Out of the Woods

long time without going badThe edge of the woods was now just within reach. Beyond was a swathe of grassy plains, upon which Camelia could see a large circular structure that looked half-buried in the earth. In the center of the structure was a tall wooden tower on which she could just make out little bits of movement which she presumed to be people scurrying up and down the ladders. Some distance behind this structure, barely contained within low stone walls, was the sprawl of buildings and roads that was Sunfall city.

Every morning for the past two weeks, Camelia would start the day by gazing into the horizon from her perch in the sky. It was on the third day that the vague silhouette of the city appeared within view, and, since then, the change in clarity of the image as the days passed provided a refreshing confirmation of progress for her in the otherwise monotonous struggle of transversing the uneven forest terrain.

Still, she had it easy compared to the others from the village. Unlike her, they didn't have a floating sword they could ride for the trip. Also, unlike the merchants, they weren't used to traveling. With the uneven road littered with tree roots, everyone soon developed quite a number of bruises.

"You just need to catch yourself whenever there's a jolt," Margaret told them, "That and you slowly get used to it..."

As evidence of the usefulness of her method, Margaret herself didn't have nearly as many bruises as the people from the village. Since most of those from the village were brought along to drive the wagons, they had little choice but to try and learn it. Even now, it was only really Mia who managed to grasp the technique.

Rebecca, though, who didn't have a wagon to drive, first tried walking alongside the wagon as an alternative. To her dismay, transversing the forest floor on foot was quite tiring, and unlike the two guards at the front of the train, she lacked the stamina to keep it up for the entire day. After two days of trying, she resigned herself to riding the wagon.

Besides the issue of riding the wagons, there were also the issues of food and bathing. Merchant food was simple and not at all diverse; its value was in its cheap production cost and its ability to be stored for a time without going bad. As such, it couldn't really be complemented for its taste. Even though two of the ten wagons were specifically for carrying barrels of water, these were mostly reserved for the horses. With the limited water supplies and risk of a fire hazard, pottages like on the first day were rare. Most of the time, dry biscuits and jerky were the norm; these could be eaten even without stopping the caravan, so on days when the horses weren't so tired from the morning grind, they would skip the lunch stop and just push on until dinner.

Due to the lack of any significant body of water along their path and, also their limited water supplies, regular bathing was an impossibility. For everyone from the village, who were used to bathing almost everyday, this was a rather disgruntling change. As an alternative, Margaret recommended scrubbing themselves down with pieces of cloth to the acceptance of absolutely nobody.

Either way, soon, all of these misfortunes would be done and over with. Excitedly, Camelia dove back into camp to notify Margaret and Rebecca.

"Sounds about right," Margaret said, yawning.

"Finally! Hot food and a real bath!" Rebecca cried, gnawing on the biscuit which was her breakfast.

"Pretty sure we're still a day or so off from that..." Margaret muttered, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and reaching for a piece of jerky.

"Still…" she grinned at Camelia, the piece of jerky hanging from the corner of her mouth, "You sure have gotten more relaxed now, huh?"

"I guess..."

For the first few days of their journey, Camelia vigilantly monitored the forests around the merchant train, wary of attacking demons. When she talked with Rebecca and Margaret about this, Margaret thanked her for her efforts but also reassured her that demon attacks on such a small group of people were rare.

Nevertheless, Camelia still maintained her vigilance for the first week. With the complete lack of any signs of demons in the vicinity, she finally was forced to agree with Margaret's assessment. She then started assisting with the gathering of berries and nuts to supplement their otherwise bland diet, searching for sources of drinkable water in the vicinity, and just generally helping out with work that needed doing.

As the three of them had breakfast, Miles came over with his usual morning checkup to make sure everyone was ready to go.

"Everyone awake and ready? If we hustle, we'll be in the city by evening!" he announced cheerily.

Over the course of the journey, his mood quickly improved. Being in his element again, he would smile and talk to just about everyone. It was plain to see who Margaret got her cheerfulness from.

"Hmm, what's this?" Miles frowned as Margaret yawned, "did you not sleep well?"

"Pretty well, I think. I'm just not completely awake yet."

"You think you handle driving? We can wait a while if you'd like."

"Nah. Let's just go. As long as we're moving, this road won't let me sleep."

"You're not wrong about that!" He laughed and moved on to the next wagon.

Pretty soon, Miles was running back to the front of the train, shouting, "Everybody ready? Off we go!"

