I should have expected soldiers to catch up. There didn’t seem to be too many villages in the area, so by splitting into a few small groups, all they had to do was ride across the countryside and ask everyone if they’d seen strangers matching our description. Then follow the trail and… bingo.

I needed to think fast, before we ended up surrounded.

“Cherub, I need a miracle! Can Teo’s horses be fully bridled and saddled and ready to go? If so, please do it now!”

“They can. You have your miracle, Al.”

I pointed to the stable. “Follow me! Can you ride a horse?”

Chess could. Catalin, not so much.

“Then you’ll ride behind me,” I decided.

We stormed into the stable and found both horses quite surprised at being ready for a ride. I jumped on one and helped Catalin join me, while Chess got on the other one. The stirrups were at the wrong height for me, but I had no time to adjust that, so I crossed them over the saddle pommel and led my mount out of the stable.

“I’m no traitor!” I shouted to the soldiers who tried to catch us. “Tell your officer that the Great Hero Al isn’t abandoning Brealia. I’m doing my best to get out of the current crisis with as few deaths as possible!”

I spurred my horse and jumped over the fence. This simple feat was made quite uncomfortable by the lack of stirrups and by Catalin clinging to my waist.

There was some shouting behind us, but I didn’t hear the twang of a crossbow.

Mistress Jemos also refrained from striking, back in Merumo. She could have shot me in the back while I was running in the street. Did she want to avoid hurting bystanders? Probably. But this time, we’re galloping through open fields.

They wanted us alive. Alive so the king could parade me on the battlefield, and quite possibly let the dragon do the killing so he kept his own hands clean, salvaging both his reputation and mine.

Or maybe I had it all wrong, it was just getting too dark, or the soldiers were too stunned at what just happened. Who could imagine that I’d ride away on a stolen horse?

Stealing, that’s what it is. What a Great Hero I am, indeed! All I can do is run away, and now, steal a farmer’s horses. If King Esthar does capture me, he’ll have the moral high ground.

Chess looked at me from their mount, their black hair blowing with the speed.

“Ma’am? How did you know the horses were saddled?”

“I used up my special power. The one I wanted to locate Kossi with.”

I sighed.

“You were right about not using the road. We walked past too many people, and someone must have led these soldiers to us. I’m sorry.”

“They’re following us!” screamed Catalin.

I risked an eye over my shoulder. Four horsemen were galloping behind us. Chess winced.

“That’s not good…”

I nodded.

“Their horses are better than ours. They’ll catch up!”

“They’ll have a harder time following us if we cut through the woods.”

In the dim light of dusk, Chess led the way to the biggest forest we could see. We reached its edge, and the shadows of trees and bushes swallowed us. Underneath, we couldn’t quite see where the horses were stepping, and neither did the horses themselves, so Catalin summoned a ball of light to guide us. Still, we had to slow down to a trot. Without stirrups, it was even more uncomfortable than galloping, but at least, the ground was almost even and no horse tripped.

Catalin stiffened against my back.

“I don’t understand. They stopped following us.”

I looked left and right and saw nothing. Then again, there was nothing for me to see, except the forest around.

“Are you sure?”

“I have excellent hearing compared to a human, Al. If horse hooves other than ours were crunching the leaves on the ground, I’d hear them. And right now, I don’t.”

“Okay… Walking pace, Chess. There’s no need to tire the horses too much.”

We slowed down. The darkness deepened with every step and I could feel my mount getting stressed. Soon, we had to dismount. We walked, holding the reins, led by Catalin’s ball of light. Of all the noises we could hear, none seemed to come from a squad chasing us.

“It’s really quiet,” I said between my teeth.

Chess nodded. “My thoughts exactly, ma’am. These soldiers know where we are and they’re still not following. I don’t like it.”

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“They might be trying to lure us out, or to surround the woods, or something. Are you sure they’re up to nothing, Catalin?”

She shook her head. “As far as I know, they’re gone. They aborted the pursuit as soon as we entered the forest.”

Chess stopped and took a long look around them.

“I’m beginning to think I made a wrong choice. What if this place’s cursed and we don’t know it, because we’re not from around here?”

“I sense no negative energy,” answered Catalin, her round-tipped nose up in the air as if to catch the wind.

“And yet I’m sure there’s something here.” Chess gave me their horse’s reins and stepped away from the light, looking into the darkness. “It’s too quiet. A forest like this should be filled with little sounds, even at night.”

I frowned. When the wizard’s house tried to scare us near Lake Mera, the whole area went silent. This is not the case here.

I tried to protest. “There are sounds…”

“Not enough of them.”

Chess drew their sword and the blade reflected Catalin’s magic light on the surrounding trees. Swift movements could be made out between the bushes, small animals hiding from us. They were quiet indeed. Maybe too much.

A roar swept the forest by surprise, filling the air and crushing us under its volume. The two horses reared. I was pulled off the ground for a second, and then the reins broke. I fell down on my knees while both horses ran away, back where we’d come from.

I opened my mouth to protest, but I didn’t want whatever was out there to hear my voice. Besides, we were done using these horses. They’d carried us away from the soldiers and it was all we needed them for. We could certainly walk to our destination.

Please let these horses get back home safely. They deserve it, and even Teo certainly didn’t deserve to have his animals stolen!

