The "Feeling"

As they got closer to the bend in the road, little red dots started to appear on his mini-map so of course, he let Mrs. Cartwright know.

"Ma'am, I am getting that feeling again," Van whispered

"Where at?"

"Up ahead the entire area just feels off."

He wasn't lying in the slightest, when he took a good hard look at his map, he noticed that the road was covered in red dots, and so were both sides. The red dots went far into the trees. But he couldn't say anything like that so he was just generalizing.

Mrs. Cartwright looked at Van and noticed that he was staring directly ahead fixated on the road itself, his eyes would dart back and forth off into the trees and back to the road. So, she sent a rider up to Lena to tell her to slow the wagons down and that Van sensed something wrong with the road and the surrounding area. The runner spurred his horse to full gallop to get to Lena and relayed the message.

Lena acted in an instant, she sent her familiar down to the first cart to tell it to slow down. At the same time, she sent a couple of scouts ahead to perform detailed reconnaissance of the road and surrounding area. She then sent her familiar ahead into the forest. She opened her Grimoire to a spell that would allow her to see through her familiars' eyes and quickly and quietly chanted it. The view she was now seeing was trees, vegetation, and animals flying by her, but nothing else. There weren't any humans or beast-men, or anything that didn't belong. That is when she heard a scream.

Lena pulled her vision back to her body and refocused it on her scouts on the road. The scout that had almost gotten around the bend was waist-deep in the road riddled with arrows. There was another that was hanging from a branch overhead by a magical rope. Another had burst into flame and was now screaming as she burnt to death.

"AMBUSH!!!" She shouted. "There are Arrays and traps. We must clear the way otherwise we won't get through."

BOOM… BOOM… AAAH!!!!

Explosions were going off from the side of the road throwing rocks and debris across it striking anything in their way. There were arrays in the forest on the sides of trees shooting stones and arrows at incredibly high speeds across the road. Fireballs, Ice spikes, Javelins, Rocks, Arrows, and Iron balls were being launched and anyone or anything on the road would be caught in the crossfire. Out of the 9 scouts and mages that Lena sent up ahead not even one returned. As soon as the last person died all the explosions and projectiles stopped.

"Damnit, we can go through that it will be a slaughter. We need to find where the power crystals are or forcefully destroy the arrays. Go and take a team 100 meters in the woods parallel with the road and destroy all the trees, do not leave a single one standing. Burn them, blow them up, shatter them, I don't care how you do it just get it done and get it done now." She said to a mage. "Take 3rd platoon with you, they will provide support if you come under attack. if that happens send a flare."

The mage immediately called her platoon and 3rd platoon to her and explained what their mission was. After a short briefing, they disappeared into the woods. A very short time later explosions could be heard and smoke could be seen rising into the sky. Ten minutes later trees on the right side of the road burst into flames and then exploded sending fragments of wood in all directions. The ground was then covered in fire, it looked like absolute hell. The fire was indiscriminate, it didn't care what it burned, wood, grass, dirt, or even the bodies of the scouts that had fallen on the side of the road. When the flames receded, there was nothing left but ash. The team of mages and fighters then came back to the caravan and crossed the road. The same thing happened on the left side of the road. When those two platoons came back Lena gathered her earth magic users and had them remove the road down three feet and lay down a new road.

When Lena sent to mages into the woods, she had the caravan come to a halt, and everyone not on the recon or destruction team take defensive positions. All 14 wagons had a team of 3 surrounding them, one on each side and one behind that could reinforce either side at a moment's notice. Van was still on the driver's bench of the second wagon and he watched in awe as the red dots started to disappear at an alarming rate from the right side of the road. He then watched the team come back and cross the road just to watch the red dots disappear again.

When the team came back Van was there to welcome them back with a trunk full of Magic and rejuvenation potions. Each mage took a potion and immediately drank it down. They then gave the glass bottles back to Van who put them away in another trunk. He may have looked like he was just handing out potions, but he was paying attention to his map and looking at each person's stats as they drank the potions. He wasn't surprised when each person had a 10 above their heads. He was kind of disappointed that none of them had a 9. He was hoping but that turned out to be wasted.

~How strongly do I have to be to get those numbers to change? He thought.

After the road was replaced with a new one Lena walked up to Van as he was putting the trunk of empty potions back into the wagon. "How do you feel?" She asked him as she helped with the last push.

"I feel fine. I am sad that those people who died their families will miss them, and what about their bodies? I understand why we couldn't get them but to be burnt and buried like that just seems wrong." Van lamented as he hung his head. He wasn't used to taking lives, since he had only killed one person with his own hands.

"No, that isn't what I was asking, how are you … "feeling"?" She said as she stressed the word feeling.

"OH… yeah that, I am feeling nothing." He replied as he scrunched up his face to make it seem like he was concentrating. "I don't feel anyone or anything for little ways."

"Good, your hunches have turned out to be correct twice now in such a short time, I still don't truly trust them, but it can't just be a coincidence either. So, if you get another hunch tell me right away. Understood?"

"Yes Ma'am"

"LOAD UP! But stay vigilant and keep your eyes peeled." Lena announced to the caravan. "Platoon leaders, familiars meet in the fourth wagon."

As the platoon leaders' familiars went into the 9th wagon, they were greeted by Lena's familiar which was an owl. The owl then gave out Lena's instructions and all the platoon familiars relayed those instructions back to their respective owners.

"Why didn't you meet with the actual people face to face?" Van asked genuinely curious.

"Because this way if anyone is spying on us, they don't know who is in command. Everyone's familiar is linked telepathically to them, and the familiars speak to each other in a language that no other species can understand. It is the ultimate code. The only way to break the code is to have a familiar of your own in the meeting, but each familiar can recognize an outsider. All our familiars know each other very well, so the chances of someone sneaking a random familiar into our meeting undetected is almost impossible. Plus, I don't hold a meeting in the same wagon twice in a row and each wagon is assigned a number. Just because I say to go to wagon number 4 doesn't mean I mean the fourth wagon from the front. It means the fourth wagon in our sequence."

"But if you didn't want someone knowing you were the leader, you have been doing a bad job keeping that a secret, you are the one that gives out the orders, you are the one the riders report too, and you are the one that gave the order for the familiars to meet. How is that keeping who is leader secret?"

"Because I am not the leader either. I am just to one chosen to play the role this time around." She whispered in Van's ear, almost too softly for him to hear. "Now don't say anything else about this matter, do you understand?"

Van just nodded his head. He had a lot to process and think about as the caravan continued towards the city.

~WHAT!? She isn't the leader of the group of adventurers? Does Mrs. Cartwright know? She must know. Are Lena and Mrs. Cartwright even friends? Is Lena even Lena's real name? No, it must be, the system displays her name above her head.

~~ {That is because that is what we know her by. I cannot provide information I do not know. We have already been over this.}

~ That's right, but if that's the case is Mrs. Cartwright's name false also? Even though everyone calls her that it could just be an alias, right? Gaaah!! I am going to get a headache if I continue thinking about this.

As the wagon that Van was riding on went past the bend, a gust of wind blew the ash on the ground away allowing Van to see the ground was shiny! It was reflecting the sun. Van jumped down from the wagon and walked over to the ditch and touched what looked like glass.

~Holy shit! They turned the ground into glass! How hot do those flames have to be to turn regular dirt into glass?

"Van, get back up here, and sit, we still need to discuss our sparring session last night."

"Yes Ma'am."