saw caused the chill to solidify into a block of ice.

A circle of iron pokers surrounded him, each one of them skewering piece of bloody flesh, the trials of blood tracing back to a naked figure spiraling along a fallen tree. His face was covered in slowly closing cuts and lesions, the cut on his cheek being deep enough to reach bone. The golden light around his body was missing its usual radiance, making it almost invisible against the late evening sunset. Even though one of the men forced his head up and smacked him across the face hard enough that the sound of the impact reached my ears, Geisai didn’t react in the slightest.

I let it happen again. I swore that I wouldn’t allow anyone to hurt him like this ever again, but there he laid broken and abused because I’d allowed it to happen. I knew there was an unknown group within the forest, I’d allowed him to wander about on his own.

I wasn’t gonna lose anyone ease!!!

They would pay. They would all pay for what they did to my little bro₋

“Whaa”

That last thought trailed off as I grabbed a hold of my right wrist. At some point, I’d drawn one of my throwing daggers and had been moments away from using it.

“Heeh Haaah Heeh Haaah Heeh Haaah”

I took a couple deep breaths to calm myself before I did anything rash. I’d been so caught up in the heat of the moment I’d almost done something utterly stupid. Geisai was still alive, but attacking without a plan would only get us both killed or captured. The last thing needed in this situation was a raw emotional response.

The fallen tree Geisai was sat against was at the edge of the clearing. It would be easy enough to reach him under the cover of darkness. It was unlikely that all of them would sleep at the same time in this undefended location. It was easier to take out one or two men would and fleeing into the night would be an easier task than fighting all eight of them while carrying Geisai on my shoulders. Once he was safe, we could figure out a way to deal with those strangers.

The palest of their ranks suddenly stood up and handed the two injured men something they proceeded to snort it into their noses. After a few seconds, the pair started to doze off and the pale one picked up a leather pouch and walked over to Geisai, passed the man that had slapped my brother before.

Given that Geisai should have easily been able to free himself and the amount of trust the other seemed to have in the pale man, he must have had a way to confine Geisai. Depending on what it was, it might be necessary to incapacitate him before making our escape.

The pale man held the pouch over Geisai’s head and prepared to do something with its contents, but something unexpected happened. The golden light around Geisai’s body suddenly dispersed and was replaced with lightning sparks.

“GAAH!!!!”

The pale man only had enough time to let out a shout before Geisai sprung up and freed his hands of their bonds. Without a moment of hesitation, Geisai pulled back his fist and punched the pale man. However, it wasn’t one of the punches he throw when we spared. It was a punch that sent his forearm through the man’s chest.

Silence completely overtook the clearing as everyone, including me, hadn’t expected that to happen. But the silence lasted but for a moment.

“WWWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”

Geisai let out an animalistic yell that caused all of the men below to flinch and I was briefly reminded of being a little girl cowering in a corner of a half-destroyed building.