Joe took hold of Kaid’s shoulder and looked through the bedroom window into the field behind the house. All he had to do was think about the talisman and the item activated. His vision seemed to jump and skitter under the medallion’s magic. It was as if his point of focus was getting stuck on spots as he looked around. Joe realized his eyes were trying to lock onto a spot in the yard. He picked an area next to a small shed and focused on it. His vision zoomed into that spot and pulse rippled through Joe’s skin, leaving him feeling a sense of anticipation. Joe leaned into the sensation, giving it his assent. With a small pop of displaced air, he found himself, with Kaid still in his grasp, standing by the little log structure.
Knowing what he was doing now, Joe made a second jump to bring them closer to the trees behind the farmstead. The first jump had used most of the item’s pool, so Joe had to settle for a spot about halfway to where he wanted to go. They appeared in the open, though still hidden by the night’s darkness. Kaid grabbed Joe’s hand and led him the rest of the way to the trees.
“Wait here,” Kaid said before he slipped off into the night. Joe was unsure what he was waiting for but he had no choice other than to trust whatever the thief had in mind was worth it. A few minutes later something hard hit him in the shoulder. “Grabbed your staff. How much jump do you have left?”
“It’s empty.”
“No worries we are going to be filling it back up quickly. I’m going to use Clyd’s silence ability. Get ready to run.”
“You named the dagger already?”
“Yeah. Why not name it after the uncle? Is this really important right now?” Kaid grumbled.
“No sorry. Let’s go.”
Kaid took out a piece of white cloth, Joe guessed it was something like a handkerchief, which seemed like a very odd thing for Kaid to have. The gnome tucked it into his belt along his back. Even in the deep darkness under the trees, Joe was able to spot the white strip.
“Follow that,” Kaid ordered before activating his new blade’s special ability.
The moment the field enveloped him, Joe felt unnervingly lost. He was still mostly blind and now the world around him was completely soundless. There hadn’t been much noise, just the wind, and a few late-night bugs but having those small auditory cues blocked from his hearing made Joe feel like he was cut off from the world, disconnectedly trapped in a bad dream. The only things he could clearly perceive were the ground under his feet and the fluttering white ribbon. That scrap became Joe’s world. When it began to move away, Joe followed it.
The path he walked was oddly winding. The pale fabric would arc to the right for a few yards and then loop back left, not staying on that course for long either. He realized that Kaid was taking him over the smoothest ground he could find. Weaving through the trees, Joe should have stumbled over roots or walked into low-hanging branches but neither of those occurred. The dagger’s effect ended after a few minutes but the pair moved on, staying as silent as they could. They decided to save Clyd’s second charge in case they encountered something in front of them. After an hour they stopped and rested.
“Don’t make a big deal out of this but you didn’t actually suck this time. We made way more distance than I expected.”
“Ah, thanks,” Joe replied. “You know I can keep us going. I’ve got a good spell for exhaustion.”
“Nah, save it. Sunup is coming. So far we have been lucky. There was an easy path we could take so far. The next section in front of us is too messy. We’re better off waiting until you can see.” Kaid pulled the white cloth off his belt and held it out toward Joe. “Here. Want your bandage back?”
Joe looked at his satchel and then back to the proffered material. “How … When did you … never mind. The bag makes more. You can keep it if you want it.”
Kaid shrugged and stuffed the fabric into a pocket. Joe realized he could make out Kaid’s doing so. He looked into the distance and found that he could see the forest trunks backlit by the faint first blush of dawn. Joe stood and stretched. It had been a long day with just a couple of hours of napping in there but he expected the rest of today would prove to be even more grueling than it had been so far. He tightened his pack straps and gave Kaid a nod.
They started slowly as the descending terrain was covered by moss-coated rocks. This area must be a run-off during the rainy season. The soil had been washed away leaving just the stones behind. Without a solid coating of dirt, the footing was terrible. Every step was either on loose pebbles or tipping rocks. Joe picked his way down the hill, noting enviously how Kaid just slid across the uneven ground without any issues at all.
