บท 43: Scout

01. Reskeme sighed in dejection, He contemplated where he had gone wrong in life, He was now standing in a room with a man fitting some light leather armour to his body. Reskeme would normally be excited to get given such expensive armour, but the reason the army would do this was not lost on him. The tailor was quick and efficient, He had a needle in one hand and a measuring tape in the other. The agile man managed to have the leather armour fitted within an hour after measuring Every body part of Reskeme. Reskeme didn't dare move as the man was poking the armour in all the joints like a master swordsman. The speed was blinding, the man never stopped with his measuring and poking of the needle. The armour went from feeling like a cloak to feeling like it was specifically built just for him.

02. A small mirror was inside the room, He gazed into the mirror with fascination. His leather helmet covered his hair and tied under his chin holding it snugly in place. He had cloth wrapped leather armour chest piece with leather padded pants covering his thighs and calves. the joints were all cloth allowing for agile movement and silence. The obvious problem with the armour was the weakness of no joint coverings. Tall leather boots with soft souls, Reskeme loved these most of all, he had never worn a pair of boots that were actually comfortable. He took a few steps and noticed he hardly made any noise, the soft leather must be absorbing most of the sound.

03. Reskeme strapped his spear case onto his back, the weapons clanked together noisily. The tailer scowled and looked over the case with disapproval. The tailor said," whoever made this clearly doesn't care if the enemy hears you from a league away. The tailor tied all the spears together with a weird knot, The tailor showed him that when he pulled the end of the fabric the knot came untied allowing him to draw his spears. The tailor showed Reskeme how to tie the fascinating knot, after figuring out the basic knot Reskeme walked around for a moment. The tailor smiled, Reskeme made no sound now while walking because his spears were tied to the case, causing the spears to no longer rattle.

04. The tailor passed Reskeme a brown cloak after doing some stitch work, The man had written down the measurements and had stitched certain areas on the cloak to make them fit his size. Reskeme was enjoying himself, he had some light leather armour and a cloak now, something he could have only dreamed of owning mere weeks ago. now that he thought of it Reskeme had come along ways in life since he had been taken by the dark guild. Reskeme didn't acknowledge the fact that the army owned all his gear, as there was no way he was returning any of it.

05. Reskeme left the armoury, Carley eyed him up and down before smiling, She said," I Hoped that I could get you armour, your odds of surviving are a lot better if your armour blocks at least one attack." Carley pulled out a map of the area, She said, "this map sucks the scout who drew it must have been drunk, whoever drew the map only gave us a rough estimate of the enemy encampment." Reskeme looked over the map, Carley pointed to two markings she said," We are here, pointing at a small mark that said eagles fortress. she pointed to a line on the map," this is the river that leads to Hernair waterfall."

06. Further into the map was a wavey line with a circle around it, Carley said," judging by the distance away on the map we have a days journey if we ride a horse." she sighed " the old paths could take us there but riding on a horse would make us dead within a few leagues of travel behind enemy lines." Reskeme frowned, he didn't know much about scouting other than the fact that staying hidden was much more important than being fast and noticeable. Carley rolled back up the map, she said," we are only taking what we need, We don't want to be slowed down by useless things."

07. Reskeme looked up at the sky and wasn't too upset, the sky was clear, the rainy season was still months off, The rainy season this time of year was not often. Reskeme and his squad all got their rations, which included hard bread, dried fruit and dried meat, with enough water for the whole trip. Reskeme was excited to try the dried fruit, He tied his ration pack on his back tightly. His squad left the fortress following a squad of ten soldiers that left on the daily patrol to chase the Darva raiders. Reskeme felt much more confident with the soldiers, Carley said," we are going to follow these guys until we reach the river then we are heading straight into the forest towards the mountains."

08. The squad of soldiers marched wearily through the forest looking for the enemy. Reskeme and his guards split off from the guards and headed straight into enemy territory. The group had gone hours with the squad of soldiers, they now had been boisterous and talkative while with the group of soldiers. After they had split off, his scouting group immediately went silent and started hiking into enemy territory. Reskeme was walking behind Dustin and Carley who kept glancing back every time Reskeme made a rookie mistake by breaking branches unnecessarily or stumbling on another damned root.

09. Reskeme had no experience at all sneaking through a forest, He found that every branch, root, dead, twig or leaf was like an alarm. He also had to keep track of where his weapons were as they were sticking 1step above his head. After fruitlessly sneaking through the forest for a solid 30 minutes, Dusty fell back to where Reskeme was blundering through the forest. Dusty whispered, "follow in my steps, do what I do, don't step anywhere I don't step." Reskeme replied in a soft tone," I will try as best as I can."

