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Archives: A New Balance

Chapter 18: Wildlands Camp

    The mercenaries rode on without another conflict. They exited the forest and rode out into the grasslands as the sun fell at their backs. Ahead of them, vibrant green spring grasses mixed with dead, taller winter grasses. Large boulders, short trees, and bushes rose in scattered places above the grass.

    “Looks like it be time te make camp,” Anisa told Ultarik.

    Alm hopped down from, the back of Toan’s horse and kissed the dirt. “LAND!!” he exclaimed loudly. “I love you, don’t ever leave me again!!” He lay on the ground completely sprawled out. After being on a horse for so long Alm craved the non-moving earth.

    Ultarik stopped his horse when they reached where they would camp, the grasslands were a welcome sight to the rough terrain of the initial part of the shortcut they had taken. Where would he have to lead them next? What kind of path would their journey take that fit with the plans of the wizard he was helping? “Finally, a chance to rest. Still, we’re too open. We should take turns standing watch tonight.”

    Coras dismounted and helped Ooke down. “I’ll take first watch,” he said clearly. He went over and kicked Alm in the side. “Get off the ground all sprawled out and make yourself useful. Get some wood for a fire or something.”

    Ooke touch the floor and knelt down for a second. He then stood up straight and planted his hammer into the ground. “I will help Alm gather wood for a fire, and take darkest watch.” Ooke said. He knew he need to make a sacrifice tonight and the wood gathering would give him a chance to find a small woodland animal, the darkest watch would allow him proper setting.

    Alm scowled a little at Coras’s rough treatment of him. “I’ll go get some goddamn wood you mudwallowerer.” He got to his feet and grabbed Ooke’s hand. “Let’s go get some wood to make Coras happy. Maybe we can find some goblins to skin as well.” he started to pull on Ooke’s hand to get him away from Coras and get the task he was awarded with done and over with.

    Ooke gripped Alm’s hand tight but didn’t move right away. He then let go of Alm’s hand and began his walk in to the woods with Alm. “Yes goblins; that’s what I would like to run into.” Ooke said softly while thinking of the proper thing to kill for his next sacrifice.

    Anisa hopped off Ultarik’s saddle and watched Ooke and Alm go off together. Even though she didn’t care much for the annoying grassrunner, she realized that he could probably be helpful. The way Ooke dragged Alm off almost gave her chills up her spine. Something about Ooke chilled her to the core.

    However, she wasn’t the one to spend much time worrying. The half-elf turned her attention to setting up camp. It was obvious this road wasn’t used often, and there were no used campsites. There was a large boulder near the road, with a few stunted trees and bushes nearby. The boulder seemed like a comfortable object to have in camp, so Anisa strode over to it.

    A raven was perched on one of the twiggy trees and it stayed put until Anisa walked too close. The bird flew away, but oddly, it landed on a tree only a short distance away, on the other side of barely worn road. It kept its attention focused on the mercenaries. It felt eerie. Anisa was starting to feel the sense of dread Brahms mentioned earlier.

    Granite had quickly scrambled off of Brahms’s horse, and almost fell on her butt in the process. The dwarf woman was glad to be back on her own two feet, as were the other two members of short stature in the party. She watched with disappointment as Ooke and Alm went off together. She worried about Alm, at one moment he was acting like a playful child, and at another he was as cold as ice, or screaming in terror. She shot Coras an icy glare after Ooke and Alm walked off. He treated the grassrunner terribly and she was sick of it.

    Dismounting, Fenix noted his horse wasn’t particularly happy. Not that he blamed it to much for it. Patting the horse lightly on the nose, he watched as Ooke and Alm ran off to get fire wood. He didn’t like the way the dwarf had said ‘darkest’ shift. Not likely he was going to get any sleep after that.

    Tying his horse to a tree, Fenix noted Anisa was watching something. On closer inspection, it was a raven that... wouldn’t fly off. Ravens were intelligent birds, linked as harbingers of death, and often used by wizards as familiars or scouts. Although his rational mind told him the creature just wanted food, his irrational mind told him to get that bird out.

    “Shoo! Get out of here!” Fenix shouted, waving his staff in the air, and kicking at it. He had no real will to actually harm the creature, just in case it was the former. When it didn’t fly away, he stalked after it. Under his breath he chanted a prayer to Cha Za. He wasn’t a priest, but hopefully the deity would listen just this once. “Cha Za, god of fortune, smile upon us and drive this creature away.”

    Ultarik saw the raven and did not seem unnerved by it. Instead, he went about normally, making sure that he made no contact with it so that it could do its job. Kaladron had his eyes and ears here. Ultarik was the guide and the raven was the spy. Things were going to be interesting, very interesting. “I’ll take third watch. Allow me to get some sleep before we move on. After that last incident I am going to make sure we are not attacked before dawn...”

    Anisa watched as Brahms tried to further drive off the unnerving raven. It finally flew off towards the forest they had left, but Anisa had a feeling it was still watching.

    The half-elf turned toward the campsite. The place she selected was grown over, so it would take some preparation. They couldn’t have a fire in the grass, after all. She took hold of a hand full of grass and began to rip it out of the ground where the fire pit would be.

    Watching as the bird flew off, Fenix frowned lightly. Even animals used to humans wouldn’t be that calm, something was most definitely with that creature. Maybe it was the dwarf, the manifestation of a great many things he mistrusted. Watching the place where it had flew off, he half expected something large with many teeth to come out. When it didn’t, he sighed.

    While Anisa cleared a place for a fire pit, he himself just stamped out the grass. When it was flat enough, he brought out some of his supplies, which consisted mainly of food items. He wasn’t fond of the idea of hunting, especially with that bird around. And bread and salted beef didn’t need much to eat. Fires were optional.

    Coras was feeling a little better with the grassrunner away from the camp, so he decided to help uproot grass as Anisa did. He brushed his hand across hers a few times to grab the grass that she missed, given her a polite smile and a soft wink if she looked his way.

    As Anisa worked, she was quite surprised when Coras seemed to inadvertently brush her hand as he helped her. She looked up to see him cast her a wink, and she smirked back. He had been mostly quite for the trip, and she had no insight on his level of attraction to her. It definitely stroked her ego.

* * *

    Alm went off with Ooke, but as soon as he was out of sight of the camp, he spoke to Ooke. “Coras wasn’t himself for a little while. You did it, didn’t you?” Alm started picking up sticks that could be used for kindling. he kept talking. “I’m sure the others can’t hear me right now, but you can. Watch what you do. There are few precious things that can escape my means.” He shot a glare to Ooke. “That means you, as well, and whatever, or whomever you serve, be it light or dark, life or death.” Alm went silent again and continued to pick up sticks. His nightmares were haunting him during the daylight hours as well, and it wasn’t something he wished revisited, at least, not now.

    Ooke smiled, “You caught me good. I told you that I could tell you be a strong one.” Ooke had no reason to hide from Alm if he already knew the truth and it didn’t seem to bother him. Although he would tread these waters softly because he wasn’t sure how much Alm knew. “Now that you know, what is it you like to do about it? Would you like to learn more? How about, how? “Ooke tried to draw more from Alm as he gathered larger stick and kept his eye on a near by squirrel.

    Alm followed Ooke’s gaze to the squirrel. He shook his head and took his armload back to the encampment. He didn’t want to learn whatever Ooke had to teach, he wasn’t fond of the dwarf, more out of anger that he was taking Granite away from him. He walked passed Brahms and poked his side. “There are things that we see and don’t see, those that we do see are far less than what we do. There are things about people that could turn your human blood to ice. Be wary of those that would take from you, as they are most likely the ones who will take you from the world.” Without another word, the creepy little grassrunner dropped his load of wood near the growing patch of torn grass and went to get another load.

    Once a fire pit had been cleared, Anisa gathered the wood Alm brought and arranged it in the pit. She knelt beside the fire and picked up a couple rocks from the ground. “Salamander, great spirits of fire, answer my call,” she spoke, then struck the rocks together. A single lizard-like spirit grew from the spark, and fell to the kindling. The fire licked upwards, consuming the smaller twigs and Anisa began to lay on the larger branches.

