-Break-

Φ At 1940 hours, Ferdiad’s scout team comes across something.

Φ As Ibar comes to an end, he says, “Why did you tell me to stop?”

Hopping off the horse, I say, “Look here?” Picking up a piece of wood, I hold it to my nose and sniff it.

“This smells of food.”

A soldier of the Faoláin house Liam says, “That little piece of wood.”

Another Faoláin soldier named Cian says, “Was it part of a box.”

“You’re right. It was probably part of the fleeing humans' supplies, I want everyone to search the area for more, if we can find something with a strong scent we might be able to actually find the humans.”

Turing my head to Téad, I say, “I need the Lúcogadh to go ahead and see if Ronald has made contact with the humans.”

One of them says, “We don’t take orders from you.”

But Téad puts his hand up and says, “We will be back in no time.”

As they leave, I sigh and then say, “Now let’s get to work.”

The beastkin spread out and eventually, one of them says, “Ferdiad over here!”

As I arrive beside him, I see a pile of dust, and say, “What is this.”

Brandon says, “It seems to be crushed wood, and if we dig down here a bit we can see that there is a lot of it.”

Picking it up, I say, “Did the humans do this to hide their tracks, but if so how could a human manage to crush wood into fine dust, this strength is almost like a beas-.”

Before I can finish, I hear Téad scream, “We have information!”

With my focus distributed, I turn to the Lúcogadh who are riding back and I say, “That was quick, you’re back already?”

“Yes, because we didn’t make it to Ronald, due to what we found.”

“It must be important then, spit it out.”

Some Lúcogadh's look angry at the way I spoke, but Téad says, “During our investigations, one of my men with an excellent sense of smell came across a rather distinct smell coming from up north. So we went into the mountains there, where we saw the dead body for a wonderbeast.”

Brandon with an annoyed tone says, “Is that why you abandoned your mission? It was probably just a pesky wonderbeast that they killed for being too close.”

One of the Lúcogadh says, “Don’t insult our intelligence.”

“It isn’t an insult, I am just hoping you won’t be repeating your past mistakes.”

“Arrogant as always, the perfect Faoláin talk down to all they meet.”

Behind me, Cruadhlaoich claps his hands which shuts both sides up and I say, “I am sure that isn’t all you had to say Téad.”

“Correct. The wonderbeast we came across was killed a while ago, but its blood remains and was dripping down. And on that blood, we saw many footsteps, people recently passed through there and it was a lot of them.”

Shocked, I say, “If what you’re saying is correct, that means the humans escaped into the mountain range.”

Many of the Faoláin men around me start to lose their bearing with this information and talk unendingly.

“That’s impossible, the mountains are filled with wonderbeasts.”

“Humans simply don’t have the skill or knowledge to hunt wonderbeasts in such a chaotic environment.”

“But these humans must have such skill otherwise there is no conceivable way they could have escaped.”

“The humans here have consistently shown us their strength, if they were to survive and leave we would be giving humanity far more strength than we could imagine.”

“At worst the humans might become a menace like those demons to the east.”

“We need to chase after right now, even if we put our lives at risk we must go!”

Speaking up, I say, “Téad you need to send an owl back to our main camp immediately, tell them of the situation and that we have all moved ahead to monitor the humans.”

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“Right.”

“All of you who are injured yet came along, I want you all to return.”

“What! We can still be of use in this battlefield.”

“I don’t deny that, but right now we are going to need extreme precision and stealth for this upcoming mission. If your wounds get worse over time, we will be in trouble so please just return.”

With frustration very visible on their bodies they say, “Ok.”

“Now let’s go.”

-Break-

Φ At 2010 hours, the scout team moves through the mountain range in the north. It is a rocky and mountainous area that is incredibly hard to manoeuvre.

It is usually filled with wonderbeasts which add to the difficulty, but as the scout team passes, they find more and more wonderbeasts' bodies. Soon they reach the second half of the mountain which is filled with plant life, and lush trees on higher levels. Though on the lower levels, it is much the same.

To get a better view of their surroundings the scout team moves into the forest area and continues their search all the way until 2140 hours.

Φ Ibar turning towards me says, “We need to take a break, at this rate, Crunniuc is going to collapse.”

“I see.” Turning around to all of the beastkin, I signal them to stop, which they all quickly follow.

At 2200 hours, the scout team have set up a temporary camp, and are resting and relaxing. The sun has completely vanished by this point and all of them are in the dark forest waiting for their strength to return.

As I walk over to Ibar, Téad comes up to me and says, “Can I scout the area a bit more?”

“Why?”

“I just want to make sure no one is around.”

