As expected, the day following was much quieter. The sun rose slowly into the sky as the two wagons rolled along the road. Not a single cry of Goblin foolery reached Jake’s ears nor did the Kobolds howl their foul intentions. The three men sat tensely for the first few hours only to slowly ease into comfort as they realized that they might well and truly be free of danger for the time being. And they enjoyed that freedom, as much as they could at least. Though they did not converse too loosely, Randal took an opportunity to ask about Jake's past, his experiences, and what brought him to the Frontier. The answers were, as one might expect, rather curt.

Jake shared his home village, details of his upbringing, and a little about his taste for Adventuring. As for his abilities and his experience, Jake kept those parts much closer to his chest. He shared that he had gone to the Ravine and fought the Maedra within for much of his training. However, seeing Randal’s expression told him enough. Even after showing his skills and magic the prior evening against the Goblins, believing that someone had gone to the Ravine and survived within it for an extended period was a different story.

While Randal believed most of what Jake shared, he took some of it as ‘stretching of the details’. All Adventurers partook in such an action with their stories, so why wouldn’t Jake? If it made them sound stronger and more accomplished, especially when the only witnesses were those of similar mind, then why not? That was the exact reason the Guild always sought proof for Adventurer’s accomplishments. If one could not provide proof of victory, then payment wasn’t guaranteed.

Randal also found it difficult to believe that Jake, at such a young age, would even seek out the place. The Ravine was known across the Overworld as essentially the home of the Maedra. While hunting and culling their numbers in any fashion could be considered an accomplishment, doing so was also thought to be suicide. Only the maddest and most desperate Adventurers went to that place. Those who went were never expected to be seen again. The pay wasn’t even that good. Since Maedra couldn’t exactly be harvested in any fashion aside from their cracked mana crystals, crystals that could be dug up in any other cave, it was almost impossible to give the Guild anything tangible in exchange for coin. Thus, those that did go were either on their final spit of luck, looking for a place to die, or fanatical with their community service.

But, there were also those who sought to fight the King of the Ravine. Supposedly there was some kind of massive beast lurking within the Ravine somewhere that hunted both Maedra and Adventurers who wandered too deep into the place. The stories of the creature varied. Some said it was a massive Maedra. Others said it was some kind of oversized beast. However, there wasn’t a single person who had ever truly laid eyes on the creature and lived so information was both scared and skewed. The Guild couldn’t even put a price on the beast’s head. Not because they didn’t want to but because a direct order had been given by multiple high ranking individuals to leave the monster alone. Any who chose to fight it did so at their own peril, with no support from the Guild or anyone else.

Randal shared much of the Overworld’s perspective on the Ravine. How it was handled, how the various countries worked together to keep the Maedra within it suppressed. How the King of the Ravine had thwarted dozens of some of the most experienced Adventuring parties. How the Guild and the Oryx living within the Ravine worked together to supply resources to the dozens of villages within the tunnels. And how the fighting was only growing more desperate in recent months because of an uptick in Maedra activity. Activity that was threatening to spill out into the surface. The Guild didn’t know why, but the Maedra had begun repopulating in massive numbers and the threat of them overtaking the Adventurers near the exits was becoming a dangerous ordeal.

Randal’s knowledge, and lack of it, told Jake that information hadn’t quite reached this far out in the Frontier yet. Otherwise, Randal would have known that the Ravine was now void of any Maedra and that the King of the Ravine had gone missing. During his extermination of the Maedra, Jake had made contact with some Adventurers within the tunnels. Individuals who matched Randal’s descriptions of them. Desperate. Exhausted. Seeking value in a place void of anything aside from the decrepit rot of the Maedra. They were rather useless in a fight and Jake abandoned them often, instead fighting strictly with his Dragonkin companions since they were far more capable warriors.

After word spread to the Guild of Jake’s presence and the slow suppression of the Maedra, the Guild provided Jake instead with support personnel to help him track down the Maedra nests. The olive branch helped speed up the process, as the Guild provided Jake with all of the locations they were aware of and sent out teams to find the rest. Afterwards, it was left to Jake to clear them out. The Oryx assisted as well. The various villages chipped in where they could to provide Jake and his two companions with supplies, information, and places to rest in between hunts. When the bulk of the work was finished and Jake went on his final hunt for the Maudraga who’d killed Chul, the Guild offered compensation as well as an upper Adventurer ranking.

