The morning sun over the tips of the pines still had some of its morning blush left when Erhan made for the northern end of the town. bit by bit the cobblestones on the street gave way to hard-packed red dirt. A row of carts and carriages stood in a long line ahead of him. Fifteen of them in total. Workers carried boxes of merchandise and raw iron ore to load onto the carts, and some of them readied the horses, rubbing them, putting harnesses on them. A skinny man wearing baggy but expensive-looking linen tunic stood beside one of the only three carriages. He was the leader of the caravan, the merchant Ron Wessinger. Erhan headed straight towards him.

The merchant measured him with huge fishlike eyes. He only stopped by this mining town once every six months, loading the ores from here and deliver it to Valar, the capital city. As Erhan spent most of his time away from people, Ron had never seen him before, but this crazy looking man had promised to pay good money to travel with his caravan three days ago. He even paid half the fee in advance. Albeit a bit awkward and halting at times, the man had also proposed to guard the caravan with no small amount of confidence, so Ron had agreed to reduce the fee a little if he was really useful. After all, strong protection is always handy during such journeys. The road to capital wasn’t exactly a safe one.

But now the man had arrived holding a strange twisted and burnt-looking tree branch. Was he going to fight bandits with that? Or was he planning on herding the horses? Well, even that might be useful. But it didn't matter much. He had already requested better people to escort him. He asked Erhan, “did you bring the rest of the money?”

Erhan handed him a small bag holding ten talents. Ron bounced the bag in his hand, weighing it. He tilted his head towards one of the empty carts. “Get on that one. We’re going to leave in an hour or so.”

Erhan walked towards the cart and climbed up. He drew the cloak tighter around him and sat down on a bunch of straw laid down on the floor of the cart. The morning sky was clear and the air was dry and chilly. There won’t be any rain today. Maybe he should close his eyes for a bit?

Erhan woke up at the sound of horse hooves and peered over the side of the cart.

"Well!" He couldn't help but frown. Sena Moras and her entourage had arrived by the side of the caravan on their horses. By the bags hanging from their saddles, they were ready to travel.

Sena got down from her grey mare and walked towards Ron. the merchant also went forward to greet her, bowing to the waist, he said, “Greetings and welcome, lady Moras. We were waiting for you,”

He had mercenaries to guard the caravan, but it was the presence of these knights that gave him the ease of heart. Though they were quite young, even the most reckless bandits wouldn’t dare to make things too difficult in front of the golden willow crest of Moras.

“Greetings Mr Westsinger. I hope we aren’t late.” Sena dipped her head a bit.

“Not at all, not at all. We still have a quarter of an hour before we begin our journey.” he gestured his hand towards the most luxurious looking carriage. It was a lacquered black carriage with gilded designs of flowery vines along its rims, spacious enough for six people to sit comfortably inside. “Please come, my workers will get your luggage sorted.”

Sena accepted the invite. She signalled the remaining three knights to get down and climbed inside the carriage with them.

After the went inside the carriage, Erhan sat up. He didn't want to meet her, but What could he do now? He’s already paid the merchant, who told him there would be no refund, so now he had no choice but to travel with them. Money doesn’t grow on trees, otherwise, he might have considered getting away from the caravan. It’s not like he could avoid that pesky girl for the whole month they were going to spend on the road.

After thinking for a while, he sighed and closed his eyes again. Since he couldn’t change the circumstances, overthinking it wouldn’t help. He’d have to deal with the problem as it comes. Besides, if he wanted to find out about the Book of Dreams, he’d have to do a lot of talking. So her presence might not be a bad thing.

Yeah, it was the start of his new journey. He should think positive now.

It took a whole two hours for the caravan to start moving. Sena opted to travel by her horse alongside the other three knights. The carriage might be more comfortable, but she was no wallflower. More so since she was the leader instead. Their group of four travelled with the foremost carriage where Ron Wessinger was. only occasionally they would travel along the length of the caravan to check up on things.

Other than them there was also another group of escorts, a ragtag group of men wearing mismatched armours and weapons scattered along with the caravan. The soldiers of fortune.

