Our advance continued unimpeded despite our belief that a counter-offensive could be launched on our location at any time. Every now and then, I stopped, poking around the dirt, trying to feel anything that could indicate our enemy’s movements. I managed to detect some tremors a few times, but in every instance, the creatures they originated from moved away from us.

We made sure to introduce ourselves properly now that we were out of immediate danger, but we didn’t go into too much detail about our history. There were still a few issues that needed our attention, and we figured we could talk things over in the evening.

“I have no idea what is going on,” I said, after Velariah watched me stand still for the tenth time or so. “It seems they are in full retreat. All movement is going away from us.”

“Any estimate on their range?” Seralyn asked.

“Not close enough for you to shoot them.”

“I think she may mean something else,” Draco said.

“Like what?” I asked, knowing that this was most likely what the elf was talking about.

“That they are watching us, and moving back as we advance.”

“That was not what I meant,” Seralyn replied in confusion. “But okay.”

I knew it.

“Unless I’m missing something here,” Velariah spoke up. “I don’t think goblins, trolls, or even hobgoblins can see that far. I mean, I haven’t seen a thing, and I think Elania would have let us know if she’d seen anything with those four eyes of hers.”

“Not a thing,” I confirmed.

“So,” She continued. “What are they doing? How many of them do you sense, anyway?”

“Just one,” I said. “One creature that feels like a troll. I’ve gotten quite familiar with the vibrations they make. It does seem to be waiting before retreating over and over again.”

“Which would fit my idea of them watching us, but that’s out of the question,” Draco added. “At least if this is a normal troll.”

“But there are all sorts of foliage in the way,” Eric said.

“I’m thinking,” Velariah spoke, her head bowed down, lost in deep thought. “But I’m coming up dry here.”

She wasn’t the only one. I was breaking my head over the situation as well, and extended it to our mission as a whole. Was there only one? Were there more of these instances spread out before our entire vanguard? What was their objective? Did they even have one? Questions came in a steady stream but answers remained hidden.

“Are they planning something?” Velariah continued her train of thoughts out loud.

“Is it bad to assume they are?” Krelion entered the conversation.

“That would be a wise choice, but what are we going to do about it?”

“Is there something that can stop an army like ours?” I added. “I can only think of one thing, and it wouldn’t necessarily be stopping what we have, but it can cause casualties.”

“Traps,” Draco concluded quickly.

I nodded in response.

“That would make sense,” Velariah said. “They have had more than enough time to set those up. Still, I don’t see the connection with whatever is in front of us.”

“Maybe they’re trying to pick off whoever is unlucky enough to fall for a trap. That’s one thing I could see happen, at least if we’re talking about pitfall traps,” The archer continued.

“Hold up,” I called out. “If there’s the possibility of traps, then that would also mean there’s a possibility of them hiding underground, either to stay hidden and escape our net, or to ambush us, perhaps from behind.”

“Shit,” Velariah cursed. “You’re right. However, I feel like my father would have taken this into account.”

“Unless he was absolutely confident they were either made unaware of our incoming attack, or he knew they wouldn’t have enough time to do something like that,” Draco responded.

“But they most definitely have had enough time to do that at night,” The white-haired elf argued. “Gods, I hate this feeling.”

“I suppose we just trust the general in his judgment,” Eric suggested. I’m sure he thought about this.”

Velariah sighed deeply. “I know, I know. I’m probably overthinking things. I just fear that one day, he’ll make a mistake, and it will cost lives.”

“He won’t,” Seralyn assured her. “Not with this operation. It’s too close to home, and I mean that in more ways than one. He’s thought about this for weeks. I’m certain he hasn’t missed a thing.”

“We’ll be fine,” I said, trying to calm her down and cheer her up at the same time. “I’ll walk in front if you want me to.”

She shook her head and chuckled.

“Nah, that’s fine. I suppose I’m just very much on the edge. Especially with what appears to be going on up ahead.”

“I’d say I’m willing to go on ahead and take it out,” Seralyn said, a sly smile forming on her face. “And I’m more than happy to do that, but I can’t really go against your father’s words now, can I?”

I leaned to the side, putting a hand on Velariah’s shoulder as we continued, trying to relieve her stress as we moved on.

We walked until lunch break with nothing barring our way, which led Krelion to ask if he and his party should perhaps move back to their original place. Velariah agreed that perhaps their presence here was unnecessary, but I made sure to mention that whatever presence was ahead of us, was still there, which made them decide to stay, just in case we were attacked.

The extra company wasn’t so bad either. After some more time passed, and the mood lightened up, they started sharing stories about their time in Dawnleaf. Apparently, they’d joined in the earlier quests to eradicate goblins, and had killed several smaller groups, but once the news broke that trolls were involved, they decided to stay away from those. That was, until this one showed up.

