Ves’ra's chest felt much better after a good night’s rest. The deer’s fur was just about ready, so she canceled her spell and opened her pack. While eating some of the leftover meat from yesterday she thought about what she wanted to use the hide for.
In the end she decided to make herself a new pack, her old one was already falling apart, especially because it was made from numerous rabbit hides. The first thing to do was removing as much of the short fur as possible - something that didn't take too long thanks to her magic. Once she was finished she cut several thin straps from the side of the hide and took the bone needle out of the pack.
She sharpened it with ice and started sewing the fur into a new pack, adding two thicker straps to sling the pack over her shoulders like the human packs. Once Ves’ra was ready she transferred all her belongings into the new pack - mostly wyvern scales, teeth and meat - though she had an assortment of tools too, while she was able to form all tools she needed with magic ice wasn't the most flexible of materials, so she only used her magic to increase the sharpness of her tools.
After a last helping of deer that didn't taste like deer at all she set out for the day. She had no hope to find the location she left the forest, but she wasn't too worried. She knew which direction the forest was, so she only had to move in the other.
Once she found a stream she would follow it until she arrived at the human village. She started tapping into Arvog’s senses the moment she set out, she could easily walk past any number of streams without his help.
---
Ves’ra needed three whole days to find a stream. She slept fitfully that night, knowing she was nearing her target. She decided to follow the stream downriver, it came out of the forest and the humans were nowhere near a forest, she was sure of that.
She followed the stream for another week, hunting lots of small game as well as a huge animal that moved in a huge group. She didn't know that one, it moved on four legs, was about two heads taller than her, had long brown fur and two short horns. It’s weight was at least ten times her own, and she was a little sad at the waste - she couldn't take nearly as much of the meat as was available..
She hadn't tried to kill their leader this time - it had been another two heads taller and she doubted her lightning would be powerful enough to do enough harm. The male she managed to kill had been good enough, though she had expected it to taste better seeing it was as massive as it was.
---
Ves’ra came upon something strange a week after she started following the river. A huge wooden construction spanned across the whole width. The wood didn't look natural, so she assumed she found the first sign of human civilisation.
The biggest wild path she had ever seen was on both sides of the river, winding itself through the grasslands. The tracks on the path were really strange too, lots of parallel tracks that belonged to no animal or monster she had ever seen. There were lots of tracks from the huge deer too. Nevertheless she decided to follow the path, there had to be a reason the humans built there.
After half a week of travelling Arvog spotted something new. There was a long caravan
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
of wooden constructions towed by the huge fourlegs moving in her direction. She could see lots of humans sitting or moving next the wooden things. She had already seen how humans reacted to a wyvern, so she told Arvog to hide himself while she sat down at the side of the road and waited for the humans to reach her.
---
Mata Sginnearach couldn't wait for the next week to pass. When she joined the caravan towards Lokervik she didn't know that the oxen pulled wagons would be so slow. She couldn't wait to sleep in a real bed! The suns would soon set, so she stated looking for a good place for the caravan to stop.
After rounding another corner on the road she saw something strange, a lone kobold was sitting to the side. It waved at her once she was noticed. She waved back. The kobold seemed to be waiting for something, so she called back.
“Donnchadh, back me up and stop for a little, we have a situation here. Donnchadh, one of the other adventurers in the caravan came a moment later. The man was a scout, and a damn good one at that.
“What's up?”
“You know of any kobold tribes in the plains?”
“Nope.”
“Where did that one come from then?”
“Why don't we go and ask it?”
“You think it’ll be able to understand us?”
“We won't know until we try. It’s not aggressive at the very least.”
“Let's go then, you’ll cover me?”
“Yep.”
Mata confidently moved towards the kobold, she wasn't really afraid of a lone kobold, but there was a chance its tribe hid in the tall grass so she kept a hand on her weapon. It didn't differ from any of the other kobold she had seen, roughly a meter and thirty centimeters tall, hunched forwards and clad in primitive clothing, and a wooden spear in its hands.
“Hello there, are you lost?” She asked. The kobold tilted its head to the side before answering in broken common.
“Yes, I searching for human village, but got distracted by huge herd of deer.” Deer? She didn't know of any deer in the plains. It probably didn't know the right word.
“Do you have a name? Are you male or female? And why were you searching for a town?”
“I Ves’ra, female. The human town sounded interesting.”
“The free cities don't belong to us humans. We live with many races.”
“What's a city?”
“A huge village. I could ask the caravan master if he will allow you to join us, we are moving towards the next town anyways.”
“That would be nice.”
Mata turned around and waved at Donnchadh. “The caravan can continue, tell the lead merchant to join me.” The portly merchant that was the leader of their caravan joined the two of them moments later, it seemed he had been interested what had her stop them.
“So, what do you have for me?” He asked.
“Can we take the kobold with us? I don't know why she is alone, but she is on her way to Lokervik too.”
“Why did she leave her tribe? And what can she do for us?” He asked. Mata didn't have a chance to replay, the small kobold behind her spoke up first.
“I'm a shaman.”
Both of their head snapped towards the small creature, what would bring a tribe to let a mage leave?
“And why did you leave your tribe, I won't take a criminal in my caravan!” He said.
“I'm a shaman.”
“And that tells me what?” He asked. The small kobold looked at them like they were stupid, they could see the foreign face wondering if they were actually asking that question. Once the kobold deemed they were really wondering she actually answered.
“A tribe only has one shaman, a second would only lead to strife and conflict within the tribe. I didn't want to hurt my mentor, so I left.” The merchant was obviously pleased with that answer, they only had one mage in the caravan, and one couldn't have enough of those.
“I’ll pay you half the normal pay as well as a place on one of the wagons if you help defending us when we are attacked. Sound good?”
“Yes.”
Mata watched the small kobold leave, wondering why anyone would only want a single mage per tribe before leaving the merchant and kobold behind, moving towards the front once again.