Riding on the wagons was considerably easier then the hard walking pace they had been undertaking. Having other guards keeping watch for if something were to attack was also a relief. But more than anything Leon was glad he could focus his efforts on watching the forests knowing that Amanda was safely riding nearby.

She had no complaints either, and he imagined that she was glad to be off her feet. But around most adults she just clamped shut. The gobi merchant she rode next to didn’t seem to mind her presence either.

Leon wasn’t sure why the guard woman seemed so skeptical of her. It was impossible to imagine that Amanda, as adorable as she was, would cause problems for the caravan's security. Even if she had unul blood in her, it would be utter madness to blame a child for the actions of a country.

While he was glad that Amanda could now relax some, he too was glad that riding was also an option for him. While he was used to long walks, he hadn’t been on such a determined journey in some time. These days most of his walking was in the mountains around their home. But then he rarely had cause to stay out more than a day, nor could he really with Amanda at home. His place on the wagon also made it easier to pick up on motion and details at a distance with his aura sight. It was simply a matter of concentration.

“So you can really see with your eyes closed?” Asked Suan, the merchant woman who had offered Leon a space on her wagon.

“It's not quite sight, but it can fill the role in some ways.” Leon offered back.

“Is that why the girl hasn’t opened her eyes? Looking at her with you now, looks like both of you are doing the same thing.” She probed.

“Sort of.” Leon replied, not really wanting to explain Amanda’s situation in any real depth.

“Hmm..” She mused, obviously not happy with the reply, yet she glanced back to the two lyzards that pulled the wagon down the path that was little more than a section of grass that had been worn away from considerable wagon and lyzard traffic. This close to the war front the legion had certainly made heavy use of this path.

Leon tried to focus on the surroundings. Yet he couldn’t help but turn his attention back to Amanda, she had for a time tried to open her eyes, but with the motion of the wagons wasn’t helping, and from what he could tell she had mostly given up on it.

On one hand he wished she would keep trying, but on the other hand Leon knew that her lack of progress was causing her to fall further into the despair that was clinging to her. For now it was probably better that she rest, it wouldn’t be too much longer until they reached Synovo, once there it would be easy to get the draught he needed, and he could fix his mistake. He was certain now however that he should have resisted her curiosity. Instead he had thought no harm could have come from teaching her aura sight, had this not happened he might have continued her education as a magus and his mistake might have allowed something far worse to happen.

The hours continued to pass, and earlier than Leon would have, they called camp for the night.

Leon and Terry, another guard volunteered to get meat for the evening meal. Terry was huma like the rest of the guards, and after borrowing a bow from one of the wagons he and Leon got to work. For Leon it was like drifting back in time, while he hadn’t been a caravan guard, it wasn’t so different to his own experience as captain of a small unit traveling between posts.

When he got back to the camp he found Amanda had curled up next to the lyzards who were enjoying the warmth of the fire. For such large beasts they could be incredibly docile when domesticated. Though that was only on the surface, when cornered they could be as ferocious as the soldier riding on their back. He was hesitant to let Amanda lay so close to them. They passed the small game they had caught to those who had set up a small makeshift kitchen of sorts around the fires. Then he gathered up Amanda carrying her to the other side of the fire. If only to ease his own worry at having her so close to a lyzard, which in his fears might get spooked. He had no real reason to think this might happen, but all the same it was better to be prudent.

They had a simple stew that night. It was a nice change of pace from Leon’s roasted meat, a staple of his he had grown accustomed to in his time in the legion. Amanda seemed quite happy for something different to eat as well, which easily put a smile on Leon’s face.

After that they set up a rotating watch, while most creatures of concern would avoid fire it was a good practice, and Leon was given his own part in the rotation. The next day was much the same, some light conversation sprinkled in, and a few questions he skirted answering. Mostly concerning Amanda, either her eyes, or her blood. He couldn’t blame them after all, an unul child was unusual, even more so he imagined because he claimed to be the father.

“Are you really that girl's father?” Asked Suan, who he sat next to. She was still not willing to give up the conversation even as Leon offered so little in return.

“I am.” Leon said simply. “Do you not see the resemblance?”

“I can’t say it's not there, yet...” Her gaze fixed on Amanda, she seemed to freeze on selecting her next words.

Are you going to say, it's not right?” Leon asked, feeling a bit of old animosity churning in his gut.

“Not that… It's just that I heard that we can’t mix.” She replied instead.

