The underbelly of the forest resounded as the carriage passing through its barely still existing path had three people on it banging on the sides of the carriage to make noise. The horned hooves of the beakmounts and the wheels of the carriage flattened the grass growing on the edges of the path, and rustling could be heard from the trees, even if nothing up there could be seen. The steps of the heavy mounts and the noise of the passengers seemed to keep any beast up in the branches from jumping down, but the passengers didn't let their guards down either.
"Yilka!" Venamo shouted from the front while smacking his hand to the nearest side of the carriage.
"What is it?" Yilka shouted back while doing the same thing as his brother.
"Once we make it out of here, we'll need to have a conversation!" Venamo replied.
"Understood!" Yilka shouted back once more.
He then turned his sights to Nofa beside him.
"Any clue how big this forest is?" Yilka shouted to Nofa.
"I don't know anything about the forest itself! Only about what is on the other side of it!" Nofa shouted back.
"This is not good!" Venamo shouted from the front.
"What is it?" Yilka shouted back.
"A pond ahead, but the bridge cuts off around the middle!" Venamo shouted.
"Is there any path around the pond?" Nofa shouted.
"Do you see one? The path we're going in the only thing resembling a path in here. We might make it around the pond on foot but we could never get the carriage around the pond! Nothing but trees and rocks and uneven ground around the pond!" Venamo replied.
"So what now?" Yilka shouted.
"That's what I'm thinking!" Venamo shouted back.
"We may not be able to get our bags across the pond, but my Blueberry should be strong enough to carry them to the other side!" Nofa suggested.
"That's a good call. And if we leave the carriage behind, the mounts could swim across the pond, depending how deep it is!" Venamo added.
Once the carriage had gotten close to the pond, everyone could see that it was shallow enough for the mounts to walk through, but it was full of vines growing from the bottom of the pond. The carriage had to be stopped, which stopped the heavy steps of the mounts.
"No chance the mounts will be able to get across that pond! They'll get their legs tangled in all those vines and be easy prey!" Venamo pointed out.
"Should we just turn back and go around the whole forest?" Yilka suggested.
"We have no clue how wide the forest is! It might take days to go around it! But I have a new idea!" Venamo replied.
"What's your idea?" Yilka asked.
"We can remove the wheels of the carriage and turn it into a boat!" Venamo suggested.
"The four of us may fit in, but not with the mounts!" Yilka pointed out.
"Maybe we can let the mounts go first, along with our bags! I think the boat would be able to hold their weight! And then Blueberry can pull the boat back to our side and then we can cross the pond!" Nofa suggested.
"Is Blueberry strong enough to pull the boat if the mounts are in it?" Yilka asked.
"Believe me, she's done more impressive things before!" Nofa shouted.
"What do you think, Vena?" Yilka shouted at his brother.
Venamo took a moment to reply, seething ever so slightly that he had to admit that Nofa had the best suggestion.
"If your butterfly is as strong as you two say it, then I suppose that's our best way to get across. I'll remove the wheels while you make noise! And Varma, get your feet on the ground!" Venamo shouted his orders.
Yilka and Nofa got out of the carriage and Varma got down to the ground.
"Can I cross the pond with the mount? Specifically the one that's cold?" Varma begged.
"You'll need to be with somebody who can defend you! The branch hoppers won't attack the mounts if they're alone, but they might see you as easy prey!" Venamo shouted at Varma and untied the reins of the mounts.
"Fine then! But let's get this done quickly." Varma said and hopped off the mount.
Venamo then removed the wheels of the carriage and led the mounts into the carriage, all while the others were hitting the sides of the carriage.
"Be prepared! Once we push the carriage into the water, we won't be able to make noise by hitting against it. Stamp your feet and hit the trees with whatever you can get your hands on!" Venamo ordered.
"Understood! Alright, Blueberry! Pull that boat to the other side of the pond where that path continues! And when the feathery friends are out of the boat, bring the boat back here! Understood? Now go!" Nofa said to her butterfly which got to work right away.
