Catarine was looking at Thaddius, "You know Thaddius, I have taken Lamruil on as a guard. He is leaving the city. I think you should invite him to join you at the Carnival as a guard. He isn't a bad sort, but I fear he will now be wasted or worse if he doesn't find some resolution to the humiliation you visited upon him when you fought. The demon hunters booted him from their guild when he failed to defeat you. He said the challenge wasn't his idea. The guild master had put him up to it to show the world how strong they were. Also, Lord Uldreyin wanted him out of the city before Samphire heard what he had tried to do by challenging you." she paused, looking at Tad, waiting for an answer.

Tad stared at her for a few moments. Catarine was a tall platinumed-haired elf, beautiful as all her race, and she was also the head of the merchant house of Lefe and his friend. Then he looked at Zanna. The first and only half-succubus in existence. She was half-elf and half-succubus. She was also tall like an elf, but she was more muscular. She wore a set of light leather armor colored a dark red, making her skin look almost pale in comparison. She was pretty, and her long dark red hair, which was almost a perfect match for the leather she had on, was pinned up in spiral ringlet curls in the back, slightly cascading down her shoulder. She had two small horns jutting up just inside her hairline in the front.

Zanna was also waiting to hear what Tad would say, "The situation he is in, it is of his own making. I am not responsible for his well-being. I know he is oath-bound not to hurt Zanna or anyone I call friend, but why would I trust him after all the trouble he caused? "

"You are not." Catarina paused a few moments thinking, "Perhaps you could talk to him and decide for yourself when we stop tonight. He will never say this, but he feels bitterness over what he was tasked to do and how the guild used him then threw him away. You might find a more flexible man that you could become friends with given time. He comes from an old family, and there is more to him than you might know right now." said Catarine in that eloquent Elvin tone she always used.

This was the third time Catarine had discussed this with Tad. She had used projection the previous two times, so their conversation was mind to mind and unheard by the others in the carriage. She was obviously not going to give up on this idea until Tad talked to Lamruil. Tad didn't dislike the elf. He just couldn't trust him around Zanna.

"I will talk to him tonight to see what Lamruil thinks about this idea," Tad said, finally giving up the argument. There was a very high chance Lamruil would just say no anyway, which would end the pestering Tad felt he was receiving.

When the caravan stopped for the night, Tad went to find Lamruil in the forward guard campfire area.

The wagons of the elves were very different from the ones used by the Carnival. These wagons were regular wagons with very little or no magic involved in their creation. The design was also different, where the Carnival wagons were square with slightly sloping roofs made of wood and shakes. These Elvin wagons were not fully enclosed with timber but instead had a lattice of branches grown tightly together and bent in a sweeping canopy, and the sides were made of cloth or fabrics. Many of the wagons had no tops on them at all and were open with sealed crates and barrels in the rear.

The horses drawing the wagons were also different, where the Carnival used draft horses in teams of four and even eight horses. These wagons are pulled by two or four tall thin-legged horses that look better suited to racing than pulling.

The outriders for the caravan used similar horses. The outriders are the guards that flanked the caravan when it moved forward, driving off any creatures or giving an early alert if something was approaching the road that might cause the caravan problems.

The night camp of the caravan setup had sentries that patrolled and were posted around the at intervals to guard or alert from dangers.

The caravan also had several warding totems, but none as powerful as Carnival's wards when traveling through the beast lands.

Ward totems are used to redirect creatures away from the wagon trains allowing the merchants to transverse the beast lands. Magical beasts or regular ones would just wander away from the wagons as the magic took effect, looking elsewhere for prey.

Tad made his way to the campfire area, wearing his staff over his shoulder in a leather strap and his small bag of holding at his belt. Seeing the Captain of the guards, he asked where Lamruil was. The Captain said Lamruil's squad had first shifted, and the elf would be on the watcher line to the front of the caravan.

The sun had set now, so Tad spread out his soulmancy, sensing for thoughts, he could feel all the sentries, but only one pushed back against his search. He went off in that direction. Lamruil had soulmancy and was skilled with its use. They could communicate with soulmancy but took two willing parties, and unless one person could identify the other, they would always just shield their thoughts and ignore any power sweeping over them. Range of communication could also be an issue.

