Of Gods & Champions: Book I: Fate

XIV. Throw Me To The Wolves

AS I GALLOP THROUGH THE FORESTS, ALONE, I find myself with seemingly endless time to think, and I'm not so sure I like it.

To be alone with my thoughts gives time for doubts and fears to rise, and they give rise to hesitation, and that to indecision. And that ultimately leads to inaction.

I shake my head free of those thoughts and try to focus on the mission ahead of me. I haven't had time to go over the maps Fate gave me, but I think Ronin will be able to run over them with me. She has a knack for those kinds of things.

I've ridden for a few hours when I hear the sound of an approaching band ahead of me. I slow Argas cautiously, and place my rifle across my lap. With the tree growing so thick around the one wild road that runs by, an enemy could be upon me without time enough to see them.

Argas strains at his reins, but he isn't growling, so I let him go, and he bounds forward, as I place a hand on his rump to steady myself.

In a few moments, several men appear, bundled up beyond belief, dragging iron sleds piled high with furs and pelts. When they spot me, they instantly swing their guns around, and one man has a bow, but the fat one of them recognizes me and calls out, "Ilah Sagewood, as I live and struggle to breath!"

It takes me a moment to place them, but I realize quickly that they're all from Biawood, traders each and every one of them. I ride up to them, glad to see familiar faces beneath their woolly scarves, however dismayed when I see Ikon dragging a sled along with them.

"Hey!" I say as I get close. "What are you all doing way out here?"

"We're on our way to one of the other villages," Fool Trough tells me, resting his rifle down on his sled and tugging his hat down over his wild hair more. "We figure there'll be high demand for pelts and furs and things after the blizzard."

"Did it hit home very hard?" I ask anxiously, glancing at Ikon who is doing his best to ignore me.

"Not particularly. Made hunting a little harder, but we're tough, as you know," says Fool, and he claps his furry mitt onto my shoulder. "Been to Larnach?"

I nod. "Sure did. I stayed with this nice man and his family. He's a trader actually, Ego Ylark?"

The men all nod in recognition. "Ah, yeah, Ylark," Fool says, "Great man. Little wild, but great all the same."

I raise my eyebrows. Ylark? Wild? Ha! Hardly!

"We'd better get a move on, though," Fool tells me, looking up at the sun. "Light's going to fade quickly, I can tell."

"Have a good trip," I say, and once they pass by, I turn Argas towards home again.

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Within a another several hours, I can see the bulky shape that I know to be Bia Woods, and I push Argas to go faster, and before I know it, we're streaking through the familiar brush and winter-crushed greenery that's now a depressing brown.

I skillfully weave Argas through the close growing trees, knowing every inch of these woods like the back of my hand. I'm so eager to get home I ignore the jackrabbit burrowing past underneath Argas's pounding paws.

Before long, Biawood's walls are looming above, caked with mud to prevents cracking. I don't know how they managed to stir up mud with this weather, what with the frozen earth and all.

The gates are open, with Masan and another wallguard on either side. When I first burst from the woods on Argas, they both spring to action, and their guns click as they level them at me. Masan quickly recognizes me, and yells at the other man to stand down. I notice that neither of them lower their guns, anyway.