When they reached solid ground again it was time to run. Kaid picked up the pace and Joe followed. Their speed kept increasing until Kaid found the best speed which Joe could maintain. Joe had never been able to run much in his old life, but his new body seemed to know exactly how to do it. The pace they set was far faster than anything Joe could have done even before cancer weakened his body. He had never realized the satisfaction that could be found in just running. Surging through the woods, healthy and fit, was invigorating. He wanted to whoop but he knew there could be guards somewhere out here looking for them.
Kaid made the journey look effortless for the first hour but suddenly Joe found himself closing on the gnome. Kaid had a higher Vigor which allowed him to run for longer but Joe had been dosing himself with [Efferous Endurance] whenever he felt his breathing start to become labored.
Unable to help himself from teasing the grouch, Joe pulled up alongside the irksome rogue and held that pace as they darted through the forest. Kaid glared at him and pushed ahead again until his short legs began to flag once more. Joe caught up again and effortlessly jogged side by side, watching Kaid’s ire grow. Not wanting to push his short-tempered companion too far, Joe reached out and touched Kaid on top of the head, casting his endurance spell on the gnome. The thief surged ahead and maintained a much longer lead than before. That is until he needed another recharge from Joe.
The two managed to cover several miles before Joe found that applying [Efferous Endurance] repeatedly yielded smaller and smaller returns with each casting. It turns out the spell would not let you exert yourself forever. Eventually, when the skill could not push back their weariness any further, they knew they had to find a spot to stop and take a long rest.
They had reached a hilly region of the woods. Kaid scouted ahead for a few minutes before leading Joe to the back side of one of the forested mounds. The rogue found a dry gully, covered by a fallen tree. The area under the trunk was filled with dry leaves. Kaid immediately burrowed into the fallen foliage, disappearing from sight.
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Joe was still a bit too worked up from the run to bed down right away. He felt more invigorated than he ever had before, even though he could feel the exhaustion lurking in his muscles. Joe drank heavily from his waterskin and ate a quick bite as he paced slowly, winding himself down.
His new life, as wondrous as it was, was not going very smoothly. He was pretty sure this was all just a big misunderstanding. On the other hand, he had died once by Sir Groven’s hand already. Joe wanted to get it cleared up but by a more impartial authority. He just needed to get to one. Then he could finally start enjoying Illuminaria.
“This too shall pass,” he told himself and recalled some of the relaxation technics he had learned. Eventually, he slowed his breathing down and reached a point where he could shut off his thoughts. He stood up and moved into the leaves, finding a comfortable spot in the deep pile. He thought the cracking and tickling of the old foliage would keep him awake but in minutes he was sound asleep.
A few hours later, Joe awoke to the distant sound of baying dogs. He sat up and his jaw popped as he let out a mighty yawn. The sky had brightened fully. Climbing carefully and quietly to his feet, Joe listened for the sound of the hounds. The yowls were quite a ways away. Stretching and cracking his back he saw Kaid was up at the top of the gully, scanning the woods.
“From the sound of it they are too far away to see us but they have our scent,” Joe stated while still listening to the timber of the howling hounds. “We need to get moving.”
“Yeah, I don’t see anybody. There is a stream nearby. We can lose the dogs there,”.
“Actually, it doesn’t work like that. Getting wet will only make it easier for the dogs to track us once we leave the stream. The smells that will drip off us will stick them right back on our trail.”
“Really? I always heard you could lose dogs in water.”
“Nope. That’s a myth. It only works if you have a really big body of water. Then you are not so much as hiding your scent but making it harder to find the spot you left the water.”
“How do you know that? You’ve known nothing else about woodcraft so far.”
“I trained dogs. When I could no longer do agility training, I switched to scent work. You don’t have to run for scent training. I can explain it better later but the gist of it is distance is our best friend at this point, not a creek. We need to move faster than we can slipping through some stream.”
“We could get to the Andoo’ak River in a couple of hours if we keep running. That’s a big river. Would that work?”
“Yeah. It should. Do we have options upstream, downstream, or across or is there only one obvious choice when we get there?”
“We’ll have choices. There are places both up, down, and across.”
“Then let’s go.”
Through the morning and into the early afternoon they ran. They would stop every now and then to let the traces of Joe’s spell fade. During the first rest, Joe met a whole new Kaid. The idea of learning how to evade hounds appealed to the little troublemaker. Instead of his normally caustic manner, Kaid asked intelligent questions and listened to the answers. Joe never would have guessed that he would one day use the knowledge he had picked up from his scent group to evade pursuit or train a pint-sized criminal.
