Wiping the sleep from his eyes Lleu slightly ducked the low branch of a tree that passed overhead. They had been back on the enquian and traveling since daybreak, only having taken a moment to make sure the mounts were well fed and happy.

“Take a look over there,” said Aelan as he pointed towards one of the larger valleys recognizable through the fog covered terrain. Standing up in his saddle Lleu took a look and marveled at the sight. A large scar carved its way through the floor of the valley into which a river of mist constant flowed.

“What is it?” inquired Lleu.

“Just a small canyon, they get more frequent the closer we get to the mountains. Nothing to worry about unless we ride into them blindly, just something interesting to look at otherwise.”

Sliding back down into his seat Lleu decided it was now time to take out the sack of replicas Aelan had given him the night before and see if he could complete the given task of making them not do anything.

He pulled out the first one and everything around him briefly went dark as black fog billowed from the stone. It only lasted a moment though since the replica quickly disintegrated into dust just as the previous ones had. Sighing, Lleu took out another and made a second attempt, hoping that he would figure out the trick to it.

A little later Lleu was brushing the dust of the third replica off of his legs and reached for the fourth. In that moment the sounds of cracking twigs made themselves audible a little off in the distance. Immediately Aelan signaled a change in direction and they turned and headed towards the closest hill.

“There is an aberration closing in on us, stay behind me when it appears,” Aelan commanded as they sped up a steep slope. Reaching the crest of the hill Aelan jumped from his saddle just in time to block the clawed spike of the monster leaping from the tangled trees.

The creature, an aberration as Aelan had called it, truly looked like something from another world with its ridiculous number of legs and thickly armoured purple body. Almost faster than Lleu could follow it sent out several strikes, each of which was cleanly dodged by Aelan, and screamed in pain as a spear embedded itself into its body. Several more of these spears were currently floating in a revolving circle above Aelan and began launching themselves towards the creature at waves of his hand

Uncasing his bow and knocking an arrow Lleu prepared a shot but hesitated as a slight rustling to the right caught his attention. Turning, he saw a second one of the monsters trying its best to approach the fight without being noticed. He turned, lined up his shot, and let the arrow fly. With a thud, it found its mark inside of a large eye on the creature's side which writhed in agony at the injury.

Turning from his freshly slain foe Aelan jumped towards the second enemy and impaled it with the remainder of his levitating spears.

“Good shot,” he said, “You can come out of your shroud now.”

For the first time, Lleu noticed that he had still been holding onto the replica and that he was covered in the black fog from head to toe. With a loud crack, the stone shattered leaving the surprised Lleu behind. It seemed that he had been able to use the object without destroying it while he had been distracted.

‘My focus on it was the problem!’ he thought, the solution now becoming clear to him. When he had been focused on the stone it had not been able to survive whatever stress he had put it under however when he had been using it without realizing, the stress had been less and it had been able to properly function!

Quickly he reached for another one of the stones inside the half-empty bag and intentionally began thinking of the fight they had just been in. Although it quivered slightly the replica stayed intact, he had figured out the trick!

“We should keep on moving,” said Aelan having gathered and cleaned his weapons, “there aren't many of them out here but their blood will attract whatever others are lurking around, best to leave and avoid them.”

The two remounted and with Aelan in the lead sped back down the way they had come from. They kept a high pace for a time but soon slowed down as Aelan relaxed and mentioned they should be in the clear. On they traveled and with the mountains now slightly closer and easier to recognize. Squinting at them, Lleu finally asked a question that had been bothering him for some time, “How come they look so jagged?” He was, of course, referring to the fact that the mountains were all straight lines and sharp corners.

“We think they were made by someone or something. I visited the south a few years back and their mountains don't look anything like ours do. Additionally, the mountain chain forms a perfect half moon shape. It is a clean separation of the lands we go searching into those we come from. Anyway, we should be at our campsite for the night soon.”

Up ahead a circle of large boulders crowned the top of another hill and soon they rode between the rocks. A small clearing similar to the one they had been in the night before spread out ahead of them and they quickly began setting up their sparse camp.

Just as he had the previous day Lleu began the training routine. He had to work through it quickly as Aelan wanted to leave before daybreak the next day. Not much later night fell and the exhausted Lleu wrapped himself in his cloak and fell asleep next to his mount.