Year 2, Winter, First Month, Third Week.

Even with the cold, the sweat accumulated on Tael’s forehead. With only a few hours of daylight, he had to act now or they would be completely left at the mercy of their enemies. After peeking a dozen times, he was sure of their numbers. Fourteen armored and two robed figures, which probably meant only two Mages and the rest were either Guards or Fighters. The situation was both fortunate and dire. Fortunate because their worst fear was facing the Kingdom’s Mages, and dire because he didn’t know if having only two Mages would make any difference.

However, for now, he should focus on passing a message to the outpost without alerting the enemy forces. The fact that they didn’t attack yet, meant they were waiting for something, so there was still a chance. Tael sighed, the Council discussed the importance of setting tight surveillance around the outpost, but they underestimated the Kingdom. The Council thought they could take a couple of weeks to recover, but their enemies found them first.

Anyway, they could go over their failures later, now it was time to count on the Origin’s blessing and risk his life to save everybody, wasn’t he looking for redemption?

Tael took out two arrows and started doing something to one of them. Ten minutes later he stood up, holding his bow tightly and praying silently for Origin to spare them one more time. Preparing for the most important shot in his life was wise, but delaying any longer would only make matters worse. Tael knocked the arrow and aimed for a high target behind Kingdom’s forces, he felt the cold wind and adjusted his shot. After pleading for a blessing for the last time, he let the arrow fly.

Without waiting for the result, Tael knocked the second arrow, faster than he has ever done before, and shot it without aiming much. He glanced at the bow and saw the residual shine still lingering on it, he hoped the arrow was in contact long enough for its enhancements to be powered. For a millisecond, both arrows still traveled through in the air but then, the first arrow scratched a tree branch before following its course and disappearing. The branch shook causing a patch of snow to fall from it, the sound spread through the quiet environment capturing the attention of the spying enemies, who hastily reached for their weapons. While the alert Fighters confirmed the origin of the noise, the second arrow flew unnoticed towards the barrier. As the effects of the wind enhancement faded from it, the arrow passed through the barrier and disappeared from Tael’s sight.

Now he could only hope the arrow wouldn’t hurt someone neither go unnoticed. For the first time, he was relieved the barrier didn’t block attacks.

***

Marlen coordinated the cooks to guarantee they wouldn’t put too much heat into the wind meat, but her mind couldn’t stop thinking about Tael, was the boy OK? When his team returned, a couple of hours ago, the Council’s first idea was to send a team after him, but Karl offered a better solution. Nobody knew the young man’s location, so instead of sending a dozen of teams in several directions, they would use the magic locator to find him. Fortunately, Karl would only need to replace the Signature Extraction Array (pentagram form) currently tunned to find beasts, for another one set to locate the metal of the arrowhead, they just hope Tael hadn’t lost any of his priceless arrows.

Even though the alterations should be finishing anytime now, Marlen couldn’t help but be apprehensive, what if the boy was hurt? However, a strange thing caught her attention, an ownerless arrow landed on the ground near the water well, who would dare to carelessly shoot arrows outside the training grounds? She mentally traced the direction of the arrow and realized that it had come from an empty direction near the barrier’s border. Her expression hardened as she moved towards the arrow with the highest speed her body allowed. Marlen picked the arrow and sighed in relief.

“It’s one of ours… What is this?”

Again, Marlen’s expression changed, but this time, a hint of panic could also be seen on it. She spared the nearby barrier a glance before rushing towards her most calm and trusted helper. The man’s expression turned pale, and for a second it looked like he was going to faint, but Marlen shook the panic out of him. The man dashed towards the training grounds, while Marlen started to give calm and firm instructions to everybody she deemed capable of maintaining a clear head.

***

Although things look normal on the surface, in less than 20 minutes, everything changed around the outpost. The people doing their jobs near the borders were quietly replaced by hunters, who pretended to keep doing the tasks. The elders and children moved to the outpost’s central part, some looked a little off but when the meal was distributed, the scene became more normal.

The other ex-villagers kept moving around different sites, supposedly finishing their daily tasks, but many were actually moving some essential resources. The recent challenges took many lives but also served to improve their teamwork. Of course, only a few actually knew what was happening, panic could be the most dangerous thing right now.

***

“Are you sure?”

“Look at it yourself… It’s one of our arrows, but he carved the Kingdom’s symbol on it.”

Omero checked the arrow carefully, but Karl already had his conclusions.

“It’s him, this is something Tael would do…”

Toni couldn’t keep himself silent.

“But why send a message? If they are watching us, how did he sent the arrow without them seeing it? Or do they know about it? Why didn’t they attack?”

Omero answered:

“They could be watching us first…”

The contemplative Lew decided to offer his opinion.

“They should be estimating our strength before attacking… They would think this barrier is being maintained by a bubble Mage. If they are a little knowledgeable, they would know that only a high-tier Mage could maintain a spell this bigger. So, they're probably hesitating. However, this only means someone bigger will get involved.”

Reiner held her husband's arm and said hesitantly:

“What should we do if they decide to attack?”

Everyone exchanged looks, while Lew added:

“Not if, but when… If they came this far, they will at least try to check our defenses.”

Omero closed his eyes like he was contemplating something, while most just tried to don’t panic. Surprisingly, Sania looked calm and even a little excited, she checked everyone's expression, before saying:

“We should just use our contingency plan…”

 Lew ignored the scared look of some Councillors and asked:

“Do you… I mean, do we have a contingency plan?”

Sania answered mockingly:

“We might not be as knowledgeable as a Kingdom's ex-Captain but we're not dumb… Of course, we considered the possibility of the Kingdom finding us here before spring, they were just a little faster than we thought possible…”

Only Sania appeared to be satisfied with the plan, not even Omero seemed to be considering it. Lew swallowed dry before asking:

“What's the plan?”

Lew shivered as he saw the wicked smile Sania gave before answering. Apparently, he was the only one that noticed.

“We blow up everything…”

“…”