Makim had been surprised when the ancestor came back to get her and told her to go to the horse. She had stayed behind hoping to delay Kerios but he came back and with a simple gesture told her to go instead.

She had felt guilty but understood his reasoning, he was able to survive Kerious attack, she wouldn't. Kerios had learned how to separate the field from himself and that makes him a lot more dangerous than when they had first fought.

Makim had ran as fast as she could to get to the horses, she had found the ancestor women not quite sure what to do. So, she quickly took the horse's reins and had it lower itself. Which enabled them to climb on quick.

When they got on the horses Makim tried to ride as fast as she could for as long as she had the lights from the building, but the ancestor women who clearly had never been on a horse were having a hard time keeping balance. If any of them had fallen it would have spelt a lot of problems for them.

She had looked behind her once to see the ancestor hanging on to the door frame to keep himself from being pulled inside.

She tried riding faster but the two women had clearly never been on a horse and were having a hard time keeping balance.

The vessel was still keeping the men distracted, and aside from Kerios and maybe one of his men no one else had noticed their escape. The volume of music the vessel was playing was deafening, but the farther they rode away from it the better it got. The problem was that it was the reverse for light, the further they got harder it was to see.

Makim was mostly relying on the horse to guide the way, given how dark was, she wasn't able to see much. The ancestor had tried to use the artefact she had on her hand to light the way, but Makim had put a stop to that by covering it, she had gotten the idea. They were riding a narrow path surrounded by forest that she didn't know, it's possible that there were beasts that came out at night, the last thing they needed was for any of them to show up. The major reason they could keep going was that horses saw well at night.

Makim was still conflicted, she knew that the big man stayed behind and wanted her to take the girls out and she was wat least glad he trusted her enough for that, but she would have preferred all ancestors made it, which is why she had stayed behind to delay Kerios in the first place. But he had come back and traded places with her, he would pay for her mistake.

What she couldn't get out of her head is how they reacted when they saw Kerios use magic, it was like it was the first time seeing magic. She couldn't understand how that could be, her people believe that magic comes from the ancestors, that the ancestors made the powers dormant in their children and gave them a way to awaken it, almost like a blessing for the devout.

If that was true, how could the same ancestors not know about magic?, how could they not have magic themselves? she saw the flying vessel, what could that be if not by magic?

After a few minutes of riding she heard a man's voice, it took her a few seconds to realize that it was coming from the artefact at the girls wrist.

The woman answered, and she realized that this might be the other man, if she had to guess this artefact allowed them to speak at a distance. Either that or the artifact itself is talking to the woman. She didn't know which of the two options was stranger. Everything she saw about them confirms the stories about them having great powers, except the fact that they are somehow powerful enough to make their big vessel fly but not enough to fight Kerios, which doesn't make sense. Her sister is strong enough to make a carriage fly a short distance and is more than powerful enough to fight Kerios.

Does that mean that the vessel flies by itself? How would that work?

Whatever the voice said to the women made them visibly relax.

Maybe an hour after running away, the path came to an end, there was forest ahead and no clear indication where to go, she stopped not knowing what to do, her whole plan was to follow the path.

«Why stop?» The ancestor behind her asked Makim was surprised she could have sworn they couldn't speak common, but even though it was badly spoken they clearly spoke it.

«The path ends here, I have no idea where to go» she answered. When she looked behind her she realized that the ancestor wasn't understanding her

«Slow... not understand» she said. Ok, she clearly could only understand some of it. And from what she said, probably needs her to speak slower.

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Makim pointed to the path and then where it ended.

The voice on the artefact spoke up again, and the ancestor had a small conversation with it. It seemed like it was explaining their situation

«Front» the ancestor woman said after finishing the conversation. She pointed ahead of them, it looked like she wanted them to go straight. It was a bad idea, there could be beasts in there. Normally roads are placed in locations with low beast activity, even in the surrounding forest, but it didn't mean that beasts didn't move closer to the roads. And if they went ahead they would be leaving the road, or path in this case.

«No, beasts» Makim said and trying to imitate a beast with hand gestures and growling. The women understood based on their expressions, they looked even more frightened from what they were, she was sorry for that, but it was better than them not being frightened enough, which had been the behavior she had observed from them during these few days she had been tracking them.