The line of carts rolled on the dirt road at a medium pace. Other than a few thickets of pines here and there, the path was free of the shade of trees. It twisted and turned, bending around low rocky hills and great boulders. No other human settlement lay ahead of them until they arrive at the Muska plains. But that would take up to a week or so if the weather was favourable. So the caravan had stocked up on enough food and water in the town.

The sun reached the top of their heads when the procession stopped for lunch. Though he could go without food or drink for a few days, Erhan chose not to decline what was offered. He was blowing on the bowl of hot lentil soup when someone tapped his shoulder from behind.

Erhan turned his head. “Oh, it’s you,” he said to Sena.

Sena flicked her golden curls behind her ears. “You are also travelling with us I see,” she said. “are you also going to the capital for her majesty’s quest?”

“That’s my business,” Erhan said while dipping a piece of bread into the soup and took a bite of it. It wasn’t bad. The quality was quite good for travel food.

Sena glanced at his staff propped against the boulder he was sitting on, noticing the twists and curls on the gnarled piece of blackened wood. It must be from a lightning-struck tree. A pretty old one at that. Only one group of people use this kind of staff. That could explain the slap he gave Alanis. But there was one thing that puzzled her. “Why was a druid like you working in the mines in that backward city?”

Erhan put down the bowl and picked up the stuff. Looking at it as a trace of nostalgia appeared in his eyes. He remembered the day his masters gifted him with it clearly as if it was just tomorrow. The wisest and most revered of them had personally called down the thunder to imbue this piece of oak with spirits.

“That is also my business. Besides…” he said, looking at Sena’s grey eyes. “I’m not a full-fledged druid. I didn’t complete my training.”

Sena tilted her head in contemplation. A moment later she shook her head. She didn't know enough about druids to know what he was talking about.

She looked at Erhan's eyes inquiringly. “Anyway, at least now shouldn’t you introduce yourself?”

Erhan considered for a moment. Yeah, since he decided to open up, then a small introduction wouldn't hurt. “Erhan Raiser,” he said, “And you are…” He narrowed his eyes, trying to recall her name.

“It’s Sena, Sena Moras. I just told you my name a week ago. Don’t tell me you’ve already forgotten,” there was a trace of anger in Sena’s voice.

“I didn't pay attention to what you were saying that day,” Erhan said with nonchalance.

Sena’s scowled as the heat rose to her face. The man was infuriating. She took several deep breaths to calm down. Many questions fleeted about in her mind, like why a druid, even an incomplete one, was interested in the quest. Druids were supposed to be recluses. But she had a feeling, no, she knew that he wouldn’t answer her. And her mood had gotten worse while talking to the man, so she walked towards where the other knights sat. Her questions could wait. She had the whole journey to ask them. No need to hurry.

Erhan looked at her retreating figure and picked up his bowl again. He also wanted to ask something about the quest. But it was still difficult to speak to people like her. Well, he can figure this all out later. For now, he wanted to finish the soup while it was still warm.

No one knew who shouted spotted the buggers first, but when the shouting began and everyone started waking up, two sturdy draft horses and a courser one of the knights rode had already fallen prey to their sharp fangs. The grey lions, although named after one of the great cats, had little to do with the feline species, belonging to the lizard family instead.

These cunning scaly beasts must have stalked the caravan for these two days for them to figure out the details enough to avoid the guards and quietly get the horses. The had sneaked in at the darkest hour before dawn. They were silent and deadly, ferocious assassins of the night, crawling past the vigilant eyes of the mercenaries through the crags and shadows of the boulders, getting to the horses tied at the edge of a low cliff-face. Five of them attacked the sleeping draft beasts, killing them before they could let out so much as a peep. Only the courser had fought a fierce battle, alerting the guards. When the guards arrived though, the horse was already on its last breath, groaning and thrashing its legs, laying on the ground wet from its blood.

The guards chased the predators away, shouting and raising their torches and weapons. Sure they wanted to kill those accursed lizards, but chasing grey lions through the rocks would be a foolish endeavour, especially in the dark. It couldn’t have been more than a minute or two, but their muscular grey bodies had already disappeared among the boulders.

