My eyes began to shut. I stared at the Chacali’s face. He was still ready to fight, with a hungry look in his eyes. He lifted his claw, about to strike me. The predator had just caught his prey. My consciousness began to fade. Would I be greeted by Anubis again? Would some other spirit greet me? Maybe through the River Styx this time?

I waited for the pain of the claw attack, but it didn’t come. Although all my senses were in shock, I opened my eyes. The leader was no longer conscious. Could he have died? Something or someone placed my hand over their shoulder and dragged me.

“Coming,” The figure said, “They coming.”

I felt the helper’s fur on my shoulders as he dragged me down to the river, where the boys were waiting for me. Once I was safe… I drifted into unconsciousness.

The iciness of the river kept me half-awake as they floated me down the river. I could tell it was the boy's presence that surrounded me, but slowly, a dream overtook me. I was in a chamber I had never seen before. It was some kind of ritualistic place, with religious tapestries covering the stone walls.

“Egen.”

A sunken voice called at me from the hole in the center of the room. Surrounding the hole was intricate sigils that must have taken someone weeks to paint. I looked at it in confusion. The voice was like a heartbeat. The thumping of each calling moved me.

“Egen.”

Everytime it said my name I took a step closer. The hole was so dark that I could not even see the edges. It was merely black. I stared down it, waiting, anxious even to hear my name again. Had it called me one more time I likely would have jumped in… but instead, out of the void of the hole, two red eyes opened.

I jutted awake, opening my day with a scream. Porta was tending to my wounds, grabbing me instantly.

“What happened?” I asked

“You suffered a mana drain.” Porta said. That was the first time I’d heard her speak. Even the way she spoke was gentle.

“God… I had this awful nightmare. Like there was some monster waiting for me.”

“Nightmares are common,” Another voice emerged behind Porta. It was Barth, “So is bleeding. You used a spell after your body was out of mana, your body needed to pull it from your very soul to activate it. It wore on you greatly.”

Porta placed rags soaked in river water on my head. The iciness cooled my brain down.

“Where are we?” I asked

“Not far enough from the Chacali camp,” Barth said, “We’ll need to move quickly. But we couldn't drag you that far.”

“Where are the boys?” I asked.

“Hunting for lunch,” A third voice appeared. Soft. Demure. It was Yajaira, she approached me. Her once impeccable clothing was torn and sullied. Shame. That dress probably cost more than my house, “They should be back. Once you’re better, we’ll head out.”

“You three are okay?” I asked. Yajaira nodded her head, “We are. But we are far from home.”

All of the boys returned, some of them holding lunch in their hands. Kaavi had caught three groundhogs, and Huy had brought back a number of berries.

Stolen novel; please report.

“You’re okay!” Excitedly, Kaavi approached and hugged me, the dead groundhogs still in his hands.

“Yeah. My head still hurts. I turned to Porta, “Thank you for tending to me.”

Porta looked at Yajaira, “It was under my master’s orders.”

Yajaira looked at me expectantly, “Thank you as well, Yajaira… for ordering someone to tend to me?”

“It was really no trouble.”

“But how did I get out of there?”

“You have our newest recruit to thank for that,” Kaavi said. I turned around and saw Ynec, who had caught five fish by himself, show me his sharp teeth in the form of a smile. He waved.

“Ynec! You’re okay. That’s amazing.” I said. “So we’re all alive and relatively unharmed?”

“Well…” They looked at Ruglio, who still had the crude bandages from the deep laceration.

“Geez, Ruglio,” I said, “You’re the smallest one and you took a cleave to the shoulder. I’d say that’s pretty heroic.”

Ruglio smiled at me. Two of his baby teeth had fallen out so he showed me his holed smile, “Thanks boss.”

“And Ghala?”

“Still moping by the river.” Yajaira said, “He regretted not going with you all when you all had such great stories to tell.”

“Serves him right, I guess,” I said, then, I got up and removed the rags. I handed it back to Porta and thanked her.

“So,” I said, “Looks like we’ve got some eating to do. Unfortunately, like Barth said, we haven’t made much movement from the camp. I imagine once they collect their mounts, they’ll start a search for us. Not just for their missing food, but also for their missing prisoner,” I looked at Ynec who cringed, “Which means that the best thing we can do right now is move as far as we can.”

“One problem” the bard said, “We have no clue what direction our home is. We don’t even know where the road is.”

I looked around. It was mostly brush and hills. For a while. We could head down the river. It was likely we would find civilization… eventually. But also, there was a chance it would be another encampment of Chacali, or enemy territory, or something even worse.

I sighed, “The best thing that makes sense for now is… downriver.”

“Hey, dummy. If they’ve got mounts,” Ghala started, “And we’re taking the most obvious route, then they’ll eventually catch up to us.”

“How long do you think we could be from a town?”! I asked, “Probably not more than two days or so away.

“We could be lost for a week! We’d still have to fend for food and shelter! We could die!” Ghala kept listing his list of complaints.

“Hold on, let me think.”

I found a fallen log and sat on it. They all looked at me as I thought. I noticed them and became annoyed, “You all can stand to do some thinking too.”

They turned away, no longer staring at me. I sighed. I tried to think of a way out, but all I could think about was home. Home. My mother. Hestiana. Timu. Fuck. She was right. I shouldn't have been out. How often in the span of a day had I narrowly avoided death? I had still not fully avoided it. My home. My bed. Why did I have to join the stupid Junior Paladins anyway? A tear escaped my eye and rolled down my right cheek as I thought of my bed, or Hestiana’s lychee juice. We had no clue where we were, I didn’t have any clue how to get us back and frankly, the wrong move might end up with us suffering death or the hands of those fateful Chacali again.

I looked up at the skies. The tear that rolled down my cheek triggered a light that revealed a gold imprint on my cheek. It shined when Yajaira finally noticed.

“Egen!” Yajaria said as she pointed at me.

“What?! I asked.

She looked at my cheek, “You’ve got a… a…”

The light from my cheek projected itself onto the earth. It created a gilded road for me to see, spanning east of us, through the river and over the hills. “Can you all see that?”

“The insignia on your cheek?” Yajaira asked.

“The what?” I touched my cheek and I could see the light bouncing off of my fingers, “What is this?”

“It’s… some kind of spell, right?” Kaavi asked.

“It’s a God’s Filigree.” Yajaria said.

“A God’s Filigree?” I repeated.

“It means you’ve been touched by the gods.” Yajaira said. She approached me, her face four inches from mine as she studied the mark, “It’s the seal of Anubis.” Yajaira said in amazement.

“Huh?” I said, “Oh right. Anubis. We’ve met before.”

“You have?!” A chorus asked in unison.

“Yeah,” I said, “She and I are basically freaking boys. We’re like that, only tighter.”

“What was she like?”

I thought about Anubis and thought it best to keep up an appearance of godliness, “She is so regal and just… doesn’t make dog puns. Finds it beneath her.”

“What does the fligry do?” Kaavi asked, trying his best to pronounce the new word.

Suddenly, the name of the effect hit my mind like a rock in water. Just plopping itself down and making itself at home.

I stood up, and stared at the conjured road before me, “Homeward Bound.” That was it, that was the name of the spell, “Guys! I think this road takes us back home!”