Erhan looked at the dead courser from some distance away. He could have healed that if he arrived earlier. But now...

he sighed, looking at the dour expression on Becker's face, should he help them with the hunting? If he used a rock mantra, they’d have an easier time tracking the animals. But he was in a dilemma. On one hand, grey lions killing the horses was a natural act of predator and prey. His teaching forbade him to interfere in such acts. Especially by using his arts. On the other hand, if he didn’t help, it would delay the journey. Should he wait? Yeah, that would be better. If they don’t succeed in two days, then he would help.

He walked towards the gathered people. He had travelled a lot and even if he didn’t brag, he had more than adequate experience in hunting. Perhaps he could offer some suggestions?

The mercenaries gathered at one side discussing what they could do to hunt the beasts, while the knights on another, gathered around Becker and consoled him. Sena noticed Ehran approach them out of the corner of her eyes. She greeted him. “Are you going to help?” she asked.

“Only if you fail,” Erhan said.

Sena nodded. She didn’t have many expectations of this unsocial man.

they walked Together towards the roaring bonfire the workers had rekindled. The mercenaries sat in a circle around it, discussing strategies to take the beasts down.

“Where should we search for them?” asked a sturdy looking straw-haired mercenary. His name was Bob. like most people here, he had some experience in the battlefield, but he knew little about hunting. “Should we begin searching for them during the day?”

Another lanky mercenary named Harry shook his head and said “That wouldn’t work,” He was from a hunting family and had more right to speak in the field.

“Then when do we begin? Surely you are not suggesting we hunt them at night? That’d be like suicide in this place,” Bob said.

“No, I'm not saying that.”

Johan gave him a look of annoyance, “stop wasting time and be clear. What are you suggesting?”

“Well, you’re no fun,” Harry shrugged. “Why should we search for them at all?” he said.

The young mercenary named Josh who had argued with Ron said, “cause the stupid knights want to hunt those things and the trader wants to lick noble boots. Why else?”

Johan, who was sitting beside him, slapped him in the back of his head.

“Ow!” Josh caressed the sore spot as he glared at Johan. “What was that for, old man?”

Johan glared back in silent warning, gesturing behind Josh with his eyes.

“What?” Josh turned his head, coming face to face with a scowling Sena, standing behind him with her hands on her waist. “Oh! Oops!” Josh covered his mouth. the noble girl had a really ferocious expression on her face.

Erhan stood beside Sena, covering his lips with his fist, trying to ward of a smile from creeping upon them.

“Anyway,” Harry raised his voice, somewhat irritated with Josh for stealing his stage. “forget the idiot, and let’s go back to the discussion,” he said as he ran his eyes over the people looking at him. “The grey lions are far from their usual territory and despite their small numbers, they are daring enough to attack such a large, armed group of people.” he took a spare piece of firewood and drew some designs on the sand in front of him. “There can be a few reasons for this kind of behaviour. But the most likely one, I think, is that something drove them away from their territory.” he looked up again at their faces.

Erhan stood back and watched the discussion in silence. The mercenary, Harry, had some taste for theatrics. And if he was heading where Erhan thought he was heading, then he was mostly on the right track. If he was good enough, then perhaps Erhan might not have to step in.

“Get to the point,” Johan said, massaging his temple.

“What’s the hurry? I’ll get there in due time.” Harry pointed at five dots he had made on the red sand. “No predators would attack a big group such us without a reason. Most likely, they are willing to take the risk because they can’t find any other prey in the area. So they are unlikely to stop unless we leave the dead horses here. Which was the plan until the lady—” he dipped his head towards Sena. “—decided to hunt them down. so—”

Bob leaned forward and looked at the drawings on the sand. “But I heard those lizards are greedy,” he said. “Wouldn’t they still chase us if we left the horses here?”

Harry gave him an irritated glance from the corner of his eyes. “It’d stall them for some time. But that isn’t the main point, so stop interrupting me.” he pointed the stick at a circular design. “We find an open ground to camp on as we already decided. And…” pointing at the edge of the circle, he said, “We leave the dead horses just outside the camp. Not to close or too far.”

“But that way, wouldn’t the beasts get their food easily? How are we going to hunt them?” another mercenary named Reyden asked. “We should keep them in the middle of the camp under careful guard.”

