With more than a month head start, it was almost impossible for them to catch up to the mercenaries, especially with their lacking means of road mobility.

If they left basically everything back, Shinead, Foxy and Prof could have moved fast, but Mini and Sharpclaw were much slower, and leaving everything back would mean more frequent stops for provisioning. That also meant more expenses, at a time when Prof was almost broke again. Without carts their donkeys and themselves had only a limited capacity for cargo, so they were forced to be selective with what they brought with them.

First to be discarded were the tents – it was summer, the weather was nice and they occupied to much space. Next went most of the other camping gear, they only kept a cauldron, a few eating utensils and a short spade. Mini was able to store her part of the loot in one of her saddle-bags and could even accommodate some of the luxury booze. The rest of the capacity on themselves were taken up by the essentials: food, booze, water, potions and medicine.

Even packing everyone to capacity, they had to leave a lot of food and booze behind. In place of selling them, Prof gave it to the Clan for the remaining member’s catering. All four survivors were left behind, Shinead gave them orders to stay in Willowflower for the time being, train and be useful for the local authorities.

The day after buying the donkeys, they finished packing and left the town early in the morning. The road was still just a better cart trail, but the quality got still somewhat better. It was obvious, that West of Willowflower the traffic was larger than East of the town, every other hour they met another traveller.

With an south-westerly heading, they were travelling in the direction of the mountains Prof noticed on his first days on Arkadia – the low-lying hills gradually gave way to larger hills and hills people in Central Europe tended to call mountains, and finally to something people from countries that had real mountains may have considered small mountains.

The forest didn’t change that much. Lot of trees with shrubs and bushes mixed in, here and there a glade or field, and every couple of kilometres a farm or lone house could be seen a bit away from the road. About fifteen kilometres from Willowflower there was a prepared camping ground – that is a field with fire places, and a shack that functioned as toilet.

There was a well too, and a pile of firewood. According to Foxy, there was such a camping ground every fifteen kilometres or so on every road, mostly overseen by a family of hunters. Using the grounds were free, but it was expected to replenish the used up firewood, leave the place clean and if the hunters were present, to give them some gifts – money, food, clothes, booze or services.

On the other hand, the hunters had absolute jurisdiction in their territory, post bounties, check papers or issue fines. That Prof found out on his own: every last piece of his paper was checked, and he was issued a fine for not keeping his dangerous pet on a leash. Strangely Mini did not get fined, because Binky obviously didn’t count as a pet but as a mount, and technically he was leashed.

Prof debated the idea to put a leash on Sharpclaw, but decided against it. Not because of personal freedom rights and such, but because he already lead the donkeys on a leash, and couldn’t be bothered with another leash.

He was stuck with the donkeys, because they were afraid of Foxy and Mini’s mount, and Shinead excused herself by stating, they were his donkeys, he should take care of them on his own, and a Clan Leader should not be burdened by leading pack animals around. That was a slight problem, Prof’s [Animal Husbandry] was 30% - so he only knew food (probably plant matter) went into the front part. He suspected, donkeys needed grooming and water and maybe they got sick, but nothing more.

He hoped, they will find a stable on their way and could pay someone to perform maintenance on them. On that note, Prof needed money. Again. However, they were moving slower than Shinead wanted them to already, another distraction and diversion for hunting and gathering (not that Prof was overly proficient in Skills connected to gathering valuable plants) was not possible. Foxy even warned him, that he did not have a license for gathering large amounts of plants to begin with, his camping permit was only good for gathering for immediate personal use. Even then, he could have earn himself a fine, if he gathered valuable stuff.

That left only one possibility: hoping for the renowned Random Encounter. Surely, there was a huge chance in a deep forest for some animals or monsters attacking a peaceful caravan of heavily armed people! Or even better, bandits! Bandits have valuables lying around without the need of harvesting a carcass. There may be even a bounty on their heads or a reward! His last random encounter was the Dire Bear more than a month ago, it was time for another one!

For some strange reason no bandits attacked and no monster showed itself till they arrived at the third camping ground in the evening. They have pushed hard and managed to walk forty-five kilometres – they could have pushed further, but the next camp was another fifteen kilometres away.

