Lost in the Blue Mountains

"My lady, please reconsider," Lander urged.

"The Lord will have our heads if we let you go," Kane stated. 

"It is dangerous my Lady, I plead that you reconsider," Eloise also urged Rayni, who was busy securing her items on to her beautiful white horse Belmare. 

"I will deal with the Lord, you have no reason to worry. Contrary to popular belief, I am actually a seasoned traveller." They all paused and looked at her questioningly.

"I heard you were a sick child and rarely left the family home," Alberto, the butler, muttered warily. 

"As a child yes, but as you can see I grew healthy and strong after,"

"The lord will not approve of this,"

"This again? As I said I will deal with the Lord you have my word, fear not."

"What about your safety my lady?" Eloise cautioned. Rayni huffed gently.

"You all have nothing to fear, I will be closely following our troop. They only left a few hours ago, I am sure I will catch up to them." Rayni pulled a blue gemstone from her pocket and handed it over to Eloise. "Take this, it is a tracking gem." Rayni pulled another one from her pocket. "I have one and you have another, if you hold it and think of me our gemstones will glow and we can communicate with one another. See," Rayni demonstrated the work of the gemstone. 

"Let the girl go, nothing you stay will stop her now,"

"Judith May, have you come to see me off," Rayni welcomed warmly. Overtime Rayni and Judith have bonded over the history of magic and have found each other to be quite good company. 

"I come bearing a gift too dearie," She handed Rayni a beautiful hairpin, that has the design of a beautiful flower at the end.

"How beautiful," Rayni remarked as she played with it in her hand.

"How deadly too," Judith May remarked when the hairpin suddenly elongated and sharpened. 

"What a wonderful gift, thank you Miss May," With that Rayni mounted Belmare and rode off.

"I do not think this is a good idea," Lander sighed.

"It is not in our hands," Kane assured, as they all watched Rayni and Belmare disappear from their sight. 

"I worry for our Mistress," Eloise voiced her concern. 

"I worry for our Master, he will not be pleased," Lander added. 

"You worry too much, destiny has her own plans why concern ourselves with her plays?" Judith waved them off. "Both the young master and mistress will be fine."

—-

We are right behind them, Nini. I have hidden us well but how long do you plan to hide?

Until we are needed, or until we are far enough that Rexander cannot send us back.

Are you sure this is a good idea?

Rexanders stubbornness has left me no choice.

He was worried for you.

Why should he be? I am more than capable.

He does not know that. How will you explain your travelling skills and tenacity in all this?

I will say that I travelled a lot within the Eastern Valleys. 

Still, it will be suspicious.

I cannot tell them the truth about my powers or of you, so I will compromise with their suspicion. 

Mistress, they have stopped. There are monsters on their trail. Stay still I will hide us from them, once they deal with them we will follow. 

—

"Are you okay Myra?" Gareth asked, after noticing her look back several times. 

"I just feel like someone is following us, I can feel strange magical vibrations," Rexander turned to Myra.

"Are they monsters?"

"Not quite, besides it has been days since I have been feeling these vibrations yet we remain unharmed."

"Maybe it is a helpful forest spirit, I've noticed some strange things in the last few monster encounters. It is as if someone is signalling to us when the monsters are lurking nearby."

"Do such creatures exist? I have yet to see one," Rexander scoffed.

"Do not disrespect them by doubting their existence, do you not remember the one that saved your life?"

"What, that cannot be," Myra turned to Gareth with eager eyes wanting to know more.

"Once, when Rexander was out cold after a monster raid we lost him in the valleys. We could not find him for days, there was a terrible storm raging as well. It was maybe a week after that a light shone from a cave and there he was lying on the floor of it. There was no sign of anyone else and when we asked Rexander what happened, he said he remembered nothing but the tune of a song and, 'light, just light' was what he said he saw."

"How interesting,"

"What's to say it was a 'kind forest spirit', it was most probably me who barely consciously pulled myself to the nearest cave and slowly nursed myself better,"

"Possibly, you do heal incredibly fast and are unbelievably durable," Gareth agreed.

