The two of them arrived at a forest, as the dual suns shone through clouds above. Volken disembarked Esmerelda, assisting Eos down. The half-day ride had been largely silent of human voices, any words said by either would be gone in the wind before it reached the other’s ear. Eos found the silence, whipping wind, and bouncing horse to be unpleasant at minimum. I’d prefer if there was a wagon. She thought.
The road that had led them here was straight and level, uncobbled. Since leaving the outskirts of the capital, they had passed through three towns in their half day journey. The edge of the forest they now stood at was quite a distance from the main road; the road sat on a small rise, so she was unable to see the dirt pathway even on Esmerelda. However, any wagon or rider on the road would be visible from her angle, or anyone in the trees above would be have an unburdened view of any passersby on the road.
“So what’s our goal?” Eos asked finally. Her bottom was sore after the riding, she wasn’t sure she’d ever get used to it.
“Reconnaissance.” Volken said matter-of-factly, “There’s bandits in the forest. Even guarded merchants have lost goods around this bend. We’re tasked with finding their hideout, and returning with its location.” He pulled a parchment from his bag, opening it to reveal a large bulbous mass. “Here’s an outline of the forest. We simply need to mark where they live and return.”
“Where’d you get that?” Eos asked.
“I’ve had it. Gerrard gave me a copy when I first inquired about it.”
“So… what now?”
“We go in. My plan was to pose as a merchant and get robbed, led back to their hideout as a hostage. But that’s too dangerous now-”
“Now?!”
“So we’re going to just go in and see if we die.” Volken said.
The once-inviting forest now had a foreboding air to it. Despite her protests, Volken went into the forest with Es piked into the ground, forcing Eos to follow or be left alone: the last thing she wanted in now known bandit territory. Her eyes adjusted to the thick covering of trees, giving her the ability to see the small creatures furtively running around, and every insect in the air buzzing around. Both a blessing and a curse.
“Can you see?” Volken asked, trying to carefully navigate. He placed his hand on a tree and stepped over a root, lightly cracking a fallen branch.
“Yeah, I can see fine.” She said, following his lead. As they continued in the forest. They continued deeper into the forest, the umbral covering thickening even more. “Stop.” Eos gently said lightly. A deer was ahead of Volken, looking skittish.
“I see it.” Volken said, “Let's wait for it to go ahead.”
Eos fully caught up to Volken, standing next to him. He was in her vision, and suddenly green lines appeared in her eyes once more, and the deer stilled. They traced out a man in the trees deeper in the forest, a bow in hand. A green arrow flew from the man, flying clearly above the deer and into Volken’s chest. Traced in outline, the green deer jumps away from the physical one, running further into the forest.
“Arrow!” Eos yelled, snapping back to full speed. Volken quickly reacted, before he could have understood what was being said or who was saying it. He didn’t duck, he dodged to the side, quickly disappearing behind a tree in a flash. He was, however, slower than a flying arrow- it grazed his chest after his swift turn. Eos didn’t need prompting for what to do: she quickly hid behind a different tree than Volken.
“Smart aren’t you?” They heard from a gruff sounding man in the direction of the arrow. “Wasn’t the glint of the head that gave it away, was it?”
Eos looked over at Volken. He motioned her to stay silent, and he began casting a blue spell: water, defensive. She wasn’t able to identify the spell, she was too nervous glancing around to see the attacker. Despite her eyesight, he had disappeared behind trees, into foliage. She flicked her head to the other side of the tree, and saw nothing except more unabated forest. When she turned back to Volken, he had disappeared as well. He had replaced the deer after it had skittered away.
“Where are you at?” Volken said, “Or are you trying to get a cheap score?” Volken looked around carefully. “It’s quite dark in the forest. But we’re not too deep into it. Who are you?”
Volken’s words remained unanswered. He held his left hand on the hilt of a dagger, his right on his hip. A measure of confidence was radiating from him, but he had no adversary to face. Volken turned to Eos. “You can come out.” He beckoned her. “Keep an eye out and come here.”
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Eos carefully looked around and carefully came out from behind her tree. Scanning around, it seemed as if the unknown hunter truly vanished after his first shot and taunting. She came to Volken, and he beckoned her closer. “I should have thought of this beforehand,” He whispered in her ear, a careful blue spell being cast, glyphs appearing in the smallest font as he barely moved his fingertips. He tapped it on her chest. She felt a radiant energy course across her body. “This should protect you from a stray arrow.”
“A?” She asked, “as in, singular?”
“Singular.” He said, “But they should be dead before a second one is shot.”
