The cat's ears flattened. “I know! I know. But...just a quick peek. I mean, what if it was a giant hunting party? With arrows and bows and nets and all sortsa other pointy, stabby, uncomfortable things, and they'd finally wised up to the big cat prowling about their woods? That...that's something I'd need to know, right? For my own safety?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Luckily, when I poked my head through the bushes, the road was empty. The dirt was all churned up though. I couldn't tell exactly, but from the smell of things, maybe forty or fifty peoples had come through in the last hour.”
Forty or fifty? If correct, that would mean a huge contingent of soldiers in Elbin. That sort of military presence was unheard of this far from real civilization, but Nevin didn't doubt his friend's tracking capabilities. Aidux could sniff out a muck newt in a swamp during a Waking thunderstorm.
Still, forty or fifty was just an incredible number. What purpose would the baron have for that many soldiers in Elbin, of all places?
But Aidux wasn't finished. “Now, I know what you're thinking: why would the baron send a bunch of soldiers out here? Well, I'll have you know, I've spent the better part of the morning trying to figure that out myself.
“From their tracks, I could tell that most of them stuck to the road, but a few took off into the forest on foot, in no particular direction. I don't think they're very familiar with the area. On the way into town, it looked like a smaller group would break off from the main each time they came across one of the outlying farms. After the second or third time of that, I realized I wouldn't exactly be able to follow them into the town itself, so I decided to double back and check out that last farm.
“Now I tend to avoid the farms entirely, you'd be happy to know, but this one especially. If I get too close and the wind shifts in the wrong direction, the pigs go nuts. The last time that happened, the old man and his son scattered so many snares around their property I didn't trust a game trail for three months.
“Anyway, scared pigs are loud, especially when there are about fifty of them. I had the wind in my face as I approached, so I wasn't worried, but I could already hear the pigs screaming.
“They sounded different, though. The closer I got, the more I could smell them, but it wasn't fear I was smelling. It was...I don't know. Excitement, maybe? All I know, is by the time I got to farm itself, all the pigs were crowded together in their pen, piled atop one another as they tore into something I couldn't see.”
“Tore into? What do you mean?”
Aidux peered up at him as he walked. “You ever seen a pig eat? Like really get into it, like their life depended on it? It's a scary sight, honestly, and they'll eat just about anything. In groups, they get very....uh, possessive, I think is the word? Get enough pigs together, and put something in from of them that makes them angry, or something they really like the taste of, and they'll make whatever it is disappear.”
Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
The flutter of wings gave up the presence of two inky crows alighting on a low branch overhead. A pair of hateful glares answered his curious appraisal of the two. A faint purple sheen reflected off of the ruffled jet coat of the smaller, while the other sported a scarf of matted gray feathers and was missing the upper tip of his pock-marked beak. The smaller derided their proximity with a single raucous cry, but the larger only stared. Nevin snorted, the faint stench of decay tickling his nose, and as he passed beneath, he could just make out the darkening stains of viscera spattered about them.
Aidux huffed, frowning. “Hold on, I'm getting sidetracked. The soldiers are the important part. From my spot, I could hear three soldiers arguing inside the farm house. Two of them were really unhappy with the third. Something about him being an 'idiot' and being 'more foam than ale' and 'gonna kill us all before we've had a chance to search the place.' I didn't understand that second one, but I didn't exactly stick around to see if they'd explain.”
Nevin crossed his arms. “You said you've been trying to figure out why they're here. Any ideas?”
“Nope. Just as clueless now as I was when I started.” The cat slowed to a stop, peering up at him with wide, glistening eyes. “Nevin, where are we going?”
Sliding the pack from his shoulder, Nevin leaned against a nearby tree, turning to offer the cat a thoughtful look. “Well...I need to talk to Ishen. If nothing else, he needs to be warned before a bunch of soldiers just show up on his stoop.”
Aidux nodded. “Okay, but...after...that.”
Nevin shifted uncomfortably, toeing an arched root. “You know what's next.”
“And you know that won't work. You've tried sooo many times I've lost count.”
“I know, Aidux.”
“And every time you either freeze up or pass out or-”
“I know!” he barked, a bit more forcefully than intended. He bowed his head and held up his hands apologetically.“I know. But...that bridge is our only option. There's mountains to the north and west, seaside cliffs to the south, and a gorge to the east. We're boxed in on all sides. I mean...I wish there was another way, but I don't know what else to do.”
Just mentioning the bridge had his stomach doing somersaults and set his heart pounding against his sternum. He'd never figured out exactly why the bridge gave him such crippling anxiety, but he likened approaching it with the intent to cross to willingly jumping head-first into the nearly fifty foot deep chasm of jagged rock and churning water.
“Can't we just go camping again until all of this blows over? I know a couple of new spots to try. Some of them are really hard to find. I'm not even sure I remember where one of them is, it's so out of the way.”
Nevin rested a hand on the battered brass canteen hanging from his belt and shook his head. “Not this time, buddy.”
Aidux sighed. “Then we may be in real trouble, Nevin.”
“Why is that?”
“Because the bridge is gone.”