On what would be their last night on the road, Gideon insisted that they get some sleep instead of training. Surelin had protested, of course, but he was firm.

“Training is over, now,” he said. “It’s time for us to readjust our sleep schedules.”

Surelin had looked upset at the first part of his statement, but grudgingly agreed with the rest.

They both slept on their benches, wrapped up within their bedrolls and several blankets Kara had donated to them. When morning came, they helped the caravanners with their chores—feeding the oxen, leading them back to the wagons, and hitching them up to their yokes. Gideon watched with pride as Surelin easily lifted one of their wagon’s yokes for the caravanners.

She’s come a long way.

After the chores were finished, Gideon and Surelin hopped back up into the rear wagon. Instead of setting the gate into position, though, Gideon decided to leave it open. He sat down on the wagon’s open lip, his feet dangling down by the road. Surelin sat down beside him, and soon after the caravan set off for the last time.

He’d grown up seeing Loso’s fall season every year up until his twelfth, and on plenty more occasions afterwards, but no matter how many times he saw it he still found it beautiful. In the cold morning air, a thick mist hung heavily over the forest, and the dawning sun cast brilliant, shining rays within it. To the south, the treetops of the surrounding forest spread throughout the narrow valley they were leaving behind. The leaves on the trees had not fallen yet, and were wet with dew. Gideon felt entranced by the panorama of vivid fall colors, shrouded in mist.

The world’s natural beauty had always been a unique source of comfort for him. It served as a reminder that nature had its own plan, one that superseded all others.

“How long is it until we reach Loso?” Surelin asked quietly.

She was staring out at the forest with a melancholy look when he turned to her.

“From here? Five hours, maybe. If they go slow.”

“Hm.”

He studied her face. “Have you thought any more about what you’ll do once we reach the city?”

“...Yes, of course I have. My grandmother owned a villa somewhere in the merchant quarter. I’ve been trying so hard to remember the address on her letters, but.…”

She shook her head.

“Is she still there, then?”

“I don’t have the slightest idea,” she said moodily, then turned to him. “What about you? Now that my training is over, I suppose you’ll just run off somewhere. To spend your money on alcohol, no doubt.”

“Actually, I was going to ask to tag along with you.”

Her eyes widened with surprise. “...Really?”

“Yeah, sure. I want to see how you use what I taught you. At least for a little while, anyway.”

A smile suddenly cracked her glum expression.

“If you’re okay with it,” he continued.

She nodded eagerly, her bad mood disappearing. “Of course I am!”

They looked away from each other, back out towards the forest. Surelin’s feet began to kick idly in the air.

Gideon’s ears perked up as he heard shouting from the direction of the lead wagon. Soon after, the caravan halted abruptly. They traded confused looks before dropping off the wagon.

Kara ran up to meet them right as they made contact with the ground. She held a spyglass in her hand.

“Gideon! We could use your help with something.”

He raised an eyebrow before spotting a plume of black smoke on the northern horizon behind her—just over the hill they were currently traveling up.

Wordlessly, Gideon beckoned at her to lead on, and the three of them jogged past the rest of the caravan up to the top of the hill. Wallace was already at the top, lying prone on the highway and staring at something to the north. A sheathed broadsword hung from his belt.

The three of them went prone and crawled up to join him. Less than a mile away to the north, several wagons laid on their sides on the highway, burning brightly and spewing black smoke.

Kara raised her spyglass. “It’s another caravan. Unless they decided to push their own wagons over and light them on fire, I’d say they got attacked. Very recently too.”

Gideon asked for the spyglass, and she handed it over. Through it, he scanned the area around the wagons carefully.

“You haven’t seen anyone down there?” he asked.

“No, nothing,” Wallace replied.

Gideon frowned. There were no people in sight, but also no oxen, and no bodies. It didn’t make much sense.

“Do you recognize that caravan at all?” he asked Kara.

She sighed angrily. “No. I have absolutely no fucking idea what’s going on.”

“Who attacked them?” Surelin asked.

Gideon set down the spyglass and looked over at Kara.

She shrugged, frowning. “I just said I have no idea. We’re only a few hours out from Loso. I’ve never heard of any bandits with balls big enough to attack a ‘van so close to the city.”

