I had once heard the expression, nervous like a cat in a room full of rocking-chairs. Somehow, it was a lot less funny when walking through the gate of a town mostly composed of centaurs but it would have looked extremely strange to the group that had moved onto the old, imperial road if we had passed the town by, as late in the day as we got there. If we had moved on, it would have been obvious that we wanted to avoid attention or had something to hide, causing us to become a topic for conversation and getting us the attention we wanted to avoid. And so, trying to look into all directions at once, hoping to spot trouble before it could occur. At the same time, remembering about that fun, little trait I had chosen to pick at character-creation, I stuck in Sigmir’s shadow, not quite using magic to shift into the shadows but trying to make myself unnoticeable.

There was a guard at the gate and, once again, we made Adra into the face of our party with the rest of us walking behind her. The guard asked a few more questions, mostly how long we were planning to stay and where we were coming from, but it wasn’t as thorough as the questioning we had received in Kolyug. I had taken a look at their gates from afar, with Lenore’s help, and knew that there was no magic imbued in or around them. With that in mind, Lenore and Ylva had retreated into their Hallows, giving us an ace in the hole, if we needed it.

Still, from my hideout in Sigmir’s shadow, I wasn’t too happy with what I was seeing, there was a clear tinge of ill-concealed interest on the guard’s face when he let his gaze roam over my Sigmir. I wasn’t sure if it was some sort of macho-warrior-culture idiocy or something else, if the description of the powerful, axe-wielding Giantblood-woman had somehow spread. While I somewhat knew that my perception was biased, I thought that she was the one standing out the most, simply because there were few of her kind in this area and fewer still that had inherited the old blood as strongly as she had. Adra, on the other hand, if you didn’t know better, she could pass for a number of species, Rai was obviously a wolfman but beastman, especially wolves, were one of the most common species in the region. And lastly, myself, as long as I kept my hood up and the shadows around me, I would be able to remain unnoticed. But without those, I would most likely stand out just as bad as Sigmir did, my race quite exotic, at least in this area.

I sighed in relief when we made it past the gates and further into the town. It was more like Yaksha than Kolyung, the mighty troll-city still standing out as a marvel of magical engineering. The town we were now in was built from timber harvested in the surrounding forest and it was quite obvious why it had been built here. The ancient, imperial road had a crossroad with one just like itself, making me realise again just how complex the project had been.

“Is it just me or are we being watched?” I asked Sigmir, speaking in a whisper. She glanced around, frowning, before muttering, just loud enough for me to hear, “I’m not sure. Maybe?”

She sounded not sure of herself but, for the last ten days, ever since we had started moving on the road, I had felt something, I couldn’t describe it. It was if the hairs in the back of my neck wanted to stand up, an instinct I couldn’t begin to fathom that was screaming at me that a monster was hiding behind the curtain or under the bed. It had made me a little grouchy but I had been completely unable to point a finger where it came from.

Together with Lenore and Adra, I had tried everything, from warding the surrounding area to enveloping us in magic, hoping for some foreign influence to show up but nothing. We had tried to clear our minds of everything but what the peculiar senses that allowed us to perceive magic told us and delved into the Astral River, looking for what was haunting me.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

And found nothing.

But here, in this town of our enemies, I was having that feeling even stronger than before, yes, I wasn’t able to pick up more than a general interest in the newcomers, maybe an increased interest in Sigmir. Where was that presence that I had felt stalking us? And who was that presence.

At first, I had thought that it might be some centaur-spellcaster who somehow had managed to trace us from the attack on the centaur-camps. Maybe due to the blood magic I had used to defile the area, I could easily see something like that leaving a lasting, magical mark on a person, if only to keep players, Travellers, from using it as an easy ploy in warfare. But if a centaur was able to track us, why hadn’t there been a hunt for us, or at least an attempt to bring us down? It didn’t make sense.

Another possibility I had considered was whoever had made the infernal bear near Kolyug, that maybe that spellcaster, who I assumed was quite skilled and high-level, had traced us, possibly to get revenge for killing his bear and warning the city. It felt more realistic, that such a character had the power and ability to come after us, but the motivation felt flimsy. And the simple fact that over a month had passed since we had encountered the bear made me question the idea even further.

So, without knowing who or what was after us, I was trying to figure out why it was worse in the town. I quickly realised that it was an exercise in folly, that without further information, there was nothing I could do to find our enemy. But I could keep my eyes open and my magic at the ready to defend us, if the enemy that was giving me the creeps this whole time made a move.

I stayed in Sigmir’s shadow as Adra made her way to one of the stores, we had already agreed that we would stay in a group as much as possible, and bought supplies for the continuation of our journey. We had managed to restock most of what we needed from the centaur-convoy we had raided and we had the ability to live of the land if need be, but some supplies were difficult or annoying to gather, which was why we bought them. At the same time, Adra sold quite a bit of the raw materials we had gathered over our journey, the pelts, claws and teeth of the game we had hunted and even a few interesting herbs we had found.

She haggled fast and furious, more than once threatening to simply walk away, telling the merchant that we would head further west and into civilisation anyway and we could just take our goods there. It was fascinating to watch, especially for me who had grown up in a society of plenty, where people went to the supermarket or department store and prices were not up for negotiation, at least on an individual level.

Finally, after a prolonged verbal battle, she shook hands with the merchant and the wide gestures and loud voices of the negotiation were replaced with friendly smiles and dexterous handling of the agreed upon exchange. The switch in demeanor was bad enough to give me whiplash, but by now, I trusted Adra to look out for us. Even if there was a small, nagging voice that told me to watch out, that I had trusted Chris to watch for my interest as well, which ultimately had cost me Titania and my gaming-career. I pushed the doubt away, instead focusing my attention on more fruitful pursuits, mostly keeping an eye on my surroundings. If Adra ever decided to betray me, I had a small crystal of hard ice, hidden deep in my magical bag, with her blood in it. It was my personal insurance policy, one none of the others knew about, even Lenore only knew about it due to our mental connection. She didn’t approve, wanting to trust the others, but understood.

We left the store, Adra with a wide smile on her face, and continued on, towards the inn the merchant had recommended. The town, I still didn’t know its name, mostly because i hadn’t listened, had multiple, mostly due to the minor crossroad. The inn was quite impressive, large and imposing, quite obviously made with a variety of races in mind. I also noticed that a smaller side-door had the symbol of the Adventurer’s Guild carved into it, making me wonder if the building was doing double duty but before I could even consider investigating, Adra pushed the door open and I followed Sigmir inside.