    Ultarik helped clear brush from the area so they would not have to sit on it. Afterwards, he sat by the fire and watched for what was around them. That raven was now gone but still it could be hiding nearby, good for him if he got lost.

    “I don’t like this, leaving behind all those bodies. I just hope nothing finds them and tracks them to us.” He started sharpening his axe afterwards, it had been some time since he’d worked on it and parts were looking a little dull. His concern was for their safety, though he did not care much for Ooke or Coras.

* * *

    Ooke coaxed the squirrel over to him as soon as Alm left. As soon as the squirrel reached his hand he quickly snatched it up. He then held it down on his hammer and began a small sacrifice for Kardis. The blood ran hot and flowed very smoothly.

    “It was a good day, Kardis. Thank you,” Ooke said softly and then began a chant in the dwarven tongue. A moment passed and Ooke gathered his things and wrapped the squirrel in a cloth then stowed it away.

    We did well today, his mind muttered to him.

    “So we did,” he replied as he wiped his hands. Then he returned to camp with some larger kindling wood. He sat the wood down away from the fire so that others could toss it in when they saw fit. Ooke then laid his hammer down and took a seat.

    Finishing sorting the food, Fenix shook his head at Ultarik’s comment. He was a downer, to say the least. Worrying about something creeping up on him now was on his mind. “Its basic wildlife behavior. The reason the fire is built is to keep away the more skittish of things. Most things will avoid it like the Kardis’ hand is behind them.” Taking a slab of salted meat, and then frowned at the fire. The smell of uncooked meat might draw some things anyway. There was no telling what roasted meat would. “Come and get it. No cooked meat, but I have salted pork, and yes, Alm, something other than meat.”

    Unfortunately, Fenix hadn’t packed for variety. His pack carried a couple of fruits, and a good deal of salted pork. It wasn’t a great amount though. Likely it would last the night, and maybe something for breakfast. “I suppose I was the only one who thought about eating. I could conceivably charge you all for it. But, since I’m feeling fairly charitable today, I’ll let you eat free.” It was a smart ass remark, meaning it wasn’t serious. At least, by the tone of his voice he wasn’t serious. Taking a small piece of pork, he bit into it, and looked into the fire. Whatever came in the night wouldn’t be a simple monster. If something did come, it would be intelligent enough to realize that a camp fire was far from dangerous to itself.

    Ooke pulled out his mason kit and picked up a chunk of rock, he then began to whittle away at it. His would keep his mind busy for a bit and away from the thought the he made some of the others uneasy. Not that this bothered him, he just didn’t want his inner self to act on it. He glanced up at Alm, Coras and Granite every now and again but tried not to stare to long. He even glanced up at Brahms once or twice, but in an entirely different way.

    {“Pain devours its Holy Victim, searing, savage, raging, cruel! Eager waits the Mouth of Kardis, huge, insatiable, and strong!”} Ooke chanted softly in dwarven while whittling away.

    Alm stopped at the edge of the wood and looked back at Anisa. “You’re making my Sylph jealous of your Salamander.” He sighed. “Poor Sylph...” He grumbled as he went in for more wood. He got his armful of wood and returned to the camp.

    Anisa couldn’t help but chuckle at Alm’s comment. She found it cute, though she wasn’t sure if he was serious or not. Once the fire had some thicker wood burning well, Anisa crawled toward Brahms and picked out some of the dried foods he had laid around himself. Her positioning was intentional; stretching her long, lean body as she reached for each package, which left her hips in the air—a definite tease to the men in the camp.

    After taking the food, she raised herself up on her arms long enough to wink at Brahms, “Thanks fer the charity then, mate.” The half-elf leaned back and collapsed on her side, lounging on the flattened grass. Of course, that position also defined the curve of her hips and waist.

    Granite rolled her eyes at Anisa’s posing and picked up some food, which Brahms probably didn’t even notice. “Thanks,” she murmured, though she found his remarks rude.

    The dwarf nibbled on some of the salted pork and turned her attention to Ooke who was sculpting a rock and murmuring to himself. Her slightly pointed dwarven ears perked as she tried to hear what he was saying. He was speaking in dwarvish, but once she actually heard the words, her eyes widened and her face went pale. Was he praying to Kardis?!

    Alm gawked at Anisa a little then went over to Ooke. “You killed it didn’t you?” He poked the dwarf in the back of the head on purpose, mostly due to Ooke mumbling in some oddball language Alm had a hard time deciphering. “Is that what you’re saying? ‘I killed the innocent woodlander to make Alm’s nightmares get worse’?”

    Alm sat behind Ooke on the ground and rolled backwards until he lay on his stomach. “You know, for an ‘accursed isle’ the women on this little island are actually quite blessed and bountiful.” He gawked at Anisa from behind and smiled. “You know, my mother said I should probably find a nice little wife here...” He lied. He could barely remember his mother let alone anything she said. If it had nothing to do with sex, Alm for the most part tuned out.

    Ooke stopped his chant when Alm poked him in the head he then turned slowly and gave Alm a cold look, “Here, I made this for you,” Ooke said while holding out his hand, in it was the stone he was chipping a way at fashioned into a happy squirrel. He turned back and looked at Granite who’s stunned look made his heart sink. Now you’ve done it. Do you think she knows about us? His mind muttered back at him. He paused and smiled at her warmly, but wasn’t going to cover it up, nor was he going to say it out loud. He just picked up another stone and went about his craft.

    Coras stared at Anisa’s display of sensuality and her provocative pose. He moved over to her and tapped her hip. “Stay in that pose for too long and someone will carve a statue of you.” He gave her a soft grin, then retracted his stare. “Listen, Anisa, I need to speak to you. May I borrow you for a while?”

    “Over my dead body!” Alm screamed at the top of his lungs. “She doesn’t want to go with you, you mudraking, Falis-forsaken, accursed, no-good hick!” He charged at Coras headbutting the young human in the crotch. “You keep your filthy hands off Anisa or I’ll kill you.”

    Coras hit the ground doubled in pain. The little grassrunner had done it now. Coras rose to his feet slowly and drew his sword. “This time I will kill you.” he growled. Alm had annoyed him for the last time. “Draw your blade grassrunner, so that I can kill you in a fair fight.”

    The former priest watched Anisa’s display with a fair amount of lust, although he did nod in Granite’s direction as she took food. At least, he thought it was Granite. Fenix frowned as Coras wanted to talk to Anisa. He didn’t hide the fact that his attentions were probably the same as his own. Alm, however, interjected... Fenix winced at the end of it. Then, not surprisingly, things began to get a bit violent. Shaking his head, he smirked. “Your going to challenge an opponent who is the size of a child to a duel? I’m not one to say anything about honor, but have some pride,” he stated, standing up and leaning lazily on his staff. His remark would probably disarm the situation, but he had it ready just in case he had to smack them both on their heads.

    “Spirits help us,” Toan said to himself, as he watched the scene unfolding. He was half-glad the grassrunner was getting in their way. He didn’t care what happened when they were back in town, but the idea of two of the party getting friendly in the camp made his stomach turn.

    “Please listen to him,” Toan said calmly in Fenix’s support. “Everyone just needs to calm down. We won’t get anywhere we these kind of tensions.” He sighed, looking up at Anisa and then down at his feet sure that he was going to get scolded heavily for this one. “And uhh... other kinds of tensions as well.”

    “Let them fight.” Ooke said, “Just take away the weapons, some hand to hand would do them good. That tension won’t help them any more if they let it slide.” Under these words Ooke cast Agitate Condition. His darker side could not past up this opportunity. He rose to his feet to watch the outcome.

