By noon they stood in a gigantic empty lot, the last few wagon shops, including Gerry's, were in the midst of their last preparations to set off. Blue Paradise, Kana's band, were situated at the big, beautifully decorated wagon at the front, before it was an armored wagon with four men in fully plated metal armor checking their swords one last time before departure. Most of the personal transporting wagons were full but some were still letting people in. looking back into the town behind, you could not have guessed what transpired here last night. On the streets only the few locals and an adventurer or two who have yet to leave.

A human with messy short brown hair, grizzle for a beard and many scars adorning his armored body stood on a stool by the armored wagon and shouted back to the caravan in front of him. "Hello everyone, I'm Bob, the leader of the caravan's guards and per my mission I request everyone to get redy as we are about to go." As all the others went on their designated wagons Henry, Emilia, Rolen and Bolvar searched a wagon with free spaces for them. "What are you doing? Come joing us here." A certain gnome shouted to the group from the second wagon in the line. They walked the carts and wagons and joined Blue paradise as the caravan left Tonlin.

A few hours passed and all were engaged in light hearted conversations. "So why was he like a brother to you? I mean, he was old enough to be your grandfather." Emilia looked at Sharlen sitting beside her, holding the reins of two horses. "Well, if you'd met him you'd know he doesn't have the mature personality of an old man. He was always running ahead, making jokes, hitting on every girl he met. Like the time with the dryad, I've never seen before someone being punched so high." "You think this was impressive? Wait till you hear about the dragonite girl." Kana shouted from the small window at the side of the wagon and in the following hours all the caravan heard stories of the many romantic failures Ronan had during his life.

As the sun passed the center of the sky a shout in an unknown language was heard. The first wagons retreated on Bobs command, forming a defensive circle while the guards standing outside. A second high voice screamed and then a third and a fourth before many more joined and from beyond the hills in front jumped seven creatures of gnome's height with skin ranging from dark red to orange and yellow to green. A warning call was sounded from the side as footsteps resounded from both sides heard before Bob shouted. "Goblins to the south and west."

Rolen positioned himself so he could send a dark blue bolt from his amber coin above the two horses flinching from Emilia, who is jumping above them. Emilia used the momentum of the jump to impale a brownish orange goblin who was about to hit Bob. She spoke to the guard as he evaded one of the goblins' scimitars. "Do you need some help here?" Bob responded as a goblin stepped aside to avoid his spear. "No thanks, I'm good." Emilia looked at the goblin who evaded his spear laughing at the man "Sure you do. You're really taking them down left and right."

Bolvar jumped off a cart and walked to the middle of the road before shouting words of a language which sound more like singing than speaking. A few goblins looked at him for a moment before returning to their gathering around one of the guards, except for one who started charging towards Bolvar. As Bolvar prepared to face his foe, a bolt of fire hit the goblin and send him stumbling back. From between a carriage and a wagon, Henry stood, pointing his ruby at the goblin. The guard surrounded by goblins shouted back to one of his comrades. "Gerry, can you lend me a hand here?" the guard, with his sword locked with that of a goblin shouted back "I'm sorry, Tom. Just hold on and I'll get to you."

Emilia steps around the goblin's body, sticking her rapier and dagger into another goblin. "Watch and learn, young miss." Bob launched at a goblin, who jumped away from his spear into that of a guard that just reach the scene from the side. "It is truly magnificent how much I've learned from you just now." Emilia chuckled before a scream behind her told her that one of the guards just died. She turned to see a guard's body lying beside a goblin's body and Bolvar sticking his sword through a limping goblin behind the two bodies.

Rolen walked in between a wagon and a horse cart, peeking at the mayhem outside the protective circle he's in. He stretched his coin holding his hand as far as he could, aiming at the last goblin he sees, standing between Emilia and Bolvar. A bolt of dark blue energy jumped from the coin charging to the goblin and throwing off the now singed body a few shors back. "Are there goblins to kill on your side, Henry?" Henry looked through a gap in the wagon ring at a guard leaning on a spear which is stuck in a goblin, clearly tired and hurt, and say half heartedly. "I have it."

Henry pointed his ruby tear at the group of goblins who killed the guard and spoke words of unintelligible language. From thin air a minuscule ball of sand appeared beside him, growing and changing shape to that of a halfling. The creature floated gently toward the four goblins and rested above them, reaching to the big pouch he was carrying. The creature took out a handful of sand and sprinkled it down to the goblins who looked at him from under with scimitars raised. As the sand sinked into their eyes, the goblins blinked a few times before closing their eyes and falling to the ground, one of them began snoring.