Jake rejected both at the time. Still filled with rage and not wanting to have anything to do with the Guild, he blew off their offer and went about his business, cutting communications with them and going to finish his work. Now that he was looking to get involved with the Guild on a minor level, he was thankful for that. The Frontier hub was unaware of who he was and he’d been able to integrate quietly into the fold. Showing up the way he did drew enough attention as it was. If Jake pulled out a card or tag with some high ranking letter on it, Jake could bet things wouldn’t have gone so smoothly. Rather than narrowed eyes and sucked teeth, Jake might’ve been bombarded with questions and annoying leeches.

However, though he didn’t quite bite the Ravine backstory, Randal was more forgiving when Jake described his trip through the eastern forest to the river. Crossing the Ravine wasn’t impossible as apparently there were some connected caves allowing passage from one side to the other. The mountains were also passable in a few locations. Though treacherous because of the monsters lurking within, it was possible to cross them if one was smart and quiet. Crossing the river was also possible. For a few coins or maybe a good enough smile, the fishermen might provide a traveler with passage across.

Jake picked his words carefully, of course. He left out the details of how he’d made his own bridge and how he ran into a bunch of Fenris Wolves in the mountain pass. He left out the details of the Frontier’s Guardian and also how he’d simply bounced across the river in the evening.

On the surface, the small talk was just that. A way to pass the time and break up the mundane travel. Beneath that veil, it was also Randal making steps towards understanding their lone protector. Jake was a curious individual to him. An adventurer who didn’t quite make much sense. Most adventurers sought money and fame, women and beer, or the rush of battle. They were a rowdy and rambunctious bunch that regularly found themselves in trouble in some fashion. Whether the trouble was with the Guild, each other, or Monsters all depended on where they were.

Yet here was one who did not partake in that noise. An adventurer who wasn’t all business but always seemed to be looking out beyond the forest, towards the distant horizon with a faint glint in his eyes. An adventurer who looked to be just breaking into adulthood, with barely a whisker on his face. Not so young to still cling to his mother’s teet but certainly one who would still be assisting his father with common work. Or, a man starting his apprenticeship. There was no glory in the task he was taking and he spoke so softly with such a lack of grandeur that Randal worried he might not take any credit at all for it. There was never a mention of payment or money. Nor was there any request for comfort. Jake was simply here, quietly performing his task of protection and guardianship for them as they traveled.

An outlier of sorts but a welcome one. Randal felt that he could speak to Jake calmly, as a human, and he didn’t need to mince his words to avoid a confrontation. It was nice, for once.

In the midst of their conversation, Jake, who was still paying attention to their surroundings, noticed that they were once more being watched. The same sensation that had run down his spine when he was in the village tickled him again. The feeling of several pairs of curious eyes digging into him. A sensation of mana lingering in the air, as if a spell were about to be cast on his position. He couldn’t detect where it was coming from nor could he see anything with either his Sensory Magic or his regular eyes.

However, he was acutely aware that someone, or something, was following him, tracking him. This was the second incident where he’d picked up such an event and he didn’t let himself in circumstance. Not out here. If his stomach was warning him, he would take it seriously until proven otherwise. The other party had done nothing other than observe thus far. While unnerving to know that he was being surveilled, Jake couldn’t exactly stop them if he couldn’t find them and put eyes on them. Since he couldn’t pinpoint their location, let alone the direction he sensed them from, they would slip away the moment Jake started trying to hunt them. It would be a waste of effort.

And, as expected, the sensation faded after a few minutes. Jake felt the pressure slip away and the entity was gone. Jake asked Randal if he had felt anything and the man just shrugged before continuing on with a story about his daughter. Jake brushed off the observation sensation after a moment and returned to his duty.

After another hour or so passing, Jake excused himself from the front seat and moved to the crates. He found a comfortable position atop their wooden edges and nestled in for the rest of the day. Rather than waste the trip bantering over nothing or staring out at the trees, Jake began occupying himself with his magic.

After fighting with the Goblins, he’d learned that his spells were rather archaic in nature. Their cost on his mana flow was large and inefficient for wide scale engagements. They were destructive and lacked the accuracy needed to handle a mob-like threat. While Jake could produce a wide number of Fire Spears and Stone Breakers, utilizing them in a close-quarters fight was dangerous. Both for himself and for anything he might be protecting, like the carts or other people. His Fire Spears also couldn’t be used in the forest, as they would cause fires to break out.