Leon relaxed before understanding the words. “Wait, can’t?” Leon asked, a bit confused by that logic. He hadn’t heard such.

“In the cities unul girls commonly find their way at brothels.” She offered, taking a moment to collect her words, “I’ve heard they are popular among wealthy clients since they can’t catch a child from huma men.” She continued.

Leon pondered that. He and Pluan had been together for little more than three years before Amanda had been conceived. He had heard that some couples had bad luck with such things. It had seemed an obvious explanation. However Pluan had always been so adamant that Amanda was a miracle. At the time he had simply taken it as motherly love for the unborn girl, but it might have just been his own ignorance in the matter, it could have been that she knew something he did not. Besides that, there were more unul refugees now than ever before, and it was possible it was something else entirely.

Finally Leon replied, “She certainly is my child. She has my silver hair, and her mothers violet eyes.” he spoke with a bit of pride on the matter.

“I see...” Replied the merchant. “Well I’ll simply accept your word for it, perhaps you simply got lucky?” She said weakly, but then perhaps to save the conversation before it died, she asked, “Are you on your way back to her mother?” Likely she was wondering why he was towing around a small child without her mother.

“Her mother died giving birth.” Leon replied, a cool air settling into his words even without him wanting to.

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Suan’s shoulders sank, “Ah.. My apologies.” Clearly her hopes of saving the conversation all died with that single misstep.

The conversation was over, clearly two missteps in a row was enough for her. Leon however was glad. Amanda might be the world to him, but the citizens of Vonin tended to hold some prejudice against them, even if subtle. There was a reason they lived alone in the mountains after all. Leon had been that way once, before he met Pluan, when his world had been blood and war. Just thinking of that time made him consider going to the other wagon to hug Amanda, if only to remind himself of his purpose. He instead simply checked on her from his seat, and returned to his watch.

It was a short time after that that something caught Leon’s attention. He glanced over his shoulder, opening his eyes to glance the way they had come. The trees blocking whatever he was picking up on in the aura.

For a few moments he closed his eyes again, it wasn’t the first time he had sensed something, though it was the first time he had felt something so large move in the distance. Unfortunately it was on the edge of his perception, and without a visual backup it might have just been his imagination. He waited, and then again he felt something shift at the periphery of his senses. Like the wind blowing against the back of his neck in a sense. It wasn’t simply his imagination, whatever was back there was trailing them, and it was following slowly, and more worrying, deliberately.

Leon spoke, “I need to speak with the other guards.”

Suan blinked, “What about?” Clearly surprised by his sudden announcement.

“There's something following us.” He said before waving at Neira, the guards woman he had spoken with the other day. She as it had turned out was the one in charge of the caravans safety, it was important to have someone be in charge, less everyone acted on their own and cause complete chaos when something were to happen.

Neira wasted little time making her way over to Leon.

“We are being followed.” He explained, before giving the little information he had gleaned from it, indicating the direction, “It's bigger than a wagon I think, but I can’t be completely sure.” he explained.

“Any chance it just leaves us be?” She asked.

“It's possible, but in my experience if it's following us, it's waiting for it's chance. There's a good chance it will follow us until we stop for the night, unless you think we’ll arrive today, I think we should deal with it directly.” Leon explained.

The head guard considered, glancing back to the trees a few times as if hoping to catch a glance. Finally she shook her head making her decision, “We’ll probably arrive tomorrow, and even then later in the day, and it's going to be getting dark soon. I think you are right, best we deal with it now.”

Neira started making the rounds, talking to the other guards and keeping the discussion between them low key. Leon thought she did her job well, she was calm, and collected as she discussed things with the others. Perhaps his initial reaction to her was slightly off. If anything Leon thought she should have been more decisive. All the same however she was working with guards that knew their own business, and so in this situation conversing over the threat and deciding their course at the end might be prudent. Leon was just used to the way the legion did it. He had decided, the unit acted, simple as that. He supposed that outside the legion it wasn’t so cut and dry.

While he waited for her to return he reached into his pack, and pulled out his battle bracers. Taking a moment to fix one to each arm, the gemstones set into each glowing in his aura sight. While he could use them in the backpack, doing so might ruin the bag, besides he wouldn’t want to fight with the pack on.

“There's going to be a fight?” Suan asked.

