I shudder as the night air steels the the warmth from my body. "What is going on?" I cling to the blanket  as the once ample moonlight now only cast shadows. The stubborn courage that had carried me this far melts as the vast strangeness of the situation became tangible. "Where am I? What has happened to me?"

The Forest had no answer for me. .

That was a very long night. 

The dawn broke and illuminated a huddled blanket, a pair of red eyes wearily greeted the new day. Like a newborn faun she walked on unsteady legs to where she left her uniform to dry. Taking the saber and Henry Rifle from the caisson she harness the horses and heads of down the dry stream bed. And although the sun bears down on her back as it climbs higher into the sky she still shivers.

Else where...

Year, 923 Fourteenth day of the Fourth Moon,

      Dear Master Magician Mathias,

     I am writing in hopes of good tidings, every day I look forward to returning under your tutelage as a student once more. That being said yesterday the twelfth of this month a great disturbance of ambient mana had been felt by many of my coworkers at Saint Ceilio Fort, including Reverend Naliello, bless her heart, nearly fainted during morning service. It is with my humble experience that some great and powerful magic had been cast in the Black Forest nearby, I however have no way of locating where. 

    With this in mind I ask you to send a diviner to our humble outpost in hopes of learning discovering the nature of this incantation.

With High Regard

Novice Audovacar Xanti

"It is as you have said, witch." spat a tall man in a long rough green cloak. "Those church dogs do not know that we are here."

 Behind him was a hunched figure in a similar cloak who carried a brass lantern. "Your concession warms this old heart of mine. Even with no magic I would know if we were followed. Just pray that letter is not missed." she points a boney finger at the parchment the man's hand.

"This? You worry to much. The author is merely an apprentice sorcerer, hardly enough for those decadent heathens to even raise an eyebrow." amused he rises and turns to the rest of the small group, "We know what we are doing, take only those I tell you to, no sense in being slowed down by low value goods. Follow me and each of us will be rich as kings when we return!" the man crushes Xanti's letter underneath his foot.