We had been loading the goods into the wagonsuntil lunchtime the next day. Cleto arrived with the hired detachment of ten warriors around one o’clock in the afternoon.

The senior of the detachment, a man of about forty, dressed in armor consisting of leather and metal plates, examined the wagons carefully. He recommended the manager to strengthen the axles and boards and to replace the fabric awning with something stronger and of higher quality.

“I would advise you to buy armor for horses, at least the cheapest one,” the senior warrior continued.

Cleto rolled his eyes and shook his head dismissively.

“This’s a big waste, Kuner,” he whispered quietly. “Garlon will be very angry.”

“How many crossbows do you have?” Coming up to his commander, a short, broad-shouldered guy, who looked more like a dwarf, asked Cleto.

“Five,” the old man answered. “We have a hundred and fifty bolts.”

“Good! Where are the weapons?”

“There,” Cleto pointed to the barn.

“Clator, Barlock, Grenkor, Sarvul,” he called the names and at the same moment four men approached him, having separated from the group of warriors standing a little distance away.

“Follow me,” the man commanded, and they headed inside the barn.

“What are you waiting for? We have a lot to do!” Cleto struck the stone pavement with his cane, pushing workers away from loading. “Kraven! Buy what Kuner said,” he put a heavy bag of coins in my hands.

The commander of the detachment, the three workers, whom he asked for from the headman, and I went to the market.

Kuner chose new parts for the wagon with great care, wide and long pieces of strong fabric, and rectangular shields. Of course, we had to carry everything he bought. The workers dragged the axles, new wheels and eight shields, four for each wagon. And I was carrying tightly twisted bales of cloth.

After returning to the barn, Kuner immediately asked Cleto’s permission to engage in the modernization of the wagons personally, since he completely distrusted what he thought were incompetent workers. I completely agreed with him! I wasn’t experienced enough, and in general, I wanted to have some time to relax, or even better to eat and sleep.

Cleto agreed with the commander, ordered food for workers from the nearest tavern, and allowed us to eat quietly and laze around.

By late evening, both wagons were completely transformed. It looked like they were equipped to tackle impassable roads and withhold massive attacks by small arms.

Of course, I couldn’thelp myself, so I had to ask one of the warriors who was holding a crossbow in his hands.

“Why do we need such heavy armor?”

“Why?” The man looked at me in surprise. “What if a beldier attacks us?”

I had no idea what or who this ‘beldier’ was. I couldn’t recall such creatures in the bestiary of the Realm of Noria.

“Well, you were lucky.” The crossbowman sighed. “You’ve probably come from the mainland. Such creatures aren’t found there. They’re the size of an adult wolf. They have six feet, a scorpion-like tail with a sting at the end that shoots poisoned needles. And their mouths!” He exclaimed excitedly. “Crocodiles would envy them.”

“Beldiers aren’t the most dangerous beasts!” I didn’t notice when the other warrior approached us; the man looked like a gnome. “Kratar, the beast that lives near the mountains, is who I wouldn’t like to meet! This creature loves to jump out of the ground and throw its damned needles out of the growths on its back. And the needles are the size of my thumb,” at those words he showed me his huge fist with a bulging thumb.

“Wow!” I estimated the size and mentally calculated how long those needles were, which was almost four inches long. It was a bloody ‘cheerful’ forest.

“You’re lying, that’s not possible.” I was doubtful; for some reason, I couldn’t fathom the presence of such mobs on Harith-Hodor.

“No, alas, they aren’tlying, Kraven.” Cleto’s voice rang out behind my back. “That’s why any delivery of goods to the monastery is so expensive for both the supplier and the one who bought them.”

It was strange that the old man decided to share such information with me; I was just a simple worker. After all, no one deigned to tell me about the existence of such monsters on the island. They were not even mentioned in the Noar-Rahor Library. I couldn’t imagine that Master Zorkhan didn’t know who inhabited the forests and mountains of Harith-Hodor.

“But we have no choice. We’ve already decided to conclude an agreement on the delivery of goods to the monastery. Otherwise, Garlon and I will just go broke!”

I already knew that; I heard, or rather overheard, that information.

“I think it’s time to go to bed,” the old man looked at the stars appearing in the sky. “Today I’m staying with you in the barn.”

We woke up early in the morning. That monk and Garlon arrived together.

The headman and the manager stepped aside, discussing something, and I circled around, pretending to work. In reality, I was trying to eavesdropto what they were saying. They were arguing vehemently and waving hands emotionally, obviously dissatisfied with something.