"I can credit my years of monster hunting to that,"

"And your Bhukam blood. They called your lineage 'God's Swords' for its history of impeccable warriors with unwavering wills and righteous hearts." Myra added. 

"Such an impressive family history yet a monster infested land is all that is left to show for it. Surely, one or many of my ancestors had sinned along the line for fate to have turned like this," Rexander muttered to himself. 

"Fate brought us all together, what rotten sinners we must have all been to pay for it in the ways that we have." Myra sighed pessemistically.

"Well, we must make sure to do all the good we can to avoid another such fate. Redemption is upon us dear friends!" Gareth exclaimed optimistically, raising his sword. 

They rode for days onwards without any major issues, but once they entered the Borderlands a strange feeling came over them all. 

Mith, I have a bad feeling about this. 

Mistress we must hurry, there is a trap ahead of them.

"Belmare, quickly!" Rayni sped off to catch up with the troop. 

"Did you hear that," Myra asked Gareth, who along with Rexander were keeping a close eye at the trees behind them whilst riding strongly forward. "As I thought someone was following us, but why?" 

"We'll have to ask them that" Gareth resolved.

"Why are they making themselves known now?" Myra questioned further.

"Lord Rexander!" A voice called from the back. 

"Commander, they know you," The three of them shared a confused look, but kept steadily riding to not rattle the rest of the troop whom had not heard the voice. 

"Myra!" The voice called again.

"What on Earth," Myra furrowed her eyebrows. 

"Sir Garold!" 

"So this person knows all of us," Garold concluded even more confused. 

"Wait!" The voice yelled at them. 

"You know, this voice does sound oddly familiar," Garold thought out loud.

"I was thinking the same thing," Myra agreed. Rexander had a dark look on his face, surely it could not be who he thought it was. 

"Troop, stop by the next Oak tree!" Rexander, commanded. 

"Yes sir!" the Troop yelled in unison.

Thank gods they have stopped.

Are you ready to face him, the Lord does not have a good look on his face. 

He will just have to deal with it now.

After stopping, Rexander immediately got off his horse, the black stallion Hex, and stood cross-armed looking intently at the trees behind them. A harsh expression on his face, his body rigid with tension. Myra and Garold looked thoughtfully at him, exchanging looks between them wondering who it was that Rexander had recognised. 

"Is that Lady Rayni?" Gareth and Myra looked between themselves and then to Rexander.

"Well, now we know why the voice was so familiar." Myra gave Gareth a sharp look, pointing at Rexander with her eyes.

"Hello everyone," Rayni greeted the troop, all of whom could only look at her with shock. Rayni got off Belmare and confidently walked to Rexander who was even more enraged by her audacity. 

"It is too late for you to tell me to go back," Rayni defended seeing her husband's scarily calm demeanour. 

"Troop prepare to ride," with that the troop once more mounted their horses, it should not be too long before they get to JumJum where they will stay and create a plan to free Agho. "You ride between me and Gareth, and do not move from my sight. Do you understand?" Rexander ordered Rayni, his tone telling her to keep quiet and listen and his intense eyes telling her they would be having a serious conversation about this later. 

"Yes Commander," Rayni nodded, diligently going to Belmare to pacify Rexanders temper.

---

"Wait!" Rayni called for them to halt a few moments into riding. They look to her to speak further. She closes her eyes and tilts her head. "There's something ahead," the knights all reach for their weapons and the mages' magic crackles in the air. Rayni got off Belmare, grabbed a large rock from the floor and slowly crept forward much to the horror of the knights who held their breaths. She was untrained and possessed no magic, yet if their Commander was silent and just cautiously watching Rayni then they would follow and patiently wait for their next command.

After reaching a certain point Rayni stilled and threw the rock as far as she could. At first nothing happened but seconds later the ground ahead rumbled and shook. "There's monsters underneath, like giant worms," Rayni explained. She closed her eyes again and took a deep breath. "Their blind but sensitive to vibrations, if you step further it will devour you from the ground, it's extremely fast," 

 "How do we kill it?" Gareth asked, they had never come across a monster such as this one. He was not expecting an answer but surprisingly Rayni gave him one.

