The first thing Gale felt after crossing the portal was the trunk of a tree on her face, which she ran against thanks to crossing with her eyes closed. Once she had composed herself, she considered her surroundings: she seemed to be in a forest, not unlike the one in which she was used to hunting in. Could she be close to her village already? The trees were quite tall, forming a network of branches and leaves, and she could hear animals in the distance, especially birds. The dense foliage prevented her from being able to see the sky, but it was still daytime (she had not been inside the tower for that long). The trees in front of her had some moss she could use to start navigating, and there were some claw marks in one of the trees. There seemed to be predators in the region, she had to be careful. Turning around, she found the portal she had used to enter: a carved stone arch in the center of a boulder. After testing that she could cross back inside again, Gale decided to start investigating the forest. Focusing a bit on the lighting, she could feel the forest start to clear in the direction opposite of the portal in the boulder, so she started walking in that direction.
After a couple minutes of walking, she found the end of the forest and exited into a prairie. The grass extended to a long distance in the plains, and there was a gentle breeze. The sky was clear and blue, with few clouds on it, and she could see that it was still midday. In the center of the prairie there was a dirt road that went across it, and a small farming village just like her hometown Grassroot. If she wanted to return, she needed to know where exactly she had exited the forest: for all she knew, she could be tens of kilometers away. Thus, she decided to ask in the village if maybe they could guide her, or even show her a map. There was no way she was going to tell the true story of her presence there, so she decided to make up a story in which she was an adventurer that was hunting down a bear and got lost in the forest. Should be deep enough for the short interaction expected.
Gale approached the village through the road and was stopped by a boy her age in a leather armor that seemed to have some claw marks and a thin, long, black sword she could not recognize. It didn’t really seem to fit him well.
“State your name and reason to enter this village, stranger”, the boy said trying to sound intimidating. He was clearly tense.
“Gale, I’m an adventurer that got lost in the forest and wanted to get directions if possible”, Gale answered. She preferred following along with his display of fake authority, there was no need for a confrontation for now.
“Oh, that’s all? I can take you to the mayor, he has a map of the zone!”, the guy said having clearly relaxed quite a bit. He was obviously inexperienced for a town guard, after all, she could be lying (which she was, incidentally). The boy introduced himself as Zack, a 18-year-old from the village. He explained that these last few days there has been some thefts on the village, and some wolf attacks at the same time. They seemed coordinated, so the village had decided to increase their security. After a few minutes walking, they approached a middle-aged man tending to the cows on a farm.
“Old maaan! We have a visitooor!” Zack shouted to him. He waved his hand, cleaned himself and got close to the pair. He seemed to be in his late 40’s, with toned muscles from farming. He eyed Gale up and down before addressing the pair.
“Oho, good afternoon! Who are you, young lady? Did you need something from us?” the man asked Gale.
“She’s a lost adventurer, old man. She says she got lost in the forest” Zack replied.
“Are you not quite young for an adventurer? This must have been one of the very first missions, I presume, to get lost in the forest just like that!” the man replied laughing. Gale did not say anything, being inexperienced at adventuring was perfectly suited for her cover story. “Ok, ok”, the man continued, “come with me to my house, I have a map of the region you can use to find your way”.
Gale thanked the generosity of the man, and followed him to his house alongside Zack, who seemed to still be in a good mood. The house seemed to be quite big, able to house 5-6 people comfortably. He told her to sit down at the main table alongside Zack while he went to look for the map at his office. She then decided to engage in small talk with Zack, and ask him about his gear.
“That’s a curious looking sword, isn’t it? Why is it black?” she asked.
“Actually, I have no idea!” he shrugged. “This is a family heirloom, my great-grandfather bought it from a merchant once, who said it was a magic sword. We had a travelling magician check it once and it does seem to have some kind of magical potential, but nobody knows of what kind. So it’s mostly a cool-looking, badly-balanced, not-very-sharp sword” he explained, while taking a look at it. Gale thought that it was indeed quite dull for a sword, she hoped his ancestor wasn’t just plain scammed.
“And what about the armor? What are those marks?” she asked, guessing there was some adventure the boy could share with her.
“Ah” he said, his expression clouding noticeably. She had touched a bad subject. “This is… it belonged to our town guard. He was a rough man, but really wanted to protect the 18 people living in our village. On the very first attack, he charged against the 5 wolves that were attacking a neighbor, a breeder on his farm. He killed 2 of them, but died bravely on the fight.” He stayed silent for a minute. Then, he continued. “We had two extra attacks, but now the 3 remaining wolves are more cautious and try not to engage anyone in a direct confrontation. I took on the role of guard in his stead, since I’m a self-taught beginner earth magician, but we do not own any other suits of armor, so… I had to borrow. Now, I really want to wear it when I rip the remaining wolves myself.” He finished, his rage very apparent.
“Please, Zack, do not rush into a fight” the mayor said, coming back with a roll of fabric. “We have already lost someone recently. I promised your mother I would keep an eye on you.” Zack just looked aside as a response. The mayor put the fabric on the table for the three to see, which when unrolled showed the map of the region. “This here is our location” the man said, pointing to a small dot on the cente-south of the map, right on top of the forest which covered the west side of the south third of the map and which other ends could not be seen on it. One could also see the dirt road, which seemed to extend a long distance to a mid-sized city on the center of the map, called Astidia. On the northmost part of the map, a mountain range (Scilla Range, it said) could be seen snaking from side to side. The east side of the map was mainly occupied by a big lake, Deepwater, which was fed by three rivers coming from the mountain range north of it. “I recommend you to follow the dirt road skirting the forest until you reach Astidia, which would take about a week, and form there look for a merchant caravan to your destination. Unless you come from the west?”.