When Tad was within a few dozen meters, he spoke out, "Lamruil do you have a moment to talk?" asked Tad into the gloom of night.

Tad was human and didn't have any night vision. He was confident though the elf could see him easily though.

There was silence for a few moments, "I'm to your right a few paces, keep your voice down. And stop stomping around making all that noise. "replied Lamruil.

Tad could make out the elf now as a shadow near a tree trunk. He tried his hardest not to make more noise, but his feet just seemed to find every small branch in the detritus of the forest floor as he made his way over.

"What do you want?" whispered the shadowy elf.

Tad projected an attempt at a soulmancy conversation with the elf, not wanting to make noise and feeling this was quicker.

Lamruil accepted, and his mental avatar appeared inside Tad's soulmancy area, which looked like a giant crystalline big tent from the Carnival sporting thousands of crystal facets for the walls and ceiling.

Lamruil looks around the tent.

"Catarine asked me to speak to you about the challenge and duel we fought. Actually, she won't stop pestering me about it. She seems to think that you were given a lousy choice made worse and that somehow I can help you. "said Tad as both of their avatars stood inside the soulmancy tent.

Soulmancy is very efficient for discussing things. The interaction of several minutes of conversation can take place in mere seconds inside a soul structure. You can't make contact uninvited, but once it's made, it is fast and quiet. In Tad's soul tent, one of the crystalline facets would light up, indicating the flow of energia between the two people. Most Fey used forest glades for their locations, but Tad felt more comfortable with the tent form he had chosen for his.

Tad's soulmancy avatar looked much as he saw himself in a mirror. He was a tall human with a tan. His skin was tanned from being outside for a few weeks on this trip. His hair was dirty blond, gone a little shaggy, and long in the back. Tad kept clean-shaven, and he had the even muscled tone of a Carnival acrobat or fighter. He wore a simple cotton shirt and pants, tied at the waist with a heavy leather belt with a simple brass buckle. The clothes were tan and grey. He wore Elvin half-boots. Over his shoulder, his staff also appeared in the tent strapped to his back. His adoptive mother said Tad had rugged good looks, but he thought most mothers said that about their sons.

Lamruil appeared much as Tad remembered him, tall and fair with the platinum white hair like most his race. His face had the longer Elvin heart shape and the tips of his ears poked out of his shoulder-length hair. He worse a lacquered brown leather armor and two short swords on his belt. Tad knew Lamruil could use those swords.

Lamruil's Elvin avatar nodded, "What else did she tell you?"

"That you were ordered to leave your home, and you were kicked from your guild of demon hunters because you lost the challenge and dishonored them. Did your guild master really tell you to challenge me? "asked Tad sounding a bit amazed someone would ask another to risk their own death in a challenge.

Lamruil looked at Tad for a few moments before speaking, "Catarine knows much more than I would have thought." He stopped responding for several moments, "All of that is true. The dishonor and possible backlash from Samphire have destroyed my future in the city of Aras a' Nimloth. I see now why the guild master didn't challenge you himself. The risk was too high for his cowardly self. As I said, I took no pride in challenging you. I did want the demon dead, but I would have abided by the ruling if not ordered to make a challenge by my guild leader. If I had won, all would have been well, and I'd have risen in rank in both the guild and city."

"Did he not defend you in front of Lord Uldreyin Venneiros?" asked Tad.

Lamruil shook his head negative, "No, he justified the whole thing by saying it was my idea which was not true."

"Didn't Lord Uldreyin know this wasn't true?" asked Tad.

He knew there were many magics at play in the court of the city. Indeed Lord Uldreyin had to have known the truth of the matter.

"The politics of court would never allow a challenge to my guild master. He has rank and power. I expect Lord Uldreyin felt it was best for everyone when he ordered me to leave the city and used possible future ties with Samphire's Carnival as an excuse. Who can tell the ways of Elvin courts that are many centuries old? I was surprised when Catarine offered to take me on as a guard, but I now see why she did. "said Lamruil.

Tad agreed with him. This did appear to have been planned to some extend. Did Catarine not trust him, or did someone else think Tad's natural inclination would be to help this elf out of his self-created problems?