“I repeat once again!” Garlon said through his teeth. “I’m not going to the monastery with you!”

“But who will sign the document? Me? Are you crazy?”

“Here’s the seal,” the headman took out a small box and thrust it into the old man’s hands. “Now you can sign anything!”

“But…” surprised,Cleto still held the box in his hands.

“I am not going. I don’twant to!” Garlon interrupted his manager in a sad voice. “Don’t worry, I won’t squander away the remaining money in your absence. I understand that we need to be frugal! I’ll have a few drinks to ease the stress. But we have plenty of our own booze, so I don’t need to buy it.”

“I’d like to believe it.” Cleto hid the box in one of the pockets of his jacket carefully.

“That’s all, I’ll be going now. They’re watching us,” the headman said.

Garlon left the barn and went to his house.

“Kraven,” the old man called out loudly, and I immediately found myself beside him.

“Yes?”

“Find Kuner, the captain of the squad, and warn the workers that we are leaving soon. Tell them to sit by three in each wagon.”

I ran to look for Kuner, and, glancing back, saw that Cleto went up to the monk, pointing to one of the wagons. He was apparently suggestingthat he do an inspection of the goods.

Kuner, along with most of his squad, was behind the barn. They divided the large area into two parts and createdsomething like a small training arena on the first one. There, his men were training in pairs, changing their opponents from time to time. The crossbowmen were completely destroying the barrels and the wooden boards on the second one, which was obviously an archery range.

I wouldn’tsay no to getting some training myself, either,but, unfortunately, I was pretending to be a simple worker.

“Kuner,” I turned to the squad leader. “Cleto is asking for you.”

“OK,” the man nodded. “Angoral!” He called the gnome-like warrior. “You’re in charge now, I need to talk to Cleto.”

We returned to the wagons, the manager was standing near the entrance of the barn, but the monk was nowhere in sight.

“Thank you, Kraven,” the old man praised me. “Kuner, let’s go inside, we need to discuss something with the Ardaler, face to face. We leave in half an hour. Inform your warriors.”

“Kraven?” The squad commander turned to me questioningly.

“Got it, got it. Go back, and relay the message to your deputy.”

“Well done, yes,” the man praised me.

So, I ran back. I felt like an errand boy. I was already sick of it. I wanted to get to the monastery fast and free the wizard. My patience' was at an end and I could barely stop myself from sending someone to hell.

Having informedAngoral about our imminent departure, I sat down on a box to watch acouple of training sessions of the warriors.

In my opinion, they were not very good warriors, to be honest. In comparison with the Shadows and their skillswith the sword, those people were rather bad. I could see the difference easily, even though I wasn’t much better myself.Still, almost half of those warriors wouldn’t be able to rival me. Perhaps they were just new to that business, but the fact still remained. I could best half of them.

“Squad, line up!” Kuner’sbellow, as he appeared from behind the corner, caught me off guard and made me jump up. Cursing, I sat back down. “You have ten minutes for personal affairs, then we move forward. Is that clear?”

“Yes, commander!” A simultaneous response came from the warriors stretched into one line.

Kunerdismissed them with his hand and sat down next to me.

“Are you new to the island?” The man asked me.

“Is it thatobvious?” I asked in response.

“Yes,” Kuner grinned. “If I were you, I would encourage Cleto to let you stay in the village with the owner. The trip to the monastery isn’tshort, and the forest and mountains are full of danger. You wouldn’t last long!”

I knew that, of course, and if it weren’t for a wizardimprisoned in Ardal, I would never have come to the island.

“But what about you and those workers? Does the amount you received cover the risk of losing your life?” I asked.

“Yes,” the man answered shortly. “And we aren’t accompanying small caravans with goods for the first time, so we have plenty of experience. Not all of us, of course, because some people in our squad arenew. I would hire a wizard just in case, if I could.”

“Well, I hope that everything will be fine and that we will get to the monastery without a problem. But, unfortunately, I can’t stay here in the village.”

“Trips like this don’tgowithout trouble, my boy, they never do…” Having realized that I couldn’t be easily dissuaded, Kuner waved his hand dismissively and got up from the box.

When the warrior disappeared behind the wall of the barn, I decided that it was the time for me to head back to the wagons, too.“Whydoes he insist that I shouldn’t go,” I mumbled to myself as I went.

“You look like his son,” a voice came from behind me and I turned around.

Angoral was following me.

“He died on his first trip to the monastery when Kuner took him along in support of one of the major caravans from Fadlas. It was a stupid and ugly death. The commander didn’t want to take him, but ... his son pushed him into coming.”

