Chapter Twenty: On the Road Again Part Three

I carefully pull the wagon through a narrow space in the trees before me, just barely the space of maybe three, no, four men and enough space to get my wagon through. I have to move slowly to make sure that it doesn’t ram into any trees in the narrow gap and or get caught on the thick shrubs that line the floor, while being quiet enough to not be heard by any bandits that may or not be in the area, and still moving at a speed that could still be called walking.

The shadows of the mountains, the darkening evening, and the thick, meaty leave of Steeleaf Trees above us create a darkness that’s deeper than midnight black. It’s helping and hurting us at the same time, masking our presence in its shadowy cloak but honing the sense of the enemies at the same time, making every twig snap like a thundercrack in the darkness.

With us probably a mile or two away from the camp sentry's that should be making patrols around the camp and with the proper class and training hearing someone breathe from a mile or two away is awfully possible. So stealth is good bones right now.

I feel the wagon go over a raised root, and ease it back down carefully, then soon I’ve moved it out from between the narrow trees opening into a slightly wider part of the forest. I spot a mossy patch of ground near some rocks and I pull the wagon over to it and stop.

Letting go of my rein on the wagon I walk through the near pitch black pick up some branches and stuff then layer it over the wagons to hide it. I take a step or two back and look at it from a couple angles to see how it matches with the rocks and forest, and I’d say that it blends in well enough. Not enough for a close investigation, but at a glance or two probably wouldn’t give it away especially in the dark.

Taking a step forwards the dark brush, I stretch my body getting all the tightness and some energy out before I get ready to do some scouting. The camp should be in the northeast, so given so time I should be able to find it and come back before it gets really dark, and the real apex predators of wilds like this make themselves known. There’s a reason the phrase 'strength in numbers' is so popular out here.

I take a step forward into a crouch, and slight, near silent breath from behind me alerts me to a presence. I listen to see how close they are behind me, the small opening in the forest deafens the little area with quiet and for a second I wonder if they left. A slow, steady pulse of a heartbeat proves me wrong, no less than ten feet away from me almost on the wagon.

I twist around in a silent blur of motion to see who’s watching me. The darkness and rocks greet me with nothing to give away that anybody’s there, so I peer closer into the darkness to see where the wagon is hidden. The shadows giving away nothing at first, but the longer I look at them the more they seem to flicker and move almost like a flame or flowing river.

I decide to chance something, I probe out with my Aura at the shadows and two things shock me. One that my wagon is magically charged to the Empty and back like someone threw a dozen bolts of lightning at my wagon and held them in place causing along it like a pulsing tide, so Julian’s already warded my wagon, with what though I don’t know. Two, that the shadows are a type of Aura with Damon hiding behind them that flicker and mist off in him in a shadowy fire.

I feel Damon looking at me through his Aura with his bored, empty eyes, and I feel him try to bat away my probe. I fight back and strike him lightly, sending a message through my probe as well, ‘Why are you watching me’ not with words though, more violently blasting some images and my feeling of annoyance.

The unexpected Aural attack sends him reeling, and he falls to one knee and his eyes widen for a brief second. His Aura also briefly flickers and fades before covering him again.

He pushes my probe out gently and I pull it back in. He sends one of his own out in a misty fire stream towards me and I accept it. It hits me uncomfortably, like someone threw cold ice down my back and then tried to warm me back up, numbing, itching and burning me all at once.

His message is unapologetically quick and blunt, showing Julian and George playing some kind of game, them noticing the stopping of the wagon, and Julian sending him to investigate, then me crouch over neer the edge of the woods. Followed by a sense of curiosity, and wondering.

I beckon him over to explain, the sensation of the back and forth of having images planted in my brain making me nauseous. He sends over another probe, I slap it down with an Aura clad hand and motion more bluntly for him to come over.

He looks at me for a moment confused before realization dawning on him, he nods his head and walks over with his Aura flickering into a misty shadow over him. Lowering my voice to almost nothing, “I going to scout out the camp.”

He says quietly, “You should have said something.”

“I just did though.”

He rolls his eyes, annoyance plain in them. “No, when you stopped the wagon, it’s quite confusing for the ride to stop with no warning.”

“Oh,” I say slightly self-conscious, “I kinda forgot about you guys, though you guys went to sleep or something.”

Squinting his eyes at me for a moment, before realizing something he then says “Ah, I know what happened, Master Julian wanted to help so he put wards on the interior of the wagon for silence and other things…”

“That’s neat, would have been great if he could ward everything else too.” I say with frustration in my words.