Another roar froze my blood. Catalin clenched her fists and her ball of light flickered for a moment.

It’s coming closer. We’ll have to fight.

I fumbled in my bag. I couldn’t just stand by when my companions fought a creature that roared so loud, so I took the knife I used for eating. It looked ridiculous compared to Chess’s sword, Catalin’s magic or Taiki’s twin blades, but it’d have to do. I put the bag on my back and waited.

How does Chess do? Feet apart, knees slightly bent, weapon held in front of them. Can I imitate them and not be too ridiculous?

The creature leapt from the shadows so fast that I only saw a blur of black fur. The stench reached me a second later, when it roared again, but this time, directly at us. Chess put themself between it and me, parrying a swing of claws with their sword. The monster was so strong that the cadet was pushed back, feet slipping on the dead leaves, all muscles tense to keep their balance. The creature remained at the edge of the light radius.

“What is it?” I asked.

Catalin shivered. “I’d say a dire bear, but I’m not sure…”

“Hit it with whatever you can!” shouted Chess.

They ran at the creature just as it was about to leap again. Blade against claw. The dire bear tried to bite, but the cadet thrust their blade at its neck, pushing it back. The jaws closed on thin air. Chess’s feet moved with unbelievable precision as they parried another attack. They lunged. An angrier roar hurt my ears, and dark blood splashed the black fur.

“Catalin!” insisted Chess.

They rolled on the floor to dodge a new attack. The beast’s pain made it angrier and faster. Chess wouldn’t make it on their own.

“Catalin, I need you!”

“But I can only sustain one ball at a time…”

The protest died in her throat. She drew a long deep breath, her light flickered and died, and a fireball darted instead, from her fingers, right at the beast’s forehead. The dire bear roared in pain, shook its head and rose on its hind legs.

“Get back!” said Chess.

We all ran away, lit by the fireball for a split second, and then in complete darkness.

We could hear the beast all right. We knew it was after us. But where exactly?

Catalin threw another fireball in a random direction. A dry bush caught fire, right on time for us to see the dire bear jump again.

Right at me.

Death itself. With a bad breath. Dramatically backlit by a burning bush.

And all I had was a kitchen knife.

I can’t dodge that. I must hit. Hard. Thrust with all my strength and hope I don’t die.

I ducked to avoid the worst of the blow, while striking as hard as I could with my knife. I felt resistance against the tip of my blade, then the skin giving away. Metal pierced the flesh. Claws dug through the bag on my back, tearing it to pieces, but I only pushed harder.

Blood ran on my hand as the tearing intensified in my back. The stench worsened, the smell of blood mixing with the bad breath and general filth of the beast.

“Let her go!” yelled Chess.

I didn’t see the sword strike, but I felt the splatter of blood on my hair, warm and disgusting. I gagged. There wasn’t much left in my stomach, but it took me a lot of strength not to throw up.

The dire bear let go of my bag. It rose with a sound that wasn’t so much a roar as a cry of pain and fear and despair. My knife was wrenched out of my hands, stuck in the black fur. A blow from a front paw knocked Chess to the side, but they had time to slice once more before they fell.

A small ball of fire hit the bear right in the eye, and the cry of pain became more piercing.

“Leave my friends alone!” Catalin’s voice was heavy with rage.

The monster turned on its heels and ran away in the dark forest. The handle of my knife barely protruded from its body as it disappeared. It wasn’t much of a weapon, but it’d saved my life.

I rushed to help Chess up.

“Are you okay?”

“I guess I am…”

They brushed their clothes. Their doublet was a bit torn, showing the light padding inside, but Chess themself didn’t look wounded.

My bag, on the other hand, was completely destroyed. I took it off my back and looked at what was left of it. Shreds of leather. Contents spilled all around. Nothing repairable. If I hadn’t worn the bag on my back when the dire bear attacked, there would be bits and pieces of my own flesh scattered all over the forest.

It’s like in those movies, when the character wears a trinket that ends up stopping a bullet and saving their life. Only messier.

My heart pounded harder than ever.

This is the world where I live, now. A world where creatures lie in the dark, ready to kill me, or anyone close to me, if I’m not careful.

Catalin stared into the distance.

“This is why these soldiers wouldn’t risk following us to this forest at night. They knew there were dire bears. We were very lucky to get out of this attack unharmed.”

“The dire bear. Is it dead?” I asked.

Chess shook their head. “Not yet. It may even survive its wounds, but we hurt it badly enough. It’s not coming back tonight.”

“Can we even stay here? We may get attacked by something else…”

“Not if we light a good fire.” They looked at the bush that was still burning. “And by ‘good’, I mean ‘not this one’. We need a safe campfire. If we let this bush burn, we may set the whole area ablaze. Catalin, can you do something about it?”

Catalin startled.

“Yes, of course. Sorry, Chess.”

She summoned a water ball, then another, until the fire was out. The forest went dark, with a slight smell of smoke lingering around us. Catalin cast a new ball of light and we helped Chess set camp, digging a hole and protecting it with stones so the flames wouldn’t spread.

When we were finally safely sitting around a campfire, I raised a hand.

“Catalin, please, may I have another series of water balls? I’m not going to sleep with sticky dire bear blood all over my hair.”