Besides goblins, though, their experience in combat was lacking. They were childhood friends, and lucky enough to come from fairly wealthy families, which allowed them to at least get pretty good armor. Despite their prosperity, and prospect of a relatively easy life, they felt like they lacked purpose, and thus decided to join the local guild.

Originally from Aymlon, a small village near Goldleaf, they moved here as there was nothing to do for adventurers in the area, which made me wonder why there even was a guild there, but whatever, I guess.

When Nira asked the question for me they said that there were quests, but only for copper and iron ranks, and they included exactly what I’d previously seen; finding lost pets and manual labor and the like.

It made me chuckle when I heard about it.

After that, Velariah went on to tell the story of our first real quest, in great detail as usual, for what felt like the thousandth time. It had me shaking my head, and Draco smiling throughout the entirety of it all.

We then exchanged some tips and tricks that we used in combat, in particular with regard to our weapons and how we used them. I also mentioned that if they wanted, they could lace their weapons with my venom, to which they, including Eric, looked surprised.

I shrugged and said it was something we’d used more often, sometimes to great effect.

When the horns sounded again, we marched once more, but even though the ominous presence that seemed to move with us remained, we didn’t run into any fight whatsoever for the rest of the day. When night fell and we had the campfire lit, we decided that three people would keep watch tonight. The first three would be Draco, Nira, and Krelion, followed by Velariah, Melsa, and me.

“Let’s hope the night is as quiet as the day,” Seralyn said. “As much as I’d like to teach these goblins a lesson, I don’t like being woken up prematurely.”

I would make fun of her for her comment, but she and I were the same in that regard. Sleep for me, especially now, was hard enough as it was, and I savored the time that I could spend in dreamland.

Velariah planted herself before me, and I hugged her from behind, wishing her, and the others, good night.

I was gently shaken awake by Draco’s large hand. The lizardman whispered that it was our time to take over and I nodded, trying to force myself to wake up while the elf in my arms was slowly coming to, as well.

“Thanks, Draco. Make sure to get some rest, okay?” I told him once I was fairly certain I was awake.

“Will do,” He replied with a smile.

“Good night, Draco,” Velariah said softly.

He nodded as he went and woke up Melsa, before trying to make himself as comfortable as he could on the dirt and dozing off. We were left watching… and waiting.

It didn’t take too long for me to heave a sigh of pure and utter boredom.

“It never gets easier, does it?” Velariah asked, staring at the campfire, adding some wood when she noticed the flames were starting to die down.

“It really doesn’t, but I have a feeling we’re starting to make progress. There can’t be too much left of this forest,” I replied.

“You might be right, there, and we did kill a few enemies. I wonder how much the others got served.”

“How long have you had to deal with this?” Melsa asked. “Your archer, I believe Seralyn was her name, she seemed deeply bothered with the goblins.”

“We all are,” Velariah responded. “They’ve been a major threat to our village for years, making unarmed travel through the forest impossible, and ambushes and skirmishes have led to many an elf’s death. Regarding Seralyn, well…” She took a deep breath and sighed.

“While she doesn’t talk about it at all, she is an orphan, and when I see the fire in her eyes when talking bout goblins, I just so happen to get an idea how it came to be.”

She looked up to the sky and sighed again.

“I lost my own mother to them about a year ago, and we’ve had plenty of other difficulties in the village leading to a steady decline in prosperity over the years. This, for us, marks the end of an era.”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” The other elf said softly. “I never knew all of this was so deeply rooted.”

“Things have improved a lot recently,” Velariah continued, her voice soft, but happier. “Commerce is booming, and with the festival recently, I have no doubt that a recently discovered trade good will bring wealth to the village. It’s going to spread like wildfire.”

“What trade good?” Melsa asked curiously.

“Coffee,” Velariah answered excitedly.

“That was the drink served at the festival right? The black one?” Melsa asked, to which Velariah nodded. “I didn’t like it. Krelion and Katus didn’t like it at first, either, but then something happened to them, as they said, and they just kept on drinking until their cups were empty. No idea what it was, but they said they were eager to try some more after we are done here. Where does that stuff come from anyway?”

“From some stupid berry we deemed useless for ages,” Velariah said with a chuckle. “One adventurer found a way of preparing them in such a way as to create an energizing drink. This recipe of sorts eventually ended up in my father’s hand after the owner passed away, and he saw opportunities in it.”

“Your father is the general, right? He does seem like a smart man.”

Velariah nodded.

“He’s earned the trust we put in him, and boy did he deliver as of late.”

“Maybe I should try the drink again when we get back. You do make it sound pretty good.”