"So now you are hiring out as a guard to a merchant caravan. Did you have any thoughts about the future? I know Samphire and Beothorn could always use more help with Carnival security, and it would be a more leisurely position than a sellsword. Also, you might want to talk to Samphire and explain your story to him. Beothorn and I will put in a good word for you. "said Tad. He knew his father Beothorn would hire Lamruil if the wards of the Carnival didn't react poorly to him. The dwarf had seen the duel, and this elf had more skill than any of the security guards. Tad also knows after fighting Lamruil that the elf valued honor, and he trusted he would leave Zanna alone. Sometimes fighting someone is the only way to really get to know them.

Suddenly in the darkness where the other sentry down the line was posted, they heard a scream and a crash. They left their soulmancy conversation in an instant. Tad reached out, trying to sense the other sentry forty yards away in the forest. He could feel the man was struggling in a fight to the death, but he could not sense with what.

The forest was quiet again. Lamruil took off through the night, and Tad summoned a light that looked like a small glowing mounted lancer and sent him on ahead of himself while taking the staff from the strap on his back. Arriving at the location of the fight, they witnessed a giant mound of leaves, sticks, and earth devouring the elf guard who had cried out. Eating him whole and head first, there was blood seeping from the edges where its mouth touched the elf.

Lamruil engaged the giant creature that looked like an eight-foot-tall mound of forest debris. The creature had vine-like hands and appeared much like a man weary a decaying carpet of leaves and sticks. Its face in the magic light looked more like a dirt blob with two deep green glowing eyes and a mouth that several moments before had been much larger while it was devouring the guard.

Lamruil struck several times with his two short swords that had crackling electricity running along the blades. The mound reacted. It disgorged the now unconscious elf sentry as several vines grew from the cuts Lamruil left in its abhorrent body. The electricity played across the areas, and the wholes in its sides closed wherever the energy went.

"I think it likes the electricity Lamruil. Can you stop feeding it?" said Tad as he ran past, trying to get between the mound and the unconscious elf guard. Tad tried to sense the creature, but the thing had no mental signature at all as if it had no mind to feel. He didn't understand what it was exactly, but he knew it wasn't truly alive. Even a regular plant gave off a tiny tingling when he used empathy on it.

Tad struck out with his staff several times. He heard branches break in the creature's body, but the beast ignored the damage as it reached for the two swords Lamruil was wielding.

"I can't turn them off. This is what they do when you wield them. "said Lamruil backing away from the creature. The mound followed with its eyes, intent on the two swords ignoring the unconscious sentry and Tad.

Tad stopped hitting the creature and cast a spell of flame. A small nozzle of fire shot from his right hand, bathing the back of the creature. This got its attention as the creature spun around vines whipping towards the being that dared to use fire upon it. It was easily seen now that the fire was spreading across its back.

Galadinidú, the staff that Tad wielded, projected to Tad, "Can we smite this one?" as the two ends of the staff burst into flames absorbing the remainder of Tad's spell. Tad moved from a one-handed to a two-handed stance.

He took the blow of the vines across the center of the staff as he braced it with both hands. Then ends of the vines lashed around, giving him a nasty series of welts across his back and side. Ouch, that stung.

"Yea, we can smite this one, Galadinidú., "projected Tad as he recovered, bringing the ends of the staff into a tight whirl of flame in front of him. He didn't even know what smite meant to the staff. Time to give it a try, he thought.

Tad brought the staff around, extending the staff as the flames near his hand winked out, the far end was still on fire as the extended overhand smash to the ground was empowered by the ability to smite and drove the staff through several vines the creature had put up to protect its head.

The staff blew through the vines like wheat before a scythe, straight into the top of the head as a brilliant white light mixed with flames engulfing the staff, driving it through, dividing the creature, hammering to the ground below it. To both sides, it lay burning. The remains twitched as the creature was consumed by the fires. Oh, that's what smite means, thought Tad. Nice.

Off in the distance, the cry's of others fighting similar creatures could be heard.

"Let's go smite some more! "projected Tad loudly at Galadinidú in his hands.

"Sure, in one week, let's do it." projected the staff back.

"A week? You CAN ONLY DO THAT ONCE A WEEK?" he projected back with a shout, now worried he had wasted the smite on something Tad believed he could have destroyed without smite.

