Shards of Old

After this weird exchange, we started moving again. This time, Goldie was the guide, and at first it looked like he actually knew what he was doing. Until now, we were traveling on something that was just a random path through the woods, even calling it a dirt road would be an insult to every other actual dirt road out there. Goldie exclaimed that we are going to look for the main path that we would've taken if we were still leading the caravan.

Sounded good to me, I thought, but not even a minute later I started cursing him and his ideas. Apparently to get back to the actual road we had to go through some dense parts of the forest. It didn't take long for us to start going through the jungle so thick that we had to cut through the branches and plants with his blade. We traveled like this for the next few hours, and there was no end of this jungle in sight. What worse, it was starting to get dark, but not because it was late. The woods were so thick and the tree canopy so dense, the light was having trouble getting through to the ground. Our horses barely could move through all this. As I thought the day couldn't get any worse, it did.

For the first time in this world, I encountered my worst enemy that followed me all the way from my home - mosquitoes.

During my travels up till now I haven't seen any of those, and since I was constantly in woods and wet environments, I started hoping they don't exist. Boy, I was wrong. Not long after we started chopping our way through this place, they started assaulting us in waves so big, even in the darkness of the forest they looked like dark smoke clouds. Every time Goldie swung at the branches to make room for us and the horses, they attacked with greater ferocity. Soon we had to cover our faces with makeshift masks, mostly made out of our own clothes. It was mostly my and Bert’s cloak that we used, but that didn't help much. They attacked any part of visible skin without hesitation and soon we started looking like some weird bedouin-beggars.

That was only a half of the issue though. We couldn't defend our mounts though, they were like a free meal that walked right into their hands. Poor animals were trying to slap them off with their tails, but that was pretty much useless. All the noise and movement only attracted more of the mosquitoes and slowed us down even more. I was slowly getting annoyed to the point that I considered summoning my fire orb and burning all of those annoying bugs alive.

I slowly was thinking of a way to fool Goldie into using his sword again and igniting it so I could blame him for any "splash damage", like starting a forest fire. I literally was itching to use my magic, or maybe it was some mosquitoes that got under my clothes. Funnily enough, it was mostly in the spot where I had my crystal wound. Maybe they were attracted to it for some reason, it was brimming with mana after all. I didn't have much time to think about it though, because the scenery started shifting a bit. The jungle-like forest started giving way to the grass, in the similar way we have seen before. Soon we were traveling through a mix of three environments - a jungle, tall grassland and a regular forest. It was a bit bizarre to see all three at the same time together. I was about to comment on that, but I heard something that I did not expect - water.

While leading, Goldie didn't pay much attention to the ground below him, because when he heard his horse step into the water, he was as surprised as everyone else. He quickly regained his usual confidence though.

-Oh! Haha! I told you I was gonna lead us to Iom! Now it's only a matter of a quick march before we reach the capital!

-Quick march of half a day… - I muttered, but I couldn’t deny that it was at least some sort of progress.

Bert didn't look so sure of that. Instead he leaned down and took a better look at what we had in front of us, and I followed suit.

It was already pretty dark, so it was hard to tell, but in front of us the weird triple-forest started looking more and more like a swamp. Or at least a flooded grassland. The trees started to thin out and further out we could see something that looked like some kind of clearing.

-I don't know about you, but this does not look like a river to me.

-It probably just flooded - he waved his hand, dismissing Bert’s doubts. - Let's go and try finding our way around.

What I thought was a swamp, slowly started turning into a large lake, and the more we started walking out of the jungle part of the forest, the more this place started looking like that weird patch of grassland we saw earlier.

I was not the only one that noticed that. Goldie started looking a bit nervous. It didn't take him long to deviate from the path and turn again towards the part of the forest that looked more regular, or rather it wasn't the jungle we walked through. I expected Bert to stop him or at least comment on his sudden change of direction, but there was nothing. Quite the opposite, I started catching him smiling every once in a while. Well, we walked out of the mosquito lair, so that was a plus, but still, that did not warrant grinning like a mad man every time you look ahead. I was about to ask, what's he so happy about, but Goldie suddenly stopped us all.

-What's going on?

-Shhh! - he silenced me, jumped off his horse and started slowly crouching forward. The grass was so tall, it covered him completely from head to toe.

Bert leaned down on his horse, smiling, and looked towards Goldie, deep in the grass.

-Sooo… What did you find? - he asked nonchalantly.

-Footprints. Shut up, they might be close.

-Uh-uh - he didn't bother lowering his voice. - And whose those might be, you think?

-Horses. Two, maybe three. One is heavier. Can't tell much more.

-You got to be fucking kidding me… - I looked at both of them and instantly realized what Bert was smiling about.

-Yeah. I am gonna ask again, who do you think those three horses belong to?

-How the hell could I know? - Goldie replied angrily. - What, you can tell the owner after the shape of a hoofprint? And why are you so sure they are not close so you don't even bother having a semblance of stealth?

-I never said they are far. On the contrary, I believe we are close.

-What are you blabbering about?!

-Oh to hell with it - I interrupted this dumb exchange. - Those are our tracks, you absolute moron. I swear, I should've never joined this caravan. Are you doing this on purpose?

