Emily let a small amount of source move from her wrist into the Cardinex. A red arrow appeared in the front-facing gem and pointed in a south-easterly direction. When Atticus found Emily looking at the bracelet early this morning she was shocked to find out it was more than just a simple piece of jewelry.

As it turned out a Cardinex was a compass of sorts, but instead of showing the cardinal directions, it pointed to the last place it was set to. This was normally done in large cities with the intention of helping people navigate the wilds. It was also given as a token to people who were leaving home for the late time so that they always knew which way home was.

Parents often times gave it to their kids when they moved cities.

As luck would have it, Emily had inadvertently stumbled across one that still worked. If she remembered correctly, the seller had said it was in his family for a while so probably a grandmother or something, but that didn’t matter.

What mattered was that it was still set in another city.

Atticus actually had one of these at one stage, but his had been set to the keep.

They couldn’t be certain that the Cardinex was leading them to Lorethil, but it was set to somewhere down south so that was all that mattered at this stage.

Once they had discovered the Cardinex, Atticus had been in a significantly better mood as they traveled.

The real problem now was two-fold.

Firstly, trolls were far more difficult to deal with when it was just the two of them. Emily had taken to lifting them into the air and slamming them back to the group repeatedly until she could finish them off with her scepter. They couldn’t do this however when there were too many gathered at once so they had to run into packs of elves and use them as scapegoats, and they weren’t always around to take advantage of.

The second problem was food. Emily had done a tally when they’d taken shelter last night, and they only had about five days of rations for the three of them. Six if they pushed it, and Mist ate elves. Though Emily had already tried to get him to eat the little shits and he had outright refused, though with the smell coming off them, Emily didn’t blame him. Finding food was more important than ever and they were in one of the hardest places to do it.

They had long since left the lake behind them and now all they saw was rocky mountainous landscapes. The only glimmer of good news was that the rain had let up somewhat, slowing to a smattering of drizzle and fog. However, the reduced visibility made it difficult to see the ground, and with trolls known to hide just beneath the surface, it wasn’t Emily’s favorite game. A massive beast could suddenly erupt from the dirt, popping out like an ugly daisy.

Atticus assured her though that he could detect them, apparently, trolls were warm-blooded blood but their metabolism when quiet when there was no pray. If Emily stepped on a troll there was a noticeable change and Atticus could just make it out if he knew what he was looking for.

So traveling like this their trio advanced through the day and raided another elven hovel when they needed to rest.

Emily had gathered twenty-one lives over the day as she could slow their pace down enough to kill the trolls in range of her title.

Emily took out their rations as she sat down to rest by the lantern. Sadly there was not much to burn in this place and what they did find was too damp to burn so they couldn’t afford to set a cozy fire.

“That’s five days of rations left, and we’re almost out of oil too. We’d have more to eat if this big guy wasn’t so fussy,” Emily said sourly as she chucked the brick of rations at Mist. The Rime wolf gobbled the whole thing in two bites, chewing through the wax and swallowing it all down.

Breaking the seal on her ration, Emily tore it in half and passed one half to Atticus, who nodded in appreciation. As she bit into her portion, a pure coconut flavor flooded her senses, sending chills down her spine as she forced the horridly textured bar down her throat.

Atticus on the other hand chewed his slowly.

“We’re reaching the center of the mountains now. I’ve only crossed this range once, but if it's anything like the last time we might be able to find some food there. The problem is we’ll need to avoid the peaks as that's where the wyrms nest.”

This caught Emily’s attention and she tore her eyes away from the flickering flame, asking the first question that came to mind.

“Are they edible?”

Atticus’s face paled slightly as he locked eyes with her.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“I don’t know, but I don’t plan on us finding out.”

Emily scratched her head.

“I guess, but it’s best to plan for the worst”

Atticus shot Emily a concerned glare.

“I heard from Kael that you don’t shy away from a challenge, but this is one we should avoid at all costs.”

Emily wore an amused expression but nodded.

“Don’t worry, things are hard enough as it is. I’ve no interest in picking a fight… I’m just saying that if one happened to come knocking, I have a score to settle with those beasties.”

Atticus tugged at his beard, not looking at all reassured by her words, but she hadn’t been lying, she wouldn’t mess with the winged creatures if she could help it.

They spent the rest of the night keeping watch in shifts and when Atticus woke her for the second time, it was time to leave. The rain had all but stopped and even the mist was looking faint.

The landscape seemed unchanging as still mountains dominated the eye, stretching out all around them. They were still ascending gradually but it seemed that they were finally coming to some kind of plateau. Before that though, they began to encounter steady streams of water again.

