A Mission Well Done - Part 2

The entire group was woken up in the morning by Bomfjeord who had taken the last watch. Samuel and Erica felt pretty good when they woke up seeing as how they had taken the least amount of a beating. Samuel felt all his minor injuries were stinging but nothing more.

Sonya woke up feeling hurt all over, but the rest coupled with the healing potions and kits made her feel like she was almost back in full shape. Their mentors showed no fatigue, almost as if one wouldn't believe it if they said they had been in a big fight.

Healing potions did go a long way at healing internal and external wounds, leave one or two over night and one can expect a strong recovery.

Their magic recovered from sleep, their minds fully awake they started packing up camp. "What do we do with all the treasure?" Samuel asked Bregane as soon as he got a chance. Bregane shook his head, "Well, there is always a curse that a dragons horde is cursed, so there is no way in hell we are taking anything ourselves. Tere'he told me you flew all the way here, which means we can send a team that can remove any curse later."

"A dragons horde will be well sought out by the state of Rejuan after all. Please do tell me you didn't take anything?!" Bregane looked at him with annoyance.

Samuel shook his head, "No, but I did land on it a few times during the fight." He tried to look worried for a few moments. "So who knows? Maybe I will end up cursed!" He said with a smile. While Bregane just tossed a backpack into his chest while shaking his head.

He walked away muttering something about kids and Samuel could only smile and worry about Night, she had been completely quiet, he could tell she was there but it was almost as if she was distant, not fully there.

"What are you worrying about?" Erica asked and stopped in front of him, Sam shook his head, "It's probably nothing, just overthinking things..." He sighed before looking at Erica. "Did I really look that obvious?"

"Very!" Sonya said from a few meters off as she put her backpack on. "Huh, guess I have an easy to read face!" He shrugged but Sonya shook her head, "No, it took us almost one and a half year to learn to read your face. We kind of made it into a game, all three of us!" Sonya giggled to herself before becoming quiet.

She looked at Samuel's feet and put a hand on her head, "Sorry..." She said quietly as her eyes looked off to the side seemingly remembering that it was only her and Erica now. Samuel could catch a hint of anger in her eyes.

"Stupid half elf." She groaned and walked away. Samuel didn't know what to feel about it, he had spent so much time training and reading and learning about magic that he had repressed all thoughts about the matter.

He had no intention of thinking about Ulma anyway, she had made her choice regardless of wether or not she had received some mystical warning or premonition. So Samuel made his choice to continue down the path he had started on alone.

Although perhaps not completely alone, along the way he had picked up an unlikely companion and also learnt that there were others that were walking down a very simillar path to his own. So he was never truly alone. He equipped his backpack with a hopeful smile for the future on his face as the sun started peaking in through the huge hole in the roof.

Perhaps it would all work itself out on its own, maybe Samuel did not need to do anything except continue to walk his path forward. Tere'he gathered everyone up to stand in a circle, she had created a magical circle on the floor with the correct runes and enchantments.

Together with Bregane and Sarmah whom both supported her, she chanted a spell outloud in Elvish, which Samuel could only roughly translate to, "Open Pathways of Old days, something something."

No sooner than the chanting had begun a small tear opened in the fabric of space. This was no regular teleportation spell, when one used teleportation circles one needed to connect them to other existing circles unless they were extremely short ranged.

This was more of a portal spell, Samuel was impressed, not many mages would know portal spells like this. Mentors of candidates were probably former candidates or extra skilled people themselves. It made sense but he had never considered it before.

Soon enough the rift became wide open and showed a snowy village in the middle of nowhere. "The overlook where we first came to the village!" Erica exclaimed out loud when she recognized the spot.

"Quickly now, do not waste time!" Tere's voice sounded strained from exertion as she held the portal open, Sonya didn't hesitate and was followed by Erica who were quickly followed by Bomfjeord and all the wide eyed children that were understandably worried.

Sarmah and Bregane walked through with Erethi leaving only Tere and Samuel. Samuel started hearing whispers behind him and turned to Tere where his eyes opened in horror.

