Sonhu sat down in the back of the cart next to his pack. Across from him, Cole took a seat. Cole was wearing a similar huntswear as had been prepared for Sonhu. Leather plates, gauntlets, and pads stitched together with a tough cloth. A peculiar outfit that preserved heat well.

  Looking at the man now, it was hard to tell he was a crusaeder, he looked more like some backwater hunter from the Shalls. His black hair was loose and wild, wet still from his bath this morning. Likely his last for the next few weeks. His eyes seemed heavy, and his gaze was a bit distant.

  "Are you well?" Sonhu asked the man. He usually seemed so composed.

  Cole looked up at Sonhu, his gaze focusing.

  "Fine, just a bit tired."

  Sonhu gave a slight nod of understanding.

  "Y'all ready?" A chipper voice asked, as Ruffus boarded the cart and took the reins.

  "Ready as I'll ever be," Cole replied with a weary chuckle.

  The horses began to pull the cart, and as the commune slowly faded away with the rest of the forest, Sonhu saw a handful of people watching them as they departed. Among them, two purple eyes watched intently.

  It was about an hour later when they arrived at a small town and made their first stop. Ruffus and some local merchants loaded supplies into the cart. A pickup from some previous purchase. Cole now rested with his eyes closed, lying against his pack. Sonhu wasn't too sure he was asleep, but Cole hadn't made a sound for a while, so it was possible. Ruffus climbed back into the cart.

  "Do we have many more stops today?" Sonhu asked him.

  "Nah, that's it for today." Ruffus said, starting the cart off again, "From here on out, it's straight ta the mountain."

  "Will you be joining us on the hunt?"

  Ruffus chuckled,

  "I wish." He replied, "Seems so fun, yah know. Spend a few weeks out in da wilds. Just huntin."

  "You've never gone?"

  "Nah, much too small for a bow." He replied.

  "I see." Sonhu remarked, "So does Cole usually hunt alone?"

  "Nah… Usually he goes with Mr. Dycello." Ruffus explained, "Not many folks on the commune are strong enough for the drawstring. Yah know, most of us are fey, goblins… or the men are at least."

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  "There aren't many men in the commune, are there?" Sonhu had noticed that during his short time there.

  "Nah, there really ain't."

  "Why is that?"

  Ruffus thought about it for a moment before just shrugging his shoulders,

  "No real reason, I guess. Most the people we pick up are women… Lost their homes, an such. Fey woman wanderin the woods. Goblin detaunts, yah know."

  "Detaunts?"

  "Yah know, detaunts. Ones who lost their husbands, or something." Ruffus struggled to explain, "I don't know what it is, but it's the word they use for it."

  Sonhu nodded.

  "What about the blue man?" Sonhu asked, "Does he come on the hunts?"

  "Johan?" Ruffus replied, "Nah, he's some sort of… uh, he's a…"

  "He's a Vhetalhi." Cole answered, sitting up straight, "A religious figure in Elfven society."

  "So he can't hunt?" Sonhu asked.

  "He can't take a life." Cole confirmed, "We used to have another crusaeder a year or two back, before Ruffus was a part of the commune, so he doesn't remember him, but he died of something similar to what Mr. Dycello has."

  "Similar? How so?" Sonhu asked.

  "One day he was fine, the next he was bedridden."

  "Is there a connection?"

  Cole paused at Sonhu's question,

  "If you ask the Ilgen or Johan, they will tell you it's Bogwin, a witch's curse, but I'm not sure I believe in that witch stuff." Cole answered, "Both men have spit up, at some point or another, bile and black mucus. If you hold Dycello's eyes open, their dilated-"

  "Sounds like they ate blackroot," Sonhu said.

  Cole regarded Sonhu for a second,

  "Exactly. That's what I thought, blackroot infection." Cole said, "But by the time the infection gets to this point…"

  "There's nothing you can do." Sonhu finished. Cole gave a solemn nod.

  "I've never heard of blackroot before," Ruffus added, confused.

  "Blackroot is a sort of rot or infection some plants get." Cole explained, "It's a rare case and is more of something you see in warfare, a soldier's term if anything. Where'd you hear of it?" Cole asked Sonhu.

  A silence hung in the air for a moment before replying,

  "My father had it."

  "I'm sorry." Cole said, "That is a difficult thing to experience. Especially in the last days."

  "I left before it got that bad."

  "Still…" Cole added.

  Silence hung heavy in the cart for a few moments before Ruffus broke it,

  "Weren't there also a time when you hunted with those two boys for a while?"

  "The ones who turned out to be bandits?"

  "Yeah, those two." Ruffus said wistfully, "Wonder whatever happened to them."

  "Ran off with half our rations, that's what," Cole said with a chuckle.

  "I know that. I mean after that…"

  As the mood in the cart began to lighten, in the distance the mountains grew closer and closer.