บท 44: Doing Scout Things

Chapter 44.

01.Reskeme could faintly see the Darva warriors, He wondered how Carley could see details on them. She whispered, "It's a spotting scope, It magnifies things soo I can see things far away." Reskeme was confused at how the fancy wood and metal could do that, Carley hadn't offered to let him hold the clearly costly spotting scope. That was one thing Reskeme didn't think was useless, and couldn't wait until he could afford one or find one for himself. Carley leads the group and followed the patrol of Darva from the mountainside. The difficulty soon was the appearant, After following the darva for an hour they realized the only reason they could spot the soldiers at all was the Darva were following at the base of the mountain.

02.The Darva slowly got closer as the ridge they were following dipped down, The enemy was following a plateau underneath them soo they were getting closer. The group of Darva were not moving quickly, this was to the benefit of Reskeme and his squad, they were only 200steps away now and we're moving much slower. The warriors of the Darva were all covered in leather armour, unlike human warriors they didn't carry weapons. If reports were right they didn't need any weapons, Reskeme wasn't very excited about the prospect of getting torn apart by their claws.

03. The group lost sight of the patrol as darkness set, The group was on a ridge overlooking the valley the Darva warriors had been in. Reskeme and his group were not very high up the new ridge, he was tired and sore but wasn't feeling too exhausted. With the light of the stars and one of the moons, Reskeme and his party continued the hike for another hour. The group finally halted when the cloud cover started to block out the light making his two squadmates unable to see where they were walking. Reskeme wasn't able to see perfectly, he was however somehow able to see like it was a very gloomy evening.

04. The group lay down their sleeping rolls inside a group of thick trees, Reskeme didn't like crawling into the prickly bush but realized it was better to be inside the bush so the enemy couldn't just spot them out in the open. Reskeme didn't think he could handle any more hiking, He checked his mana, He could faintly see that his mana was around 5%. Reskeme could feel his veins burning and new he needed to rest. His mana channels were throbbing, his body was screaming at him to stop channelling mana, on the other hand, his muscles seemed just fine.

05. Reskeme slept fitfully, he kept waking and rolling side to side thrashing in his blankets, His body at first showed its displeasure for approaching such a low level of mana fatigue. An exhausted Reskeme was awake and just laying in bed watching the sky slowly start to lighten. He decided it was as good as time as any and climbed from his hard pokey bed. Reskeme yawned sleepily and walked over to the edge of there hiding spot to pee behind a tree. He had left to the edge of their hiding spot and stared across the mostly empty plateau. Reskeme was just relaxing and letting his mind wander when he spotted some movement on the far end of the plateau.

06.He watched for a moment before a group of five warriors crested the rise walking from the valley to the mountain. Reskeme finally got a close look at the monstrous Darva warriors, Each warrior had unique colouration of bot fur and unique markings on their armour. Reskeme wasn't sure what each marking meant but the fact he could notice such things meant the enemy could almost certainly see him if they looked. Reskeme slowly ducked behind the bushes. He channelled mana creating two layers of both green and brown, Reskeme moved as slow as possible, he entered the hidden area of his sleeping spot. Reskeme noticed his squad mates were slowly starting to rise.

07. Reskeme waved frantically for his squad to stop moving and stay still, He held up 5 fingers and gestured outside towards the top of the mountain. He mouthed the words' enemy, Carley and dusty did some hand signs that reskeme failed to understand. Reskeme was nervous, He looked down at his green armour and skin, Carley gestured that he watch the enemy. Reskeme slowly crept back to the edge of his hiding spot, He could just see Carley looking from the thick trees behind him. The squad of Darva followed the ridge of the mountain towards Reskeme and his group.

08. Reskeme watched the massive creatures come within throwing distance of his javelins. He didn't dare move as he guessed any movement would be easily noticed. The warriors were walking on all four paws, they moved with a terrifying grace. Each warrior was as tall as Reskemes shoulder on all fours, Reskeme thought they looked oddly adorable, He had always loved dogs and the Darva Resembled very large dogs. The noticeable difference between These monsters and wolves or dogs was the fact they wore armour and walked together in an odd formation. The warriors didn't make any sound as they casually walked along the mountain.

09. The Darva warriors were on another level of terrifying from the normal scouts, Each Darva warrior carried a pack that was presumably carrying food and other assortments of food. After 30 minutes of waiting the Darva had finally left sight Reskeme was shaking from the adrenalin, his body had been soo pumped he felt light-headed. He took calming breaths and almost yelled out when Carley grabbed him on the shoulder. She pointed back for him to enter the small hiding spot, He entered and waited for orders. Carley whispered, " That was close, from here on out you will need to disguise all three of us soo we don't get spotted. Reskeme nodded his head in affirmation, He replied," We will need to stop after every hour and a half to recast the spells." Carley nodded her head, Reskeme stepped forward and cast a single layer making it thick and dark green.

