Jano thought he was becoming paranoid. It had been a long day on the road but he was sure it wasn’t normal to keep seeing shadows dancing in his peripheries. Dark shapes in the distance tricking his eyes. Perhaps they were small insects, forever out of view. Still, it was off putting. He looked this way and that as he tried to catch them, but there was never anything there. He shook his body in the hope of forcing some sort of rest. He was tired after all.
“Are you alright over there Jano?” Robin said after catching him flapping his arms and patting himself down. The thought of insects had left him scratching constantly. He was utterly convinced that underneath his coat and thick traveling trousers, he would have a trail of red bites. It was starting to get hot now too, which wasn’t helping matters. Soggy patches at his armpits and behind his knees were starting to irritate him. But other than the tiredness and the sweating, he was feeling relatively upbeat.
Since Dariea had spoken to him, he had tried to forget the trials and the force which had sought to control him. It was a test. It was over. He had to put it behind him. Still, he feared to draw on chaos. He had stone to fall back on for the time being. Embracing that realisation had considerably improved his mood. He was making an effort to be brighter and friendly to those around him. Since it was Robin who was asking, he didn’t feel like giving her anymore ammunition.
“Sweet as a peach.” He said and then hated himself for saying something so odd. It seemed to placate Robin though, who smiled and tried to ignore his obvious twitching. It hadn’t been that long since they had travelled to Goshnia using the Gippies, but Jano had forgotten how quickly they could progress with their almost tireless mounts. The creatures had plainly been waiting to stretch their legs once more and they passed over the terrain with ease. Happy clicking noises accompanied them as they did so.
The days so far had been relatively easy as far as traveling went. They were heading back on a slightly different path than they had taken to reach their destination to ensure that they kept out of the way of the marching army. They were Jumping as an army. An impossible image to form in his mind, so many people organising their strength to accomplish such a feat. It seemed like a logistical nightmare. How could that many people, pass through portals all together and in formation? It seemed impossible. Their guards probably had the longest journey of them all and the main army would reach Molinia much quicker than their group would.
They hadn’t traveled the same way in case they somehow got in the way. They also carried a significant amount of goods from the Goshnians, some as a favour to Zabar and the chaos settlement. Other bags belonged to Robin, for her to take back to her clan as a symbol of goodwill. Jano felt his legs start to ache a little more than before. The chafing was likely to have started. He sighed and tried to ignore it. The elite units would already be in Molinia, as the very senior commanders were masters of chaos essence and could collectively summon a portal to take their small group much larger distances than their army could. Jano was quite jealous, though he tried not to show it.
“How come they can do that and we can’t?” Robin asked.
“Yeah I thought you were some all powerful, barely human creature of essence or something.” Gryff said. He hadn’t said much since rejoining, but the look on his face and his crumpled up body language suggested he truly hated the Gippies still.
“Because they spend a great deal of time practicing that very communal skill, the formations required and the precise distances which can be traversed and I don’t. I can simply use it. Let that be a lesson to you in skill acquisition.” She responded with a mocking smile. “Also, I got lumbered with you lot remember, so I can only take us the same distances as before. I am still tired from all the rushing around and the preparations. Once I am fully rested and we are on more familiar ground, our guards and I should be able to start Jumping us a little more.”
She gave Jano a quick look. He wondered if her efforts in the cave had depleted her more than she had let on. She had been busy, there was no doubt there. But he mulled the idea over anyway. It made him feel slightly better.
Instead of heading through the valley, they were guided across an old trade road through the hills. The pink dappled trees of the orchards slowly morphed into the dark green pine which had hemmed in their journey all the way from Molinia. From up on the hill, he could see the thick set forest which lay ahead. Jano was surprised to see in the very far distance in the other direction, rocky brown plains stretched out all the way to some distant ranges. The road was not as well tended as the one in the bottom of the valley. The trees and the shrub formed a kind of wall on either side of the path and quite often, the branches pressed down from above them. The Gippie’s had to squeeze themselves through some of the gaps where the branches were overgrown. Most of the group didn’t complain much, but Gryff did. He hadn’t been paying much attention through one of the more wild sections of the path and hadn’t realised his face had sought out a thick branch stretching across. With an almighty crack on his end, but a rather subdued shuffling of the leaves by the tree itself, he started to rain down several choice expletives.
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Jano had reacted with suppressed amusement. He kept his smirk behind his hand while he held the reins with the other. He had originally liked Gryff, but his brooding and deliberate choice to remain distant from the group annoyed him. Though Gryff was stronger than him, he forgot that he had been sheltered as a prince his entire life. He saw battle and life as a game to be won and he had never experienced real hardship. Jano put his weird behaviour down to that and thought no more of it. A childish huff at being made to do something he didn’t want to do.