Relying on Wind Cones was possible, however they lacked the stopping power of his fire spells. A single Wind Cone could tear through a Goblin and leave a hole in its chest, blow off a limb, or even knock its head off. But the penetration power was generally too much and while the hole would open or the limb would be knocked off, the Goblins could survive. They might get knocked over or be in a lot of pain, but the impacts were survivable if Jake didn’t hit any vital organs. Fire spears on the other hand would not just blow off limbs and burn holes through bodies, but the explosive runes would cause secondary effects.

The problem with those secondary effects was the lack of control. An explosive rune could be tuned so it had less of a boom but there wasn’t any way to keep it contained in a space. Once the rune went off, what got caught in the blast was up to chance and luck. There wasn’t much Jake could do but reduce the amount of mana contained in the rune. Too little, though, and the explosion wouldn’t have the desired effect. Thus, Jake could only use the combination spell in isolated fights where Jake was by himself in a controlled area. He could use fire spears without the runes in them. However, Fire Spears lacked the punching factor that Wind Cones and Stone Breakers had, making them largely ineffective when dealing with more dense targets.

Balance. Jake needed balance in his spells. Against the Maedra underground, there wasn’t much need for that. All Jake needed was the firepower to overwhelm them and tear their numbers to pieces. Fighting on the surface required finesse. The environmental factors and additional burden of protecting his allies meant he couldn’t throw his magic around without thinking. He needed to work like a seamstress. Accurately and with dexterity in his casting. No flashy booms. No saturation attacks. No wide area destruction. Singular spells that he could carefully control and replicate.

Gnawing on those requirements, Jake found himself stuck on deciding which element to use. Fire magic was out of the question. When it came to fighting in a team or with things to protect, flinging fire around wasn’t exactly a good idea. Even if he hit his targets, the heat splash and chances of catching people on fire was high. He couldn’t risk scalding an ally or accidentally blowing one of them up. Water magic was possible. However, water magic also lacked the penetration strength of wind magic. If an enemy wore enough metal or thick leather, the spells wouldn’t punch through. Rock magic required too much effort and too much time. Jake also doubted its accuracy. He didn’t feel like carrying around a sack full of pebbles either.

Which left him with three options. Wind Magic, Dark Magic, and Thunder Magic. Dark magic was largely curse-based spells and its offensive capabilities were minimal. It had some nasty side effects but Jake couldn’t use them in direct confrontations. Not yet, anyways. Thunder Magic, however, was a possible option he could use.

Thus far, Jake had avoided the element. Not because he didn’t see its practicality but because it required combination spells to be effective. Thunder magic worked by passing through things such as rock, air, water, and flesh. One couldn’t just reach out and send it in a singular direction like one might throw a ball of flame. Once it was released, the energy transmitted would follow the path of least resistance until it hit something that would ground it. If Jake could place his hands directly on a target, he could send the energy straight through their system over his fingers. If he wanted to strike a target from several meters off, then he needed a vessel of some sort to carry the energy from the origination point to the point of impact.

Doing that in combat, over and over, was both difficult and time consuming. Especially since the vessels needed to be rather large to carry enough energy to achieve the desired effects. A vessel like a ball of water or air could do fine for something quick, but their effects wouldn’t be very profound. He would need to use an overwhelming number to get the same result as say a fire ball laced with Thunder magic.

Which made Jake’s problem a difficult one, and it made him wonder just how effective magic could truly be with all of its restrictions. There was also the possibility that he was over thinking his problem entirely. Maybe he didn’t need to worry so much about the little details. Maybe he just needed more competent allies, or allies in general that were capable of fighting toe to toe with the enemies in front of them.

The Oryx needed a lot of support in the tunnels to the point that Jake was better off on his own in most cases. On the surface, Goblins weren’t much of a threat but they were crafty little shits and always seemed to fight in unfavorable places. Out in the open, like here in the Frontier forest, there wasn’t much of an issue of spacing. In their dens, however, getting a spell off when there were other bodies nearby would be disastrous. Jake would need a multi-layered party for that and would have to decide whether he wanted to be in the front or back.

Gnawing on the details, Jake reached his fingers to the sky and conjured a spear of flame. Bailey watched the event, taking in the view as Jake twisted the pillars of red heat around into the shape of an arrow, then elongated the shaft and rounded the tip. The feathers became fins, twisted and warped that would cause the spear to spin through the air. In the spearhead, runes glistened to life, filled to the brim with mana primed to explode.

