Glaring sunlight dragged me out of my fitful sleep, pushing through my closed eyes and leaving me blinking in a daze as the leftover confusion from dreams faded away. The bright new day was clear and cheerful, small yellow butterflies flitting over the tops of the swaying grass seemed to be dancing to the birdsong rising out from the trees. The lake, rippling constantly under the breeze, glimmered where it caught the sunlight. I spotted the graceful shape of swans floating along the surface a small distance away.
I scrubbed the sleep out of my eyes, looking around the clearing. Captain Strykar’s swag lay empty nearby, but with both horses peacefully grazing a short distance off I reasoned he hadn’t gone far. Looking to the nearby trees, I saw the cursed mist was back, weaving through the trees and cutting off view after the first line of trees and leaving only an ever shifting white wall.
The sound of splashing drew my eyes back to the lake, and I spotted the Captain near the shore. He was standing about knee deep in the water, apparently taking advantage of the fresh water to wash the dirt and grime from days of travelling off himself. He was shirtless and facing away from me, the hard muscles in his back standing out as he rinsed himself. Thankfully, he was still wearing his pants. I tore my gaze away from him, a hot flush working its way up my neck and cheeks.
Fuck, he’s nice to look at.
I’d been avoiding thinking about it, but I couldn’t deny the man was attractive. I sighed, closing my eyes and massaging along my eyebrows to relieve the tension I felt there. Trying not to acknowledge that I found him appealing was clearly not working, so I decided to change tactics and just admit it to myself and roll with it.
Him being pretty isn’t going to change anything, so let's move on.
I untangled my legs from the swag and stood, stretching my arms up to relax the kinks I felt in my back from sleeping on the hard ground. Satisfied, I shook my arms out and went over to the small pile of packs and saddlebags we’d made last night. I picked out the one holding my things, digging through it and pulling out a fresh change of clothes. Having a wash, or at least a quick swim, in the lake sounded too tempting to pass up now that I’d thought about it. I suppressed the thought that perhaps the Captain may watch me while I was changing, mentally slapping myself for being stupid.
I threw my fresh clothes along with a towel over one shoulder and whistled Echo over to me. I didn’t bother putting her saddle back on, and jumped onto her back. I carefully held a fistfull of her mane and got her to trot a little distance up the lake, far enough that it wouldn’t be easy to see anything properly but close enough that the Captain wouldn’t think I was running off. I dismounted and left my things in a small bundle in the grass, quickly stripping off from my clothes before I had second thoughts and entering the cool water. As soon as the water came up to my thighs, I sat down and dunked my head under, letting the water soak into my hair and rinse the dust off me.
Resurfacing after a blissful moment, I used the hard bar of soap I’d brought with me to lather up and wash, enjoying the fresh scent that was faintly lemony rather than the all too familiar sour smell of sweat. Once that was done, I once again dunked myself underwater to remove the soap. I sighed as I squeezed the excess water out of my still braided hair, regretting I couldn’t linger in the lake for longer. I knew this was just a brief reprieve before we once again resumed our hard pace towards the capital, otherwise the risk the other Lycan guards were taking on my behalf would be for naught.
I glanced down the lake shore before I left the water. I saw Captain Strykar had moved back to our simple camp, and looked to be facing away from me while doing something with the packs. I again called Echo over to me, quickly leaving the water and manoeuvring her to act as a makeshift barrier while I dried off and dressed in my relatively clean clothes. I was about to jump back onto Echo’s back when something gave me pause.
A sound, or perhaps more of a feeling, like a deep vibrating thump that travelled from my feet up to my head and set my teeth on edge. It was brief, but I could have sworn it had come from the lake. I looked back at the water. The water looked unchanged, still rippling from the wind but otherwise calm, and the swans still swam across its surface although I was fairly certain they had changed direction from the last time I’d seen them. I stood there for a few moments, watching and listening, but the sound didn’t happen again.
Maybe I was mistaken?
Whatever it was, it wasn’t something I wanted to deal with right now. I jumped back onto Echo and rode back to the Captain. He glanced up and gave me a nod when I returned, but otherwise didn’t say anything.
Surely if he’d felt or heard that sound he would say something?
Without any discussion, we both saddled our respective horses and packed up our small camp. Once the horses were loaded up with packs again, the Captain threw me a small sandwich of bread and cheese for my breakfast. I murmured my thanks, biting into the slightly stale bread.
“So, what’s the next landmark we need to head towards?” I asked around my mouthful of food.
He looked over at me, making a face that seemed a little amused and made me suddenly feel self conscious about my lack of manners. “There’s a small lone mountain that the forest wraps around,” he explained, making no mention of my manners. “It’s actually part of the Bolcan Mountain range, although it sits a little apart from it. It’ll be near the eastern border of the forest, probably a little further away than the lake was before we entered the forest.”
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I scratched my chin, pulling a bit of a face. The lake had been almost too far away for me to find, and I honestly wasn’t sure if I’d be able to accurately search at a further distance. The Captain obviously saw my expression.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“No, no, it’s nothing. But you did just finish lecturing me on overusing magic yesterday, and I’d hate to go and ignore that the very next day,” I said lightly.
