Interlude I - Xander: A Leader's Burden

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The sun hadn’t quite set, but the eaves of the forest drooped low, casting long shadows over the hard, cold road ahead.

Xander had already determined that they weren’t likely to reach Kelvalder before the light of day had gone, but he’d at least been hoping for favorable traveling conditions until then. Unfortunately, the rising winds and increasing rate of snowfall seemed to suggest otherwise, and it was starting to gnaw at his initial decision to keep the party moving, instead of resting for the night.

“Lisel?” He called out ahead of him, beckoning towards the lithe, hooded figure pacing ten yards ahead of the rest of the party. She turned to glance over her shoulder, squinting somewhat as the vapors of rapidly cooling breath escaped her face cover. Once he had her attention, Xander asked, “Hate to ask you again, but how far do you reckon to town?”

Lisel offered a look of remorse for a moment, before turning back the other way. In the same motion, she squatted down and slowly began to glide her hand across part of the snow-dusted path. Peering up, she seemed to peer down the road ahead of them, as if she could see something the rest of them never would, or perhaps she was scrutinizing every inch of every detail of their surroundings in those brief seconds of silence. It was hard to tell exactly, though Xander was content to watch with as much patience as he could afford himself.

He’d at least seen her do this dozens of times by now, so much to the point where he had rarely been given any reason to doubt her tracking abilities. She was a ranger after all, and even though she was two levels below their party average, six as opposed to eight, they were only all too lucky to have someone like her out in the wilderness, especially at a time like this. But a small part of him couldn’t help but feel like somehow, they were still way out of their depth on this one. They weren’t inexperienced, not by a long shot, but then this was still their very first quest away from home.

Were they in over their heads? Had he doomed his friends on account of his own foolish hopes and ambitions? Or was he just overthinking things again?

The answer seemed to be as clear to him as his own visibility, though even half-blinded by snow Xander was still confident that he could at least swing a sword if push came to shove. But getting his party to their destination in one piece? He might as well have simply prayed to the Divine for an answer at that point. After all, no answer had to be as good as any other.

“—Here.” The loud, colorful, slightly sarcastic sound of Bredic’s voice broke through Xander’s innermost thoughts all of a sudden, and Xander nearly fumbled the waterskin that had just been shoved into his chest, “Drink up while it’s hot, you look pale. Can’t have my party leader dropping dead before we even get to the damned place.”

Xander flashed an irked expression at his fair-headed friend, who unlike the rest of them didn’t opt to wear his face covering while they were traveling. Though even Bredic still traveled with his hood up in such low temperatures. He was certifiably deranged, but he wasn’t stupid.

For his part, Bredic offered something of an expecting grin in return, though it was hard to tell for sure those days on the road. Where once were stubbled chin hairs only a few short weeks ago, at least before they set off on their journey east, now formed the makings of a scraggly, but admittedly not as awful looking beard as Xander thought it would be by now. Though it certainly didn’t help Bredic’s guild reputation as being a bit of a slimeball; a reputation that, frankly, was never going to change.

“…Not thirsty.” Xander shook his head belatedly. It wasn't exactly the truth, but he was really trying to stay focused here, though he still nodded in appreciation nonetheless, “Thanks, anyway.”

“I’ll take you up on that offer.” Vineta’s devious tone of voice resounded over Xander’s left shoulder, and before either of he or Bredic knew it, the enchanted waterskin had been lifted out of Xander’s hands. It hovered through the air for several feet before falling straight into Vineta’s sly embrace.

“No, don’t you even—” Bredic started, but it quickly fell to unintelligible noises thereafter. And at that point, it was too late to argue, and so he sighed, “Are you for real? You already drank the entirety of the last one I made! That was supposed to be for the rest of us, you damned hag.”

Removing her face cover, Vineta quickly wiped away the errant, dark-colored bangs from her pink-flushed face and drank generously from the enchanted waterskin. Steam slipped out of the spout as she drank, and Xander was momentarily annoyed with himself that he hadn’t taken his sip while he had the chance. Vineta exhaled delightedly and corked the container tight, before walking up and handing it back to Bredic with a self-satisfactory nod.

“Sharing is caring, Bredic.” She insisted, but offered a concerned look momentarily, as duplicitous as it was, “You wouldn’t want me to freeze to death, would you?”

“Oh yeah? And why wouldn’t I?” Bredic shrugged with an amused grin, flourishing one of his fingerless gloves across the tome strapped to his hip, before snapping his fingers once. The small pop resounded, and a short burst of flames suddenly leapt from his fingertips into the air, as he added, “At least the look of abject horror on your face as you slowly realize that I, loving Bredic, would have to come save your ass would be well worth the effort of having to melt you.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Eyes on the prize, flames-for-brains.” She rolled her eyes, taking several steps past them towards Lisel, “Who knows? Maybe you’ll get the chance if we ever make it to town. Lisel… are you still with us girl?”

Slowly, Lisel stood to her feet, turned, and held up three fingers, “Three miles or so, that’s as good as I can tell. The terrain’s not too rough, a bit hilly, and a little icy, but not too bad. What do you think?”

Xander nodded in affirmation.

It wasn’t too far, relatively speaking. Given their current pace, another hour or so wasn’t out of the question. It would be fairly dark by then, and there were few places a person really ought to be caught out than in the middle of the Great Forest in the dead of night. Then again, there was no guarantee that they’d find shelter or be able to withstand the elements with the current makeup of their camp supplies before then.

