“There! I saw him duck into the trees just there!”

Roni’s call drew their attention but in the wrong direction. They had to glance at her to see where she was looking, costing them several seconds of precious time in which to react. But thankfully, she already had an arrow drawn, and in her elevated position in the tree, with her sharp eyes, she had no issue tracking the stranger. A frown crossed her face, and a flicker of anger appeared there. Before they could think to question it, or even make the choice to run after the stranger, she drew back the string on her bow and loosed her first shot.

“Damn!” She exclaimed half a second later. “He deflected the arrow!”

Immediately after she said it, the sound of an explosion reached their ears, powerful enough to rustle their hair. Yet none of the trees seemed the least bit harmed. Roni jumped down from the tree, landing lightly on her feet as though the twenty-foot drop was a light step. “Come on!”

She tore off in the direction that her arrow had flown, and Falynn rushed after her. The others, however, hesitated still. Leonov was judging the tight cluster of the trees, taking note of how dense the forest was in this area. He knew for a fact that they couldn’t navigate that, at least not quickly enough to make up the distance. The stranger was gone, and there was nothing they could do. Taiki was clutching their weapon uncertainly, clearly wanting to go, but without an enemy in sight, she was undecided.

Roni only came to a stop when, with a yelp, Falynn tripped over her own feet, and tumbled into the bushes at the side of the road. There was a prolonged crashing sound, then silence, and finally, a squeak of pain. The ranger ran back to them, letting out a growl of frustration, and stooped to yank Falynn out of the bushes. She deposited the druid girl on the ground, her hair a mess of twigs and leaves.

“Why are you standing there, gawking around?” She snapped at Leonov and Taiki, her face displaying rare emotion. “If I hadn’t stopped, we could have tracked him down and captured him!”

“No,” Leonov said. “We couldn’t. It’s one of the first things they teach you in warfare. You can’t move a force through tightly packed trees like this.”

“We’re not a force!” Roni snarled, stomping over to him. Even in her temper, her feet barely made any noise. “Just because you used to be a soldier doesn’t mean that you know everything about fighting! Gods, it’s just like earlier! We’re near the forest, hunting a criminal. I know more about this than you do, so you have to trust me!”

Before any of them could think to react or say something in reply, she stalked off in the direction of their temporary camp, grumbling threats to the empty air. She left them in shocked silence, only interrupted by the woozy sort of mumbling that Falynn let out as she healed the small scratches on her arms and legs and picked the twigs from her hair.

-

2 hours earlier

-

“So, what should we do once we get a sign of who took the wagon?” Falynn asked. “If we want to avoid fighting, I can call the living wood to me, and we can make a run for it.”

“Run away from a fight?” Leonov asked, his right eyebrow rising a few inches on his forehead. “They’ll chase after us anyway, won’t they?”

“Probably,” Roni answered. “In the forest, we could lose them easily.”

“Anything about the forest that might slow them down will also slow us down,” Leonov countered. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees to put extra emphasis on his words. “It’s not an advantageous position.”

“Do they not teach you forestcraft in the Attosian military?” Roni asked. By contrast, she was lounging on a flat stump of wood as if it were a comfortable mattress, totally at her ease. “Everyone who grows up in the trees knows that you can lose pursuers if you know what you’re doing.”

“One person, maybe,” Taiki put in. They were running a stone along the edge of their belt dagger, a bored and thoughtful expression on their face. “It gets a little harder with more people.”

Roni let out a snort of derision but didn’t expand upon the reply. Instead, they rolled over so that they were lying flat on their back, their head hanging off the edge of the stump. Falynn watched her face with a troubled look, wondering where the other elf got her confidence from. She looked at every challenge she faced as if it were a breeze. Had she never been seriously outclassed in her life, or was she just that good?

Gadderoth landed lightly on Roni’s stomach and curled into a ball to nap. He was very cat-like in his behaviors, they noticed, save for the fact that he could fly and would one day be able to breathe fire. Roni lifted one hand to idly pat the dragon hatchling and stared up into the clear blue sky. Without much else to discuss, they all stared in different directions, occupied with their own small task. At least until Falynn spoke in a small voice.

“I’m not good at fighting,” she said. When the others glanced at her, she had her head tilted down, seeming to focus on a small flower at her feet that she was making bloom and close. “I’m a good mage and a really good druid. But I can’t fight to save my own life.”

An awkward silence stretched out between them, and they all looked at each other, wondering who would be the first to speak. To their surprise, it was Roni who heaved herself upright with a sigh. Gadderoth let out a tiny squawk as his nap was disturbed and took to the air.

“There isn’t a skill in the world that can’t be learned,” she said. She didn’t look at Falynn as the druid girl lifted her head, but she sounded oddly comforting. “I was dreadful at hunting when I was first taken in by a follower of Minerva. But I learned. And so will you.”

She rose to her feet, allowing Gadderoth to perch on her shoulder as usual, and finally looked around at the others. Her face had settled back into the hard lines they were accustomed to. A silent, serious hunter. They shook off the weird moment quickly, knowing that it was time to be on the move. They took a few minutes to pack up their small camp, stowing the used utensils in Taiki’s pack. Then they were off.

