Next morning we got up as usual and went to the refectory.

“Our maids-in-training will spent some time at the hunting lodge.” Miss Tessa turned to our table.

“Teri. See that they get ready to go with the supply cart this morning.” She nodded at Teri.

“Yes, Miss Tessa.” Teri nodded back.

After breakfast we went with Teri to the storage rooms. She gave each of us a bag, a hooded cloak made from wool and a blanket.

“It will be cold today. Go and pack all you need. I expect you in the refectory in an hour.” Teri herded us out of the storage room and locked the door.

We went back to our room.

“We should replace one of our bags with the one we found and take some books with us.” Tilly crossed her arms over her chest and looked at Milly.

“Since we don’t know how long we are able to stay here and we don’t have an idea how long we need to decipher these old books it’s reasonable.” I nodded at Tilly.

“Sounds good. Hurry!” Milly turned back to the locker and started to put her stuff on the bed.

“Let’s go!” Tilly opened the door again.

We went to the storage room. There were candles in one of the shelves. We took one and lighted it. I put two more in my pocket. We closed the door without anyone noticing us.

Then we opened the secret door and reached the secret room after a few minutes. Tilly got the magic bag from the locker while I fetched the books about the dragon war and the book with the draconic rune we could not open.

“The rest is mostly outdated stuff. And maybe we find a way to get access to the sealed book.” I looked at Tilly

“The more books, the better!” Tilly smiled.

“I think we don’t need the weapons. We all have a suitable dagger for dangerous situations.”

“Then let’s go back again.”

We reached the storage room and I put out the candle. Someone was in the hallway for some minutes, thus we had to wait for a few minutes. After it was quiet in the hallway we reached our room without a problem. Milly and Caroline had packed their bags already. Since there was time enough we finished packing without an issue.

After we were done we went to the refectory and waited for Teri for a while.

Eventually Teri arrived and went to the kitchen. She came back with four packages.

“Something to eat for lunch.” She smiled while she handed out a package to each of us.

The package fitted into the pocket of my apron, thus I put it there for easy retrieval. Most of the normal tools were in the bag, since I didn’t expect to use them.

Teri put on a cloak as well and we left the main building. The sky was cloudy and the suns were probably not above the horizon. It was windy and the temperatures were barely above the freezing point.

We went down to the outer bailey and went down the rampart connecting the castle with the town. The crenellations barely helped with the wind. Large waves were crowned with foam out on the sea. The wind came from the west and the waves broke with power at the moles. The ice was already gone.

After a carefully scaling the slippery stairs we reached the town. Teri lead us along a few streets to a yard. A barn stood to our left. A stout short man was busy loading a cart with the help of a few other men.

“Good morning, Mister Oren.” Teri walked over to the burly man.

The man was wearing a padded armor and was carrying an arming sword. He was smaller than Teri, but had broad shoulders. No one to trifle with.

“The passengers for the hunting lodge?” He gave each of us a glare.

“Yes, Mister Oren. These are Lilly, Milly, Tilly and Caroline.” Teri smiled at us.

“You will have to sit at the back of the loading space . Wait over there!” He nodded at a bench at the wall.

We went to the bench and sat down.

“Have a nice trip!” Teri waved and left for the castle.

After a while the men left the barn.

“Get in!” Oren waved at us.

We went over and climbed into the cart. There was some place at the back of the cart with a few chests usable as a seat. I put the blanket on a larger chest and wrapped myself in the cloak, pulled the hood down into my face and sat down.

“Let’s sit next to each other as a far as we can.” I looked at the others.

We huddled together and after few moments the cart started to move. A single horse pulled the cart slowly through a few streets and we left the town without any problems through the south gate.

The winding road was flanked by hedges most of the time. Behind the hedges I could see pastures and fields. Occasionally we passed a patch of trees. We passed a few villages in the morning. The children were playing on the streets. There were few other carts on the road. We met an occasional walker though. It got a bit warmer later, but not much.