"Stab its head or cut it off from its body," She turned to the troop, "I can see where the monsters are, their sleeping right now. When it wakes I can tell where they will go," Rayni explained.

"We move forward, the bastard below wakes, then Lady Rayni tells us where the monster is and bam, we get its head," Gareth planned. 

Rexander, whose expression had not changed since finding Rayni only nodded his head in agreement, his assessing eyes never once leaving her, "Falcon advance forward," Rexander called for the team of the fastest knights, in charge of scouting and recovery, to the danger zone.

Once Falcon all moved in to the danger zone, the ground shook wildly.

"Sir Nikolas, behind you!" Rayni yelled. Promptly Nikolas turned and swiftly severed the monster's head. "Sir Garold, on your left!" Rayni continuously shouted directions many more times until there was no rumbling of the ground. 

"Bloody hell, who knew there were so many," 

"Those fuckers were fast," the knights commented amongst themselves. 

"It's a good thing you were here Lady Rayni," Rayni peeked a look at Rexander to find him still staring at her with the same expression. 

—

There were a few more monster encounters ahead, all of which Rayni successfully predicted and warned of thanks to the help of Mith. Even Rexander could not deny that without Rayni today would have been a lot more troublesome and ended with far more casualties. Yet seeing her amidst all the dangerous monsters, that Rexander was unfamiliar with dealing with, only had him feeling incompetent and anxious about Raynis' safety. 

"My Lord," Rayni called him, innocently batting her eyelashes in only a way she knew how to. "How long will you be angry with me," She asked sweetly, with such a cautious look, Rexander felt his resolve melt. 

"We will talk about it later, we should be reaching JumJum soon," 

It was quite late at night when the reached the small town of JumJum, one of the first places to be restored as it had the least amount of monsters nesting. The mages had placed a magical barrier around the town once the knights cleared the monsters and since implementing Rayni's business strategies the meagre village had progressed into a somewhat bustling town.

Essentially all those in the Borderlands, what little there were, gathered to JumJum for safety and a place to start a new without the constant fear of monsters. 

"What a day, no wonder you sleep like a rock when you come back from your raids," Rayni offhandedly commented, freshly washed with a clean nightdress, from her position on the bed upon Rexanders return from the bath house. 

He looked at the blisters on her feet and the light bruises on her arm, when had she even got hurt like this? He took out salve and massage oil from his bag and wordlessly sat by her side and attended to her wounds. "You do not have to, I can do-" she was stopped by his sharp look and so let him continue.

He then gently pushed her back, she looked at him surprised, "What are you doing?" she asked. He poured the massage oil on to his hands and started massaging her sore feet and legs. "You may be a good traveller but you are not used to this life, your muscle pains will worsen,"

"I knew that, I was doing it for myself before," She retorted, not wanting to seem inexperienced. He said nothing more and continued his ministration, her eyes grew heavy and she felt sleep overcome her.

"You came even when I told you not to, do you know how reckless that was of you?" Rexander asked as he lay next to Rayni. 

"Its cold," Rayni muttered in her sleep state, moving closer to him. Seeing her slight shivers and goosebump covered arms, he cursed. They only had a thin blanket between them in the drafty attic room. 

"Things could have been a lot worse, what if something happened to you,"

"You there,"

"What?" Rayni huffed and turned to him, burrowing herself in him for warmth. 

"You were there," She repeated slowly.

"Still it was dangerous," she only hummed in response this time. He sighed as he felt sleep come over him as well. "Had it not been for you, things would have been a lot worse for us too. Thank you, Rayni."

"Not burden, helpful," Rayni once more muttered, Rexander barely catching her words.

"You could never be a burden, Rayni. You are my blessing." Rexander whispered, his tiredness making him more honest. He wrapped the thin blanket around her tightly and pulled her flush against him, for warmth of course. He did not want her falling ill.