He frowned, no longer looking amused. “Is the distance of the mountain going to be an issue?” he asked.
I shrugged, stroking the side of Echo’s nose when she tossed her head. “Possibly. The lake was a bit of a strain to find. I’ve also never tried finding a mountain before so I’m not sure what I’d have to look for.” Echo had taken to resting her chin on my shoulder, and I continued to stroke her velvety nose. “What if we just follow along the eastern border of the forest? Wouldn’t that work out faster?” I suggested.
The Captain pulled a face. “I suppose it may be. See what you can find with your search, we’ll decide after that.”
I nodded, and together we led the horses over to the treeline south of where we had been standing. I set my hand on one of the trees that wasn’t engulfed in mist, closed my eyes and sent out a search. The eastern border of the forest wasn’t too far away from us, and I found it relatively quickly. I followed along it, stretching out as far as I could and trying to sense if there would be any difficulty in travelling this way, but it seemed to be much the same as the forest we had already passed through. I felt the beginning sharpness in my head that told me I was nearing my limit for distance, and was about to withdraw when I felt it.
In a part of the forest that was a bit less dense than the rest lay something. It wasn’t any kind of plant, but something other that was treading over the smaller shrubs and exposed roots of the larger trees. Everywhere it had touched felt somehow wrong, as though it was leaving a stain of poison in its wake. It was large, possibly larger than anything living I’d encountered before, and seemed to move on four legs, which felt like they had large claws since they gouged deep furrows into any timber it touched as it walked. I hesitated around the edges of its presence, some part of me warning not to go near it.
No, I need to feel out what this thing is.
I took a deep breath to steel my jittery nerves, and pushed my magic to the trees directly around the strange presence in a more condensed circle. I felt around its edges, not really gaining any more insight to what it may be. The presence paused when I did this, not moving for a few seconds. It lunged explosively at the tree nearest it that I had linked to, sinking long sharp claws into the wood and somehow causing a vibration to run though all the surrounding branches and leaves. The claws connected with the stings of life force within the tree, and something oily and sick latched onto them and by extension my magic. My magic reacted by springing away and hurling back into myself without any control from me, causing a magical feedback that physically shoved me backwards away from the tree and left me retching on the ground.
I heard the horses stomping and snorting nearby, but couldn’t bring myself to look up. I was kneeling on all fours, staring down at the grass beneath my hands, an uncontrollable shaking running through my entire body while I panted from the magical recoil.
What the fuck was that?
A hand on my shoulder startled me, and I automatically went to jerk away from the hand when I saw Captain Strykar was knelt next to me, face creased with concern.
“Rowan, are you all right?” he asked, glancing over me to check for injuries. “What happened?”
I took a few deep, gasping breaths, trying to calm my rapidly beating heart and settle my mind enough to answer. “There’s something in the forest,” I finally managed to gasp out. “I don’t know what it is, but it reacted to my magic, and it felt sick somehow. It attacked a tree I was linked to and when it touched my magic it made it recoil back into me.”
He frowned, helping me to my feet when I started trying to stand. “That… That sounds like what happens when magic meets demonic energy,” he said.
I rubbed the back of my neck, feeling a wicked headache coming on again. “I know,” I replied, “but how could a demon be here? Shouldn’t the barrier stones repel it?”
The Captain had walked over to the horses and taken both their reins to calm them down. “They should,” he replied. “But it's been over a decade since the stones were last replenished, they may be starting to fail.” He came back over and handed me Echo’s reins. “Regardless, we can’t let it keep wandering around here, if it leaves the forest it may end up attacking people. Do you think you can lead us to it?”
I wiped my sweaty palms on my pants leg, trying to suppress the trembling I could still feel. “Yeah, I can take us there.”
Before I located the demon’s presence again, both I and the Captain readied ourselves for a fight. We checked our swords - my shortsword was attached to my belt while the Captain’s longsword had been tied to his saddle, but was now also strapped to his belt. Magic couldn’t be used on demons, or the magus would suffer from recoil like what I’d felt not long earlier, so we would need to use weapons instead while avoiding direct contact with the demon lest we be turned ourselves. After hesitating for a moment, I had the tree we stood next to produce a pair of long straight branches and had them break off into sharp points to serve as makeshift spears. I hoped that if we were able to strike a killing blow to the demon from a distance.
Once we were ready, Captain Strykar glanced over to the horses. “We’d best leave these two here,” he said after pausing for a moment. “They’ll just be a hazard if we take them with us. Once we’re done, we’ll come back for them.”
I nodded silently, not trusting that I’d be able to speak without my voice breaking. We removed the saddles and harnesses from the horses, giving them one final pat before turning back to face the trees. Though neither of us had said it, I had the feeling we both thought the horses would be able to live free here without worry if we didn’t make it back.
I glanced over to the Captain, who gave me a quick nod. I placed my hand on the tree again, ignoring the slight shake in my fingers, and linked back with the forest. I found the presence quickly, but was careful not to focus too closely to it. It had begun to move alarmingly quickly in our general direction, and I had the sick feeling that it was following the track my magic had taken back to me. Keeping the link, I opened my eyes, took the Captain’s hand, and led him into the mist towards the demon.