Hidden Before Their Eyes

Chapter 13: Socerer with the Truth

I lead the group as we transverse the forest. I am struggling to breath under the pressure but do my best to hide it. I am not even sure an actual human would be able to feel the pressure of magic like this, but just my luck, I very much can. The air starts betting damper and heavier and I can sense an incoming encounter.

"Get ready," I whisper, using my arm to hold them up. Right on cue a tribe of lizard-folk walk out of the foliage. "State your purpose."

"To rob you of everything, including your lives," The one in the front crackles.

I look to the four behind me and ask, "So you guys feel like dealing with this?"

They all nod in unison, drawing their weapons, Codra raising her arms to begin casting a spell. Dracix, Pavlios, and Cora all shoot forward bringing down one each. They start going after new targets as Codra begins to chant. I take the opertunity to asses them, as I do not have any data on the fighting level of any of them, excluding Dracix.

All of a sudden the ground begins to shake and rocky spikes start soothing up underneath the lizard-folk that are left alive in the aftermath of the other three. When everything settles out none of them are left alive, some on the ground with slash wounds, others with their ribs or heads caved in, and the rest spiked through with rock one or two times each.

"The hell did I just run into?" A familiar voice asks behind us. I turn to see Yara panting with a sword wrapped up on her back.

"Yara?" I inquire. "What are you doing all the way out here."

"You," she says poking my forehead, "forgot your recently refurbished sword, dummy."

She hands over the sword and I take it gently. Unwrapping it I can see what she meant, the sides are freshly sharpened, the hilt is completely new, and running up the blade are engravings in the dragon language, Dragonic. Yara takes her leave and I wrap it back up before slinging the strap over my back. Completely useless for combat, but an actually reasonable way to carry a sword of its size.

Once we have all caught our breathes we continue on. I double check the map a few times and correct our course slightly. Hours later we are all tiring and night has completely fallen. I find us a place to camp for the night as we settle in. The others roll out bed rolls, but I lean against a tree myself.

Codra starts a fire with a snap of her fingers as Pavlios gets out a small bit of food that he passes some around to each of us. We eat in silence, the others gazing into the fire, myself looking around to watch out for ambushes.

"Sleep," I instruct the others. "I'll keep watch first. I'll wake you Cora in a few hours, after that wake either Dracix or Pavlios."

They all nod and then curl into their bed rolls, quickly falling asleep. It is a lonely three hours and I watch the moon rise. I feel a pang in my chest as I glance at Dracix for the third or so time. I suppose Kalvic did have a point. I guess that Dracix does make me lonely.

In the morning just after the sun has risen we head out, having cleaned the evidence of our stay. We should reach the West Forest by nightfall if we manage to keep a good pace. I am unsure of the stamina of the others, so I have to gauge everything off of myself from my times traveling.

Around noon we take a short break when we come upon a large stream. We eat some trail rations and each drink some from the stream. Afterwards I have us follow the stream, downstream, as it should give us the least encumbering journey.

"So how do you know so much?" Cora asks.

"I was a traveling informations dealer to say," I answer absentmindedly.