I was shocked, almost sick to my stomach. How could Vala have been sacrificed? We do not harm our Seer's. How could Kai do this? The gods are surely going to rain fire.

Bellator let out an angry growl. "No! How dare Kai sacrifice our Seer! How could the gods allow such a thing? I must return!"

"You can't!" I interrupted him. If he has killed Vala, he will know you support her. He will kill you without a second thought. He is not alone."

Sigurd let out a high pitched scream and sat up, still half asleep. " NIGHT BEASTS! " He yelled out.

"Shut up! There's more than awakened in these woods we have to worry about." Bellator scolded in a hushed yell.

Sigurd went quiet.

Bellator shook his head. He whispered to himself. "Protect Vala, Ota. Protect her energy from being used for great evil."

Turning my attention to the boy who tracked us down.

"How did you track us?" I thought if a child could find us, then surely we were in trouble with Kai's peons.

"My mother helps Vala all the time. She told my mother we had to leave earlier in the morning. Vala told her Bellator was bringing a group to the mountain, down the stream path."

He took a drink of water and another bite of roasted grouse.

"When we were bringing Vala fresh apples this morning, we saw her being taken by Kai." He looked down at his hands.

"Mother told me to follow the stream to the mountain wall. I got lost. Then I saw the light from you're fire and waited until I was sure it was Bellator."

"Bow, are you not in danger coming here?" I inquired.

He nodded, "absolutely, but I will not return to Perifrey. My family waits for me north from here. My Father remained in the village so no one suspected us of leaving." he was worried.

"Are you able to find your family on your own?" I wasn't really worried for the boy, he found us in the dark, and came all this way on his own. He is obviously able to take care of himself.

"I can use magics! I can fight too!" he said with pride. "I would have stayed with my father if I could have! I would have stayed to fight Kai!" Bow was a good son. I had hoped he would grow to be a great warrior.

I nodded. "Okay. Stay with us tonight and head to them in the morning. It's safer for everyone that way." I pulled a dagger from the strap against my ribs and handed it to Bow. "Take this with you. I would feel better if you, young warrior, had a weapon in hand to use. Our magics are strong, but Damascus steel can always be depended on."

Bow took the dagger and turned it over in his hands. "Thank you" He held it up in front of him, staring into the blade.

Settling Bow in a spot for the night, and making sure he was asleep before I spoke with Bellator and Sigurd, who was sitting quietly petting Willow earnestly.

"Vala lives on with Ota." Sigurd said sadly. "My heart is broken for her."

"Me too Sigurd." I said.

"When Bow is gone in the morning, we need to move as fast as we can. If I was looking for someone, I would have scouts sent out in every direction of the village looking for them day and night." I told them.

"Agreed. If it wasn't for the boy, I would have suggested we leave now." Bellator added.

"Bellator, do you think Kai knows that Aadi is in my possession?" I asked.

"Kai thinks Aadi was lost. He has been looking for the gem for years. I know he would kill you in a second if he even had a half of a thought that you had it." He told me.

"Sigurd?" I was wondering why he was quiet.

"Yes?" he replied

"Are you alright?" I asked

He didn't answer me.

"Did you know Vala was going to die?"

"Yes." He replied

"Before we left Parifrey? I asked

"Yes. Some things can't be changed. And if I had tried to change it, it would have been worse" He said sadly.

I didn't know if I was angry with Sigurd for not telling me that Vala was going to die, or if I felt pity for him knowing it was going to happen and not being able to help her.

It was hard to sleep. I laid beside the fire waiting for dawn. I didn't want to sleep just in case we had another visitor, that wasn't friendly.

The sun finally started to lighten the sky, the morning birds hunting for insects and small worms. I shook Bellator and Sigurd awake. They stored and we started to pack up our belongings.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

I wanted to let Bow sleep. He was going to have a long journey to make on his own. I took some of the bread and pastries I had left from Vala and put it into the boys pack.

Doing so stirred the young man and he looked at me frightened for a moment.

