[https://i.imgur.com/VGCFMQy.png]

Nia sat calmly on the wagon as Reffy sat next to her. Nox walked alongside, seemingly wanting to stretch his legs for a change. She looked down at the young boy who sat next to her. He was often silent, but he'd barely said a word since they'd entered the forest. He looked around, flinching every time a bird took flight or a branch crunched.

"You alright, Reffy?" She asked.

"Yeah, I- it's just I had a bad experience in a forest once with a monster."

He'd opened up a little since their conversation last night but still seemed to want to avoid talking too specifically about his past. She had a theory, though. With his fat coin purse, a naive understanding of how things worked in the real world and a title, something usually only reserved for the most influential in society, he was clearly a runaway noble. She could just imagine it now, Reffy, haughtily ringing a silver bell as servants came running to see to his every need.

She smiled momentarily at the silly thought.

She couldn't fault him for that. Perhaps his father was abusive. If they'd gone on a bad hunting trip, it'd explain why he was so jumpy in the forest.

The boy's head shot around as a sound of cracking wood came from nearby. Nia put her hand on his shoulder reassuringly. "It was probably just a wild animal or minor monster, nothing that'd attack a caravan this size."

The boy nodded but seemed unconvinced.

Definitely a bad hunting trip, she decided.

The caravans ahead of her came to a halt, and she gently pulled on the reins stopping the cart's horse. This had happened occasionally as the procession travelled, perhaps something had fallen off a wagon ahead, or there was some other minor problem stopping the advance. A few moments of silence passed then Reffy and Nox exchanged words. She hadn't learned enough to understand what they were saying, but she heard the tone of concern in their voices.

"Is something wrong?" She asked.

"Nox said he could see further to the side and that there's a log blocking the road. He has a bad feeling, and so do I." Reffy replied.

More concerned now, she started looking around the forest. With the leaves taken by winter, it looked desolate, far from the best place for an ambush if that was what was happening. She could see several people up ahead had gotten out of their caravans and were talking at the front of the wagon train, presumably about how to move the log. After several moments she relaxed. If this was an ambush, they'd have surely struck already.

Just as that thought crossed her mind, there was a thunk as an arrow smashed into the wood of the cart, missing her leg by a hair's breadth.

Nia looked down for a split second before grabbing Reffy and diving off the cart. She landed on the stone-paved road with a thud that ached through her bones.

She could hear the bandits, a lot of them, on the far side of the wagon yelling something out in angry, demanding tones. Nox was next to her, ducked down behind the cart. He spoke to Reffy in his language, quickly and fast.

Nia pulled herself up, noticing Reffy doing the same as he talked to Nox.

The bandits were yelling something out again, and she noticed several merchants further down the train getting up and running away from it into the woods and away from the bandits. Risking a glance around the wagon, there were close to 50 bandits armed with bows and arrows. They'd sprung from holes hidden in the snow. They looked well-armed and spoiling for a fight.

"The bandits are saying that anyone who flees may live," Reffy said, translating the bandit's cries.

Nox said something, pointing at the forest behind them, then looked sadly at his wagon. "There are too many to fight. These roads are usually bandit free, so no one took guards. We need to retreat. They probably won't search my cart too much, not with the smell," Reffy translated for Nox.

A merchant stood defiantly. Nia recognized him as the fat man in furs that had given her dirty looks when they'd first tried to find a position in the caravan. He started yelling at the people around him, seemingly trying to rally them to fight. Several of the other merchants looked up hopefully at the man and seemed ready to join him until another arrow flew through the air, ripping out a chunk of his throat and leaving him gasping on the ground in a rapidly growing pool of blood.

Nia looked away; she'd seen entirely too much blood recently. She shivered, remembering the vacant look on Reffy's face as he'd stabbed the muggers. Looking across, she saw Reffy staring at the merchant struggling on the ground, trying to breathe one last wet breath. Reffy had a strange haunted look on his face, like a small hunted animal that was about to remind a predator of how fiercely a cornered animal could fight.

She slapped him lightly around the top of his head, trying to break his train of thought before he did anything stupid.

"We'll run." Nia told him.

The three bolted into the forest in the opposite direction to the bandit's attack. As she ran, Nia expected to feel an arrow in her back at any moment. No arrow came, and after a little while, the three slowed breathless.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"That was awful. We didn't even put up a fight." She said.

Reffy nodded.

[https://i.imgur.com/oMrGBK6.png]

The trio decided to wait til nightfall and return to the wagons to see what they could salvage. They sat in the wintery forest, cold and bored as time passed. Reffy seemed even jumpier now. Every rustle of a bird or wind sent him glancing around nervously.

"Perhaps it would help to share?" She suggested.

Reffy sighed defeatedly. "Fine, since you keep asking. I was in the forest with some other kids, and a monster attacked."

Nia nodded. That was pretty normal. Monster attacks were common but usually simple enough for even a child to deal with. Perhaps his inexperience as a noble's child had made it more traumatic, or maybe none of the children had known how to deal with it.

"And?" She pried when she realized he wasn't going to elaborate further.

"And, it killed another boy in my group. Nearly killed me too. I remem- it-." The boy lapsed into silence.