"Set all the bodies in a pile, don't forget to take Joey's tags before you burn them." Bob commanded at the one unharmed guard as he himself was poking the sleeping goblins by the other body. Emilia, healing the injured guard on a crops' cart, spoke loudly. "I'm sorry, if I were stronger, faster." The guard, no longer injured responded. "Are you kidding? If not for you guys, I don't think any of the people here would be alive right now." Emilia jumped off and took a couple of steps toward Bob. "What are their names?" Bob stop and answered quietly. "Their names were Joey Melcom and Tom Nock." "I will write a song in their honor." Bob looked at Emilia, a sad smile on his face. "I'll look forward to hearing it."

The caravan stopped its advance at late noon, creating a semicircle. Bob called out to Emilia and Bolvar as they jumped off the carts they were seated on. "Thank you again for helping with security, though I really think you should have stayed as passengers." "Don't worry about it, it's only natural to help." Bolvar said as he helps an elderly woman to get out of a carriage. Emilia stretched and walk to the perimeter's border and back. "So, what's next, a night watch?" "Well, first well scan the perimeter and then you will prepare for the night and will watch. Emilia, do you mind going with me? Bolvar, it will be great if you go with Gerry."

Emilia moved a branch as she advanced in the forest, Bob walks beside her. "You’re a pretty tough girl, how did it got to it?" Emilia picked a broken branch, showing it to Bob "My old group was traveling a lot and we weren't much of believers of hiring bodyguards, I got quite a few scars from that time." Emilia stop Bob from stepping on a goblin's foot-mark. Bob step back and raise his shirt, revealing a wide array of scars. "You mean, something like this giant boar tusk mark?" Emilia snores and reveal a giant talon mark on her shoulder and upper chest. "This is from a wyvern." "Wow, but it's nothing like this roper scar." "I got this as well." Emilia pass her hand on her neck, sweeping the makeup from two tiny holes. "Is that vampire bite? Does it mean you're a vampire now?" "No, I can walk in the sun. Be careful of the goblin poop."

After some time Bolvar and the guard assigned to him returned to the caravan. Bolvar sigh in despair. "How is it that you found all the tracks? Are you some sort of a hunter?" "Well, you'd found more tracks if you weren't so busy in our conversation." "But the difference between a religion and a cult is an interesting topic." After a few more minuets Emilia and Bob came from their side of the forest. "And I tried doing three flips, but the stage weren't big enough, so after two flips I fall off the stage and fractured a bone in my leg. Well, what do you say about we continue this over a drink in town?" "It would be great." Bob's smile became a severe expression. "Let's discuss what we found."

Bob presented to the others a shard of metal object Emilia found stuck in a tree. "from what we gathered, it seems like a huge group of goblins went west." Gerry took the shard and examined it as he reported their findings. "From the patrol we have done on our side, it seems like the same conclusion can be drawn." Emilia froze for a second before addressing Bolvar. "Do you remember the lizardmen? There were dozens of them as well." Bob looked at Emilia in amazement. "You fought dozens of lizardmen?" Bolvar snickered and replied. "We didn't fight them, we saw their footprints going west. "Emilia continued "I don't like it. Why is everything is going west?" Bob marked the people to return to the wagons and led it an additional hour or so before he settled on a place for the night.

The caravan was preparing for the night, bigger tents already up with their backs to the wagons, hosting Blue Paradise and the big merchants of the caravan while smaller tents and sleeping bags dotted the area, surrounding campfires of varying sizes. Emilia's sleeping bag was already placed near Blue Paradise and the guards' tents as Rolen was taking out from his backpack sticks and big pieces of fabric and tried to put them together. "Do you need some help with that?" Emilia asked as she stood across the fire. "No, I'm done." Rolen tried to throw the fabric on the frame only to have it fall apart. "Okey, how do I do this?" Emilia walked around the flame and began teaching Rolen how to build a tent.

After teaching Rolen to build a tent, speaking to Bob's crew about accommodations for Henry and Bolvar, Emilia walked into the forest. She found a quiet spot, the stars visible above and a small stream nearby. Emilia sat on a rock and looked at the scene around her before taking out of from her backpack a pendant. The pendant was made from gold and silver who were arranged in intricate design, holding a royal blue sapphire with a mark of CR embedded into it in white stone. The gem and the mark on it, the same mark adorning Rolen's clothes in the few instances he is not cloaked by magic, were cracked and a single piece was missing. Emilia opened the pendant to reveal a tiny piece of paper replacing a painting that was there, on the paper was a mark of a wheel made out of orchids with their stems representing the spokes.

Tears gushed out of Emilia's eyes and rolled on her face as she could no longer hold them in. She cried for a while, running the images of his death in her mind time and time again. Sadness, anger, hatred, guilt and more washed over her, choking her with agony. The cries, silenced by the stream were cut short by a scream of terror. Emilia closed the pendant and returned it to its place before jumping down, swinging the backpack over her shoulder and running off with her dagger and rapier unsheathed. When she reached what seemed to be the source of the scream, she saw Bolvar, Bob and a few others standing on the road at a distance long enough to be out of view from the caravan. Emilia asked around and when she came to the conclusion that there is no danger lurking, she returned to camp.