If you have been a soldier in active combat, you know that the most annoying missions will always be the evacuation of civilians from war zones. Not many people volunteered for such missions other than those who thought they were heroes. But war is a cruel teacher, it teaches you many things and one of them is that heroes do not survive their epics.
As we waited with Grandma for the group to be ready to move forward again, I could tell she was worried because she could not calculate how much time was left before a group of creatures appeared behind us. It was the night of the second day after our escape and we had reduced our march by more than half, the muscle pains barely allowed some of us to walk for two hours at a time.
With little more than half an hour we were able to get going again, we walked along the natural paths of the forest, with the moon giving its last reddish gleams something that is good news, the bad news is that we are in a lush forest with plenty of cover for the orcs.
No wolves were howling in this mountainous region, but a wind began to blow through the forest. The icy wind seemed to blow through the branches as if they were made of smoke, and everyone shivered from the cold that crept behind them. It was commonplace, as they had never spent the night in the wild, and the unfamiliar surroundings of this misty forest made them nervous. Every shadow that moved was to them like a terrifying monster.
“I bet I won't do anything but sleep once we can run away.”
“Yes, I hope we can have a home again as comforting as the last one.”
“It'll be even better my love, we'll get to a good place won't we Grandma?”.
“Shut up Jack!” interrupted a man, he seemed scared that they might be overheard in the forest. Although they tried to keep their voices low, each sentence was uttered by the echo of the forest.
They were too tired. It was to be expected from sedentary villagers with poor nutritional diets, but it was obvious that at this rate we would be caught.
It was their high tension that prevented proper rest and was something akin to torture. They walked through the forest in the dim starlight with the immense pressure of the life and death situations that could occur at any moment. It was so dark that they could not see their fingers well, and the only thing that accompanied them were the sounds of flying insects and the occasional hooting of forest owls.
The discussion between them was just one more solution to those growing fears that tortured them on their journey.
They advanced through endless trees in the darkness with a somber mood in them, and it was as if silent spirits were hovering over them all. The cold atmosphere made them even more tense.
It was always an unknown mystery what lay behind the dense vegetation, and the bedtime stories describing monsters in the mountains did not help at all.
But a single voice calmed them.
“Calm down. Soon it will be dawn and the fog will diminish, there is little time left before we leave the forest and can rest in conditions, we can discuss everything we want to do when we arrive for real” pronounced the grandma in a calm voice, without even looking back.
Whenever Grandma's voice sounded among the group, there was silence, everyone trying to hear every tone that came out of her voice, she had become something more than the leader of the group.
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And as a weight to her words, the sun finally came out. The first ray of light struck the ground to indicate that morning had come, and it seemed to pass like a flash of relief, they felt safe from the enemies.
When the dawn finally broke and the cold atmosphere disappeared, they all seemed to have been blown out of the air. Their faces were pale and there was damp sweat on their foreheads. Even I was no exception. I was taking care of those who couldn't manage their luggage or even carrying some overtired children. So it was also a sign to know that we would be at peace for a few hours.
Relief that I could not enjoy for long, since a few hours later a notification occupied my thoughts.
[XP: +20
You level up
+1 stat point]
Darhiel (level 2- XP: 10/50).
Race: human (elf 36.5%,????)
___
Vitality: 15 I Strength: 11 I Agility: 10 I
Mana: 9 I Stamina: 18 I Intelligence: 34 I Wisdom: 21 I
[1 SP]
That confirmed several things to me, first that I could only level up by killing thinking creatures or creatures that pose a threat, second that any action I take to kill is counted as valid and lastly that we are being followed by a group.
“We must hurry, the orcs can advance even if it is daylight in this lush forest and even if we carry distance they are beasts that have a very good sense of smell and can easily track a group like ours” I urged them, with the aim that their recent relief would not cause a slowdown in the pace.
[XP: +20]
“That's right, it's only a short time until we leave the forest, once outside, we can relax and rest in the safety provided by the sun” This time it wasn't the grandma, but a man who although I don't recognize has been quiet and cooperative all the way, only until recently did I learn his name; Dalos.
We continued at a hectic pace and reached an area where the vegetation seemed to thin out.
Soon I heard the sound of water lapping against the rocks, I followed the sound and looked towards the group, and the surface of the landscape changed completely, with the reflection of light entering my eyes.
A river.
It was like a dazzling emerald rising here with the shimmering surface between trees and mountains.
“Look, it's a river!” A woman shouted in surprise.
“It must be a small mouth of the Anduin River that crosses through the mountains, but right now it's just bad news, we must cross it to get to the gap” With the grandma's words, the concern became noticeable.
[XP: +20
You level up
+1 stat point]
They were getting closer and closer, I didn't set many traps in the two days of March and very few were deadly, we were just over an hour ahead of them.
The problem was the river, it didn't look like a very deep river and it wasn't too wide, just that most people wouldn't know how to swim and any weight or load would be lost in the crossing.
“Come on, we must find some point where we can cross.”
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As they began their search Tolfo hurried through the bushes in front of him in search of the humans. However, he immediately regretted his actions. The branches pricked and scratched him painfully, they were not like the orcs who could wear armor, so the group had to slow down.
“Ouch, why were the bushes so spiky?” hissed Tolfo in frustration and annoyance. Moving slower. He missed his cave, there were only rocks and goblins, and more importantly, he didn't have to endure that annoying light.
A few minutes later, he smelled what appeared to be a group of humans. The group of goblins quickly made their way through the bushes again and, after a brief thorny resistance, found themselves breaking through the last barrier at the edge of the forest and entering a small clearing.
The group was disappointed to see an empty spot. Then they noticed the thickets where they were, full of bushes that poked and scratched at it. There were also so many new and confusing smells and now it stung him terribly. As the group of goblins scratched vigorously, he heard a sound next to him.
“Ahhh” a sudden cry rang out among them, Tolfo and company noticed that one of them had fallen into a trap.
At last, he would have the opportunity to prove his worth and the best of all was that it would be with a simple mission, or so poor Tolfo thought, but although the trail was strong, the stupid humans had been careful, traps and false trails, was what we found every time we thought they were close, some filled with poison that although it did not kill immediately as it had already done with 3 of ours if it had disabled their bodies.
I could do nothing but leave them to their fate, the weaklings would only slow us down even more and there were still more goblins, enough to deal with their task.