We searched through the corpses of our would-be abductors and found an assortment of low-quality knick-knacks and miscellaneous equipment which we bundled onto Patches. The donkey brayed in protest, but soon forgot her complaint when fed a carrot. The items we had loaded up were mostly vendor trash. Still, waste not want not, I muttered under my breath as my companions and I pocketed odds and ends, as well as a few coins for ourselves.
Amon’s staff had been a disappointment. According to my Identify spell, it was nothing more than a wooden stick and not magical in the slightest. I loaded it up on Patches anyway. It might make for good firewood one day.
Some of the other items of interest that we had plundered were a few pages of blank parchment and a small basic writing kit, complete with blotting sand, quill, and ink, that we had found in one of the fat man’s bags. These I decided to keep for myself. Alongside the writing kit was a gold-plated medallion on a silver chain, depicting a likeness of Avaria holding a sword and knife in either hand. I surreptitiously stuffed the medallion into my pouch when the others were not looking.
We looted the various articles of clothing from our attackers and left them only their small clothes. Around the necks of the ‘bandit’ corpses were black tattoos, styled in the image of the twin horns of some sort of auroch-like creature. They were the local muscle, members of a dubious criminal gang that the late Amon Vanes had hired. Ultimately, they too had been a victim of his hubris.
On one topic, however, Amon had been particularly tight-lipped. He refused to give me what I wanted when I had asked him about what magics he and others of the Church were capable of. Through magical means, simple mundane willpower, or plain vindictiveness, he had refused to give me even a tiny sliver of arcane knowledge as he walked the final steps to oblivion or paradise.
Once we had finished our business, I cast Decay on the corpses and was almost immediately assaulted by a sweet putrescent smell. The entropic energies had found fertile ground in the now-rapidly rotting dead flesh.
With Patches braying at the assault on her sense of smell, we moved quickly away from the macabre scene. Luckily, a far-from-fresh carrot was all it took to distract the poor creature from the recent violence and blood. The Decay spell I had unleashed could not completely mask what had happened, but at the very least it would hopefully make identifying the corpses a little more difficult, should anyone come back to this site. The forest had grown quiet, I realized, as the animals were probably subdued by Amon’s shrill screams and the raw stench of death.
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“The fat one was of old Qisnian imperial stock,” commented Elwin offhandedly, as he tightened one of the loose straps on Patches’ bags.
“Livestock,” grunted Kidu, from the front of our small formation.
It took a few moments for the Rogue to mentally adjust to Kidu’s attempt at a joke before he finally chuckled, which was soon echoed by Patches’ braying. Then, I saw Elwin’s face concentrate for half-a-second, mulling over a smart rejoinder before he just gave up and simply laughed along.
Our group trudged on. Kidu, despite being armored and larger than I, seemed to manage this almost preternaturally and with far less noise than me. Gradually, the sounds of the wilderness returned. Up above, creatures moving agilely through the branches of trees, and beautiful multi-winged songbirds crooned their ardent melodies.
Lost in my own anxious thoughts, I couldn't shake off my constant state of worry. It was clear that I was being hunted by some powerful organization, and I couldn't help but wonder why they had revealed my location to Amon. Was it a deliberate choice, or did the gods of this world have their own limitations?
Perhaps it was my overactive mind but, moving through the undergrowth, I could not help but imagine another set of eyes upon me.
“I think I feel something or someone following us,” I hissed to Kidu, and I almost tripped over a tree root as I voiced my concern. The wild man simply nodded to me, before falling back to cover our rear.
We had chosen speed over stealth, and we had made no move to hide our trail. Even a blind man could have followed us.
My mind was spinning as I pondered various tactics and strategies to help evade potential trackers. However, my thoughts were interrupted by uninvited musings that crept in like unwelcome guests, as I caught another sight of this world’s nature in action.
Looking up, I saw a six-legged squirrel analog jump across one of the boughs. A fraction of a second later, a jagged spike shot out and impaled the poor animal. It all happened rather fast. Too fast, really, to see what kind of predator was responsible for the kill. The animals of this world were truly perplexing; while some animals were familiar, such as horses and donkeys, others were completely alien to me. I couldn't help but wonder how that was even possible. And for that matter, why were humans present in this strange world?
Shaking my head, I realized that I would have to set aside such rambling thoughts for another time. Elwin, ever the practical one, posed a question that had been lingering in the back of my mind. In truth, it was more a worry than a direct question.
"So, it looks like we got the Church on us. What in the Dark Lady's name are we going to do now?" he asked us, his usual nonchalant grin absent from his features.