“I see,” I sighed.

“So just try not to pay any attention to his attempts to save you and protect you from any danger.”

I said that I’d try to do so, and quickened my step.

We left the village without much pomp. The wagons left the gates accompanied by a heavily armed detachment, and on the main road leading to Fadlas turned to the right at the intersection, towards the forest.

I was sitting on a bench next to Cleto, who was driving the second wagon. Kunerdrove the first one with one of his shooters, Grenkor, a thin, short man of about thirty. According to the commander’s orders, Angoral handed me a crossbow, thereby, in my opinion, reducing the combat capability of the detachment. I was far from a master at shooting with that weapon. The monk and the workers were also traveling in our wagon.

“Galtor, Fiartkakh, watch the external circle,” the instructions of the commander were heard, as soon as we got closer to the forest. “Clator, Barlock, get into the last wagon, keep the crossbows at the ready. Angoral, go between the wagons in the center. Nerkayil, cover him. Tikar, Sarvul, go from behind.

I also cocked the bow and put the bolt in the barrel. I had to be prepared to shot on sight.

The forest looked scary. The trees next to the road looked very old and twisted, as if after a large-scale war. Although, that was probably the case. The island had changed one ruler to anothera lot of timesIt was probably after or during the war that all those monsters missing in the Standard World Bestiary of Noria appeared, like kratars and beldiers. And who knew what else was hidden in the forests and mountains of Harith-Hodor.

In the dead, dark forest,the dry trees creaked, the dead fallen leaves rustled and the strange, crying sounds of unknown animals resounded. When I walked along the coast of the island, the forest didn’t look half as scary. On the contrary, it seemed to be young and full of life.

“Commander! I don’t like these sounds! It looks like a thor-k-ron,” Angoral increased the speed of his pace and came up to Kuner.

“It sure sounds like it!” The man agreed. “But judging by its call, it is far too big to be on the outskirts of the forest. The environment doesn’t suit it. Its main food source doesn’t reside here. What will it eat? Cones and grass? All the smallprey would have fled the momentthey smelled it. It's too slow to be able to hunt small critters.”

“Perhaps it was wounded and is hiding now from its attackers,” Angoral suggested.

“Do you want to say that garbols appeared on the island? The commander was slightly surprised. “They were all exterminated a hundred years ago. No animal except them can be a threat to this hulk. It’s good that they multiply very slowly, otherwise they would have ousted us from the island long ago.”

“I just assumed,” Angoral began to make excuses.

“I don’t like your assumptions,” Kuner stretched out thoughtfully. “Sometimes you’re right, though... Check it with Nerkayil. But be careful!”

“Yes, commander!” The man called to Nerkayil and they went off in the direction from which the strange sounds were coming.

Ten minutes later, Angoral returned excited, his eyes alight. What had he found there?

“Commander! It’s…”

“Did you guess right?” Kuner grinned.

“Yes!”

“Tell me what you’ve seen.”

“It’s a real thor-k-ron. Wounded, I would even say torn to pieces by someone. Nerkayil remained nearby. If scavengers appear, he’ll inform us. The beast’s about to die. Maybe …” the guy hesitated, “We should wait until it dies and cut it up for its meat... We’ll be well paid for it in Fadlas.”

“Hmm, I don’t mind, but what does Cleto say? He’s the owner now, and without his permission, I won’t give the order.”

“Want to share what you’ve learned, Kuner?” The old man asked suddenly; he was attentively listening to the conversation of the warriors.

“Of course! You’ve known me for so many years, Cleto, you know I would never deceive you,” the commander of the detachment replied. “Let them go, yes?”

“Of course!”

“Ten minutes halt,” the man ordered immediately. “Angoral, take who you need and go.We’ll take a break. Is that enough time for you?”

“Sure,” the man was ecstatic.He took another warrior with him and hid in the woods.

The wagons stopped, the commander set up an additional guard watch with a pair of warriors, and we began to wait for the small squad to cut up the monster and return.

“Cleto,” I leaned toward the old man who had closed his eyes, “What is this thor-k-ron?”

“It’s a reptile, large and armored,” Cleto responded. “It looks like a dragon, only slightly smaller and without wings. This is a predator, but at least it’s slow and clumsy. Wizards locked them in this forest about a thousand years ago, as well as garbols. But if the reptiles practically don’t go out of the forest, only when the spell fails sometimes, then the garbols…”

Cletodidn’t have time to finish his thought. There was a sharp, hoarse scream somewhere to the right and Kuner immediately ordered us to prepare for an attack.