Advent of Eternity - Chapter 41 (Patreon)

Knell sat down at a dining table inside, grateful for the chance to take some pressure off his lame leg.

“I don’t know where all the townspeople here are, but it isn’t a huge leap to assume the bandits have done something with them,” Knell said. “So, our next step will be to find the main bandit camp and kill their leader.”

“Good to have easy, short term plans,” Cyll said dryly. “Maybe we’ll just kill all the gods right after, eh?”

Knell gave him a wry grin. “What happened to not being worried about fighting anything and just killing everyone you could?”

“I was just trying to think like Stix would,” Cyll replied. “I assume you’re wanting to save the villagers?”

“If it’s possible,” Knell replied. “I told you, I won’t put our true goals at risk. But, if we can get away with it, I plan to save anyone I can. We should get some decent experience from taking care of the bandits anyway, so it isn’t a waste of our time.”

“You want me to try to track them, then?” Stix asked.

Knell nodded. “I do, if you can. They were harvesting the blue crystals, so I don’t think they’re too far. Maybe a day or two out? It would put enough distance between them and the shore to escape from any serious attacks, but keeps them close enough to keep a strong grip over the region.”

“I can try. You grabbed part of that girl’s uniform, didn’t you?”

Knell nodded. He dug out the patch and handed it to Stix. She studied it, then stuck her tongue out and licked it.

“Gross,” Cyll said.

“Really?” Stix asked, glaring at him. “I saw you eat raw flesh.”

“That was me. Anything I do is graceful.”

Stix pointedly turned her back to him. She scrunched her nose and tilted her head to the side in concentration. “It’s pretty faint, I can pick up some really weak traces that I think are probably the bandits. Do we want to go after them now?”

“That would probably be wise,” Knell said. “We can catch them by surprise before they know that we’ve killed some of their men. We’ll keep quiet from here on out. Don’t talk unless you need to. Our next goal is to locate the bandit camp and determine if it’s small enough for us to actually take out on our own.”

“Lead the way,” Cyll said. “And keep a little bit away from me. I don’t want to get licked.”

Stix let out a weary sigh and headed out the door, Knell and Cyll trailing behind her. They walked through the foggy town, soon passing its walls and moving further inland. Knell swept the area with all his senses, straining for any sight or sound of the bandits, but from what he could tell, the only living people in the area were his crew.

A dense forest wrapped around the backside of the town. It crested a hill and disappeared behind it. The thick trees made it impossible to see more than a few feet away, and they quickly lost sight of the town.

Not much light made it through the large leaves above them. Leaves crunched under Knell’s feet despite his best efforts to walk silently. The buzz of insects and the occasional fluttering of birds accompanied them as Stix pressed deeper.

Cyll tapped Knell on the shoulder and pointed to his mouth. Knell glanced around the thick foliage, then shrugged.

“How far are we?” Cyll whispered. “We’ve been walking for a few hours now. It’s kind of hard to tell, but I’m pretty sure the sun should be setting soon. Do we want to be wandering around all night?”

“The traces are still pretty faint,” Stix said, kneeling and squinting at what looked to just be a patch of weeds on the ground. “We’re a ways off. At least a few more hours of walking.”

“Then we should look to make camp,” Knell said. “It’ll be bad if we find them while we’re exhausted. Is there somewhere safe we can do that, Stix?”

“I’ve slept in the treetops before,” Stix mused. “We could probably get away with that. It isn’t the most comfortable, and I don’t think your leg lends itself to climbing trees very well, but it’s better than sitting around on the ground and hoping something big and hungry doesn’t run into us.”

“Are there predators in the forest?” Cyll asked, licking his lips. “What are the chances that they’re tasty?”

“If you run into anything big enough to cause a fight, it’ll probably be loud,” Stix said. “That could give our position away. My tracking skill isn’t absolute. Someone could have doubled back or might be coming up from behind us. The less noise we make, the better.”

“Bah. Fine,” Cyll grumbled. “Hold on to me, Cap. I can climb with you dangling off as long as you don’t swing too much.”

Knell wrapped an arm around Cyll’s neck and the gangly man jumped, grabbing onto a low hanging branch and pulling himself up with a grunt. He spidered up the tree, choosing the largest branches until they were well into the canopy but not so far up the tree that it had gotten thin.

Stix followed after them, sliding up the tree effortlessly and claiming a nearby branch. Cyll grabbed the branch above Knell and pulled himself onto it. He laid down, hanging his limbs over the edge, and squinted at Stix. “You said this was a little uncomfortable. I’m squishing things that aught not to be squished.”

“That’s horrible,” Stix said, the sarcasm in her voice so thick that Knell could taste it. “However will I sleep knowing that you’re uncomfortable? Probably like a baby.”

Cyll scowled at her, then sighed. “Make sure you don’t fall off, Cap. If we came all the way out here for you to die to an amusing head injury, I am not going to be happy.”

“I’ll do my best,” Knell replied, trying to position himself. Cyll was right – the branch really wasn’t comfortable in the slightest. He’d slept in some pretty poor places in his life, but this tree was doing its best to shoot for the bottom. Still, it was large enough for him to drape himself over and be mostly confident that he wouldn’t fall off. The minutes stretched to hours, and Knell settled into deep meditation while the other two drifted off to sleep.