A hunt for hunters

Early in the morning, the sun barely showed through the gaps in the forest, Jay exited his tent. After a short look around if there was nobody watching he stored it in his inventory and walked around the carriage, just to get greeted by a tired looking adventurer.

The young man introduced himself and stated that he had been surprised to find another tent there last night. Jay thanked him and said his goodbyes without starting a chat.

He summoned his horse and left the peddlers without a second thought.

Contrary to what he had heard the evening before, it was not even twenty minutes later that he had reached the crossing with a signpost to "Brightwood Hunting Camp" even without hurrying. He then followed the direction to the south that it showed and looked around in search for signs of Gnolls or other attackers.

But however much he paid attention to his surroundings, there was not a single track he spotted or signs of past attacks in the last two days.

The path led up and down through the forest, though it always maintained a width that a normal sized carriage could easily travel along. Even from its composition it resembled the main road, although only the ones in this backwater region.

Barely an hour later, Jay spotted the first tents on a clearing some few hundred yards down the road. Though he doubted the peddling merchants had taken their carriage's speed for reference, they probably hadn't anticipated Jay's magic mount's speed.

Glad to have arrived there earlier than expected, Jay dismissed the horse and walked the last distance.

The camp wasn't really big, only twelve tents were loosely arranged around a fireplace on the equally small clearing.

Most certainly to keep monsters and other wild animals from their hunted game, a small wooden fence and stakes had been arranged around the camp. It was located atop a slight slope down where Jay could spot water through the light forest as he reached the central area.

Some of the hunters were having breakfast while others already were working on their game. Greeting the men as he got closer, Jay asked if it was all right if he stopped there for a break and got offered a seat.

He sat down and thanked the experienced looking hunter who was chewing on some dried meat, just to notice how hungry he was himself. Since Jay had thought he would ride for a long time again, Jay had skipped breakfast to take another break later.

Fetching one of the ready made sandwiches from his inventory, Jay noticed the hunters envious stare. He simply retrieved another one from his inventory though playing it was from his backpack and reached it the man.

This simple gesture paid off just well as that man turned out to be the camps elder. He gratefully explained the camp and its inhabitants between chewing on the sandwich.

The water Jay had seen was the Eldrin River like he had guessed and nearly half of the hunters crossed it to go hunting over there. Only the fresh hunters stayed in the surrounding forest to hunt deer, boars, foxes or a small wolf.

As a totally different looking group appeared from inside two bigger and different looking tents there, Jay learned those were no hunters but mercenaries. They had apparently arrived the day before by boat.

Just as the elder had finished his sentence, a pained yell sounded from the riverside. All of the hunters, as well as the mercenaries and Jay jumped up and rushed down the small path leading to the sandy shore where the boats lay.

As he was one of the fastest, Jay saw the boat arrive on the shore and a completely tattered man climb off. Together with another hunter Jay pulled the boat on land while another supported the bloody man.

In the boat lay one more hunter, a seasoned looking man missing one arm from the elbow down. But even disregarding the missing limb, the two men had countless scratches and bruises, as well as open wounds.

Without wait they picked up the wounded man and Jay cast a small heal, concentrated on everything except the arm, before the others arrived and the others were listening to the first man.

Back in the camp, they brought the two men to the mercenaries camp as they had a healer in the group. Jay waited with the camp elder at the fireplace until they got treated, learning that the hunters had left in a group of five this morning.

A few minutes later, the wounded hunter that had been in better shape came walking over to them accompanied by a tall mercenary.

The man looking to be slightly past his prime introduced himself as Adohan of the Red Guards, the mercenary group that had arrived a day before. He seemed a bit troubled at Jay being present, but the camps chief stated that the young man was an Adventurer how he had learned in their short talks.

"In this case it shouldn't be a problem if you hear it. We are in real trouble!" A.

After having their attention, Adohan shifted it over to the hunter who narrated then what had transpired.

Apparently the group of hunters had set over to the opposite shore last night to hunt wolves. At first everything seemed normal, but after the group had brought their first game back to the boats, they could no longer find something to hunt close to the river. Like this the group had moved towards the old ruins deeper in the woods in hopes to find more wolves there.

