"Alright, that's enough for tonight. Go and carve some more ugly monsters, and rest. Tomorrow will be another long day," Haltir said.

I was so tired I couldn't even groan. Instead, I nodded and trudged to the small campfire Egilla had made. Dropping the ax beside my backpack, I lay down and closed my eyes.

"He is really working you hard," Egilla said.

Opening one eye, I saw she was laughing at me.

"Why don't you join us?" I muttered, closing my eyes again.

"Because I'm not good with axes, of course," she said with a grin.

I didn't respond, and after a few minutes, I heard her get up and walk away. Probably going up the tree to keep an eye out for trouble again. I still had no idea what was supposed to be on these plains, but both Egilla and Haltir seemed to think whatever it was was dangerous.

When my breathing had stabilized, and I didn't feel like puking, I got up and ate some of the dried vegetable rations. That which Haltir and I took from the mercenaries was long gone, but Egilla had brought an entire bag full from the hidden Elf pocket dimension. It should easily get us until Dursic. Too bad, it was all dried vegetables and tasted like molten cardboard.

Swallowing the dry stuff, I imagined eating a pizza - what I wouldn't give for one of those, with molten cheese and salami.

Grabbing the branch that lay beside me, I took up the knife and removed the smaller branches. Some were thick enough to use for something other than firewood, and I put those in my backpack. It was mostly empty anyway, and the wood was not that heavy. Clearing the branch of its thick brown bark, I saw the wood below was almost white, and when I finished, I had something that resembled a fishing rod. Swishing it around a bit, the tip bending like a whip, it almost seemed a shame to cut it up. Then again, the first meter or so was too thick to hold properly, and the part in between not even enough to make a bow. Had I been able to make one, of course.

In the end, I left a two arm's length part intact, attaching it to the side of my bag, unsure what to do with it. Chopping the remainder up into half a dozen pieces as long as my lower arm, some even as thick, I put everything but one in my bag. That should last me until we reached Dursic, or so I hoped.

Staring at the wood in my hand, I noticed that the grains were a lot finer than the stuff I'd been using the last ten days. The buried tree wood was coarse, hard, and chipped easily. Thinking of what I wanted to make first, I decided on a beluga whale. It would save me from making legs, which was still the hardest thing as they snapped so easily.

Picturing the whale in my mind, I started removing curls of wood. The wood was easy to work, softer than any I'd used in Sart, and much better to carve than the buried tree wood.

Besides, Egilla's knife was a marvel. It barely dulled, and when it did, rubbing a handful of sand along its edge was enough to sharpen it again. It did remove some of the blade's material, but not a lot, and it should last for years and years before ground down to nothing. Egilla said it had been a gift from one of the many male elves suitors she had to deal with.

Due to the ease of working with the wood and not being as tired as I usually was, I lost myself in trying to remove the image of the whale from the wood that surrounded it. I didn't notice when Egilla came back or when Haltir joined us at the fire, but when I cut the last small edge from the dorsal fin and stopped to marvel at what I had made, they were both staring at the object in my hands.

The odd sensation left me, and a loud ping came from my status window. Examining the hand-sized wooden model I smiled. It was almost a perfect representation of what I'd imagined, and many times better than anything I'd ever made. The whale seemed almost ready to swim away, it's tail curved up, mid sway and it's stubby mouth slightly ajar to show a small row of teeth.

"What is that?" Egilla said slowly, her hand stretched out.

I handed her the whale and grinned. "I don't know. It's an image that came to my mind when I thought of the sea," I partially lied. I knew what it was, of course, but it wouldn't help to try to explain that to them.

Egilla's coarse fingers gently caressed the whale's smooth lines, and she smiled. "It's beautiful!"

I almost wanted to give it to her, but then I shivered. Better not. Sandra always told me I had no idea what women thought, and I didn't want to give her the wrong impressions. Instead, I smiled back.

"Thanks!"

She reluctantly handed it back, and instead of burning it as I had with all the previous things I'd made, I put it in my backpack. I might never make something like this again, so I'd better bring it to show Sandra.

We turned in for the night, and staring up at the yellow-orange canopy above, I summoned my status window.

> Inspired by what you've seen, and after much practice, you have created a unique piece of low-grade art

> Woodcrafting increased by 1

> Wood crafting 2/10

A low-grade piece of art? Reading the line again, I wondered what different grades there were. Shrugging, I closed the status and my eyes. Somehow I couldn't wait to try again during our next downtime.

