It rained all afternoon and it was far beyond midnight when the rain slowed down to a drizzle.

“Let’s wait for the morning as we will be probably much faster in the gorge ahead having some daylight.” I looked at Caroline and Loraline.

“Some more rest won’t hurt.” Loraline winked at me.

“How will we continue?” Milly looked at me, her brows furrowed.

“There is no good choice available.” I nodded at her with a wry smile.

“Then what’s the best one in your opinion?” Tilly sat down beside me.

We were all awake. It was already dark and we refrained from starting a fire.

“Well. We have to assume that the magician able to track us is nearby. So to stay put is no option.

Heading the way back to the pass is no option as well unless we want to surrender.

Leaving The Claws is probably a bad choice as our enemies have way more men available down there and are much more mobile. The elves advised us to not to do this as well. I don’t like to go there.

Heading east towards that ruin full of undead sounds just bad. The dwarf mentioned crossing the place in the day to avoid the undead, but any delay will be death. Which makes the route risky. I’ve never fought ghouls, but Miss Tessa discouraged us from confronting ghouls as they carry a nasty disease. I don’t like this as well.

Deviating into dwarf territory could be an option if we knew they are taking prisoners. They had a couple of bad experience with humans, so I won’t bet on it.” I leaned back and propped myself on my arms.

“The first three choices are really bad from my point of view as well. We could try to play hide and seek to the south, but the slave marks will give them quite an advantage.

The dwarves seemed to be rather unfriendly towards humans in general, so I wouldn’t try that.

This undead city. We’re putting all eggs in one basket here.” Milly looked at me, her shoulders slumped.

“There isn’t much to add, but we have to decide.” Tilly stared into space.

“I would try hiding south of the mountains. These marks are just unfair!” Caroline looked a bit pale.

“All options we have look bad. Are we going to die?” Loraline pressed her lips together.

“I would try the eastern path for now. That ruin is on my maps and we have probably more than a week until we reach it. We might have a chance to get in touch with the dwarves by chance or maybe find another way to go. All the other option call for trouble in only a few days, so the best we can do is to continue east and hope for the best. Not very encouraging, but it’s the best we have I think.” I looked at the others.

“At least we have some days until we have to commit to that ruin.” Milly nodded at me.

“Maybe we come up with something better in the days coming. Let’s head east for now.” Tilly bit on her lower lip.

“We come with you.” Caroline looked at Loraline, who nodded.

“Then it’s decided. Let’s hope we find some way around the ruins in the next days. We should try passing them when no other option turns up and our pursuers are too close.” I turned to meet the gaze of everyone else.

They were all uncomfortable, but no one seemed to panic right now. Good. We need to keep our wits to get out of this.

We headed out with the first light in the morning. The gorge was wet, but the water had stopped flowing over the ground.

After about two hours we reached the end of the gorge to the south. We had to climb over wet rocks to reach a barely noticeable path leading from the east to the west.

We turned east and followed the path along the mountainside.

To the right we had a good view over a wide hilly green countryside, while the Claws raked up into the skies to our left. We were far above the treeline, only a few scrubs managed to grow here, while further up was no more vegetation at all.

The ground was still slippery from the rain the first days. We continued carefully to the east. The weather wasn’t that bad and we decided to continue on Happy Harvest as well. It somehow felt wrong to do something at that day, but we didn’t want to dally as it wasn’t clear what our pursuers would do. After six days we noticed a group of people following at fringe of our vision. The ash cloud behind us was fading out as well.

We needed ten days to arrive at a small keep in the early afternoon. We rested for the rest of the day.

“Now we met no dwarf so far. We have a larger group after us in a distance and this seems to be the place the dwarven guard talked about.” I sat down on a stone bench next to the wall near the entrance.

“No new options. So we have to try the ruins tomorrow?” Loraline gulped.

“How about defending this keep?” Tilly looked at the sturdy structure.

