Sidetracked

"Lucius, out front. Keep us apprised of any approaching monsters or people. It's going to be about a day or so travel to the small village where the quest was based." Jen ordered.

"Understood." Lucius responded mechanically. His tone surprised everyone, even himself. It seems that the loyal bodyguard act has been so ingrained in him that Jen's stiff orders brought it out for a moment.

All Jen did was smile at him. She seemed rather clever and had a knowing air about her as if she understood everything there was to know about Rena and Lucius. Not that this was a bad thing really; she seemed trustworthy so what was the harm?

They had been walking for about an hour before the road from Pelith began to fork. They took a right down a much less traveled path than the main road. In all likelihood, the only traffic this road saw was foot traffic and the occasional cart bringing crops at the end of harvesting season to the town.

Everything around them smelled so new to Lucius and unlike the woods where the trial occurred, there was no ominous sense of foreboding, so he was able to simply enjoy the scenery. Birds chirped happily and leaves rustled in the wind. Essentially, it was a perfect, picturesque day.

Something inside him made him feel uneasy despite everything going well. Honestly it was one of those going 'too well' situations. It was entirely possible that he was imagining it, having never had a peaceful experience like this, but it always paid to be cautious.

Occasionally one of the party members would chat with another regarding various different events and past adventures. Mostly, it was Rena asking the party about things that they had seen. Ever since she came back from the trial, she's been enamored with adventure, action, and excitement. Her childlike awe of the situation amused Lucius to no end.

After a few more hours the sun reached its zenith, so they stopped for a quick rest. It was not time to eat yet as they wanted to reserve rations in case tracking down the monster took more than they anticipated, so it was mostly to sit and drink water.

Paul took primary watch, claiming the walk was nowhere near enough to wear him out, but Lucius kept his ears peeled all the same. It took little effort for him to be able to monitor the situation like that, so why not?

His ears suddenly twitch, and he swung his head toward the woods.

"What is it?" Jen whispered, noticing the change in his mood. Even Paul was intrigued because he had not seen anything.

"A group of people are traveling through the woods. Sounds like they are heading the same direction we are…roughly…"

"They coming towards us?"

"Mmm…no, doesn't sound like it, in fact they might be getting ever so slightly further?"

Lethen waved his hand. "Probably just some hunters from a village nearbye."

"Doubt it, there's a ton of feet…maybe ten or twelve people? More than ten, less than twenty." Lucius answered. He did not take Lethen's tone to heart as he was way too focused on listening to the people in the woods and ensuring they would not be a threat.

He continued to listen as the camp sat in silence. Time passed slowly and it felt like hours, but in reality it was only a few minutes.

Finally, "And they are gone. Can't hear them anymore." He said to Jen.

"Thanks, kid. Let's get moving. No need to be stealthy, but let's not do anything to purposefully draw attention to ourselves." She answered before ordering them to mobilize once more.

The group in the woods concerned Lucius. They were just barely in range for him to hear them moving around, but they were not close enough for him to tell if they were heavily or lightly armored. If they were heavily armored, it was likely a large group of adventurers or mercenaries, which would not be all that big of a deal.

Being lightly armored presented more potential issues. Namely the possibility that they were common bandits. If they were bandits they were probably changing locations to set up along a road. Lucius was unsure how this road moved around and through these woods, so if they were bandits there was no doubt they would see them again soon.

The least likely scenario if they were lightly armored would be a group of hunters, but that large would only be if they were hunting down something big and dangerous. Since the nearest villages gathered money together to request assistance with the Twin-headed bear, it was unlikely that simple hunters would go and take on the quest alone after submitting payment.

These thoughts continued to whirl around his head until he heard a scream. It sounded like a young woman screaming at the top of her lungs. She did not utter any words, it was just a pure, primal scream.

"Hmm" Lucius said.

"What's up?" Paul asked.

"Oh I heard a woman screaming in the distance. Probably further down the road?"

"Wait what? Is she calling for help? Is she being attacked?" Jen asked.

"Mmm…can't tell. She just screamed, probably scared. No words, just a plain old scream."

"Lucius…why are you being so calm?" Rena asked.

He looked at the party and noticed they were all antsy and had their hands on their weapons, like they were ready for a fight.

"Why are you guys prepping for a fight?"

"Because we are going to go after the screaming woman!" Jen answered.

Lucius could not understand why they wanted to. It was just some random person screaming. She was probably dead now anyway if it was bandits or monsters. Honestly, if they tried to rescue her, it would only sidetrack them from their true mission, which was to hunt the bear monster.

"I guess we can go find her…but I already am smelling blood since we are down wind, so I don't know if we are going to find what you think or want." Lucius stated plainly.

"Kid…just…let's go." Jen stated. And with that they all ran down the road. Lucius followed as well since it was his party, but he really did not understand why it mattered to save some stranger. They were adventurers hired for a job. Not heroes in a story.