Norbert breathed in once more as he climbed the hill, looking towards his destination, the flat planes angling downwards. As he breathed, he envisioned the air going to his legs. Norbert sprinted for all he was worth.
Down the hills he ran, nearly falling with speed, pumping his legs as hard as he could, hearing the grass wiz by, only for him to reach the next hill, leaning forward as he climbed as fast as he could.
Norbert ran like this, going up and down the hills, not going between them and always flat, for he was just a single-minded being. Run Forward. And run forward he did, until the hills started to get smaller and smaller, petering out until it was just flat angling down. The grass slowly turned into rocks and stones. Norbert looked at the area before him, coming to a stop.
As he looked down, Norbert saw at the very bottom a river. Remembering his previous river experience with the wolves, Norbert stopped and scanned everywhere he could, as he did that on the hills…
As Norbert slowly crawled down the rocks, his ears peeled for any disturbance he could find. Norbert looked out towards the sky, seeing how much time he had spent getting here. Looking up, the sun in the sky seemed to be in the same place, maybe a bit higher than before. Assuming he still had heaps of time, Norbert scanned the area again.
After ensuring there was no big game out there in his vicinity, Norbert scrambled down the rocks, getting to the river. Sliding down, the other rocks he was on caused a mini avalanche of small stones to fall into the river, the sound of it clattering around him.
Stopping and looking around, Norbert tried to see if anything was around, confirming that nothing was moving. Norbert just sat and waited, looking around. Norbert slowly scanned his head and looked behind himself. He was not wanting to cause panic and get in trouble on his first day, and deciding to take it slowly.
After many minutes and no sound, Norbert carefully traversed the rocky area to the river below. Watching it, Norbert looked both ways along the river, not seeing anything that could be around there. Head moving forwards and back, Norbert decided on his path to continue following the river to the right of him.
As he followed the river, occasionally looking, seeing fish inside, not anything massive or threatening, just some normal-looking ones, Norbert continued to scan the other bank. Looking further, the other bank was similar to this one, with it slightly rising before it was flat once more, any sign of grass gone, only bushes being seen before anything else was cut off from view.
Scanning ahead of him, Norbert looked and saw no obstructions; with no sounds being made, Norbert continued ahead.
Norbert continued for the rest of the day, sometimes making it up the slope he was currently on to ensure nothing was beyond his sight. Once looking, Norbert saw a herd of beasts. Ducking down, Norbert slowly crawled towards them, not wanting to be seen.
As Norbert looked at them, relieved that they were not coming his way, Norbert was shocked at what he saw, for he was staring at a pack of ostriches, for that was what they looked like.
As they grazed on the flowers several hills over, Norbert went to the other side to ensure he was still hidden and opened his backpack. Taking out the book, Norbert scanned the pages, looking for the one about this creature.
Once finding it, Norbert looked further at the page, trying to gleam any sense out of it, but most of the writing and colour symbols were meant to be easy to know, and Norbert understood none of it. Going back to the rules that Lily said, Norbert climbed over the hill and started counting them.
When he hit 20 with only a few more to go, Norbert stopped counting, trying to get a look at the closest one. Norbert did not see any particular colour that was standing out, which could indicate what type it was.
Looking at them more, wanting to see in what direction they headed, Norbert sat on his hill and observed them. Seeing them go and pick up the flowers on the hill, only going for the similar purple ones he had picked up before, Norbert watched until, as one, they all moved off to his left.
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Careening off the declined area, they ran across the water’s surface of the river and went up the other bank before being taken away by the bushes on the other side. Watching them go, Norbert thought about chasing after them, scolding himself for his thoughts. Norbert stood up, brushed his pants once more and continued his trek.
Finding nothing else and not wanting to go past the river until reporting back what he had seen. The flowers were the same area he had seen before dotting the hills. Norbert ran back to the town, keeping one eye on the river and the other to his left to ensure he did not miss his mark.
As the sun began to set, Norbert saw the lights of the town moving off the river. Norbert ran across the hills, going between them now instead of over the top for the most part, only occasionally going above to ensure he was still heading in the right direction.
As Norbert ran for the last time under the cover of twilight, Norbert stood on the last hill before reaching the camp on the next one over. Looking at it, Norbert saw a bonfire in the centre, with some big tents around it, looking Norbert saw no small tents for personnel, remembering the recent nights spent lying on the ground; would he need to do the same again?
Norbert continued walking down the hill and back up the next one, hearing the voices of people talking as he arrived. Walking past the first big tent, Norbert could see it was housed for food to be stored; walking past it not to get in anybody’s way, Norbert made his way to the campfire, looking for Martitia Norbert stopped at the campfire. Over it, Norbert could smell meat cooking, wafting into the air and surrounding the vicinity.
Norbert saw the spit roast meat inside the fire as someone slowly spun it around, occasionally pouring some sauce on top of it. Each time they did this, causing smoke to come up, making the smell once more engulf the area.
Norbert heard his stomach grumbling after a day, or possibly even a week, of not having anything to eat. Tearing his eyes off the meat, Norbert once more scanned the area looking for Martitia so as not to torture himself.
He was finally finding her, sitting on the ground, sipping on some drink while looking at the fire some distance back; Norbert walked up to her.
“Here to report on the day's findings,” Norbert said; Martitia looked up, raising an eyebrow and not saying anything. Norbert, swallowing, continued his explanation “Mostly hills as can be seen; if you continue slightly in that direction”, Norbert said, pointing with his hand “, you will come across a flat plane that is slowly going down made up mostly of rocks, at the bottom of the incline a river continues.”
“While going along the river, a group of about twenty of these things”, Norbert showed Martitia the book he had received on the page he found earlier. “Who, after eating what I believe to be the flowers ran off to the other side of the river. Not following them as not wanting to get caught, I continued not finding anything important until I made my way back here.”
Norbert finished closing the book with a slam, placing it back in his backpack and looked to Martitia, waiting for the next thing to do. Taking a sip of her cup, she looked back up towards Norbert, saying, “Nearly all scouts have come back; for now, get some food in you by going to that tent there” She pointed next to the tent on the right “also how many people are on that hill” she asked, pointing towards one of the hills over the fire.
Norbert squinted, looking towards the hills, blocking the fire with his hand to stop the glare. Norbert looked. On one of the closer hills, Norbert could make out three figures standing next to each other; Norbert would judge about two meters or so apart. Thinking it was weird, Norbert opened his mouth.
“There are three …” Norbert drifted into silence, looking even further than the hills, the rest of the world zoning away. Norbert looked three more hills behind it, able to see someone huddled down. Thinking it strange what they were doing, Norbert continued his sentence.
“There are three standing on the closest hill, but two or so hills behind the group is a lone person sitting down, or at least I think they are alone; it gets a bit blurry that far away”, Norbert replied, looking down at Martitia.
“They weren’t kidding about you; your report was accurate. Good job; for your reward, you will also be doing the night shift scouting for the next couple of days, including your day scouting of the area given.” She said, standing up and giving Norbert an encouraging slap. “At night, you will have the entire plains to look over. For now, don’t go past the river; leave that for the day trips until you’re comfortable.” Walking off, she turned around, addressing Norbert one last time. “Also, you will be getting paid twice as much, so don’t give me that look and let's go get you some food.”
Norbert looked, sure his face was one of disturbance, not knowing when he would even have time to sleep, let alone trying to study the tome in his backpack, feeling even heavier than before. Something landed on his shoulder; Norbert looked to see Obsius there; Norbert patted it out of instinct.
“What have we landed ourselves in now.”