The Great Forest Road

I took the last bite of my venison as Abraxas turned an eye toward Dannas.

"If I may, what is your name, young man?"

His shoulders tensed up. "D-Dannas. My name's Dannas."

"It was nice to meet you, Dannas. I am glad to see that Ladon has a friend. Especially a human friend. I would hate to see him grow bitter toward the species as a whole."

"I-it was nice to meet you too. And he's made other friends too. Or, I guess, more people made themselves friends of his."

"I see."

"Yeah, well . . . I guess we should get going then."

I placed my hand on Abraxas's snout. "I'll see you later, Abraxas."

"See you later, young Ladon. Be safe on your mission."

I started walking away. "I will." Dannas followed after me.

We walked into the forest, heading southwest. Tree after tree, bush after bush, we kept walking for three hours.

"My feet are killing me. How much longer till we make it to . . . to…

"Therrin's End?"

"Yeah, that place."

"It's your mission and you can't remember the name?"

"Yeah, well, I'm not great with names, Landon. Don't judge me."

"Ladon."

"See!"

I sighed. "We'll make it out of the forest soon enough. Once we are out of it, we'll be following the road. Won't be long after then. The road weaves around this forest. Because of that, taking the forest will cut a lot of the time out. Hopefully we'll make it before the end of the day."

"Alright. I'm riding that wagon when we get there."

I nodded.

We kept walking for another hour. Eventually, the density of the forest began to lighten along with the dimly lit interior with every step. Before long, we were at the edge of the forest.

"Finally!" Dannas rushed out, sprinting to the large road. "The sun!"

I walked out calmly. "Almost there."

Dannas looked around. "I don't see it."

"Soon enough, the road will take us around the trees until we see it. I've been here before."

We followed the road south. After maybe thirty seconds of walking, I was proved right. The road took us around a large family of trees that gradually opened way to a walled town maybe two miles down the road, packed up against the forest, giving an unnaturally circular curve into it. There was an empty grass-covered border of land inbetween the forest and the town. The forest looked much more fresh and young compared to what one would expect from a town built into it. It looked fresher than the forest's edge everywhere else. Must be from the last time Gerickst attacked.

"Yes! Civilisation!" Dannas started jogging. I kept walking.

After enough time, he made it to the stone northern gates. He took as much time catching his breath as I took to catch up by walking. While I was getting closer, I read the sign I didn't bother to read last time I was here.

It said, "Welcome to Therrin's End. The final resting place of the great Therrin Stoneshaper, the founder of this wonderful town."

When I reached the gate, Dannas hammered on it with his fist. After a few seconds of silence, a man's voice answered from the otherside.

"We can't let many people into the town at the moment! A dragon's about! It'll be safer on the road soon!"

Dannas shouted, "What about people who've come to start a delivery?!"

"Oh! You've come?! Open the gates!"

Soon after, the large stone gate began to slide across the ground ever so slowly. We went through as soon as there was enough space.

A man, maybe in his thirties, clad in leather armour, stood maybe ten meters from the gate. "When the councilors said to let the Midnight Rangers in, I said yes, but I didn't really think it would happen."

"Well, here we are," Dannas answered.

"Here you are, indeed." He looked at both of us, seemingly assessing us for something. He then looked directly at me. "This one a ranger too?"

"He's a trainee. Gonna be one soon if the mission goes well."

He nodded lightly. "Verywell. Come with me. I'll take you to councilor Bryant."

We began walking through the town. I recognised pretty much everything. The stalls, stone foundation houses, and small stores all around. I saw the woman who gave me free food. She waved and I nodded. Eventually, we caught up to Bryant who was running back and forth coordinating people who were holding woods, tools, and stones. It looked like they were preparing for something.

The guard stopped. "Councilor Bryant."

He stopped in the middle of the road and looked in our direction. "Ah. Rangers. Come with me. I haven't much time. Darren, go fetch Tulas and bring him to the stables."

The guard answered, "Yes, Sir!" and walked off.

We followed Bryant down the stone road to the stables. There, we saw a couple resting horses, donkeys, and one medium wagon packed full of resources and supplies, big enough for two donkeys to pull and one to two people to sit in front.