She was in trouble; she could not recognize anything on this map. She had never heard of this Astidia city, and was quite sure this was not her country at all. In the maps she had seen, the forest was on the north of the region, and its end could not be seen. Assuming this forest was indeed the same, given the size of the region she could be more than 15 days of travel through the forest away from her home. More than a month if she took the roads. Now that she knew a bit of the region, she decided to try her luck with the second portal, and worst-case scenario come back here and follow the man’s advice.
She had to leave the village soon then. She denied coming from the west, even though she could not really tell, and thanked him for his assistance. She said goodbye to her new acquaintances and stood up to leave and start her trip, but the mayor stopped her.
“It’s getting late, it would be very dangerous to travel the roads during the night, specially so close to the forest. We can lend you a house to stay the night, and then leave in the morning. I’m sure the town will be interested in having an adventurer for a night!” he said amicably, but with the look of not going to back down on the offer at all. Zack also looked worried for her. She sighed, and accepted the offer. She could stay just for the night.
Since the village had a visitor staying the night, they decided to hold dinner outside, in a big common table for all the residents. Including Gale, there were 19 seats at the table: Gale, Zack, the mayor and his wife, four other adult couples, two elderly men and 5 small children. She sat right beside Zack and a curious child eager to ask a real adventurer stories about the job. The cooking was mainly done by the five local adult women. They served dishes of an assorted of vegetables obtained from the most recent harvests, some fruits, and meat from hunting in the forest, mainly rabbit. She spent half the dinner telling the child, Tom, about the time she was followed by a cougar at the forest, and how she ended up killing it by luring it into a trap. That had been the most dangerous expedition she had ever had, and told no one about it so they would not forbid her from entering the forest. The child was very excited, especially when she decided to show him her sword. Afterwards, she decided to talk to Zack for a while.
“If you don’t mind me asking, why are you learning earth magic on your own? Do you want to help in the farming?” she asked him. He turned to face her, but looked up to the night sky.
“I… I want to be a guild magician. I want eventually to travel out of this village and go into Astidia to join the guild, and study to be a powerful magician. Also, I really want to understand the power of this sword, and prove that my ancestor was not just an idiot who got taken advantage of”. Zack sighed.
“That’s a nice dream, Zack” Gale responded smiling tenderly. “You remind me of my older brother a bit, specially with taking the soldier job for yourself. He is also an earth magician, and is studying under out earth magician to succeed him. He is brave and dependable, always taking up responsibilities. I… am more impulsive, and always needed action for my life. That’s why I went so much to the forest, I needed to feel the action. I really hope my family is not worried sick about me…” she trailed off. Zack extended his arm to her shoulder to console her, and smiled to her too. After a surprisingly long time, they both noticed their reddened cheeks and separated a bit to regain their composure. They had met just a few hours ago, and in a few more hours they would not see each ever other again, they could not really afford to have feelings for each other.
Suddenly, there was a sound behind one of the houses. They both got serious and looked at each other, since given that all the villagers where on this table, there should not be anyone to make the sound. Maybe it was a rat? They both got up to investigate together. When they reached the location, there was nothing there. But something had moved further away from the house. Gale told Zack to wait: he had said that the wolves were coordinating the attacks with the thief, this could be a trap to lure them away. It was better to head back. Sure enough, as they were heading back facing the house, two wolves jumped out trying to attack them from behind.
Gale kinda expected that to happen, and so did Zack, so they ducked at the same time and the wolves crashed against each other, rolling further into the space between two adjacent houses.
“ENEMY ATTACK!” shouted Zack, and a commotion in the table soon followed. Two men got up and picked their farming equipment to help them and circle the wolves. The rest of the villagers got together close to the table, with the three remaining men protecting them with their make-shift weapons. Soon enough, the third wolf was making sounds while running around their formation. She did not have time to focus on it, but she felt that they were literally trying to keep them busy for the thief to act, now that all houses were empty.
Gale focused on the two wolves in front of her. They had some kind of metal spikes coming out of their backs, three close to their neck and two at the back. They looked man-made; this was equipment deliberately made for them. The two wolves looked very aggressive, but they were clearly in a bad spot. Gale raised her shield, and readied her sword. As she got closer with Zack, they got closer to the villagers. While they were the weak spot in the encirclement, attacking them would mean giving their backs to the armed humans and spell their doom.
Suddenly, they jumped at the same time to opposite sides, bounced on the walls of the houses upwards and fell behind Gale and Zack. Gale swung her sword, and was able to give a small cut in a leg to one of the wolves. The third wolf howled, and ran away from the village, while a man was grabbing his hand: he was probably bitten. The other two tried to ran away too, but Zack was very angry at them and was not going to allow it. He put his hands on the ground and casted a simple earth spell, raising a small patch of the ground and creating a small ridge to hold the leg of one of the wolves. The wolf, though, could not stop in time, and his caught up leg broke from his own momentum with a loud crack and a deep howl. Gale cringed at the sound. The wolf was determined to flee, so it kept running to the forest with the other two while limping.
“I will follow them! This is our chance! We can find put their hiding place and finish everything!” Zack shouted.
“No, Zack, please! We have enough problems as it is!” the mayor answered, clearly worried about him.
“I will go with him, and keep him safe!” Gale said. She did not really know these people, why was she volunteering for a fight? Still, she was also worried about what might happen to Zack, and they reminded her too much of her hometown to leave them to their own fate. She was also an expert hunter in the forest, and they were only chasing three wolves, right? It might not be that much of a big deal.
They both run straight to the forest, following they trail of the limping wolf. If they could do this, the village could finally be safe again.