She spoke again into the artefact and she had a response that clearly relaxed her

«Front, no big animal» she said. Makim could assume that the voice is probably the other man who was likely in the vessel, but how could he know if there were beasts out there?

She decided to trust them and did as they said. When she entered the tree line she noticed how much darker everything was, the night had already been dark, but even so, entering the forest made everything was even darker.

She gripped the reins tighter trying to hide her nervousness.

It's a rule in the world that you don't enter the forest in the dark, it was not even a good idea to enter during the day unless you knew the woods, its why the hunters left the forest before the sun set.

Five minutes after they entered, they came across a wider path, it went north to south. The problem was, she didn't know which direction to go to reach the city, or better yet, the ancestors vessel. It was located at the sea, which meant to the west. But to the west there was even more forest. She decided to go north since going south would eventually lead to the wildlands and the possibility of even more dangerous beasts.

After a few steps the artefact spoke again, the ancestor tugged at her back to get her attention.

«There» she said when Makim turned to look at her, she was pointing south. Again without knowing the way herself she turned around and went south, it was obvious they had a way to see the path ahead.

They followed the path and after maybe an hour they came across an crossing where they turned west with confirmation from the voice in the artefact.

After a few hours following the path with her heart threatening to burst out of her chest they were able to see Grovlar city. The path ended before reaching the clearing outside the city. From there it was easy to see that if they crossed the small section of trees they would exit in the clearing outside the city. The location would make it easy to not be seen by the sentries on the wall.

Before going forward they heard the voice from the artefact again, Makim turned to look at the ancestor women behind her, they were talking into the artefact and whatever was being said was getting them worried.

She looked at Makim and pointed behind them frantically, toward the direction they'd just come from and said «Friend, hurt»

Makim could understand that something happened to the man who stayed behind to cover their escape, but going back for him and getting captured would undermine everything he did for them.

She tried to explain it to them «the bad men are still there» she hoped that talking as if to a small child would help them understand, but it wasn't so, it was clear that they couldn't follow what she had said.

Trying again slower and with fewer words, Makim simply said «Bad man» while pointing to where they had come from.

They understood it, but still repeated «friend hurt» then paused seeming like she was looking for words «No bad man... Alone»then she pointed behind them again and added «near»

Makim turned the horse around and went back.

They back tracked for a couple hours before the ancestor women indicated that they needed to get into the forest, by the time they found the ancestor man there were already some rays of sunshine in the early morning,

She immediately got the horse to crouch down, so they could dismount.

The two women ran to the man and checked for a heartbeat, they visibly relaxed when they felt it.

The next task was to put him on top of the horse, Luckily it wasn't the first time she had to do that, but even for his size he was heavier than she would have thought. He was put draping over the horse with his legs on one side and his head and arms on the other side, she knew from experience that it was easier to carry someone unconscious this way.

After that both ancestor women climbed on the horse staying behind the man, they would stabilize him if needed, Makin guided the horse by pulling the reins from the ground.

She didn't want to take them back to the city, she was sure the guards knew something of what happened to them. it was likely they knew about Kerios as well, he used to work as a mage for the Lord of the city when everything happened and he somehow faked his death. The only option she could see was to take them to their vessel.

So when they arrived back at the clearing she guided them toward their vessel location by using the trees to hide from the city as they moved around it.

took them around the city hiding them from view by using the trees, when they were to the south of the city, she looked at it to see if the guards had seen them, they hadn't, but she recognized some of the people who were heading toward the city.

Looking at the ancestor women she quickly told them to wait then took off running trying to catch up to them. She couldn't take the horse or the ancestor man might fall and be injured or worse.

Even though they were trotting at a slow pace, she wouldn't catch up to them on foot before they reached the city, when she got a little closer she decided to yell at the top of her lungs.

They looked back and saw her running toward them. They turned around and when they got closer Chad jumped down from the horse and came running to her. The other men took out their weapons, clearly not knowing what was going on but wanting to be ready all the same.

When she got to Chad she simply hugged him. She stayed for a few seconds like that, with her head on his chest, the other men surrounding them taking defensive positions. He always had a calming effect on her, even by just standing there holding her.

She decided to berate him for walking around with his shirt open later.