“Incoming!” Eric shouted ahead as he ducked under a thick branch and turned his head to see the shadow of a creature gaining ground behind him at a vicious pace.

He gasped as the muggy air started to impact his breathing and stung at his throat with each breath. The clearing he was charging toward seemed farther away than he remembered. He finally saw the break in the tree line ahead after a dozen more strides and increased his speed to its limit. He dove straight forward out of the forest and into a tucked roll as he heard the sound of arrows slicing the air above his head. He came out of the roll and quickly stumbled to his feet.

He saw Clarke straight ahead of him, and saw Clarke was already nocking another arrow. Eric turned to see their target was bleeding heavily from the multi-shot skill Clarke landed and had several arrows lodged deep in its hide. The beast chasing him through the forest was the second Hazern they had encountered since leaving Fraylin a week before. The creature was incredibly fast and had tracked them for several miles. They learned from their previous encounter that leading the creature into an ambush was the best way to handle it.

The first encounter caught them completely off guard, and they only survived thanks to Clarke’s quick thinking and a spare trip wire he carried for emergencies. Eric spent half the next day nursing an injured leg after the engagement. Unfortunately, it slowed down their pace significantly. Eric was thankful for the minor healing potions they stocked up on before leaving the city, but without a dedicated healer in their party, the recovery was more slow and painful than he would have preferred.

Eric focused on the scene unfolding and pulled Shadowspark forward into a defensive position. The party had determined keeping it at range from Clarke so he could dwindle down its health was the best strategy. Eric would fight it defensively in melee combat and keep its attention while Clarke bled it from range until it was weak enough for a final strike. The ambush they set had worked perfectly, and Eric was feeling more confident about the encounter with each drop of blood dripping to the ground from the injured beast.

The Hazern stared at Eric with bottomless purple eyes. It had slick black fur and resembled a large feline. It was a creature built for stalking prey, and Eric was thankful they weren’t facing it during the night, or the fight would likely have ended poorly for them. The creature took quick stock of the situation and swiftly darted toward Eric, seemingly unimpeded by the arrows that were slowly draining its health.

Eric set his feet and noticed another arrow slip past him toward the approaching enemy. The beast easily dodged the second shot while still in stride and after closing the distance to a few meters leaped toward Eric while releasing a vicious snarl. Eric gripped Shadowspark tightly and started weaving Lightning enchantment into the shaft. The air crackled from the electricity arching from the sharp tips.

The Hazern was on top of Eric in a moment, and his preparation did little good to stop the impact. They collided with force and were both sent tumbling to the ground. The creature’s long claws extended and caught Eric’s side during the impact, but his leather armor proved itself and only a light gash a couple inches long penetrated into his skin. The pain was bearable, and he was able to release his enchantment in return. It proved extremely effective as the static sent a shockwave through the creature’s muscles locking up its movement for several seconds.

Eric took advantage of the paralysis and pounced on the creature as it struggled to regain its feet. The sharp end of Shadowspark found a mark on its side, and it screeched in pain as the metal tip dug deeply into its body. Clarke didn’t waste the opportunity and landed another thick arrow into its neck to seal its fate. The creature howled one last time before going rigid and the familiar sound indicating experience gain resonated in Eric’s mind.

Eric stood victoriously but was somewhat saddened by the death of the creature. Although vicious and deadly it was also graceful and beautiful in a way. It showed intelligence and a sense of understanding that made its death seem more meaningful. He brushed away his thoughts realizing he would be dead if the beast lying on the ground in front of him wasn’t and gathered the dropped loot into his inventory.

Eric walked toward Clarke slowly and said, “That went better than the first time around. Well done.”

“You too,” he replied.

“I hope that was the last one of those things we run into. I appreciate the experience, but I wouldn’t mind fighting some more straightforward smash and stab monsters for a while,” Eric stated.

“I agree. We have been fortune only to encounter one of them at a time,” Clarke answered.

Eric nodded thoughtfully and slung Shadowspark onto his back. Eric felt his side ache slightly, but he could tell the wound was minor, and he straightened up to fight through the injury. He removed his armor gently and applied a small bandage to the gash. He quickly tightened his armor back across his side to hold the bandage in place and knew it wouldn’t take long to heal as he immediately began restoring his missing health points.

After patching up his wound, Eric glanced over toward the mountain range that had been growing in their vision since departing and frowned. They had been traveling for a week and were still not through the Galot Mountains that served as the natural border between the populated kingdoms and the frontier. The rough terrain leading into the mountains propelled them through dozens of detours and forced them to backtrack more times than Eric could remember. He was starting to rethink their approach to the cross country traveling. There was a good reason most people stuck to the roads even if it made the distance much further.

Eric sighed heavily and said, “I feel like there has to be a better way through the mountains than aimlessly wandering toward a path we don’t even know exists. If we just head back east, we can find the road south and circle around the mountains completely.”

“According to the map, we should be very close to the old mountain pass we have been searching for. Have a little more patience,” Clarke said positively.

They had purchased a simple map from one of the shops in Fraylin that showed an old scout trail cutting through the mountains. Eric was skeptical of the map from the start, but Clarke convinced him if they could find the trail it would save them weeks and prevent them from having to travel south to circumvent the mountains. It was an old trail used by rangers and scouts by the kingdom military but had reportedly been unused for many years leading Eric to believe it was overgrown and would be almost impossible to find.

“Very well. I still think we should consider cutting our losses and heading back to the road,” Eric said begrudgingly.