Nia wasn't sure what to say. That had been a much worse story than she'd been expecting. She felt guilty now for dragging it out of him. She patted him on his head after a moment. "Don't worry. If any monsters come along, I'll protect you." She forced a smile as she said that, focusing very hard on not thinking about his vacant eyes that night.

Nox tensed and said something. Reffy sniffed the air in response. Nia was about to ask what they were talking about, but before she did, she smelt something. It was awful and easily worse than Nox's cart.

Nox's eyes suddenly went wide, and he yelled something and started to run back towards where they had left the caravans.

Reffy looked back at Nia as she started to chase after Nox. "He said the smell is his wagon on fire."

[https://i.imgur.com/oMrGBK6.png]

The three raced back. The scene was disastrous. The whole caravan train was on fire.

The bodies of the merchants that had chosen to fight quickly tossed upon them.

Other merchants had reached here first. Some were futilely trying to put out their carts, others sat weeping alone and in groups at the loss of friends or their livelihoods. Nia stared around. The scene felt unreal to her. She hadn't particularly liked many of these people. She saw the suspicious and hostile looks they gave her. To see them brought to ruin like this felt needlessly harsh.

She looked over and saw Nox futilely trying to grab something out of his cart.

He tried to reach in, yelling, and she didn't need to know his language to know that he was screaming obscenities as he was burned by the heat and flames. He tried again before Reffy grabbed the man's arm to stop him. In a surprising feat of strength, nox lifted his arm Reffy dangling from it and shook it vigorously, but the boy stubbornly hung on.

There was a crashing noise as Nox's cart collapsed to the side, a wheel finally giving out to the devouring flame. The young man seemed to give in, accepting the reality of the situation as he lowered Reffy, his body language that of a defeated man.

After a few moments, the pair returned and began to talk, Reffy translating where needed.

"I didn't think they'd torch my wagon," Nox said in near tears.

"What do we do now?" Nia asked.

Nox gave her a tired look before responding, "We go back towards Oldspire. I think it's fair to say the caravan is no more, so I doubt anyone else here will want to travel with us now. Monsters might be a problem."

"Me and Nia, well, I'm not sure if it's a good idea to go back there. We might have made enemies before we left." Refenial told him.

Nox nodded. "The other option is to carry on to Waterhill. That'd be the next stop the caravan would have taken. It's about the same distance. I have a problem, though." He looked around at the merchants milling around. "It's not something that can be discussed here."

[https://i.imgur.com/oMrGBK6.png]

Reffy and Nia followed the Nox further up the path until they were well out of earshot of the other merchants.

Nox turned to them, licking his lips nervously. "You see, my family was put under a curse long ago." Reffy translated Nox's words as he spoke.

Nox continued, "We need a special, uh, thing. Otherwise, we have problems. All my supply of the 'special thing' was in the wagon."

"What do you need? Perhaps we can get some for you?" Reffy asked.

Nox looked even more uncomfortable at the suggestion. "I-ah-uh, fuck it. I'm a ghoul." Nox took a half step back as if he expected to attack them at the revelation.

Reffy translated as he shared a confused look with Nia.

"What's a ghoul?" she asked.

"Haha," Nox laughed awkwardly. "Wow, you guys really don't know. Well, you see, my family was cursed a long time ago. It gives us some useful abilities. The problem is we have to eat a particular meat regularly. Otherwise, we start looking like monsters."

"What, like, monster meat?" Nia asked suspiciously.

Reffy shook his head, his face serious "I don't think that's what he's talking about."

"No... human," Nox said while looking away.

As soon as Reffy translated, Nia retched a little as she remembered her daydreams of kissing him only this morning. Nox gave her a look that was cross between shame and hurt. And she felt guilty again.

"Do you kill people?" Reffy asked, his hand slowly reaching for his bag.

Nox waved his hands desperately in the air. "No! No! Not at all. I only eat those who're already dead. I buy only those who are already dead. I sell them to others of my kind so none of us have to hurt people, so other people can't tell what we are."

"So, in your wagon?" Nia asked, afraid of the answer.

Nox nodded guiltily. "Yes, I had everything I said. It puts people off from looking too closely, but I was also transporting jerky. And some salt-packed."

"You buy the bodies?" Reffy asked.

"Yes, a lot of undertakers are either my kin or work with them. They're all people who died without us. For example, there were three men who died in a knife fight down by the docks the night before we left."

Nia's head spun, and she felt like she was going to be sick. Those three men had to have been the ones Reffy killed. If things had gone differently, would this ghoul be eating her right now? She dry heaved, bending over, ready to vomit. Reffy gently put his hand on her back.

"Are you okay?" He asked, his concerned face visible out of the corner of her eye.

She heaved twice more before she was able to calm her stomach enough to nod.

She looked over at Reffy, surprised at how calm he was acting. With a sudden realization, she remembered that Nox had wanted to go away from people before having this conversation.

"Reffy, what do we do? We're alone in the woods, and he eats people."

He didn't translate her words this time, instead responding to her, "Look at him, Nia. He's terrified. If he was going to try and eat us, he'd have already tried."

"What about when he gets hungry and tries to eat us as a snack on the way to the next town?"

Reffy was silent for a minute before looking her in the eyes. An erie dead calm on his face. "I don't think he will, but if he tries, I'll kill him."

[https://i.imgur.com/3vZaHAB.png]