--

"It must have been a bad piece of wood," Egilla said, smiling at me. I knew she was trying to make me feel better, but as I looked at the horrid and ugly piece of mangled wood in my hands, it didn't help much. It was supposed to be a parrot, but it looked nothing like one. The only thing even remotely close to what I had pictured was the beak. I was about to toss the wood in the fire when I stopped. Perhaps I could fix it when I got better? Examining it again, I decided to keep it, if only to see if I could figure out what had gone wrong.

It was later than the previous night, as we had to travel up to almost nightfall to find a buried tree. Haltir hadn't even been interested in training the ax, something that had not happened before. Closing my eyes, I tried to put the disappointment from my mind.

The next few days were a long list of frustration and surprise, and six days after the beautiful Beluga whale, I looked at the coiled-up snake in my hands. It was even better than the whale, somehow even the tiny scales working exactly as I had intended. The forked tongue that lay on it's lower lip seemed ready to slither back between it's lips.

Looking up, I saw Egilla grinning at me, and I shrugged.

"I guess I just have to keep practicing."

She nodded, looking at the snake statue with hungry eyes. Holding it up for a moment for them to admire, I put it back in the back with the whale and the five failures. This time I hadn't gotten any ping from my status, but that didn't surprise me. Although it was a bit better than the whale, it was probably the same grade. I expected I needed to make something better to increase my profession to another level.

Two days later, I watched as Haltir stopped and examined his surroundings. Wondering what he was up to, my eyes widened when he began moving into the hills.

"We are almost there?" I asked. Both the boredom of traveling day in day out and the fact that I might see Sandra soon got me perked up.

"A few more days through the hills, and then we will be there," he replied. "but the easy journey is over now. There won't be any more buried trees to rest."

That was fine by me. The constant nagging fear of an imminent attack on the planes while nothing ever happened had become boring.

"We might not find her in Dursic. You know that, right?" Egilla said as she climbed the incline beside me. The grass below our feet was slippery, making it hard to climb up, and I could see grey rock below. The grass seemed to grow even on the stone.

I sighed and nodded. "I know, but what else should I do?"

Egilla didn't respond, and we followed Haltir further up the hill. A few hours later, at the top, a small canyon blocked our path. Twice too wide to jump, I couldn't even see the bottom.

"We will need to find a way around. Let's go further and see if the distance becomes smaller, or we find a bridge," Haltir said.

Hours later, the canyon was now a dozen meters wide, but far in the distance, we saw a falling piece of rock bridging it. When we reached it, I didn't like the look of the cracking rock. It seemed barely capable of holding its own weight, let alone us if we crossed it.

"Stay here. I'll try first," Egilla said.

Dexterous, she jumped almost a meter straight up a rocky outcrop of the natural bridge. Slowly she moved across. The rock cracked and groaned but held, and when she crossed, she beckoned us.

"You go first," Haltir said

As I climbed up, I hoped the thing could hold my greater weight.

Shuffling, one foot at a time, I moved forward. The bridge was only shoulder-width at its narrowest point in the middle and looking down, I felt myself grow dizzy. As I stood to gather my nerves, a crack came from the rock, and I started.

"Run!" Egilla screamed, and I shot forward.

Running, barely paying attention to where my feet touched, I felt the stone buckle below me. Four meters to the end, something cracked loudly behind me, and I saw the stone in front of my lift. The thing had snapped in the middle! Taking two more steps, I felt my feet slide, and I jumped forward and up. For a precarious moment, I hung in the air, and then I slammed into the edge. Scrambling for a hold on the finger-length grass, I slid back.

Mere centimeters from the edge, something grabbed my wrist, and I stopped. Looking up in panic, I saw Egilla hold one of my arms.

Three seconds later, my shaking and scared ass lay on the flat stone beyond.

"Continue onwards. I'll catch up when I can!" Haltir roared shouted the chasm.

I scrambled up, and still weak in the knee's I stood beside Egilla. Haltir pointed at me, a big grin on his face.

"Keep practicing! If I don't reach you within three months, make your way to Telerin and find Ax master Geor Balesong!"

Taking a last look at Egilla, it seemed something exchanged between them that was lost on me, and then he turned and continued forward. Egilla sighed and turned.