Clarke simply waved him off and started back toward the tangle of trees to their west. The sloping hillside was covered in a thick forest that completely hid the sun in places where the canopy was unusally dense. This slowed down their progress tremendously at times, but Eric tried to stay hopeful once they passed the forest and reached the higher slopes they would start to feel real progress.

He jogged to catch up with Clarke and fell into step beside him as they continued their march westward. He was getting impatient with their limited progress, but very thankful for the companionship. Clarke proved to be a voice of reason and logic in times of struggle and indecision. The two continued toward their goal in silence under the setting sun which cast a beautiful light display over the mountain peaks.

“Finally… I never thought we’d find this damn trail,” Eric said happily.

Clarke smirked slightly and said, “You need to have a little more faith, my friend.”

They had spent far more days traveling than Eric expected in order to find the mountain trail. He was surprised once they finally discovered it how well traveled it appeared. The earth was trodden heavily and had signs of regular use by a variety of creatures, but one stood out in particular.

Clarke and Eric carefully examined the packed dirt as they moved along and noticed trail increased in width as they neared the pass in the mountains. There were an alarmingly large number of similar bipedal prints that neither of them recognized and according to the limited information about the trail they learned from the merchant who sold them the map there wasn’t supposed to be anyone else other than wild creatures that lived in the mountains present near the trail. None of which would leave the type or volume of prints they discovered.

The companions observed the tracks were moving both east and west down the trail, and many were created within the last several days as far as they could discern. Clarke and Eric both agreed caution was warranted, and they would proceed carefully until they had a better understanding of what was creating the traffic on the trail. They decided to stay off the trail directly to help prevent walking into any surprises. They stalked along the trail in the brush and scattered boulders that bordered it on both sides.

By the end of the first day, they were on edge after not spotting anything out of the ordinary. They made a camp up against a small boulder nearby and settled in as quietly as possible. Eric learned quickly that the untraversed wilderness was full of surprises, and the worst of them seemed to appear after the sun vanished. It only took a couple of surprise encounters to set up a standard watch and they followed the normal routine throughout the night.

The next morning, Eric woke up alert. He scanned the area quickly and became alarmed when he didn’t spot Clarke nearby. He sent him a quick message, and when he didn’t receive a response after several minutes, he immediately knew something was amiss. He crept around the edges of their camp and suddenly heard strange voices in the distance. He had trouble making out the words from his location, but he instantly knew it wasn’t a good sign. He armed myself and stalked toward the voices as silently as possible.

Eric followed the voices back toward the trail and started to pick out some of the words, but they were hard to recognize and disjointed making it difficult to follow any sort of conversation. He kept close to the ground and crept closer to the sounds so he could get eyes on the source. He was downhill from the voices so he darted between coverage to keep from being spotted.

Eric finally found a position near a cluster of broken rocks to peer at his objective. He was shocked to see a grungy looking group of bipedal creatures. He counted six in total, and they were shockingly human in appearance, but yet still foreign. They wore shabby fur pelts as clothes, and their skin was variations of deep red reminding him of thickly pooled blood. The voices started coming in clearer once he got within visual range of the group.

He started piecing together the conversations, but it was as if the speech wasn’t following the mouth movements of the ones speaking. It suddenly clicked that his latest skill must have been getting applied so he could understand whatever language they were using to converse. He listened intently and started to get anxious after hearing their conversation get increasingly tense.

One of the larger males in the group with stark black hair tied into a long braid down his back stepped forward and said sharply, “It is not up to us. The intruder must be judged by the council. That is how it has always been and even in times such as these we must follow the instructions of the council.”

The creature was eying one of the smaller males in the group that had intricate patterns painted across its face and down its bare chest. About half of the group had exposed upper halves with unique patterns painted on them in various colors that were in stark contrast to their thick red skin. The smaller male quickly rebuked and said, “There is no time to waste on old rules and traditions. The world is changing quickly, and we are soon to be extinct if we don’t adapt. Bash the intruder’s skull and leave him for the Howlers. You should know better than anyone how high the stakes are right now, Ka’tra.”

Eric quickly identified the larger creature as Ka’tra, and he was obviously one of the leaders of the small band. He was also clearly not interested in anything spewing from the mouth of his comrade. He suddenly closed the distance to the smaller one and gripped his neck while releasing a snarl that made Eric’s skin crawl. Eric scuttled back slightly and was seriously hoping Clarke wasn’t the ‘intruder’ they kept referring to, but at the back of his mind knew he wasn’t refusing to answer his messages because he nodded off somewhere.

The small male’s eyes widened, and he gurgled off an apology to his commander. It seemed apparent the society these people came from valued strength and leadership. Eric swallowed a lump forming in his throat and focused his thoughts back on what he was going to do to find Clarke as Ka’tra released his comrade.

“It is decided. We will drop off the prisoner to be judged by the council. There are to be no more discussions about it. Ya’mak you will be on guard duty until we return. Abuse won’t be tolerated. The council will decide his fate,” Ka’tra snarled viciously.

Eric was half relieved and half terrified of what would happen next. At least Clarke assuming he was the prisoner was not going to be killed immediately, but Eric didn’t know anything about the ‘council’ that kept being referenced and he wasn’t sure he wanted to find out. His first priority was to figure out how to free Clarke and escape notice of the new enemies.

After looking at the bulging muscles and apparent intelligence of the group that captured Clarke, Eric was not feeling optimistic a frontal confrontation was the best choice. He needed a plan to stealthily free Clarke and haul ass out of the territory of whatever species he had been observing. Eric slipped back away from the group as they started marching west down the trail and sighed as he began to formulate his next move.