The next morning everyone was awake and waiting to go. Aliya was in her room finishing her prayers to the seven gods that she worshiped. She had come from a small gnome village to the east of area in a place very well hidden by both the foliage and magic meant to confuse travelers, to stop them from entering the village. Only those with great mental fortitude and the injured or sick were able to enter.

For almost as long as she could remember, Aliya had done this morning routine. The Church of the Holy Seven had drilled it into her head until it had become second nature to her. Kyron, the god of health was the favourite among her church and lead most of his disciples down the path of healing. Even though the gnome felt like she owed this god everything in her life and respected him among others, she secretly favoured Tyora, the goddess of life. There was something about the appeal of a goddess that also had similar beliefs that Kyron had that made the cleric more comfortable. After she finished her morning ritual, Aliya went downstairs to meet the others.

Downstairs, everyone, including Buddy was there waiting for the cleric. “Alright,” announced Gene. “Now that everyone is here we can start heading to Erend. Kira and Ciylia, I want you two to guide us the best you can through the forest. It should shave off up to three hours from our journey.” The rangers both nodded in agreement. “We need to be very careful as the forest may have many predators like the wolves we cleared out. Does anyone have any questions?” The room was silent but everyone was eager to finally leave Tormund. The Jellybeans and Buddy all got up and left.

As the group entered the town square Gene stopped and turned to everyone. “If you have anything you want to buy before we leave, now is the time to do it.” The cleric thought about what she would need and decided that having a few herbs for medicine wouldn’t be a bad idea. After all, there is only so much magic that the gods can give her and she isn’t far enough along in her training to be a strong vessel for holy magic. She learned how to be a kind of nurse when she was at the church before the Holy Seven blessed her with the ability to cure people using their energy.

After about an hour, everyone met back where they left. Looking around Aliya tried to see what everyone else had bought. Kira and Ciylia bought arrows but no one else looked like they had bought anything. This made her wonder what everyone else did during this time. Being a shy person, she wasn’t brave enough to ask. That was one of the reasons she liked Kira. Kira was always brave and the fact that they were the same height made it easier to talk with her.

Everyone started walking out of the city and onto the main path to the north of the city. If they went west they would head to the Northern Bridge and if they went east then they would start traveling along the main road to Erend. Instead, the group walked into the forest that was directly ahead of them in an attempt to save time.

Ayila was spending their time walking looking for any plants that could provide some sort of medical use. She saw a few poisonous herbs but nothing that she could use to heal people. The only thing odd about their walk was that there was almost no forest animals. It gave the woods a silent atmosphere. The only sounds she could hear were the wind moving through the leaves and their footsteps. This all felt wrong to the gnome. She had spent her whole life living in a forest, maybe her forest wasn’t as lush as this one but there should have been some sort of animal.

After a few hours, everyone stopped to catch their breath. According to the estimates, they should be about halfway to the city. Fern went through his pouch and pulled out a sprig of mistletoe. He whispered into it and began shaking it up and down. Suddenly a violet fruit that looked like a blueberry fell from the plant into his hand. He gave everyone a berry after eating one himself. “This berry will keep you full,” explained the half-elf. “I know it doesn’t look like much but it is useful during long travels and it’s practically free. All it costs is a little bit of my magical energy but the berry itself is good for a whole day.”

Everyone ate the berry but Aliya couldn’t help but feel its taste was lacking in comparison to most of the berries found around her church. To the berry’s credit, it was both magically made so it could be grown quickly and it was very juicy. The group continued moving towards Erend after their little break.

As the Jellybeans were about to clear the tree line to approach the city they hear a loud screech followed by a man screaming. They all ran to see what the problem was but because of her heavy armour and short legs, the gnome was the last to arrive. In the sky, she could see a large bird-like creature. It was odd though because it had the head, talons, and wings of a bird but the majority of its body was like a large feline. It was gold and brown and had its sights set on the man on the ground. Ciylia and Kira both lifted their bows and fired at it but missed the creature. It was too agile for them to hit. Gene then ran out to the middle of the road the man was on. He started waving his hands at the giant bird and grabbed its attention. The bird turned its sights on the monk and dived down towards him. Gene ran quickly into the forest and the beast followed. It accidentally clipped its wing against a tree causing it to lose control of its flight and tumble to the ground. It stood up and trotted towards the monk who was now waiting in the clearing.

Ayila couldn’t believe her eyes, she had never seen a creature like this. It was tall, standing even higher than Fern and had the grace of a cat. The bird-cat locked its eyes on the monk but stopped when a doe entered the clearing. The doe saw that both Gene and the bird were motionless and then started to graze on some lush grass nearby. The gnome stared at the creature with curiosity as it shifted its focus to the doe. It lowered its front half and slowly started to sway its rear end, preparing to pounce. This made the cleric take a second look at the legs of this beast. The top half of the legs were cat-like and had a lot of muscle to help it’s running and pouncing but the bottom half was bird-like, similar to an eagle with sword sharp talons.

The doe noticed this strange behaviour to late and with a mighty flap from its wings and the strength from the jump, the bird-cat cleared the gap between them. Once it was on top of the helpful herbivore, it clamped its beak around the neck of the creature and squeezed until a pop and crack were heard. The doe hung limply from the beak before being dropped on the ground like a knapsack. The giant bird creature began ripping the flesh off its prey and swallowing it. After every chunk of meat it consumed, it chirped happily.

