We climbed down the cave for a while. Since there were plenty of cracks we didn’t struggle too much. There was a noticeable airflow from below.

The cave widened after a while and we stood on top of a two meters high scree slope. The cave was about four meters high and wide, dwindling to a small opening, about a meter wide, seven meters away. A rope was tied to two climbing hooks protruding out of the rock at each side of the cave just behind the base of the scree slope. There were five backpacks dangling down from the rope.

“Were at the stash!” Loraline started to slide down the scree slope.

“Impressive!’ I followed her down as soon as she had solid footing at base of the slope.

“They look heavy!” Tilly followed close up, bumping into me as I came to a stop.

“Aagh!” I stumbled half a step towards Loraline.

Tilly lost her balance and fell back on the scree.

“Sorry.” She gave me a sheepish grin.

“Somebody hurt?” Milly asked from above.

“These stones are soft and cozy.” Tilly scrambled back on her feet.

“As long as you’re joking.” Caroline came down the slope as well.

Loraline had cut the the rope in the meantime and we managed to bring the backpacks to the ground without much of an issue.

“Are you fit enough to travel tonight?” Loraline slung one of the backpacks on her back.

“We were walking all day, but let’s try how far we get. Staying and waiting here isn’t truly an option.” Milly took another of the packpacks from the floor.

“We had a bit of rest while waiting for you.” Caroline was buckling up her backpack already.”

We helped each other to properly buckle the backpacks.

“We won’t be fast tonight, but having a bit of a head start sounds good.” The backpack was heavy, but as soon as it was buckled properly the weight wasn’t really bothersome anymore. It would be getting lighter anyway.

“Let’s go.” Tilly looked at Loraline.

“Follow me.” Loraline started to walk towards the narrow end of the cave.

We had to crawl the last meters, but finally we stood outside in front of the rock protrusion with the hot spring, just below the ledge where the others had rested previously.

“Do you need light?” I looked at Loraline.

“I’ll be good. I know the terrain for the next hours quite well.” She started to head towards a deer path.

Since it was rather dark under the trees Loraline and Caroline had to be careful with their footing.

“I’ll conjure up a light. Caroline, you go behind me and I go behind Loraline. I will not be able to do this continuously, but Milly and Tilly can take over when I’m out of juice.” I conjured a small light above my head.

“Won’t we be seen in the dark from afar?” Milly looked at me.

“The lodge is too far away as we’re under the trees.” Tilly

“We may attract monsters, but the area around the lodge is usually peaceful.” Loraline started to speed up her pace.

“We will take that risk for tonight. Later on the risk would be higher and it would be considerably more dangerous.” I followed Loraline closely.

She was wearing a gambeson, nothing fancy, but still helping against cuts and blunt impacts. Caroline was wearing mail we found the secret room of the library. We wore normal clothing for now. Later on we should be changing back to the maid outfit, which had some armor quality. They simply looked out of place while traveling.

Walking with plenty of extra weight is quite a difference to taking a walk unencumbered. Fortunately Miss Tessa didn’t allow us to slack off and so we were doing quit well. My muscles ached, but I had suffered worse.

I was tired and after my mana was next to spent, Milly took my place while I was at the back to recover my mana.

“We should switch earlier. We can go longer when everyone is recovering mana.” Milly stated as she conjured up her magical light.

“Sounds good. An we have all more resources to use our other magic.” I took a swig from my waterskin.

We continued through the night for a few hours. It was way past midnight as we decided to take a rest. We all were low on mana in the end.

The pool was large enough to last for a while, but the regeneration wasn’t able to keep up with the mana the light drained over time. With stronger mana this wouldn’t be that much of an issue, since a light in that brightness would have last much longer.

Well. A bit renewable light source is better than none at all.

We sat down on trunk of an alder which had been uprooted. We put the backpacks down beside our feet. Caroline got a package of beef jerky from her backpack and we shared them. Everyone was chewing in silence. They were quite tasty.

“What about your window been barred?” I curiously looked at Loraline.

“Hmmpf.” She frowned as she obliterated a piece of jerky.

“Well. Family quarrels. My father wanted to marry me off to some spoiled brat of a merchants son. I got lost in the forest not only once on such occasions.” She looked thoughtfully at the night sky.

The stars were sparkling at the moment.

“Well, while it’s totally normal for my father to do that I like my relatively free life at my fathers house too much. I’m a failure of a daughter.” She looked down at her feet and let her shoulders sag.

“Everyone has the right to decide how to live their own life.” Milly furrowed her brows.

“It’s not like that for women though.” Caroline gave Loraline a hug.

“I would have been gone by the morning. I would have been such a waste to abandon all that stuff.” Loraline waved at the backpacks.

“It must have been plenty of work.” Tilly looked at the backpack and turned to smile at Loraline.

She nodded.

“We owe you.” I patted Loraline on the back.

“It will be raining soon.” Loraline looked south.

Clouds hovered between the mountain tops of the claws.

We made quite some altitude in the last hours, but the mountains were still towering to the south.

“It will help to cover our tracks.” I got to my feet again.

