It has been five mugs of mead since the time we talked about time. The mead doesn't seem to be that strong as neither William nor I have been even little affected, but at least the conversation been going lot better since then. William told me more about the camp and I learned that the old man's name is Merrick and the chef's is Walter. Merrick seems to stay here as a base doctor and only his personal assistant changes during the half year shifts, which apparently is seven months with more days than ours. Weirdly long time for shifts, but it has been said that this place is remote so frequent changes would just create problems. The can actually send mail from here, by taking it to "nearby" hunting and lodging cabin "village" where lodgers, hunters or rangers deliver it to a closest actual city or town that they happen to return after their work ends. But that can take weeks so it's not fast, but the answer usually comes by official messenger riding here, so it's little faster for that side of the conversation. 

It seems the cabin was built by using the first few shifts as labor force by William misusing his authority, as he was supposed to have a simple tent like the others do. It would have been changed during shift changes, but he disliked the idea of living in a tent for rest of his life and made them built the cabin. As the most remote outpost there is, this camp gets only soldiers that are capable using their hands and are good at cooking and washing. Lot of ex-hunters in the soldiers too, so it was no problem for them to do little extra work while trying to establish a working camp in the middle of nowhere. Also it seems that this camp is the only one near the forest, with the reason being that the forest seems to be filled with wildlife too big for your average backyard forest. Even with this being the closest camp, it took hour or two to travel from there to here, and I was force marched in order to make me too tired to resist the interrogation, but that didn't work so well for William and the others.

I'm no longer considered as a spy by William, but he still keeps asking for more information about the forest as some nobles have a habit of sending him wine and other luxury foods and items for information. And... It sounds like screaming... No like bellowing of orders I think as someone far away starts to run towards the cabin. I rise up and walk to the door after finishing my mead with big gulps and open the door just before the someone knocks. Before I have the time to ask why is he running or what is the yelling about, he piles on me and William that something seems to be moving towards the camp.

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"How the hell did you know he was coming?" William asks as we make our way to the problem area. "Heard him coming from a mile away." I answer unsure if I was exaggerating or not. As we stand in the middle of a two line deep semicircle with round wooden shield carrying soldiers making the first line and spear men forming the second one, I see a boa like snake, except thick as a tree trunk slithering our way. "Is that one those large animals that keep causing you problems?" I ask and point. "Yeah, attacks have been more frequent since the smoke pillar." He says and searches the area I point towards to.

It was fast, really fast. When the serpent got close enough for us to stab it with our spears it dived into the left side of the shield wall and knocked half of it down with that. Next it lunged towards the now exposed right side of spear men and actually just swallowed one them whole right there and then. As the others are incapable of reacting the snake's speed I grab one the fallen spears and strike the snake's side with it. The spear's tip sinks only an inch or two before the handle snaps and the snake, now free to move, whips me with its tail, sending me flying fifty feet backwards and rolling another ten after the impact on the ground. And with the time it gains it naps three more and slithers away.

I'm helped up by Gareth as William counts the losses, with four eaten and more killed by being slammed and crushed by snake weighting roughly the same as an elephant. Listening Gareth's mumbling about there being no snakes that fast or big I get the picture that this might not have happened if I just chose to die instead of touching the orb. But that's not the point nor are the dead, they no longer matter as I draw near the pool of snakes blood left by my spear. Dipping my right hand's index and middle finger in the pool and bringing it to my nose, I smile and whisper: "I have your scent."