Out.

Lee watched Alan riding the horse, but for a while nothing noteworthy happened. The street was relatively busy, and there were people leaving the town on foot, horses and mules. Judging by the lack of the line, it seemed that the search at the gates was rather superficial. Even wagons and carriages quickly passed through, creating a false sense of safety.

Obviously it was anything but that – if it was safe, Alan wouldn't have bothered with these theatrics. For now, though, he actually didn't do anything.

They kept getting closer to the distant town gates, and Lee began to wonder whether his stepfather was about to blow them up, or show actual superhuman abilities. But even though it would be exciting, what Tess said suggested a different approach.

For a split moment Alan made the horse gallop, but when he was next to a larger carriage, nimbly jumped off and began to walk next to it. It was hard to tell from the distance, but to Lee it seemed the man was feeding the horse something and, maybe, to the one of two horses pulling the carriage as well, but still nothing happened.

Alan was probably twenty, twenty five yards away from the gate when he let the bridle go and left the horse's side. The horse continued to obediently walk next to the two pulling the carriage while the former owner mixed with the people going towards the town center.

Lee didn't manage to furrow his brows in confusion before the hell broke loose. First Alan's horse, and immediately after one of the two pulling the carriage, slightly staggered, but then stopped, loudly neighed, while standing up on their hind legs, and then charged directly through the gate.

The third one, or rather – the other one pulling the carriage, was either enthralled by the mad rush, or maybe had no other choice, and heartily sped up as well, but it only led to the carriage crushing in a wagon in front of it, and breaking apart. The three horses – the Alan's former one and the other two, charged towards the town gate, loudly neighing, pulling along few large pieces of what was left of the carriage.

Obviously the people on the street and behind the city gates immediately scattered, making room for the crazed animals to run through, but unfortunately that was all Lee saw. At that moment Alan arrived and took reins from Tess, who tucked Lee deeper in the sling, and lied down in the wagon, burying herself under the heap of cloth.

For a while Lee only heard screams, shouts and curses, but he could clearly tell their wagon never stopped moving.

It took a long while until he and Tess finally heard Alan saying it's safe, and they could crawl back out. The sky was already getting dark and there was a thick forest on both sides of the road, but besides them, further in front and in the back, there were other travelers, indicating that the surroundings were not as dangerous as it might seem.

"Fuck me! You're not half bad!" Tess exclaimed, and immediately hugged her husband the moment she got out.

Lee, of course, was still in the sling and got mercilessly squished between the two, but it was hard to get angry at her. Earlier, lying on her chest, he felt her racing heartbeat and knew she was worried to no end. Probably staying still for so long was the hardest part for the emotional lady.

"What exactly happened?" She asked, when Alan finally got out of her clutches, "What the hell did you do?"

"The long version?" Alan asked, and, seeing her nod, explained, "Last night, when I checked the gates, I found that Sally was sitting there, closely observing every passerby. During the night that Frank guy replaced him, and in the morning Sally came back again. We could've banked on him being stupid and not recognize us, but the risk was too high. I bet after we knocked him out, he was so eager to catch the two evildoers, he could sniff us out from the crowd."

"So ... you created the chaos to divert that idiot's attention?"

"No." Alan shook his head, "It was unlikely it would've worked. I observed him for a while and he never left the spot, no matter what happened. Only when Frank was there we had a chance."

"Why?"

"He was a squad leader of sorts, and if something out of order happened, his first reaction had to be to get things back on track. As you saw, he and a couple of other rebels immediately chased after the horses, while the rest took care of the situation on the street. Currently The Hand of God is in sensitive position, and has to pay attention to their reputation even in a small town like Maryport. Luckily for them and for us no one died during the incident. Well … apart from the horses, of course." There was a tinge of remorse in Alan's voice, but this time it was either the animals or them.

"Won't those fuckers find us? We're kind of in the open." Tess said. When she saw Alan shake his head, she seemed confused, "You, old bastard! Didn't you tell me that we'll get tracked down if we scale the town wall?"

"It was a wrong assumption." Alan said with a shrug, "They don't have that many people, especially the ones who know our faces. Besides that we already passed several crossroads and it makes finding us harder. I doubt rebels would dare to run around openly too much."

"Damn those religious assholes! I hate those fuckers!" It seemed that a stack of curses had piled up while she had to remain silent, and now everything flowed out at once.

"But your mother …" Alan intended to tease her, but got interrupted.

"Fuck her!" Tess snorted, and the discussion was over.

Their banter was cute, but Lee was more interested in what Alan fed the horses. The effect was so remarkable one could think he used some kind of special medicine, but clearly that was not the case. They left Isabella without their luggage and it meant he used something that was found somewhere in the town. Unfortunately Tess never asked about it and Lee's curiosity remained unsatisfied.

***

For the next four days the trio continued towards the north. The mule was tired and slow, and there was no way to get another one, to not speak about buying a horse. They did consider leaving the mule and the wagon in the wilderness and proceed on foot, but it served them as bed during the nighttime, and even though they were slow, it was at least somewhat comfortable.

What made Lee weary was the reason Maryport had the town wall. Alan already mentioned that all the southern towns had one, and since the Cloud Kingdom didn't have any noteworthy enemies, the wall could have only one purpose – to protect against the attacks of beasts.

His fantasy ran wild, imagining wolves and bears in the size of a three-story house, and the leoramus hunt not so long ago proved that beasts of this world could realistically grow to such proportions. On the other hand, a laughable town wall wouldn't protect against an apex predator of that size, and even if it could, it was unlikely for many such to exist. Marine herbivores was one thing, but for a humongous ferocious beast to survive it had to consume appropriate amount of food – forests would be deserted in case beasts like that existed.

Be as it may, even if they did, the little family was fortunate and didn't meet any. What they were met with were packs of regular wolves, though.

The further to the north they traveled, the rarer the human settlements became, and ten, eleven days after leaving Maryport they barely met any travelers. And that was when the beasts braved to appear.

Neither Tess nor Alan were worried though. Lee didn't notice at first, but, as it turns out, for the past several days Alan was smearing juice of some plant on both the wagon and the mule. Apparently the scent humans were not being capable of sensing had the property of keeping predators away.

Of course, it had to have its limits. A lone wolf or a bobcat was one thing, but when a walking piece of steak was slowly moving through the forest, sooner or later it attracted attention of a larger pack, and then another one. But Alan didn't even flinch. Turns out one of the sacks was filled with the herb he used to smear the wagon with, and he didn't hold back while more and more beasts began to circle in the vicinity.

When wolves started to grow restless and openly tried to block the road, the mule almost died from a heart attack. Well, Lee felt the same, except he was kind of certain he would be born again, and only perspectives of getting eaten alive bugged him.

On the other hand, Alan wasn't bothered much. He fed the mule a herb from another bag, and continued to do so every now and then for the next several days. Turns out, the guy planned their escape in detail, and the stuff he gathered was not random at all.

The stressful journey continued until one after another settlements began to appear again, and the wolves reluctantly left. Lee also thanked the heavens for that, because finally everything – mule, wagon and even he could be properly washed.

It took a while, but inadvertently he began to sense the smell that kept the beasts away, and with time going by it became more and more unbearable. He couldn't even fathom how the wolves felt with their sense of smell being thousands of times more developed than his.