“They could simply contain us while waiting for reinforcements.” I shook my head

“How long do we have until our pursuers will arrive?” Milly pressed her lips firmly together looking me in the eyes.

“We may have a day or two before they arrive, but I don’t see a point in waiting.” I shook my head.

“You’re still down with your mana?” Tilly looked at me her lips tightly pressed together.

“Yeah. It’s a week since it ended for you. I wonder why it takes that much more time.” I grumbled, looking at the ground in front of me.

“The results were the same for me and Milly, even with differing time.” Tilly laid an arm around me.

“I would feel better if you were fit. Feeling the difference after all this time make me feel bad for you.” Milly sat down beside me.

“Well. Can’t do nothing about it.” I gave her a peck on the cheek.

“Let’s get some rest and fix something nice to eat for the evening. There is a stove inside that building over there, along with some coal.” Loraline came out of one of the buildings inside the keep.

“Let’s put a post at the entrance. We can see the path behind for some kilometers.” Milly looked at me.

“I stay and watch.” I made myself comfortable near the entrance to the keep.

The rest went to make dinner. It was a decent meal. Most of the time we had just these army rations we got from the outpost. The food we got from the elves was dwindling away. We still had some fruit in the bag of holding.

The night was eerily calm.

As I woke up I realized my mana was full! I felt great. At least physically, but I got some resolve out of it as well.

“The rebind is finally done. I’m brimming with mana!” I looked at the others with a smile.

“At least one good thing this day.” Milly smiled back.

We set out east with the first light. The road was a deteriorated paved road with plenty of potholes and loose stones.

The mood was tense and nobody spoke as continued along the road. I had a firm grip on my halberd.

After a while the ruins of houses started to appear beside the road. Most of the walls were still standing, but none of them seemed to have a roof for a long time anymore. Occasionally the debris of broke down walls filled parts of the road. The roads widened after a while, about five meters wide and the gaps between the ruins vanished completely

A faint smell of decay started to permeated the air. There was no wind as well.

The houses got bigger and higher, up to three floors sometimes. The higher floors were broke down in most of the cases, often accompanied by caved in walls. The putrid smell got more intense the more we progressed into the ruins.

There was no sound but our own steps at all. No animals, no trees.

“It’s too silent.” I looked uneasy at the houses around me.

Nobody answered, but they nodded. All held the hands on their weapons.

The suns rose as we continued through the empty husks of ancient buildings. It felt like someone was watching all the time as the sound of our boots hallowed across the streets.

It was past noon as we crossed a wider street coming from the mountain, leading down. We crossed the street with caution, and continued on our street on the other side. The roads were all in a grid layout. Maybe a dwarven habit. We had had no problems so far.

“Look! There’s hole in the ground!” Caroline pointed ahead.

“Shit! Probably a sinkhole or something like that. We have go around it.” I frowned at the road ahead.

“At least the grid structure makes this quite easy.” Tilly looked at me from the side.

“It’s too late to turn back now.” Milly furrowed her brows.

“It will take extra time. Yes we won’t get lost that easy.” I gave Tilly a wry smile.

“Lets turn right, away from the mountains.” Tilly pointed south.

“Okay for me. I don’t see a difference going the other way.” Milly shrugged.

“Let’s keep to this road as far as we can.” I pointed as a crossroad ahead.

We turned right at the crossroads and advanced carefully until the next road east again. The side road was in far worse condition than the road we had followed till now.

“This looks bad.” Milly looked at the heaps of rubble from caved in walls all over the road

“Let’s try the next road.” Tilly shook her head.

“One more try. When the area ahead is generally in a bad condition we won’t make progress sidestepping.” I looked at Milly.

“Let’s try the next one.” She nodded with a deep frown.

We headed further south. The next side road east was a bit better than the last, but there were torn down houses aplenty as well.

“We take this one.” Milly frowned at the road ahead.

“Let’s be careful. Tilly we go ahead and prod the ground with our weapons.” I made my halberd ready.

