A sweet reunion

Gabriel watched as Victoria directed the halflings, humbly, to please pack the instruments that the bandits had stolen from her friends. They were valuable, and their return would certainly be appreciated in the extreme.

It was clever of her. The halflings needed to garner goodwill with the humans after thieving for so long if they wanted to join society as productive citizens. Though they were still wary of him, they seemed comfortable enough around Victoria, except for the female. 

He had yet to hear or learn her name. She was impassive, moreso than the others. As they finished packing the horses and supplies, the halflings stared at him expectantly. 

"Um… yes?" He asked, a little awkwardly. What were they expecting of him? 

"Your dog," Tom pointed to Evey. "Can she carry a load or is she solely for killing the Sacarafs?" 

"Dogs aren't for carrying burdens, usually. She's a good tracker, found a Cetoan survivor in the wreckage of a ship washed ashore. She also hunts her own food, for the most part, and alerts me to danger." Gabriel felt the need to defend his dog's honor for some reason. 

"She didn't alert you to our presence." Tom pointed out. 

"Maybe she knew you weren't dangerous," Gabriel shrugged, "at least not to me. In any event, she wasn't with me then, as you know. Is it time to go yet? I'd love to find Shayn and the others. They'll be worried about Victoria, and I need to confirm whether our other friend is safe." 

Though Gwen's statement on the subject had been some comfort, Gabriel wouldn't rest completely easy until he saw Simone for himself. His sister spoke occasionally of the librarian who helped her in her pursuits, and the woman seemed pleasant and kind. He would hate for anything bad to happen to her. 

Victoria spared him a glance and smiled at the halflings widely. She did that often, as if her joy could make up for their lack of emotion in a conversation. It was charming, like someone speaking extra loudly to an older person that they weren't sure could hear them. 

Occasionally Tom or Bran would attempt to smile back at her, but it was always awkward and creepy to Gabe. Victoria seemed to take it in stride. 

The group set off, with the halflings eager to leave the area. Gabriel didn't know the area very well, having never in his life come this far North, but the halflings insisted that one of the mountains was new, and growing. Who was he to dispute that? 

"Why have you stayed here so long in the shadow of a growing mountain?" Victoria asked as she mounted one of the horses. The halflings had enough horses, with the ones stolen from Victoria's group, for everyone to ride. 

Gabriel secretly thought the fully grown adults looked almost comical riding on full-grown horses. He thought maybe they should have ponies or donkeys to ride instead to look more proportional, but he would never say so out loud. 

"We have grown, over the generations, a sensitivity to portals. Perhaps a lingering gift from the Void, which always sought to escape the Darkness. As its slaves, one of our tasks was to sense such things if we could. It fed us various herbal mixtures to enhance our usefulness to it." Bran's tone held no bitterness. It was factual reporting. 

"That must have been difficult," Victoria put in. "But it's how you learned the use of herbs?" 

"We had some knowledge before, but yes, our captivity did expand our knowledge." Tom sniffed. "Our unease has been growing but not reached the point where we felt the opening of this newest portal growing close." 

"What about the last one?" Gabriel asked. "It must have been large, did you not feel it and want to leave?" 

"We felt it, and moved to a hill a good distance away where we could monitor what came through. Nothing of consequence did." Bran spoke condescendingly, as if he were offended that Gabriel thought they wouldn't think such a thing through. 

"And if it had?" Victoria asked. 

"Then we would have known what it was and been prepared to hide from it, conquer it, or react accordingly to its presence. This next one… we will have to be many miles away. It will be larger than any we have seen, and we do not know what world it opens to or what may come through." Tom said, and then held up his fist, indicating the group should stop and remain quiet. 

Gabriel shifted forward in his saddle, and his horse stamped its foot impatiently. Evey stopped beside him, glancing up before dashing forward. 

"Evey no–" Gabriel tried to whisper, but the dog was beyond his control already. She could use some training when he got the opportunity. He'd been too lax in caring for her, it seemed. 

Tom glared at the animal, shaking his head. 

The two humans exchanged a glance, wondering what was ahead. 

"Humans," Bran said. 

"The bandits, or our friends?" Victoria whispered. 

The halflings sniffed the air. "Some of both?" Tom spoke it as a question. "The bandits rarely bathe and have a terrible odor, but there are other humans." 

The group paused in brief indecision before Bran slid down from his horse and moved forward. 

"Can I come?" Victoria asked. 

"Not without me," Gabriel snapped before the halfling could answer. He wasn't letting the woman out of his sight with bandits around. Maybe they'd captured the rest of their friends already.

Bran was already gone, and everyone waited for a few uneasy minutes until he reappeared through the tall grass. 

"One bandit, tied in the back of a wagon. Three men, one scouting ahead, one driving the wagon, one on horseback with a woman beside him." 

"It's them!" Victoria cried joyfully, spurring her horse forward without waiting for permission. Gabriel was on her heels, unwilling to let her rush ahead without him. The halflings could follow, or not, if they wished. 

He honestly didn't care all that much. 

As the pair came closer, he heard Evey's barking and some yelling. 

"Fool dog, where did you even come from?" A man was yelling at her. "Whose creature are you?" 

"Walter is cranky first thing in the morning," Victoria said to Gabe. "But he'll be happy to see us!" 

The scout was glaring down at Evey as they approached. She was in a playful mood, apparently, barking and wagging her tail as Walter shouted.

"Not a very good scout to be so loud," Gabriel murmured, and Victoria put a finger to her mouth as she suppressed a smile. 

"Be kind, he's better after he's eaten." She whispered, then raised her voice. "Walter! Walter, I'm back!" 

The man's attention was diverted immediately from the barking animal and took in the two humans on horseback. 

"Victoria!! Boys, we found her!" He called over his shoulder. 

"More like we found you," Gabriel grinned. The older man seemed overly proud of an accomplishment he hadn't achieved, or maybe it was just his relief over Victoria's safety.

"And who are you?" Walter became quickly guarded. "Another one of the bandits?" 

"Gabriel!" Shayn came into view and jumped off his horse. Gabe did the same, and the two men embraced. "Gabriel, what are you doing all the way out here? We left you in Klain!" 

Kyler reached down from his place on the wagon seat to shake Gabriel's forearm, but Simone was rushing to Victoria. The two women held each other tightly as the men continued their discussion.

Both ladies were glad the other had come through the ordeal relatively unscathed.

"Things have changed. We need to go home." Gabriel sobered from his initial joy at seeing everyone safe. 

The halflings came cautiously into view, and the group collectively tensed. 

"Oh!" Victoria jumped away from Simone, "This is Tom, and Bran, and two of their friends. I've known them since I was little," She said. 

Gabriel thought she was exaggerating a little bit. She'd known the two for a short time in her childhood, when they had tortured and chased her, but the way she spoke of them now made them all seem like old friends.

"They're helping us with the situation. The discrepancies you came to investigate out here are due to portals opening. The bigger the ground change, the bigger the portal, and we don't know to which world. The halflings are saying we need to leave the area quickly because a new mountain is growing here," Gabriel said quickly.

"A new mountain?" Shayn glanced at Kyler, who was already reaching into the wagon to get the maps the bandits had thankfully not taken. 

"To the North," Tom pointed, and Shayn followed his gaze.

"That's within the area we surveyed first," Kyler observed, running his fingers across the topographical map. "There are two main peaks, with several lesser hills around them." 

"Look again," Shayn's voice caught, and the elder brother did, along with the others.

Three large mountains now loomed side by side.