At that moment a bulky humanoid carrying a sword broke from the undergrowth about ten meters away, quickly followed by three other similar figures.

“Up! Form a line!” I put the rest of my mana save a faint sliver into hardening my skin.

I drew my ax from my belt and moved to intercept the charging humanoids while reading to strike.

“They’re Hobgoblins!” Tilly jumped up grabbing her spear.

Milly joined me drawing her sword.

Caroline jumped up and took position between Tilly and Milly while readying her warhammer.

The Hobgoblins closed in, charging. Loraline sat there frozen up, looking wide eyed at the scene.

“Lora! String your bow!” I cried while I was closely studying the rushing Hobgoblins.

The leader seemed focusing on Caroline, probably because of her heavier armor.

As he closed in on Caroline Tilly tried to stab his waist with her spear. He roared in fury and pain, but most of the stab was stopped by the scales of his armor. He swatted the spear aside with his sword and tried to punch Caroline with his armored fist. He jumped back in the last moment avoiding a solid hit at his helmet. Caroline ruthlessly exploited the opening in his guard.

One of the Hobgoblins came at me with a stab. I managed to push his sword aside with the handle of the ax but had to take a shallow cut at my chest. Groaning I stepped up and twisted to ram my elbow right into his chest.

Tilly had pulled back her spear and managed to keep the Hobgoblin by the trunk at a distance using her longer range by jabbing at his face.

Milly was attacked by another Hobgoblin with a simple but powerful slash, which she dodged and redirected while stabbing his shoulder.

Caroline pulled up her guard again and barely avoided being skewered by the sword of her opponent. The resulting cut along her chest was useless against her mail though.

The Hobgoblin attacking stumbled back half a step from my elbow. I followed up with a swing of my ax, forcing him back even more, dodging the ax. I let my ax swing through at Milly’s opponent. He dodged, but not completely and roared up in pain at I cut his calf.

As he dropped his guard Milly stabbed his neck. The Hobgoblin fell down to his knees pressing his free hand against the wound. He desperately clung to his sword.

Loraline had started fumbling with her bow in the meantime.

Tilly had advanced a bit keeping the Hobgoblin at a distance. Then she hit the Hobgoblin threatening Caroline with the butt end of her spear, disturbing his balance.

As he was trying to get back his balance Caroline smashed the wrist of his free hand with her hammer. He yelped up in pain while stabbing at Milly’s thigh, trying to help his comrade. Milly cried up in rage and pain. She was probably seriously hurt.

I pulled the ax out of the Hobgoblins calf and dodging as my opponent tried to cut my neck.

Milly gritted her teeth. Blood was visible at her thigh. Kicking the Hobgoblin on front of her she stabbed my opponent in the shoulder from below. Bellowing in pain he dropped his sword. His sword arm hung limply beside him.

Caroline diverted the lunge of the Hobgoblin attacking her head to bounce off her shoulder. She yelped in pain as the mail turned the cut in a blunt strike..

I swung my ax at the neck of my momentarily stunned opponent and lopped of his head which fell down at my feet. I felt my stomach starting turn upside down.

As her opponent had recovered enough to swing his sword again Milly kicked the attacking Hobgoblin right in the face while he left a deep cut in her calf with his sword.

Tilly’s opponent turned to run. She turned to sweep the legs of Caroline's opponent with her spear. He jumped over the spear while Caroline's hammer crashed at the side of his helmet with full force. He stumbled to the side reeling.

I heard an arrow flying and the fleeing Hobgoblin went down at a full run. He stopped moving, an arrow protruding from his knee.

We checked the Hobgoblins. The leader of the charge had a broken neck as well as the fleeing Hobgoblin who snapped his neck falling face first on a melon sizes rock.

“This was close.” I was breathing heavily.

“I-I-I was totally useless!” Loraline slumped her shoulders.

“This was your first fight for your life I suppose. You did well.” I patted her head. My stomach still felt like I going to puke at any time.

“Let’s tend to the wounds, Loraline.” Milly started to get some bandages out of her bag.

“Sit down Milly. Let’s look at that cut at your thigh first.” Loraline looked at Milly’s bleeding thigh.

We bandaged each others wounds. After that we searched the Hobgoblins. Their armor was useless for us, since it was much to large. The swords were bad quality and badly balanced.

“Let’s put some distance between us and this place and rest for the night.” I looked at Milly.

She nodded. We got back on our feet and continued about half an hour.

We found a free place between a few larger trees surrounded by undergrowth. Since we each had a small tarpaulin on our backpacks we set up a sizable tent with the help of a few branches. I dug a small trench at the uphill side to keep out the water from the upcoming rain. Finally we put our backpack in our tent and put down our bedrolls.

“Milly and I should sleep a full night for recovering from our wounds as fast as possible.” I carefully helped Milly to her bedroll.

“I take the first watch.” Tilly nodded and leaned against one of the trees.

“I take second.” Loraline crawled to her bedroll

“I take the last one.” Caroline yawned.

After a while, Loraline and Caroline were already sleeping, it started to rain. I fell asleep listening to the steady noise of the falling raindrops.