We prodded our way along the side road, which was totally barred by rubble at some point. We climbed over the rubble with caution and continued our way on the other side.

The suns headed towards the horizon as the afternoon advanced.

“What do we do if it gets dark too soon?” Loraline looked at me with wide eyes.

“We won’t come far in the open.” Caroline shook her head.

“It depends upon how many of these ghouls appear.” Tilly prodded at heavy deteriorated piece of wall which gave way with a thud.

“Retreating to a defensible place would be the best. Then we have have to wait for the suns to come out again. Ghouls don’t like bright light. We may be able to fight our way out then.” I looked at Tilly.

“We can always continue if there are only a few of them.” Milly nodded.

“Probably fights will attract more of them over the time.” I continued down the road again.

We made it back to the main road again after about two hours a few hundred meters behind the sinkhole. The buildings along the main road were not in a generally better state. The wider streets gave more space to avoid the rubble though.

We continued further down the deteriorated main road. Many of the stones gave way when stepping upon it. This would be a mess in a fight.

Slowly the suns reached the mountains.

“I think we won’t make it.” I shook my head.

“Let’s hurry!” Milly looked at me with wide eyes.

“Don’t panic.” I gave her a hug.

“I don’t want to die!” She gave me a furious glare.

“Then let’s look for a place we can defend. That’s the best chance we have. Maybe it takes them some time to show up if we hide. All we can do is to stay alive until the suns will come back in the morning.” I looked her in the eyes.

“O-Okay.” She looked down at her feet.

We reached a small square after a while.

“The building to the left ahead seems to be in a relatively good condition.” Tilly pointed ahead with her spear.

“Then let’s have a look at it.” Caroline patted Milly on the back.

“It looks like some guardhouse, slightly fortified.” Loraline looked at me.

“Let’s see if we find a room which we can defend for a while.” I nodded at her.

There were a few stairs up to the doorway. Beyond was wide hallway with half a dozen doors.

The room right to the entrance looked promising.

“It’s even got some arrow loops!” Loraline tried a small smile.

“The ceiling looks good enough. This wouldn't last against siege weapons, but won’t come down for a while. Let’s hole up here.” I entered the room.

The room was about four meters wide and six meters long.

“No other exit.” Caroline came in as well.

“We’ve no place to run. Some backdoor would be nice though.” I put my backpack down against the front wall.

“This looks like a place to hold for a while.” Milly put down her backpack as well.

“Let’s prepare.” Loraline started to line up the quivers with arrows she had against the wall with the arrow loops.

“Let’s check if the walls.” Milly started to prod the walls of the room.

“We should avoid getting hurt as far as we can. It should be the usual formation with Milly and Caroline in the front, besides the door, blocking everyone who tries to enter.

Tilly and I will stab at anything we can reach from the second line.

Loraline, you check the windows and use your bow when it’s needed. Don’t shoot at targets outside without need.” I leaned on my halberd.

“We should be able to hold this with three, so one can have a break to unwind once in a while.” Milly nodded at me.

Loraline sneaked a peek outside once in a while.

Milly and Caroline leaned beside the doorway to the hallway, while Tilly and I kept behind them for now to avoid being seen from the hallway.

“Ah!” Milly jumped out in the hallway and came back with her mirror in the hand, which she handed to Loraline.

“We can monitor the hallway to see what’s happening outside the room.” She gave me a grim smile.

“We should use anything we have. This should give us an edge for a while, but keep in mind it won’t last forever. Try to warn us if you light it.” I handed my light gem to Loraline.

“We actually never tried out how long it lasts.” Tilly frowned.

“We will know tomorrow if we make it. It’s topped up.” I shrugged.

“Go for the heads. We can blind them if can hit the eyes. Stabbing them in the body won’t do any good.” Tilly looked at her spear in disdain.

“Try keeping the front line out of trouble. Now silence and get ready. It’s starting to get dark outside.” I firmly gripped my halberd.

Slowly the light of the suns faded away.