NOVEL NEXT Chapter Thirty-Four: The Journey Begins
Autumn awoke in a sweat with her nightgown clinging tight to her body.
The dreams she’d just witnessed slipped through her mind’s eye like liquid smoke. In seconds, whatever they’d been about fell away from her memory, cast aside. Yet a lingering, unexplainable sorrow filled her.
Calming herself, Autumn drew out vestiges of nightmare. Tucking it away into her cracked hat.
The morning had not yet broken. A shadowed city greeted her through the curtained window.
Autumn’s hair remained tame from the magical shampoo, so it took little effort to corral it now. In a few moments, she was dressed in a reasonable state for travel. Out in the hallway, Nethlia greeted her as she exited and, after a quick bite to eat, left their home.
With full packs in hand, the pair traveled quickly over to the main gate of Duskfields, where the rest of their team would gather. Each member loaded their gear into the wagon while Kira was hitched. Traveling down the winding paths proved to be a harder task than the trek upwards for Autumn. Looking over the sheer drop in front and to her side caused her stomach to fall away. Even if she could corral her fear, the sight was almost too much.
So she opted to walk. Thankfully, she wasn’t the only one. Nobody else wanted to sit up on the swaying cart aside from the locals: Nethlia and Pyre.
The group made it to the foot of the pillar and without their wagon making a break for it down the switch-back paths. Ahead of them were the grand gates of the city, still shut tight in the early hours. Settling down, they waited on the arrival of the other four adventuring parties.
The first to arrive was a smaller group consisting of only three muscular demons. Autumn faintly recalled them being cheated by that gnomish fellow in cards. Much like Nethlia, the Inferni men were clad in furs and bones, and slung across their backs were large war axes. An old Agoroth hitched to a rickety cart plodded behind them as they made it towards the meeting point.
As they drew closer, Autumn noted the three bore a striking familial resemblance to one another. In the lead was an older demon with a salt-and-pepper beard. He approached Nethlia first, recognizing her.
“Hail. You lot here for the Bogward quest as well?”
Nethlia nodded in reply. “That’s right, we’re the Dusk Wolves and you are?”
“Captain Ekrus of The Nemesis Crew, and these are my boys Arvius and Bardos.”
As the older man introduced them, the other two Inferni were sizing them up. The pair nodded in greeting. Ekrus extended a thick, calloused hand in Nethlia’s direction to which she grasped his forearm in a firm grip. It was slightly comical how she towered over him, despite his impressive physique.
“I’m Captain Nethlia and they are Liddie Eastoft, Knight Nelva, Witch Autumn, Edwyn, and Pyre.”
Each member of the group gave a show of acknowledgement at their respective names. Liddie got a larger nod of respect from the Inferni men.
Before they could converse more than general pleasantries, the next group arrived at their little gathering. Much like themselves, this group consisted of six individuals. However, this group seemed to consist entirely of rogues. Each was clad in dark hooded cloaks that made it impossible to gauge their forms, beneath only a set of violet eyes peeked out from beneath cloth masks.
Captain Ekrus scoffed at the sight of them.
The group stopped their cart some distance from the group before a lone individual indistinguishable from the rest approached them.
There was a tense standoff as the three captains evaluated each other.
“Captain Xiltuil. Red Scorpions.”
The captain didn’t offer his hand in greeting; neither did Nethlia nor Ekrus.
Nelva leaned over towards Autumn and whispered in her ear.
“They’re Umbra elves, I’m sure of it. Umbra elves have sun sensitivity and a proclivity for using assassins. The Echea Empire and its allies aren’t too keen on their kind, but as long as they do their jobs, it doesn’t matter much.”
Autumn ignored the ticklish sensation in her ear as she took in the information. If the name was any indication, they were most likely some type of Dark elf. Autumn wondered how the various elven races were related to one another. It’d be a fascinating topic to delve into one day.
Before her mind could wander too far or the standoff could grow too tense, a raucous melody crept up upon the groups.
Strolling through the Tiger Gate that led up into the city above was a motley crew of bards and troubadours all dressed in garish colors and instruments, a far cry from the rather muted palette the other teams sported. This third group was seven individuals strong and made up of a diverse range of races; from Inferni and Lepus to different kinds of elves. There was even a lone catgirl mingling in.
With a final rhythmic shout, the party halted.
Upon spotting the gathering of captains, one elf detached from the group and sauntered her way over.
The long blond hair and sparkling blue eyes of the bard were a familiar sight to Autumn; she’d seen this particular bard more than once engaged in a musical duel within the main hall of the Adventurer’s Guild.
“Ahoy there! It appears I’m just in time to be fashionably late! Haha! Ah, but where are my manners? Captain Gilralei Rainguard of The Wise Cavaliers at your service!”
A bright smile bloomed upon the bard’s face as she gave the gathered captain an ostentatious bow.
“Ah, it appears I’m the last. My apologies for my tardiness. Captain Arsit Blontir of Les Lames Du Crépuscule at your service.”
While Captain Gilralei had been introducing herself, the last party finally arrived and what a sight they were. Including the Captain, a force of twenty strong Lepus had marched into the assembly area looking more like a small army than the adventurers they supposedly were.