    Alm was well-trained in hand to hand, not many people knew that Alm had that in him. Despite the spell cast on Alm, his fractured mind allowed him to keep a hold of his sanity, however little of it he possessed. He disarmed Coras quickly and efficiently, before the enraged man could retaliate and knocked him unconscious with little effort. There was no blood shed, the young grassrunner sheathed Coras’s sword and went over to Ooke. “You cast another spell on me, and I will personally rip your entrails through your nostrils.” Alm growled through clenched teeth. “I’ll take Coras’s watch.” He announced. “He’ll be out till morning, anyways.”

    He shot a glance at Anisa. “And you.” He gave her a soft glare. “I was trying to protect you, but I think that you may like to incite people to violence. Not again, got it? We have enough damn troubles without having a female making waves when the boat’s already leaky.”

    Granite stood when Ooke spoke, her fists clenched at her sides. “How dare you! You filthy Kardis worshiper!” the dwarf shouted. In dwarven, she continued her tirade, {“I can’t believe a dwarf would follow the Destroyer, you are a shame to our people! How dare you pollute our native tongue with that blasphemy! I am sickened to think I even considered a relationship with you!”} The dwarven woman spat at Ooke’s feet and stood firm, seething in disgust and anger. She wanted to get away from him, but there was nowhere to go. More exactly, she wanted him to leave.

    Anisa watched the fight with amusement and surprise. She honestly didn’t expect it, but she should have with Alm’s volatility. Once the fight between Coras and Alm started, she didn’t step in, but it soon became eerie when little Alm knocked out the much larger human and accused Ooke of casting a spell on them. The hair on the nape of her neck rose as a chill shot up her spine.

    She showed no reaction beyond a raised eyebrow as Alm growled at her, but she was bothered by it. She realized his point though, this group was far too dangerous, especially after Granite began shouting at Ooke for being a Kardis priest.

    “What the bloody ‘ell mess ‘ave we found ‘rselves in?” she said softly to Brahms.

    Ooke step back from the spit, “For being the evil, filthy one here, I pass the least judgment.” He said with a dark and stern voice to Granite. “None of you asked me any question about myself and as so only have yourselves to blame.” He the removed most his robes leaving only his lower garments “As for you, Grassrunner do your worse, torture is no stranger to me.” Ooke said revealing all his scars and tattoos. “You got what you wanted Alm,” Ooke said pointing at Coras on the ground. He stood there and waited for the others hate to fill his heart.

    They play our tune well, no? Hate will only please. Prove that evil dwells in all of them, his mind whispered. Ooke gave no response to his mind.

    Ultarik watched the infighting and continued to sharpen his axe. He was getting irritated at the problems arising. He felt they were wasting strength and time when they could be conserving strength in case they were attacked. “You all are wasting your strength with this fighting. Though, Alm, you impressed me and I realize you are closer to a peer as a warrior than you seemed initially. I am just tired of seeing this, though I can agree with Alm about Ooke. He tries a spell on me I’ll cleave him in two, this is his only warning.” He then went back to his work as he ate some of his rations. He wondered where the raven went after it was shooed away.

    Ooke saw the perception in Ultarik’s words. He then put his robe back on picked up his book. “Point taken I’ll keep my spells away from the group. I’m going back in to the forest for herbs, I’ll be back before dark,” Ooke said softly and walked off.

    Granite had no response for Ooke, she was furious and disgusted. There was no excuse for one of her kind to worship Kardis. As the priest left, she sat down next to Alm. He was angry too, but he was the only one she felt close to, even if he was unpredictable. “Maybe we should have asked,” she murmured. “But it’s still no excuse! I’m not going to ask every dwarf I meet ‘Hey, you wouldn’t happen to worship the Destroyer, would you?’”

    It shocked Fenix to see a small, child-like being defeat a much larger one. With magic, he could see it. Even a lucky strike to knock him off balance, but not out. When Anisa spoke to him, he frowned. He should have put more force in preventing the Dwarf from joining, that was obvious now. Turning back to Anisa, he pointed to his belongings, then shook his head. When Ooke walked off, he began to pack his things up. “Put out that fire, get your things together.”

    Turning to Alm, he noted that statue. With a hiss, he snatched it out of the grassrunner’s hands, tossing it into the fire. “We’re leaving right now. Well, at least I am. We still have a bit of daylight yet, and I would prefer spending it getting as far away from that dwarf as possible. I suppose as far away from Coras as well. I don’t know what affiliations that guy has, but its already obvious that he’ll be trouble.”

    Moving to his horse, he knew it was irrational enough. But he knew well enough what unholy magic could do, and he would prefer not to find out what would happen the longer they stayed. He was tempted to leave some food behind, just for the possibility of attracting some monster to further hinder the dwarf. “We have no obligations of fellowship with either Ooke or Coras, and Cha Za knows what type of trouble will occur as long as a worshiper of the destroyer is following us.”

    Anisa stood up with Fenix. “It be dangerous out ‘ere, alone, Brahms,” the half-elf said. “But it be dangerous with a Kardis priest castin’ spells on folk. I’ll go with ye, mate,” Anisa said, then picked up her belongings as well. The half-elf turned to the road ahead and began walking, she wasn’t going to wait for anyone.

    Alm shook his head and sighed. This group was quickly deteriorating due to Ooke’s religious practices and Coras’s inability to resist magic. “Granite, do you agree with Brahms?” he asked softly. “This would be better solved and served as a democracy than as an accusational trial.” Alm grumbled. “But then why listen to me, after all, I’m just a grassrunner.”

    Granite pulled her short legs up to her chest, then rested her head on her knees. Alm was making sense, but her heart was aching. She wanted to get away from Ooke, but she wasn’t going to abandon her companions if no one wanted to go. “I don’t want to be around him, but I’ll stay with you, Alm,” the dwarf said softly.

    Ultarik saw this infighting and sighed, things were falling apart and he had to keep things together. Standing up, he looked around. That priest was gone so he was not here to listen, his own foolish problem though as he did not like him much either. “We split apart, then what can we accomplish? Personally I say we keep traveling, but find a way to limit that damn priest’s access to us. Some rope and a gag would help, but if we do split up I am going with Anisa and Brahms. We’re all under some pressure right now, so maybe we should just try to collect our thoughts before any rash decisions are made. This discord amongst us is a weakness, that could lead us all into deaths waiting hands.” His voice was firm and did not waver. He had his situation and he would not jeopardize it. Though, why travel with a priest of Kardis? Especially since the previous wars were started in Kardis’ name.

* * *

    While the mercenaries struggled with their parties inner turmoil, they were being stalked. The manticores had followed their scent from the forest, and now the pride fanned out around the camp to observe their prey. They were indeed intelligent enough to not be scared by the fire.

    The pride consisted of six members, and at least one of the horses would make a good meal. However, they preferred human flesh. The barbarian would be dangerous to deal with, but he had the most meat. However, one human was unconscious.

    While most of the pride had been circled around the camp in a fifteen foot perimeter, Ooke’s departure was noticed, and one manticore eagerly stalked after him. The rest of the pride was watching patiently as the humans seemed ready to further separate their company.

* * *

    “The noise has stopped.” Alm noted out loud. Alm got up and stuck his foot in Coras’s face. “Wake up little boy, we need you to be fodder for the nasties waiting on us to break apart.” He knew that some strong smells could wake someone from unconsciousness, and Alm’s feet were the strongest smelling substance that the little grassrunner had on hand.

    It was all black for Coras, somehow he had lost all sight and movement. Then the most god awful smell came into his senses. It jolted him awake, nearly retching at the revolting scent. He saw that Anisa and Brahms were taking off and Ooke was no where in sight. Alm was near him with a satisfied grin on his lips. Granite seemed like she just lost her marbles, and Ultarik looked about ready to leave with Brahms and Anisa.

    “What the hell is happening here?” Coras exclaimed loudly. His head was pounding, he couldn’t shake the smell out of his nose and he couldn’t remember how he passed out.

    As Ooke walk he noted a deep silence in the forest, but paid it no mind. His was still focused on his new found situation. He also neglected to bring his hammer along. After a while of walking he made it to a clearing where he found various herbs he would normal use. He paid special attention to some poison and hallucinogenic mushrooms he spotted. “Just what a soul needs to heal all pains.” Ooke muttered while collecting the various mushrooms.

