The day proceeded without incident as the convoy rolled on without any stopping. Thanos couldn't help but admire the beauty of this new world, seemingly untouched by man.
As they travelled, it became apparent that Mysthaven was higher up in the mountains, as their group spent most of their journey on a gentle decline, zig-zagging down a rough path that was little more than a nature trail.
Mountains initially surrounded them, but these slowly fell to the rear, dominating the horizon as wild, hilly terrain and tall trees replaced them. He wasn't sure if it was spring or summer, but a warm, gentle sun shone on them, negating the mild chill in the air.
Throughout the day, he had also noticed that these mountains, whilst abundant in plant life, teemed with wildlife to match. Many creatures moved around as they made the most of the daylight to do their business, with nighttime being the domain of the more dangerous predators.
Many creatures that came out during the day had evolved ways to survive the nights, such as hiding, fighting or developing bioluminescence protection. They also tended to move around in groups, seeking safety in numbers, with only the most fearsome predators choosing to go alone.
The Nightlings, who were incredibly vicious and very well adapted to the dark, usually hid in caves and other dark spaces or buried themselves deep underground during the daylight hours. They were typically solitary hunters and would attack each other if starved enough, though they seemed to avoid that mostly.
The only time that changed was in the presence of a more potent, more evolved variant he had learned that grew from consuming the cores of fierce beasts or the flesh of humans.
Not every animal that roamed the lands got classed as a fierce beast that housed a core, as many were typically just your average animal. Once an animal consumed certain potent plants or materials or the cores of other fierce beasts, they mutated into one.
Every creature that stalked the dark wasn't a Nightling. That term was for the dark chitin-covered monstrosities.
Some other fierce beasts hunted at night, unafraid to compete, as they were also suited for the shadows. Unlike the fierce beasts, Nightlings didn't have a core and were considered a nuisance due to the lack of usable body parts.
He watched as a creature called a 'Doosah' floated aimlessly through the air nearby, carried by the winds as it used its gaseous body to keep itself airborne. The drifting creature looked like someone had crossed a hot air balloon with a jellyfish.
Its bulbous body was three to four metres long and half as wide, with the long stringy legs hanging from the bottom spreading out nearly ten metres behind it. Its skin seemed translucent with a faint white sheen that glimmered slightly in the sun.
He found out all this by asking his mother just now, and as he was mid-conversation, he watched a large bird that looked like a swan fly into one of those legs.
The effect was immediate as the string tangled up the bird's wing as it got pulled towards the body. He watched the bird fight and spasm as it met more legs before being reeled in, vanishing into the creature's main body.
"Are they dangerous?" He asked Valeria as the duo stared after the floating creature moving into the distance, taken away by the crosswinds.
"Not unless you grow wings." His mother teasingly said as she turned away from the sight.
"Those long strings are poisonous, but they are not fatal normally. They can hurt real bad if you get caught in them." She said, trying to make sure he understood.
"They never come down to the ground and spend all their life up in the air, so it's rare for them ever to be a danger to people. It can happen if you climb a large tree or live on a steep mountain, but they are easily seen and avoided."
"Are they always that big?" He asked, as he also turned around to face the front to watch the direction of travel.
"That one was quite small. Doosah's can be much bigger, but those are normally so far up into the sky that you can't see them." She replied, and he looked up into the air, seeing none of them overhead.
His mother noticed him looking and laughed.
"Once, when I was a little girl, a Doosah nearly the size of a house fell from the sky and landed in the garden of a nearby home during a party. It stung all the guests, leaving them paralysed in pain for the rest of the day, but no one was seriously hurt." She said, staring off into the distance in reminiscence.
He just sat there with his mouth open.
For fucks sake. Not only do I have to worry about the monsters at night, but now I have to walk around expecting a giant jellyfish to fall out of the sky on me.
His mother must have noticed the look as she carried on explaining.
"Don't worry, little Than. They're not as common this far into the mountains." She said as she stroked his head in a comforting gesture. He appreciated the effort, but sometimes ignorance is bliss as he smiled to himself ruefully.
I probably would have figured out they fall from the air on death anyway, given enough thought, and the chances of it were probably not very high, right?