Around noon Mister Oren stopped the cart by the road and we had lunch and some time to stretch our limbs. After about half an hour we continued to the south. A while later there was forest to the west. There were no leaves of course, only some occasional firs and similar trees were green at this time of the year.

It started to rain after a while. It reduced visibility quite a bit. Wool was a fine material. I hoped the cloaks would stay dry until we arrived at the lodge.

Later the cart turned right on a smaller road leading into the forest. The ground was covered with mud and we slowed down quite a bit. The road started winding more and was narrower as well. We crossed a small creek after a while.

Suddenly a loud creaking and sounds of splintering wood came from ahead. Looking ahead I saw a fir tilting towards the road. While I was getting my dagger from my pouch it crashed down, barring our way ahead.

High pitched cries came from the left side and an a dozen small humanoids armed with swords, wearing padded armor and holding a shield came charging at the cart. Goblins!

Half of them seemed to go to the front where Oren left the cart while fetching a wooden round shield from behind his seat.

The rest came in our direction, which was bad. Lilly, Milly and Caroline had their weapons ready as well. Fighting on the cart would be a problem as their spears had longer reach and we were hampered in our movement.

“Out!” I dropped my cloak and climbed out of the cart on side away from the charging goblins. Milly and Tilly followed suit. I heard bloodcurdling high pitched screams from the front of the wagon.

I went back, avoiding the deep mud of the road and we formed a line with our weapons drawn. The goblins stopped their charge and three of them readied a net with some attached weights.

“Spread!” I moved away from the others to get some distance from each other. Milly and Tilly followed. Caroline was next to the cart followed by Milly and then Tilly. I was at the end of the line.

The three goblins threw their net at Caroline, while the other three came over the road. The one coming at me tried to flank me to get a place of better footing while Tilly’s opponent jabber his sword at her.

Caroline cried out in rage and I ignored my opponent who kept a distance for a moment. I could see she was covered with the net, struggling with her balance, slipping and falling right into the mud of the road. The three throwers were approaching her while I stuck my dagger in the neck of Tilly’s opponent, who ignored me completely.

He cried out and tried to cut me with his sword. The magic dress stopped the cutting without an issue as he went down to his knees, dropping his weapon.

Two of the net throwers launched themselves at Caroline, trying to entangle her more into their net. I turned around to the one who was trying to flank me and tried to dodge his sword as he tried to stab at my shoulder. The point penetrated and he got at shallow cut into my shoulder as I dodged the stab.

Unfortunately for him he put too much weight into his stab and lost his balance, opening a way to his neck for my dagger. I managed to get a solid cut sending him down in the mud.

Another curdling cry came from ahead, approaching before it died out. I saw a goblin flying by at the other side of the road.

Milly had injured her goblin, blood running down his neck while Tilly kicked against the shield of her opponent to send him down in the mud.

“Help Milly and Caroline.” I jumped on Tilly’s goblin who laid in the mud, staggered, and pinned his arms to the ground. While I readied my dagger to cut his throat the last goblin injured came flying from the right. He had recovered enough while I was busy with the others. We went down in the mud beside the goblin I was pinning.

I ended laying on my back with the goblin on top. I hadn’t lost my dagger, but the goblin pinned my arm down to the ground. As he put his weight on my armed side, I rolled him in the same direction, getting the upper hand again. I jabbed my fingers at his eyes and he let out a howling scream. Milly and Tilly had killed the goblins trying to capture Caroline.

“Eight goblins more from ahead! Three down” Oren cried out.

The staggered goblin was trying to get back to his feet. I got back to my feet as well.

“Five down!” I cried back.

“Give Caroline her dagger and help ahead! I take care of that one.” The last goblin was trying to recover his shield.

I stepped closer and jabbed at his head. He stumbled back and lost his footing. I approached him while he was pointing his sword at me laying on the back.