    Ultarik looked at Coras and his lack of memory, nodding to him he did not make a sound. “You and your friend Ooke can have your own way, I’ll be going with the more honest people. I was going to try and stop the fighting, though it looks like a waste of my time.” He finished getting his horse ready and was following Brahms and Anisa, Karla’s plan would succeed. The strong ones would be found, and the weak ones weeded out. To rely on deception alone was weakness, but Ooke as he stood would just be a liability.

    Granite gave a frustrated groan as the situation became more confusing. Brahms and Anisa were walking off, Ultarik was ready to go with them, but Alm was waking Coras. She didn’t know what to do, and it was beginning to make her anxious.

    Alm walked to Granite and gave her a soft hug. “You’d better get ready to go with Brahms and Anisa. Don’t get left behind.” He whispered in her ear. “Coras and Ooke are not welcome with the others, and I would be seen as too much of a burden to take along. You go with them because they won’t turn you away.” Alm stroked her cheek softly. “Alright?” He kissed the tip of her nose and pulled away.

    Granite didn’t want to leave Alm behind, but he was willing to let her go, so she agreed. With a nod to Alm, she stood and picked up her pack. “You should go too, you’ll be safer with us,” she said, hoping that he would change his mind. She didn’t care much for Coras, and she outright hated Ooke now, but Alm was her closest friend now.

    Alm sighed. “I’d love to come with you and Brahms, Toan, Anisa and Ultarik,” He shook his head. “But that nagging voice in my heart tells me that I would suffer if I left a person behind to their death. I don’t think, in good conscience, that the gods would approve of my leaving Coras and Ooke, despite their malice and evil tendencies, to their death. I’m surprised that the other’s could so quickly cast aside another.” Alm looked at his feet. “The least they could do is take them as far as the next village so that they are at least safe.”

    “They don’t care enough,” Granite said, thinking of Brahms and Anisa. She realized just how unprepared she had been for this journey. “I’ll go then...take care of yourself,” the dwarf said. She gave Alm a hug, then turned to follow the mercenaries that were leaving.

    Fenix wasn’t amused that Alm had woken up Coras, now the man could complain, and would likely get royally angry. “We’re taking off. You and that dwarf can stay here until you rot,” he said dryly, his tone a great deal different then the usual, arrogant, or simply playful tone it normally was. “You know, mercs tend to get along just fine. You, however, seem more interested in picking fights with your comrades. The fact that you brought that Kardis sworn fool is just that much worse.”

    At this point, the horse was a bit to tired to ride, but fortunately, could still carry the weight of Fenix’s supplies. “We can’t tie up that dwarf and gag him. Unfortunately, he might get out, and Cha Za knows what would happen if he told any sort of authorities we tied and gagged him. And if we let him loose, who knows what he would do. Its not like I could ask Cha Za to try to counter any curse...”

    Suddenly realizing what he just said, Fenix stopped, cursed under his breath, and continued. It was a bit to quiet for his own taste. Despite the crackle of the fire and their own voices, the noises of crickets and what not had stopped. Cha Za was not looking out for him at the moment. Taking out his staff from the saddle, he looked about. “Hey Anisa, maybe I’m going deaf, but... do you hear anything?”

    “I’d like to distance myself as far away from Kardis as I possibly can,” Toan said. “But I can’t abandon Coras, he’s been with us since the beginning. The grassrunner doesn’t deserve that either, though I agree that he’s been a nuisance. To leave comrades, no matter how much of a pain they may be, is not condoned by any of the gods of light. To do such a thing is just asking for ill odds.”

    Then, he too noticed the silence. His ears perked. “Speaking of ill odds... I would say that something is not right.”

    “Ahem, ‘the grassrunner’, has a name.” Alm sighed. “Not that you bigger people would remember it. We’re completely surrounded, by the way, have been for a while, but no one listens to me. I woke Coras up because deep down he’s a decent guy, I think. I told Granite to go with you guys because I can’t protect her and myself, and Coras and Ooke, despite his current prejudicial belief system. For a bunch of ‘good guys’, you have no heart. Granite is sweet and caring, Anisa is just pretty on the outside, Brahms, you judge everyone based off of your divine ‘never-do-wrong’ attitude, and Toan...actually, you’re pretty cool. I like you.” Alm sighed. “So, with that said, I’ll distract the beasties, you guys run, on the grounds that you take Coras and Ooke to the next town at least.”

    Anisa noticed the silence as well, but Alm’s speech broke it. The half-elf froze rigidly when he announced that they were surrounded.

    The manticores surrounding the campsite quickly realized that their presence had been noticed. With a low growl, the eldest female communicated an order to the rest of the hunting party. NOW!

    Five creatures came charging through the grass, though first all that was seen were their bat-wings and scorpion tails.

    Anisa drew her saber at the commotion and darted toward the camp for safety.

    Granite gave a shout of surprise and pulled her mace from her belt.

    Toan drew his sword and shrugged towards Alm as the group gathered in defense. “Heh heh,” he laughed bitterly at their situation, watching the manticores’ movements, trying to devise some sort of strategy.. “Well uh, you can call me ‘dark elf’ if you want. We’ll have to discuss the rest later. Now stay close and don’t go being the hero okay? I don’t want Granite to cry.”

    “I don’t murder people in the name of a god!” Fenix spat, now quite angry, although obviously not at Alm. As the manticores closed in, his horse, not surprisingly, tried to escape. Despite his utter hatred of Ooke, he figured he needed a fortification in order to at the least, protect the food. When Anisa ran off, he stood his ground. Last thing he expected was to make a stand with a dark elf. “Those wings are not for show, Alm. As much as I would like to see you take a few bruises for the insults, seeing someone getting torn apart and devoured is not an aspiration of mine.”

    Unlike the others, his staff didn’t look nearly impressive. For one, it couldn’t cut through flesh and bone. His weapon would require a bit more finesse, especially against the swift opponents. Well, at least it was an effective defensive weapon. “We need to get to ground where those wings won’t be effective against us. Unless elves, dwarves, and grassrunners can sprout wings, we’re going to be at an advantage fighting like this.”

    Although he wondered why Toan hadn’t used spirits. He knew from word of mouth dark elves were notorious for invisibility spirits. “I don’t suppose you can use that magic of yours to hide us from their sight, eh?”

    “You know, if your mouth was a sword, we’d be in a better position to argue.” Alm growled back at Brahms. The manticores seemed to want bigger prey, and they were leaving him alone for the most part. That’s unusual for carnivores. If I were them I’d go for the sick, elderly and the young first. They are the least protected. Alm drew his rapier and stood beside Coras. The manticore that was going for Coras stopped when the small grassrunner stood in its way. Its eyes narrowed and its tail wagged delightedly. “Want to eat me?” Alm taunted. “If you want me, you can have me.” He dropped his rapier on the ground and started to walk towards the manticore. The manticore couldn’t believe his luck, such selflessness, such idiocy. Alm kicked his rapier into the throat of the manticore and smiled. The light of life faded from the manticore’s eyes as Alm whispered into its ears. “Goodnight, sweet beast. You were tricked by a creature much smaller and smarter than you.”

    He shot a glance back to Coras. “Get up and fight. I can’t trick all of them.”

    Coras rose to his feet and nodded. He drew his sword. Maybe I was wrong about the grassrun—er, Alm. He seemed genuine in wanting to protect me. Damn, I feel like a fool now. I’m not sure if I want to thank him or hit him for showing me up. I should go help Ooke. With his mind made up he dashed and grabbed Ooke’s hammer. It was heavy and burdensome, but Coras managed to lift it. A manticore stood in his path, blocking his way. He threw his sword at it, not caring whether he hit or missed and drove the cumbersome hammer down on the manticore’s head. The sword whistled past the manticore harmlessly, though the manticore did look to make sure it was harmless, only to meet with Ooke’s hammer crushing its skull into the dirt. Just using the unwieldy hammer seemed to drain Coras of his strength. This isn’t exactly my weapon of choice, he grunted inwardly. How does that dwarf manage to wield it so easily?