He spent the rest of the day glued to the sky, looking for any movement as the sun falling towards the horizon in the distance stole his attention. The clouds changed into shades of yellow and pink as their group pulled over to the side of the road onto a flat field.
"Alright, we'll bed down here for the night. Get the carts to the usual positions." His father shouted from the front of their convoy as it rolled to a stop.
It seemed that this was a place their village often used as makeshift mud walls were already in place that the carts backed into.
Thanos watched as the four carriages got placed into an open diamond shape, with all the horses tied up in the centre, the gaps filled by those mud walls that were well above waist height.
Wooden planks that hung from the sides of the large carts were taken down along with the inner side and placed on the ground in front of the wheels, stopping anyone or anything from getting in under them. By the end of the set-up, their group had made a small fort that defended in all directions with beds set up either under or on top of the wagons.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Glowing light stones were placed all around the outside of the defences, their use obvious. Now that he was up close, he noticed that those earthly walls reminded him of the foundations created for his house when one of the twins used his essence skill. Conveniently, one had a couple of holes facing inside, making it look like a large clay oven.
He watched as a woman placed a cooking pot and some firewood in there, and the scent of food wafted to his nose, causing his stomach to rumble. He only ate some cured meat and dried bread during the day, but it barely did enough to keep the hunger at bay.
After a quick meal, everyone bedded down for the night in rolls of fur, with only a couple of people left on watch. Even though he didn't need to, he tried to sleep and thought a little more about his day, realising that perhaps there were lessons to learn as he grew up that his fellow villagers and parents could teach. It seemed he already had his first one.
Rule number 1: Always have a plan.
So started his rules of cultivation.
These were more reminders than outright constraints he put on himself. He wanted to keep these little lessons in mind and thought creating rules would be an excellent way to form positive habits for his cultivation journey.
Watching the sky light up at night as the blues and greens of the aurora washed over the dark world let his mind settle. As the lights in the sky faded, so did he. Travel fatigue set in, and he lost himself to his dreams.
* * *
Not far away, on top of a large hill.
"Boss, who is it?" A scruffy bearded man who held a large sabre said, a hint of eagerness in his voice.
"Looks like traders, some guards, but mostly women and children. Less than two dozen overall." A giant, scarred man said as his eyes turned yellow as if he was using some technique to see into the distance over to where a well-lit collection of carriages sat in a defensive huddle.
"What should we do, boss?" A third scrawny man said as the three lay concealed under some bushes atop a hill. The tall man thought for some time before a cruel smile spread across his face.
"Let's return to the others and tell them we'll have some fresh meat to play with soon. We attack at dawn after they break up their defences." The man's eyes faded to a normal colour, and the trio vanished into the darkness as if they were never there.
* * *
Thanos woke to his mother's gentle proddings, and he noticed the hustle of the camp in full swing as some of the group ate whilst others packed up and chatted.
I must've wanted to sleep more than I thought.
It had taken him quite some time to drop off, but once he had, it must have been a deep sleep that his parents decided to leave him in as they were mostly ready to get back on the road.
He got dressed and fed, and before long, they were moving off, prepared for another day of travel.
He sat on his mother's knee again as he looked at the carriage in front. It had four large spoked wooden wheels attached to a flat wooden base, small raised sideboards were positioned all around, and crude hinges let the rear drop down. Four pillars sat at the corners leading to a rounded wooden roof with fabric draping down, covering the rest apart from the back.
He could see into the rear of the carriage in front, which was primarily full of cargo that would get traded in the city, with a couple of men sitting on the back at either side.
He knew that the one he sat on held all the other children inside it, with a few women back there to look after them. He was the youngest child on this trip, with the others being a mix of ages older than him, and that's why he sat with his mother.
He noticed that a forest lined the section of road they were on to the right, with the left falling downward into a sizeable hilly slope that started a few metres from the roadside. Before he could look around further, he heard a reverberating noise he couldn't place before all hell broke loose.
*Twang. Thump.*
"Enemy right. Ranged fire, defend the middle. protect the children!" He heard his father roaring orders instantly as he charged from the front of the column on his large warhorse as haggard-looking people ran out to meet him from the treeline.