10. Carleys cloak went from black to a dark green that blended well with the surrounding forests. Reskeme got inspiration, He performed the same spell on Dusty's cloak only instead of making the spell solid he purposely left gaps in the spell to show dark green and black. The colour looked much better and blended even better than Carley's cloak did. Reskeme liked this idea much more, He would make sure to do the same to all there discuisses the next time he had to recast his spells. Reskeme was shocked at how well the cloak of dusty seemed to blend into the forest behind him, the dark colours easily made him blend with bushes and trees.

11. Perhaps for the first time Reskeme notices a genuine smile from his Sergent, She waved him to follow after he had packed his things. The group climbed higher up the mountain, they didn't want to be on the same level as the warriors if they decided to turn back. Reskeme began his least fun task by climbing more hills, on the bright side they only climbed up for 30 minutes before they followed the edge of the mountain again. They didn't need to be at the top, as that would make it extremely difficult to spot anything. The rock shutes and slides of the gigantic mountain they were on were treacherous, making sticking to the trees as much as possible the safest. The group would move ahead quickly outpacing the casually patrolling Darva. They would wait on a shute as that was the only time they could actually see the warriors.

12. They would wait a few minutes for the warriors to cross the rock shute before crossing themselves. Reskeme had watched one of the warriors trigger a rockslide below them and knew they would surely be found out if he wasn't careful. Reskeme was happy that he was always at the back of the group, He was easily able to turn around and rechannel the 1st layer of his spell. He made sure to only cast one layer, He could see a problem and that was he was going to run out of mana quick if he didn't improvise. As it turned out leaving gaps is the spell made it much more effective than just one colour. The group ahead soon stopped, they noticed that the magic covering them had faded, they waited and let the nervous Reskeme rechannel his magic.

13. The reason for his anxiety was his mana gauge, the damned thing was at 65% mana which was distressingly low for being the front of the day. He was starting to get a feel for how much mana a single layer would cost, with one layer of illusion he was only spending an average of 5%, Which meant he only had about 5 hours left before he would run out of mana. Reskeme was starting to wonder how he would survive when his squad found out what he actually looked like. The squad hiked for 2 hours along the slope of the mountain, the tree cover made it extremely difficult to keep track of the enemy. They had lost sight of the enemy for almost an hour and had moved rapidly to try and catch up. The damned enemy had been chasing something, Reskeme and his squad were panting and sweating while they waited on the downslope of the mountain.

14. The quarry of the Darva warriors made itself known when a fluffy dog ran across the shute beneath them, The warriors following the dog didn't seem alarmed at all they were actually playing with the fluffy dog and seemed to be having fun. The dog itself was happily running around the now walking Darva and hopping up and down playfully. The squad were baffled, The cute fluffy dog had somehow followed them here. Beyond belief seemed to be playing with the enemy warriors, Reskeme turned to His commander with a question on his face, She simply shrugged her shoulders at his look.

15. She whispered," Maybe they are just like our soldiers and like some company to cheer them up every now and then." Her comment was shattered when one warrior dashed forward and tried to snap at the agile dog. The fluffy creature yipped and took off at breaking speed away from the warriors. The Darva warrior that had just chased away the dog growled menacingly at its companions that had been playing with the dog. It appeared the leader of the party had enough of the group's playtime and scared away the fluffy dog. Reskeme thought, they are the same as our soldiers all they wanted was something fun to pass the time while doing their boring duties and of course, the commanders would put them back on track. The dog ran up the edge of the mountain in a line that would lead it towards their trail, the more disturbing part of this development was when a group of 2 scouts casually walked from the trees.

16. The scout's long tails sunk from sticking in the air to the ground as they approached the bigger warriors. Reskeme wondered at this, the bigger Darvas tails stuck high and waved back and forth while the scout's tails stuck almost to the ground in submission. Reskeme noticed the Darva make a few motions that were hardly noticed from this distance and the lead gestured bearing its teeth with its long snout. The scouts with spears on their back seemed excited and ran up the mountain after the retreating dog. Reskeme noticed a fluffy dog run from the trees behind them smelling the ground and heading in their direction. On the bright side, the warriors had walked in the direction the scouts had arrived clearly uninterested in chasing a dog. Carley And dusty Drew their bows and hid higher above the trail Reskeme quickly Drew one of his javelin from his case and joined them, Cursing the dog.