1125AM NW Time - Second Summer Rise - Fifth Day - 0789 - Infirmi Kingdom - Infirmi Border

Coltone, Octavius, and Dow traversed through the forest, as their bodies were slowly starting to reach their limits. Ever since the burning of Coltone’s home village, they’ve been forced to quickly move out to their destination. Originally, they were planning to reach a town to get supplies, before getting on a ship and traveling to the Elven Nation. But, while they were traveling there, they came across posters for their arrest, and as a result, they had to change their plan. But, the only supplies on them were the ones they had when they left the village and the supplies that they had taken from the cave of the unknown person they had seen. Despite this, they had barely any food on them at hand, and as such are struggling, with them now needing to hunt food in order to eat. But, they had made a new plan, and that is to instead cross the border into the neighboring Kingdom, Aeqairis.

“God… I feel as if we’ve been traveling for weeks… When are we going to reach the border…?” Dow complained, annoyed that they’d been walking for literal days without rest.

“Even I’ve lost track of time… But, it should just be a bit longer till we reach the border wall,” Octavius said. As the three continued to walk, they diverted out of the dense forest and onto a large dirt road. Then, the three came across an abandoned wooden supply cart with a blanket on the top. Coltone put his hand up before walking to it alone, and when pulling the blanket, he uncovered wooden crates of various fruits, all seeming in pristine condition. Despite the obvious sign of it being a trap, the only thing his mind was thinking of was eating something that wouldn’t try to run away from him for once. As he reached to grab one of the fruits, he was pulled back by Octavius, right before a crossbow bolt hit the spot where Coltone just was.

“Shit…! Fucker moved…” A voice came from the surrounding trees. A man suddenly jumped off a tree, revealing himself to be wearing a hood, and carrying a crossbow.

“Damn, even my mum has better aim than you, you drunk,” Another man revealed himself, showing himself wearing a mix of leather and iron armor while holding an iron short sword. Three more men appear from the trees, also wearing a mismatch of armor, holding various weapons from maces, and axes.

“Bandits… uh… what should we do…?” Dow said.

“Well, obviously, we fight,” Octavius said.

“Oi! If you lads are done talking, let's just cut this short, and hand all your valuables,” A man said, walking in front of the bandit group wearing an iron helmet, showing himself to be the leader of the bandit group.

“Oh, shut it, you fucking tiny sausage,” Coltone said, pulling his short sword out.

“Guess you decided your fate! I’m going for you first, fat man!” The group of bandits quickly go after the three, weapons out, aiming to kill. The leader of the group goes for Octavius first as the other four went for Dow and Coltone, but Octavius managed to dodge his swing, before punching the helmet off the man. He attempted to swing at Octavius again, but he grabbed his wrist before pushing him away. Octavius then grabbed the man's head and slammed his head against a tree over and over again until he lay dead.

Coltone meanwhile, was dealing dodging blows from a short sword, while also attempting to dodge occasional crossbow bolts from another. As the man continued to swing his short sword at Coltone, he took note of his inexperience, and he kicked the man away as another crossbow bolt missed him. Coltone crouched on the ground as the man went to attack him again, but Coltone grabbed a piece of dirt and threw it in his face, causing the man to stagger back. Coltone stabbed his calves and the man fell onto his back before Coltone got on top of him and stabbed the man's head.

But for Dow, it wasn’t as easy, as, for him, he dodged every swing of the man attacking him with an axe. He moved around the supply cart, dogging each swing. He doesn’t really have much in weapons, other than some daggers, which aren’t able to pierce the man’s leather and metal armor, as well as them being broken after he attempted to penetrate his armor. As well as that, the man kept wildly swinging a gold-plated axe, not giving Dow much chance at an attempt to retaliate. As the man continued to swing at Dow, taking chips of wood off the cart, he swung down hard at Dow but missed the hit, causing the axe to get stuck in the supply cart. As the man struggled to get the axe out, Dow took the initiative and grabbed the nearest thing beside him, which was some rope. He climbed onto the back of the man, wrapped the rope around the man’s neck, and started to choke the man. The man staggered back and gripped Dow’s arms in an attempt to get him off of his back, but it only resulted in Dow pulling the rope harder. As Dow continued to choke the man, he only stopped when he heard a ‘crack’ noise from the man, and he fell dead onto the ground. Dow slowly stood up and looked up at Octavius, who was watching the entire thing.

“Geez, thanks a lot…” Dow said.

“Well, sorry, I just wanted to see how It’ll end. Plus, I was going to help if you were losing.” Dow gave a slight sigh, before looking at his broken daggers on the ground. “Gotta get me some new ones later…” For Octavius, he looked at the golden plated axe that is still stuck in the supply cart. He pulled on it for a while, before he managed to get it unstuck. He looked at the golden plated axe for a while, before Coltone came back to the group.

“Interrogated one of the guys, said that they have a camp west of here,” Coltone said, pointing to his left into the forest. “Let’s use it for a while to prepare to hop the border tonight.”

“That's so. But, where is the guy?” Octavius asked him.

“Well, let’s say he’s resting. But, for now, let’s go to their camp for the night,” Coltone said. The other two nodded, and they all headed out west of them to the camp.

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—--

The dark moon goes over the blanked horizon of the sky. The hundreds of stars dot the sky, used by many as constellations. Below, Octavius sits beside a fire, as he makes an engraving of his name in his new axe with a rock. For Octavius, Dow, and Coltone, they were lucky, as they found a week’s worth of stuff at the bandit’s camp, which means they could make the journey into Aeqairis and a coastal town or city. Octavius had already finished getting his things ready for the trip - he was just waiting for Dow and Coltone, who were in some of the previous owner’s tents.