Roars came from all around as attackers and defenders sprang into blurs of action.
Before he could see any more, he felt himself being picked up as his mother quickly placed him down by the left wheel, telling him to hide there. The sounds of combat rang out as people screamed, and metal met metal.
Looking up, he saw his mother was now using a bow she had pulled from behind their seat. A dagger was tucked into the back of her belt. The other children were being ushered out the back and round the side like him. They all led flat on the ground, quietly sobbing as their carers joined the defence.
"Attack the middle ones." A gruff voice called out as more men ran out of the nearby woodland.
As he was pretty small, He could see under the cart and through the spokes of the wheels hiding him as he noticed dozens of bandits rushing out towards his wagon.
He watched in stunned silence as combat broke out, with many villagers running over, either on foot or horseback, putting themselves between the carriage and the charging bandits.
It wasn't long before it was a messy brawl as bodies dropped left and right. It was easy to distinguish between the people from the caravan and the attackers, who looked like they had been living wild for some time.
He was happy to notice that all the bodies he could see on the ground looked to be of the latter.
Unable to see his father from where he was, he peered around the front of the wheel and spotted Marcus no longer mounted, engaged in a blinding flurry of attacks with a giant of a man.
He watched as his father danced around the larger man with his dual-bladed weapon, seeking an opening with lightning-quick attacks.
The big man held two long swords that moved with an unexpected speed, preventing his father's furious assault as occasional essence attacks blasted out, tearing up their surroundings.
Come on, father, you've got to win.
He couldn't help but pray as a loud boom to his right dragged his attention back to the fight close to him. He saw mangled bodies and dirt flying through the air as some powerful essence ability detonated next to a group of bandits, killing them.
A feminine scream came from the rear of the wagon he was hiding behind, and he turned to see one of the women in the back lying on the ground with what looked like a jagged piece of ice jutting out from her shoulder.
A glowing orb of fire was in her hand that she shot out at one of the bandits, who fired off another shard of ice that impacted the side of their cart near her.
The flaming attack struck just to the man's rear with an explosion, sending him cartwheeling through the air, his left leg destroyed.
The man landed with a thud beside the wagon, directly between the two wheels on the right. As he rolled around screaming, blood squirted from the missing leg he was clutching.
The woman who had launched the spell seemed dead or unconscious as she lay motionless at the rear.
As the fighting continued, it didn't take long for the man to regain his senses as he stopped rolling around screaming, seeking a leg that wasn't there as anger, not pain, spread across his face.
As the man looked around, he must have noticed him watching, hidden behind the wheel.
Dragging himself forward, blood and foam coated his mouth, making him look utterly crazy. Moving quickly, his hands began to glow white, and it wouldn't be long before he closed the distance or sent out a ranged attack.
He knew he had to do something fast as one of the other children lying on the ground called out for their 'mommy', giving him an idea. He used all the strength in his tiny body as he quickly scurried up the wheel spokes and grabbed the dagger on his mother's belt.
Glancing swiftly behind her, she saw her son falling off the driver's seat, weapon in hand. She reached out to catch him but failed to make contact.
He fell, putting his entire weight behind the short blade, the tip aiming directly for the man's visible head as he crawled out from under the cart.
Pulling himself further out, the man turned to find his target just in time to see a sharp point plunge straight into one of his eyes.
Pain blossomed in his side as Thanos felt the pommel of the dagger crash into his ribs as the sharp end sank into the man's face with a meaty sound.
He rolled off and quickly jumped up, his adrenaline masking pain as he caught sight of the man thrashing around, dagger in the eye, making horrific sounds locked in a death rattle. Blood ran down his face, looking like red tears as he did.
Thanos watched an arrow suddenly slam down, pinning the man's head to the ground as it sank deep into his temple, with only the feathers visible from the shaft.
He watched as blood leaked from the man's eyes, nose and mouth, but he knew the light had gone out before that arrow struck.
That surviving glazed eye seemed to be staring in his direction, and he felt like the whole world accelerated around him, leaving just him and that accusatory glare locked motionless in time.
He knew what it said.
You just killed me.