10. Reskeme followed in Dustys steps, he miss stepped mostly for the first hour. He stepped in dusty agile steps as often as possible, Reskeme could only faintly hear the sound the agile soldier made, which fueled his desire to follow in the man's every step. Reskeme grumpily stepped on yet another twig for the 100th time, He was pleased that he managed not to break the twig this time. The two soldiers, in front of him, didn't notice the sound, which was the whole point of the exercise. Reskeme knew they were taking a long path travelling the long route to not run into the enemy. Reskeme quickly recast his first layer for his skin and a second green layer for his cloak.

11. Reskeme had a good laugh to himself when dusty glanced back and was startled by his change in appearance. Reskeme made a game for himself, he wanted to practice his sneaking in the forest while he was sure no enemies were close by. Carley had emphasized the importance of talking only when necessary, even whispering was not to be done unless of dire importance. Carley had informed him that the Darvas sense of hearing was much better than that of humans, and the fastest way to get yourself killed was to make a lot of noise. She had explained although they had a wolf-like appearance there smelling wasn't as good as those lupine creatures. Reskeme had wondered how much worse. She had simply stated that he certainly didn't want to be caught upwind of the creatures.

12. Reskeme was happy he had a cloak, The day was bright and windy, the cold breeze coming from the mountains was grating. Reskemes legs were burning from the long hike, He almost got caught without his illusions at lunchtime, Reskeme hadn't bothered to recast his illusions for over 2 hours. He had initially cast his illusions every time they had faded, after hours of tiring hiking with his two squadmates not even bothering to look back, Reskeme decided he should be safe with his cloak to cover him. Reskeme had been looking at the ground and when he walked around a tree, Reskeme had quickly looked away and pretended he needed to go pee.

13. Reskemes heart was racing, from both the hike and his close mishap, He whispered "how long until we reach the top of the mountain.?" Carley gave Reskeme a smirk, She smiled and replied" you surely mean mountains." Reskeme could feel his hopes for rest fading, Two or three days of hiking was not a happy prospect in enemy territory. Reskeme started the hike again, He could see his goal, the summit of a mountain, The squad wanted to get a view and try to find the enemy. In the mountain range, the odds of them finding the enemy camp from the first mountain was not good.

14. Carley pulled out a map and pointed at a specific scribble, She spoke softly," this is the mountain we are currently hiking, we are going to be following the ridge and watching for smoke or cleared trees." Carley didn't wait for a response, no questions were necessary, Reskeme was happy she had forced him to bring skins of water, he had been drinking a damned river of water since they had started. Reskeme hadn't realized how much he could sweat, his biggest enemy this entire scouting trip so far had been trying to keep up.

15. Reskeme felt like they would reach the top of the mountain after every rise in the land, every single time he realized they still were not even close to the top. Reskeme had his head down as he slowly trudged over yet another rise, dusty had stopped on the edge of a cliff, Reskeme almost pushed the man off the edge with his tiring march. Dusty and Carley lay on the edge of the cliff to stare out into the valley. Carley pulled out a long wooden case, Reskeme was confused when she pulled out a long metal and wood tube.

16. Carley looked through the tube for about 45minutes, Reskeme was bored he was staring behind them admiring nothing in particular. Dusty had gestured him to watch their back, Reskeme was sitting in a bush and making sure that no rocks went out of their way to assault the group. On the bright side of all this waiting, Reskeme was finally able to sit and relax. Dusty grabbed Reskemes shoulder and gestured him to follow, Reskeme sighed Resigned, He stood tiredly and walked behind his squad. Reskeme casually checked his mana gauge, Reskeme was surprised his mana gauge showed he had 50% mana, He thought, that makes no sense he should have at least 60%,reskeme wondered if exercise also drained mana.

17. Reskeme had the extreme motivation to find out how he could actively channel mana into his body for energy. Climbing mountains in armour was not his most favourite thing to do, Reskeme kept glancing at his mana gauge, and was upset and excited that he was correct, somehow his mana was being used by his body to give him energy. Reskeme waited an hour and noticed his mana had decreased by 2%, He grumbled to himself. Reskeme hoped he had enough mana to cast his illusions for the rest of the day. The squad rounded the summit of the mountain which took another 3 hours of painstakingly slow hiking. The two soldiers were waiting on the edge of a rock shute, they were hesitantly looking down at a small clearing below. the clearing was roughly 300steps below them and had a group of 5 Darva warriors eating food in a circle. Carley smiled to them, She whispered very softly, "this is a warrior patrol, They are higher ranking than lowly scouts, If we follow them they will surely return to their camp."