The gnome wasn’t the only one fascinated by this creature. Fern was slowly approaching as was Gene. The monk stopped as the bird shifted its gaze to him once again. Aliya couldn’t believe that the monk offered out his out to the beast as if it was a dog. It smelled his hand and allowed Gene to pet its beak. The half-elf couldn’t contain his excitement and ran towards them. This spooked the creature and he snapped at the monk’s hand causing a fair bit of bleeding and some of his skin was torn away. Gene retreated to Aliya and she began healing his hand.

While healing his hand she prayed to two of her gods. She once again prayed to Tyora, the goddess of life but also Fiora, the goddess of nature. Fiora was once a druid in her mortal life but was about to attain godhood through her sacrifices for nature. The gnome prayed to her sometimes outside of her daily routine when she had to harvest fruits or look for game to eat. At this moment, she was asking for Fern not to be mauled for his foolishness.

Looking ahead, she could see the half-elf’s skin turn from flesh into bark. His skin closely matched the tone of her own. Fern kept moving closer to the creature, his legs slightly trembling. Once he was too close for the bird’s comfort, it screeched at him. The druid stopped and sat down. Then he began to bloom flowers along his arms as if he was a tree.

Seeing this curious sight, the creature approached him. First, it smelled him and the flower. Fern did everything in his power not to move. Next, the bird raked its talons against his bark textured skin. From what Aliya could see it didn’t pierce his skin. Finally, it lifted its leg and pissed on him. The gnome was impressed that the druid didn’t react at all to this. After its piss, the creature looked up at a small hole in the canopy and flew away.

Everyone behind the cleric let out a sigh of relief. Aliya was so focused on watching the event she had no idea what everyone else was doing. Fern used and empty vial and scooped up some of the creature’s fluids that it so willingly gave the half-elf. He then walked back towards the group looking proud for some unknown reason.

“You smell disgusting,” pointed out Meowlynn. She then raised her wand in the air and made a few motions. Suddenly, the stench and liquid disappeared from the half-elf. “You owe me for saving you from your own humiliation. I doubt people in the city want to talk to such a foul-smelling man.”

“Thanks,” he replied. “Anyways, I hope I can find that creature again. It was beautiful.”

“I think we should go check on that man,” mentioned Gene. The group walked back out onto the road. There was the man still trying to get his two horses under control. The man was average height for a human and had a copper skin tone, just slightly darker than Kira’s. His hair was black, well kept and wavy going down to about chin length. He had nice gray and black robes which were perfect for someone who traveled since it’s harder to see grim on them. Every finger had a ring of some kind on them and he wore several necklaces with various gemstones around his neck.

“Excuse me, sir,” the gnome said as she approached the man. “I can help you with the horses if you would like.”

“Sure thing miss,” said the man. “The name’s Lucian. I am a traveling merchant. I was just leaving Erend and on my way to Tormund when that huge beast came and attacked me.” He made eye contact with the Jellybean’s leader. “Thanks for saving me.”

“It was no trouble,” replied Gene. “What do you sell?”

“I sell mostly jewelry. Rings, necklaces and such. I also sell fine cloths and silks and the odd healing potion here and there but I’m out of those right now. Just used my last one on my horse.”

As Aliya listened to the man talk about what he sold she noticed Ciylia sneak to the backside of the cart. She didn’t really have time to wonder what the elven ranger was doing because she was determined to calm these horses down. She grabbed onto her pendant once more and prayed to Fiora to allow her emotion to flow through the horses. After her prayer, the cleric gently stroked the horses’ legs and after a few moments, they were calm.

While she was calming the horses, Ciylia was on a mission of her own. It had been so long since she had used her sticky fingers. The impulse was like an itch you had to scratch. She didn’t count stealing the dress as fulfilling because she didn’t do it by herself. She circled along the side of the merchant’s cart and peeked inside. Inside she saw some silk and jewels close to the rear of the cart. The thief quickly grabbed as much as her hands could hold and shoved them into her breast pockets. Most people didn’t know that her clothes her chest piece was designed to be a cup bigger than her actual breast size. This was so she could have pockets made inside so that the items wouldn’t fall out and would still maintain a natural look to her breasts. After she finished sealing away her ill-gotten gains, the ranger started to act like she was inspecting the cart just as Lucian walked to the back.

“What are you doing there miss,” accused Lucian.

“I’m just making sure your cart is okay for traveling,” responded Ciylia. “I would hate for you to lose merchandise while traveling because of a gash in the wood.”

“Y’all wouldn’t be interested in some gems would ya?” Lucian’s eyes flared with greed.

“I’m afraid that we aren’t,” spoke Gene on the group’s behalf. “I’m glad you aren’t hurt but we have business to attend to so we’ll be on our way.” Aliya noticed Buddy roll his eyes. He was practically invisible this whole trip. He never stayed close to the group nor did he say anything. The gnome noted in her head to be very cautious of him. She already had a hard time trusting others as it is. In her eyes, she could only trust three people in her life, maybe four. Two of those people were from her village of Hillfar. Her best friend, Delta, and her surrogate father and head of her church, Eshon. Kira was the third person she completely trusted as they both had a lot in common and had been traveling companions for a few months before arriving in Tormund. Her trust was slowly extending to Gene but that is because he had been reliable so far.

The Jellybeans said goodbye to the merchant and moved towards the city of Erend that was within sight.