But before they even reached it, they got attacked by a group of Gnolls that seemingly came out of nowhere. Two of the men directly died in the ambush while he had no idea to what had happened to the one walking in front. He and his friend had been in the back of the group what was lucky and had directly jumped into a run.

They barely managed to reach the boat as even if it cost them some limbs or their lives, they had to report back to the camp...

From then on Adohan took over again and explained that the Perilous Ruins the hunter had mentioned were the reason the mercenaries had come there. Each year they traveled down the river to train their new recruits there. Because of that, a group of four new aspirants had left earlier towards there, but the hunters hadn't seen them.

"Chanced are high the recruits went further downstream to shorten the distance on land. Either way we are going to form a search party and leave in fifteen minutes. Please Chief, inform the hunters and try to find some who would support us." A.

"I'll see what I can do, but don't hope for much! The men and women here are not high leveled and only make a living by hunting. They wouldn't stand a chance against those Gnolls if even the stronger ones that hunted on the other shore got done in." Chief

"Still, please ask them. What about you? You're an Adventurer, right?" A.

"As he's an Adventurer, if you make a personal commission he'd probably..." Chief

"Count me in!" J.

"Good. What rank are you, by the way?" A.

"C-Rank. How many men do you have?" J.

"Oh, good. Me my second in command and a veteran. Both are experienced fighters and had some encounters with Gnolls of various levels..." A.

In the end, only two hunters dared to accompany them. The man and woman would only accompany them along the shore on the other side of the river though.

The moment they found the Gnolls hideout, they would return to the camp with that information.

Adohan had made a personal commission like the elder Chief had hinted and latter would relay it to the Adventurers guild later. On their way down to the shore, Jay had gotten introduced to the two other mercenaries, one was a guy called Marrec he until then had always seen wearing his old plate helm. The other's name was Cerea, a 28 year old woman with crimson hair and quite beautiful.

The group of six separated on two of the small canoe-like boats and departed not even the mentioned fifteen minutes later. Jay was with Adohan and one hunter got sat on each boat.

While the hunters steered the boats along the river that was something over sixty yards wide but therefore had a very slow current, the others remained vigilant.

After some time on the water they spotted the place where the remaining boat of the hunters previously had landed. Once they arrived on the shore, the group went to the small camp close by and checked whether they could find traces of Gnolls there or not.

Luckily there weren't any and so they took a short break there. It was well past lunchtime by then as the trip on the river had taken some time.

From then on they traveled through the relatively thick forest along the river. While searching for traces of the hunters or Gnolls they never lost sight of the shore as they had yet to find the canoes that the recruits had taken.

Though they didn't find any traces other than old ones of wild animals, Cerea spotted the small boats lying on the rocky riverside about two hours later.

From then on the hunters took the lead and followed the track the rookies had left towards the Ruins how Adohan remarked. Suddenly the two in the lead stopped the group.

Upon inquiring Jay learned they had found Gnoll tracks and showed him the imprints on the loose soil. It looked like the humans that had passed through there had been trailed by them.

After all had drawn their weapons and the hunters nocked an arrow, the group carefully proceeded.

Only a few hundred yards into the woods their precognition proved right as the traces of a battle were found. Blood had splattered onto tree trunks and the ground and the foot tracks were completely messy.

"It looks like the Gnolls had been hunting them." commented the female hunter. Though nobody wanted to answer her, it was clear that she had been right with her comment as even the hunter had reported that the Gnoll group had appeared out of nowhere.

Those monsters had been hunting, though not for wild animals but humans.

The only good thing in all of this were the traces the Gnolls had left behind. It looked like at least two people got dragged behind them, with not too much blood having been spilled. Over all, the blood that got shed was not so much that it was certain they all died.

But there were also no traces that indicated someone managed to get away.

Adohan asked Cerea to escort the two hunters back to the shore. They were to take the two boats they arrived in and report back while Cerea got tasked to set up a camp at the recruits landing. Marrec, Jay and Adohan would follow the tracks for a while and see if they could find out more.

Though she declined at first, stating they had to hurry for their rookies, Adohan reprimanded her and explained that if they rushed things, there would be no one who could rescue them at all.

As Jay seemed to be able to read tracks and she could handle on her own better than Marrec, his decision was set.