"As I'm sure you know, we need you to take these supplies to Moltenbell. Are you sure you can push it? Thought there'd be more manpower."

I looked at Dannas, and he replied. "We can do it. Don't you worry about that. It'll take some time, but we'll bring the wagon back in one piece."

"Good. We're gonna need that wagon as soon as it returns. Won't be long til the dragon attacks start."

Just then, Darren came back with Tulas walking just behind him.

"Perfect timing. Rangers, this is Tulas. Tulas, these are the rangers."

Now that I got a better look at him, I saw he was a middle aged man with short greying hair combed backward, and glasses, though the right lens was cracked a bit. He wore a cotton jacket over a shirt, along with pants and boots. He carried no noticeable weapons.

"Ah, yes. Rangers. Well, you know my name, but what are yours?"

"Dannas put his confident smile on. "I'm Dannas. It's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too."

After a couple seconds of silence and staring, Tulas broke it. "And you are…"

Dannas chimed in, "Ladon. His name is Ladon. He's a trainee. He doesn't talk much."

"Alright then. Shall we leave?"

Bryant gave one clear clap. "Right. If that settles everything, gentlemen, I have business to attend to. Safe travels." He walked away.

The wagon's front attachment looked like too long wooden poles protruding forward from both sides of the wagon, on a swivel, that had one horizontal pole connecting them together at the furthest end. I saw the leather and metal attachments, probably meant to be on that pole for the donkeys, off to the side in the stable. Without that, it just looked like a large long wooden handle. It was long enough for us to push together, so Dannas and I got behind it, picked up the bar, and started punshing. I felt immediately that this wagon was heavy, the wheels wishing to grind on road before they rotated. After a few seconds, we got it moving. With Tulas walking beside us, we pushed the cart through the town. Dannas looked like he was struggling, but he was pushing through it. It actually made me respect him to some degree. After fifteen minutes, we made it to the gate. Once we made it through the gate, it began to slowly slide shut. Once shut, we stopped pushing the cart.

"Alright, you can stop, Dannas."

Through heavy panting breaths, Dannas replied, "Oh thank the gods. I'm gonna go rest in the back."

The weight on my hips from my sword and bow was becoming obviously unnecessary to hold on my person, so I took my quiver off and put it in the back of the wagon, then took my scabbard off and placed it on the front seat.

"So he speaks after all?"

"Sometimes. You can sit on the seat whenever you don't feel like walking."

"How are you gonna push the cart on your own with two people on it?"

"Like this." I started slowly and arduously pushing it. Once the speed was stable, it felt a little easier to keep it. "Like I said, If you don't feel like walking, it's fine."

"Alright then." He climbed onto the front seat. "So. How'd you come to be this strong? You look pretty lean to me."

"A rare condition I was born with. Dannas helped me because I didn't want a whole town to see it, and he knew that. One person seeing it is fine."

"I see. What's the condition called?"

"I . . . don't know."

"Fair enough. If you don't wish to talk about it, I won't force it."

I said nothing else and just kept pushing. After a couple hours passed, the sun was beginning to get close to the horizon, so I pushed the wagon off to the side of the road.

I dropped the large handle. "Everyone off. Dannas, set up the bed roll and get a fire going. I'm going to get dinner."

I attached my quiver to my belt, pulled out my bow, and walked into the forest. Hopefully this will be quick enough. Once I was deep enough in the forest, I stopped, closed my eyes, and listened. Focusing only on the sounds of the forest, I waited until something unwittingly made itself known. Eventually, I heard grunting and munching. Sounds like a deer. Without opening my eyes, I sniffed the air to get a better sense of its direction. Once I caught the scent, I opened my eyes and locked in on the direction. I headed toward the deer until I could see it. Using a bush and tree, I kneeled into cover, drew my bow against the right side of the tree, aimed, and just as the deer rose its head, let loose. The bow snapped as the arrow was sent soaring through the air. The arrow pierced through the deer's heart, out the other side like it was nothing, and hit a tree. The deer fell immediately to the ground, without even a twitch. I pulled the arrow out of the tree, cleaned it with a spare rag, and put it back in my quiver, then carried the deer on my shoulder and headed back.