“You definitely should,” I said before I even noticed. “Just add milk and sugar to taste. I know I need some. Undrinkable otherwise.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Melsa said. “Thank you.”

Somewhere during the day we’d cleaned our weapons, but we’d been slow and some of the blood had stuck to the blade. Now that there was nothing to do, I rommaged through my saddlebags with a leg and rectrieved a canteen and a piece of cloth.

I felt mildly guilty for using water, but we had so many supplies that I was certain we could last for weeks. The few drops that I intended to use to clean my steel wouldn’t be missed.

I sprinkled a bit of the canteen’s contents on my polearm and wiped off the last remaining, yucky, darkened, troll blood. Velariah chuckled and unsheathed her sword and took the container of liquid as I started cleaning my other blades.

“Those are some very nice weapons,” Melsa commented. “Did Coldanus craft those as well?”

“Yup,” Velariah spoke for the both of us. “All of it is Dragon-blessed steel, except for Elania’s polearm. That’s lightning steel.”

“All that must have cost a small fortune,” Melsa continued.

“Yeah, we’ve been making trips to the dungeon near town almost every single day,” Velariah said without hesitation. “And we also did some of the quests to kill goblins and a bunch of trolls as well. We were lucky to get these in time for this operation.”

I knew some of that was lied, but I couldn’t blame her.

“Hopefully, we’ll be able to get some more equipment from this as well,” The black-haired elf continued. “Before we move on to the next settlement.”

“Are you traveling around a lot?” I asked. 

“Yeah. We’re constantly on the move, looking for worthwhile quests such as this one.”

“I see.”

I had thought about the concept, but with our circumstances, money wasn’t, and wouldn’t ever be, an issue. To be fair, the quests in Dawnleaf weren’t bad for money, and then there was the dungeon as well. Though, part of the missions that were offered had to do with the goblin problem, those would be gone after this.

It made me wonder. Those quests no longer being available would be a good thing for the village, but a bad thing for adventurers seeking to earn money. That was an odd thing to consider.

Velariah finished cleaning and closed the canteen before tossing it, together with the cloth, to Melsa, who thanked her and used it to clean her own spear.

“The others are going to have to be fast with breakfast if they want to clean their weapons,” Velariah said with a wicked grin.

“I guess so,” The other elf replied.

The sound of a wolf’s howl in the distance made all three of us look up in an instant, but the sound was far away, and didn’t belong to anything posing a threat to us. Nevertheless, it did show that despite out casual conversation, we were still very much on the edge of our seats, nervous.

“Damnit,” Velariah cursed. “Had me there for a moment.”

“Meh,” I let out. “I think we’ll be fine. If they had anything in mind, they would have attacked by now. Morning is right around the corner. We should be seeing the first light soon.”

“Can’t wait,” She said, leaving back into me after sheathing her sword.

“So, Elania,” Melsa started a question.

I immediately knew exactly what she was going to ask and prepared myself to lie once more.

“Where are you from?” She finished the question, confirming my suspicion. “I mean, I’ve never seen anything like you, nor have I heard of any such stories. I’ve been meaning to ask, but I didn’t know when would be a good time. I’m not even sure if it is now.”

I looked down into Velariah’s hair sticking out behind her helmet and sighed deeply, hoping the knight would get the memo, and pull the same stunt as before.

“She has a long and complicated past,” Velariah said bluntly, but with a somewhat muted voice, mimicking the same resignation that was there in my sigh, just to add more meaning to her words. She continued to impress me. “And she would rather forget about it. I know it, and she figured that there was no need for more people to know.”

“I see. I’m sorry for asking.”

“I’m not from around here,” I said, telling a half-truth. “But I’ve found a home here, and I wish to protect it.”

“That’s…” The black-haired elf whispered. “Very touching. I feel compelled to thank you for helping out the elves.”

“I don’t know what to say,” I replied with a smile. “I’m happy to help.”

A silence then followed, during which Velariah excused herself for a bit. She returned and happily placed herself back in my lap as we continued our watch.

A good while later, the first rays of light were visible above the trees, and I could feel the relief flood over us both when dawn had finally come. It still took a few hours before the morning was fully underway, and the time to wake up was once more signaled by several horns blowing.

The others woke up and we prepared a quick breakfast, but the second horn sound never came.

“I’m pretty sure ten minutes has passed by now,” Seralyn was the first to speak. “What’s going on?”

I tried to sense any vibrations in the ground, but there seemed to be no movement going on anywhere in the area.

Velariah looked at me as I shrugged and offered her thoughts.

“Dunno. I suppose we have some more time today or something. We’ll just wait until we’re signaled to move.”

We waited some more but no signal was given, even after waiting for over half an hour, which made all of us visibly uneasy.

Then, the sensations, and soon, the sound of hooves made itself known.