-Now, now, let's not be hasty - Bert stopped me with a gesture. - Mr. Caleb probably has some clever explanation for that, right?

He didn't reply, was just moving his gaze dumbfounded from the tracks to us and back.

-I understand that means that I am back in the position of a leader?

Again, no reply.

-I think that means yes. Great - his smile got even wider. - So, first things first. This is enough walking in circles for today. Let's set up camp. We are out of that mosquito den and this grass will be a nice hiding spot so this place is as good as any other. Caleb, you take the first watch.

-Yes, sir - he answered politely.

He looked completely defeated.

The night was pretty much the same as the last one. Again, I hid my ration and observed Goldie while pretending to be asleep. This time though, he actually was awake and guarding the camp, like he was supposed to. He even "woke me up" and passed his duty to me, as we agreed. It was a bit unsettling, to be honest. He acted almost like another person.

Without much to do, I was sitting by the glowing crystal that we used as a light source during the nights. Looking around, I could barely see my surroundings thanks to the grass that surrounded us. It was quiet and peaceful, everyone was fast asleep. Only horses seemed to be a bit more active than usual. After a long trip, you'd think they would've been fast asleep too, but no. Every once in a while they were kicking dirt and neighing quietly. True, this place felt a bit unsettling for some reason. If I was a leader, I would've at least got us out of this grassland to some regular forest and rest then, but what do I know. I stood up and went towards the mounts to try and calm them down.

-What, still feeling the mosquitoes? I am uncomfortable too, but I am keeping that to myself, so why don't you do the same…

Horses of course didn't reply, but at least stopped kicking the ground when they felt someone touch them. Still looked annoyed though. Well, I couldn't blame them. My arm was also still itching after the trip through that bog, even though mosquitoes were nowhere to be seen anymore. I absent-mindedly started scratching my wound under the clothes and accidentally undid the cloth wrapping that covered it.

My crystal wound was emitting a dim glow again.

I took a quick look towards the camp. Luckily for me, no one was awake to see it, because that would definitely warrant at least questioning. Last time it was a bit brighter because I was overflowing with mana. That was not possible now, right? Was the trip just taking its toll on me and I lost control of my mana? If so, it could be problematic, since there was no end in sight. But that didn't make much sense. The trip was annoying, but it was not that bad, so what gives? Also, I don't know if it was my imagination playing tricks on me, but It looked like the crystal got slightly bigger.

In any case, I wrapped my arm again, this time making sure that nothing is poking out and added another layer of cloth on top made from my tattered coat, just to be sure no one notices.

Hoping that it would solve the issue, or at least hide it, I went back to my post back near the glowing crystal and sat down. Again, since everyone else was asleep, I didn't have to worry about anyone noticing, I started focusing on my arm and crystal, in hopes to understand it a bit more.

I already did it a few times, never discovered much besides what I already knew, I just felt the mana flowing through it from me and vice versa. So you can imagine my surprise, when I immediately felt the difference - this time there was another source of mana that it was drawing from that was something else. It's not unusual to draw mana from your environment, but it was strange to feel it happen without my control or without touching a large mana source, like the river full of infused water. The second thing, the most worrying one, was that that loose mana had to have a source, a massive one or at least a close one. That was not good news. I went back to the horses and tried climbing onto one of them. It wasn't very easy, but after a minute of struggle, I managed to get into the saddle to see a bit further than the small patch of cut grass where we made our camp. Nothing in our immediate vicinity looked like it could've been the source of this mana, but everything was covered in either plants or water, so that was not surprising.

As I was about to get down and go back to the center of the camp, I noticed some movement. I immediately froze in place and focused my gaze in that direction. It was just a movement of grass. It was tall enough to hide whatever was moving, but there was no mistake, something was slowly creeping towards our camp. As it came closer, it slowed down and finally stopped, about ten meters from us. I don't know, maybe it noticed me, because as it stopped, about five more spots started moving towards the camp. As I was jumping down from the horseback, I started noticing more and more shadows moving through the grass, all coming from somewhere around the lake. That was definitely not good news.

Going back to the camp, I lost sight of the shadows, but I was certain that they were growing in numbers.

-Wake up - I shook Bert, who instantly woke up and grabbed his dagger, but seeing me, relaxed briefly.

-Ah, yeah, my turn, right? Just let me…

-No, we are under attack. Something is coming. Get ready.

That worked like a bucket of cold water. He jumped up and quickly woke up Goldie. It took him a second to wake up, but seeing how serious Bert was, he silently readied his shield and weapon. Meanwhile, I woke up the kid, and closely watching our surroundings, I told him to get behind Goldie and Bert.

-Where and what? - he asked while readying his bow - I can't see shit.

-From the lake. At least six, most likely more. Don't know what, but they are sneaky, I was lucky to notice at all.

We formed a makeshift formation, protecting the kid - Goldie up front, shield up, facing towards the lake, he muttered something and his shield started glowing a dim shade of red. Me and Bert behind him, with the kid hiding between two of us, grasping my tattered coat. We stood that for more than a minute when we finally started seeing some movement in front of us. At first it was just movement of grass, albeit slow, but soon I started distinguishing some long, almost snakelike forms.