Eventually the party emerged from the woods that concealed the swamp where they had fought Fabian onto wide grassy plains dotted with hills and rocky outcroppings. Clouds covered the sky, filtering out the sunlight, so that the green of the grass appeared somewhat discoloured, taking on a drab, greyish hue. A chill wind whipped at their exposed faces, the air growing ever colder as they pressed on north.

They were tired from their fight with Fabian, but press on they did. From the slant of what sun made it through the overcast sky, it must be mid-afternoon of their sixth day of travelling (since Primus had first recruited Horatio, Ceres and Egea in the inn at Fyorda). They would stop to camp somewhere at nightfall–if Primus did not initiate it, then Horatio would demand it, he had decided. His encounter with the crazy Braxian in the swamp had only strengthened his conviction that the party must take care of themselves on this journey, no matter how fixated their employer was on reaching their goal as soon as possible.

Primus, in spite of his age, strode purposefully at the front of the group, as ever, taking direction from Helen, who walked next to him.

After a few moments walking the plains, the old scholar turned and said to the Huntress, ‘You’re sure we’re going in the right direction to find Olivia?’

At first Helen merely nodded, her pink hair bobbing in the breeze that tickled the feather sitting behind her ear. ‘You do not need to ask, magician. I know she is heading this way.’ She held up something which caught some of the faint sunlight and glinted–what looked like a strand of golden thread. ‘You clearly didn’t see me find this snagged on a tree-branch as we made our way out of the forest. Your granddaughter’s hair is blonde, is it not? I am sure that she went this way and that she is heading for Vishay. Plus, I have her scent.’

A thought occurred to Horatio. He addressed Ouzo, who walked to the right of him, a few paces behind Primus and Helen. ‘Hey, don’t you have an enhanced sense of smell as a wolf clanner? Shouldn’t you be helping us to track Primus’s granddaughter too?’

Ouzo looked at him and grinned. Or was that just his normal, neutral expression? The wolf’s muzzle was so long and his teeth so big it was hard to tell. ‘Alas, master,’ said the wolf, ‘but Ouzo long ago destroyed his sense of smell, which was indeed highly advanced, much more so than yours, by dabbling in his potion-making. One too many accidental explosions in the face of weasel-root mixed with thunder-powder will do that. Now Ouzo’s sense of smell is ruined, and only as good as a human’s. It is a bit like being blind.’ Now the wolf definitely smiled, or smiled more, as his mouth stretched even wider and he showed even more of his sharp teeth. ‘But it was worth it to learn how to make firebombs. And at least I still have other skills, such as ice magic and torturing. I’m very good at torturing, aren’t I, master?’

Horatio grimaced.

He would have found something affirming to say to Ouzo, but up ahead of them Primus and Helen had gotten into an argument.

‘I am telling you, old man, we are on her trail,’ Helen was saying. It seemed that Primus was still doubting the Huntress’s tracking skills. ‘It will not be long until we catch up to her. I know it.’

‘I am just saying that you had better be right,’ said Primus. ‘It has been a couple of days since we last spoke to someone who had seen Olivia, and I am putting a large amount in trust in you, hunter. You had better not be leading us on a wild rat chase, or into some sort of trap.’

‘Look!’ said the girl Silvia unexpectedly all of a sudden, pointing off into the distance ahead of them.

Horatio looked with the others.

Far, far away, near the horizon, moving up towards the crest of one of the little hills that studded this part of Gard, out from being obscured by another nearer one so that they had not been visible until now, was a collection of figures.

While not more than specs at this distance, they were definitely either people or creatures. Horatio could see one figure at the front of the pack a little way ahead of the others, and then about fifteen others fanned out behind it randomly, but it was difficult to count them because they were moving so fast. A collection of dots rapidly ascending the distant hill.

‘Well spotted, Silvia!’ Ceres praised the girl.

‘It could be Olvia!’ Primus exclaimed. ‘And those might be monsters chasing her!’

‘What do we do?’ Egea asked for the rest of the group.

‘Run!’ Primus yelled, ‘Run, I command you, if you want to be paid!’

The scholar broke into a run, following his own command.

Horatio began running too, overtaking the old scholar easily. They had walked, rather than run, on their journey up until now, in order to pace themselves and conserve their energy, and because Primus would not be able to run long distances anyway. Walking, the old man had still been able to match the speed of the rest of them, even set it. Now running, there was no way he would be able to keep up.

‘Go, go!’ Primus called after Horatio and the others as they shot ahead of him across the plains. ‘I will catch up to you! Go! Get her! Get my granddaughter back before those monsters catch her!’

Horatio gritted his teeth and willed his body on. His legs began to tense with pain and his chest began to burn, but he kept his pace up. This was it. They were closing in on their quarry. He was damned if he was going to fail in this job.