Autumn could spot knights, spearmen, archers, two clerics, a pair of rangers, and even an engineer all lined up in precise formation. Each one bore identical arms and armor fitted for their role; silken gambeson under bone plate armor, she even spied links of iron chainmail lining the gaps. Behind them, three heavy wagons stood full of weapons and supplies.
“Greetings Captain, you’re not too late. We were just about to go over the arrangements of the convoy.”
Autumn tuned out as the conversation drifted into the logistics of the journey ahead.
It was only when the rays of sunlight lit up the night sky that the great Dusk Gate opened and they set out towards the north along a lonesome dusty road.
The soft patter of rain fell from sunny skies and bounced across the brim of Autumn’s hat. In the long journey, she’d taken to sitting beside Nethlia as the demoness gently guided Kira to follow the wagons in front.
They had placed their party second from the back, just in front of Les Lames Du Crépuscule, as the larger group was more suited to being a rear guard than them. While the rather more musical group, The Wise Cavaliers, were safely ensconced in the center of the formation ahead of them.
As such, Autumn had been treated to what amounted to a small concert as the bards idly played to pass the time. Given that there wasn’t much to see other than gray fields of grain and the occasional farmstead, it was a welcome distraction.
The convoy had been slowly making their way northwest along the primary artery of the barony: the Dusk Road. Calling it a highway would be an exaggeration, but it handled the bulk-transportation of grain and other foodstuffs out into the greater empire. Being such a key trade route, it came at the cost of being targeted by everything from monsters looking for easy food to bandits looking to raid for wealth.
While mounted knights and other guards constantly patrolled these roads, it still paid to be aware of your surroundings. Thus, when something inevitably happened, they weren’t caught unawares.
With the weather threatening to turn for the worse, the convoy had just stalled for a brief moment to unroll the waxed leather coverings. Each wagon had to protect the dry goods within when a call of alert came up from the lead wagons.
Instantly, the whole convoy bristled like an angry dire-hedgehog.
Autumn herself funneled a portion of magic to her eyes and a kaleidoscope of color bloomed in her vision. With her sight thus enhanced, she scanned the rolling hills and fields of Duskwheat for any sign of life.
Even though she saw nothing, she didn’t relax.
The only noise was that of pouring rain and the tense breathing around her.
For a few heartbeats that seemed to stretch on forever, they awaited word from ahead or the sounds of conflict.
Before too long had passed, they relayed a message down the line.
Captain Ekrus was in the lead wagon, and he’d spotted several circling scavengers high in the sky. He’d then led a preliminary scouting a few feet forward, to which he discovered the aftermath of a small skirmish between the locals and the monstrous wildlife.
With the all clear given, the groups dismounted into the softly pouring rain and mud.
“Autumn with me. The rest of you guard the convoy in case this is an ambush.”
Nethlia ordered before the pair hastened up the line, passing by the other groups. Getting closer to the lead, Autumn finally got a good look at the carnage. A farmer’s wagon lay scattered across the road, allowing bags of flour to spill forth. The caws of crows pierced the air over the patter of rain as they ripped and tore at the flesh they had found. They ate at a near skeletal agoroth as it lay dead on the road. Its blood had pooled and mixed into the rain and mud. Guts and offal torn free now spilled in a hot stinking mess the carrion reveled in.
It wasn’t much better off than its owners.
Humanoid bodies dotted the road like crimson mounds. Gruesome white bones still clung with gristle and flesh, but the prime meats and organs had been picked clean either by what had killed them or the carrion. The farmers had put up a fight, however; a few large feathered corpses lay here and there impaled on pitchforks or pikes.
By now, they had reached the head of the convoy where Captain Ekrus awaited with his sons alongside the other captains. As they discussed amongst themselves the plan, Autumn scanned the corpses.
All she could see that were still living were the greedy crows and vulture-like birds and she reported as much to Nethlia.
“Are you sure?” Nethlia asked.
Autumn nodded. “Either that or they are unconscious.”
“Alright. Let’s spread out.”
Slowly they crept closer, taking care to keep wary of the surrounding hills. The only disturbance was the discontented caws of the feasting birds, who fled their approach.
Autumn stopped a few feet from one of the bird-like monsters.
It looked akin to the regular crows that lingered nearby, only scaled up many times larger until it was bigger than Autumn was tall. Raven’s black feathers were matted with blood and many had scattered across the muddy ground. A beak of razor sharpness glinted in the light alongside a set of six red eyes; three on either side of its massive head.
“Dire-crows,” Nethlia said from beside her as Autumn inspected the corpse. “They rarely fly this far. Something must’ve driven them from the forests. We’ll need to inform those at Fort Rainguard.”
Autumn nodded absentmindedly as she swept her gaze over the carnage. The smell was nauseous; a coppery tinge to the air, amongst the smell of wet earth and rain.
Seeing no signs of further violence, the convoy split up into groups. The strongest handled shifting the wagon and dead Agoroth off the side of the road while the others wrapped the dead in spare linens to prepare for cremation later.
They made space in the wagons where they could for the bodies.
As Autumn was shifting through bloodstained bags of flour, she found a smaller body hidden amongst them. A tiny grinning skull stared up at her. Its flesh having been picked clean, only small pieces of gristle still clung to the horned form.
Autumn hurried to the side of the road as she puked. Nobody faulted her, nor was she the only one unable to handle the sights and smells.
When the convoy finally continued on their way under the gentle downpour of rain, the mood was far more somber than before.