Joe stressed that the best way to escape dogs on your trail was to cover as much distance as you can. Dogs were faster than people, but humans were actually better long-distance runners than most scent dogs. The good news was Joe’s endurance spell could allow them to keep moving quickly for long periods. Even if the hunters had much better stats than they did, [Efferous Endurance] would more than make up the difference.
When they started running again, Joe used his aura-sight to gauge how best to apply the spell. As they jogged towards the river, both his and Kaid’s auras started to turn gray as they grew tired. Each use of [Efferous Endurance] pushed back the gray and recharged their auras mostly back to blue. Mostly was the key. Each subsequent dose of the spell left a bit more gray behind. When Joe saw their auras stay more gray than blue, he had them slow to walk, giving the effect of skill time to dissipate.
Another thought nagged at Joe as they ran. He was missing something. He kept coming back to what he had taught Kaid about avoiding dogs, and suddenly it occured to him that there was a way to break their trail that would work. One he would not have learned on Earth because the answer was magic. Joe could teleport. A few minutes later, a good opportunity showed up to capitalize on this ability.
They had reached a ridgeline. It was only about forty feet high. The small precipice was easily climbable, but it was steep enough that going around would be easier. To the left the rise lowered to about ten feet high. It grew taller to the right. As Kaid was about to turn them left, Joe spoke out.
"Hold up a second. I have an idea. Take my hand," he ordered. Kaid's quick mind immediately recalled the last time Joe had held him and took the proffered hand. Focusing on a spot at the foot of the small cliff to his right, Joe tried to get his eyes to lock in. He ended up overestimating his jumping distance at first and so moved his focus back a few times before he found the connection he wanted. In a blink, they had not only avoided the steep climb but put a fifty-foot break in their trail.
That would confuse the dogs for sure.
As they ran, refilling the medallion, Joe added occasional jumps into their journey.
The next time they dropped out of their run to rest, Joe decided to ask about what lay in front of them. “So what do we do when we get to the river, Kaid? You said we can go upstream, down, or across. Is any one of those options better than the others?”
"Depends on where you want to go. Ternport is upstream. It’s small, but I know a lot of people up there who are good at keeping their mouths shut. Lots of smuggling goes in and out of Tern, so they ain’t big on talking to knights and such. Even for rewards.” Kaid looked behind them but, when he did not see anything, he turned right back around. “Folks up there take teaching the value of privacy seriously. Ya don’t want to be on the receiving end of one of those lessons,” he added with an ominous undertone to his words.
“Sounds lovely. Just the place I want to go.”
“Oh, don’t be such a baby. Tern would be my first choice. Granted it might be the longest trip but if we can get there, ain’t no way the Gold Edict bully-boy will get you.”
“Humor me. What are the other options?”
Kaid shot him a slight scowl but continued. “Downstream is Heron Reef. Much bigger port. Far more by the book. Getting a ship out of there could be pretty easy. The downside is there’s a good chance word of you being wanted has already reached them. The town guard would have no trouble turning you over. But, the big plus to the Reef is, if you can get aboard a ship before they snag ya, then you can be long gone.”
“I like the idea of being far out of their reach but a port feels like a dead end. If they are there ahead of us, we could get trapped with nowhere to go but back into the arms of the guys on our trail.” Joe enjoyed the mental picture of a seaport full of tall ships but he still did not like the idea of being pinned against the sea. “What is across the river?” he asked.
“The last good option is Pheasants Crossing. The path we are on will be at least a day downstream of the Varborth Bridge.” Kaid pointed off to their left. “Without a bridge, they are going to have a hard time following us with the dogs. If we cross at a ford and keep heading east we should beat them there. The Crossing is where a bunch of roads meet. Easy place to get lost in a crowd. Crossing sees a fair share of smuggling too. They are not as tightlipped as Ternport but better than the Reef.”
“I like the sound of that. Lots of roads and transportation for hire sounds perfect. I vote for that one.”
“Fine by me. We should get to the Andoo’ak in the next run. Then we just gotta find us a ford and cross. Easy cheesy.”