After an hour I have to stop and let Vacker rest, looks like this is going to take longer than I thought. Not that I blame him, after all he has spent who knows how many years in a cell. It is no surprise that he doesn't have any endurance considering everything he has been through.

Vacker says "I am sorry, I am slowing you down."

"Don't worry about it! You have been through a lot, it will take a bit of time for you to get back to peak."

Vacker says "A bit of time? You realize this is basically the first day of freedom I have had in my entire life?"

"Yeah, and once we are out of Lady Xinun's territory we will stop so you can enjoy it."

Vacker says "Good point, we should get going before she decides she wants another taste of you!"

"She agreed to let us go, but there was no mention of not recapturing us. And I thought I told you not a word about that!"

Vacker gets up and starts walking again as he laughs at me, I feel I haven't heard the end of this yet. He sets a bit faster pace though, the thought of Lady Xinun coming after us seems to have motivated him. I don't actually think she will come after us, she wants me on different terms.

Still better to be safe than sorry, the sooner we are out of her reach the better. Besides the more Vacker pushes himself the faster he will recover, he may suffer a bit but he can take it. I am in a rush to get home and check on everyone but I won't push him harder than he can take.

I will however push him to his very limit, just like he did when he was training me. This isn't revenge, okay maybe a little, but this is what he needs right now. He will get his chance for payback once we are in Illium and he gets to train me again.

For him to train me properly he needs to be in good shape, this trip will get him in shape if it doesn't kill him. I plan to do everything I can to keep him alive on this trip, but the odds are against me. We have a lot of very dangerous ground to cover and who knows what beasts we will run into.

All I can do is the best I can, but there is no guarantee that I can survive this trip let alone keep a human alive. Come to think of it, I better start paying attention, there are probably beasts here in the mountains as well as in the jungle. When I pull myself out of my thoughts and look around I realize that Vacker has gotten ahead of me, then I see movement above him.

Even as I spot it, it is leaping down at Vacker, and I am too far away to block its attack. So I summon my mind blade and throw it like a spear, it hits the thing as it is halfway to Vacker. The thing squeals as it is hit and somehow turns in mid air to land on its feet facing me.

Now that I can get a good look at it it looks like a small lion except its mane is made of flames. Did the demons import a bunch of animals from hell or have they been here so long that animals here are changing? With no one to ask I turn my attention back to the beast which is charging at me.

It is small but it is really fast, I just barely manage to lean to the side in time to dodge it as it leaps at me. The thing is only two feet tall, it shouldn't be attacking us, we should be too big for it to see us as prey. Unless it isn't a solitary hunter, as soon as I have the thought I look up at the sides and see six more of the things.

"Vacker! Watch out above!"

Vacker says "Oh crap! What do we do?"

"Hold on, let me try something!"

Vacker says "Don't do anything stupid!"

"You know me!"

Vacker says "That's what I'm talking about!"

Watching as the other six move closer I notice they are leaner and don't have a mane, which would make them females. Meaning they work like the lions they resemble, meaning the male is in charge. So I turn to face the male and roar as loud as I can at it, the roar echoes up and down the mountains.

The male acts like I punched it, its mane shrinks and it tucks its tail between its legs and slinks away. A quick look to either side shows the females are also retreating, normally I would prefer to kill them but this time I will let them go. I am sure I could take all of them on my own, but I am not sure I could protect Vacker while fighting them.

Vacker says "You idiot! Were you trying to start an avalanche?"

"Ah, no. I didn't think of that."

Looking around I see a few rocks have indeed shifted, but the slopes look stable for now. Vacker is right though, I could have easily started an avalanche, from now on I need to keep the terrain in mind. Even after everything I've been through I am still making rookie mistakes.

Vacker says "What was the roar for anyway?"

"I basically told them you were my prey, and I'm the bigger predator so they ran off."

Vacker says "Um, thanks, I guess?"

"Would you rather have been eaten?"

Vacker says "Well, no. Of course not."

"Alright then, let's keep moving."

With a nod Vacker starts off down the road again, we still have most of the day left after all. The rest of the day's journey is uneventful, except for having to stop frequently for Vacker to rest. By sundown when we start looking for a place to camp I am fairly sure we have left Lady Xinun's territory.

Vacker says "Lady Xinun is the one with the territory that is the furthest west, if we are out of it then we are into the wilds."

"That's good, no more worrying about demons at least."

Vacker says "Not really, the wilds are far more dangerous."