After somehow making her way down the stone wall, Sanora finds herself standing in a lush forest. She has not seen it during the night because she clearly has had more important matters to attend to. But now she can take in the scenery, and a deep breath of the fresh forest air. She let her gaze sweep over the conifers and the thicket on the ground. The trees are mostly spruce with the occasional fir or beech in between. The ground is covered in small and large shrubs and bushes teeming with life. She can even spot a fox trotting through the leave work. Beyond the high tops of the trees, straight ahead in the distance she can see another mountainside not far away. It seems she is in something like a narrow valley, the mountains encasing in from two sides. But it is peaceful. Sanora understands why Bawarag would live here, she wouldn’t mind herself all that much. But her admiration is cut short when a tall figure lands next to her.
“Sorry to keep you waiting”, Bawarag says, or at least that’s who Sanora thought it was, since no giant bipedal wolf has landed next to her, but a towering man with short black hair, and a magnificent black full beard framing his face. He is clad in a full set of raven black plate amour, visibly worn down from long fights.
“hey don’t forget to breathe.” Bawarag hits Sanora on her back, pulling her from her stupor.
“I was just confused is all.” She shakes her head, causing Bawarag to laugh a bit.
“Well, that’s just one part of my amazing powers.” He grins and starts walking towards the forest, Sanora following suit.
“So, you can do more?”
“Oh, I can do much more, but I’ll show you when the time comes”, he waves her off.
“I guess that makes you pretty amazing then?”, Sanora asks a bit giddy.
“Oh, you haven’t seen nothing. Just wait till you see a gargoyle raise a house with a snip of their fingers, or a lich fortify an entire camp in a minute!”, he laughs
“I do know one of each too, only question is if they are still around. But first priority is getting you settled in somewhere”, he says as they walk through the forest.
“Get me settled in…”, Sanora mumbles thinking about these words. What would that encase? Getting settled in. She has got a good load of money from Bawarag, but the problem she has is that she has no idea how much it is even worth.
“Don’t worry now, that’s why I came along. Trust me you’ll do just fine”, Bawarag waves her off with a grin, and Sanora cannot help but feel at ease in the prospect of his gentle face. She just nods with a smile, and they keep walking. Soon the sound of a river joins the orchestra of the forest around them, and a bit later they reach the small river. It is not big, about three meters across and maybe knee-deep. But most important is what lies on the other side. It is a maintained road, a dirt road but a road nevertheless.
“Last time I checked this was still a small stream.” Bawarag scratches his head.
“Well, doesn’t matter, let’s get-“, he starts again but stops. From further upstream they hear something, and it sounds like screaming and shouting.
“Hm, sounds bad…”, Bawarag mumbles looking upstream.
“Then we should take a look?”, Sanora says with a raised eyebrow. It’s not like she really wants to check it out, but she has still asked for the sake of asking it.
“Yeah, let’s take a look.” Bawarag nods and turns to walk upstream. Sanora curses mentally and follows him.
As they walk further upstream the noises get louder. They are distinctly human, that much is clear now.
“So what do you think is going on there?”, Sanora asks.
“My guess is that some travelers are getting attacked by wolves”, Bawarag says.
Sanora just nods and keeps on following him. She has never even seen a real wolf… probably. It is not like she can remember if she had. She had seen a werewolf though, so a normal one can’t be that scary anymore.
They hurry on and after about a minute they start seeing something ahead. On the road across the river stand two carriages. Around them there are several people dressed in light leather gear for travelling and fighting. Attacking them is a small horde of wolves, with several people and wolves already lying dead on the ground.
“Damn, should have bet on it”, Bawarag says.
“Alright then, lets help them”, he says, stretching his arms.
“All for it.” Sanora nods and with no time to lose starts making her way over to cross the river. She jumps into the cold water and wades through to get to the other side. Once there she climbs out and looks back just in time to see Bawarag hop over in one go.
“Couldn’t have taken me along?”, she says but Bawarag just smirks.
“Sure, but that would have been too easy.”
Sanora just sighs as she draws her new sword.