“What if they shoot two arrows at once?” She asked. Volken didn’t care to respond, instead motioning them to separate.
“We’ll continue down this direction. It seems like we’re on the right path, I wouldn’t expect adversity so early on otherwise.” They kept on their path, across gnarled roots and overly dense leaves. As they moved ever forward, Volken popped a question.
“How did you see that arrow? I couldn't even see it before it began to fly. It would have hit.” Volken lightly rubbed the slit in his chest where it grazed him, between the now split leather armor. Vibrant blood leaked from the wound, and Volken seemed aware of how much blood was leaking out.
Eos felt unsure about the question. There wasn’t particularly anyone she trusted with information about her unusual eyes. The dark sight, the putrid green lines, spell identification and recollection - it was all odd, and she had an uncanny feeling it needed to be kept a secret, nobody but her could know about it. Even if she did explain it, she would only be asked questions about how it worked, and she was as clueless as anyone else about it. Time to lie. She thought. They gave me a good excuse, I’ll just use it.
“I just saw it.” She said, “Glinting, I guess?”
Volken nodded, seemingly accepting it. “Observant. A good trait, it’ll keep you alive. If you can keep it up, then we’ll be safe. Let me know if you see any tracks.”
She nodded in response, although Volken didn’t look back to see it. She kept scanning for anything man-made or a marker. Standing a few feet behind Volken, he set the pace for their traversal, and Eos looked at the distinctive footprints he left behind as what to lookout for. Other people’s tracks would look similar, she figured.
They kept going for a while - the canopy cover prevented Eos from estimating how much time passed since the encounter with the Hunter. Eventually, Volken raised his left arm, sticking out at a right angle and his elbow facing up, signaling stop. Eos halted, and Volken turned towards her. “We’re about half way into the forest. Have you seen anything?”
“No.” Eos said. “Not since the deer.”
“Exactly. It’s surreally quiet.”
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know. We’ll stop here, and keep a lookout.”
Eos nodded, and caught up to Volken. He sat down, and began pulling leaves and dirt from around closer to them. “We need to hide slightly; we want to catch them, not for them to catch us.” He pulled out the map, and, rather than the inkwell and feather Eos slightly expected, a pencil. Marking their trail on the map, he looked around for their current location. She noticed a previously marked edge of the forest.
“Is that where we entered? And how did you get a pencil?”
“Made it. Couldn’t be bothered with ink and feathers, it’s a pain in the ass. And yeah, that’s our entrance. We’ve kept a fairly straight line from there from what I can tell,” He pulled out a compass, and thought for a second. “I could have had you stand by Es and used the compass and you to triangulate my position.”
“How sensitive is your compass?” Eos asked, “That sounds fairly inaccurate.”
“Better than dead reckoning.” Volken responded, before marking out the line. “By the way, we’ll eat either when night falls or we’re done out here.”
“Wait, what abo-”
“The only thing we need to fear out here is bandits; besides I never said I’d sleep. Nor will you.”
Eos looked at him slightly with detest. “I’m still growing!”
“And you're still learning, I can tell. Go climb this tree and see if you can spot anything.” Volken said, slamming the tree he rested on with his elbow. It shuttered slightly, but no significant things dropped, aside from a few loose leaves and nuts.
She sneered at him, before looking at the tree. It looked like there were a few low branches, but she’d not be able to reach them. “How am I-”
“Figure it out. Problem solving, ya know? Spell application to real world problems.”
She looked around, thinking of the spells she knew. A gust of wind wouldn’t be enough to propel her upwards, but she could-
“Aha!” she said, beginning to weave a circle in the air. She imagined the limbs of the tree bowing down slightly as if they had a weight on them while they were growing, and as she cast, she tried to focus on it harder. Upon finishing the simple spell, the limbs of the tree bowed slightly down, just enough for her to grasp if she jumped. Pulling herself onto the tree branch, she looked around before stopping for a moment. She balanced herself, her back to the trunk and her feet planted one in front of another, and began to cast an enchantment upon herself. The light lines appeared as she wished to protect herself against folly, to fall like a feather if that were to occur. She brought up her other hand as she tapped the two of them together, feeling the radiant protective energy once again.
She clambered up the tree, trying to get a better vantage point. As she got higher, she saw a bird nest nestled in the tree. She looked about, and saw nothing of interest. As she kept looking, sitting down on the tree branch near the top. Despite the light of the upper canopy, she felt exhaustion, and her eyes tired. The last thing she saw before her eyes shut was the Hunter, appearing from a tree below.