It had been two days since the man had broken off the paved road and made his way into one of the many valleys that stretched through the mountains west of Mirida. Although he seemed to be in no hurry to arrive where he aimed to go, his pace was a sturdy one, and would have been fast enough to shake all but the most trained individuals. Still, it had nothing on the speed at which a bird of prey may cross the skies and as such, Nelue had chosen to pursue the man on feathery wings. While limiting the amount of equipment they could take with them, it also aided them in remaining unseen, as these mountains were known to house multiple kinds of large eagles. Apart from the occasional scuffle with the native inhabitants of these skies, these factors all made this chase one of the easiest ones that Nelue had been on since arriving in the area.

Down below, the man seemed to have arrived at a spot he deemed suitable for a camp, and had started to assemble a makeshift tent from his mantle and a few larger branches, acquired from a nearby forest. Like Nelue, he was travelling light, the main part of his package being occupied by the object that warranted this pursuit in the first place. It was a box made out of a dark wood, intricatly carved with the alternating patterns of mouths, eyes and ears, one side being additionally adorned with milky white gem stones. After the man had finished setting up his camp, he carefully placed the box between two rocks a few paces away from his tent, and covered it up with smaller rocks. Once he seemed satisfied with his work, he made his way back towards the patch of bushes, small trees and other greenery, now aparently searching for small game to hunt. Nelue used this time to land on top of a smaller rock formation opposit the woods, putting the camp between them and the man. Once they were certain that he wouldn't turn around, Nelue dropped their own pack that they had been carrying on their back, and quickly shifted into an approximately human form themselves. Using the much more percise grip of human hands, they wrote down the events of the day so far into a small notebook. Over the three days that they had been following the man, his pattern of behaviour hadn't changed. Build a tent, hide the box, hunt for food. It was safe to assume that he had a clear location in mind, given that he took the pains of hiking through dense forests and across mountains upon himself instead of travelling on the well maintained road, or even renting a cart. It also didn't seem that he suspected anyone might follow him, as the few times that he had encountered other travellers while still on the road, he had greeted them in a open and geniuenly friendly manner. Reviewing all these facts gave Nelue the impression that this man was either extremely lucky, or highly professional in his craft, given what he was carrying.

Five days ago, Nelue had been approached by an envoy of the local Circle. The acolyte had looked clearly sleep-deprived, and had beckoned Nelue to double check the surroundings of their office before relaying her message: The remains of the local First Mouth had been stolen. The Circle had no leads as to how the thief could have entered the inner halls of the building, and the Eyes guarding the reliquary both insisted that they had been standing watch vigilantly, and stated that no one even approached the doors. Upon further inquiry, and threats of publicly stripping them of their titles, they revealed that, while they truly had not seen anything out of the ordinary, they were both missing approximately ten minutes of memory. They had themselves only discovered this after being, in their eyes, relieved of their guard duty too early. Both had said that they thought they just had forgotten the time, and had thus not paid any mind to it until the theft was discovered. The woman further told Nelue that, after establishing when the theft must have taken place, the magisters of the Circle had decided to not disclose the incident to the people of the city, as it had taken place during worship, a time which was seen as particularily safe. Due to this, the magisters also chose not to utilise the official guard of the city to search for the thief, instead hiring private investigators to solve this problem and bring back the remains. having been told this, Nelue was immediatly made to swear silence to anyone, except Circle priests, concerning the matters discussed. After negotiating pay, and aqcuiring additional information, the acolyte had left again, and Nelue had begun to work.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Given the contents of the box, Nelue reasoned, the man must have had plans to sell the box itself, as the remains of even a Mouth were nothing of worldly value. Still, they found it odd that he always went through such great lengths to hide it, especially as he didn't seem to be concerned to be seen himself. At the evening of the first day, when he was still travelling the road, he had wrapped it an empty leather bag he carried with him, added some stones into the bag and, after checking the depth of the river, plunged it into the water running next to the road. This was the reason why Nelue had not reclaimed the box right that night when the man was sleeping. Sipping into the river donning the form of an otter, they had discovered that the water at that specific place was almost three meters deep - a depth which would make retrieval of the box extremely difficult for a human. Wondering why the man would use such drastic measure to hide what was nothing more than a semi-valuable item, they had decided to keep following him for a few days more, hoping that the meeting with whomever the man planned to sell this box to would shed more light on why the man thought this box so much more valuable than it was.

Nelue was ripped back out of their inquiring thoughts by the sound of a small animal being hit by something sharp. They quickly finished writing their observation and thoughts and changed forms again, this time taking the form of a small snake. Using the stones lying all over the grassy plain, they slid closer to where the man was now preparing to dress a rabbit that he had caught. After he had done so, cooked it on a small fire he had lit, and eaten the animal, he went back to the pile of rocks he had hidden the box under one more time, carefully checking the surroundings for any disturbances, and, being satisfied with his findings, returned to his tent to lay himself to rest. Nelue themselves slithered back to where they had left their pack, curled up around it and started to watch the fire.