After about ten minutes, I stepped out of the same place I stepped into. "Looks like we're going to have deer for a while."

Tulas turned to me. "That's fine by me. I'll cook it if you skin it and cut the meat off."

Dannas stood up next to the campfire. "Works for me." He clapped his hands together. "Chop chop, Ladon! I'm hungry."

I sighed, dropped the deer, then walked to the wagon to find a rope. Once I found it, I threw it over a high-up branch on a tree, tied it up, then tied the deer's hind legs to it so it would hang. I pulled out my dagger then cut its throat deeply. Since it was hanging upside down, the blood started pouring out from there. I then skinned it, hung its skin off the side of the wagon, cut out all the meat we'd be using, and brought them to Tulas. I cut up the rump into many small, thin rectangular slices so we could smoke them into jerky. While Tulas was cooking, I carried the deer carcass deep into the forest and laid it on the ground for nature to claim. After I got back, when all the meat was cooked, we began eating. Once the wood was producing more smoke than flame, I started smoking the strips I cut while finishing my food. The moon was already rising, so once everybody finished eating, I wrapped the leftover meat up in the deer skin.

"I'll take first watch, Dannas. I need to finish making jerky anyway."

"Fine by me. Wake me up if you need me."

"Will I be taking any watches?" Tulas asked.

"Only if you want to."

"I'm an early riser, so I can watch in the early mornings."

"Alright."

Once all the jerky was smoked, I wrapped all the food in the deerskin, put it on the wagon, then sat on the front seat for the height. After a few hours, nothing eventful happened, so I woke up Dannas for his watch, told him the lack of news, then went to bed.

I heard the original Ladon's voice echo in my head, "You shouldn't have told him," over and over again, until suddenly my eyes opened up to the morning. Tulas was sitting on the wagon and Dannas was still asleep. I kicked Dannas lightly on the leg.

"I'm going to get rid of the campfire. You put away the bed roll."

Tulas hopped off of the wagon. "It's weird to me. Didn't think a trainee would be giving the commands."

Dannas turned to him. "We're the same age, but out of the both of us, he has the better wisdom and smarts if you ask me. Only thing keeping him from being a ranger is this mission. He might aswell be one already."

"Fair enough."

Once we were done, I went back to the wagon handle and started pushing it. Neither of them were riding on it this time, so it was a bit easier to push up the road. Tulas was by the right side of the wagon.

Dannas walked up to the front. "How long until we make it to Moltenbell?"

"At this pace, I'd say sometime tomorrow, possibly later. Depends on how many breaks poor Ladon over here needs." Tulas answered.

"I won't need any breaks. Just food and water."

"Okay I can believe you're strong, that's fine. But there's no way any person can push that wagon, on their own, from morning to evening."

"I can."

"How?"

"It's not your business to know."

"Alright, alright. I was just curious is all."

I kept pushing the wagon for a few more hours. Right about the time the sun reached its midday point, we came across a small river. Must be from the split. There was a railless wooden bridge big enough for wagons larger than the one I was pushing. It looked old, but still functional. Fortunately, when we went on it, it held our weight well. Tulas hopped on the front seat and we kept going. A few more hours after that, we reached a second bridge. It looked almost identical to the last one, if not a little bigger. Before we went on it, I smelled something. Humans. They smelled dirty; much more noticeable than the average one. I didn't know how many; I just knew they were out of sight here somewhere. I cautiously pushed the wagon onto the bridge. After thirty seconds, we got past it. But just as we did, a man and woman emerged from under the bridge. Seconds after, a man from the left, in the field, and a man from the right, in the forest, emerged. The man from the field held a pitchfork. The woman held a dagger. The man from the right held a chipped and rusted shortsword. The man from the bridge to the right held a scythe. All of their weapons appeared to be in terrible condition.

The man from the forest shakily raised his shoddy sword. "Give us your wagon, o-or you'll regret it."

"I dropped the handle. "You don't want to do this."

They all formed a half circle around me. From left to right: man with pitchfork, woman with dagger, the supposed leader with a sword, and man with scythe.