* * *

    Toan nodded. “I can use the invisibility spell to give us an edge, but it won’t hold on the group for long so direct everyone as soon as I cast it, please. I’d appreciate it if you could cover me as well.” He closed his eyes and held his hand in front of him in a deep concentration. “Spirits hear me, please I ask you, grant us the ability to evade these creatures’ sight.”

* * *

    Anisa was still tired and sore from the fight with the mantises, and now she had to fight again. It was demanding, but she could do it, especially with the boost of adrenaline she now had pumping through her veins.

    With her saber ready, Anisa only waited for a manticore to come to her. One was loping directly toward her, but it stopped suddenly out of range of her swing—well, if she stood still at least. It spread its wings and raised its tail to intimidate her with size and the scorpion tail, then hissed as well, bearing its sharp teeth. Its human face was what most bothered Anisa. The shape was human, but whatever lay beyond its eyes was not. However, she didn’t let its disconcerting features affect her. No matter what, she intended to kill it.

    The half-elf cautiously stalked around the manticore, looking for an opening to strike. It watched her closely. There was no surprising it, if she tried anything, it would lash out with its tail and try to poison her. She’d just have to try and dodge.

    Anisa leapt forward, lunging at the manticore’s body. Its tail darted forward, but she expected it and dodged to the side. Anisa struck with a side-slash, slicing a gouge in the manticore’s side. With a hiss, the beast swung around and swiped with its paws. It was pissed now.

    Anisa easily avoided its swings, and it began striking with its tail again. The half-elf dodged and blocked its tail strikes, until she had enough. Hopping back about ten feet, Anisa raised her hand to summon spirits. “Salamander, great spirit of fire, attack my enemy!”

    It was a simple and effective summon, and it was all she had time for. Several spirits shot from the fire, aimed at the manticore that was charging her. Its fur quickly caught fire as the elementals attacked. The exposed skin of its wings began to bubble and blister. The manticore gave a tormented scream and collapsed in the grass, trying to roll the fire out. The grass began to catch fire, but it was mostly green, so it didn’t burn well.

    While the manticore was on the ground trying to put out the fire, Anisa casually strode up to the writhing beast. She watched it suffering for a moment, then mercifully brought her blade down on its human face with all the strength she could muster. The skull cleaved, breaking that terrible man-like visage. She allowed the salamanders to continue consuming the corpse for a moment, then requested their dispersal. Salamander were never eager to leave a source to burn, but they obeyed her and returned to the fire. The flames died out, leaving the manticore’s corpse to smolder.

* * *

    Ultarik turned around and followed the others, as he neared the camp he drew one of his hand axes and sent it flying at the manticore coming towards him. He watched as it sliced the side and then returned to his hand. Not getting off of his horse yet, he sent the axe flying once more. Before it could return, he drew his other hand axe and threw it, using his free hand to hold the reins. “Looks like we did attract plenty of unwanted company, their going to learn what pain is though.”

    He narrowly avoided being hit directly by a claw swipe from the beast, leaving a pair of deep lines in his right arm. Wincing, he put away one axe and used the arm for support, he would use his left axe now. With each throw he scored hits upon the manticore, though his horse was also becoming more of a target.

    His next throw was aimed for the head, as he let the axe fly it went a little off course and left a nice gash in the beasts chest that slowed it down finally. He took a hit as he threw however, a few claw marks were in the right side of his face.

    Ultarik finished off the manticore attacking him rather quickly after his last attack, his axe hit right between the eyes. As the beast fell dead he looked around, how many others were still fighting. Injuries did not matter right now, it was the safety of the others though he was feeling his wounds this time.

* * *

    Meanwhile, Ooke’s stalker was approaching behind the dwarf. As he bent down to pick a mushroom, the manticore burst from the brush it had been using as cover. With its bat-like wings extended, and scorpion tail poised forward, it made itself as intimidating as possible. As if its human face mounted on a lion’s body and a mouth lined with needle sharp teeth wasn’t intimidating enough.

    Ooke stashed his mushrooms quickly and turned to see the large beast behind him. Dumb dwarf, you have no weapon! his mind shouted.

    “Then we’ll have to improvise,” he replied, moving out of range of the beast’s paws. Ooke watched the creature’s tail carefully. Ooke knew that if the creature got a paw on him he’d be dead, but he might have a chance with the tail.

    Ooke slowly pulled the squirrel from his sleeve and began chanting, {“Ash to bone, bone to breath, Kardis grant me motion to the motionless,”} in dwarven. The bones jumped up and ran at the manticore. Then stopped a few feet in front of the creature and began to dance in tune with Ooke’s stubby fingers. This would distract the beast for a little while before the bone fell to the floor. “Dance! I need time.” Ooke said while trying to plan his next move.

    The manticore struck the squirrel with its tail leaving it motionless. Then reared back and jumped at Ooke. Ooke didn’t have time to react and was stuck underneath the beast. Although he managed to meet the beast grip for grip, he had to wiggle and dodge the repeated attempts it made to bite him and sting him. “You heavy beast of burden! I will not be your meal on this day!” Ooke yelled at the beast. He then began kicking it in the ribs.

    Ooke reached for his mason chisel that had fell out of his robes when he was pushed to the ground. “I’m about to give you a lesson in the powers of a grounded dwarf, beast!” Ooke said in anger. He then took up the chisel and thrust it in to the beast’s ribs. He forced it pass the skin and muscles, and then dropped it. The beast roared in pain. Reaching back with all his might the then plunged his fit in to the beast and began casting Agitate Condition.

    “By the unholy depth I cast the pain of the my dead ancestors in to your organs!” Ooke said with the up most sincerity. In a last ditch effort the manticore plunged it’s tail in to Ooke’s shoulder. Ooke would not give the beast the pleasure of hearing him scream, so he just plunged his fist deeper in to the beast

* * *

    Granite hadn’t moved from where she stood, still holding her mace ready. However, her knees were shaking and her heart was pounding so hard in her chest, she thought it might burst out. The dwarf had no troubles with the mantises earlier in the day, but these manticores were terrifying as they were so eerily human. However, before she could muster her courage, her fellows had already slain all the manticores.

    “Looks like splitting up is a bad idea now. After this, we’ll have every monster after us. The smell of the blood alone will do it, plus now we will be traveling with wounded.” Ultarik was not going to leave anybody behind, this attack drove the point home. Anisa and Brahms should not either, it would be too dangerous.

    “Brahms, Anisa, Toan: stay here and watch the camp. Ultarik, head in the direction that Ooke went in and see if he needs a hand.” He went over to Granite and placed his small hand on her shoulder. Alm gave her a cheery smile and kissed her forehead. “It’ll be alright. I know it was scary, but it’ll be alright now. With such big creatures dead, we could very well use their smell to ward off other creatures. I’ll need some help with smearing their smell around the campsite. Are you able to help?”

    Ultarik looked to Alm, he was about ready to head out without him. They could not split up, at least they had a chance to get through here alive. “Let’s hope he’s not dead yet. Losing even one person now would not be good. I’m going to go find that dark priest and save him.” He then dismounted and left his horse in the camp, making haste he started towards where Ooke had headed off in.

* * *

    Despite deflecting a few claws, but mostly the tails, Fenix hadn’t managed to kill any of them. One of the detriments of not having a blade. The few blows he had hit, despite dumbfounding the creature as an invisible opponent, had just basically pissed it off. When all was said and done, however, the last one fell to the ground. Sitting up on his staff, he sighed, reappearing to the rest of the world.

    “Gee, anyone else noticing a trend here?” Fenix said absently, looking at the path. Shortcut, maybe, but this wasn’t worth getting killed over. Seems like the monsters attacking them were getting tougher. The insects had been interested in the horses, but the manticores were most definitely interested in them. It might cost a little bit of time, but at this rate a swarm of dragons might be in their future. When Alm began to order him, he waved off the grassrunner. “Oh shut up before I grab ya by the scruff of your neck and use you for fishing bait.” The whole line was just in annoyed tone, and not with any serious merit to it. Ah well, he can deal with the dwarf... one night anyway. With one eye open the entire time. Well, if that priest is alive anyway.

