Depths

Though the group of guards and the father son pair kept their concentration firmly on their surroundings as they road along the dirt path they neither met another soul nor ran into anything unusual other than the melodic whispers. The whispers themselves were constant, never changing volume, never stopping and always coming from a seemingly omnidirectional source. Despite the lack of other phenomena, the group still kept their guard up and kept a firm formation with Jien and his father in the center.

It wasn't more than two hours from their initial entry into the forest that the group arrived at a landmark used to determine the relative distance down the path through the forest. On the side of the road was a vast stone with several runes drawn on its surface. These markers would be placed at various distances along many roads, though only those who rule the Elitrix empire knew the exact history of the markers. The runes on their surface were considered a mystery as they did not match any known language. Most thought that it was past rulers who placed them to be what they were now commonly known as.

Jien asked to see the map again after they had reached what he believed to be the correct marker. He reviewed the symbols drawn on the map and compared them to the symbols on the stone at the side of the road. After confirming that this was indeed the correct location Jien nodded to the guards around him. "This will be our entry point into the forest. We will be keeping roughly the same formation, but I would like to have two of you scouting ahead for potential dangers." After Jien finished saying this, he looked through the group carefully, trying to determine who he wanted as the scouts of the group.

After careful consideration Jien chose two of the guards who were wielding bows. The logic behind the choice was simply that those with a ranged weapon are able to better maneuver depending on the situation. He wanted to make sure that if they found the bandits or a source of danger that couldn't be avoided that they would be able to engage from a distance first and then work from there.

The guards approved of his decision, as did Lord Losler. The two chosen guards started to move into the woods after making sure that the other guards had their horses handled. They kept within eyesight as they moved into the forest itself. The rest of the guards began to move at some distance behind them and soon the shade of the towering evergreen trees covered them.

Initially when the group left the dirt path through the forest the trees had been a fair distance from each other. Though they were as thick as one of the full-grown horses that were being ridden were long, they were spaced naturally in a way that allowed some beams of light to make it past their many boughs and the group able to walk easily in their chosen order. However, as the time tacked by the gap between the many trees began to shrink. This was a known issue for traversing the forest, the further in you went unless you made it to rivers, lakes or other clearings, the more tightly packed the trees would become. Near the center of the forest, it had been noted by several experts that one would need to walk in near single file to be able to make it through the trees.

This was likely part of why the bandits had chosen this location as their hideout. If you could line up your enemies and defeat them in a corridor, numbers meant little. That being said as they continued to advance Jien thought carefully about how best to arrange the troops. He wasn't an expert in military strategy, never having had to learn it until this point. However, his father was here by his side, and he wasn't afraid to try and gain some knowledge from him.

As they traveled, he asked questions relating to how his father would place his troops in this situation. For the most part Earl let Jien know that there wasn't much he would change. Those who were more based in melee combat were up front, those who were wielding bows were in back or scouting ahead and the pure mages stated between them. Lord Losler suggested placing those who used shields at the very front to create a proper barrier. He also suggested having a few melee fighters on the sides in case an enemy attempted to flank them.

Though these were just basic suggestions Jien made sure to act on them immediately. Ultimately the troops were formatted into a small arrowhead formation as they walked deeper. It wasn't long after repositioning themselves that the group ran into their first problem. Though they were on the proper path towards the cave that Jien had pointed out as a possible location for the hideout they were warned by the scouts of a small pack of wolves in their path.

Jien found no reason to try and fight them, but they would need to be careful in avoiding them. The fauna of the Forest of Songs were known for being temperamental at best. The constant murmuring tended to drive many of the animals in the forest mad over time. Many packs had been known to migrate out of the forest due to this, but for every pack that would choose to leave, there tended to be a pack that would covet the resources within the forest enough to stay.

Though the group tried to give the pack of wolves a wide enough birth to not be noticed it was to their misfortune that the leader of the pack seemed to sense them. As soon as the alpha of the pack became aware of intruders in their territory it howled, calling the other wolves to attention before charging at the intruders in the hopes of having a fresh meal.

As the wolves charged at them the group of guards did not particularly seem concerned. Though their young lord felt it best to avoid the pack the guards did not fear the creatures. There were only eight wolves to the pack and the guards more than doubled that number.

To show their experience those that had been scouting drew their bows and loosed several arrows at the charging wolves. The wolves were focused on the larger group, only after one of them was stuck in the side by an arrow did they peel off from the rest of the pack to attack the one who had shot them. As the scouts drew two of the wolves away the rangers in the back of the formation aimed and loosed arrows of their own, directly killing two of the remaining wolves.

The last four of the wolves slammed into the large shields being wielded by the guards on the edge of the formation. The guards made sure to form up tightly around their lords to ensure that the wolves would not find a way into the group. Those who blocked the wolves were forced back a step or two due to the sheer force of attack but after the beast's momentum was stopped, they did not hesitate to end the fight with swift blows. After killing the four wolves the two scouts drew the remaining two wounded wolves to the other guards who swiftly dispatched them.

Jien watched their efforts from the safety of the center of the formation and Lord Losler did the same, seemingly not bothered in the least. To Jien this was his first time seeing such a thing. That being said he didn't particularly feel anything negative about it. From a logical standpoint he had tried to give the wolves space and allow them to continue on with their lives. After they attacked, he and his guards were just doing what they had to survive the encounter. Not being directly involved in the conflict allowed him to ignore the bloody act of the slaughter. That being said he didn't wish to remain around the site lest they attract something more dangerous even before they met the bandits.

The guards, not having the time to dress down their kills decided to leave them where they were for any other lucky animal that may come across the wolves' corpses. They piled the wolves in the center of the small opening of trees that had been their territory before using some rags to quickly clean their weapons of as much blood as they could to ignore drawing more predators by scent before continuing their trek into the depths of the forest.