"Let's go. Without him, it will be even more dangerous tonight, and we need to get make up for the time we lost finding a path across this bloody canyon."

Watching Haltir disappear in the distance, I nodded. As I followed Egilla, I felt less secure than I had in days. Haltir's presence before had made things seem safe and doable.

We continued walking until it started getting dark, and cracked rocky outcrops towered around us. It was like a natural maze with a carpet of grass, and it was a good thing Egilla still seemed to know where she was going.

"We need to find a place, a cave or overhang, to hide inside," Egilla said.

Together we scanned our surroundings, continuing onward until I saw a small crevice inside a six-meter high cliff.

"There," I said, pointing it out.

"That will do, I hope," Egilla responded, and we moved towards it. The terrain where we were walking was so rugged and uneven it was more like climbing than walking, and I couldn't even imagine having to pass through here in my human body. I'd have snapped my ankles or broke a leg within the hour.

The crevice was barely half a meter wide and two tall. It seemed to end in a wall two meters beyond the entrance, but when we reached it, it was just a bent that led to another half a meter crevice. After four meters, the second crevice ended in a dark angular cave. Knee height, blueish grass grew around the edges, and purple and yellow mushrooms grew on one wall.

"This will do nicely! Well spotted, Est," Egilla said as she inspected the entire cave.

"No other entrances, not even small ones, and from a distance, it will be hard to spot. We won't be able to make fire, though, as that would give us away."

Give us away to what? I thought.

"How will Haltir find us without a light to guide him?"

Egilla's look made me think I'd said something stupid, and after a second, she turned and began unpacking her back. "He won't find us, no matter what we do. The only thing we can do is hope he makes it to Dursic, but on his own…"

Wait, was she implying what I thought she was? Blinking, I remembered the last look Haltir had given me and shook my head. That hadn't seemed like a man who knew he was dead. I sighed and splayed out my blanket. The light filtering in from the entrance was barely enough to see properly, so there wouldn't be any carving tonight. Then I remembered my promise to Haltir.

With a weary sigh, I got up, grabbed my ax, and began performing the last of the forms he had shown me the night before.

--

Egillla woke me in the middle of the night, her hand clasped around my mouth and her eyes wide. Blinking, I heard a loud stomping and snuffing coming from outside the cave. Whatever it was, it was huge, and the warm rotten smell that wafted inside the cave almost made me gag.

Almost holding my breath, I waited, not even daring to remove Egilla's hand from my mouth.

For a minute, the thing rummaged around the cave entrance, and then it disappeared. Egilla waited for another full minute before she finally released me. I looked at her and pointed at my mouth that I wanted to speak. She quickly shook her head and mimicked lying down and sleeping. I nodded, but for the rest of the night, I just lay awake, looking at the entrance. From the uneven breathing of Egilla, I knew she didn't sleep either.

When the first light filtered into the cave, I slowly got up, and Egilla followed immediately. In dead silence, we packed our bags.

"Wait here. I'll check the exit," she whispered.

I nodded and waited as she moved away, disappearing around the bend in the narrow tunnel that led to the cave. When I didn't hear anything for a minute, I was about to yell if it was safe when a massive roar caused the whole cave to shake. Dust fell from the ceiling, and I heard someone run away—something massive coming after it.

"Est, head north! I'll try and find you!"

Egilla's weak voice sounded muted, and I rushed out of the cave. Outside, the early morning light shone on the retreating form of a tall and gangly grey-skinned hound. Hairless and with enormous bat-like ears, three tails pointed forward along it's flanks and back. In front of it, Egilla disappeared into the stone maze, immediately followed by the bat-hound.

Holding my ax ready, I ran after them, trying my best not to snap an ankle on the rocky outcrops. When I reached the three-meter high canyon, they disappeared into it was empty. I only heard some soft howling far in the distance.

I could never catch up to those two. Now, what should I do? Looking around, I saw the sun. It rose in the south in this world and set in the north. An oddity for me, but making it easy enough. One of the rocky canyons parallel to the one Egilla disappeared into headed away from the sun. Taking a last look in the now-empty canyon, I sighed.

I hoped Egilla would be ok, but from what I had seen, she seemed fast enough to outrun the hound.

"Dammit. That's just great," I muttered before turning to the cavern leading north. I had the feeling life just got a whole lot harder.