[Year 351, The month of Flame, day 12]

The sun was halfway through with her descent from the pinnacle of the sky. The now orange sky seemed to stretch towards the horizon endlessly. It would be a beautiful scene if it weren’t hot enough to fry hercinia eggs.

While the heat on its own would be taxing to deal with, but sitting in a tree covered from head to toe in leaf-covered thick leathers wasn’t helping my mood.

“Why did I agree to wear this stupid thing?” My canteen was empty, and it felt like the furs had doubled in weight since I put it on, but Aiyana had insisted that I wear them.

We were supposed to go to the lake today, we’d planned it a few days ago, but rumblings of the north had squashed any chance of that happening. Instead of a nice, relaxing day by the lake, I was stuck here up to my knees in my own sweat.

“Haah, couldn’t these guys have chosen a cooler season to come here? Or, better yet, not at all?” Complaining wasn’t gonna solve anything, but it took my mind off of things.

Just as I considered tearing into the tree to drink its sap, my ears picked up on something. In addition to a high pitched buzzing, fou− No five people were heading my way. They were in such a hurry that they didn’t even stop to pick up the things they were dropping with every other step.

Finally!

I leaped to my feet and pulled down the bear skull helmet over my head in preparation. Each heartbeat brought them closer and closer to my position. Anticipation raised awareness of my surroundings by tenfold. The group’s clumsy trek through the foliage drowned out all the unnecessary information in the area. Their labored breathing sounded as if they were panting a few feet away from my face. The stink of the own sweat overpowering everything else. I could practically taste them on the air.

The rest of the world gradually faded away, leaving behind nothing but them, me, and the distance between us.

Closer

Closer

Closer

The group blister-covered humans burst out of the foliage in a mad dash. Three men and two muscular women, in various states of undress, ran from the swarm of Inpulsa Vespa. The shiny blue insects were about half the size of my palm, had stingers the size of my little finger, and created small arcs of lightning. On their own, one vespa was a nuisance, but a colony of them could kill a bear given enough time.

While the vespa were extremely territorial, they never went more than five hundred feet away from their nest. Even now, less than half of the nest continued the pursuit.

If the fleeing group managed to reach the clearing a few yards away, they would be safe from harm. However, they wouldn’t reach it. Not under their own power, anyway.

When the lead running passed by the tree I resided in, I pounced. Faster than any of them could react, I landed in the middle of their formation and grabbed the lead runner by his hair, and simultaneously stopping the woman to my left with a backhanded punch.

One down.

The man behind me couldn’t stop in time and wound up bouncing off my back following a brief collision. As the man rose to his feet, I bought my right knee up to my abdomen before delivering a solid kick to the man’s fast. He fell flat on his back and didn't get up.

Two.

The man and woman that had been running on my right side didn’t even break their stride to check on their companions. In any case, they’d managed to put a decent amount of distance between themselves and me. Let’s correct that. The man I held onto struggled to free himself from my grasp to no avail. I grabbed hold of his trousers, and with a quick spin, sent him soaring through the air.

“Ahaghhah!!” “Gaah!” Despite the projectile’s flailing about, I managed to catch the fleeing man in the back. The bone-snapping crunch that accompanied the two tumbling to the ground put a smile on my face.

“Get off me!”

The man that had been knocked down struggled to untangle himself from the limp projectile. He was so focused on the task, he didn’t even have time to react when my left fist caved in his left cheek as I ran past him.

In the corner of my eye, I saw the man collapse with no sign of getting up.

Three.

Four.

The remaining woman continued to run, but ragged breathing and drop off in speed showed that fatigue had begun to set in. She had lasted far longer than I expected her to, but this was the end.

Once she was within range, I outstretched my hand and tried to grab on to her. My fingers just brushed against her back when she suddenly stopped, pivoted on her heel, and slashed at me with a hidden knife.

I tried to dodge her attack, but my own momentum caused me to stumble over my own feet as something wet began trailing down my left cheek. I stomped down with my right leg to rebalance myself and ran my pointer finger along my cheek. It came back blood red.

My hand started trembling as my eye remained locked on the blood on my finger. My blood.

The woman raised her knife for another strike, but they wouldn’t get any more blood from me!!!!!!

“Haaaaagh!!”

The knife fell to the ground as my fingers wrapped around the woman’s neck and hoisted her into the air. The woman desperately tried to pry my finger off her throat by my hold not only remained firm, but it also tightened. Her desperate kicks gave way to dangling legs as the last of her breath fled her body, and the lights dimmed in her eyes.

Every fiber of my being wanted finish her off. I wanted to see the remainder of the light vanish as she suffered a fraction of what I was forced to endure. It would be so easy to end their lives. All I had to do was relax my control a bit more, just a bit more and their life would be snuffed out like a candle in a rainstorm. I wanted to do it. If I had my way, I would've done it already. But… But, none of them had presented enough of a threat to justify doing so.

Aiyana would be disappointed.

“Hugh. Five!” The woman’s limp body fell to the ground with a thud. Although faintly, she was still breathing.

I threw my mask off and stripped away the heavy leathers. What was even the point of wearing any of th⎯

“Ouch!” I smashed whatever had stung my back, only to find greenish pus and a set of crushed wings.

A few vespa were still in the area. Great.

…

..

.

When nightfall fell a rustling in the bushes announced Aiyana’s return. She was dressed in similar thick leathers to the ones I wore. Her face was flush, and sweat dripped from her hair as she dragged two large sacks behind her.

“Hey there. Mind lend me a hand.” She didn’t even turn in my direction, but something told me she knew where I was.

I descended from my perch and approached her in at a slow pace.

“This is the sixth group. There were only three days in between them and the last one group.”