"Not another day of this," Rebecca muttered as the wagon started to move.

"Well, we'll be out of the forest today, so you can at least look forward to some hot food," Margaret winked.

The caravan made it to the edge of the woods just before noon. Miles had all the wagons arranged in a circle, and everyone got to work preparing lunch. Watching him struggle with the fire reminded Camelia of her time in the woods with Kant and Phi.

{I wonder what the two of them are doing now...}

As she reminisced, she gave the fire a nudge with her domain, getting it going. Thinking back, her decision to stay was made in the spur of the moment, and she had to wonder if it was really for the best. Afterall, she couldn't honestly describe the last two weeks as fun, and yet, at the same time, she hesitated to consider it a complete waste.

"Hey, Miss Hart!" Miles called from below, breaking her train of thought.

He gestured for her to come down, which she did. He was holding a small wooden box in his hands.

"We're pretty close to the city now, so we'll be launching a signal flare to notify them. From what I understand, it's not the sort of thing you want to be too close to when it goes off."

"Why's that?"

"It explodes like lightning. I'm told quite a few people were injured during its development."

He opened the box only to see a few handfuls of straw.

"Huh?" he blinked several times in quick succession.

"Looking for this?"

Margaret approached them from behind, holding a strange cone-tipped paper tube with a string hanging out from the end in one hand and a slightly larger metal tube with three long spikes extending down from its base.

"When did you-"

"As soon as we stopped. You promised I could launch it, so there's no problem, right?"

"I'm pretty sure I only agreed to let you watch while I launched it..."

"Is that so..." Margaret feigned confusion, "Well then, let's just make it a compromise where you watch while I launch it."

"Sounds like I need to re-teach you how to properly negotiate."

"I just factored in our relationship into the negotiation."

"Fair enough, I guess. Just make sure to do it properly."

"Yes sir."

Margaret stabbed the metal tube with the spikes into the ground, and stomped it down until the spikes were completely embedded into the ground. She then threaded the string of the paper tube through a hole in the side of the metal cylinder and placed it snugly inside.

As Miles inspected the setup, Margaret ran to the fire, picked out a burning stick, and ran back to light the fuse. Camelia was dragged along by Margaret as the three of them retreated some distance away from the contraption.

There was a loud hiss as something shot out of the metal tube into the air. Then, a faint bang and a bright red splash of light appeared in the sky and then disappeared just as quickly.

"Nice," Margaret whistled.

"What? How?" Camelia alternated between looking at the sky and looking at the now empty metal cylinder in disbelief.

"I know, right?" Margaret nodded, "It's exciting to think about. I can totally see these becoming a source of entertainment. Quite the business opportunity, right dad?"

"Maybe in the future… As of right now, it's expensive, dangerous, and has no manufacturing infrastructure behind it."

Margaret shrugged, "And now we wait."

"Wait?" Camelia asked, "What are we waiting for?"

"An escort will come from the fort to pick us up," Miles said, "The fort wasn't built to allow passage to the west, so to enter the city, we have to go around the entire thing. On the other hand, the fort was built to attract and deal with demons that might otherwise attack the city, so skirting along the edge of the fort by ourselves isn't very safe."

"Come on, let's go have lunch already," Margaret said, dragging Camelia back towards the circle of wagons, "It's our first hot meal in weeks!"

Although it was still just the same salted meat pottage and hard biscuits as on the first day, everyone seemed to think of it as a feast comparable to that they had before leaving the village. Camelia herself was quite surprised by her own warm reception of the meal, since she had not remembered it being particularly delicious the first time around.

[Must be a matter of context… I guess I should be taking all the personal accounts with grains of salt...]

After the meal, the regulars of the merchant caravan all relaxed, lazing around waiting for an escort to arrive. After Miles explained the situation to the others from the village, they followed suit, most taking the time to take an afternoon nap on the grass.

Camelia floated over to where Margaret and Rebecca were sitting with their backs to a wagon. On the way, she saw Jacob once again sparring with the guards. He had been regularly requesting to practice with them since the trip began. Mia was also there, head resting on her hands, a sleepy smile on her face. As Camelia approached the wagon, she could hear Miles snoring from inside it.

"... I'd always thought traveling would be cool. My dad told me so many stories about the capitol and other cities. But, I don't know if it's really worth it if just trying to get somewhere is so much trouble."

"Yeah, well, your village is a pretty special case. I mean, there are places in the realm that are hard to get to, but very few can compare to this."

