The priestess grinned at all of us. “As all alcoholic beverages are products of milady’s grace it would be poor of me to reverse their effects.”

“We really need these guys sober.” I told her.

“As policy, we really don’t do that. It’s the equivalent of casting a hunger spell on someone who has eaten too much bread.” Alissa said.

“But you can, right?” Izzy said. “I mean, there are plenty of poison removal spells in the nature repertoire?”

“Oh sure.” Alissa shrugged. “We make something of a specialty of healing farmer who have been poisoned by insects.”

“Alissa, field maiden, this is really important. One of our classmates is trying to escape. They’ll punish the whole group for that.” I said, my hands nervously working.

“Yess, pleasse.” Elyse said.

“Ah, so its important? Just a moment, I’ll be back.” The woman turned and hurried to the back of the temple.

“It sure would be nice if she’d hustle.” Niobe said, pacing back and forth. “Deniz has a great head start already.”

“Does anyone know her priorities?” I asked. Niobe and Izzy both shook their heads. Jackson and Marko were both competitive about peeing for distance.

“I think sshe was divided. One to sskillss and one to magic.” Elyse told the group.

“What kind of magic?” I asked.

“Monk. I don’t know any more than that. Sshe didn’t talk about it much.” Elyse shrugged.

“I don’t know a lot about monks.” I crossed my arms. “All my study time has been spent on arcane.”

“Yeah, priest for me. I was focused on advancing. It never actually occurred to me I might have to fight one of us.” Izzy said.

“Fight?” Niobe asked, sitting on a nearby bench. “We’re thinking she might not come voluntarily?”

“That’s why we’re bringing the warriors.” I told her. Jackson was taking losing the peeing contest pretty hard and looked like he was about to sob. Marko was doing some sort of touchdown dance that involved a lot of hip thrusts.

“Yeah, I’m sure they’ll be a help.” Izzy raised her eyebrows.

Alissa was coming back with something in her hands. It looked like a basket over one arm and a bota. No, there were two bota held by their leather necks. “You two, come over here.” The priestess snapped her fingers in the air.

Marko and Jackson both careened over and were directed to sit down on a bench. The woman broke the long, thin loaf of bread she was carrying in two and handed the pieces to them. “Eat this.”

“I’m not hungry though.” Jackson slurred.

“I didn’t ask if you were hungry, I told you to eat the bread.” Alissa said calmly. They did, Jackson grumbling like a five year old.

The priestess then crumbled what looked like bark into very fine pieces and dropped some into each bota. She put her thumb over the top of them and shook energetically, the liquid inside swishing loudly. “Okay, drink this down.”

“What did you put in the liquid?” Izzy asked.

“I had some of the internal bark of a willow tree. Ideally, I’d make it into a broth but this will do.” Alissa told Izzy. The two warriors took the leather water bottles and turned them up. Marko’s sour expression was hilarious with his broad nose and tusks.

The priestess chanted the lay of remove poison over the two fighters. Both their eyes cleared instantly. “Whoah, buzzkill.” Jackson complained.

“You’re sober?” I asked the watched them. “They’re sober!”

“That was SO great!” Izzy proclaimed.

“Thanks.” Alissa said with a gentle smile. “Now don’t you have a friend to catch up to?”

“Do we owe you anything?” I asked, reluctantly feeling for my pouch.

“We do take donations to support the poor. Please pay what your heart tells you is right.” The woman told us. Izzy dumped her entire purse on a bench and pushed it over to the priestess. The rest of us gave a gold piece each. With effusive thanks we left the temple.

“Okay, where did Deniz start out?” I asked Elyse.

“I’ll guide you there.” The midniss told the group as she started walking. “I’m ssorry. I couldn’t sstop her. I didn’t even know what sshe was doing at firsst.” She shook her head, which with a midniss neck was something akin to a full body shimmy. “I’m ssorry.”

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“Don’t worry. We’ll get her back.” I looked up at the brilliant white sun that was high in the sky and the red sun that was just above the horizon. “Before morning.”

“Aiiight, is she lost or is she runnin”? Jackson asked, holding his head.

“I believe sshe’ss running. That might work its way into losst though.” Elyse shrugged.

“So yelling and calling won’t do any good.” The human clenched his jaw. “Can’t believe she’d leave us all high and dry like that. Not after what happened to Niobe.”

We passed out the gate closest to the castle. The treeline around the cleared area started about fifty yards away from the village wall. I waved to a guard who watched us all closely.

“Sshe went into the woodss ssomewhere around here.” Elyse said, pointing at the trees.

“I guess this is where I take over. Alright, I’m going to track. That means I’ll be moving slow. You guys keep a watch for me. Okay?” Niobe told the group. “Also, stay behind me. Don’t do anything to mess up the trail.”

The cat woman walked back and forth for a few minutes. “Okay, found the trail.” She waved us over. Once it was pointed out I could see faint scuff marks and a barely there imprint of the halnaak’s three toed foot. Two forward and one back, like a bird.

Niobe led the way. It wasn’t a trail, just us wandering through the wilderness, so Marko and Jackson both followed the cat lady a few feet back and out the side making a sort of triangle. Izzy stood in the center of that triangle, then Elyse and then me backing everyone up.

