Chapter 19: Chapter 19

I was shaken awake by a worried Syl in the early hours of the morning, mumbling something about ‘surrounded’ and ‘fools’. When I groggily asked her to repeat herself, she said that there were people all around our tree. When I looked out, the situation became immediately apparent. The wagon we had been following was right at the bottom of the tree we were in, and seemed to be stuck in a bog that had hidden beneath some surface foliage. It looked like they hadn’t noticed us yet, but it would be hours before they got their wagon free, and all it took for us to be found was one of them glancing up.

“Syl” I whispered, “now would be a great time to reveal that secret plan to get us out of here that you’ve dreamed up, right?”

“Sorry” She whispered back. “I haven't got anything. Perhaps we could climb the branches to another tree, but they look too thin… I don’t really want to plummet to my death.”

“Agreed” I sighed. “That does give me an idea though…” If I could grow the branches, they should be safe to climb on. I would have to go slow and careful, to keep the people down below us from noticing, but my understanding was that magic was almost completely eradicated, so the magic itself should go unnoticed. I explained my plan to Syl, got the go-ahead, and got ready to start the most delicate operation of my life. 

However, as soon as I began to release the growth energy I was creating, one of the girls down below whipped her head up, and looked straight at me. I ducked out of sight, and cut off the spell, but it was too late, the damage had already been done. 

As the girl below us shouted to her comrades, I explained to Syl what had happened, and tried to make sense of what happened. It looked as if only the girl had noticed the magic, so it seems that my theory about people not noticing magic was right. Either that girl was really perceptive, or had some way of recognizing magic. I hoped it turns out to be the first, but it is probably the second, which doesn’t bode well for me.

Now that we had been found out, it was only a matter of time before they started climbing up the tree to get us, so we could either go down and talk with them, and hope for the best, or try to magic our way out of here, and hope I was fast enough. I ran our options by Syl, and we agreed it would be best to try to talk it out. Even if I managed to finish growing the branches, we might not be able to outrun them, and we could end up stuck in a different tree, with me having significantly less energy to use if we have to fight. My energy was already low, and we didn’t know what that girl was capable of. Even if she wasn’t any stronger than a normal human, there were three of them, and two of us, and I was tired.

We slowly and carefully made our way down, trying to appear as non-threatening as possible. They let us approach, but it was clear that they were nervous, every single one of them had a hand on their weapon.

When I reached the lowest branches, I dropped the last few feet to the ground, and reached up to help Syl down, before turning around to face everyone. I had a lot of questions to ask, but these people were clearly stronger than Syl and me, so I decided to go with the safest course of action, and let them talk first.

They seemed to be having similar thoughts about us, and stayed quiet for a few moments. Perhaps magic was a bigger deal than I thought, even with my complete lack of experience. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the girl who had noticed us moved forward to speak. Up close, she was intimidating. She was young, perhaps eighteen or nineteen, but she had a certain air noticeable in all her movements. It extruded confidence, you could tell she knew what she was doing, even with the small hints of worry visible on her face.

“What… what are you doing out here?” she asked. “You are at least a few weeks' trek away from any civilization, with no supplies, and we found you sleeping in a tree, suspiciously close to our wagon. Are you bandits? If so, you are both miserable excuses for human beings, though I guess I should consider myself lucky that we encountered two fools, instead of someone who might actually get past our defenses. Mind you, even that is unlikely.”

“No… n-not bandits” Syl stammered out, fear evident in her voice. Don’t worry Syl, I got this.

“Then what are you?” an older woman in the party we had stumbled across asked. She looked to be in her late forties, not yet outdated, but still past her prime. She had a sword strapped to her side, and looked like she knew how to use it. Note to self; don’t anger the old lady.

Now that I thought about it, The first girl was the only one without an obvious weapon. The older lady had her sword, and the third member had a crude axe fastened to his back. I wanted to chalk this up to foolishness, but she was clearly experienced, so I had to conclude that she had something else, and was probably even more dangerous.

“We…” I said, stalling for time. I wasn’t sure how much we could safely say, but I had to share something, so I picked a few general facts, and got ready to share our story. “We aren’t from around these parts. We got plonked down here, and are trying to find civilization. We saw your wagon, and decided to follow it, as you would most likely be heading to a city to trade goods. Worst case, I planned to just run for it if things went badly, and I might have been able to, if you hadn’t noticed me.”

“Aye, we’re heading to Terath. It isn’t the most friendly of places, but there's plenty of merchants there, all looking to send stuff to other towns. If you know where to look, you can make a quick buck relatively easy. Say, I feel bad, leaving you out here alone. I’d chase you off, but we’ve got a wagon, it’s not hard to follow us. What do you say, come back to camp with us, we’ll take the day off, and if I deem you safe, you can join us. You’ve got certain skills that one can never have too much of. I will have to warn you though, these folks don’t have a clue, and for your well being as much as mine, I say we keep it that way.”

Subtle hints out of the way, we helped get their wagon unstuck, before making camp, and relaxing. The wagon was surprisingly easy, when no one was looking, I gathered some wind, and pushed the wagon up enough that it rolled right out of the mud. As for camp, me and Syl didn’t have anything, and as far as I was concerned, we didn’t need it, all it would do was weigh us down. As the tension from the morning eased, I slowly relaxed, and before long, I was chatting away with the other group.

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