Behind her floated an apparition, a horror, a shadow. It stretched out it's hand towards him as it seemed to follow Tere who was walking toward the portal. Samuel didn't realize that he had been backing out through the portal until he found himself outside in the cold.

He quickly looked to the group and then to Tere'he, almost as if he was expecting trouble, but she walked through fine just a second later, no shadow behind her. She looked at Samuel with question but he just shook his head. "Just paranoia!" He waved his hands a few times.

Tere walked past him but put her hand on his shoulder on the way, "After a mission like this It wouldn't surprise me if everyone is carrying a bit of paranoia with them!" She sighed and walked past him while quietly saying, "Even myself."

The group had made it back to the village in a jiffy thanks to Tere's magic, and the children couldn't stop themselves from running down the hill crying and screaming while Bomfjeord ran after them trying to keep them all together.

The werefolk villagers living there quickly looked up at all the incoming sound and many of them started screaming and shouting. Soon enough the entire village was awake and outside, many parents reuniting with their missing children with tears and wails.

Hugging and kissing their children while thanking the gods for their safe return, even the elders came outside with shocked expressions. The villagers were full on celebrating while the group of mages slowly approached.

They all noticed the group approach and made way for them into the center. Many of them had expressions of gratitude or shame, but the mages did not care. Bomfjeord and Erethi quickly walked up the the elders and told them everything that had happened.

When Tere'he walked forward the Elders all bowed to her. "Thank you so much, great mage! You saved our children." The eldest spoke, her words coated in nothing but heartfelt gratitude.

"I realize you could have ran to save yourselves, but you stayed to fight and save our children." She continued but Tere sighed and shook her head. "Finding your children and getting them home I am glad to have done. But our job first and foremost was to neutralize a threat and so we did. Finding the children was merely a lucky coincidence." Erica and Sonya looked at eachother but held their tounges.

They knew Tere wouldn't have abandoned children but decided to remain quiet about it. "Now that our mission is complete, we will be out of your hair." Tere spoke with indignant intention, essentially what they had encountered when they first arrived here were just villagers that wanted to be left alone.

Many understood what she was hinting towards. "Please stay for a feast!" One voice rang out from the crowd of villagers. "Yes this must be celebrated!" Another one said. "Will you please do us the honor of being our guests of honor?" The eldest spoke.

"Please give us a chance to fix our previous mistakes, I know for a fact that you could have done your mission or saved yourselfs to come back to fight such ancient evils with greater numbers. But you chose to do it right there and then!"

"If that is not the action of good people then I don't know what is?" The eldest spoke while getting on her knees in front of Tere'he who could not see that sight and quickly stopped her and helped her up. "See I knew you were a good one, you are probably older than me and you care for children, I can see it in your eyes." The eldest spoke with a grin.

Tere'he sighed in annoyance, "Alright fine. We accept your invitation!" The moment she said that the villagers started cheering and many ran off to prepare for a great feast in the large main tent. It took the villagers only a quarter of time to redecorate and have all kinds of food prepared.

They led everyone inside the big hall where a lot of food and drinks were being prepared. Warm campfires and music was being played. It was truly a reward after such a tough battle.

The group all took seats near the middle where all kinds of food was placed, many of the children were checked upon by the village healer just to be safe in the meantime. Samuel, Sonya & Erica all sighed in relief when they got to sit down and were served food and drinks.

The feast went on for hours after that, with Bomfjeord retelling the entire story to the villagers, obviously overexaggerating it several times, almost everyone sat in silence and listened, but there were also plenty of drink and food being passed around.

Bregane found himself becoming quite drunk and eventually passed out together with Bomfjeord. While Sarmah was outdrinking anyone who tried to challenge her, Tere was the only one that held proper conversation with the elders about all kinds of things.

Sonya and Erica were courted by several of the younger men of the village most of the time, Samuel could only shrug and shake his head with a smile. He felt like he needed a breather so he stepped outside for some fresh air.