    Granite nodded to Alm and sheathed her mace. She was trembling, but he calmed her nerves. “Alright,” she replied to Alm. “Those things were terrible...”

    Anisa shook the brains and blood off her blade, then sheathed it. Making a scan of the sky, she looked for other manticores, but it seemed they were safe.

    Walking back to the fire, she heard Ultarik’s comment about safety in numbers. “I s’pose yer right, mate. Seven ‘gainst five is better then three ‘gainst five,” the half-elf said, only counting those who had been in camp. She wasn’t aware of Ooke’s predicament.

    Alm sighed and glared at Brahms. “You tell me to shut up again, Brahms and I’ll feed you to squirrels.” He went about dissecting the dead manticore nearest to him and handing the smelliest part of the beast to Granite. “Take that and splash a bit of it on the trees surrounding camp. That will keep away predators.”

    “Yeah, yeah,” Fenix said, waving off the grassrunner. He had seen the little guy’s skills, but he knew what he was capable of now. If Alm attacked him, the little grassrunner would be sorely mistaken at his luck. Sitting down next to the fire, he kicked part of a manticore out of the way. “This route is to dangerous for my taste. It might take us out of the way, but I think we should get off of it as soon as possible. At the very least we need some supplies, and probably some more horses thanks to those cursed giant insects.” Not to mention he was apparently the only one who had packed any sort of food. “And now, I think one person at watch is a bad idea. Two people would give us a bit better look out in case we get attacked... again.”

    Granite took the bloody body part offered to her and grimaced. She didn’t complain though, she went about spreading the blood on the short trees and bushes, grasses, and rocks in a perimeter around the camp.

    “Mebbee jest two ‘orses. At least the manticores dinit touch the ‘orses, jest scared the crap outta ‘em,” Anisa commented, looking that the four terrified looking horses huddled together where they had been tied. Toan’s horse had been hurt bad by the mantises earlier and had two gouges on its side. The wounds would get infected quickly. “Someone oughta tend to Toan’s ‘orse,” Anisa said. “Anyway, yeah, we best be puttin’ two out for watch at night.”

    “Since we seem to all not trust each other, perhaps our buddy system should be of the two ‘camps’ in our camps. The ‘good’ and the ‘bad’.” Alm pointed out. “That way we have each one person that one of us trusts at a single time. Of course, since I fall into neither camp, I can’t complain whomever you saddle me with.”

    He smirked at Granite’s work. She was smearing the blood against the trees and rocks. That’s alright, the sack should have the smell going through the blood as well. Alm noted. “We should, though, be safe. In theory, the sack that I gave Granite to smear on the surroundings, despite its foul smell to us, the smell to animals and others of its kind, should be enough to ward off unpleasantnesses, at least, until late into tomorrow’s eve.” He shrugged. “So, in that case, I’ll take the ‘darkest’ watch. Human eyes are no match for my keen senses.” He grinned. “Of course, Brahms, if you care to differ, I’d be glad to share watch with you.”

    “Thats quite alright, thank you.” Fenix stated flatly. He personally didn’t want to stay up with Alm. Granted, he didn’t want to get stuck with Coras or Ooke for that matter, either. That left his choices down to a few, and he knew which one he wanted. “I’ll stay up with Anisa, if you don’t mind. I figure we have things to discuss about our routes and money spending.” Well, that was a bald faced lie, to say the least. Although he didn’t care if they called him on it.

    Granite returned into the campsite, and tossed the sack into the grass. She overheard Alm and Brahms talking as she worked.

    “I’ll take watch with Alm. We dwarves have even better night vision than elves,” Granite said, looking at her gloves in disgust. She stripped them off and tossed them near her pack.

    “I’ll take watch with ye then,” Anisa replied to Fenix. The half-elf unbuckled her sword belt, then sat down in the grass again. With the fighting she’d seen today, her sabers needed cleaning and sharpening, so she set to work while they had a moment’s rest.

* * *

    Ultarik ran to meet with Coras to find Ooke. All he could use was one throwing axe. His wounded arm was held at his side, he did not care of the wounds still were open. All that mattered was finding their missing companion, perhaps the attack was a sign they were making a mistake.

    “I may not like it but we gotta keep together, if we split up like that we are weak. Coras, can you at least trust everybody enough to avoid this, even if it is just for the sake of our journey?” he asked honestly, hoping that he would be able to get some stability. He was not going to fail Karla, he would have the woman he loved back.

    Coras looked to Ultarik with an icy glare. “For someone sent to check on another’s well being, you’re lallygagging back here at a walk, when you should conserve your breath for the run to the dwarf’s aid.” Coras left behind Ultarik, running to Ooke’s aid.

    He stumbled upon the dwarf under the manticore, attacking the beast and seemingly in pain from the wound in his shoulder. Using his momentum he hacked the tail off of the manticore and used the rest of his weight to shove the beast off of Ooke. “Sorry I’m late.” he grunted.

    Ooke turned and smiled at Coras. “You better not have damaged my hammer, human,” he said with a humorous, light hearted grin. He was happy to see someone came to help him. He pulled the remainder of the tail out of his shoulder and began to treat the wound with herbs and mushrooms he picked up earlier. “The poison well soon set and I’ll pass out, my body will work the poison out and I’ll wake back up shortly after,” Ooke instructed Coras then passed out cold.

    Ultarik caught up to Coras after he headed off, putting his weapon away once he saw Ooke he looked to Coras. He had nothing to say in retort to Coras’s words, but then maybe he had his pride to consider. “Damn beasts, I’ll carry him back to camp. He going to be alright?” He then leaned over and picked the dwarf up with his good arm, carefully placing him over his shoulder he straightened up again.

    Coras grunted and followed Ultarik back to the camp, snatching up anything Ooke might have dropped in the mean time. Once returning to camp he overheard Alm and Brahms bickering, and Granite’s statement.

    “He got off a little better than we did,” Coras stated. “Only one, but it was mostly dead when Ultarik and I stumbled on the scene.” He went over to Alm and ruffled the small grassrunner’s hair. “Hey, Alm. I owe you one. Thanks.” He was referring to the time just before with the manticore. When Alm stood in front of Coras and allowed the human to rise to his feet. It was something he wouldn’t have done for Alm, at least, not then.

    Ultarik set Ooke down by the fire once they got back to camp, glad to have that over with he looked around. Alm and Brahms were arguing and Granite’s statement caught his attention as well, things had to stop from falling apart. “I just want to get to our destination with everybody intact. I’ll take last watch before dawn. Does anybody have a sword I can borrow? It’ll save on bandages, sealing my wounds with heat.” He had already started checking out his arm, it would take a while but at least a heated blade would kill any infection. Though he did not like to move it at the moment, even he could not help showing his pain at the moment.

    Alm looked over to Ultarik and smiled. “I’ll seal the wound for you. I’ve already done it to my own wound!” He gave a curt nod to Coras for the thanks, and unsheathed his rapier, stabbing it into the fire. Once the blade was heated, he took off to Ultarik and jumped on the larger man’s chest, knocking him down suddenly. Before anyone could react, he lanced the wound with the heated blade, sealing it shut. He grinned fiercely. “I hope that helps.” Alm stood and walked back over to his dead manticore. There were gory things he had yet to play with.

    Ultarik was about to reply before he was knocked down by the grassrunner, he did not expect it. The sudden motion and the burning offset each other, at least now he could help out more. “Thank you, it helps a lot,” he replied with just as the grassrunner headed off to the dead manticore. Now that things were settled down, he could relax. This trip was uneventful, though he was aiding in another’s plan for his own benefit.

    While tending to his horse’s wounds, Toan winced as Alm went about sealing wounds. “Yeesh... glad I’m not hurt,” he groaned, and finished cleaning the cuts on the animal. “Alright then. These wounds should be alright. Well... should be. If there’s another attack and she tears them open again in fright, it could be bad.”

