In a fort made of stone, far away from the mountain range and the hidden village, six individuals was within a spacious room littered with books and loose paper on the tables, shelfs, chairs and even some the floor. Three of the six was dressed in scouts clothing while the other three wore simple clothes or light armor. The former stood up, two of the later sat on two of the chairs not occupied by books. The sixth one was leaning over a map on a table, and spoke:

“You say you saw Baba Yetu at the nameless village located in North Barren forest.” He pointed with his index finger on the map and tapped a few times. “You saw him? With your own eyes?” Only one of the scouts answered.

“Yes, general. I saw her with my own eyes.” He looked up questioningly at the other scouts. The shorter one shook his head and the one, Hawk, spoke.

“General, we saw the fire and a woman looking very much like the description of Baba Yetu. Sverker was the only one who saw where the brown fire started from, next to the woman.” The general heaved a great sigh and hung his head. No one knew what he might be thinking but himself.

“So all this time we have been chasing a woman, a woman.”

“Who has hagravens at her beck and call, sir.” The general looked at Sverker. He blinked a few times.

“He- she has w-what?” One of the two, who had yet to speak, stammered.

“Hagravens, sir. Five of them.” The second stood up, showing off his full height. His bellowing voice matching his stature.

“Those damnable monsters that are impossible to kill?! Disgusting critters that infest our grand empire?! You must be jesting!”

“Hard to kill, chancellor, not impossible. And only because we have not seen something happen doesn’t mean that it can’t.” The general sighed again and started to walk around the table. Gesticulating as he did so. ”If you observe and investigate hagravens it is quite clear that their species combined goal is to gain knowledge. This Baba Yetu must hold a huge supply of knowledge they cannot get on their own. It’s a long shot but it is the best I can think of.”

“This is a disaster,” the only one left sitting said while rubbing his forehead.

“This does not change the plans we have for this Baba Yetu. Chancellor, minister, go take a break and do your politics. You, Hawk, stay here. I need your knowledge of our land.” The two scouts bowed and left. The minister slowly got up from his chair and headed towards the door. The chancellor, dissatisfied with the minister’s pace, grabbed him on his way storming out of the room. Neither the minister nor chancellor offered a goodbye. Hawk joined the general beside the map and their discussion would last long into the night. Their topic of conversation was the Bandit Range, where one certain hideout was located. They wanted to find out exactly were.

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Despite my desire to have a few days off and take it easy, I was not left alone. Two months absence from the village was not uncommon when we went on the road, but during these two months everything possible happened. We had brought new recruits with us to the village so of course they needed lodging and to be taught what they could do and not do. While I always had to read through all the paperwork on final time and sign them when we had new people, apparently I had to choose mentors for them too. Choosing mentors meant I had to go talk with every newcomer to find out in more detail who they were and then match them with one from the village. I had to take into account everything from their main weapon to personality. That was a hard thing to do with so little time. Usually it was the physician that asked all the questions and choose mentor when he checked their general health. However, the physician had suddenly caught a cold and was unable to do his duties.

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Our freshwater came from the cave entrance and ran down long the valley bottom in a steady stream. The waterwheel we had broke soon after our departure. The major had prioritized to get it up and running but without an ounce of magic it was a craving task that had yet to be finalized when we came back. The hagravens left at the village had refused to help and I had taken all our witches with me on my hunt. The ones left who knew had earthly gifts was of no use to the repair of the waterwheel. Instead of helping them myself, I sent our messenger boy to the hagravens’ longhouse and tell them to fix it. Poor boy paled and almost fainted when I tasked him with it. He came back in one piece so it was alright.

A newly wedded couple had given birth to a pair of twin sons. This was cause for celebration that had to be held next new moon, in fourteen days. Curiously enough, this was the hagravens’ tradition that they stubbornly wanted to go through with. It had something to do with their strange culture and their particular way. When I asked they said something I did not understand. When I asked if it was for luck I almost got a beating. I could see her ready to pounce and if stares could kill. Needless to say, I did not ask further. A party now and then couldn’t hurt, and it would get all the hagravens to walk among all others. People were going to get nervous but I saw it as an opportunity to get them a little more accustomed to the rest of us, and us less nervous around them. What could go wrong?

We had three sons that had come of age this year, our little ceremony for that was dated three days before the newborns’ festivity. I did not ask the hagravens if we could put the two together. Whatever importance the celebration had for them it clearly weighted more than my knowledge, and I had already stepped on one toe to many.

There were also a lot of other things needed to be organized before something could happen, and a million of smaller things. To celebrations on top of that made the whole village turn upside down. At this time I was very glad I had denied the seat of major when it was offered me, and he was glad he had secretaries.

It took a whole week before I threw myself on my bed knowing all my priority work had been finished. The physician had been correct on one point I had thought was minor. The orb did take a lot of my breath away when, under normal circumstances, my heart beat should speed up, and so far it had not gotten better. This led me to think that maybe my body’s own pressure was not enough for it to shrink to a reasonable size. I would have to make do with the current size of the orb.

Not only had I been short on breath, I had a hard time doing normal things that took a little more muscle power than walking around. It felt like my muscles were burning and it got harder and harder to move if I kept going. Carrying a bag of supplies from one place to another left me breathless after the fifth turn. When I excused myself from the chore many glanced at me, I pretended to pay it no mind but inside it ate at my consciousness. I did not want to tell them why my body suddenly could not do what it could before. After that humiliation I did no more physical work.

I laid there in my bed resting while watching the outside through my open window, the sun was shining unobstructed by clouds and barley a breeze flowed through the valley. Like most other days this time of year, it was a pleasant day with a pleasant weather. A pleasant time of year all around, if one was not plagued by the lack of rainfall which was a known problem for the neighbouring bandit camps. There were only so many sources of freshwater available in the mountain range and the forest surrounding it. Many lesser camps regularly changed owner from time to time. Without a water source one could not remain for long. A problem new inhabitants often had to learn the hard way. My train of thought tried to wander off to the creation of our village but I stopped it before it got anywhere. I was tired and did not wish to think of the trials our early days had brought us. I closed my eyes to shield them from the sun’s rays.

I opened them again only to realise that it was in the middle of the night. Where did the day go? In my confusion I got up to quickly and blacked out.

Again I awakened and this time sprawled out on the floor with a headache. I cursed myself with a hex I learnt from one of our witches, knowing it would not hold any power over me since I had no energy to fuel it with. Even so, the useless curse made me feel better. However, there was no way to adjust the crystal now when I had a headache. Even though I knew I had nothing to fuel the hex with, I did not dare curse the crystal. I changed my usual clothes, which I did not bother to change before, to a lighter set of night clothes and curled up under the bed covers. It was too good a weather to close the window. In my sleep, I dreamt of a haunted village.