“Too magically intensive for Master Julian to do so safely, and take too long for him to do so safely.”

I stare at him darkly, “Really?” Damon moves back a step as I glower at him.

“Yes, really.” He says firmly, meeting my eyes not backing down.

Our little stare off goes on for more than a second, and he doesn’t break so I begrudgingly stop.

“Anything else?” I ask.

“Yes, actually,” He says and pauses, makes a look on his face like something ugly went over his tongue.

“I’d like to go scout out the camp instead of you.” He manages to spit out slowly, with shame in his eyes.

His words stun me for a second, my eyes widening at the fact that he just ask something of me. Red tints my eyes as a realization comes over me, does this little, scrawny bastard think he can do better than me? That I’d be so bad at doing a little stalking that I’d get us all killed?

I take a step forward and loom over him, “Why?” I say, the words low and rumbling out of my chest with a growl.

He says nothing and looks into my eyes, not backing away from my hot temper, his dark green eyes eating into mine. “You need to be here to protect my master, and I am much more expendable and better suited to this task than you.” Damon says his words in a matter of fact way, that they are nothing but the truth to him, I could see the belief of his own words in his eyes, a steadfast and strong determination, a strong steady breath and pulse went along with it too.

He continues “I don’t mean to wound you Atlas, I know you think you can fight your way out of the camp if you get caught, but what if you can’t? What if there’s someone there like Mar’s but not holding back? There’s a reason we’re not charging in there, the goal is not to get caught. That’s why I’m going to go scout out this place, I don’t think about what to do when I get caught, how I’m going to fight my way out, or how to even just survive, no, what I’m thinking about is how they will never know I was there. Goodbye Atlas.”

He doesn’t wait for me to respond, he walks past me clad in his shadow cloak of an Aura slinking in to the shadows, with not a sound or sensation in sight, and within moments it’s like he never existed at all.

A chill goes down my spine, and I hear whisper like the winds “If by chance I don’t make it back in an hour or less, leave with the master.” Then it’s gone, and I don’t even turn around I walk to the wagon and wait.

A minute or two later, I hear a heartbeat from behind me and I cock my head behind me to see George looking out past the singed canvas.

He gives me a smirk “Ah, so you didn’t get eaten by a Roc, did you? If you did, I hope you didn’t come out the other end, and if you did, that you made sure to have washed up!” He says with a chuck, and I roll my eyes at him.

He somersaults off the bed of the wagon onto the mossy ground with nary a sound, and looks at me. “So what’s up mate? Things have been awful quiet since Damon left, where’s the little guy anyway?”

I give him the shorthand version, and he lets out a sigh.

“Great, that’s great, he split the party… You never split the group.” He looks to me and offers a large piece of jerky and a water bottle, I take it without a second thought. He laughs “Figured you’d be kinda hungry by now, well cheers let's hope our friend gets back safe.” He say holding his water can at me and I knock it back with mine.

“So what have you and Julian been doing?” I ask with a sliver of boredom. Watching the dark woods is surprisingly uneventful.

He sighs again, and I hear the boredom in his tone. “Absolutely nothing! All Julian does is sleep, read, repeat till it’s time to eat! Damon’s no better mine you! He just watches him, kind of creepy though I’ve gotten sorta used to it now… and I’ve barely seen him take a nibble since we left. So I’ve been doing my best to keep myself entertained by playing cards, attempting to read Julian’s books, and playing doctor with the food.” He says in a downpour of words, and the only thing that I really catch is he cand doctor food.

“You can cook?” I ask deeply interested.

He waves his hand up and down, “Just a little, actually, never mind a little, kind of a necessity when your the oldest child and your younger siblings are too busy playing, burning and cutting skin to feed themselves, and your parents refuse to get any servants or cook and only eat out. Who are also mind you frequently gone or busy. So yes, I can cook pretty well,” He says looking over to me, and takes a step back once he notices the hunger in my eyes. “What you want me to make you something?”

I nod my head vigorously.

“Ok then but that’ll have to wait till later when-”

“Atlas!” I hear a voice call out from the woods interrupting him.

I turn my head to see Damon sprinting into the clearing.

“Damon gets back, huh,” He turns his head to me. “What do you want to eat?”

I ignore him. “Where’s the fire?”

He looks to me and says quickly “The bandit camp is under attack.”