Harry gave him a blank look as if looking at an idiot.

“What?” Reyden asked. “Why the hell are you looking at me like that?”

“You think grey lions are stupid like you?” Harry said.

“Hey,” Reyden stood up. “Now you’re asking for a beating.”

“You’d only alert them if you put a heavy guard on their food,” Sena decided to intervene on the conversation. This was dragging for a long time. She was reaching the limit of her patience. “If they can’t get to their food, they might attack us.”

“As the lady said,” Harry said, sighing with regret. “They might even attack us. Those things are sneaky. So if we aren’t careful, who knows? one of us might end up in their jaws.”

“So you’re just going to give them what they want,” Reyden said.

Harry shook his head. “Of course not.” he smiled with a slight hint of deviousness. “We’ll set up traps.”

Muddy moonlight fell through a light blanket of cloud, mixing the colours of rocks and boulders, making light or shadows, high or low an indistinguishable mess. A perfect night for hunting.

In the absolute greyness, a piece of the ground moved. It dashed, fast as lightning, from the shadow of one boulder to another. It wasn’t alone, four other shapes swiftly followed it. These movements made little sound, attracting the attention of no one as the shapes fleeted from shadow to shadow, advancing towards the food they had hunted last night.

Those silly humans must have scurried along by now. Now they could fill their bellies after starving so long. They wouldn’t mind some man-meat either, but those two-legged big oafs go mad if you kill one of them. Better to stick to the fellow four-legged ones. There are many of them, tied up and unable to move just waiting to enter their mouth. If they are careful, they might secure enough food to last them until they find another hunting ground.

One of the shapes climbed a boulder, raising its reptilian head covered with a mane like grey frills to peep at the place they had hunted last night. It’s body as big as a wolf’s leaned in, dilated eyes taking in all the light they can, trying to spot the fallen shapes of their prey. It spotted nothing. Not even the camp of the humans was there. That’s weird. Did the silly oafs take their hard-earned prey with them? Were those humans so stingy?

Sharp inchlong, triangular scales all over its body stood up like a cat’s fur. It was angry.

It scampered down the boulder where it’s companions waited. “Krrrrrr,” a low sound came out of its throat. The five of them chittered for a while, then headed out. It was time for them to track those humans down.

They came where the horses were before and after a lot of sniffing around, they found their way. They chased after the footsteps of their prey through the shadows. Soon they spotted light from afar. They found them. The smell of those dead horses was just up ahead. They had to be careful. There was almost no place to hide. And those flickering and swaying lights the humans lit on their sticks were also there.

The oldest of them, the one as big as a tiger, had a long scar on its back. Only half of its whiplike tail remained. These wounds were a testament of a battle it had long ago against those two-legs. When it came to experience about humans, none of the others could rival it. It looked at where their food was, just on the edge of where those humans were living. This seemed too easy. It chattered, stopping the others and sniffed the air. The smell of trouble tingled its snout.

Erhan opened his eyes and looked towards the south. Black silhouette of hills under murky moonlight spread before his eyes. “They’re here,” he whispered, getting up from his resting place on the edge of the smouldering campfire.

He looked down at the boulder beside him. Sena leaned against it with her eyes closed. She took soft, deep breaths. Her lips were slightly open, leaking some drool on her chin. Not a noblewoman’s demeanour by any means. She reminded him of a companion he had adventures with some forty to fifty years ago. Both women had the same awkward personality. Come to think of it, she had also been from a warrior noble house, the Sikhra house.

Sena frowned and muttered incoherent words. maybe she was having some nightmares. Should he wake her up?

Some of the mercenaries also seem to have noticed the beast's approach. He sensed some of them rustle awake from there beds and flap out of their tents.

Some of the traps they laid were good ones. And though the knights grumbled about it being dishonourable, The idea of poisoning the dead horses had been particularly clever, more so since it had come from Josh, the seemingly reckless, big-mouthed young mercenary. That guy had a poisonous mind. Except for becker’s courser, which had been cremated at his insistence, the other two dead horses were laced with an unholy amount of rat poison from the merchandise.

