I wake up before dawn and get up quietly. I didn’t discuss it with Nora, but I get up to practice Shadow step before we leave. I should be able to get it to Advanced before the sun comes up by using a light spell to create some shadows. I make my way outside the church and start practicing. I didn’t want to discuss it with Nora because she strikes me as being very stubborn and I was afraid she would push herself to much and try to continue training while I was training instead of going to sleep. I feel guilty about not involving her in the discussion, but after going through the same type of training I know she was not in a good mental state to be making discussions. About ten minutes before dawn I hit Advanced, which should help a lot with avoiding pursuit.

Nora wakes up with the dawn and I explain about my training this morning and she frowns before putting on her poker face.

“Well say something.”

“There is nothing to say, it is done. I will say I understand you reasoning, but you should have discussed this with me in the morning when I wasn’t mentally tired.”

I scratch the back of my head in chagrin and admit. “I didn’t think of it until nighttime.”

She laughed. “Very well, don’t worry about it.”

We both take food out of our inventory and eat breakfast while watching the sun rise. After eating breakfast, I sacrifice two seeds on the altar I place the Deck of Fate besides the book. I write that we are leaving and will contact Poth again when we reach the Temple. He wishes us luck. I place both the charged Deck and Book in my inventory as we get ready to leave. When we finish I take her hand and we jog at a steady pace to stretch out our stamina.

We opt out of fighting more Corrupt Shambling mounds, since it will just delay our leaving the area. Since I reached Advanced in Shadow Step the skill description changed cutting the mana cost in half. After forming a party, I will Shadow Step us through the creatures. I can step forty-five feet for thirty mana while taking Nora with me. With my mana pool at 860 I can step twenty-eight times. The plan is to enter stealth and run through the area. When a shambling mound detects us, I will take a step past it. With my mana regen I should be able to do four extra steps before I running out of mana taking us through thirty-two of the 250 creatures we will have to make it past. We will then use our cloaks of concealment to rest until I regain my mana. After using the concealment on our cloaks of the last time we will still be sixty creatures short. After our last rest Nora will leave the party and stay in stealth while I kill them with Fire Dart. Killing just a line of individual creatures as we leave. This should leave a wide enough path with Nora staying in stealth to not draw any other creature into attacking us. We also plan on heading to the North first as any one coming here will probably come from the south.

The plan works very well as we use the cloaks at the end of a run and the last Shambling Mound loses interest when we conceal ourselves. I just must kill the last group of Shambling Mounds after resting to get to the base of the cliff.

After we climb the cliff there is a series of booms behind us and at once we duck behind the edge of the cliff. We can see several explosions moving steadily toward the church from the south. It looks like the Fire God’s minions have arrived. Nora and I start jogging at a pace to make sure our stamina does not get below half. I occasionally Shadow Step over ravines, streams, and other obstacles. We make good time and by lunch, we are half way to Tierva. We just take a short break to eat a quick lunch. As we move through the woods we spot several creatures but keep stealth. The few times the creatures spot us, we were able to Shadow Step several times to lose them.

It is around dinner time when we crest a hill and Tierva comes into view. It is a town with twenty-foot stone block walls dotted with round tower standing thirty feet tall. There is a large gate house built around the gate, which is doing a brisk business with wagons, mounts, and people on foot moving through in both directions. We make our way down the hill and take the road to the gate house. The guard charged us a two-copper entry fee per person otherwise we get little attention. I do notice a man on the wall staring at each person as they enter, probably trying to inspect each person as they enter. I wonder how much luck he had with me but keeping in mind what John told me in the Tavern I don’t try to inspect him in case he can detect it. We really don’t want to draw attention to ourselves.

As we enter town we are greeted with a prompt to set out respawn point, which we both accept. I am sure respawning back at the church would be a bad idea. I let Nora lead the way. She immediately turns to our right after we enter the town heading to a building with a large sign of a wagon wheel hanging in front. As we enter through the door we step into a large open room with wide counters and an open area to the right that leads to some offices. We pass one person leaving as we enter and Nora walks up to the counter.

Nora says, “Hello. I was hoping to book travel for two people to Fairun.”

“Hi, my name is Hal. We have several options. You can go by coach, which takes three days and costs twenty silver per person. You must pay your own lodging and food. Another option involves the latest batch of Taraven, which is a large lizard that runs on all fours and masses about three times a good size horse. They will be in town tomorrow to be sent to Fairun. If you are willing to be guards, you can ride for free, food will be supplied, but you will be camping out. Pay is five silvers for the trip. Travel time will be two days. Finally, you can get a teleport, but it will be much more expensive at ten gold per person.”

We decide to take the Taraven choice. Nora and I go to the general store to restock on food. We get a room with two beds at the inn for the night. We will meet up with the other riders in the morning after eating breakfast. While I am relaxing in bed, I look at my status and ask Nora something that is bothering me.

“Nora, I have Cartographer as a skill, but it hasn’t leveled at all.”

“Well you would need an actual map, not just a quest map before you can level that.”

“Ah, well I have an actual map. I got one when I got the quest for the Deck.”

I can hear her say something that I could swear sounds like …lucky bastard…

“What type of map is it?”

“Type?”

“Common, Uncommon, Rare…”

“Oh, it’s Legendary.” I must admit I may sound a little smug saying that.

“Ok, open your map and concentrate on the Starter Village and then follow the path we took to get here.”

When I open the map, which just had the flashing dot for the Starter village it now contains a lot more volume even through the only area visible is the one we traveled. As I follow the path, I am zipping along at great speed through the terrain we followed. I can stop at any point and go back to look at the area we were in. This is incredible. After I finish Nora tells me to look at my status again. My Cartographer skill has jumped to Novice 8.

“You can study the map in more detail trying to use your perception to notice things you didn’t notice before. That will raise your skill level even more. Now get some sleep we have a busy day tomorrow.”

When Nora and I walk out the city gate there are twelve riders including us that gather outside the city walls. The Taraven have been herded into a temporary pen outside the walls. The Ride Master yells to get out attention as he jumps on a crate.

“Hello, I am Ride Master Hank Thompson. You are going to be riding the Taraven to Fairun. I will be riding the Alpha and all the other Taraven will naturally follow the Alpha. You are mostly here as guards in case someone tries to take the Taraven. To my right is Ride Master Sam and he will be following in the rear of the group to make sure there are no stragglers. We have 40 Taraven we are taking to Fairun. You will all be riding the ones around the edge of the group. It is unlikely any monster will attack a group this large, but we will be setting a rotating watch each night.”

“Everyone, please line up in front of Ride Master Sam to get your gear and then his two riders will show you all how to set the saddle on the Taraven. Make sure to keep your eye on the Taraven. If they think you are not paying attention they will bite. Alright, let’s get started, so we can get on the road. We will take a break at noon by the river to water the Taraven and then eat some lunch.”

Hank jumped down from the crate as we line up in front of Sam to get our gear. We got the saddle and tack. Then Nora and I watched one of the riders who introduced himself as Steve hit the Taraven beside his sensitive nose as it tried to take a bit out of him. After that the Taraven gave him the evil eye while he strapped on the saddle and tack. Steve watched us as Nora and I did the same to our Taraven. As I watched the Taraven I could practically see the wheels moving as it looked for an opportunity to take a piece out of us. When the riders are geared up we climbed into our saddles. Hank and Sam guided us through the basics of riding and I gained a skill.

You have learned the skill Riding, 5 XP awarded. Basic 1.