“Hey someone’s coming to help!”, one of the guards shouts, having noticed them. But the wolves have as well. They still outnumber them, even with Sanora and Bawarag there now. A few of them split off from attacking the small caravan and shift their attention on the two new fighters. Sanora grips her sword with two shaky hands, until she realizes she doesn’t even need to. She lets go with one hand again to use the only magic she knows: the fireball.
She points her hand at two closing in wolves, the flames flicker to life on the tip of her finger and condense into a bright, orange ball of flames. A small smile spreads on her lips, she can get used to this. She lets the spell loose and it flies right at the two large wolves. They are in the middle of their charge when the unexpected spell comes at them. It explodes right between them, blowing half of each wolf apart into a burnt mess of flesh and gore.
She holds her hand on front of her eyes, some hot pieces of wolf meat hitting them.
“Holy Fuck!” Sanora shouts as she sees the result of her spell.
“Not bad lassie!”, Bawarag shouts over while kicking a wolf right back into the forest in a wide arc. By now all the other wolves have noticed Sanora. But the numbers have almost evened out, the wolves only being one more than the humans. And the last wolf is right on charge at Sanora. Facing it with a grin she raises her hand again to cast the next fireball, but it suddenly feels like her legs are giving out and her vision blurs.
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“Oh shit-” She is out of energy, with a wolf running right at her. Out of reflex she raises her sword at it, holding it at the large wolf. But it resumes its charge, outspeeding Sanora and ducking right past the blade. With its maw agape it tackles her to the ground, its sharp teeth going right for her throat. With this, Sanora was looking at her last image of the world, a bloody maw, full of teeth like razors about to tear her throat open. But as the world moved in slow motion, something else entered her vision. A raven black warhammer, coming right at the wolf so fast that even pumped full of adrenaline, Sanora barely saw more than a blur. The next thing she knows, the wolf’s head is completely obliterated, a spray of blood covering the girls face and chest.
“Ya good lassie?”, Bawarag asks as he pushes the wolfs body off her and extends his hand.
“Uh, I guess.” Sanora shakily takes his hand.
“Thanks”, she says, still shaky on her legs, but Bawarag just pats her back.
“Don’t worry I’ll keep you alive… and get you something to drink so you can forget this, yeah?” He grins at her, and she already feels herself calming down again a bit. But her attention snaps back to the battle when suddenly a roar resounds from the forest. It is so loud some birds take off the treetops. Sanora feels her skin crawling, and a shudder run through her spine. Even the wolves stop moving and listen, before turning and making a run for it down the road, the guards cheering as they won this fierce battle.
“What was that?” Sanora asks, the grip on her sword tightening as she investigates the forest around, but before she can get any answers a new voice speaks.
“Is it over? Are we safe?” A young man peeks out of the front carriage, a small hat on his short chestnut hair. His face looks young, the worry and fear evident on it as he looks around with his gentle, brown eyes.
“Someone came to aid us boss, we’re saved”, one of the guards tells him. The young man raises his eyebrows, before stopping his gaze at Sanora and Bawarag. He slumps down with a relieved smile.
“Thank the gods.” He sighs.
“I don’t know how to even begin thanking you. My name is Bok, I am a travelling merchant and-“
“Uh Sir Bok, I hate to interrupt but we should probably move. I think something else- worse, is coming”, the still blood covered Sanora interferes.
Bok’s smile fades again, he raises an eyebrow, but after a moment he swallows before shouting out commands.
“Everyone get on the carriage, we’re leaving now!”, he says.
“But what about the others?”, one of the men asks, looking at the corpses of their fellow travelers.
“They won’t hold it against us if we don’t want to join them. Let us get moving!”, Boc says while climbing into the driver’s seat of the carriage. The rest of the guards hop onto the second one, and with a gentle whip on the reigns, the horses start down the road again, Sanora and Bawarag jogging right beside Bok. Sanora constantly throws worried gazes behind her, waiting for whatever has made the noise to come out, and fearing that they aren’t fast enough. After about half a minute, something comes out stomping onto the road. It walks on two legs, about 1,6 meters tall, bulky muscle under its white fur and large jaws that could probably crush a human head whole. It sniffs the air, and then looks down the road, right at Sanora. Her blood freezes for a second as their eyes lock, but its gaze soon wanders back to the surrounding corpses.
“A frost agnar?” Bawarag furrows his brows.