    Exhausted, he sat down to gather his thoughts a moment. “I’ll watch with anybody, doesn’t matter,” he said, and then looked up at Granite. “Hey there, you should take a break. Let Alm do the work for you,” he laughed. “Seems like he’s been trying to impress you and all.”

    Granite plopped down on the ground and looked into the fire. It had been a long, hard day, and she feared that tomorrow wouldn’t be any better.

    “I don’t think he’s trying to impress me, but he sure has,” Granite replied to Toan. “He just suddenly became this grown man instead of the child he pretended to be the other night. I wonder how long he’ll act this way?”

    “Uh, a grown man, yeah,” Toan muttered, though he did have to agree with Granite. “He’s older than some of the humans here. As for how long it will last, I don’t know...” he trailed off, and then looked back up with a smile. “I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about.”

    Alm cut out what looked like the heart and took it over to the campfire. He stuck it on the end of his rapier and started to roast it over the fire. He turned it over gently roasting it. “Anyone want monster heart too?” He gave a soft grin. “Twenty to one odds that it’s tasty.”

    Ultarik looked at Alm, it was meat but he was not too picky. He would have to take a gamble, he was not too fond of dried meat by this point. “I’ll join you on trying that and wager two gold, that it is as good as any delicacy.” He was laughing a little at the grassrunners boldness, he would have made it in any tribe only because he tried so hard. “I’ll take watch just before dawn, I am usually up by then to see the sun rise.”

    Toan glanced over to where Alm was currently roasting a grotesque organ and grimaced. “Ehh... I think I’ll play my elf card and stick to something vegetable...”

    Alm smiled. “It’s better than vegetable: it’s heart!” he looked over his shoulder at the dark elf. “You know heart is like a vegetable. It’s not really a meat, it’s like a muscle, and mussels are sea creatures, and sea creatures have salt in their veins, like, one time I swore I saw kelp try to eat a dolphin. It was mildly amusing. But then there was this one time...” He paused and grinned. “Okay, back to my muscle thing. Mussels live near kelp, which is a vegetable. So, in a way, it’s related to a vegetable, and that is why I’m going to eat it.”

    Anisa heard Alm begin to ramble and raised her eyebrow curiously to the odd grassrunner. “No ‘eart fer me, mate,” Anisa replied, then returned to her work. The blades were cleaned now, so she brought out a whetstone and began to work on the worn areas. Her sharp half-elven eyes could easily see the damage done by carapace and bone to the blade.

    Granite smiled as Alm slipped back into his odd ramblings, just as she anticipated. “No thanks, I’m going to try and get some sleep,” Granite told Alm. Now that the adrenaline had worn off, she was utterly exhausted. The scraping sound of Anisa sharpening her blades was comforting to the blacksmith’s daughter and would probably lull her to sleep.

    The dwarf stood, then leaned down to whisper to Toan’s long ear; “Could you make sure Ooke doesn’t come near me while I sleep?”

    “I’ll watch him for you,” Toan replied to Granite in a low tone. “I don’t exactly trust the guy either. Dark elves who are free of Kardis and Falaris care to distance ourselves from them as much as possible, but... It would be wrong to turn on any person after making a pact with them. You sleep easy, I’ll keep an eye out for him.” He gave her a pat on the shoulder and turned towards the others to let her get some rest.

    Granite smiled tiredly through her beard to the dark elf. She hadn’t interacted much with him so far, but he seemed like such a nice fellow, despite what was normally expected of dark elves.

    “Sheesh,” Alm grunted. “More for me then.” He removed the cooked meat from the fire and waited for it to cool. When it had cooled a little Alm bit off a bit of the side and chewed with vigor. “Hey, WOW!! This is great. Well, minus the meaty flavor, this thing could be sold for like tons of gold to humans.” He swallowed the chunk of meat and began to devour his once bloody prize.

    Ooke came to slowly, but his eyes were too dilated to open and his ears still weren’t functioning. His breathing was coming back to normal and he could move his fingers, but Ooke laid there and wait for the rest of his body to come back. Meanwhile his mind began hallucinating. This didn’t effect him one bit he enjoyed the parade of death in his mind.

    “Does it really taste good?” Coras asked, honestly inquiring as to the meat’s taste. He had never eaten monster before, and Alm was daring enough to try anything it seemed. The young human shook his head. “Damn you’re a weird one. I thought that you folk don’t eat meat.”

    “Thats just wrong,” Fenix stated in a dry tone, watching as the small, child like creature at the monster’s heart. He always thought fae races didn’t eat meat, but both Anisa and Alm did, so apparently it was an acquired taste. “I assume you know for a fact that heart your eating isn’t poisonous. You know, like its tail.”

    Fortunately, one of the benefits of not having a blade was not having to sharpen it. So, Anisa’s tending to her blades just grated his nerves a bit. Well, that, and the fact that they had been attacked far to much for his taste. He wondered if it had anything to do with that raven earlier. Still, it was a bit satisfying to see the dwarf had received some manner of retribution. He would have pointed that he could have bound the dwarves wounds, but he didn’t feel like touching the dwarf at the moment. “Hey, if there are any maggots in Ooke’s wounds tomorrow, don’t clean them out.” One of the misconceptions in the healing world were that maggots were bad. While it was partially true, the maggots would eat the dead flesh while leaving the live flesh alone. Well, they would eventually have to be cleaned out to sow up the wound, but he would trust a healer to do that part in the next town. “I don’t know what manticore’s are capable of, and maggots are more capable of cutting out dying flesh than I am. Well, short of holy magic anyway.”

    “We are vegetarians,” Alm said after devouring the heart. “Also, the poison of a manticore is located in a gland in the top most portion of the tail. Thus, both scorpions, as well as manticores, are not poisonous themselves, though they have poisonous glands. Thus, you can eat both the arachnae as well as the manticore without provocation to ingest small amounts of poison. The same cannot be said, however, for the puffer fish.”

    He looked at Brahms and smiled. “Also, it’d be best if there was no flirting between you and Anisa tonight. It would be bad to mix business with pleasure, although I’m sure it would be quite pleasurable. Although you may have others fooled with your innocent facade, I, on the other hand am clever like a fox. And like a fox, I can hunt out things that don’t belong. Also, foxes have long pointed ears like elves, which makes me think that foxes are indeed related to fae. That would make sense, considering their omnivoristic urges. It’d be safe to say that most of the Canis family of animals are interesting to say the least, and although many branches of the Canis family are domesticated, they are not nearly as feral as their Felix enemies. Felines, or the Felix family, are commonly referred to as cats. I hope that we run into a pole cat, they are an interesting species, and somewhat more intelligent than your average Canis lupus.”

    The young grassrunner sucked in his breath. “Although, to bring back to the manticore, it is hard to figure out what branch of the animal kingdom it belongs to. Some could argue that due to its body shape, it could be a member of the Felix family, though with its wings, it looks more Rodentia. Although, with the tail it hearkens a liking to the Arachinda family aforementioned. Frankly, in all truth, it belongs to the chimera family, a relative of a nasty creature, most likely created due to some sick Kastuulian wizard bored with his pet.”

    Alm cleared his throat and rose to his feet. “Coras, my boy. Let us harvest the hearts of said chimera family pests and smoke the meat. ‘tis said, in some barbaric cultures, that one who eats the heart of its enemy becomes insanely brave, and nary impenetrable. Of course, that is hardly the case here. But at least we’d have more food for the road.”

    Anisa stopped sharpening her sword as Alm began to rant. The pirate half-elf was utterly confused, not as much by all he had to see, but just by how much he seemed to know. The whetstone still in her hand, poised over the blade resting on her knee, Anisa watched Alm. Her expression was obviously one of surprise and confusing.

    Finally, after a moment, she returned to her work and murmured, “The bloody grassrunner never ceases to amaze me.”