This was his weapon. This was his tool of destruction. An object crafted from nothingness that could tear through even the mightiest creature so long as he supplied it with enough strength. His hammer to strike steel with. His sword to cut flesh with. And the more he used it, the more he realized how it was not enough. After all the time spent in the Ravine, fighting the Maedra and refining his abilities, Jake came to the conclusion that sometimes overwhelming firepower was not the answer. Sometimes, a thin needle precisely weaved through the fibers of battle could cause just as much damage.

Yet, what was the answer to his question? What spell should he use? He bit his lip and stared at the fire spear, hoping it might feed him with some form of inspiration. Something he might be able to use that could narrow his thinking.

“Ho…” That’s when something came to mind. A needle. A thread.

Jake narrowed his eyes and dispersed the mana from the fire spear, scattering the sparks of flame into the wind. In its place, he created a Stone Breaker along with a Wind Cone. Aside from the Fire Spear, his secondary choices were these spells. One meant to shatter the toughest armors and break through the densest stone. Another meant to rip apart flesh and scatter the weak. What they both had was punching power, but they lacked the dangerous collateral effects of the Fire Spear.

The Wind Cone was about the size of his fist, maybe a bit larger.

The Stone Breaker was as big as his leg.

He needed a middle ground spell. One that incorporated the hasty casting speed of the Wind Cone, the penetration power of the Stone Breaker, and the optional explosive power of the Fire Spear without the secondary collateral effects.

“A needle…,” Jake mumbled, pushing the two spells to the side before conjuring a thin canister. Using a veil of mana, Jake began to work through several different outlines for what he might want the spell to look like. He first tried an arrow but found it to be too thin to contain any additional effects. Then he tried something like the Stone Breaker--a thin cylinder with a rounded off head that looked like a stake. But the bland nature made him dislike it. He considered then maybe a ball of some sort but that too was boring and lacked a sort of precision that a projectile should have.

The stake reformed in front of him again and his eyes drifted over to the Stone Breaker spell. He then looked at the Wind Cone and pressed his lips together. He rounded off the end of the stake, elongated it to the length of his forearm, then thickened its core only to the size of two fingers across its diameter. Thin, long. He rounded the tip into a cone, similar to the Stone Breaker, then sharpened it to a fine point. It was practically the same spell but smaller. However, he didn’t add fins to the back for balance rather he kept its sleek nature. Accuracy would have to come down to his own eye.

“Thought so…,” he mumbled. This was the best he could do. The Stone Breaker shape and makeup was the acceptable choice. Only, Jake just needed to shrink it down and remove some of the extra details. Like the Wind Cone, his spell wouldn’t have a thick outer shell to contain wind inside. Rather, Jake would inscribe runes onto its tip or along the cylinder shaft. Runes that would cause explosions of wind and air or cause the shaft to rotate.

What he would also add were Thunder runes. Rather than infuse the element with the spell directly, Jake would anchor the element to the spell through the use of runes. On impact, the runes would release the contained energy and strike the targets. Depending on the rune and the amount of mana infused with it, the effects could range from paralysis to death. Unlike Fire runes, there wouldn’t be any collateral damage concerns because all of the energy from the spell would remain within the target. If Jake missed, then the environment would act as a grounding agent to contain it.

“So is that how it’s done?” Bailey called out from the second cart.

Jake smirked. “Part of it,” he answered.

He began to infuse mana into the outline of what he’d made and then brought the spell to life. The thin wall of wind condensed to make the cylinder and the tip rounded off to its point. Runes flared to life along the sides and then Jake shot it off into the treeline. It whistled sharply as it split the air. In a blink, the needle smacked into a nearby tree and sparkled, the electricity contained within the Thunder rune on its side firing into the bark. The high voltage and sudden eruption of electricity caused the bark to pop and burn, breaking off and scattering from the intense heat. The smooth timber beneath came exposed to the light.

Bailey whistled curtly from the sight. Randal looked over his shoulder, curious as to what the noise was. Jake pursed his lips, then fired off three more. With each casting, he refined the creation flow and shrunk the spell further, halving its length. The results remained the same even as he cut out the excess length and he shaved it down until he could maintain its shape without losing space for the runes. By the time he was finished, he had his needle. A spell as long as his hand but as thin as a finger.

Thin enough to be replicated quickly but with a sharp enough tip that he could bore it through three feet of solid wood at high velocity, or cause it to blow on impact. He could apply Thunder runes for the electric effects or Fire runes for an explosive aftershock. Most importantly, it was accurate with replicable results. Jake could put three down the same hole one after another in quick succession, or at least group them up to impact very tightly around one another.

