Stomping through the woods, with all the delicacy and care of a herd of rampaging elephants, is a party of three humans. All of them are drenched in sweat and looking a little worse for wear after days of endless stick-snags and root-trips. The forest’s sweltering heat, unrelenting foliage and dangerous denizens have worn them down to incredible levels of ‘who cares about stealth.’

  At the front, swinging a short sword in a vain attempt to cut a path through the dense foliage, walks a tall and broad man with hard, thick leather armour covering his frame. His brown, short hair is flattened to his head with sweat, his green eyes squinting against the bugs flocking around him.

  His name is Alastair, and he hates it here.

  “I hate it here”, he moans, his shirt getting caught on yet another stick for what seems like the millionth time this day. He considers just going shirtless, but remembers the last time he tried that in front of Emily and, wisely, decides to keep it on.

  Behind him, stepping daintily over a tree root and tripping over it anyways, walks the aforementioned Emily: Wind Mage extraordinaire and voted "most likely to die falling up the stairs" by her preschool. She's an average height, with bright blonde hair tied up into a practical but leaf-and-detritus filled bun.

  “We know.” she replies, quickly glancing at the back of Alastair to see if he noticed her trip. She lets out a small sigh of relief to herself as he continues walking without his usual, snide comment.

  “You’ve said it about a hundred times today,” Nora groans, as she ducks underneath a branch, being careful not to snag her bow on it as she passes. Tall, lithe, and rippling with corded muscles, she seems almost at home in the forest, the tightening of her shoulders every time that a branch snaps or a tree rustles the only indicator that she’s on edge. She double-checks her tight-brown ponytail and lets out a small nod of satisfaction as she finds it detritus free, unlike Emily's.

  “And I meant it every single time”.

  “Well,” Nora replies, “It still beats dying in the frontline.”

  The group continues to slog through the dense foliage, their conversation falling into a lull as they swat at bugs and push aside branches.

  “I don't know. " Alastair continues, cutting through the comfortable silence and causing a vein in Nora's forehead to pulse slightly. "The longer we stay here, the more appealing it seems. Two weeks of hiking through this stupid forest and we’re still no closer to clearing out those goblins.”

  He swings his sword twice, cutting down a particularly stubborn branch and causing it to fall down and smack Nora in the shoulder. The huntress lets out a short gasp, rubbing the spot while giving Alastair’s back a glare.

  “Yeah, well, blame the King for that”, replies Emily testily. “We’d be in town, sleeping on beds, helping the people who actually need it if it wasn’t for him starting yet another war.”

  The group falls silent for a moment as they all absorb that reality.

  “And he really wants the army to march through here?” Alastair asks.

  “That’s right. Straight through.” replies Nora.

  Alastair nods his head, dislodging a small fern’s worth of leaves from his hair.

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  “And he knows about how dangerous the forest is?”

  “If he didn’t, we wouldn’t be here.”

  “Why doesn’t he just… Go around it?” Emily asks.

  “Because he can’t surprise-attack Wrenfall if he’s marching an army through their valley. The only way past those mountains is by going through them, and they have sightlines for miles across.” Alastair replies.

  Emily cocks an eyebrow at Alastair. “Surprise? I thought he’s planning an ‘honorable and justified war’”.

  Alastair snorts. “Why would he sneak an army through the most dangerous forest on the continent if it was justified?”

  “Yeah, well, either way, we’re the ones getting screwed.” Nora replies. She hurries her steps, sidestepping another root just as Emily trips over it and slinking past Alastair. “We’re not finding anything today. Again. Set up camp, I’m going to scout.”

  “Shouldn’t we stick together?” Alastair calls to her retreating form.

  “And risk listening to you two yap about the war for the next few hours, again?” She replies, as she steadily disappears into the brush. “No, thank you.”

  Alastair and Emily stare at her retreating form, watching as she swiftly disappears into the foliage, leaving neither a sound or a sign of her passage.

  Alastair shivers, turning towards Emily. “I still think that’s creepy, how she just… Disappears like that.”

  Emily cocks her eyebrow at him, unconvinced. "Really? You check her out every single time she does it."

  Alastair shrugs. "Hey, it can be creepy and hot at the same time."

  Emily lets out a 'tsk' as she shakes her head. “So… Do you think we’re actually going to find any before we hit the deep forest?”

  She drops down onto the floor with a sigh of relief, stretching out her back and leans back on her arms, groaning as her spine clicks in several places.

  Alastair pulls off his pack, dropping it onto the ground before sitting down carefully himself. He rummages through the pack, trying to find something to eat.

  “I give us about a… Fifty-fifty chance? I think we’ve got a higher chance of spotting a basilisk at this point…”

  Emily cringes. “Don’t say that. We don’t want to give the universe ideas.”

  Alastair shrugs, pulling out a hunk of hard tack and leaning back. “You’re right, I’m just saying.”

  Emily sits up and starts pulling leaves and other forest detriments from her hair, seriously considering cutting all of it off and becoming one of those crazy warrior priestesses for what must have been the hundredth time since starting this trip.

  A moment of silence stretches between them as they both listen to the sounds of the forest. With a final stick freed and nothing left to distract her, Emily shrinks into herself. She takes a deep breath, mentally preparing herself for the answer to a question that’s been burning in her head all of today.

  “What happens if we find them?”

  Alastair stops trying to tear a chunk off of his food, looking at Emily with a bewildered expression. “We kill them?”

  Emily tsks. “No, that’s not what I meant… I mean, what happens if we find a whole bunch of them?”

  Alastair leans back, considering her words.

  “What, like a raiding party?”

  Emily shrinks in further, pulling her legs up and holding them. “Even bigger. What if we find –”

  Suddenly, the bushes to Emily’s left rustles with movement, a figure bursting out of it. Emily lets out a short shriek, preparing to blast off a spell while Alastair pops up to his feet, sword already out. The figure emerges fully, revealing Nora.

  “Guys,” Nora says, completely ignoring the sword Alastair is pointing towards her, her eyes wide with worry. “You’ve got to see this.”

  Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Alastair sheathes his sword again with a huff.

  “Really?”

  Nora nods, her eyes serious. “Really. It’s bad.”

  Alastair throws his arms in the air. “And you can’t just tell us what it is? You’ve gotta drop the whole ‘you’ve got to see this’ line and, what? Leave us in the dark while we march on over to who knows what?”

  Nora blushes, before crossing her arms in a huff.

  “I just… I just don’t know how best to explain the level of screwed that we are.”

  Alastair shakes his head. “Remember what we discussed? Plan first, rush into combat second. And it’d be a lot easier to plan for it if we actually knew what it was.”

  Alastair and Nora stare at each other, the silence stretching, before Nora shifts slightly and lets out a sigh. “Alright. Yeah. You’re right. Fine.”

  She points towards the distance.

  “Goblin settlement, that way. A big one.”

  Alastair and Emily share a look, before Alastair lets out a sigh. “Alright. Fine. You’re right, we better take a look.”

  The trio hurriedly packs up their food and sets off ever deeper into the forest.