He raised the spyglass again, this time scanning the forest around the burning caravan. The trees were packed too tightly to see anything within their midst from their position on the hilltop. All he could make out were two impenetrable walls made of trees, a lifeless, burning caravan, and the highway stretching for miles past the wrecked wagons to the top of another, distant hill.

“If we don’t see them, it's likely they know we’re here,” he said. “Best guess is they’re waiting in the forest around the caravan to ambush us.”

“Fantastic,” Kara said ruefully.

“I’ll go down there alone and check it out.”

“Alone?” Surelin immediately asked.

“Yeah. If we’re going to spring a trap, it’d be better to just risk one person. And I’m the most likely to survive something like that.”

“No,” Kara said, “you’re not going alone. That’s stupid. I’ll come with you.”

Gideon frowned at her. “You coming with me is even stupider. You’re the leader, so stay and lead.”

“I’ll go with you!” Surelin nearly shouted.

He shook his head. “No fucking way. I’m not—”

“I’ll do it,” Wallace interrupted.

Everyone turned to look at him. He looked back, blinking rapidly.

“Uh…I just think I’m the best person for it.”

Gideon and Kara looked at each other. She nodded.

“Alright. Let me go get my shit on,” Gideon said.

He began to crawl backwards from the hilltop, and when he was completely out of sight of the burning caravan, got to his feet and walked back towards the rear wagon. Surelin followed him.

“Why aren’t you taking me?! You know I’m a better fighter than Wallace!”

“This isn’t a situation where I can afford to babysit you.”

Surelin’s outrage was instant. As Gideon climbed up into the wagon, she shouted at him.

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“I don’t need to be babysat! I’m good at this! You said—”

He interrupted her while quickly throwing on his armor and claymore. “Surelin! You have no actual combat experience, and we don’t know a fucking thing about what’s going on. This is the wrong situation for you to help in.”

She glared at him, and her hands curled into tight fists as he dropped off the wagon, fully geared.

“Your time is definitely coming,” he said. “But this isn’t it. Stay with Kara. You’ve still got a very good chance of getting into a real fight, today.”

He turned and walked away without waiting for a reply. Surelin followed him, holding her tongue. Wallace was standing a few feet down from the top, waiting.

“If we get attacked, you better come rescue our asses,” Gideon told Kara.

She scoffed. “I guess we’ll have to. It’s either go forward, or turn around and head back to Levidia.”

Wallace got into step beside Gideon and together they crested the top of the hill. Gideon heard Surelin murmuring something to Kara behind him as they began to descend down the hill’s slope.

“You set, kid?” Gideon asked.

Wallace nodded, but sounded nervous. “My ma and pa have a place in the city. I really want to fall asleep in my own bed tonight.”

“...Just keep your eyes open, okay? Scan your side of the treeline.”

He nodded again.

Dread settled in Gideon’s stomach like a molten clump of iron as they approached the burning caravan. It was only five hundred feet or so from the top of the hill, but it felt like much longer. He looked into the forest as they walked, his eyes lingering on the shadows between the trees, but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

The only noise beyond their boots crunching in the dirt was the popping and hissing of the flames. The forest around them was still and silent. Gideon and Wallace came to a stop with about thirty feet of space remaining, staring at the wagons as they burned.

Gideon saw movement at the far end of the wagons, and immediately pulled out his claymore. Wallace balked at him, but then drew his broadsword.

Two young Losoan men with cropped black hair, completely naked except for weapons in their hands, exited the overturned wagon at the caravan’s rear. They strutted past the rest of the burning caravan directly towards Gideon and Wallace, either unaware of their nudity or indifferent to it. One of them held a large mace—the other held a claymore almost identical to Gideon’s.

“...The fuck?” Wallace muttered under his breath. Gideon was utterly taken aback as he watched the men approach.

They came to a stop ten feet away. Their pupils were heavily dilated, and the one holding the mace kept blinking at Gideon.

“Why did you attack this caravan?” he asked cautiously.

The claymore man replied, speaking slowly and halting after every word, as if he was trying to remember how to speak.

“You…don’t…they…uh…attacked…?”

Gideon was trying to make sense of what he said, and almost didn’t react in time when the claymore man lunged at him.

