Grow the Bond (Nightstar Book 0)

Chapter 4

Ainreth was very pleased with Petre's work, so much so that when questioned, he had no problem giving Petre permission to go through the soldiers' files later so they could check on the new ones, see where they'd come from.

But they would have to do that later. They didn't bring files like this with them to missions, not only because it was unnecessary, but also because the parchment could get ruined, so Petre would have to go through it when they got back to Kyr-Toryl. Hopefully, that wouldn't take too long, though, as they should be staying here for only one more week.

They walking through the woods now, looking to find more mushrooms for the cook. They could have simply called to the root-like strands in the ground to grow more, but Petre wanted to find a specific type of mushroom that they wouldn't mind eating for today's dinner—the meatcap. And sure, it didn't taste exactly like meat, but it was as close as they were going get out here. They had made a deal with the cook that if they managed to get some, the cook would bake them.

The only issue was the weather. Summer and autumn were both good seasons for mushrooms, but not up here. The temperatures were very low at night, and even during the day, if there was overcast, it was cold. Petre could still grow mushrooms in this weather, of course, but it made it harder to find them because Petre had to walk around, perfectly in tune with the strands in the ground beneath his feet, looking for the ones they recognized as belonging to a meatcap. They'd trained this for years, otherwise, they wouldn't even be able to tell the difference between the types of mushrooms at all.

The good thing was, though, that once they managed to locate the correct strands, they would be able to grow as many meatcaps as they wanted from them. They had brought a large basket with them, hopefully, that would be enough for the whole regiment to get a cap each. Petre wanted to be petty and not get any for certain soldiers, but unfortunately, it would be out of their hands who receives one or not, given that they would be equally distributed later. At least Hantyr didn't like mushrooms, that was something that made Petre feel a bit better.

They didn't even realize how deep into the wood they'd gone following the mushroom strands until they noticed that there was complete silence, aside from a little birdsong in the distance. Petre looked over their shoulder, faced with trees as far as they could see. They considered turning back and searching the woods closer to the outpost, but then Petre shrugged. They'd been going in one direction, and they knew to head south to reach the outpost again. There was no chance of getting lost.

Petre was so preoccupied with their search that they didn't notice anything was amiss until they heard a twig snap behind them. As they turned their head to look, their eyes widened at the fist coming their way. Just in time, Petre managed to duck, avoiding the punch, but they didn't manage to dodge the second one coming their way, hitting them in the stomach, their basket flying out of their hand.

Gasping for breath, Petre doubled over, only then managing to catch a proper glimpse of his attackers. Much to their shock, it was the two rude soldiers who he'd been suspicious of. What the sunder did they think they were doing?

The man made a move to grab their arms, but Petre recovered from the punch quickly enough to react just in time, elbowing him in the face hard, making him stumble back with a cry.

Unfortunately, Petre didn't get enough time to turn his attention to the woman before the hilt of a sword collided with the back of their head. The next second Petre was on the forest floor, gasping in pain and blinking, their head spinning, their limbs unresponsive for the moment.

They tried to fight back when their wrists were grabbed and tied together in front of them, metal clamps pulled on their fingers, but they were still too dizzy to properly react. They tried to bite the man's fingers when he forced a rag in their mouth, but not even that worked. Petre finally regained clarity as they were being forced to stand up.