Venamo pushed the carriage while Blueberry dragged it. Venamo let go of the makeshift boat once he and Blueberry got it into the water of the pond where Blueberry had an easier time pulling it across the water. When the boat was safely in the water, Venamo started immediately stamping on the ground and Nofa and Varma jumped as aggressively as they could, though Varma was already feeling weak from overheating. Yilka decided to go a step further as he took the cudgel hanging from his belt and hit a tree with it to make noise.
He didn't foresee what resulted from that. The strength of the Holy blessing on his cudgel was greater than he assumed, and the part of the tree that he struck got shattered, and the tree got split in two. The tree fell over, and collided into another tree, sending the branches shaking. A few branch hoppers fell to their end from the trees, and everybody stopped to look at them laying on the ground.
"You provoked them now!" Venamo shouted at Yilka.
"What do you mean?" Yilka shouted back.
"They may avoid prey that they think is too big, but they'll attack if they're threatened!" Venamo explained.
And just as he finished, branch hoppers were climbing down by the trunks of the surrounding trees that were still standing.
"Prepare to fight! Varma, shoot as many as you can with your bow!" Venamo ordered as he pulled his sword from its sheathe.
"With what arrows? Yilka broke all of them and now I only have this one metallic one!" Varma complained.
"I'll knock down the trees that they're coming from!" Yilka announced.
"Don't! You'll cause them to collide into even more trees and provoke even more of these beasts!" Venamo warned.
Yilka thought better of it and prepared to fight instead. Varma aimed her arrow at the descending branch hoppers, but the didn't have enough strength remaining to draw the string all the way back, and so her arrow failed to reach its target.
"I'm sorry! I can't hit them!" Varma called with panic.
"You know what to do, Yilka!" Venamo said to his brother.
"Do I?" Yilka asked right back.
Venamo only grunted and stood in front of Varma to be a shield for her. Yilka and Nofa did the same, and Nofa took the thick book that was hanging from her waist.
"You intend to use that as a weapon?" Yilka asked her.
"Watch this!" Nofa said and opened a very specific page.
She shouted a spell in the Wicked people's language, and suddenly the branch hoppers nearest to the group became exhausted and slow.
"Charge them now!" Nofa told the brothers.
Yilka didn't hesitate and charged towards a tree where the branch hoppers had already getting their claws to the ground. He swung downwards at the ones that had reached the ground and then swiped the ones that were still climbing down with his Beast Slayer. The bodies of the branch hoppers that were squashed against the ground by the Beast Slayer were unrecognisable torn apart carcasses afterwards, and the ones that got swiped off the trunk were sent flying into the other trees and beyond them. Venamo charged towards another tree and cleaved down any creatures that were climbing down along the trunk as Nofa kept repeating the same spell from a safe distance where she was standing as Varma's shield.
"There's no end to them!" Yilka shouted as he was crushing and swiping away the exhausted yet stubborn branch hoppers that kept coming down the trunk.
Right then one of the beasts decided to be more intelligent than the others and hopped down on Yilka before it could get swiped away. It grabbed Yilka by his scalp and tore his skin with its claws, but Yilka tried his best to ignore it while holding the line.
However, while tearing away at Yilka's scalp, the branch hopper dug its claws into Yilka's right shoulder, and Yilka against his will dropped his cudgel to the ground and began fighting the creature bothering him. The window of opportunity was enough for the other branch hoppers to dig their claws into Yilka's legs. Venamo saw what was happening, and chopped down the tree that he was guarding with one swing of his Defiance. He ran to Yilka as fast as he could and skewered three branch hoppers that were clawing at Yilka's legs. With his free hand he then grabbed the one that was on Yilka's shoulders. He slammed the hopper down to the ground and stomped its head into mush, and then grabbed Yilka's beast slayer to knock down the tree that Yilka was meant to guard. When both trees had fallen, the surviving branch hoppers were still ready to attack, despite Nofa's magic that made them exhausted. In their exhausted state, Venamo had an easy time picking them off using his sword that he shook the skewered bodies of the three hoppers off of.
When the battlefield was quiet, and no more threats were to be detected, Venamo picked up Varma's missed arrow and walked over to check on Yilka.