"Once a week." affirmed the staff.

"Can you keep the flames going, or is that not an option either?" asked Tad as he sent his light ahead towards the sound of more fighting.

"The flames are your spell that I was able to conduit the energia. It's something I can do with any of your spells, even healing if you feel like hitting and healing people at the same time for the duration of your normal spell.

This was a lot all at once for Tad to figure out. The staff was an artifact that Tad had saved or picked up while escaping the demon fortress. Tad had named it Galadinidú, and he was still discovering what it could do other than find mana pools. The energia for the flames was mana being directed. Many folks just called all magic energy mana. But practitioners used mana for ambient or undirected magic. Energia was mana directed or being used to do something. The flames were Tad's energia being redirected through the staff, which would be kinda interesting. He wondered if it worked for ice also. The staff had a sentience of some sort. Tad wasn't sure if it was alive, something trapped, or residuals of another creature.

Tad sent a small ice patch spell at the smoldering flames trying to direct them through the staff.

The small fires went out as if he poured water upon them. This is precisely what he did as the ice spell pulled the moisture from the surrounding air to form it upon the burning twigs and brush. There was a sizzling and some steam. Usually, that spell just left a slight frost on the target. His mother had taught him this one alongside the fire spells. Good thing, too, because he could remember setting way too many things ablaze when he first learned to cast spells.

Lamruil and Tad approached the fighting farther down the line. There were several creatures busy being dismembered by the elite Elvin guards of Lord Uldreyin. Tad watched as pieces of the creatures wormed and wiggled their way back towards the mound's center as they slowly regenerated. The Captain was calling for torches to put the creatures to flame.

Running up to the three teams still slicing the creatures as they reformed on the ground, "Captain, what are these creatures?" asked Tad.

"They are abhorrent Shambling mounds. They require fire to kill. We will be here all night till fire or acid is applied. "said the Captain.

"One second, I can help," said Tad as he summoned another flame nozzle and slowly worked this one across the moving remains of the mounds. It wasn't a large amount of damage, but the twigs of the creatures caught fire unnaturally fast. Some of the other debris also caught fire, and after the mounds stopped moving, Tad cast an ice patch to put out the remaining flames. He had no intention of setting the forest on fire if he could help it.

As Tad was finishing with the last flame, "How do you think they got so close to the camp, Captain?"

It was nice that the staff helped Tad keep his energia up. He was certain when he wield it the mana would flow back into him at a much faster rate than before.

Tad was trying to remember the Captain's name, but he had only talked to the man once a week ago. He really needed to work on keeping track of names, he thought to himself.

"Mounds are not sentient. They are creatures created by magic from a mother tree. It must be near inside the warded area, and we missed it. We will have to find it, or it will spawn more of these things soon. We will send out two teams to find the fell creature and put it down. We can't leave it this close to the roads. The other merchant guards will remain at the camp. "said the Captain.

Santurin, that was his name Tad remembered. Captain Santurin, Tad had to spend more time outside that damn carriage talking to people.

"When a team finds it, they will send back word to gather the other team. We should be able to take it down safely with that many fighters, " said the Captain.

Two teams of ten set out. Tad, Lamruil, and Beothorn were in one team, and the guard captain took the other team.

Beothorn was wielding a shortened Elvin halberd with the shaft cut down and a round shield. He refused to be left out of this.

Lamruil ordered the other Elvin guards in their group to spread out ten paces in a row going out of the camp to the edge of the wards, then turning to sweep to the right in a circle. A short time later, they came upon a section of large dead trees, Tad could sense there was a presence in the tight grove, but he couldn't tell if it was the creature they were looking for, one of the elf guards approached closer to look and several roots burst out of the ground grappling him to the ground. Tad told one of the elves to run get the other team while they free the downed guard.

Beothorn waded in, swinging the impromptu ax around in tight arcs carving the vines as more started to burst from the ground. He stood there for several moments, cutting anything that moved. They could see the downed guard on the ground was slowly being pulled down into the earth by roots wrapped around his arm and body. Tad cast a spell as Lamruil, with non-enchanted swords he took from two guards with polearms. He started hacking away, working to reach the guard. Tad again cast a flame nozzle and worked it across the ground setting the grass and vines ablaze as he worked to burn the roots. When the fire got near, the roots and vines started to disappear back into the ground.