Satisfied, Jake ceased his modifications and dispersed the residual mana in the air, canceling his left over spells.

Now, he just needed a name…

“Bark Buster,” Bailey spit out.

Jake raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Well ya blew off the bark from them trees. Why not?” Bailey chuckled as he shrugged.

Jake rolled his eyes and sighed, leaning against the crates as he mulled over the name. He came up with a few but nothing truly stuck. Nothing he liked and nothing he felt worked like a true reference.

Several minutes of silence passed, then Randal looked over his shoulder. “What kind of magic does it use?” He asked.

“It’s a dual element spell. It uses Wind and Thunder, or Wind and Fire,” Jake answered, trying to keep things simple seeing as Randal wasn’t very educated on the world of magic.

Randal let out a soft hum before shrugging. “Magic Arrow sounds fine to me.”

“Wouldn’t that assume it can use any kind of magic then?” Jake retorted.

“Well, why does it have to be wind?”

“Because it…” Jake’s voice trailed off as he considered the alternatives. Rather than trap himself into thinking Wind was the only base he could use for the spell, he let himself actually think of a reason why it couldn’t be anything else.

If Fire could be conjured into the shape of a spear, why couldn’t he also shrink it down and shape it into a needle too? The same could be done with Water magic. With time, he could even carve rocks into the same shape. So the shape was replicable with similar effects. Attaching runes was an easy task too. That being the case, Jake could use the spell across all of the elements. Now, he could do it also with the Cone spell but found Wind Magic to be the most compatible with it. Same with how he elected to use Fire for the spear spell.

For the arrow spell he’d made, the shape was small enough and refined enough that the element didn’t quite matter. All that mattered was the desired effect. Did he want it to punch through? Use Wind. Did he want it to cause massive injury? Use Rock. Did he want it to disable or knock a target over? Use Water. Explode and burn? Fire.

“...Interesting,” Jake mused, waving his hand through the air as he conjured three different Arrows. one Water, one Wind, and one Fire Arrow. Now, they weren’t quite Arrows as they didn’t have the fletching. So he needed something else.

“Bolts,” Randal said flatly. When questioned, he huffed. “Crossbows use bolts. They’re solid pieces of metal that don’t have fletching. They have the same shape as your spells, too.”

“I see,” Jake mumbled, staring up at his spells.

Magic Bolt, then. Good. That left one last step. From conception to creation. Now, he was on to implementation. Jake needed a practice dummy.

Unfortunately, he wouldn’t get one so soon. The Guild Caravan passing through the Frontier had attracted plenty of attention from some of the more nefarious inhabitants. Having scrapped with the Adventurers tasked with protecting it, the local bandits were missing and licking their wounds. Jake and his carts were thusly left to their peace as they rolled along the road without being disturbed. No Goblins found them in the evening nor did they come that night. Jake and the drivers set up camp off the road in a small inlet and rested beneath the stars for another night. In the morning, they ate and repeated the day again.

On the third day, midway through, they rolled upon their first checkpoint and also the presumed halfway point through their trip; the intersection. It was a rather lackluster location but it was energizing to the men. Reaching this point was a small victory for them and allowed them a moment to rest, knowing they were truly making progress to their goal. Up until then, all they had seen were the same trees and the same barren road. When the trees gave way in the early morning for the open field on their left and the water had come into view, they knew they were close. It took another few hours, however, but they had reached it.

The river flowed nearby just to the south, a few hundred meters across an open field. Near it were three cabins that had been built. They were free to use by passersby and were maintained by the Guild. So long as they weren’t openly destroyed or excessively damaged, the Guild would continue to keep them in good shape and the monthly caravans often carried materials to perform basic maintenance on them. However, knowing the importance of a shelter this far out, travelers followed the silent rule to leave the cabins as they had been found and typically made repairs themselves if they could.

When Jake and the drivers arrived to them, they found that the Guild Caravan had performed their tasks of fixing them back up. Recent patchwork was noticeable and fresh supplies had been placed within. Fresh wax for the lanterns. Plenty of firewood. Tinder for a fire and flint to start one. A set of rods that one could use to fish or nets that could be cast out for those less patient. Knives and utensils that could be used to prepare a meal. Most importantly, there were three beds per cabin, all with fresh blankets and wool-stuffed mattresses.