Again, Sena paid for that from her savings. Her pocket reeled from the pain, along with her heart. she had been grumbling about that as she fell asleep.

Deciding against waking her up, for now, Erhan sat cross-legged beside the fire. He held his staff straight beside him with his right hand and kept his left relaxed and the back of the palm against the left knee. He closed his eyes and muttered a mantra of sight.

Inside his mind, the gloomy world of the night turned as bright as day. The darkness, the shadows disappeared, and the features of lands appeared covered in a strange shade of green, blue and violet. They rippled and surged before his eyes like the view underwater. It was the sight of a world beyond the physical, the world of spirits.

Many points of light floated around the world. They whizzed and zipped by like red, green, blue fireflies. The fragments of spirits. Erhan watched the world through their eyes. The vision hovered over the land and under it at the same time, at the same time he saw right and left, the sky and the ground— a beautiful, bizarre psychedelic experience, too much to take in for any sane mind. Even with his training, it was overwhelming, especially since it had been more than a decade since he used these arts. His mind reeled from the vision, his stomach churned and a sense of nausea rose to his throat. He swallowed the bile and took a long, shaky breath. He was more out of touch than he thought.

But he couldn't take it easy on himself. he had to get his touch back as soon as possible. He forced his mind to stay within the vision, chaining it down as he shed down the Excess With an immense effort and narrowed down the focus of his vision to that of an Eagle's. A drop of blood, like a bright red pearl, appeared in the corner of his left eye, reflecting the flickering image of the dying flame.

The vision travelled for a time, now only hovering over the land, until it appeared at the edge of a depression. The two carcasses lay in the middle of it, covered in a strange black fog only visible to him. The mist of demise. It appeared on dead things, or on things that contained deadly danger. It was thicker than usual here, as the trap contained both.

He spotted them on the edge of the depression. Five grey shapes skittered around the perimeter. They sniffed, inspected, and tested the ground ahead of them in various ways. Perhaps it was their keen instinct that had warned them of the danger ahead but they were suspicious, hesitant to go on. Maybe they smelled the poison too. Although it was of an odourless variety, there was too much of it. Was the plan going to fail?

He noticed the biggest one amongst the grey lions, one with many scars and only half of its tail, was leading the others. Its cautious nature was what kept the other lizards from storming their food. It made low hisses, spreading and shaking the mane like frills along its neck. After a lot of sniffing around, it signalled one of them to go forward.

The lizard crawled towards the carcasses, slowly extending one hesitant, measuring foot after another like tree lizards. Eyes whirling, nose sniffing, it took an excruciating amount of time for it to reach the first trap, the tripwires set to a bell. With a small skilful leap, it avoided that trap and the following few, the lassos, nets and sharp stakes hidden amongst the pieces of rocks and boulders scattered around. Then it reached its destination, the carcass of the horses.

Food! Right in front of its eyes. Saliva flowed down its jaws. Although the old one ordered it to bring a piece back without eating it,but the smell of it! Oh, just the smell of the tantalizing raw flesh in front of it was making focusing on the task so hard. One bite, just one tiny bite wouldn’t hurt, right? It had been starving for so long.

It couldn’t stop. Its knifelike sharp fangs snapped down on soft belly of the horse, piercing the skin and reaching flesh. A low hissing and chattering reached its ears, the old one's warning. It ignored the sound and tore through the skin with its fangs and claws. It reached the meat and took a triumphant bite out of it.

A tiny bite wasn’t enough, it gorged itself bite by bite, gulp by gulp and when it came back to its senses it was already half full. It couldn’t ignore the incessant warnings of the old one anymore. It tore a piece of meat, holding it in its mouth and turned around, now it just had to track it’s way back through these annoying tricks the oafs laid around and its task would be complete.

Seeing it turn around, the old lizard stopped its anxious chattering. It didn’t want to make any sound if not for that reckless fool of a youngster. But least it was all right. Since nothing happened to it, maybe it worried too much. Maybe the meat was safe to eat. But that young one acting like a fool and putting their lives at risk. Wait for it to come back, there was a beating waiting for it when they were safely away from this place.