Margaret knocked on the worn iron casing on the wheels of the wagon, continuing, "There's no other trip that I've been on that we've been forced to use such expensive equipment. And even then, this will need to be repaired or replaced when we get to town."

"So, if we make it through this, the rest of the way to the capitol will be a breeze?" Camelia asked, taking a seat in front of the two.

"Yes! Oh, you don't even know. The roads are so well maintained! The ride's so much smoother than this. There are even regular checkpoint towns that you can stop at almost every day," Margaret paused to catch her breath, "As long as it's one of the major settlements, travel is a breeze."

A chuckle could be heard from inside the wagon. A moment later, Miles popped his head out.

"It's all thanks to the young lord. Ten years ago, I could never have dreamed that things would become this convenient."

"Sorry, did I wake you?" Margaret apologized.

"It's fine," Miles said mid-yawn, "It looks like our escorts have arrived."

Everyone turned towards the direction he was looking. Two horses were thundering across the grasslands. On their backs were two men in priest robes, each with a sword strapped to their side.

Pretty soon, they reached the circle of wagons, coming to a stop next to the dying campfire and waiting expectantly.

"Alright, pack up girls," Miles said, getting out of the wagon, "time to head to town!"

As he went to greet the two priests, Margaret went around waking people up and hooking up the horses.

Out of the corner of her eye, Camelia could see the two priests watching her. More specifically, they were eying the floating sword behind her. She decided to ignore it, focusing on helping Margaret prepare the wagons.

Pretty soon, they were off, wagons rolling over the flat ground of the plains. Camelia returned to her usual place, in the air above the center of the train. The two escorts took up positions on either side of the caravan, flanking it from a distance.

Without the constant rocking of roots under their wheels, they could afford to move at a much faster pace. As they got closer to the fort, Camelia noticed that there were some barren lines across the plains that converged at the fort. The base of the fort was outlined with a ditch and then a slope of dirt. Every few meters, there would be an opening in the slope, revealing a room built into the slope in which a few people sat in wait with a bucket of long wooden spears. Disregarding the tower in the center, it looked like the building was built halfway into the ground.

Camelia was still pondering the strangeness of the structure when a shout from the right of the caravan made her turn in that direction. The priest that had been flanking them on that side was peeling away from the caravan, and it was pretty clear why. A path of rot was making a beeline towards them from across the field, leaving a line of barren land in its wake.

"It's fine, Cam! Let the priests do their job!"

Camelia heard Margaret shouting up to her from below. She had unconsciously started drifting in the direction of the demon. She corrected herself but continued to observe it as it came closer.

At this point, the priest had already dismounted from his horse, which he sent back towards the caravan with a pat on its side. The demon seemed to have noticed him and sped up its four-limbed trot. The priest calmly unsheathed his sword and held it out in front of him, gripping it with both hands.

As the demon leaped at him, he suddenly shifted to one side, and the demon's head and one of its arms were flying through the air as the rest of its body crashed into the ground. The priest flicked the blood off his sword and sheathed it. His horse soon circled back around to pick him up.

It was an impressive display. Three larger steps to shift position while bringing the sword up then forward then down, and then a series of smaller steps to regain balance. It wasn't as smooth as Father Dawson, but it still wasn't something Camelia could replicate easily.

Seeing this, she recalled the time back at the village when she and Jacob encountered the earth-type and water-type. It seems absurd now to think how close she was to death at the time, with the earth-type just an arms length away. Such footwork would have come in handy then.

"Hey, Margaret," Camelia lowered herself down to the level of the carriage, "are all priests like that?"

"You bet," Margaret smiled, "Demons don't stand a chance. I haven't seen many demon encounters myself, but when a priest shows up, things usually end pretty quickly."

"No, well, I meant more like do they all move like that?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Nevermind..."

Seeing another priest moving like Father Dawson made Camelia wonder whether it was something she could learn. It didn't sound like Father Dawson was formally taught, so she initially doubted it, but if all priests were capable of such agility, then maybe she could.

Margaret shrugged, "Calm down. Even if we encounter another few demons in the next hour, we'll be fine. And once we get into the city, we'll be completely out of the woods."

"I thought we were already out of the woods though…?"

"It's a saying," Rebecca explained as Margaret laughed, "It means that we're safe now."

"Believe it, you outsiders," Margaret winked, "You have no idea how good we have it in the lord's realm."