"Did they harm you?" He asked with concern.
Yilka touched the back of his head and then looked at his hand that was covered in his own blood. Venamo walked behind Yilka and looked at the back of his head. Blood was mixed with Yilka's black hair and a disgusting wound could be seen from under the hair.
"Witch! Do you have any more of that feign flesh?" Venamo shouted to Nofa who was now kneeling and checking on Varma.
"I do! Is Yilka all right?" Nofa shouted back.
"He's fine enough! You can apply the feign flesh when we're on safe grounds!" Venamo replied.
"Good, because the boat has returned. Everybody get on!" Nofa shouted and helped Varma into the boat first.
The brothers didn't need to be told twice, as they hurried to the boat as well. As soon as everybody was in, Nofa told Blueberry to start pulling the boat.
Once the boat was moving, Venamo handed the Beast Slayer back to Yilka as Nofa was checking on Yilka's head.
"Thank you, Vena. You saved me there." Yilka said to his brother earnestly, still recovering from what happened.
"Of course. And you, witch. What was it that you did to those creatures?" Venamo asked Nofa.
"The magic of us Wicked people can make things and living beings worse and weaker. So what I did was I exhausted them and weakened their durability. In order to use certain magics, certain words have to be said in a certain order in the Rarhean language, and only we are able to make the magic work." Nofa explained.
"You will be useful in more ways than I thought then. But how come you're so calm after everything that happened there?" Venamo admitted and asked.
"Me and Varma were never in trouble. We have the repellent all over ourselves. Right now I am only concerned for Yilka's wounds and Varma's condition." Nofa said and looked at Varma who was leaning on the low wall of the carriage and looking up at the morning sky.
"How are you holding up, Varma?" Venamo asked.
"Hot. So hot." Varma answered weakly.
"Don't worry. We'll be at the mounts soon. Get some of the pond's water on your face in the meantime." Nofa suggested.
Varma did as told and put her hands in the water. When both of her wrists were submerged, the vines under the surface suddenly tied themselves around her hands, as if they were acting on their own. They tightened their grip once they had gotten a good hold, and Varma immediately tried to start yanking her hands free, but to no avail.
"The vines! They grabbed me!" She screamed.
Nofa and Venamo helped in trying to yank her hands free, but the vine's grip was strong. Yilka looked over the edge of the boat and saw a streak of bubbles coming closer at a menacing speed, as if something under the water was swimming towards the boat.
"Something is coming!" Yilka shouted.
Venamo saw the same thing as Yilka, and grabbed the Defiance and sliced the vines to help Varma break free. Varma got her hands back above the surface and went to the middle of the boat where it'd be safer. A second later a gray fish with sharp teeth jumped out of the water and bit the air where Varma's hands were a second ago. Venamo saw the fish, but nobody else did, as they were checking on Varma. The boat got moving again, as Blueberry detected that nothing was preventing the movement of the boat anymore.
"T-thanks, Vena." Varma said weakly.
"Of course. Let's not spend a moment longer than we need in this dangerous place." Venamo replied.
Once the boat had made it across the pond, Nofa politely asked Blueberry to retrieve the wheels from the other side, which she did. Nofa put Varma on the back of Pfelo, which both the girl and the mount were very pleased about. Once the wheels had been brought to the carriage, Venamo, Yilka and Nofa put the wheels back on the wagon and the journey continued out of the forest without further trouble.
23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo8V0MYWHiL
Once the carriage had made it out of the forest, the riders on it saw a crossroad ahead of them. The travellers saw roads going to their left, their right, as well as straight ahead. The road leading away from the forest was grassy and hardly used, but the paths leading to the other directions looked like they were in heavy use. But what caught the attention of the travellers was not the roads, but the city walls and ports ahead.
"Are we there yet?" Varma asked while looking up at the sky.
"Almost there." Venamo answered.
"Should we get her the mushrooms first before we take care of any other matters?" Nofa asked from the back.
"I'm actually quite comfortable on this feathery bouncy bed that cools me." Varma replied.
"You can stay on that feathery bed after you can cool yourself off with the mushrooms too." Venamo pointed out.
