“I am all fired up let’s go already!”(Matt)

“Shut up, enemies will notice us.”(Rose)

She overreacted a little bit but she was right. We shouldn’t tell our enemies that we are here and they were free to attack us. Matt made a sad expression.

“You are right that enemies will notice us but I agree that we should start moving.”(Me)

Rose and Matt looked at me as I defended the bear beastman. Everyone agreed to search around to find something that could be important. The beach was next to a forest so we first searched around the beach and would meet each other again later to enter the forest.

“Let’s split and meet up here again later. If one side finds something they will stay there and wait for the others to come.”(Me)

I went with Kylie while Rose went with Matt. We went to the left and they went right. During our little walk I was watching the forest. I couldn’t see any animals but the trees it had were somehow unique. I couldn’t describe why they were unique, I just felt they were. I have never seen any of those and was really interested in them.

I didn’t know what we were searching for exactly, but we somehow went upwards and the most interesting thing we saw were only some rocks we passed by. We found absolutely nothing except trees or water and after a while we were standing at the top of a cliff. There was no other side or a way down. We looked more carefully in order not to miss anything. But there was nothing.

“Guess that is the end. Let’s head back.”(Kylie)

I nodded and we slowly went back. I looked at the wide ocean. The sun shone, the water was clear blue. Sometimes I could even see some fish. In the far I could see that our ship was already on its way home.

When we arrived at the meeting point, Matt and Rose weren’t present so we went further to where they were going. We went along the beach and after some time we made a big discovery. A lot of swords, shields, spears as well as other weapons were lying on the floor. Some of them totally destroyed, some other in perfect state.

“What happened here? Do you think Matt and Rose had something to do with it?”(Kylie)

“No, I don’t think so. It looks like whatever happened here, took place before we arrived on this island. Those 2 probably went ahead to scout more of the area.”(Me)

Kylie nodded and we left the beach of weapons. To relax, I looked back at the ocean. To my disappointment, the water this time wasn’t clear at all. A lot of waves. When I looked further outside, I could see a ship. A huge ship, probably. It was destroyed and was missing a lot of parts. All the masts were broken down and it had a lot of holes in it.

“This is probably related to what happened at the beach earlier.”(Me)

I said and pointed at the shipwreck. Kylie only nodded and we went further ahead. After walking for a while, we saw someone sitting atop a rock. At first we only saw a silhouette but when we closed the gap we could see that the person who sat atop the rock was Matt.

“Yo. Took you quite some time to get here. I guess that you saw the remaining of that battlefield? We don’t know either. When we came, it was in that state already. The battle was probably before we came to the island.”(Matt)

I grinned at Kylie. It annoyed her so she punched me at my shoulder to tell me I should stop. Matt just laughed and continued.

“We found something like a base of the human race. They came as a whole army, our guess about 500 troops. Not that much for an army but if we take into account that every one of them is an expert it is quite the force. Rose is observing them from afar at the moment, while I waited here for you to take you there.”(Matt)

We followed Matt to where Rose was hiding. It was the same as on our side. We were going upwards and at the end we were standing atop a cliff. A human in full-plated armor was lying at the floor next to Rose.

“Is he dead?”(Kylie)

“No, information.”(Rose)

“What she is trying to say is that he was patrolling here when we came, so we beat him up and when he wakes up we will ask him for information.”(Matt)

We switched between observing the movements of the humans. When it came to my turn, I looked at how they settled down their base. They built pseudo-docks, where 8 big ships parked. The trees of the forest were all cut down in a wide radius. Their base contained a big building at the centre with a lot of small buildings around it and they were surrounded by a wooden fence. Almost like a town. All of the humans were working without a break. Some of them were building houses the others were training and some were planning something.

When I focused on the surroundings of their base, I noticed movements. They were definitely not animals because no animal would stay if their territory was destroyed. They would either fight over it or run away. It was clear to me that they were someone from another race or perhaps even a team from the beastmen. What surprised me was that I could not only see one or two teams, there were a lot. There were so many I couldn’t even count.

Most of them were hiding in nearby trees which didn’t get cut down, while some others from a safe distance.

“What did…?”(Man)

“Look who woke up. Did ya sleep well?”(Matt)

We all stopped whatever we were doing and focused on the man. He sat up and collected his thoughts. To our surprise he understood his position better than expected.

“What do you want me to do, to let me go?”(Man)

“You are one who understands quickly? I’ll make it short. Tell us everything the humans know about this island and what they intend to do and we will let you go. But now I am interested, why would you want to cooperate so fast. We prepared a lot to get the information out of you, you know?”(Matt)

The man looked like he had seen a ghost for a second but then answered.

“I am only a simple adventurer why should I risk my life for others? I don’t care what happens here. I got told that this here would be easy money so I accepted. I am not able to tell you anything about what they are doing, not because I don’t want to, I value my life more than money but because they told no one what they are doing here. The only thing I noticed is that they found something and are preparing to collect it.”(Man)

He spitted it out like nothing. It felt like he wanted to tell someone.

“When you wait 1 or 2 more days they will start moving. If you don’t know how you want to let me go just let me go the way you came. I guess that your ship already left and I would be left with nothing. I won’t be able to tell the humans and you don’t have to get rid of me. It’s a win-win situation.”(Man)

We all needed to catch our breaths and some time to comprehend what he told us. He spoke like the one who captured someone not the one captured. In the end we went with what he suggested and let him go.

It looked like we weren’t the only ones who knew that the humans would move because all other movements stopped as well. It was deadly silent. For a whole day nothing happened. No one said anything, we all prepared to take the thing the humans found.

A race between the humans, the other people observing and us. A really big showdown was about to begin.