Kapitel 45: Why Scouts?

Chapter 45.

01. The squad waited in tense silence, The dog looked around for a moment and ran up the hill towards Reskeme. The dog stopped at his feet behind his rock he was hiding behind, Reskeme glance at the clearly smiling dog and wondered why the thing always seemed so happy. His train of thought immediately came back to the current problem. He nervously gripped his javelin in his right hand, He nervously drew his naginata and held it tightly in his left soo he could have something to defend himself after his throw. The Darva scouts rounded the corner and ran up the trail towards the ambush, They were clearly following the smell of the dog and stopped right beneath the group confused.

02. Reskeme knew this was the moment and stepped forward throwing his javelin at the front scouts' side. He stuck the spear in the shoulder causing the scout to yip in pain. Two arrows stuck into the Darva in the back, He watched the Darva stumble and collapse, the front Darva wasn't out of the fight it was turning and clumsily trying to pull the weapon sticking out of its shoulder. Reskeme saw his chance and threw his naginata at the stationary Darva. The heavier naginata dropped through the air and dug itself in the hind leg of the Wolf-like creature. A twang followed by another, two arrows made the scout stagger again, falling to the ground. The Darva twitched and scrambled around before finally lying mostly still on the ground.

03. The ambush had been extremely effective making an encounter that should have been deadly seeming extremely easy. Carley and dusty walked down the hill, Dusty had his sword drawn He walked over and thrust the blade into the neck of the Darva brutally. Reskeme felt a little more nervous about the man after he walked to the second Darva and executed it as well. Reskeme whispered, "Why did you do that?" Dusty gave him a stern look, He said," Even if it looks like an enemy is dead always finish them off or they might get back up and stab you in the back."

04. Reskeme could respect that, he didn't like the idea of getting one of those javelins in his back. He spent some time to admire the fact that his javelin had pierced the leather armour of the first Darva, His throw wasn't fetal immediately but getting stuck in the shoulder bone was bound to make it easier to kill his target. He cleaned off his javelin and retrieved his naginata from the leg of the creature. The size made it difficult, the creature must have weighed twice as much as a grown human. Reskeme finally managed to push the massive wolf with the help of his two squadmates.

05. He spent ten minutes trying to wipe all the blood off his two spears, He was unlucky that the Darva wasn't carrying any water for some reason, They did have cases for some in od leather slings on their sides. Reskeme was drooling over the ten javelins the Darva were carrying, He realized he could only carry one or two more in his case. Reskeme was a little upset But couldn't argue with Carley rationalization that the weight would be much harder to carry with more. The Darva had a faint smell of trees and musk about them reminding Reskeme of dogs. He examined the claws of the creatures and was disheartened that even the scout's claws were as long as each one of his fingers.

06. Carley stated, "The warrior's claws are as long as a grown man's fingers and tougher than steel, something about them becoming warriors change the claws from normal claws to steel. He pushed up the lip and immediately noticed the long curved teeth clearly meant for eating meat and tearing flesh. They left the Darva that were starting to stink in the afternoon sun, The squad had retrieved arrows and javelins before leaving heading in the direction the Darva warriors had been walking. Reskeme had to protect the little dog with frantic gestures when Carley was going to shoot at it, She was clearly unhappy but acquiesced. He was now casting an illusion to change the colour of the dog as well as the rest of his squad.

07. The dog had seemed very startled when he reached for it and oddly didn't feel fluffy like it was covered in hair when he touched its skin. Reskeme had a scary thought but didn't dare to question the feeling of mirth coming from the dog. Reskeme sent his anger to his familiar who had been pretending until this moment to be a fluffy dog. The familiar didn't like the idea of going green but in the end, decided it was for the best. To Reskemes surprise and confusion the familiar changed colour, He felt as the Familiar channelled and cast its own illusions. Reskemes lying skills were good and he managed to smile at the two other members of the group and tell them it was him that changed his dog to green and brown.

08. The camouflaged group began their trek and passed into another valley, before climbing onto the ridge of a mountain connected to thiers. The valley Sharpley widened and turned as the day continued, They stopped all panting for breath especially Reskeme, he made some excuses about noo more mana for the rest of the day and found a hidden area to lay down his blankets. It was a few hours before dark but Carley was insistent that they only continue with disguises. Reskeme wasn't feeling well his mana channels burned and ached from constant use, He sweated feverishly even in the chill breeze. Reskeme was horrified, at the site of his mana gauge around 1%. Kellar had been very serious when he had stated that Reskeme wouldn't like running out.