At night, the anticipated Random Encounter still didn’t deign to show itself. Prof was frustrated – how can it be, that no one attacked him in a medieval country? On Earth he could have gone to certain parts of certain cities and would have been attacked and robbed with almost certainty, and the news was always full of some people being robed on a highway rest-stop, but nooooo, Arkadia was so much safer!

Maybe if they stowed their weapons and flaunted jewellery?

The next day they entered the mountain chain and Prof’s hope flared even more. What better place to spring an ambush than in a narrow pass or a cramped valley? Around noon, he realised, even the last of the civilizational lacquer from Earth has worn off, he was back to the old school humanity: fight for your food and kick that Cave Bear out of your new home-cave.

Or at least having not much of a problem to kill off critters for benefits. He vowed to hang on to at least some of the rules he grew up, descending into full-on murder-hobo territory would just open a huge can of worms. If he started on that road, there was no coming back.

Shortly after noon they passed a hilltop earth-and-logs fort and the accompanying small village, where Shinead managed to get further details about the band of Humans they were after. Prof also managed to get an overview of the local security situation: the road was mostly secure, no dangerous animals and monsters were spotted near it for at least a year and banditry was light.

He was pointed at a few trees with mutilated corpses (probably Human) on display. Those were the last bandits for a dozen of kilometres around the fort. So no need to kill off Humans but also no chance to earn money.

He accepted a small task to bring a backpack full of stuff to the next town, another day of travel away for some pocket change, but that was all he could do as work. If this kept up, he would be forced to part with the jewellery he kept as a last investment – and resupplying before the Valley of Torment would be expensive.

The party arrived at the mentioned town before noon the next day. The architecture was the same as Willowflower, colourful houses built out of logs, the only difference was a glittering cluster of small doll houses. As he looked at them, the colours slightly changed depending on the angle and illumination.

“Those are the homes of Glitter Elves.” Foxy informed him.

“Pixies?”

“Yes, but don’t call them that to their faces. They don’t like that name. Best keep away from them, they look playful, but are sneaky, vicious and have no regard of other species’ personal space. And put your valuables safely away. Mini, you know them, and would be safe regardless.”

“Why would she be safe?” Prof was confused

“They are afraid of any kind of undead. They won’t come near Mini.”

As soon as they finished their discussion, the menace he was warned about arrived in the form of two twenty centimetre high flying female miniature Elves. Prof expected Pixies to have see-through butterfly wings, but was disappointed that they had bird wings – maybe that of a Kingfisher or Finch. Some small, colourful flying thing like an ostrich or a dolphin. His [Zoology] was still low.

Prof already knew, Elves had a really liberal view of clothes and the need of cover themselves with textiles, but was still surprised that the two Pixies were completely naked. The view was disturbing to say the least.

“Yo, monkey! Watcha looking at?” The pink-haired Pixie greeted him. The accent she spoke was markedly different from the Red dialect he was taught, but he still could understand it.

“Good Day to you too, honoured Glitter Elves.” he didn’t forgot to be polite. He had Gentleman, with that it was even more important and easier to get strangers on his side. He added the polite how-do-you-do question for the Elves “Are the ancestors happy today?”

“Ha! The monkey speaks the tongue!” The neon-green-haired Pixie exclaimed

“Wait! It is speaking in Red! And is travelling with a curious company! Look! A Red, a part-Wolf Brown! Gross! A Lizard and a walking dead!”

“Quick! Let us find the Bolyvezető!”

Without saying anything further, they sped back to the cluster of glittering houses.

“What was that about?” Prof turned to Foxy “Who are they going to find? I didn’t understand that word.”

“Bolyvezető is the leader of the cluster, something like a lesser noble with the Humans, but you know how the Elven political structure works. He could be of lesser, equal or higher standing than the prince of the town. As for what this was about. Probably trouble.”

“Why would it be trouble, we are just a normal… OK not really remarkable… OK, a curious party of adventurers… Clan people!”

“Because we are curious. Glitters are drawn to curious.”

“But what could those midgets do?”

“Don’t ask and hope you won’t find out.”