The men set up camp at the cabins and settled in early rather than push into the night. They gave the horses plenty of time to rest and replenished their supplies of meat with fish from the river. They filtered the water, boiled it, then refilled their waterskins to replenish what was in them. Though Jake offered to do it with magic, Randal instead took the opportunity to teach him the natural way. Randal also took the chance to teach Jake how to make a fire by hand and the various tools and tinder to use for it. All just in case his magic was one day taken away from him. This way, Jake could survive in any situation with the proper materials. Randal and Bailey taught him how to fish with both the rod and the net, and they took time to teach him how to care for the horses should he himself one day have to look after one.

By the time night fell, the men were exhausted. They cooked a heavy meal as a reward for their progress then went to bed early. Jake set up his alert network around the cabins and then crawled into bed shortly after. When morning came, they had a lighter breakfast and left before the sun was above the horizon. The horses, rejuvenated after their bountiful rest, excitedly marched ahead down the road as they continued to the fort.

Branching off the road to the left, the men once more rolled into what they would consider dangerous territory. The Guild Caravan had come from their right, from the north, and they were now heading south-west, away from the frontier and towards the Highlands. From where they were, they could look directly south and see the tall towers of stone stretching towards the sky. Surrounded by mist, covered in green, the towers of stone looked mystical in the distance. Almost divine in a twisted way. Small dots flew between them, both individually but mostly in flocks, swarming the trees and drifting through the air without fear.

“Those are just birds,” Randal pointed out. “You won’t see any Harpys from here.” He spoke as if he were an expert, so Jake took the opportunity to press for a reason. “They keep to their villages and tend to hide in the trees. They won’t come out in the open unless there’s a reason.”

Jake let out a hum of acknowledgement, accepting the answer as he returned his gaze to the distant sight. While it wasn’t his destination, Jake had a feeling he would be walking within that mystical place very soon.

Two days passed of riding southward before the road bent and turned north. The misty Highlands faded into the distance but open fields spread out on either side of the road. After another quiet night and a cool morning, their destination came into view. Guard towers reached towards the sky and tall walls of wood protected the rows of tents inside. Men stood out in the fields, training, sparring, and exercising en masse. Formations of armored individuals marched to the sounds of shouts and orders. The refined view of a proper military was what greeted the two carts.

At the gate itself, five men stood to truly welcome the drivers. The carts rolled to a stop at the behest of a Guard with a red mark on his armored pauldrons. The soldier approached with his helmet tucked under his arm and two other men at his sides.

“Good morning, gentlemen.” Randal greeted them with a smile. “We come from the Frontier village of Juno with a delivery of potions from our apothecary. Sorry for the delay. The ride was a little… rough.”

“Potions?” The Guard asked, furrowing his brow as he looked at the carts. “That’s… a lot of potions. How did you make here? From Juno, you said?”

“Correct, Sergeant.” Randal nodded, then looked at Jake. “Get the paperwork.”

Jake spurred into action, popping up from his comfortable seat to fetch his rucksack. The Soldiers mumbled to one another as Jake fished the paperwork out of the top pouch. Once he had it, he hopped down from the cart and approached the Guard directly. The man was only a few inches taller but he was far wider and more muscular. The Guard reviewed the documents and a slight smile crossed his face.

“Well, I’ll be,” he mumbled. “Mind if we look?”

“Go ahead,” Jake affirmed. He led the Guards to the back of the first cart and then pulled down the planks keeping the crates in place. He climbed up and pulled off the lid from a box. He then plucked a few vials from inside, tossing them to the Guards. One for each. “We didn’t know how many to bring so we brought everything we had.”

The Guards stared at the vials, then the two underlings looked to their superior. His smile turned somber as he nodded. “I see. Well, I think you’ll soon understand why I mean it when I say I’m grateful. It’s been rough and we definitely need this.” The Sergeant returned the vial to Jake, as did the other two. Jake resealed the crate and then jumped out to replace the planks.

“You’re good to go. Head inside and go to the center of camp. There should be a tent marked with a cross on it. That’s the medical area. They’ll be the ones who will receive you.” The Sergeant returned the paperwork to Jake then whistled to his men at the gate. Though it was already open, he motioned for them to get out of the way. But, before he stepped away, his blue eyes settled on Jake’s once more. That somber expression returned. “Glad to see you three made it. I’d ask how, but if I’m being honest, I don’t really care.” The Sergeant held out a hand and Jake shook it firmly. “Thanks.”

Jake nodded briefly then climbed back into the cart. Randal snapped the reigns and the caravan rolled into the fort.