The young lizard was in a good mood, it made its way over to its companions, carefully avoiding the traps. It was halfway through when a sudden pain hit it guts like a hammer. Its slow pace became even slower. Its muscles spasmed and its whole body shrunk in pain bent in like dying spider. The meat it was holding, dropped from its slack jaws. A strange, muffled groan sound escaped from the back of its throat. so much pain! it was tearing its inside apart.

It lurched forward, tripping and snapping a thin string. A net sprang up and trapped it. It thrashed around in front of the increasingly anxious eyes of its companions, tripping one trap after another. Wounds covered its whole body as its death throes became smaller and smaller until all its movements ceased.

Dead! It was dead! The scales of the remaining creatures stood up straight. They spread their frills and hissed shrill and loud, like a thousand nails scraping on the ground. They no longer cared about staying quiet. They were the only five to escape alive when the other beasts attacked their nest. They had survived so long by only depending on each other. But now, one of them was dead!

A volley of arrows rained down on them, impaling one through the back of its skull and grazing the leg of another. No! Those devious two-legs! They stopped their shouting and skittered for cover.

The oldest gave a sharp and piercing shout. retreat!

The remaining three creatures took one last hate-filled look at their two dead companions and turned around, scampering off in the darkness. A sound of hooves followed them.

Erhan woke with a start. A hand on his shoulder had been shaking him for a while, but he was too absorbed in the vision to notice. His focus broke, leaving only darkness in his mind and the nausea of excessive bloodloss sent him reeling.

That was dangerous! If he couldn't pull back in time...

His mind was already spinning, but before he could fall, he felt a hand holding him up. Opening his leaden eyelids was difficult and took him a few seconds, but there was only cloudy darkness ahead of him. Doubt appeared in his mind. he did open them right?

“...han? Erhan!” from the end of a long tunnel, or maybe penetrating a thick blanket, or perhaps over a bunch of annoying flies buzzing around his ears, a voice reached him. His vision cleared over time like a black glass that became lighter and clearer. A blurry face was looking at him with concern. A familiar face.

Leah? Ellie? He reached out his fingers to touch it, but as his sight cleared his outstretched fingers shrunk back.

“Are you ok? Can you hear me?” Sena, who was holding him up, had a hint of concern in her voice.

Erhan gave a weak nod. He pushed himself upright with his hand on the ground, leaning against his staff. He took calm deep breaths to regain his balance and composure. He brought his left hand before his eyes in the now roaring light of the rejuvenated campfire, he opened and closed his fist a few times. “Yeah, so out of touch.”

“What happened?” Sena asked, letting go of his shoulder. “There’s blood in the corner of your eyes.” she gave him a suspicious glance. “Were you doing… you know…” she made a strange wiggling motion with the tips of her fingers.

Was that gesture supposed to mean spiritcraft? Erhan wiped the corner of his eyes with the edge of his sleeve. He stared at the red patch on the grey hemp cloth. The blood he had lost in this bout of spiritvision was more than this. In fact, it was a lot more than he needed to sacrifice. Casting after so long… he needed to get back in shape and put more effort into practising if he wanted to find the artefact.

“My lady,” Samuel’s hurried footsteps broke him out of his thoughts. The youngest knight cast an irritated glance at him before looking at Sena. “Becker didn’t listen to us, my lady. He’s gone alone to chase after the rest of the lizards. Rick and some mercenaries are following him.” He bent down and propped his hands on his knees to catch his breath. Running with armour on was definitely a mistake. After a few gulps of air, he continued. “There’s still three of those buggers left. Beck might be in danger if Rick can’t catch up with him.”

“Seriously, what are you doing?” Sena stood up from where she was kneeling in front of Erhan. “I told you to keep an eye on him. His mind isn't calm right now.”

“But he took off by the time we lowered our bows,” Samuel said with a bit of stubbornness. “He took one of the mercenary’s horses. We were just a bit late to notice.”

Sena tilted her head and looked at him for a moment. “Again, you are making excuses,” she said.

Samuel scratched his head with an awkward smile.

Sena sighed. “Well, no use moping around here,” she looked at Erhan and asked, “Are you going to come with us?”

Erhan pushed himself up on his two feet with his staff, looking like an old man. “Might as well,” he said, stretching his back. “I don’t have a horse though,” he said to Sena.

“Don’t worry, we got that covered.”