09. Carley checked on him but he refused to pull his head out from under his blanket soo she could see his face. Reskeme had said all he needed was some sleep and the growling dog managed to convince her to let it be and call enough hiking for the day. Reskeme wondered how his familiar manage that with a fluffy white happy appearance, perhaps it just managed to exude menace even with its fluffy appearance. Reskeme woke many times through the night, He woke to night terrors of Darva tearing his flesh and mangling his body with their massive claws. It appeared that seeing the enemy up close only made his nights worse.

10. The strain on his mana channels from two days of constant channelling made itself known, he woke again after sleeping past sunrise the next day. Reskeme actually felt Refreshed even though he could tell his body hadn't fully recovered. He Channeled his mana, the light sensation of burning was alarming, He cast his spell and cast one more on both Carley and Dusty, For some reason, they had allowed him to sleep even a few hours past sunrise. A much more refreshed Reskeme followed in the rear of the group with the dog once more as they scouted the massive valley for the Darvan fortress. The group greatly appreciated cleaning off the blood from weapons and armour from a small stream before continuing their duty. Reskeme was delighted when Carley only made them hike for two hours to a vantage point where they could overlook the valley.

11. There were several moments of scanning with the spotting scope before Carley whispered," I Have found it, Reskeme couldn't see what she meant, He followed her pointing finger until he noticed a thinner copse of trees on the edge of the valley against a massive mountain with cliffs and very little trees. Reskeme asked, " why isn't the fortress walled like ours?"

12.Carley replied," the Darva is terrifying in close quarters, and soo we cut trees around our forts, They on the other hand force us to invade their tree fortresses in much smaller quarters like in the trees." She scowled," the damned things are fast and smart, running through trees makes them hard to hit with a bow, they also have plenty of cover. Our tactics to group up and present a shield wall are meaningless in trees against an enemy that fights an endless war of hit and run instead of large scale battles. Carley sighed tiredly, She said," the only bright side of this mission is they haven't been howling every time we sleep."

13. Carley grinned maniacally, "The mage core is going to be arriving at the fortress any day now, then we will finally be able to return the pain to the enemy." Dusty lightly coughed in his hand and gestured towards the fortress in the trees. Carley stopped her rant and got back to trying to observe the enemy, Reskeme on the other hand was watching the Fortress through squinting eyes. The fortress was hard to see many details in the trees, He watched Carley writing things down, She cursed and wrote some more. Reskeme crawled up next to her, He asked," what are you writing, I can only see weird buildings through the trees."

14. Reskeme paid wrapped attention as Carley explained that the Darva building had meaning based on if they had specific markings on them. Just like humans, Reskeme thought the higher ranking an individual was the more decoration they placed on themselves. Reskeme was shocked to hear when Carley stated that there were at least four mages in the ranks of the enemy fortress. An unknown amount of warriors as their places didn't stick out as well, The scouts were of course even more difficult to spot for the same reason.

15. Carley returned her spyglass to her case and smiled at Reskeme she said," Next time you will probably get to do this for yourself, so don't worry about playing a secondary role this time." Carley gestured back, She said," now all we half to do is get back and report the whereabouts and an approximate number of the Darva warriors." Reskeme was confused but decided it wasn't his job, he was just here to disguise Carley and Dusty. Much like before the group backtracked along the ridge until Reskeme once again called a halt due to mana loss.

16. Reskeme could see the irritation in the eyes of His leader but it couldn't be helped, Casting this many illusions in a day was just too taxing for him. There was no way he was getting to 1% again last night had been extremely uncomfortable, He pulled out his mana gauge and hoped he would sleep better with 5% mana. They got an early start and hiked for hours until they started to hear howling in the distance, Reskeme was confused, Carley cursed she quickly leads them off the path and hid well away from the forest trail. They kept their heads down as a familiar group of Darva warriors ran along the trail with frightening speed, They could clearly smell the blood that had been on the weapons and was following the scent. Carley waited for them to pass and quickly lead them back down, She said," no need to be extra stealthy, they know we are here, we run and hope it takes them a while to reach the stream and find out we are headed back this way.