“Bah… those two are taking too long,” he thought to himself, as he stared into the fire. He stared into the fire for only a second, before standing. “Forget it, let’s see if Dow’s done.” He walks up to the tent where Dow is in. As he got closer, he could hear the snips from what sounded like shears. As he opened the tent, he saw a massive pile of black fur on the ground beside Dow. He looked on confused as Dow continued to cut the fur off of his tail until he finished.

“What, you need something?” Dow said, turning his head at Octavius.

“Uh, what the hell are you doing?”

“Well, Aeqairis isn’t the most friendly to my species, kinda surprising you don’t know, so I’ll have to hide my beast-kin parts in a cloak. My tail though is a bit big to hide it underneath the cloak, so I’m trimming it down to better hide it.”

“Ah, alright then.” Octavius sat down inside the tent, looking at the bundle of black fur, “So, I can see something happened between you and Coltone… Right?”

“Yeah. He’s just acting like I don’t exist! I get it, he has trauma with my species… But, that doesn’t mean he can treat me like I’m the one that caused it! Like, honestly, I’d sock his face in if it means he’d actually listen to me! Acknowledge my existence” Octavius stayed silent, he wasn’t a man to know how to deal with this sort of situation. But then, only a few seconds of silence, until Coltone came in.

“Hey, if you two are finished fucking in here, let’s go,” Coltone said.

“Well, that’s him acknowledging you, right?”

“Fuck off, cunt.”

—---

The three walked through the silence of the night, as Octavius led the way, holding nothing but a candle in a lantern. The only noise that emanated from the forest was the noise of them walking, and the occasional cries from an animal. For Dow, he felt uneasy, as it was common for bounty hunters from Aeqairis to cross the border and kidnap Beast-Kin from Infirmi, before bringing them back to Aeqairis to be sold as slaves, so he had his guard up at all time now. As the three continued to walk through the dark forest, Dow couldn’t help but hear something's around, as if he heard the noise of boots, getting closer. Suddenly, a snap of a twig behind him, and jumped, believing it to be someone behind him, and clung to the nearest thing next to him. Immediately after doing this, Dow realized what he had done, he turned his head to what he clung to, and he only saw Coltone’s annoyed face looking at him. Coltone put his hand on Dow’s face and slowly pushed Dow away from him, before continuing to walk. Dow stood there for a second, not sure what to do, but quickly went back to follow them. Eventually, they reach the end of the forest, and then some across a large stone wall, the wall separating Infirmi and the Aeqairis Kingdoms.

“Here we are, heard that this took over a decade to make, and some of it is still being constructed,” Coltone said. Octavius put out the candle in the lantern, and the three began to walk up to the wall. The wall was over 35 meters tall, and made of complete stone. Usually, to make such a monstrosity of a wall, it would take well over a decade, but thanks to the ability to break up stone smaller and able to make mining stone faster. Despite this, a portion of the wall was still under construction. As the Coltone, Octavius, and Dow continued to walk alongside the stonewall, before coming across a large opening, filled in with scaffolding, with Infirmi and Aeqairis sliders guarding the open area.

“Shit, how the hell do we get past this?” Coltone whispered. As Octavius and Coltone thought to themselves, Dow began to make the first. Ignoring the faint calls from Octavius and Coltone, Dow sneaked close to a guard walking around beside the east side of the wall. He grabbed his knife from his belt, took out the rope from earlier that he had taken, and wrapped it around the guard's mouth, before pushing the knife deep into his throat.

“What the hell was that?” Octavius said as he snuck up to Dow, looting the dead man. “What? You learn a few tricks after a few years being on your own,” Dow said, as he pulled a coin out of the dead man’s pocket. On the other side of the unfinished part of the wall, he threw the coin right next to a guard. The guard, now distracted by the noise of the coin landing beside him, Dow motioned Coltone and Octavius to follow him, as he walked through the part of the unfinished built wall, and they followed. As they snuck through the unfinished part, Coltone nearly tripped on a piece of debris and held onto a part of the scaffolding. The scaffolding shook a little, but luckily nothing happened, but suddenly a piece of stone fell from the top of the scaffolding and fell right next to him.

“The fuck was that…?” A guard said, getting close. Two guards from the Aeqairis side began to walk to the unfinished built site. Dow, Octavius, and Coltone immediately hid behind equipment, as the two Aeqairis guards looked around, one holding a lantern. As they looked around, Octavius hid behind a large pile of stone and looked at Dow as he also hid behind the stone. He nodded at Dow, and he nodded back, and Octavius snuck behind one of them. Octavius pulled out his axe before slicing the man’s neck open. The other man quickly pulled out his long sword from its sheath, but Dow quickly jumped onto his back and try to slice his neck, but the man grabbed Dow’s hair before throwing Dow off him. Coltone quickly charged up against the man with his short sword but was blocked by the man’s long sword.

“H-hey! I need some help!” The man shouted before Octavius cut the man’s leg with his axe, making the man fall onto the ground. Coltone stabbed the man’s head before Octavius helped Dow up to his feet. Suddenly, bells began to ring out, and crossbow bolts began to be shot at the three. They began to run out into Aeqairis, running as crossbow bolts continued to be shot at, before entering into a dense forest.

0910AM NW Time - Second Summer Rise - Sixth Day - 0789 - Aeqairis Kingdom - Unknown Forest

Dow, Coltone, and Octavius had been walking all night out of fear of being captured, Dow especially. As the three continued to walk down the forest, they began to smell the usual foul smell of fish. They began to run faster, until they reached the gate of a coastal town called, “Aramore”.

“So, guess we get some supplies and get on a ship?” Coltone said.

“Yup, but let’s just ho-”

“Oh, c'mon, you two take too long. Let’s just go,” Dow said, as he walked in front of them, and walked to the front gate, a cloak covering his body, as Coltone and Octavius followed.