Clowns In The Woods p1

Rumble Rumble

Davron looked around in the darkness, which was from time to time lit up by thunder and lightning. He was getting more and more tired with every second, because he was using up his mana at an alarming rate, scanning his surrounding.

"Let's go, we're getting nearer" Davron huffed to his family.

In his mind was a hologram of his surroundings and a copy of a map. This was a new technique he had come up with not long ago. Davron had gotten inspired by the mana tentacles. He was regularly sending out small long mana string into the surroundings and AIS was creating a hologram of his surroundings based of the data.

His family kept following him for 30 more minutes, until they arrived at a road.

Only now was Davron able to notice Luna's panting and how her sweat-drenched face reflected the moonlight.

Her shaking knees reminded Davron that this was the first time she had been subjected to such physical exertion.

Luna tried to hide her exhaustion as much as possible, not wanting to be a burden to her family, but she couldn't escape Davron's sharp eyesight.

"Let's take a small break. We should be pretty safe right now. Maybe we could hitch a ride with merchants if we find them" spoke Davron as he looked at Luna softly.

While they were catching their breath, Flora saw a light from afar. Seeing the light coming nearer made her quite anxious.

"There.. is a light coming towards us!" Flora said anxiously.

Davron looked at the nearing light. "Don't worry, we cut through the woods and the village head doesn't even know where we're heading to. It will take them a lot of time to be able to catch up"

The family was standing in the darkness, Davron's words managed to quiet down their hearts for a bit.

The light was now only a few meters away, and you could already see the first outlines. It was a long caravan. At the front drove a roofless carriage in steampunk design. The carriage lit the way with copper spotlights with candles in them.

What surprised the family the most was the person on the roofless carriage. It was a clown! It wasn't just a single clown, but the rest of the people were dressed up as clowns too. Furthermore, it looked rather like a wandering circus instead of a merchant caravan.

When the leader of the clowns noticed Davron and his family, he was briefly surprised, but shortly after, a smile adorned his red clown lips.

The clown raised his hand and signaled the caravan to stop.

"Those bandits are getting younger and prettier" He laughed out loud.

Davron took a few steps towards him and bowed briefly.

"You must be joking sir, we are no more than a humble family on their way to a better life" Davron spoke politely to the clown. Although he was dressed like a clown, Davron decided to treat him politely.

The clown was amused by Davron's polite demeanor. Many nobles treated him worse than this young commoner boy.

Before the leader managed to answer, Davron continued, "I am with my mother and sister, who are unable to make the long journey. Sir, could you take us with you? We would of course pay you with silver!"

The clown grabbed his red clown nose, as he thought.

"Where are you heading to?"

"To the Red Stronghold City, sir"

The clown kept pondering. It was quite a funny sight, seeing him kneading the red cloth ball on his nose.

"Wait here" said the leader as he came to a conclusion. Seeing this poor boy and the women in the cold darkness, moved his heart.

The clown got off the front carriage and went to the middle of the caravan, to a huge, luxurious carriage. The carriage was made of ocean blue metal and had thickly curtained windows on either side. When the heavy door of the carriage opened, the clown went in and came out again after a short time.

Now back on his front carriage smiled and said "You can hop on the trailer behind me"

Getting this good news made a huge weight come off the family's heart.

"Yes sir" said Davron, as he bowed again.