The rest of the horses scampered, huddling together. Their frightened neighing and stomping along with the shouting of the guards woke up the whole camp. One of the guards, a lean and tall mercenary named Johan came to the dying Courser. He stabbed his sword through the heart of the dying beast and ended its suffering.

Ron Westsinger soon arrived along with Sena and her knights. The young knight, Becker, whose horse died had already gotten the news. it was a gift his not so wealthy family had prepared at the day of his inauguration to knighthood. The horse had been with him for five years and he had been pretty attached to it. So much so that his friends teased him, telling him to marry the creature. To say he was upset at the beast’s demise would be an understatement. Its death was like losing a close friend to him. He kneeled beside the corpse, gently running his hand through its fur and shaking his head from time to time. He just couldn’t believe it was dead.

Sena knew how much Becker cared for his horse. She bent down and placed her hand on his shoulder. Becker looked up at her. “I’ll kill them,” he said with a vicious scowl on his face.

Johan, the mercenary shook his head. “Kill them?” he said with some amount of derision in his voice. “Stop dreaming sir. We are lucky those things didn’t attack the people. We should leave this place as soon as we can.” He gave one of the dead draft animals a nudge with his foot. “They are clever ones, killing the horses to slow us down. Let’s hope these dead bodies would stall them for a while.”

“Wasn’t it your fault they got to the horses then.” Ron’s angry voice came. “If you guarded the place properly it wouldn’t come to this. What do you think I’m paying you for?”

His words immediately riled up the mercenaries. A lean, young mercenary with short curly hair came up to Ron’s face. “What the hell did you say? Do you think it’s easy to spot those grey lions in this place? You guard the place yourself then. If those savage things don’t tear you limb to limb, I’ll change my name.”

“Hmph!” Ron’s face was red with anger at the audacity of a mere mercenary. “Don’t expect me to pay you if things like this happen again.”

Johan came forward. “Stop it,” he said. He was somewhat of a leader among the mercenaries, so his words held some weight. Although he didn’t like the merchant’s tone either, he was the one holding the money. “Those beast’s territory should be far away from here. It’s unexpected for them to be here, or we could have camped in more open ground and taken more precautionary measures. It’s our negligence, not noticing their threat in time.”

Becker remained silent. He didn’t blame the guards, knowing that wouldn’t accomplish anything. Instead, the grey lions became the source of his vengeance. He looked at the dead animal again. “I vow not to rest until they are dead,” he whispered.

Sena frowned. A vow. Now that would be troublesome. Knights took their vows pretty seriously. But finding those grey lions in this terrain was easier said than done. They might hide by a boulder right next to you, and you wouldn’t know. But if they didn’t manage to kill them, Becker’s vow would break. That couldn’t happen. She went forward and said to Ron, “I wish to stop here until we could hunt those beasts down.”

Ron was immediately flustered. “B- but my lady, those beasts are dangerous. And it’d be impossible to hunt them down here. Please try to understand.”

Sena shook her head. “Our decisions are final. If you must continue your journey, go ahead without us.”

“My lady…” the merchant looked at the young woman with a hint of annoyance. It was easy for her to tell them to go ahead. If something happened to this young scion of a prominent warrior family under his watch, it’d be his head in the gallows. He sighed and turned to Johan. “We are going to hunt the grey lions. You’d help lady Moras in this task.”

Johan shook his head. “That’s crazy. There’s no way we can do that in these hills. We didn’t sign up for this.”

"Fifteen talents more," Ron said. "if you agree, I'll give each of you fifteen talents more."

The mercenaries exclaimed. They never expected such a raise. some of them immediately wanted to agree, but Johan shook his head. "That's too little. forty more talents and we have a deal."

Ron raised two fingers before Johan’s face. “Twenty talents, I can't give you any more,” he said.

“Thirty,” Johan countered the offer.

“Twenty-five,” Ron scowled. “Take it or leave it.”

Johan turned around, huddling with the other mercenaries. After a few minutes of intense discussion, he looked at Ron, giving a curt nod. “Deal.”