Helen ran next to him across the grass, with Ouzo on the other side of her. The wolf clanner may have lost his innate sense of smell, but he was still as fast as a wolf–or almost as fast, Horatio guessed. A quick look over his shoulder showed him Ceres and Wyvera following not too far behind. Only Silvia, with her shorter legs, lagged behind between the old man and the rest of them.

He looked forwards again and refocused. The collection of specs they were chasing had reached the top of the hill it has been climbing

‘Come on!’

They ran hard, Horatio’s legs and chest only burning hotter as he forced them to obey him, taking big gulping breaths of air to sustain him.

They hit a hill of their own, which had been much nearer, and the incline was vicious. But when they got to the top of it, they were rewarded with another sighting of whoever it was that they were chasing, now visible on the flat beyond the hill they had just come down.

‘They’re fast!’ Horatio gasped as he ran. ‘But they’re not faster than us! We can catch them, if we keep the pace up!’

That was when the specs stopped.

They just stopped where they were, frozen in place in one of the valleys between the grassy hills.

‘What are they doing?’ Horatio wondered aloud as he came to a stop next to Helen and Ouzo, and panted for air.

‘I’m not sure…’ said Helen, watching carefully. She did not even seem to be out of breath.

Then the figures began moving again, only this time they split into two groups, moving in different directions.

The smaller group continued to move in the direction that they had all originally been going in.

The other group, about a dozen or so dots, began to move in the opposite direction, towards the party.

‘They’ve spotted us!’ cried Helen. ‘I can see them now they are getting closer! A pack of monsters! Were-rats, orcs, a succubus, even a shadow drake!’ She must have very keen eyesight.

‘What do we do?’ said Horatio.

‘You keep going!’ said Primus, apparently i still running behind, catching up to them. ‘You meet them head on!’

They charged forwards again, pounding the grassy ground with their steps. Horatio’s knees and shins ached, especially after all the walking over the last week, but he could handle this. He had done plenty of hill running as training around his hometown before setting out to make his reputation and fortune as a sellsword. He could handle this. Couldn’t he?

They ran down the slope, across the flat, coming to another hill, and the monsters running to meet them disappeared from view for a short while. But when they crested this new hill Horatio saw them clearly for the first time, dashing towards them in a close-knit pack, closing the distance between them at more than double the rate that the party had been gaining on them before, now that they were running directly towards each other.

Helen had been exactly right. There were huge white were-rats scurrying close to the ground. There were snarling, sharp-toothed orcs, the odd protrusions that had been jutting out from them when they had just been distant specs now visible as wooden clubs. There was a succubus flying along on leathery batlike wings, which explained why one of the dots had seemed to hover in the air. [Re-insert this earlier.] There were weird grey octopus things floating alongside it. There were animate golem-dolls speeding along in an inhuman, machine-like manner, their arms and legs all pumping up and down together in a uniform rhythm that betrayed the magic which moved them. There were bandit Braxians running along at the back of the pack, jostling the monsters forwards. And, at the back of the monster pack, sure enough, a small shadow dragon could be seen zipping along, almost like the other foes were all running ahead in fear of it.

A whooshing, whistling noise sounded all of a sudden, from behind Horatio. He looked round as he ran.

Primus was flying through the air with his back to them, coming towards them. Silvia trailed along after him clutching onto one of his hands, her face frozen in a terrified grimace. With Primus’ other hand, he was using one of his ‘blizzard’ spells to propel himself and the thief-girl along, the reverse-force of the icy wind coming from his palm thrusting them forwards, leaving a path of white, frozen grass in their wake.

The pair were moving fast.

Very fast. Getting closer by the second.

Horatio’s eyes went wide.

‘Watch out, Prim–’ he began shouting.

The Sage and the thief-girl crashed into him, hitting him hard. They all tumbled over on the ground together before coming to a halt with a bump.

‘What was that for?’ said Horatio, rubbing his arms. His heart beat heavy and fast against his ribs from the running.

‘Sorry, lad,’ mumbled Primus. A rare apology! ‘I wasn’t about to leave all the fighting to you lot. I needed a way of boosting myself forwards. Inelegant, as I can’t see precisely where I’m going, and I did use a bit of mana, but at least I’ve caught up to you. Now, come!’

The Sage was already up again, running forwards after Helen and the others, who hadn’t halted their charge towards the monsters.

Horatio helped Silvia to her feet and they both took off after him.

The monsters were nearly upon them now, only fifty or so paces away across the flat, fangs glinting, growls issuing, wings flapping.

Horatio bellowed a battlecry as the two groups smashed into each other.

Battle 1 and 2