The Losoans screamed like banshees as they launched themselves into an attack. Gideon leapt backwards to avoid the claymore man’s first swing, and saw Wallace doing the same as the naked maceman lunged at him. The claymore man pressed Gideon relentlessly, launching furious thrusts that he just barely managed to deflect or avoid.

He’d felt this kind of pressure from an opponent before, but in the heat of the moment he couldn’t remember where from. The claymore man continued to push Gideon back up the highway towards the top of the hill, his attacks coming too quickly for Gideon to do anything but remain on the defensive. He retreated backwards almost at a run, and saw Wallace backing away from his opponent as well, towards the forest on the highway’s east side.

The claymore man let out a fearsome roar and lunged recklessly at Gideon. He dodged out of the way, and saw a chance to counter. But as he moved to strike, his foot came down on an uneven bump on the highway, and suddenly he was tumbling to the ground.

Gideon recovered quickly, scrambling backwards on his bottom back down the hill as the claymore man pursued. He pointed his claymore up at him with one hand to ward him off, the only option available to him from the ground.

Just as the man took a striking position above Gideon, something large crashed into his back. Gideon heard the air leave the man's lungs with a grunt and watched, dumbfounded, as the man sailed over him and landed on the highway a few feet away.

Surelin had launched herself into a flying tackle at the man’s back, and she landed on top of him as they hit the ground. She immediately began to try and wrest control of the claymore from the stunned, naked man.

The claymore man wasn't stunned for long, though, and they began to flip over and roll about on the highway, wrestling for the sword. Gideon leapt to his feet and ran towards them, and aimed a precise thrust at the man’s ribs. His claymore penetrated the naked man exactly where he’d aimed it—between his third and fourth rib.

He let out a tormented scream as Gideon stabbed him relentlessly, over and over. Surelin rolled out of the way and laid on her front, watching with wide, frightened eyes as Gideon killed him.

When the man finally stopped moving, Gideon looked up. Kara and three other caravanners were sprinting towards Wallace, who was still struggling against his opponent. His left arm was bent at an alarming angle, clearly broken. But his sword arm was still working, and it moved frantically to block and deflect blows from his assailant.

Surelin leapt to her feet as the caravanners crashed into the naked maceman. Kara’s sword found him first, cutting his belly open. He was knocked to the ground by the others, blood and intestines spilling out onto the highway, howling like a demon as the other caravanners moved in and cut him to pieces. The howling didn’t end until one of them stabbed him under the chin.

Once it was done, the caravanners ran to Wallace’s aid. He moaned loudly as they checked his broken arm.

“Time to fucking go!” Kara screamed. “Everyone back to the ‘van, now!”

Gideon and Surelin shared an alarmed look before they turned and ran back up the hill. The caravanners followed closely behind, supporting Wallace as he hobbled along, groaning with pain while his broken arm swung about limply.

The remaining caravanners who hadn’t run to the rescue had gathered at the top of the hill. Kara screamed commands at them as she ran, and soon everyone was throwing themselves up into the wagons.

The rear wagon was already moving when the pair reached it. Gideon flung himself up into it first, then pulled Surelin up after him. The wagon rattled and shook heavily as the caravanners urged the oxen to move as fast as they could.

Gideon sat on his bench with his claymore still drawn, watching the forest intently for movement as the caravan crested the hill at full tilt. Surelin did the same, her sword ready at her hip. Before long, the caravan was rolling past the burning wrecks and the two naked, bloodied bodies lying in the road.

He didn’t start to relax until they’d reached the next hill and passed over it. The normally quiet oxen began to bellow and groan loudly, and soon after the caravan slowed down a bit, giving the animals some well-deserved relief.

A sigh exploded from Surelin as Gideon sheathed his claymore.

“Wow! That was…um.”

“Scary?” Gideon offered.

She nodded quickly. “I just…my goodness! I can’t believe how I fought that person!”

“I can’t either,” he said flatly. “After all that fucking sword training, your first instict is to tackle the guy?”

“Wha—” she spluttered, “I didn’t—I wasn’t thinking! I had to help you, and that was just…the first thing that came to mind!”

He grinned at her. “It’s alright. You did good. Thanks for saving my ass.”