They had not encountered anything like the lake they had seen before, but that changed when the streams turned from steady flows of liquid to tremendous waterfalls spilling out from higher basins, as they overflowed into the next.

Emily had never been much of a climber but she wasn’t all that phased. Mist seemed more than capable of bounding from ledge to ledge as they continued to climb into the sky.

At one point, they reached a final edge, and Mist landed atop a shallow waterfall that fell behind them. The current was weak enough that they could linger there for a while, taking in the breathtaking sights.

And what a sight it was! The sun peeked through the clouds just long enough to illuminate the dark landscape, causing the mineral deposits in the rocks to shimmer like flecks of gold across the land. Gone were the tremendous valleys and peaks; in their place lay a series of interconnected lakes, with the surrounding mountains jutting through the water's edge, resembling sharp islands floating on a gargantuan lake.

Currently, the waters were mirror-still, but Emily could see their luck had held out for as long as it could because already the clouds had begun to thicken near the peaks as they got ready to unleash the torrent of bad weather waiting up there.

Emily searched the horizon and saw the nearest island was kilometers away.

If they wanted to cross they would have to swim a good deal to get there, and Emily wasn’t sure Mist was up to carrying them both.

Not to mention there was no way of knowing just how deep these waters were. Once they stepped off the lip of the waterfall there was a steep drop-off that rapidly faded to what looked like bottomless waters. Emily wasn’t about to fly them over either. Just carrying herself that distance would use up considerable reserves, but to carry two more bodies was impossible.

Emily was still searching for a way to cross when Atticus got her attention.

“Over there, we can use those to cross.”

Following his gaze, Emily spotted a couple of large trees jutting out of the edges of the waterfalls. There were more trees at the lowest points of each island, their granled roots burrowing into the mountainside.

The bark was a dull greenish-blue hue and Emily imagined they had been here for quite a while seeing as even the smallest one was like an ancient redwood in diameter. The strange thing was that the trees were ramrod straight save for a very dense canopy of spearmint-colored leaves extending from stubby branches which blended in with the rest of the dull terrain.

Emily had Mist head over to the nearest one as she she got closer he realised the thickness of the trunk had deceived her into thinking they were taller than they were.

The one they pulled up next to now was maybe a story and a half tall, yet it was almost three meters thick.

This made sense to Emily, as the near-constant weather here probably ripped anything taller from the ground. Hopping off Mist's back and splashing down into the water Emily looked up at the tree.

There were no fruits in it, so there went her dreams of a sweet treat, however she could work with this.

“Give me a second, I have an idea,” Emily said as her blood gown fell around her. Lifting herself into the air she summoned two crescent blades to her side and sent them towards the very top and bottom of the tree. The blood sliced through both cleanly as the hardwood gave way, releasing the scent of freshly cut grass.

The middle of the trunk wept beads of sap, but Emily wasn’t finished. Bringing two more blades of blood down vertically she cleaved off the rounded edges, creating a massive block of wood that would act as a raft. It would even be able to accommodate Mist as they crossed. Emily even had the perfect propulsion method but she had to practice for a bit. Her idea was to use the lift spell to push them forward but the problem was that if she used it as it currently was she would probably rocket their boat out from underneath them so Emily tried using the stream method. Ashe had said this method was not intended for direct casting but Emily thought it might be doable with her larger reserves. She practiced on one of the nearby branches that were already floating in the water and got decent results as it began gently floating away. The trick would be managing how much source she used. If she drew too much with her bridge then the overflow with send them all flying into the water, too little and they just wouldn’t move.

Atticus prepared himself a paddle with the discarded branches while Emily practiced. As they were doing this droplets began to fill the skies above again.

Without much choice, they decided to launch their impromptu vessel. Getting Mist on it was the hardest part, but they managed in the end.

Emily climbed on herself and targeted the vessel with her spell, pushing them horizontally. It was gradual at first but as she got used to it she could use more force.

Water lapped at the sides of the ‘boat’ but the wood was holding very nicely. Whatever tree this was was very water resistant.

The winds and rain pressed in around them, forcing them to all huddle lower. It was all Emily could do to not launch them forward to dry land.

They were about halfway to the next island when the water below their craft started the churn.

Atticus glanced over the side into the dark rippling water waters and cursed.

“Shit! There’s a water serpent in this lake, get us out of here!”

Emily’s eyes widened at the word serpent.

“Serpent? As in snake? Oh hell no, I hate snakes.”

Emily was not surprised that there were beasties living in these deep waters, but why’d it have to be snakes?

Blood points: 177