James, Jack, and the rest of the merchants were trying to get everyone going while the bandits fought each other. He was trying to see where the bandits were when he felt a razor-sharp knife press against his throat, and heard a woman’s voice from behind him, “Don’t move. I’m not going to hurt you. Don’t try to attack me when I take my knife away from your neck and release you. Do you understand?”

All the other merchants were now looking towards James, as he replied, “Yes, I understand perfectly.”

Jen released James and took several steps backwards to allow James and the other merchants some room for comfort.

James rubbed his neck where the knife had been, as he watched the small woman step out of the woods to stand next to the woman with the knife.

James heard his great-aunt Martha murmur, “They are level 28 and 29! They could kill us all by barely lifting a finger!”

To discourage any attempts by the merchants to try and fight them, Jen and Tamako forged their levels artificially high, and Jen smiled inside as she heard the merchants’ comment.

Jen knew that merchants would never believe something was free, so she said, “We are heading to Rolling Dice, how much are you willing to pay for an escort? We are not bandits. If you don’t want an escort, we will be on our way, and good luck to you all.”

The merchants mumbled among themselves for a few minutes, then James said, “We know the standard rate for an escort all the way to Rolling Dice is 1 gold, and we do not want to insult you. However, we paid half our money up front to some mercenaries for an escort, and they ran off with it. We only have 50 silver remaining to pay you. We have some goods we can offer you for the other 50 silver.”

Jen nodded, “Separate out the goods and we have a deal.”

James was about to tell Jack to start separating out some goods, when the small woman, without turning or looking, threw a rock into the forest. James heard someone in the forest yell, “God Damnit! That Hurt!” and the small lady yelled, “It doesn’t hurt when you dodge!”

He felt like the little lady might hit him with something any second, but James turned to help Jack separate out some goods and pretended like nothing happened.

Jack said to James quietly, “After paying them with all these goods, are we going to have enough to get our business started?”

James replied, “I don’t know, but I feel without an escort we will surely be killed or worse.”

Jack replied with a nod, but James knew he and everyone else in the caravan would be worried about providing for their children in Rolling Dice.

A few days later Jen was riding in one of the wagons, when she messaged everyone, “I finally succeeded using my new flight simulator app!”

Only Sam really understood what she was talking about, and said, “That’s awesome! How far were you able to control the bird when flying?”

“Without depleting my mana pool, my regen will allow me to fly my birds about ¼ mile in any direction. If I go out further, it starts draining my mana pool more and more the further I go.”

“If you can break down the app into code, I can probably build you a body enchantment tattoo that will store mana that can be used when flying the birds on recon. You already know how it works, so I can just turn it into an enchantment without spending all the time learning it myself.”

“Maybe in the next few days, but I’ve just seen something I want to recon more thoroughly with my flight app,” Jen replied.

It was still early afternoon when Jen called a halt to the caravan, and directed them to make camp for the night.

Sam complained to Jen as the others were making camp, “You won’t believe it!”

“Believe what?”

“Tamako has promised the kids a piece of candy every time they hit me with a rock!” Sam replied.

Jen laughed, “she told you she would quit training you how to dodge if that’s what you wanted.”

“I think training up my dodge ability is a great idea, but I’m casting minor healing spells on all the bruises constantly!”

Jen just shrugged at Sam’s complaint and messaged for Slim and Tamako to join them.

“Why did you have the caravan stop so early to make camp?” asked Tamako.

“While flying my bird I spotted a bandit camp several miles ahead of us. They haven’t spotted our caravan yet.”

Sam asked, “How do you know they are bandits?”

Jen’s face saddened a little as she said, “They have several slaves locked in cages, and other slaves serving them. There’s about 6 slaves in total, and around 20 bandits.”

Sam knew what Jen would want to do, and said, “What’s the plan? We sneak into their camp tonight and kill the bandits while they are sleeping?”

Jen shook her head, “Not ‘we’, just Slim and me. No offense, but you and Tamako will make too much noise.”

Tamako replied before Sam could say anything, “I don’t think so! You are not going into a camp with 20 bandits with no backup.”

Sam also chimed in, “I don’t like our group getting separated out here.”

Slim said, “Jen and I can easily handle such unworthy opponents without assistance.”

As Tamako and Sam continued to argue with Jen, she interrupted and said, “I have heard your comments. Any additional tactical considerations I’ve missed? If not, Slim and I are going, and the two of you are going to stay here and protect the merchants, and that’s final!”

Sam unhappily capitulated to her decision, shrugged his shoulders, and said, “O.K. you’re the boss.”

Tamako turned her head towards Sam with fury in her eyes when she heard his response. Before Tamako returned her glare to Jen, Sam shook his head slightly and privately messaged her, “she IS the boss! Please THINK before you say something you regret later.”

Sam watched the balancing act going on in Tamako’s head. He knew if Tamako said the wrong thing, Jen’s relationship with her would possibly be over.

Tamako finally said, “Fine, but I don’t like it!” and walked off obviously needing to calm down. Sam let out a sigh of relief and said to Jen, “Love you millennial, be careful.”

Jen gave a half laugh, and said, “I will, but you’re the one staying here with Tamako and her rocks. You be careful!”