Gryff had unsurprisingly reacted to the blow with fury, but it had only made him seem more childish. The group ignored him, but Jano was somewhat jealous of the Chaos-Shapers' masks and the features it would hide. He watched the young prince readjust himself on his mount and decided better against offering some advice. He briefly clocked eyes with Robin, who offered a small smirk in response.
Robin was fast becoming a master of her mount. They seemed to be growing closer together and even Jano thought he was forming a bond with his Gippie. The days followed a familiar pattern, travelling as far as possible then packing down for camp and preparing as much food as possible for the following day's travel. Gryff grew further and further away from the group. Dariea had tried to engage with him a few times, as the most senior member but even she had given up now.
They passed through another thicket of tall trees and surrounding bushes. They were passing through a narrow pass, with steep hills on either side. It made Jano feel sick to look down the tumbling hillside. To their right at the bottom of the hill lay the path that they had taken and that the army would be using. To the left was a vast swathe of forest which led to larger mountains not too far in the distance and the brown plains beyond those.
“Gryff. Watch out for those branches.” Robin shouted playfully. There were a number of low hanging branches which were dangerously sticking out of the side. There were low sniggers from the group.
Gryff surprisingly didn’t respond. Jano was just about to tell Robin to leave him alone, when he heard a sound building in the distance. His skin pricked and alert coursed through his body. Jano heard the charging before he realised what was going on. He turned to see the Gippie’s legs pounding towards Robin. A cascade of fire was flying towards her. The prince looked furious. Robin blocked the fire easily. But he was driving his mount towards her. Jano clocked that she was precariously close to the edge of the hillside.
Without thinking, Jano moved his Gippie to block Gryff’s way. The Gippie screamed as the two came together.
“Jano!” He heard Robin’s voice faintly in the distance and the creature’s shrieked with alarm as they came together and they began to fall. Jano felt his feet come free of the stirrups and he felt Gryff holding him. Sheer panic wrought on his face. Gryff’s Gippie was sliding off the sheer hillside and they were swiftly following it. Wisps of wind essence tried to grab the two men. Too late. It wasn’t strong enough. Not focussed enough. The shadow of a chaos portal missed them by mere inches. The momentum from Gryff was too much and there were too many moving parts.
Jano scrunched his eyes up as the hillside passed before him. The wind essence had slowed them down somewhat, but they were a long way from the top of the hill where they had been moments before. He was falling independently of Gryff’s mount at least. The two men were tangled together before Jano pushed him away. He needed to try something to slow his fall. Jano stretched out his fingers. He grabbed at shrubs, bushes and even clumps of dirt.
Instinctively, he pulled stone essence to him and formed a sort of slide to catch him. He skidded down, making sure to add more and more underneath him. The skid stopped with a strong thud. He lay motionless for a little while lest he move and find out that something was broken. He heard nothing. He could see the hill which he had just fallen down but the thicket was so full and it was such a way up, that he couldn’t see anyone at the top. It looked so high from where he was lying, but it had been over so quick. With a sigh, he lifted his head up. It felt heavy but there was no serious pain. Slowly but surely, he stood. His arm was extremely sore, but he could move it alright.
He tried to take in his surroundings. He was in the thick of the forest he had seen from atop the hill. The trees were folded over like a comfy blanket on a winter's day and there was no real gap to see through. They were tall with bristling sharp leaves and there were small purple flowers hidden in the bushes which had started to pop their heads out. There was no clear path back up, or at least none that he could see. He couldn’t really see much more than small sections of the hillside at any one time. There was a rustling in the distance and Jano tensed up. Was it going to be one of the Gippies? He worried that they would be confused from the fall and might trample all over him.
The bushes rustled once again. “Fucking branches.” He heard drifting through the air. Gryff. Jano moved a little out of the way into a bit of a clearing, giving himself more space. He was furious with the young prince. He took a deep breath as Gryff approached.
“Jano…” he said. His face was red, whether through embarrassment or anger, Jano still couldn’t tell. “Are you okay?” He asked. His face seemed to relax now that he had found some company.
“I think so.. My arm hurts but it’s not going to kill me or anything. How about you?” Jano asked.
As Jano asked, Gryff turned around and he could see that he was supporting his arm. “Snap.” He tried to force a smile through his pained expression and didn’t really succeed. Gryff walked closer and looked up at the hillside. “Ah!” He cried as he moved his shoulder. His face grew pale. “Actually; I think something could be broken.”