"It's ok Bow, stalking your pack with extra supplies." I reassured him.

He stood up and disappeared into the bush for a few moments. Upon returning and loading himself up with his pack and his new treasure, my Damascus dagger. He dug around in his bag, and pulled out one of the pastries. He took a large bite, with wide eyes he greedily gobbled the rest of it down.

"Take my horse, Bow. I will ride with Sigurd. He's got enough room for my gear and his own." I walked Bow to my horse and helped him on.

"Ride fast. Good Journey"

"Good journey" He replied. Nodding at Sigurd and Bellator, left on horse back the same way he came into the camp.

Repacking my stuff onto Sigurd's horse, I didn't have much, and I climbed up behind him.

We kicked off following the mountain wall in silence. I was watching for scouts, Sigurd was guiding our horse following Bellator, and petting Willow as she chittered. He was feeding her some dried meat he kept for her and it made me chuckle quietly. Willow was more of a cat, then a fox.

Bellator said yesterday we needed to go up. I assumed we were headed to a mountain path.

The forest was busy with life. At one point a group of brownies had jumped off a boulder and spooked Sigurd's horse, which sent Sigurd into a fit of course. The horse only jerked to the side of them, no one fell off or got hurt. That didn't stop him complaining for the next hour of the ' Nasty little soul stealing monsters, along with a few other terms.

Brownies were the forest cousins to pixies. They would steal whatever they could get their hands on, and play tricks on you if they had the time. More pests.

After Sigurd's hour-long rant, we finally came to our destination. Bellator climbed down and started to unload his horse.

Sigurd and I followed.

"We will leave the horses here" He informed us as he started unstrapping his saddle, pulling the fur cover with it.

I was strapping my shield on my back and pulling the leather tight. "Bellator, where is the path?"

"There." He said, pointing to a steep staircase hidden in the rock.

"That... is not a path. That's a wall of bumpy rocks" Sigurd said, studying the way. He bent over and started stuffing Willow into her sack, trying to tie it shut. She was fighting him back, she had only just released herself and was not pleased about being shoved back in.

When she was secure he swung her around his back, just over his spear, and tied it on tight. I could hear Willow growling and yipping in the sack. He then took two of the leather riding straps from the saddle and tied his robes around his legs like pants. He stood up very happy with himself and announced, " Ready!"

Climbing the path was proving more difficult than I had anticipated. My leather boots were not thin and they made it hard to stick my toes into the cracks to lift myself up.

Bellator was climbing slightly faster than I was, but I could see he was also struggling with the terrain.

Looking below us, Sigurd was climbing the side of the wall, not the path. He was having a good time too. Nothing on his feet, he was using his toes and his heels on any surface he could. It's like the man had been climbing rocks his whole life. Sigurd, eventually crawling up the wall beside me, looked over and smiled. He burst out in a song about drinking ale with gods, and how great orange fruit was, and kept climbing. I was impressed.

I liked Sigurd more every day. He had his troubles, but that didn't stop him.

Climbing the mountain with no real trouble besides a slipped foot or miss judged seem to grab, we arrived at a ledge.

Sigurd took a detour for a break on a smaller ledge just beside us, explaining how he loved talking to the gods with nothing between them, did some strange ritualistic dance that I have never seen before, and then crawled across the mountain again until he reached the same ledge as us.

Bellator gripped my wrist pulling me up the last step, Coming to face to face with him. It was hard not to look into his eyes. When I met Bellator first I couldn't help but think how bright the blue in his eyes were. Being closer now I was entranced. He didn't look away.

I stepped to the side of him feeling rather awkward and caught my breath.

I was thankful to no longer have to climb. A cave opening was on the ledge covered in vines, plants, moss, webs and other signs of insects. This is a cave that no one has entered in a long time.

Pulling his axe out, Bellator started to chop at the vines. I pulled them down as he chopped and threw them over the edge of the mountain.

Sigurd pulled a stick from the pile of debris that remained, cast a fire spell and lit it up.

We stepped into the cave unsure of what we could expect.