Arthur Elliot after a day of travel.

Today is the day! The day that we can start our new lives.

The treck here wasn’t as bad as it could have been. We ran into a few deer and we charged by a boar once, but with the Stallwars there I didn’t even have to do anything. Michael Stallwar is the largest man from Aprait and the former family elder of his family. He may be old, but age has not slowed him down a bit.

AS for my families part of the delegation, Ethan, Sarah and I were about as ready as we could be. And the constant talking to’s from William made it so that we actually wanted to get this over with.

After William’s last farewell speech with all the expected platitudes about how we must remember to represent the Elliot family in everything we do, but above all, survive we took off on our journey.

I made sure I would be in the back of the group fulfilling the only task I really could do while moving, and that was documenting anything we came across.

We had agreed that Ethan and Sarah would each take one side of the caravan and report finding to me, and I would be in charge of documenting any animal they saw with any of the attributes or physical aspects that could be gleaned from there appearance.

Being the first group, we were expecting to be regularly attacked by the wildlife so we decided to leave the bulk of our belongings for the second group to bring on their carts so that we could travel light.

I have only brought an empty book to write in, my weapons and backups, some cloths, some food, and a basic tent. Basically enough to survive with for a little while but light enough that I would be able to run relatively unhindered should the need arise.

It is a good thing that Ethan and Sarah are going to be sharing a tent because while Ethan is setting it up, Sarah can get an early start setting up some traps around the camp.

Barely have I finished pitching my tent or Jason Fogg comes over to talk to me.

“Hey Arthur, almost done setting up?”

I know Andrew had trained his Nephew to always look at a bigger picture, and therefore I doubt this is going to be small talk. No matter how much I like the guy, I am not going to get roped into some extra work so I won’t give him much yet.

“Hi Jason.”

“Can you let me know when you guys have done a first sweep of the area for any dangers? I would like to start working on a report to our runner tomorrow when he reports back to Aprait.”

“Sure, I’ll let you know.”

Short and to the point. No extra tasks yet so this is the best opportunity for me to make a run for it.

“Sorry Jason, I need to check up on Sarah and make sure she is ok, talk to you soon.”

And I make a clean break for it.

As I walk South towards the area I expect Sarah to be, I get a good look at the Stallwar camp.

As the Stallwar are behemoths of humans, their tents are larger as well, and they tend to eat more. It also takes them much longer to set up their camp. I don’t think it will be a good idea to wait for them to complete their setup before heading out.

Reaching the edge of the clearing, I become much more alert. From now on it will be more dangerous.

The beasts in this area haven’t been culled by anything but even stronger monsters, and those that have survived are either powerful or stealthy. Neither of which I would like to come across.

I am wearing thick clothes despite the weather being warm to give me some protection from smaller dangerous animals like insects and spiders. Despite having trained in these clothes for the past week, they are still uncomfortable.

Yes, I prefer not being bitten by something small enough to pass my defenses but perhaps still dangerous, but I also want to be able to run as quickly as I can if I were to be charged by a moose.

Within the first fifteen minutes, I come across the first bird trap.

What she has done for this one is drive a pole into the ground, and added a stick into it which will serve as a type of branch a bird might sit on. She has tied an overhand knot in a cord which has become a noose and draped it over the stick in a way that a birds leg might get caught in it. If it were to then fly away the rope would tighten, and we would have food.

Before two weeks ago, I had never even seen a trap like this. Around Aprait, none of the birds are dangerous, and none of them make good eating.

Also, having a trap for the rare passerby is not an effective use of resources. But leave it to Sarah to leave enough variety in traps that we should be able to trap whatever is here.

I also know Sarah personally and know that there would never be just one trap.

One of the risks of trapping is that should you trap something, it now also becomes suitable prey for other hunters roaming around. And it would be a shame to come back to see your trap sprung but your kill taken by something else.

Carefully looking around I see a thin wire run across, almost touching even, the pole on which the bird trap stands. This is a dangerous tension trap meant to incapacitate anything that would come by and take our prey.

A stick with a spike attached to it is bent unnaturally and kept in place with this wire, and if you trip it, the stick will release, and the spike would embed itself into your legs. Very painful but it also means I need to be careful about a third trap.

This tension trap won’t kill anything more substantial than a wild dog and barely inconvenience a bear or moose.

And as expected, there is a flat rock with spikes on the bottom balancing on a tree-branch overlooking both of the traps I had already seen with a wire connecting it to the bird trap. A triple trap to make this little area very deadly.

After having admired the handiwork I give the traps a wide berth and continue on my path.

Sarah is too good to leave any trails that I would be able to follow, but we had agreed that after the first trap she would start circling the camp clockwise and then head back.

I also doubt that she is far ahead of me. It must have taken her longer to set these traps than it took me to pitch my tent and steer clear of Jason.

Twenty minutes of walking through an eerily quiet part of the forest I see Sarah setting up a snare trap.

Something in me tells me to remain quiet.

I can tell that the woods we have been walking through hold plenty of mana. More than Aprait and its immediate surroundings do, so for things to be this silent means that something stealthy is the master of this region.

Stealthy but still powerful enough to keep anything else from encroaching on its lands.

And I haven’t seen any tracks nor signs of fights either.

For a trapper, something that silent and deadly is a considerable risk. It could sneak up on us while we are setting up these traps.

I know that Sarah must have realized this too, so she should have headed back to camp to get someone to stand watch while she works.

Crazy risk-taker. Ethan is going to tear her a new one when he hears about this.

I must have made some sort of sound because Sarah Jumps to a side with her bow drawn.

It takes her a split second to see it is me, but she doesn’t relax yet.

Seeing her, this jumpy is not doing well for my own nerves, and I push my senses to their limit.

Minutes tick by, and nothing happens.

I really dislike stealth hunters.

Without a word, we head back to camp to report on this fact and to plot out a new area to go to. There are now four traps set here, and with some luck we will see what is most likely stalking us right now.