Like this, Jay and the other two men went deeper into the forest until the mercenaries leader suddenly stopped him. He had stated it to Jay before and the moment they peeked through a thick shrub in the undergrowth, the high walls of buildings came into view.

In the more dim getting light they couldn't make out any movement, but a few yowls they could hear informed them that their suspicion had been spot on.

Crouching back and gaining some distance, Adohan hung his head on the way back. His hopes to find the recruits still alive was close to none existent, but they still had no choice other than to fall back for that day as the night was approaching and that would be dangerous.

Taking the same way back they came from, the three men found Cerea already sitting at a small fireplace on the shore. By that time the sun was already setting behind the small mountain range that was visible upstream.

"Sir, the hunters had left to report with two of the boats. They left me some rations and blankets, but we have no tent…" C.

"That won't be a problem. It's good that you used the last boat to come here." A.

"We have followed the traces until close to the Perilous Ruins. There really are Gnolls, and by how it sounded quite a lot!" M.

"We'll leave before sunrise as striking by night would be disadvantageous." A.

Jay kept silent as he had no saying in the matters of the mercenaries. In this case he was nothing but a hired support for them, and as he wasn't going to reveal too much about himself, he silently sat down and listened them.

Even as they asked him if he possibly had a tent in his backpack, Jay declined stating he had left it with his horse close to the hunters camp. It was completely made up but having none as an Adventurer would be suspicious, not to say if they saw the magic one Jay had.

Marrec then distributed the rations they had gotten, hard bread and dried meat, but at least some smoked ham as well. They all sat around the Fireplace and ate their sparse meal in silence after setting the shifts for night watch. Jay would take the second shift directly after Marrec.

His right hand man with the helm he still wore and Cerea seemed to be a pair, so Adohan had wanted to make it possible for them to cuddle up a bit. At least he whispered that to Jay who had already noticed.

The pair still seemed like they were trying to hide it and all of the mercenaries thought it funny.

Jay learned from their leader who sat next to him that the mercenaries from Colhen traveled towards the Ruins since before he had joined them years back. It was a tradition and until then nothing ever went wrong. There might had been some accidents with the wooden Golems they normally used, but nothing major.

Upon hearing of Golems. Jay couldn't keep his curiosity in and inquired.

The mercenaries had an agreement with the royal army so that they would send over new mages to maintain the Golems for their training session each year. Those constructs had been found inactive, decades ago in the ruins and seemingly only functioned there once provided with enough mana.

The appointed time for the training was in two days as the group had managed to travel down the river faster than expected. Thanks to this, they at least didn't have to fear fighting the Golems as well.

And the mages should also be out of risk.

"You know, I guess it's time to share some information I have, though it's by far not certain:

A few weeks ago I found some magic tool in another Gnoll settlement. There as well, the monsters had behaved abnormal and gotten overly aggressive, attacking peddlers and even abducting women. From what I've seen, there are some similarities…" J.

"I see, so you're the one we had heard stories about…" A.

"Hear about me? Come to think of it, you mentioned that you're from Colhen. The one at the kingdom's border to the south, right?" J.

"Yes, have you been there?" A.

"No, but some of my acquaintances went there not too long ago. The new Captain of the army is one of them…" J.

"You know Tharynn? No wonder he let your feats slip as we drank together last time…" A.

After their short trailing off topic, Jay informed Adohan about the totem they would probably find. Though he warned them to not touch it and stay away from it to not get affected, at least their hopes for the female recruits to still be alive rose considerably.

The state they would find them in though was something else...

The two only talked a bit about how the skirmishes at the border went and how Jay's friend was faring. The Red Guard mercenaries often got tasked to slip over the border and do some reconnaissance for the army as they were still reluctant to trespass and risk an open war.

Marrec had joined them after Cerea went to sleep, though only for a few minutes. Adohan and Jay soon rolled into their blankets and closed their eyes as they had to wake up for the middle shifts.

Like this, only a short hour long nap later Jay got woken up to stay on night watch. With nothing else to do he tried fine tuning his system and looked through his inventory, trying to stack some of useless weapons he had found.

Though he wasn't lucky with this, at least the one and a half hour went by fast.