"And if my business partners have the Rarhean mushrooms to cool Varma off, they likely also have desert root to heat the body of Pfelo." Nofa speculated.
"What's a desert root?" Varma asked.
"The root of the trees that grow in the desert of Kyrasar. Mixing it into water makes for a drink that heats the body really well and for really long. We feed that to Pfelo and it should counter the effect of the mushrooms that he ate." Nofa explained.
"Likely wouldn't be good if our second mount was shivering in cold all the time." Venamo added.
"But do you know where your business partners actually are in this city? Have you ever been here before?" Yilka asked Nofa.
"I don't know where they operate but I've heard that their shop really stands out." Nofa answered.
"Should be easy to find then." Venamo commented.
When the carriage entered the city, the travellers saw something that they had never seen before in their lives, ships. The city was built in the shape of a crescent along the shore of the big lake of Kemioe, making it so that that the gate is close to the port, and the rest of the city expands along the shores. A street surrounded by residential houses, shops and inns surrounded the main road that the carriage rode through. At the end of the road near the docks was a market square, and from there several roads led to several directions.
"And here we are. In Laukiv, which means Poet's village in old Uhmakian." Venamo told everyone.
"Why is it called that?" Yilka wondered.
"I do not know, but I'm sure somebody here does if you want to ask. But we have more important things to take care of first." Venamo replied.
"Hmm. None of the houses here have really stood out so far, but those beautiful ships do. And so do the smells coming from the market! Ooh, I want to get something from there so bad." Nofa said.
"Get me something too!" Varma shouted from her comfortable spot.
"Whatever coin you may have, save it for the things you need from your associates." Venamo told Nofa.
Before Nofa could reply, Blueberry left her shoulder and flew into the market square without permission, and Nofa noticed it.
"Blueberry! No! Not yet at least!" Nofa called out to her pet, but the butterfly didn't return to her shoulder.
"Oh dear. Wait for me here while I go get her back." Nofa said to the others and got out of the carriage to go chase after Blueberry.
She avoided the townsfolk who were on the way and ran past the stands at the market while keeping her eyes on her beloved pet. But to her misfortune, she bumped into a pedestrian, which took her eyes off Blueberry. By the time she got her eyes up, Blueberry was no longer anywhere to be seen.
"Blueberry! Oh, where did you go now?" Nofa called out and walked around.
But then she heard something that perked her ears.
"Get off my merchandise before I swat you! Pesky bug!" A harsh voice shouted from somewhere.
Nofa ran to the direction of the voice and saw her dear pet standing on a pile of sweetener dust on somebody's market stand while the owner was trying to shush the butterfly away.
"Oh no, Blueberry you foolish girl!" Nofa exclaimed and ran on over to the scene.
She grabbed blueberry by its tail with two fingers and put the butterfly on her shoulder.
"I know you like that sweetener but you can't just eat anything you want without permission. And besides, too much of it is bad for you. One fingertip of sweetener a day is what we agreed on." Nofa scolded to the blue butterfly on her shoulder.
"Listen, Wicked lady, I don't know what diseases that bug of yours carries, but I don't want it in my goods. If folk get sick from my sweetener, they won't return and they'll spread the word. You owe me some coin for that." The bald man running the stand said to Nofa.
"Well, my "bug" doesn't carry any sickness that I'm aware of, but you won't believe that, will you? But I was running low on sweetener to begin with so fine. I'll take a bag of it. Scoop it from the exact spot that my pet touched. Deal?" Nofa suggested with a hint of snark in her voice.
"I suppose that's a reasonable agreement." The merchant said and took a small brown bag from a crate.
"How much does this get me?" Nofa said and showed a coin that she took from the pouch that hung on her waist under her robes.
"That's a full fist-sized bag." The merchant replied.
He filled the bag with the sweetener that he scooped from the spot where Blueberry landed on and then tied the bag shut with a string and handed it to Nofa's waiting hand.
"Thank you." Nofa said calmly and handed the man the coin with a nod.
She put the little bag inside her pouch and started wondering where the carriage was. She wondered around the marketplace where it was easy to get distracted.