    Coras’s face mimed Anisa’s in full out shock. The grassrunner was intelligent, to a degree. Tangented, but had a logic to his almost insane ramblings. Realizing that Alm asked for his help, Coras rose to help harvest and cook the manticore hearts. There was little for the human to say, so he silently went to work. Although messy and somewhat disgusting, Coras found it a little interesting that Alm had not complained once about doing most of the dirty work, half burying himself in the muck just to pull out its heart and just handing the organ to the human, instead of making the longer limbed one do the work. Such work ethic demanded praise, although Alm’s speech had still stolen the words from Coras’s lips.

    Toan stood and watched the heart-diggers at work. “The heart’s also an organ but that doesn’t make it a piano much does it?” He shook his head, though he was wearing a smile. To see everybody getting along was the more relieving than anything else. “Did we decide on a watch yet? I cou-oof!-” He slipped on part of the ground slick with guts and nearly fell over, catching himself at the last second with a curse in his own language, then laughed awkwardly hoping nobody there knew the translation. “Heh... I mean yeah, what’s the plan?”

    The dwarf went to where her pack was and began to unpack her bedding. She overheard Alm’s rant, causing her to pause momentarily in her work, shocked by the knowledge that poured from the grassrunner. She saw Toan slip and stifled a giggle at his reaction, trying to brush it off. She just wanted to get to bed though, so once her blankets were laid out, she stripped off her armor and slipped into the bed. A bath. A bath would be nice, she thought. She fell asleep quickly, lulled by Anisa’s blade sharpening.

    Ultarik watched Alm and Coras remove the hearts, he might as well help them out as there was little else to do. Standing up with one of his hand axes, he walked over to where they worked. “Need some extra help? I can help with removing but not smoking,” he offered as he almost slipped on some guts. Alm had been right about the custom of eating enemies hearts. The grassrunner was obviously more well informed than he thought, which was a good thing.

    “The smoking is the key problem,” Alm stated blandly. “I can remove the organs fine, but I need a roaster or a spit of some type.” He looked to Toan. “I believe the watch order goes like this: Anisa and Brahms, blank slot, me and Granite, and then Ultarik...” He sighed. “Coras and Ooke have not been assigned a slot, but Brahms would argue that they couldn’t work together, for fear of conspiracy. So, I believe, you and Coras should take the shift before Granite and I, and then Ooke and Ultarik will have last shift.” He handed another messy organ to Coras to smoke. “Anyways, back to the meat problem, I don’t really want to let any of it go to waste, but perhaps it would help some of the less fortunate animals around here if we left a good portion of the carcasses undisturbed.” He had removed all the hearts, that’s all he really wanted anyways. It’s true that the idea of wasting such large creatures’ meat was less than satisfying, but they had little chance to carry it all on the limited amount of mounts they had. “Well Coras, to the smoking.”

    Ooke finally regain his senses, but just laid there for a bit. He wondered what had happen while he was out. Although that thought passed quickly and he chose not to dig it back up. He stood up, stretched, and gathered his belongings, then walked over to a corner in the camp facing everyone and sat down. Ooke didn’t feel much like talking at the moment. He knew where he stood with the group and would just keep his distance for the time being. He picked up another stone and began his art to pass the time while he observed the carnage around the camp.

    Coras went about helping Alm smoke the heart meat. Alm was something of an enigma to him, and probably all of the camp. Although they had not gotten along at almost every turn, Alm stood up for him in the manticore fight, even protected him from one of them. He was the one who issued orders to save Ooke, even after the party gave him up. There was something strangely unique about the grassrunner that they ran into. At times he was childish, and other times he was insane. But through it all, Alm seemed to have a strong will and almost iron determination to strive to get things done. His copious amounts of knowledge and babble that sprung from his mouth sounded all so true too, almost like he was gifted in some obscene way, but that gift shattered his mind.

    Coras found himself staring at the blood soaked grassrunner with admiration in his eyes, he looked away and looked to Ooke. “Glad to have you back amongst the living.” he stated.

    Ultarik watched them after helping setup the spit for smoking, and listening to Alm list the watch rotation. He was getting a little tired however, maybe though it was the fact they had two battles in one day. “Hopefully nothing comes by tonight, I want to get some rest before last shift. Alm, you’re pretty resourceful. Hopefully you don’t walk away from us all.” He was grateful to the grassrunner, he had been a big help since he came alone. Perhaps they were more than companions, maybe he might actually have friends after this too.

    Alm smiled at his handiwork and yawned loudly. He stood up, but his energy had left him. The short grassrunner fell onto his back fast asleep. Although the thud was far from healthy sounding, the young grassrunner was uninjured and would sleep till woken for watch.

    Finally finishing her sharpening, Anisa checked the sharpness of her sabers with a strand of her hair that she plucked off her head. Satisfied, Anisa put away the whetstone and oil, stood and sheathed her blades. “Mates, get some sleep,” she said to Toan, Coras, and Ultarik. “Me ‘n Brahms will be watchin’ over ye.”

    The half-elf then hopped up on top of the huge boulder and sat down. It was the highest vantage point in camp, therefore, the perfect place to watch from.

    Ultarik put his pack down and set out his blanket, using the pack as a pillow he lay down. “I hope you have a safe watch. ‘night you two.” He then fell asleep, exhausted from the fights and now his body had to heal. Within minutes he was snoring lightly, unable to be woken.

* * *

    Anisa watched over the camp, waiting until everyone had gone to sleep before speaking to Brahms. She patted the boulder next to her, beckoning him to climb up and sit beside her. “It’s a good view from up ‘ere,” she said to Brahms, as coyly as possible with her accent.

    Fenix was already trying to contemplate ways to seduce the half-elf while the others were awake. Well, he tried to anyway. The eating of the hearts had pretty much been on his mind, and with every bite those thoughts grew more and more. It had been a relief when Alm went to sleep, although the stench of blood still assailed him.

    When Anisa invited him up on the rock, he noted her tone of voice. She couldn’t be hitting on him. Although there were several instances where it seemed she was in the past, so who knew? Not wasting to much time, he climbed up to the boulder, sitting down. “Well, looks like things are getting a bit more interesting as of late....” He was talking about the whole situation in general, but he left the statement somewhat ambiguous.

    Anisa leaned against Fenix when he sat beside her, looking casually up at the starry sky overhead. Not that she had to be subtle about anything. “That they are. They could get more int’restin’,” Anisa replied, hoping he’d get the point.

    Well, so much for her not having any interest, Fenix thought as she leaned in close to him. He got her reference loud and clear, and had to stifle a laugh at it. A very beautiful half elf wanted to bed him, he wasn’t about to say no. “Aye, I imagine it will,” he breathed in her ear, making sure to put most of the breath against the lobe.

    Anisa closed her eyes and smiled to herself, enjoying the way he responded. Her ears were sensitive like that and it caused a pleasant tingle. Anisa placed her hand on high on his thigh, then left him to make the next move.

    When she didn’t push him away, but instead, placed her hand on his thigh, he took it as further initiative. Not that he really needed any more at this point. Rather than just breathing, he gave her ear a small nip, before drawing back lightly. Becoming a bit bolder still, he turned her head toward his, and leaned forward, pressing his lips to hers for a brief kiss. “What do you say we continue this... conversation, somewhere more private?”

    Anisa smiled as Brahms pulled back from the kiss. She’d get just what she wanted. The half-elf unbuckled her sword belt and left it on top of the rock before she silently slipped down behind the boulder. As she crawled back, she offered him an encouraging wink to follow.

    Looking over at the group, he had thought he had seen some movement. Thinking it had just been movement of shadows, he smirked. Letting his staff slide off the rock, he followed Anisa as quickly as he could, although he did spare some silence to it.

    Ooke was having trouble sleeping, seeing as how he had already been forced through a nap. So he sat there, quietly watching the two love birds. The thought was warm in Ooke’s heart but it quickly vanished as he notice the two leaving their post. Ooke would say nothing, he just drew his hammer closer in case anything should happen. As he watched the others sleep he took note at how peaceful the group seemed even if most were sleeping.

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