“What’s it doing so far off the mountain?” He scratches his head looking at the creature.
“This has been happening concerningly regular lately, or so I have heard”, Bok, looking back as well says with a shudder.
“Had we not retreated we’d be minced by now.” He gives the reigns another nervous pulls, urging the horses on.
“No use thinking about it. We made the right call.” Bawarag waves him off. Bok nods.
“We sure did”, Sanora says after taking one last look at the monster. She sighs in relief.
“On this accord I must thank you again, and properly of course, for saving us”, Bok says with a friendly smile, tipping down his tricorn. Sanoara smiles back at him.
“You’re most welcome Sir Bok”, she says, but suddenly she feels Bawarag nudge her from the side. He shoots her a glance, subtly gesturing at the carriage. It takes a moment until it clicks in Sanoras head.
“So, what wares do you have on you?”, she asks with an innocent smile, and Bok laughs a bit.
“Don’t worry. I don’t expect your help to be free. I have some spices from overseas on me, and aside from that only some general commodities. Stuff for daily use, although I think those will be of little interest to you. Well one cart at least. This one here-” He pats the carriage he is driving with a smile.
“- holds combat gear, some of the more interesting stuff and, what might be of actual use for you, two grimoires”, he says with a broad grin, but Bawarag grumbles.
“And you tell us this out of the blue? Us armed strangers?”, Bawarag says with a raised eyebrow. Bok just waves him off.
“Ah please, I see it as follows: If you had wanted my wares, you would have left us to die at the hands… paws, of the wolves and just taken them. Legally for that matter”, he says.
“Still it’s a tad careless, no?”, Bawarag says.
“Yes, yes, it may be, but I just have a good feeling about the two of you, and my guts never lie to me. If they did, I wouldn’t be where I am today!” Bok grins at the two. Bawarag just sighs with a smile.
“Well then, those grimoires, as awful as it feels using them, what do they do?”, Sanora asks Bok.
“I have two one me. For one however I already have a bidding of 300 gold. The other one is a pretty basic, but effective bone spear. It’s low tier but mind you, it will enhance over time, and the grimoire will save you years of initial work and studying. For you, I’m willing to go as low as 75 gold”, Bok says.
“Just a moment”, Sanora says, opening her satchel and counting the coins in it. Or at least she tries as they keep flying around the satchel. She hears a tapping next to her and looks up at Bok offering the seat next to him. With a smile Sanora makes her way up onto the carriage.
After some nerve wrecking counting, she finally concludes that she has 80 gold pieces on her.
“Hmm, I do have enough, but that would leave me with only five...”, she mumbles, playing around with one of the coins in her hand. Bok looks at it with a raised eyebrow.
“Those are not normal coins. May I have a look?”
“Sure”, Sanora says with a shrug and hands the coin to Bok. He looks at it, turns it in his hands a few times, until his eyes grow wide.
“My, my! What a find. Where did you find these?” he asks Sanora with a broad smile.
“Uh… in a cave”, she responds with the technical truth, not able to think of anything better at the moment. Bok does not need to know all the details about how she has stumbled into a cave, which has really been a house, with no clothes, then has ended up sleeping there and… Thinking it over again it sounds completely nuts.
“I see, I see.” Bok nods, a little skeptical, but not inquiring further.
“For such an old mint, I’m willing to reduce the price a lot on the grimoire. And maybe even buy some of them off you. 15 for the grimoire, and I’ll take another 15 off you, for 5 gold each!”, he says holding up five fingers. Sanora looks at him, then briefly at Bawarag who just shrugs.
“Well, I think we have ourselves a deal, Sir Bok.” Sanora smiles at him. Sanora hands Bok 30 of her ancient coins, and after rummaging through the back of his carriage, Bok hands Sanora 75 regular gold, as well as an ivory white book. The cover is made of hard leather, ornated with patters made mostly of straight, hard lines.
Name: Sanora
Equipment:
Tunic
Pants
Boots
Narcium Chainmail
Narcium Sword with Enchantment
Old Sword
Leather Satchel [75 gold coins, 50 ancient coins, 3x large potion Grimoire (Bone Spear)]
Magic:
Fireball, Cast: 2