“Unless it feels intimidated when we show our hand.” Leon offered, it wasn’t likely. He had seen beasts attack whole platoons of legionears, practically suicidal behavior. He had always heard that they were more driven by hunger than logic.

He waited until Neira returned. The other two guards pulled in with her. The first man had a long spear ready for use, the other was Terry, his large shield with some fairly brutal spikes in place on it, a blade at his hip. Neira had her buckler on one arm, and a short sword at her hip. All in all they could probably deal with the threat, especially when he factored in their lyzard mounts.

Neira spoke up as they came up alongside the wagon Leon was riding, “Us four will tempt it from the trees and deal with it.” Glancing at Leon she finished, “Are you ready?”

Leon nodded, “Just a moment..” He said pushing off to the side and dropping down to the ground. It was an awkward motion, but his body could manage. He pulled his cloak free, and grabbed his pack, wrapping one inside the other. That done he jogged over to Amanda who was likely oblivious of what was happening just riding along on the other wagon.

He moved up besides them, and dropped the wrapped pack besides her, “Watch over this for me?”

Amanda nodded, pulling the pack over to herself easily enough, “What's following us?” She asked in a whisper. Leon chuckled to himself, of course she had heard with those ears of hers. “A beast, we’re going to confront it.” He said in his usual confident tone.

Amanda nodded, and was quiet. He didn’t quite expect her to fully understand, but she at least knew why not to go deep into the forest. Leon left her with the others, and fell back with the other three guards, the caravan pushing on ahead at pace.

As Leon approached Neira explained her plan, “Terry will try to bait it. From there me and Finic will flank it from either side.” She turned to Leon, “I’m afraid I’m not sure how to fit you into the plan.”

This was a bit of a complicated subject, not simply because trying to explain what a magus could, or would do in combat was both a personal and complex topic. But mostly because he had no intention of using his usual methods around others. He had secretly hoped that it would be an uneventful ride south, but at this point he had to contribute something.

He decided to limit his approach to the fight, focus on using a single well known approach, and hope that would be enough. With his mind made up, he offered what he thought was a simple explanation, “I don’t have blades so treat me like an archer.” It wasn’t entirely accurate, but line of sight and friendly fire were parallels.

She analyzed his explanation before speaking, “Archers aren't common in this line of work, they aren't lethal enough. I imagine that's not true for you?”

Leon let out a breath, and realized his mistake, “How about this instead, engage it, if you think you can handle it without any issues I’ll leave it in your hands. If it is too dangerous, we’ll switch to hit-and-run, I can hit it as long as I can get a clear shot, but I can’t shoot at it unless the area beyond it is equally clear.”

“In case you miss?” Terry asked.

“Or hit, I don’t plan on pulling my punches in this case, so give me a proper opening and hopefully one shot will wound it enough that finishing it off shouldn’t be an issue.” Leon said not entirely honestly.

“If you can do it all on your own why not just take care of it.” Finic asked, his words carried a note of annoyance in them. Likely he didn’t like Leon’s confidence. After all, Leon had implied that one attack from himself might be enough to deal with the threat.

Leon couldn’t help but be somewhat annoyed, he was committed to his lie at this point, and the reality was that he already hated it. Subterfuge just wasn’t his usual style, and he honestly did think they wouldn’t even need him. He couldn't help but wonder if it would have been better to travel alone. Then again he had his reasons for lying, his eyes flicking to Neira at the thought. He was trusting his gut so far, the only way forward was wading full well into the swamp.

“Engaging with numbers is the safest course, and my skills are best utilized while it's distracted. I’m not over confident to want to face anything alone when I can function more reliably as support.” Leon lied, it was at least inline with his own plan. “Regardless of good sense, the stronger it is the more resilient it will be to any attack, and it makes no sense to put a ranged fighter in range of a threat.” He added after a moment. Truth in any sense, though it supported his lie. Honestly, he wouldn’t hold back if it came to it, but until then best that they think of him as just the ranged support for now.

Neira let out a sigh, “Enough of that. I think it makes sense. We’ve already worked together well enough before Leon joined us. Chances are that we’ll do just as well with this encounter as the last. If we aren't effective we’ll break off and give Leon the chance he needs, and hopefully that will be enough for the rest of us to finish it off.” She said completely focused on the task before them.

Leon sighed in relief, and glanced back towards the trees. “And just in time too. It's coming.” He said as the distant form in the aura began moving towards them, obviously picking up that they had broken off from the rest of the group.