Chapter Fifty-Four - Border

Hmm, gonna try for one more! Wish me luck <3

***

“I must say, I never thought I’d miss roads,” Lucky said.

Rosario chuckled. “I know what you mean,” she said.

The road wasn’t particularly well-maintained, but it was definitely a road. It wasn’t paved, and instead was made of large crushed gravel, with a narrow ditch on one side. She suspected that the road was on the older side. The edges were breaking apart in a few spots, and plenty of weeds and tougher grasses were pushing through the gravel, roots as well.

Still, a road was a road, and its existence implied a route towards civilization, which was great, because she didn’t trust her map to lead her all the way to Forgingburg. She glanced at the map again, squinting at it. There were some roads marked out on it, but not the one they were on. Then again, several small farming towns hadn’t been on the map either.

“If we move as fast as we have been, it’ll be two days still until we reach the next city. I suspect that we might be able to travel faster now.”

“We did travel in a bit of a curve,” Cricket said. She matched her walk with her words, almost stepping off the side of the road before she continued. “I bet we could have gone faster if we walked in a straight line.” she started to goosestep, which made her look quite ridiculous but at least had her stepping away from the ditch.

“If we’re lucky we’ll run into some travellers along the way,” Rosario said.

The Bowman’s Wood was, in game, the area where elves were from. It was a huge expanse of woods, broken up by a few hills and a few large rivers. Two large cities were tucked away within, Hazelfort and Crowthorne way out to the east. 

This end of the forest was relatively calm, for now. It looked like any normal forest. Trees, lots of bushes, and a persistent fog that was wicked away whenever the woods opened enough to allow more sunlight in.

Her hopes weren’t answered in quite the way she wanted. 

Rosario’s ears perked--something she still wasn’t used to--and she listened as something pushed through the bushes further in the forest. “Company,” she said.

It wasn’t along the road, which was the first sign that it was trouble.

The second was a deep, guttural roar, followed by a bush being trampled aside to reveal a bear the size of a mini-van. Its fur was stone and wood, but it was very much a living thing, with teeth two handspans long and eyes that blazed. 

Rosario flicked her sword out of its sheath with her thumb, caught it, [Cut] and then resheathed the sword.

“Sorry,” she said. “That was a middle third tier. Too strong for either of you to train on.”

She heard Lucky swallow next to her. The girl was still reaching for the hilt of her sword. She stared as the bear slowly sloughed apart into two messy halves. 

They continued, only stopping around noon when they reached a small fork in the road where an outpost was located.

The outpost was basically just stone walls around a long, low-roofed building and a stable, with some cleared land around it and a decently large garden within the walls. A tower stood out from the centre of the outpost, reaching up a few metres above the tallest nearby trees and with a good sightline down all three roads in the fork.

Someone saw them, a human man sitting atop the tower who looked utterly bored to be posted up there. He pulled a cord and a small bell within the outpost clanked. By the time they were closer the main gate had opened and Rosario could make out three more people within.

Two of them were second-tier guards, the third, a tall elven man, was a [Watchmaster] in the mid-fifties. 

She had no idea how old he was, but he seemed fully grown and mature. A tall fellow, with platinum blonde hair and dark eyes who scanned all three of them at a glance.

“Hello, and welcome to the Aerie,” he said. “Please present your papers.”

Rosario was stumped for a moment until Cricket grabbed her adventure’s guild papers from her inventory. She did likewise. The [Watchmaster] focused on her first, however. “Lady... Rosario Thorn. Ah, are you from Crowthorne?”

“I am,” Rosario said. That was the origin she had picked long ago. “Though I haven’t been home in some time.”

“I see. Welcome home, or at least to the Aerie and the woods,” the elf said. It was delivered rather flatly, but she felt like the underlying message was kind enough. “And... two companions, I see.” For them, his disdain was rather evident. 

They stood rather awkwardly as the [Watchmaster] took his sweet time filling out some paperwork. He asked a few questions. Mostly their kingdom and place of birth and how long they intended to stay. Notably, he never asked her any of those things. 

She had the distinct impression that she was getting some amount of favouritism, and it likely wasn’t because of her level and job, but merely because she was an elf.

The man wasn’t entirely pleased with some of the answers. Lucky’s utter lack of knowledge about many things probably struck him as odd (she was just following her swordmaster) and Cricket’s...

“I’m here to see pretty elven ladies,” Cricket delivered with absolute certainty. “Is it true that their ears wiggle when they’re aroused?”

The man learned, as Rosario did, to ignore her. “Are you carrying any cursed items? Please list all carried potions, explosives, alchemical compounds that are on this list.” He handed them a sheet of well-worn paper that had a long list of reagents. 

The process quickly grew rather tiresome and Rosario regretted not slipping past, then it was over. “Do you have anything to report?” he asked at last. “Any combat since your arrival?”

“We did encounter some undead and slugs on the plains over,” Rosario said. “And a large bear just this morning.”

“A bear? Was it large, covered in stone?” he asked, his interest sharpening.

“I believe so.”

“Hm, good thing you made it out, then. That thing has been attacking smaller caravans and lone travellers. Where did you see it, exactly? We might be able to dispatch hunters to finally put it down.”

Rosario chose not to mention that she had killed it, even though she could tell that Cricket was shaking in her bell-tipped boots with the desire to brag

“We encountered bandits as well. In the gorge near the start of our voyage.”

“Hm,” he said, then he pulled out a map. “Indicate where? Ah, yes, I see. Well, that’s Lithos’ problem. They can’t seem to keep their border secure at all. Fools.”

“I see,” Rosario replied. Strange, but she wasn’t going to argue.

In any case, the man stamped some papers and simply allowed them through, with a few added directions for them to follow. There was a town apparently only an hour’s walk away which had a comfortable inn. They were also to keep their travel documents on them at all times, as proof.

She thanked the man and they kept on their way.

“The border here is a lot more impressive than I expected,” Lucky said. “I was sweating back there!”

“It’s well guarded, yes,” Rosario said.

“Mhm! A third tier [Watchmaster] and a gaggle of second-tier guards, and I think I spied some [Hunters] and a [Messenger] inside the outpost,” Cricket said. That was surprisingly observant of her. 

They continued on their way, and Rosario noted that the amount of fog clinging to the air increased with every few hundred paces, though it never thickened to the point where it became an issue. 

It was approaching early evening when they made it to the inn that the border guard had mentioned. It was nestled in a small logging town. Several patches of forest had been cleared out around the town, and there was a stack of drying lumber three times as tall as Rosario was sitting in a lot next to a mill. The smell of sawdust clung to the air as they approached.

The inn itself was a quaint little two-storey building with a stables at the rear and an open foyer. As for the town itself, it was just two-dozen homes built along the main road, with respectable gardens and wide front porches where older folk could snoop on people.

Rosario booked three rooms, then after checking them out, sat down for a warm meal that wasn’t designed to survive a long trek in a bag. It was nice to return to proper food after their long trip. 

She had to admit, being able to relax was nice...

For all of an hour. “Okay, they have a training ground in the back,” Rosario said as she bounced to her feet.

“No, absolutely not!” Cricket said. “Thou aren’t sane.”

“I don’t mind,” Lucky said. “I feel like I barely did anything today.”

“Hm... well, if Cricket won’t help, I suppose you’ll have to spar with me,” Rosario said.

“W-with you?”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure the inn won’t mind me using one of their spoons.”

***