“It is a good idea, though,” Leonov said, perhaps half an hour into their walk. He was the first to speak beyond an idle comment on direction. When they looked puzzled, he elaborated, “I mean your plan to take the living wood as soon. It’s a good idea. You should call it to you as soon as we’re close to the wagon.”

“But then I won’t be able to help out in the fight,” Falynn replied, looking doubtful. “Won’t that slow you down?”

“Having an inexperienced combatant will slow us down even more,” Leonov said. His voice was gentle, but the words still hurt her. “I’m sorry, but that’s the truth of the matter. We can see about you learning how to fight later. But for now, you’re our fastest option for recovering the target.”

And that’s all it was to him. A target. He didn’t care what it was or that it was a precious material guarded jealously by the followers of the God of Nature. From his perspective, he’d been hired for a specific job and promised a worthy payment. He’d do the job as efficiently as possible, even if that meant engaging in combat. Beside him, Taiki listened to his instruction and nodded without saying a thing. Out of all of them, Leonov was the closest to having something in common with them.

“There’s someone ahead,” Roni said suddenly. As she had the sharpest ears, it was only natural that she’d spot the man first. Falynn was only a second behind her. “Just one person. He reeks of magic.”

“Not just magic,” Falynn corrected. “He has the mark of chaos about him.”

“A chaos mage this far from the capital?” Leonov asked. “I thought you Tyrmanians were secretive about your magic.”

“No more than the Attosians,” Taiki put in. “Or any other nation, for that matter.”

Leonov nodded, accepting the point. “Do you think they’re hostile?”

“Hardly. They’re just sitting on the side of the road.”

Nearly a minute later, once they’d practically come upon the stranger, Leonov and Taiki were able to make him out. He was indeed sitting down at a small campsite he’d made. He was clothed from head to toe in dark fabric despite the heat of the day, and he wore the kind of mask that healers donned in the event of wide plagues. The nose of the mask was a bit crumpled, as though he’d fallen flat on his face a few too many times, giving it a permanent crinkle.

He didn’t seem to have any weapons on him, but that meant nothing with mages. As they drew closer, he looked around and hopped to his feet. Was he wary? Would he attack? It was impossible to read his emotion with that mask in place. But he waved at them in a jovial fashion, which seemed to rule out hostility.

“Well met, young travelers!” He cried. The mask slightly muffled his voice, which had a distinct Tyrman dialect. “What a glorious day it is to make friends! Come, come, join me for a spot of tea, and tell me of your travels!”

His cheery attitude, and the odd way in which he spoke, caught them completely by surprise. He was such a comical figure that Falynn immediately let out a giggle, trying in vain to smother the sound behind an arm. She managed to disguise it as a cough and waved back. “Hello, sir! We’re just passing by, thanks. Have you seen or heard of any bandits along this road?”

“Bandits?” He paused as if to think. “No, I don’t think I’ve heard of any bandits. The only strange thing I’ve seen around here is this abandoned cart. I’m watching over it in case its owner comes back.”

That put them on edge at once, and their eyes snapped around to look. Sure enough, there was a wagon sitting a few feet away from the small fire. They couldn’t see what was inside it, but Falynn stiffened at once, sensing the living wood inside. Her eyes flashed, and she raised her hands, making a tugging motion. With the sound of wrenching wood, the wagon’s side burst apart, and what looked like a very thick vine shot out directly for the druid girl. She spun on the spot, wrapping the wood into a swirl around her body. It had to be more than two hundred pounds of the stuff, but she easily kept it suspended in the air.

“Wow!” the man exclaimed. “That was marvelous! I guess that means it belongs to you. I guess it makes sense that-”

He stopped mid-sentence and went still. They blinked at him, confused, wondering what had come over him. Then Taiki twitched noticeably, and Roni jumped back. Leonov had no idea what they were doing until Roni snarled out a warning. “Chaos!”

He could see it now. A faint disturbance in the air around the stranger, as though he were letting off a wave of heat. Then, a second later, they felt it. Something slammed into their minds with brutal force, wrapping around them and suffocating them. Leonov and Falynn let out cries of shock, dropping to their knees and clutching their heads. Roni turned and ran away from the stranger, a haunted look in their eyes. But Taiki neither ran nor cowered. They lifted the heavy spiked club they carried and charged forward as if unaffected.

“You bastard!” They screamed, with a voice full of fury. “You’ll pay for what you did to my family!”

The heavy club hammered down with devastating force, but the man was no longer there. He was already running at full speed, aiming for the forest a dozen yards away from the road. He ran as if in fear for his life, whether because of Taiki or something else they couldn’t tell. But as he left, the temporary sense of fear and madness faded, and they all relaxed. Even Taiki let go of their weapon, allowing it to fall to the ground with a look of shock and surprise on their face.

“He’s….” Falynn said, somehow finding it hard to breathe. “He’s gone.”

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