“Yes, Yes, you can count really good. Now get over here and help… me.”

In-between one word and the next, I hosted the three sacks over my shoulder and began walking towards our guest. There hands and feet had been bound, and their eyes had been covered by thick strips of cloth.

“What’s in these anyway?

“Enough clothes, food, and weapons to get our guest out of the forest. I had to secure everything else while avoiding an angry vespa swarm. So, was there any trouble on your end?”

“Not in particular. There were five days between the last group and the group before them. The intervals are growing shorter.” I set the sacks down at the base of the tree the scouts were lined up against.

I turned around to find Aiyana taking long deep drinks from her canteen. When she offered the canteen to me, I yanked it from her hands and tried to take a swing, only from droplets to come out.

“You monster.”

“Hehe, you need to conserve your supplies. Here.” She tossed me an extra canteen and gave today catch a once over, her eyes lingering over the woman with the bruised neck before she shrugged her shoulders and walked away from the group.

“The conflict between Lancaster and Greton must be nearing its breaking point if they keep trying to get the edge with the forest pathway. The people they’re sending in are getting more reckless, either through lack of experience or the looming battle making their paymasters impatient. Things are gonna be getting busier from here on out.”

“Aaah.” I wiped the excess water from my lips before picking up a particular item and followed after her.

After making ourselves comfortable around the fire, Aiyana stared up at the sky and let out a sign. “Beautiful isn’t it?”.

Up above thousands of small lights blanketed the sky above. It was as if a rainstorm had been frozen in place and left for everyone to take in the spectacle. Looking up at it was a beautiful, relaxing moment after a long day, but there was one crucial matter that needed to be addressed.

“Aiyana, we can’t keep doing this.”

“Doing what?”

“Chasing off the scouts they keep sending into the forest. It's like we’re trying to block off a stream with a piece of cloth. Even if we keep doing what we’re doing now, eventually, the sheer numbers will overrun us. We need to consider another approach.”

“And what approach would that be?” Aiyana was listening, but it was gonna take a bit more to get her to accept the idea.

I held up the item I bought over with me and unwrapped the time. While rather old, the thing had been well maintained by its former owner. It was a dull brown color and ridden with small dents along its surface. A long strip of metal ran down its center, something seems to have been broken off of it at some point. However, the most essential feature was the discolored faceplate that had crudely been attached to the item.

“A helmet? Are we gonna start selling them to the scouts?” Though she joked, the smile didn’t reach her eyes. She was already putting the pieces together in her head.

“I say we join the fight and help bring an end to all of this.”

“Do you think it’ll be that easy? That, with a helmet and some bravado, we can leap in and cut down every enemy that dares to cross our path?” I doubt she even noticed the frustration in her voice, it actually brought a smile to my face.

“If things were that easy for us we wouldn’t be having this conversation… I have no delusions of this ending without sacrifice, but, as you said, we sit between a known and unknown threat. Certain death awaits us on the known path while a chance at life can be seen amongst the unknown. Venturing into the strange and dangerous land is worth it if we can grab ahold of that chance.”

The thoughts that had occupied my mind for the last month had come spewing from my mouth, and I couldn’t stop even if I tried. At the very least this need to be said here and now. Otherwise, there may never be another chance to free Aiyana out of this degrading lifestyle.

“Even if those cities fight each other till the end of time, at the very least, we can escape being caught in the crossfire… We’ll hit the ceiling on what we can learn from the scout, but the more we interact with them, the greater advantage the next group will have over us.” Our catch and release tactics couldn’t work forever. Even though we did our best to hide our true appearances during our “talks” with the captured scouts, we couldn't hide everything from everyone all of the time. Sooner or later something would slip by our notice.

“The scouts are disjointed sellswords split between the two warring cities. On the off-chance they start talking amongst themselves, why would they risk someone else taking the prize?”

“Our cave is filled with hundreds of reasons why they would band together. An opportunity at revenge and an even split of the profits is tempting enough for some them.” I paused when I heard one of the scouts begin to stir, but a well-timed stone to the head by Aiyana took care of the issue.

She was really getting good with projectiles.

“You don’t need to worry about me being spotted. T-The first ones proved that I can get by so long as I hide my eyes and ears. People like their torturer seemed to be a common enough for no one to raise a brow over. I know this is still a major risk, but sometimes risks are necessary.”

The silence seemed to drag on for an eternity, each moment of emptiness seemed to last a lifetime, but Aiyana eventually opened her mouth.

“After we finish eating, we’ll drop them off near the mountain and camp for the night. Tomorrow, we’ll track their path out of the forest and then return home.”

“Aiyan⎯”

“Geisai, listen to me! You… You’re right. What we’re doing is a temporary solution to our major problem, I expected Lancaster or Greton to have won by now, but something is dragging out this entire affair. Yes we need to see what’s happening outside the forest, but we have to go about it the right way, We need a plan, but what you have isn’t a plan, it's the basis of a plan at best and a list of disjointed ideas and goals at worst.”

“Aiyana⎯”

“That is why we’re gonna go home and hammer those ideas into an actual plan. You can’t simply pack a bag and run headlong into the unknown. A lot of preparation needs to be done before we depart.”

“Yes!” I couldn’t contain my excitement and leaped about thirty into the air. Unfortunately, the way down ended with a flash of gold and a crunch.

“Alright, Alright! Hehe, stop it before you wake the dead. Ha Come here, watch the stars with me. Hahaha” Aiyana tried and failed to hide her laughter as she patted the group beside her.

Once the glow faded, I set the helmet down and joined her. Up above the starry night expanded without borders.

“Maybe, we can learn what that’s like one day.”

“What are you going on about?”

“Nothing… Nothing important anyway.”