Chapter 40: The Enemy

Chapter 40.

(With Reskeme And his guards)

01. Carley was quick to point towards the river and lead the group over allowing them to have protection to their back. Reskeme was nervous he had never been in a battle and wast sure what might happen. Carley said," get off your horses and tie them to the trees we don't want them getting spooked and running us over." Reskemes eyes went wide, he didn't like the idea of getting run over at all, these horses were huge. Reskeme dismounted from his horse, he was surprised that the horse was calm even with high pitched howling nearby. Reskeme gripped his naginata in his left hand, He pulled out his bloody javelin and cleaned its point on the dirt, Reskeme was reminded that blood made dirt stick and was now holding an even more filthy weapon.

02. Reskeme was so fixated on cleaning his weapon he didn't notice the rustle about 100 steps away. The twang of a bowstring behind him was his only warning, Reskeme knew that sound and ducked. Reskeme quickly ran to a tree and crouched behind it. Reskeme wasnt with the 3 others he was a ways away, he peaked around the tree, looking in the bushes for the thing his guards had shot at. Carley said," It's on the left, behind the big tree with a wide base." Reskeme was baffled when a monster lept around the corner and threw what could only be a javelin. Reskeme quickly hid behind his tree, one moment later a scream from his right came to Reskemes ears. He thought no way that thing can hit anything from that sort of distance with a spear.

03. Reskeme stayed hidden and looked over at Brad who was sitting on the ground 15 steps away holding his bloody leg, Carley was trying to bandage his leg, Reskeme watched her break the spear's tip-off and pulled out the shaft of the javelin. Bard groaned and cursed, Dusty was continually peaking around the corner of a tree and shooting arrows. Reskeme finally got the courage to look around the corner of his tree, he gripped his javelin, Reskeme spotted something with fur run from one tree and crouch behind a tree close to the group but out of sight of his guards.

04. The Monster was on all fours and didnt seem to notice him, the creature was as tall as Reskemes chest on all fours, the thing looked like a Racoon at first glance, Reskeme felt a chill run down his spine, The monster was wolfish with long ears and had a lupine face and had a fluffy tail. The Darva was wearing leather armour over its long brown fur, it had a case on its side that had long spears in. the green leather armour covered its chest and the fronts of its legs, the thing was clutching a long spear and started to lean on its hind paws before stepping out from behind the tree and whipping its arm throwing the spear forward in a rapid motion, Reskeme aimed above its head and quickly stepped out before throwing his javelin as hard as he can.

05. Reskemes bloody spear flew through the air and hit the unsuspecting Darva right in its side. Reskeme noticed his spear bury into the leather armour causing the monster to bear its long menacing teeth with pain and jump out of sight. Reskeme pumped his fist and wooped with excitement, he had just hit the enemy in the side. Reskeme turned around and couldn't believe what he was seeing,The darva spear had found its target, Brad who had been sitting still like a perfect target. Reskeme went pale as he looked in disgust and horror at the long shaft of the Darva spear sticking out of brads head.

06. Reskeme realized that if he would have yelled to get down then brad might not have died just now. Reskeme pulled out his second javelin and peeked around the tree again, He couldn't see anything except some russling of the darva running into the trees. Reskeme said," why did they leave?" Carley said, "they were a scouting party I only seen two, they will retreat if we injured one." Reskeme said, "I hit one in the side when it was moving in to throw a spear." Carley looked both relieved and angry, after waiting to see if the enemy was still lying in wait for a good half of an hour they decided the enemy had left.

07. Reskeme kept crouched low and quickly ran across the path before hiding behind the tree brads corps was. Reskeme tried not to sit in the blood and looked at the dead Brad, Carley walked over and looked at the corpse of her friend with horror on her face. She said," we will take his body and leave, the damned scouts will be back, and i refuse to let the basterds eat him." Carley pulled out the spear and was going to toss it away in discust, when she turned to Reskeme, She sighed and offered the javelin to reskeme. He accepted the spear and washed off the point in the river.

08. Reskeme was surprised she didnt throw away the weopon that killed her friend, He asked, "why did you give me the spear?" Carley replied," If i throw away the spear it will serve no purpose, If i give it to you, the spear can take the lives of the enemy." that made sense Reskeme thought as he put the longer javelin into his case, the spear was a couple feet longer but seemed lighter and would probably fly further. Reskeme put his put his naginata into his spear case and helped Carley by lifting the feet of her dead friend onto the dead mans horse.