"Yeah . . . you're right. But here we are anyway. Leave the wagon, a-and this won't get messy for you."

I turned to my left, halfway toward Tulas without looking away. I lifted my left arm up. "Sword."

I heard Tulas pick up my scabbard and throw it to me. I caught it, turned back to the group of robbers, and slowly pulled my messer out of its scabbard. As I did this, I could see they were all afraid. Remembering what Soras told me, I rotated my sword so I'd be holding it backwards, blade facing myself. I don't need to kill them.

We all stood there in silence, each person waiting for someone else to move first. I heard Dannas whisper from behind somewhere, "I got your back." I stepped forward, away from the handle on the ground, then stopped again. I kept waiting. I don't need to make the first move; just react to theirs until it's over.

Suddenly, two guys, one from the furthest left and right, started to move in. I turned my body counterclockwise. Now facing the wagon, I used my momentum to throw my scabbard at the guy's head to the wagon's right. He fell unconscious. one. I continued to turn until I faced the man to the left, who held a pitchfork, scales forming up my neck, down my arms, legs, and the sides of my torso. The man with a pitchfork thrusted it at me. I deflected his pitchfork to the right, then rushed forward, moving my arm over the shaft until I got close to him. Once I was, I punched him in his face and pushed him into the woman who was closing in along with the rest. He fell on her, unconscious. That makes two. The man with a sword was closest, with the scythe-wielding man, having just gotten back up, just behind by a step to my right. The scythe-wielding man lifted his scythe up high and began to slam it down as hard as he could. I dodged to the right as it came. The man with a sword jumped over it to close the distance, thrusted his sword at me. With my point facing down, I deflected his sword to the left, and keeping the motion, rotated my wrist, bringing my sword over my head, and to his. I tried to minimize the force I used, since the back of the sword, while not sharp, is still metal. I knocked him unconscious. Two again. The woman got up as the scythe-wielding man just managed to pull his scythe out of the dirt road. He then went for a down-right attack. It took him too long, so I quickly stepped forward, caught the shaft of his scythe with my offhand, and punched him in the side of the head. That makes three. I swapped to reverse grip in preparation for the woman. She thrusted her dagger at my chest. I deflected it to the right, and since she was in reach, immediately hit her in the forehead with the butt of my messer. That's four. I walked over to my scabbard that was on the ground next a ways right of the wagon. As I was picking it up, I heard someone from behind grunt; probably getting back up. As I stood back up and turned, I saw a dagger spin through the air before its pummel met the pitchfork-wielding man's forehead, knocking him out again.

"See. . . I got your back."

I turned to Dannas, who was hiding behind the wagon and seemed to have been hyperventilating. I scabbarded my messer and tossed it back to Tulas, who caught it despite seeming completely shocked.

"Help me move them, Dannas. I want them out of sight from any possible predators in the forest."

"Fine."

He ran over to his dagger, put it away, and started carrying one of them to the edge of the field. I dragged two down, carried the woman, then we brought their belongings over. Since we were done, Dannas hopped onto the back of the wagon and I started pushing it again.

"You're a demidragon! That's why you're so strong!"

"Got a problem?"

"Are you joining the rangers to spy for the dragons, or are you joining the rangers to become a spy for them against the dragons?"

"Neither. Dragons hate my kind too. Why would dragons need a spy anyway?"

"...Good point. Why are you joining them?"

"To better myself; to better my life, and to get some answers."

"Fair enough. Why'd you spare those robbers, and hide them?"

"They looked desperate. Not the type of people I could ever justify being the cause of death for."

"I see."

"Any more questions, or can I continue pushing the wagon in silence?"

"No more questions from me, Kid."

I continued pushing in silence, watching the trees slowly pass by, listening to the light rustling coming from their leaves in the light breeze, and the sounds of the river slowly drifting away.

"You know, when I was your age, I was convinced demidragons weren't all bad. My father beat me, thinking I went mad. I wonder what his face would look like now if I presented him this proof, if he were still alive."

"I doubt he'd be happy."

Tulas chuckled a bit. "You'd probably be right."