Neither option was particularly easy to choose from, but then a choice had to be made just the same, and it was his responsibility to ensure that happened.

“My weather-sensing isn’t strong enough to predict the severity of a large-scale storm like this, at least not completely…” Vineta replied more seriously, holding her hand up as a small flash of dark-green magic swirled through her fingers, “But I’d wager it’ll be right on top of us before long. This doesn’t feel like the worst of it. Curses… you know, this wouldn’t be such a problem if I hadn’t been focusing on barrier magic the last few levels.”

“They were levels well spent, don’t beat yourself up over it.” Xander offered a consoling remark, but Vineta's gaze narrowed somberly, and she turned her face away for a moment. Xander wanted to say more, say something to encourage her, but now wasn't exactly the right time. It just went to show that even after the surprisingly good year they'd all had together, Norm's death still haunted each and every one of them. It wasn't right for Vineta to blame herself. It was his responsibility—his call that had gotten Norm killed. Nobody else should have to bear that burden but him. Frowning somewhat, Xander added, “Still, we are at a bit of a disadvantage now though.”

“Just my luck…” Bredic groaned somewhat, pulling down on a low-hanging tree branch as he said, “I don’t want to alarm anyone, but my mana pool isn’t exactly in tip-top shape here. Been pumping out spells all day.”

Xander’s eyes drifted to the tree line momentarily, briefly distracted by something moving in the brush. The small mass of white fur darted here and there, and in a matter of seconds it was gone.

Just a rabbit. He thought, but he still squinted in search of something else.

The elements were a problem, but nothing was as dangerous right now as the potential for monsters creeping up on them using the cover of the storm. At least they’d be able to see ice demons coming at them, but forest goblins? Dire wolves? Heaven forbid it, a frost troll or a crag wyvern. There were too many kinds of creatures capable of hunting in a snowstorm that made a home in the Great Forest. And while Lisel’s beast-sense should in theory keep them alert to any oncoming danger, it wasn’t a guarantee by any means, especially if the average rating of any creatures just so happened to be a little higher than their party’s average.

In other words, every second was an opening for something to go wrong, somewhere, and that made Xander’s skin crawl more than anything.

“Between all the warming charms, I’m pretty much at my short-term limits here.” Bredic continued, “If were not breaking for camp, I have to at least hold off on the support spells. Right? I mean, just in case we run into anything after nightfall?”

“He’s right, you know.” Vineta turned back, nodding in agreement, “I’ll need to keep some mana at-hand as well, if we’re going to setup camp anytime soon that is. I won’t be able to ward the perimeter otherwise. Xander? You okay?”

“…Right. Yeah, I’m good.” Xander directed his attention back towards the road, to where his party was standing, and looked at each of them individually for a few seconds. He knew what he had to do, for their sake, and so he exhaled a slow breath before saying, “I think we should press on. If we keep a decent pace, we could make it to town fairly quickly. Vineta should focus on support spells, and Bredic, you hold what you have in case there’s danger. I don’t trust the road, or either side of it, not at a time like this. How much longer are your charms up?”

“Another candle-mark or so?” Bredic shrugged, somewhat indifferently, “Probably around there, anyway.”

Twenty minutes of magical warmth. Xander thought to himself. It was risky, but the odds of monsters spawning after nightfall were too high to have Bredic wasting all his magic on support as well, just as he said. He was their primary damage dealer when it came to magic-based attacks. And considering that the spawn rates of ice demons were increasingly higher in a snowstorm, Xander figured that their pyromancer might just as well be their ace, if it really came down to the details like that.

“Okay, we’ll make do.” Xander replied with a small shrug, “Let’s stick to the plan for now. Lisel, keep the pace high. Alright? Don’t give us any slack, not even a little bit. Everyone keep their eyes and ears open. Alright? Are we ready?” There was a slow round of nods and shrugs from the group, and so Xander offered a smile, “If that’s as much energy as you can muster, then we’re definitely doomed.”

“Hey, Xander? That means the first round’s still on you when we get to town. Right?” Bredic teased, “We did make it here inside a fortnight.”

“Did we?” Xander furrowed his brow, “I don’t know, I still like your odds of getting swiped by the Pale Lady before we even leave the forest.”

“Hey, don’t—” Bredic stammered, but groaned woefully, hanging his head, “Not cool, man, not funny at all. You know I’m superstitious about that stuff! Gah—why do you have to say things like that… it’s going to be stuck in my head for the rest of the night!”

The party collected itself with a few laughs, and before long they were on the move once again.

As the snow and wind raged on through the forest canopy, Xander's smile faded. He took up his position in the marching order, allowing his hand to occasionally drift down to where the longsword swung on his hip.

He could only hope that he had made the right decision, that instead of spending what remainder of daylight they had left searching for shelter, they proceeded onward towards Kelvalder instead. A part of him knew that his companions were tough enough to endure for a while, but he still felt the weight of uncertainty on his shoulders.

Would they make it? Or would they regret everything by the time the sun came up tomorrow? He supposed that was the quarry of every party leader.

Whatever the answer, he had made the call. All he could do now was try to be patient, hope for the best, and if not, then do everything within his power to make sure that his friends made it out with a fighting chance. It was never a guarantee, not in this world, but then he'd give everything of himself to make sure of it.

He had to.