Johan wasn't too happy about the choice, but Jen had a point. If Johan hadn't caught them off guard with Wind Blade... That fight with the trolls could have gone very differently. If the trolls had found them first... Well, it wouldn't be a good thing to happen.

They had been following the trail for a few hours when Jen called out to him.

"Johan!" Jen whisper yelled at him.

"What? Do you see something?" He asked, a bit of worry in his tone.

"Up ahead. I see a small fire." Jen replied.

"Let's go check it out." Johan moved forward slowly, making sure he was as quiet as possible.

It was pretty soon that Johan was seeing what Jen was talking about. Up ahead, probably about 100 or so feet out and only just visible through the trees he could see a small bit of flickering light, likely a campfire.

As Johan and Jen moved, ever so slowly, closer they began to see a silhouette. It was the form of a relatively bulky man. With the fire, Johan could see that the man was Markus. Markus was sitting by the fire, likely keeping watch.

It had been a few hours, and truth be told Johan had expected their trek to last until morning, but it seemed that, even though the two of them were missing, the others had set up camp around dusk, which had saved the duo a lot of time they would have spent walking. It had only just passed midnight, yet now Johan was laying eyes on the others.

Given what happened last time, Johan kept his excitement reigned in and just continued his slow and quiet approach, Jen was still just a foot or two behind him. Once he got within 20 or so feet, Markus turned towards their direction. His hand was on his weapon, it seemed he was ready to attack.

At this point Johan had become fairly certain that this was the real Markus, to the point that he decided to go ahead and stand.

"What are you doing!" Jen harshly whispered at him.

"It's almost certainly not an illusion, and if it was, we would be dead anyways, neither of us would be able to escape a mage strong enough to make illusions that lifelike." Johan explained.

---

"Who goes there?" Markus spoke, his tone was cold, being unable to recognize the forms that were in the shadows. One of them had stood up, and from what he could tell the other was still crouched.

"Hey, Markus. We made it back." A familiar voice came from the standing form, it was Johan it seemed.

"Johan? You guys are alright? Come here so I can get a good look at you. You too Jen, I can see you there." Markus waved them over.

As the young man approached, Markus immediately noted that he had a slight limp, one he hadn't had before the two of them had vanished. The second thing he noticed was the blood that seemed to coat the man.

He had blue, almost purple, blood coating his form. It was almost certainly never getting out of his clothes. Markus could also see some red blood here and there. It seemed like Johan and Jen had been through quite a bit.

Markus turned to look at Jen and he could see a few bruises here and there in between the blue blood that also soaked her. She seemed to also have been injured, though maybe not as much as Johan.

"What happened to the two of you? Also, What did you kill that you got coated in so much blood?" Markus asked.

"Well, we fell into a deep pit, I *almost* died, Jen used one of the potions I had gotten from Clare to heal me, I learned how to use Earth Manipulation, then we followed the marked trees for a while, fought some trolls, managed to survive, and then we kinda kept following the trees until we got here." Johan explained.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"Trolls? They shouldn't be down this far on the mountain." Markus said, his face twisting as he began to think about what could have happened in the last decade to change something like movement patterns. Of the few things he could think of, he liked none of them.

"We might have to go back down and just leave the mountain." Markus said. "I don't know what has happened, but I don't like that the movement patterns of something like trolls has shifted this dramatically. It means that a stronger creature, and one that is territorial at that, has taken residence somewhere up the mountain."

"Like what? A dragon?" Johan asked jokingly.

"It's not out of the question." Markus replied in a more serious tone, "It is unlikely that it's a dragon, but it is not out of the question. I'd say its more likely to be something like a griffin or perhaps a drake of some sort. Both of those tend to be territorial as well as herd type creatures. moreover they tend to be individually stronger than trolls."

"I... I see." Johan said, understanding more of why Markus was so serious. Even though Johan was a mage, that didn't make him too strong, not really. In the grand scheme of things Johan was actually pretty weak. Being only a first Construct level mage. Sure 90 percent of mages never made it past Constructs but at the same time, most of those mages also made it past the first one.

"Well, Either way, for now, you two should sleep and get some rest. We can decide what to do tomorrow." Markus said, "Oh, and change out of those clothes and burn them. Those are beyond salvaging."

Johan chuckled a bit at this, and went to do so. Jen did so as well, and the two of them threw the clothes onto the fire. the fire was green for a short time as it burned the bloody clothes, and Johan stretched his limbs reveling in the freshness of clean clothes.

"Hey, Johan?" Jen looked at him.

"Yeah? What is it?" He replied as he stared back.

"Could you summon some water? I want to wash my body off a bit before I sleep."

"Oh, yeah. Sure. Actually that's a good idea, mind if I also join you?" Johan asked, before seeing that Jen seemed to redden a bit at the thought, "Oh, you're going to wash your whole body. I thought you were just talking about your arms or something. Alright, give me a moment and I'll have your water."

Johan was a bit embarrassed, but at the same time misunderstandings happened. Either way he was also going to wash his arms and legs, as well as his hair, though he would need help with his hair.

After about an hour or so, Johan had finished getting the crap off of himself. He had to ask Markus for help with his hair, but it was done. It was heavenly to not be matted in blood, both his and not. Johan let out a sigh of relief, and looked at the tent that Jen had set up to wash herself more privately in. He didn't want to see her, no, but he couldn't help but wonder what was taking her so long. Maybe she was having issues with her hair as well?

It wasn't Johan's problem, but he was curious.

"Jen? You good?" He asked

"Uh, yeah? I'm having trouble getting it out of my hair though." she said from the other side, probably a bit uncomfortable from being talked to while bathing.

"If you need help, Markus is pretty good at getting blood out of hair."

"I'll keep it in mind. Would you please leave me alone? It's weird to have a conversation like this." Jen complained.

"Haha, alright. Bye, I'm going to go sleep." Johan laughed a bit

"Okay. Goodnight." Jen said, before sighing.

Johan walked over to the two that were sleeping, noticing Adv was pointed into the woods. He lay his own blanket out onto the ground, using Earth Manipulation to flatten it a bit so it wasn't as bumpy. Then he lay down.

"Hey, Adv, How are you?" Johan asked the AI.

"Oh, Johan, you're back!" The machine answered in it's whisper shout.

"Yep, I'm also tired. I just wanted to say hi." Johan laughed a bit at Adv's antics.

"Hello!" Adv said, again whisper shouting it.

Johan chuckled a bit, and felt his consciousness slip out of his grasp as he passed out.

-----

Jen was going through a roller-coaster of emotions right now. She felt relief at finally having confessed, sadness and bitterness from being rejected, fear from being lost and having fought against the trolls, but oddly enough she felt more comfortable than she had since she realized her feelings for Johan.

It no longer felt so awkward. Johan seemed to take things in stride now that he was aware of her feelings, having accepted them yet still denied her a return. It was such a high level of emotional maturity that she was unfamiliar with. After she had confessed she felt more at ease around him leading to them being able to properly communicate and cooperate, though she was still a bit flustered from when he had whispered into her ear.

Right now she was frustrated. The blood and bits of flesh in her hair were very difficult to remove. Troll blood seemed almost like glue to her. She thought about what Johan had said a few minutes ago when he spoke to her through the tent walls and decided she would seek some help from Markus.

Tomorrow she would feel clean both physically and mentally, the thought of which made her smile.