A huge, delighted smile spread across her face. She looked down by his feet.

“...You’re welcome,” she murmured happily.

Gideon tried to look away from her, but couldn’t. She’d risked herself very bravely for him, and her smile was very beautiful.

He only looked away when she looked back up at him. They were both quiet for a long time, until it seemed relatively safe to relax again. No one else had appeared to threaten them, and the caravan was already far enough away that he felt another attack was unlikely.

“Gideon?”

“Hmm?”

“Do you know why they were naked?”

He shook his head. “That’s what’s weird. A caravan getting attacked isn’t strange at all, it’s the fact they were buck naked.”

“But did they say anything to you? Why did they just…?”

“One of them did say something, but it didn’t really make sense.” He shrugged. “I think they were like that one guy in the arena.”

“I see.…”

She looked at him thoughtfully for a while before continuing. “Well…I guess you owe me for saving your life.”

He scoffed loudly. “Uh, no, you just owe me one less.”

“What? No! I literally just saved you, so now you owe me one!”

“That’s not how it fucking works! I’ve saved you four times, so you still owe me three!”

She was apoplectic. “What—that’s not true! Four times?!”

“Yeah, four!” He leaned forward towards her, and lifted a hand with curled up fingers at her, raising a finger with each instance.

“I saved you at the arena. Then at the inn. Then outside of the forum. And then for the fourth time with the Lake Men.”

He wiggled his raised fingers at her. “Four. Count ‘em.”

“Put your fingers down!” she grinned. “Three of those don’t even count since you were saving yourself as well!”

He held them closer to her face, smiling. “Four! Four times…!

She grabbed his hand, laughing, and tried to push his fingers down.

“You have to owe me one, now! Put these down!”

Gideon was laughing too, struggling against her grip. “No, I won’t!”

The wagon’s gate abruptly unlatched, and Kara pulled herself up into the wagon. Gideon and Surelin pulled their hands away from each other quickly, but not before Kara noticed.

She laughed gaily as she sat down next to Gideon. “Sorry, I didn’t think you guys would be flirting already.”

“We weren’t flirting!” they said simultaneously.

Kara looked between them with a bemused smile. “Uh-huh. Well, if I’m not interrupting anything then I’d like to offer you both my thanks.”

Surelin looked quite flustered as she replied. “What for?”

“For being good passengers. You two were quite a windfall for us. If it had been just Wallace and myself going down there, I don’t know if we would’ve made it.”

Gideon had forgotten about Wallace, and now felt a bit bad for messing around with Surelin.

“How’s he doing?”

“Well, our best doc is dead, but it doesn’t take a genius to see that his arm is very fucking broken. We’re gonna take him to a doc as soon as we arrive, ‘till then he’s just gonna have to suffer. Hopefully they don’t saw the thing off, but.…” She shrugged. “Either way I can give him a hefty bonus, thanks to you two.”

Gideon simply shrugged. Surelin glanced at him, then nodded at Kara.

“We’re all gonna split up after the goods are sold,” she continued. “Two days from now we’ll meet up at the Black Alps, over in the merchant’s quarter.”

He nodded. “I know the place.”

“I figured you would," Kara smiled. "You two should be there.”

Surelin and Gideon made eye contact. He nodded again.

“We'll try,” Surelin said.

“Good! My brother is the owner, so I’ll be staying there. You can come see me whenever you want." She kicked Surelin's boot lightly. "Especially you, princess. In fact, if you don’t come see me I'll hang you by your britches.”

Gideon’s brows raised with surprise, and he looked at Surelin.

“You told her?”

She studied his face for a moment before replying. “...Yes. I trust her.”

“I don’t know what you two are about to get up to,” Kara said, “but you’ll always be welcome in my ‘van. If things don’t work out, I’d be willing to hire you both.”

They smiled at her.

“Thank you so much, Kara," said Surelin. "For everything."

Kara grinned at her, and gave Gideon a friendly smack on the knee.

“I’ll let you two get back to it.”

Surelin looked embarrassed as Kara dropped off the wagon. Gideon made eye contact with her briefly, then they both looked out at the passing forest.

He didn’t know what the future held in store for either of them, but it felt good to be around Surelin. For now, that was more than enough.