Several minutes later, the Captain's team arrived as the guards in Tad's team tried to excavate the half of their comrade that was buried as Tad, Beothorn, and Lamruil kept the vines back.

Captain Santurin's team each had torches, and they started setting the area around the dead trees alight. Several times roots could be seen breaking the surface inside the large circle of flames.

Tad walked around the outside, helping keep the flames from spreading, occasionally having to cast an ice spell to put out some of the larger patches. There were no green trees near the dead patch like the other parts of the forest. The forest had pulled back from these trees. Tad wondered what the creature would look like when it finally broke cover.

At this point, several of the larger vines and limbs of a large dead tree caught fire, and it spread faster than Tad expected, almost drawn into the dead hollow. Inside, the largest of the trees started thrashing about, whipping left and right as the flames started to race up its trunk.

Tad used his magic sight and noticed the tree had a green energia lacing through its bark, not the green of nature but the green of necromancy. All magic users could see energia or mana. It was part of the package used to cast spells.

This must be the mother of the shambling mounds? The fire was racing up all its trunk and branches. Within a few minutes, a high-pitched wail could be heard as the creature was consumed and quickly died. The fire burned for over an hour before the Captain said to start putting it out. Tad and all the elves worked their way from tree to tree, now extinguishing the wood with dirt. Several more elves were around the outside of the dead patch putting out small fires that tried to escape the circle as cinders.

After the elves saw how efficient Tad's spell was at putting out large patches of the fire, they spent most of their time digging up burning branches or rolling fallen logs over to make sure all of the flames were dead. Only once did the flame spread and reach other trees outside the dead patch. Tad quickly extinguished the flames. Some of the grass and tree leaves would surely die to the frost and cold, but the fire would not spread to the forest.

At the center of the grove of dead trees was a single one that was bent over dead and burned. A thick green ooze flowed from its bark, smashed fruit with its skin split open. The creature's trunk lay across the ground as if a tentacle of a sea creature had died here.

Tad used more soulmancy on the tree, but he sensed nothing of the creature from earlier.

Tad stood there with Beothorn and Lamruil staring at it as the early rays of dawn started to lighten the sky.

"You know I heard that these things would consume their victims while they still lived. Those shambling mounds would bring whatever they found back as food for this thing here. Below is the center of its trunk; we can find gems or other treasures that survived their lost owners. This one is young as it only had a handful of mounds to support it, but we should dig it up and see what it hides. We will share it out to the men that were in the fight." said Captain Santurin.

Tad just nodded and started walking back to the carriage. He had no interest in digging up this foul creature. For once, he was glad he would be inside and able to nap on the trip to the last portal.

Tad slept through much of the next day as the carriage moved along. When the caravan stopped for the evening, it was one day's travel from the portal that would take them to the Grand Bazaar. Tad went to eat some food with Beothorn. The dwarf was clearly struggling with nothing to do for once in his life. Tad could not remember when he had ever seen the dwarf not doing something with his day.

"Beothorn, how long do you think we have been gone from the Carnival? Three months?" asked Tad. Tad liked the dwarf, whom he just thought of as his father. Brothorn and Marena had taken Tad in as a child when Beothorn had found him abandoned after a bandit attack on the roadside. The dwarf had found him as a toddler and brought him back to the Carnival, where the dwarf was the head of security.

"At least that, "replied Beothorn.

Lamruil walked into the firelight, looking at Tad and Beothorn.

Lamruil projected to Tad, "Last night, you asked if I would join the guards for the Carnival. I didn't get a chance to answer. I have a question first, though. When you split that shambling mound down the middle, could you have done that during our duel? "

Tad looked at Beothorn a second, then back at Lamruil, projecting, "Yes."

"And you didn't consider using that power against me?" asked Lamruil.

"I did, but I decided that it would not be honorable. "said Tad.

Lamruil stood there, then turned to leave, stopped, then turned back. "I accept your invitation to join the Carnival's Guards. I will travel with it and see where it takes me. I'll find you when we are at the Grand Bazaar, and my duties are done. " Then he turned and walked away through the tents of the caravan.

***