09. The horse nusled Brads lifless corpse in question, Carley brushed its nose with a soft smile and used some rope to strap him on. Reskeme watched dusty who was currently staring into the forest with a stony face, he had his bow knocked and ready to shoot. The squad mounted up and followed the river now in a glum mood, every twitch of a branch was cause for looking around frantically. Reskemes nerves were on edge, the only thing making him remember to refresh his magic was the feel of his mana breaking apart. He glanced at his mana gauge after 3 more hours of riding, He was happy to note only 40% was missing from the mana guage.

10.Reskeme was exhausted, He and the squad had just eaten dried rations while riding not taking a break. He didnt mind as he also wanted to get as far away as possible from where they had been attacked, Reskeme had only seen one but he was sure the image of something that terrifying would haunt his dreams. He was starting realize why the soldiers of the fortress were soo stressed out when they heard howling, they knew outside the walls were those things.

11. Reskeme finally broke the silence and said," Do they always use spears?" Carley replied," you need to learn the Darva ranks,The low ranking scouts always use spears, She continued" Scouts don't ever actually come in to fight melee they are usually smaller and quicker than the Darva warriors." Reskeme blurted but that thing was huge, the biggest racoon i have ever seen." Carley said," don't take there appearance to mean they are cute and cuddly like racoons, darva scouts can hit soldiers from over 100steps away with those damed spears." She said," for some reason they have never been known to shoot bows, that doesn't matter tho, they are more than capable of out shooting most archers with those damned spears especially in forests."

12. Reskeme said," archers can shoot way further though" Carley looked around them with an exadurated look and said," oh sure because that matters soo much in the forests." Carley said," Darva warriors are truly terrifying, every one of them can use body magic, there claws tear through leather armour like its on even there and there teeth can bite through plate armour. Carley said, "our biggest advantage is they dont wear metal armour, its probably because it makes noise when they move or maybe they have trouble making it."

13. A serious look crossed Carleys face she said," the packleaders are the ones you dont want to face unless you have a mage in your squad." Every one of the damned packleaders are mages and they are extremely tough to kill if you dont catch them off guard." Reskeme fell silent, he contemplated these warriors and what to do if he faced them, From how Carley had spoken the scouts were just here to horass the soldiers or to collect information.

14. Reskeme wasnt feeling safe at all he realized that the dead person could have been him if the darva had aimed at him instead. Reskeme decided he needed to get better at magic and get better at fighting, he had only been in a short scrimish and already almost died. The quiet squad followed the path for two more hours before they started to hear the faint sound of rumbling. Reskeme was confused at first, he had never heard something like this. The squad came insight of a fortress a ways back from the raging river. Reskeme could hear the roar of the falls growing louder as they left the trees.

15. The horses seemed irritated at first from the sound but eventually started walking ahead ears twitching. Gaurds hailed them from the gates, The squad halted and waited for the escort to come out and meet them. Reskeme had thought the idiots would just yell at them but realized the falls would make that a serious problem. The gates opened and let out a group of three soldiers, Reskeme and his squad walked over to the group and stopped in front of them.

16.Two of the soldiers walked over to the horse carrying the body and gently took the reins from the reluctant Carley. The third soldier said," ahh a messenger, our commander has been waiting for word from the other fort." Reskeme followed the soldier while his guards followed the two men leading their fallen comrade. Reskeme asked the soldier," is it common for people to die?" the soldier replied," yeah we get one or two a week, he eyed reskeme and said, "lately the enemy has been much more aggressive soo we have been loosing 4 or 5 soldiers a week"

( In the city of Drent)

17. Ardivar waited patiently for his familiar to return, after the first day he paced from side to side in the attic while growing at noting in particular. He really didnt like his familiar going off on his own and was going out to find him, ardivar explored the city and found that his familiar had left the city for some reason. Ardivar had a problem however, he couldn't climb the giant wall because it was guarded by all those pesky shelled humans. Ardivar came up with an idea, he smiled happily and used his magic to discuise himself. Ardivar then waited until they opened the gates and casually walked passed those humans with pointy sticks. To his glee they didn't even bother to give him more than a glance, a young human even offered him a small piece of something delicious. Ardivar decided he might use this discuise much more often if it allowed him to simply walk up to his meals.