Izzy was a great observer and our only healer but she was fragile. Jackson and Marko probably wouldn’t notice Denize if she dropped out of the sky on their face and wriggled around as both of them had few skills. I had the best armor in the group and was familiar with some pretty good weapons but wasn’t terribly observant. Niobe was observant and sneaky but couldn’t take many hits, especially because she didn’t have as shield. Elyse had a limited battery of spells she used and was sneaky but was the definition of a glass cannon. Its an uneasy group that went seeking our squad mate.

Ha, if we were still playing the game we’d be marching in single file. That thought made me laugh to myself. Elyse whispered, “What’ss funny?” I just shook my head.

“She paused here for a moment, walking around.” Niobe said, pointing out scuff marks on the ground and how disturbed the remnant snow was. “Don’t know what she’s doing.” And we continued.

“Deniz!” Marko yelled. The sudden noise made me jump after the stillness of the fir covered forest.

“Dude, shut the hell up.” Jackson hissed.

“I won’t come back!” Floated to us from a distance.

“Deniz, you know what they did to everyone when I ran.” Niobe called out. “Please. Don’t make us take you back by force!”

We all paused to listen for a response. There was nothing. Just the quiet whisper of the wind through the trees.

My ears strained. Just like I was back in a damned training dungeon. Standing here listening for enemies.

Niobe started tracking again and we kept following. A scuff mark on an exposed root, a place where snow had been knocked off a branch. These were the hints and clues she was looking for. I wouldn’t have noticed a one of them. Man do I need to raise that perception score.

We followed the cat woman for several minutes. After a while Elyse motioned for us to stop and she put on a fur line cloak. That was good idea. The rest of us put on what winter equipment we had available as well. Except Izzy. She was happy as a pig in slop to be out in the winter wonderland. Not me, I missed my fire.

The group was moving slowly, just keeping up with Niobe. Marko was looking up, scanning the trees when there was a whipping noise and the ogre screamed. “Aaaaah, it stabbed me!” He yelled.

I ran over but Izzy beat me there. She was kneeled down by the ogre, who was writhing around. A tree branch with several sharpened stakes tied to it had whipped him in the lower part of his thighs. Blood gushed from the wound.

I tried to hold him still but Marko’s crazed strength was far too much for me. Jackson ran over, dropping his shield, and grabbed his right arm. I took hold of his left and we at least minimized his thrashing.

Izzy grabbed his face in her little hands, only possible because the ogre was bent over in pain. “Marko, I have to pull the stakes out.” She said evenly. “This is going to hurt. Can you take it?”

He set his jaw and grunted. “I can hack it.”

Three of the fir wood stakes had penetrated into his quadricep, two in the right leg and one in the left. Izzy grabbed the right most and put her other hand on the ogre’s thigh as a brace. “One, two…” She yanked it out. When the blood covered wood came free, we could see there were splinters all in the wound. She hadn’t carved them smoothly.

Marko made a high-pitched animalistic whine when the stake was pulled from his leg. His arms waved, nearly throwing me off holding him down. Jackson was lifted bodily into the air but kept a firm grip. “You’re okay buddy. This ain’t nothing for a tough guy like you.”

The ogre nodded frantically, “I can hack it.” He said again, gasping in pain.

Izzy looked at me, eyes wide, holding the bloody, splintered piece of wood in her hand. I shrugged as if to say, “What are you gonna do?” She dropped the stake onto the snow and grabbed the second one.

There was a thumping noise to the side. Niobe grunted and sat down, hard. I looked over at her and she put a hand to her head. The cat woman was kind of weaving around, like a drunk at the end of a bender. She looked at me, blood streaming from a cut on the side of her forehead.

Izzy put her tiny hand around the inside right stake. She set her jaw and pulled for all she was worth. This one didn’t move at first. Marko thrashed, breathing hard in short pumping breaths. It started to come free, slowly. The ogre hit the ground, powerful fist thudding onto the earth over and over. The stake came loose and blood fountained after it.

“Mike! Bandages!” The sea elf yelled. I let go of his arm and kneeled down beside his leg. Reaching into my backpack I drew out the leather box holding my healer’s kit. Looking at the wound I pulled out a needle and thread.

“Elyse! Get over here.” I yelled. Thankfully, I’d thought to string the needle before hand so I didn’t have to that. The midniss ran over. “Reach into that wound and grab that artery. Be careful, don’t just snatch it. I need you to hold it still while I sew it shut.”

“Grab… The artery?” Elyse said, flexing her hands nervously. She paused, looking at the wound.

Jackson yelled, “Damn girl, move.” And shouldered Elyse out of the way. He tore the hard plate of boiled leather the stake had penetrated off Marko’s thigh, then ripped his thick adventurer’s pants so he could get at the wound. The human reached in, hands getting covered in blood. His strong fingers grabbed it and the artery slipped away, slithering like a snake back into the wound. He swore and reached in once more, getting it to the surface.

Thank God, it was a nick and not a sever. I got to sewing, blood covering my hands and getting into my beard. Izzy chanted the words to a spell, but she had to heal him with one stake still in his leg to save his life. Marko’s upper body thrashed around like crazy, but kept his head enough to not move his leg.

Then the ogre went still.