No matter where you are, there will always be lost sheep

"What can I say, despite what people think life is quite peaceful in the forest", I replied to Val, there is almost no conflict between humans in the great black forest if two tribes went to war with each other, the one that was the winner would still be very weakened, the scent of spilled blood would quickly attract the magical beasts and without enough warriors to defend themselves, they would eventually be destroyed.

"The bad thing is that we must be on permanent guard against the beasts and it is very dangerous to go out alone, without the defenses of a village it is impossible to live long", I continued my story, "that sounds disgusting, not being able to go out for a walk and have fun", Val said while making a displeased face, "well I guess there is no place that is perfect", I said, then we saw Jonas waving at us, we got out of the rocks and down the road, we continued all morning with the recognition of the possible ambush places, by noon we reached a rocky field that was used as a rest area, where we would await the arrival of the caravan.

Val was running around the wasteland like a child, all Red Claw members had lied about their age to become adventurers, they had escaped from their homes due to the war, they were not originally from the Castile Kingdom, they were from the nations of the west, who had been involved in a bloody war, the oldest of the group was Gilbert, but only he had reached the age of 20, I had never asked Val or another member of the group their age, Val who was the youngest girl in the group was probably 16 or 17 years old, the Red Claw group had arrived in Ciliana more or less when he had already been working as a guide for 1 year there and on his first mission I was his guide; when we reached the end of the open field, the path continued following a curve to the right and began a long descent down a winding slope, undoubtedly progress would become very slow so that place became a natural bottleneck.

We arrived with Jonas at the curve that marked the beginning of the slope, we carefully inspect the surroundings, when I climbed to the top of a rock at the bend I could see movement among the rocks in the distance on the other side of a vacant field, with several signs I warned Jonas about the possible danger, who hurriedly took Val to stop playing around and they hid in the shadow of some rocks, then they crawled over to where I was standing and Val took out a small extendable spyglass from his backpack and looked in the direction I pointed, "uwaaaggghhh, those guys have painted on their faces that they are bandit scouts", he said while making a grimace of disgust, "just when I thought nothing bad would happen anymore", Jonas said with his usual grim face.

"What will we do?", Val asked as he continued to look through the spyglass, "what do you think, Lif", Jonas said giving me a look, "as we are with the sun behind us, I doubt they have seen us, they probably come to watch the field", I answered, the open field was a frequent resting place and with the bottleneck created by the curve and the slope it became a perfect place to attack at night, "if so then this will get troublesome", Jonas said with a disgusted face.

"They must have their camp to the west, there are animal trails that go into the mountains from the prairies, they could move men and supplies there without being seen", said Val, "we must inform the caravan and if it is possible to locate the camp, not knowing how many men the bandits have would be very dangerous", I told them while I kept my eyes fixed on the men who were looking for a place to hide and observe the open field.

"You're right, it will be very dangerous if they turn out to be more numerous than us", said Jonas, "why don't you go and tell the others, Lif and I can track down the bandits' camp since we are both hunters", Val said as he put the spyglass back in his backpack, "but what about the lookouts?", Jonas reproached, "don't worry about them they won't go anywhere until they see the caravan", Val replied, "if the best thing would be to locate their camp and find out how many men they have, so we can create a plan", I said to Jonas.

"We can go around them from the south without them seeing us, those guys can be seen to be amateurs, they don't try to hide their presence at all", Val said, "if we must make the most of the fact that they have not discovered us yet, you better go back quickly and warn everyone Jonas", I said and then take Val by the shoulder "we must move now, time is money", and we slide down the slope, "I don't like it but it's for the best, be careful and Lif don't let her do something stupid", Jonas said and then started jogging back to catch up with the caravan as soon as possible.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

Using the terrain for cover we began to traverse the rugged mountainous landscape, we put on capes with sand-colored hoods to help camouflage ourselves, as I had worked with them several times in the past I had taught Rad Claw members a simplified version of tactical hand signals so that we could communicate silently, so we could move around without practically making noise, after making several detours between the ravines.

We finally got behind the backs of where both men were, there we found a path where there was a visible trace, we follow it moving cautiously among the rocks, after about an hour Val spotted a sentry in the distance with his spyglass, it was at the top of a slope so getting around it would be quite a challenge.

We managed to encircle the sentry by climbing a steep peak when we finally reached the top to look to the other side we saw a huge camp, "It has to be a nightmare!", I say Val with a scarred face, the camp was very large, it probably housed more than 300 bandits, it was located in a small valley through which a stream flowed from north to south, "this shouldn't be possible, as they can get supplies to support so many people", Val said as he surveyed the camp with his spyglass.

"It's certainly very suspicious", I said as I finished drawing a map of the camp location, also take note of the way the tents were distributed in the camp, "we must go, it's a much worse situation than we imagined", I pulled Val's shoulder and we went back down the mountain, I had a general idea of the location of the bandits' camp, in a straight line it was about 2 kilometers from the field, the terrain was very rugged and difficult so its defense was careless, as we returned to the caravan I began to think about the options.

Vance and Jonas met us on the way, I told them the situation was very dangerous, Val kept complaining that the situation was a nightmare, the caravan had stopped in a very narrow section of the road, all the leaders of the adventurer and mercenary groups were gathered, in addition to the caravan manager, Val did not want to speak, visibly scared, so I had to explain the situation, when I finished some of the guild employees fell to their knees, they all had scared faces, even the most veteran leaders.

"What do you think we should do?", Vance said as he took me by the shoulder, immediately all eyes turned to me, "I think we should attack the camp", I said decisively, "what! You're not being serious are you?" Vance said while shooting me an incredulous look, "we cannot return to Ciliana, we do not have enough supplies and we will not be able to escape, the road ahead becomes more difficult, also we do not know if they have guards ahead, this time we were lucky to discover them before they see us", I said.

"What do you propose?", said a mercenary of the dwarf race, "I think it is possible to go around the camp from the south, the camp is located in a small valley a few kilometers from the rest area, a small stream flows through the valley from north to south, if what I think is correct then that stream must flow parallel to this path", I said.

"So you say we could approach by the bed of the stream?", asked the mercenary, "I think it would be possible, besides the surveillance of the camp is very careless", I said, "hmm if we could carry out a surprise attack during the night that would nullify their numerical advantage", said the mercenary dwarf.

"We don't need to kill them all, it is enough for us to set fire to the camp, that will cause panic and disperse them, if we can kill the leader it would be even better", I said expressing what I thought, "it's crazy, that's certain death", shouted someone else in the background, "SILENCE", shouted the dwarf mercenary, "how would your boy do it?", he asked as he shot me a sharp look, "but boss", someone said back again, "shut the fuck up unless you have a better idea", said the dwarf, shutting up the man.

"What I plan is to infiltrate the camp with a small group and kill the leader", I told him confidently, "so you will take advantage of the fact that surveillance is bad?", asked the dwarf, "yes, since they guard the rest area they will not be prepared until they spot the caravan, then they will surely attack at night", I said while looking into his eyes, "and then what?", the dwarf asked again.

"We have many magicians with an affinity for fire, let's have them launch a massive attack on the camp, they only need to attack once, then panic will do the rest, when we found the camp we also found the path used by bandits to move around, the road ends in a high ground from where the magicians can attack", I told him my plan in broad strokes, "mmm that seems like a sensible plan, you have my support", said the dwarf mercenary and withdrew followed by several other leaders, "so who is that little group?", Vance asked shyly, "who do you think?", I said with a mischievous smile.