"Ohh, the smells in this place. So tempting, but I really should get back already. I'm starting to get a bit hungry and oooooh, what fish is that?" Nofa talked to herself when she walked past a market stand where a young man and woman had freshly fire grilled fish.
"This here was fished from the lake last night and grilled just recently." The man behind the stand answered to Nofa when he saw her curiosity.
"They smell so good! It's been so long since I had fish. I live quite far inland, you see." Nofa said.
"Well this here fish can only be found here in Lake Kemioe, so you won't find it in your homewoods." The woman behind the stand said as she joined the conversation.
"Oh, damned be. How many will this get me?" Nofa said and took a smaller coin from her pouch.
"That'll get you two." The man answered.
"Very nice! One for me and one for Yilka. Hmm, though I should get one for Varma too. And I suppose in the name of fairness I should get one for Venamo as well. I'll take four." Nofa said and took a second smaller coin from her pouch and gave them to the man.
"And here you go." The woman said as she skewered four grilled fish with wooden sticks and handed them all to Nofa who gladly accepted.
"Thank you. What is your relationship, by the way? If I may snoop a little." Nofa asked.
"We're married and run this shop together. We fish at the lake at night, and at day she works her magic on the fish and I handle the matters of money. We both come from fisher families and it's what we love to do." The man answered.
"Ohh, must be lovely to be able to do what you love with the person that you love and make your bread that way." Nofa commented and started fantasising a little.
As she was on her thoughts, other people passed her on the queue to buy themselves some grilled fish and once Nofa realised it, she came back to reality and skedaddled away a little embarrassed.
"I do love this place. Nobody has even looked at me in an odd way when I walk past them and that couple wasn't shy at all about dealing face to face with me. I could make a nice life for myself here gathering the materials of the forest and selling them here to the townsfolk and the ships that dock here. But that'll have to wait. I really do need to get back to the carria... They have red ink here?" Nofa talked to herself right before she noticed a stand selling types of inks and quills and seals and waxes.
She went to the stand and looked at the glassy bottle of red ink and started digging her pouch.
"Anything caught your eye?" The seller at the stand asked.
"I need to get that red ink. The last time I met somebody who had it, I had nothing that they wanted in exchange. But now I've accumulated enough coin for it. I'm sure of it." Nofa said.
"A bottle would be five large ones." The merchant said.
"Here." Nofa said and without hesitation gave five large coins.
"Well, here you go then. You must have a lot in that purse so please feel welcome to look at anything else you might..." The merchant was saying.
"No thank you. I already have all that other stuff. This is what I needed. Good day!" Nofa replied and walked away with the bottle in her right hand and all the skewered fish on her left hand.
As she was wandering through the market and standing on her tiptoes to see over the other folk, she spotted the carriage that she wanted to get to. She hurried in there and before she stepped foot in there, she handed a grilled fish to all of her fellow travellers and only then hopped in.
"Thank you." Was what Yilka and Varma both said politely to her.
"We didn't come here for a shopping trip." Was what Venamo said in response to the gift that Nofa gave completely voluntarily.
"Well, we do need to eat." Nofa replied to him with snark.
"Nofa did something kind for us and I thank her for that." Yilka replied.
"That's right. Nofa is great." Varma said after having swallowed a piece of the fish that she savoured and enjoyed.
"Well. Thank you for the sustenance." Venamo said and ate the whole fish in two chomps that he chewed and swallowed quickly.
"You, good man, are welcome." Nofa said with the satisfaction of victory as she pointed her skewer towards Venamo.
As the carriage had passed through more of the city, Yilka and Nofa were finishing up the tails of their fish and savouring them. Yilka then saw something that caught his eye. He quickly swallowed and cleared his throat.
"That sure looks like a house that stands out." He said and pointed at a house with four stories.
All of the floors of the house were built from a different species of wood and at the roof of it a hollow trunk of a tree functioned as a chimney.
"Ha. That is a house that they would totally live in. Let's stop here. I do believe we want to meet with somebody here." Nofa said after she finished her fish.
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