Milly and Tilly crossed the road and went ahead while Caroline started to cut at the net with the her dagger.

The goblin in front of me was still threatening we with his sword as I tried to circle him. The footing was bad, and going closer was dangerous as my outfit wasn’t good with stabbing attacks.

I squatted down as he moved away again and grabbed a hand of mud with my free hands. Then I aimed at his face. It’s difficult to miss at the distance and he turned his head to protect his eyes, but as he lost focus of his sword for a moment I stabbed at his hand.

He cried and dropped his sword. I mounted him and tried to stab his neck. He tried to stop my arm, grappling it, but he was weaker than me. I got to my feed after killed him.

I left the mud of the road, totally covered in mud. Oren stood beside his horse, defending against four goblins. Three of them were better fighters as the rest. Two goblins were laying in front of the horse. Milly and Tilly were defending against two goblins each, another one laying on the ground next to them.

I darted over to Milly, who was next and cut the throat of goblin who exposed his back to me. Milly stabbed into the face of the other as he focused on me.

I attacked the goblin to the left who was trying to cut Tilly apart. As He turned to me Tilly to cut him down from behind while Milly launched herself at the other one. A few moments latter he was dead as well.

“The three to the left are more dangerous, let’s distract them.” I walked over to Oren crying at the top of my lungs. As One of the goblins looked back Oren cut his head with a quick swipe. The weaker Goblin and one of the stronger turned to us, while Oren and the last goblin traded blows.

We spread out a bit and the stronger goblin turned to Milly and the other one to Tilly. I closed in on the latter one keeping an eye on the first. He used his shield to block me out, so I kicked hard at the shield and he staggered back in the direction of our horse, collecting a much harder kick which sent him flying.

Milly was on the ground, bleeding from a cut in her face as I turned back to her. I attacked her goblin directly while Tilly tried to flank him. As he lunged at Tilly blocking me with his, Milly kicked him between his legs with full force. I heard another bloodcurdling cry of a goblin from the the direction of the cart. A few moments later the head of our goblin fell down beside him.

We won.

We all were soaked and muddy all over. Caroline came a few moments after the goblins were done. Most of us had suffered a shallow stabs and a few cuts and concussions. We bandaged the wounds after cleaning them as good as we could.

“Let’s get this tree out of the way.” Oren got an ax and two hatches from a box of his cart, handing out the hatchets to Caroline and Milly.

After half an hour we cut the trunk in three pieces and used our trusty horse to pull the piece blocking the road away.

“Maybe its better if you walk. That will keep you warmer.” Oren looked at us with pity.

The cloaks were a bit wet inside as well, laying on the cart for a while.

“Sounds good.” I looked at the others. They nodded.

“We will arrive in less than an hour. And. I owe you. I wouldn’t have survived this without your help.” Oren got back on the cart and we continued our way through the forest.

Walking helped to keep us warm, but all were covered in mud as we arrived at the lodge.

Oren talked to the Master of the Hunt while the hunters unloaded the cart in the barn.

Miss Jheenna looked at us and shook her her head.

“Loraline. Ready the tubs with hot water. And you. Undress. I don’t want a track of mud all across my house!” She gave us a stern look.

We undressed just behind the doors and were covered in blankets Miss Jheenna had fetched.

Then we were led to the bathroom.

“In half an hour is breakfast.” Miss Jheenna left the room.

“Aw. You’re all hurt. The wounds are closed already, but I would want to examine the wounds later.” Loraline looked at us.

We nodded.

We washed ourselves and put on dry clothes after Loraline renewed our bandages and checked the wounds. She added a salve around the wounds and on the concussions.

Loraline sat with us while we had dinner and we had to tell her everything that had happened on our way here.

Thereafter she led us to our room. It had a window and there were four beds with a chest each.

We got ready for the night.

“You can sleep as long as you want tomorrow.” Loraline waved as she went to the door.

“G’night!”

“G’night!”

I fell asleep as soon as I tucked myself in.