“Alright then, but come back quickly. Your horse needs to rest because I plan for us to keep going until we come across the humans.”

“Right!” He says as he prepares to leave.

Turning around, I head over to Ibar and say, “Is Crunniuc doing alright?”

“Not really. His mood has dropped quite a bit due to the deaths of Kooacht, and Liath.”

Patting him, I say, “Please cheer up boy, when we return to Gorias I will make sure to take good care of you.”

Under his breath, Ibar mutters, “This wouldn’t have happened if my sister wasn’t so dumb.”

Sitting down beside Ibar, I say, “What has been your issue.”

“What do you mean?”

“You and your sister usually never have problems like this, but today it seems you really can’t let anything she has done go. Which is quite weird for a sister-obsessed boy such as yourself.”

Embarrassed Ibar turns to me and says, “I am not obsessed with my sister!”

“I know the smell of my own kind. Protecting one's family is something we both hold dear to our hearts, so lie Ibar and tell me what would make one like you get angry at your sister.”

Sighing, Ibar says, “I don’t think my sister is made for the battlefield.”

“Is it because of what she did today? If so I think that might be debatable.”

“It’s not only what she has shone today, but all her life. Back in our village, whenever we needed to put down an animal due to them carrying defects which would be horrible if passed down, my sister would cry and fight my dad.

If they didn’t die they would go on to lead to the deaths of other animals, and even the villagers due to the horrible defects it would pass down. But my sister cried to make us stop and continued to cry even after it was done. We had many different animals but she cried whenever anything happened to a single one.

She is saddened by all the bodies we have seen over the last two days to the point where I can feel her concentration skipping, and when faced with the chaos of the battlefield she will avoid it to preserve life, she shouldn’t be here, I can handle it all on my own.”

“Did you know Setanta actually had a horse before Kooacht and Liath?”

“Really?”

“Yep, it was a brown and old stallion named Dull. He went everywhere with it and would never let him leave his side, even in his bed, and he had forbidden anyone from riding the horse or he would execute them. Strange isn’t it?”

“Setanta whole existence is strange, so it isn’t the biggest surprise.”

“I guess you are right about that, still for Setanta who had to spend most of his early years locked in the castle, Dull was his best friend.

Eventually, even Setanta wasn’t able to keep him around. He caught a disease and started to act erratic and Setanta had to put him down.

Apparently, it is said that Setanta didn’t smile for about two years after this event, this caused great distress among the servants who thought it would be best to buy Setanta all of the expensive horses they could find.

Still, it didn’t do anything to improve his mood. Until he one day he started smiling again, which confused the servants. So they asked him why, and he answered; Dull deserved two years of no smiles.

It was utterly ridiculous from any outside perspective that Setanta would act like this over a horse he barely had for a year, though for him he had decided that his life was worth that much.”

“What point are you trying to prove?”

“On paper Setanta actions seem stupid. On paper, my sister should be the last woman Setanta would go for, on paper your sister caring for the animals may seem stupid. But I assure you none of it is, and if you can’t understand that you’re immature.”

“Immature!” Ibar says angered.

“Well, you somehow believe your sister is unfit for the battlefield, while someone like you who was raised in the countryside and saw no real combat until recently is.”

“I don’t think I am much better than she is, but unlike her, I have a reason to never run away.”

“And that is? Let me guess, your love for your sister.”

Serious he says, “No because it is my duty.”

“Duty?”

“My family had someone who would always come up with new ideas, my mother. Whenever our village was in trouble she would always come up with a way to save it, and that’s how a tiny village like ours grew to become so strong. But I took that away from everyone when I killed my mother, and it is my duty to use my life to repay that.”

Getting up, Ibar walks away and I say, “I might have gone a bit too far. Though I do hope he understands what I was getting at, I guess I should take some more language classes when I get home, subtext is still so annoying.”

Suddenly I feel a force in my pants and say, “I need to pee.”

Looking around, I start to run off into the forest looking for a place to relieve myself.

-Break-

Pulling up my pants, I smile and start to walk away, saying, “Now it’s time to get some work done.”

My ears twitch as I hear a sound come through them. Listening in I say, “Is that a voice?”

Instantly I start to move towards the origin of the sound I am hearing and make sure to conceal my presence as I do. Then eventually after some walking, I come across something that shocks me to my core.

In the lower rocky level of the mountain range, I see a camp of humans. But they are numerous, a ridiculous amount that might even rival all those who are present in Gorias.

“We severely underestimated the amount of humans within this settlement. But more than that why were there so many humans here to begin with, too much of this just doesn’t make sense.”

An idea pops into my head, and I say, “If this is true, we might be in more trouble than we thought. I need to go back and inform everyone else.”