Feral Mage Book 2: Chapter 5

“You sure you won’t reconsider?” Captain Taylor asked.

Bryce looked from the horses he was leading out of the stable toward the towerhouse. Captain Taylor was standing there beside Baroness Julia. He could see the old soldier already knew the answer, but there was a faint look of hope on the Baroness’s face.

“The job is bigger than what we can handle,” he answered as he slipped the bridle over one of the horse’s heads.

Their coats looked well-groomed, and he tossed a copper to the stable boy, who eagerly caught it. He looked at Vex and Janna, both of them already in the wagon, waiting for Omelet and him to join them. Bryce turned and approached the griffin chick, who was currently stalking a grasshopper in the stable yard. He struggled as Bryce picked him up, but quickly relented, though not before flogging Bryce a few times with his wings. He looked back at Baroness Julia, who wore a dejected look on her aged face.

“I’ll post your contract with the guild when we return to Witchbrook,” he promised her before returning to the wagon.

Once Bryce deposited the feathered fiend into Vex’s waiting arms, he climbed into the driver’s seat of the wagon and got the horses moving. The towerhouse and village were a speck on the horizon when Janna broke the silence of their travel.

“Do you think Baroness Julia will find someone quick enough?” Janna asked.

Her lips were pursed as her tails swayed erratically behind her, and Bryce knew she was having second thoughts about not taking the job. She still had a habit of viewing the world like one of her books, and Bryce was sure she saw herself and them as some kind of heroes meant to rush in and save the day. Janna had an innocence he couldn’t help but like, while also knowing it was a vulnerability.

“The pay will be good since it’s for a Noble, so I doubt the contract will be posted long before a group takes it. Even if a job like that can go south quickly,” Bryce answered.

He turned and looked in the back of the wagon, making sure Vex was awake, which she was with a sleeping Omelet in her lap.

“This is an important lesson for both of you. Nobility tend to view mercenaries as expendable.”

Truthfully, they saw everyone like that…

He held his tongue on sharing that thought with the girls.

“If Baroness Julia’s suspicions are right, then us trying to get proof will paint a target on our backs for the Kingdom of Volpin, probably their whole alliance. If she’s wrong and they’re raiders under Duchess Frozenveil, then there’s always the risk the Baroness sells us out to save face.”

Janna’s eyes went wide.

“You don’t honestly think Baroness Julia would do that, do you?” she asked.

Bryce smirked.

“We’ve known her for a day. The reality is that there’s currently no hostility between Duchess Frozenveil and the Kingdom of Brook. This contract could cause an incident,” Bryce met Janna’s eyes. “If it did, do you think Baroness Julia will risk her title and land for us?”

Janna grimaced and turned her gaze toward the road.

“You’re very cynical, you know,” she huffed as her tails lashed about.

Bryce nodded.

“I am. It’s how I’ve managed to stay alive this long,” he replied.

The wagon rolled along the path they had originally followed Captain Taylor on, and soon they arrived at the town with the stonewall. Bryce ushered the horses a little faster as they passed the inn, much to the girls’ protests to stop and stay the night. He’d like to sleep in a bed again as well, but he doubted a night was long enough for the trouble they caused to be forgotten.

“The next town we come to, we’ll stay at an inn,” Bryce promise to them when they were still pouting a few miles from the town. “Tonight, though, we’re camping on a hill.”

They both kept pouting for a few more miles, but he wasn’t turning back around. A little bit before the sun started to set, Bryce brought their wagon to a clearing on one of the hills. Once the wagon was stopped, they all went about the task of setting up camp. Janna worked on building the campfire, while Vex set out their bedrolls and supplies. Omelet was right under her foot, usually trying to get into whatever Vex had set down.

Bryce watched the girls go about their tasks as he tended to the horses. Once the horses were cared for, he pulled the sparring swords from the wagon.

“Janna. Vex,” Bryce called out, holding the blunted swords. The girls came over and both took one.

“You two spar while I get dinner going,” Bryce said, turning back to the wagon and grabbing the skillet.

The sound of the swords clashing sounded in the camp as dusk set in. Bryce watched the girls closely as he tended to the salted pork and wild onions cooking in the skillet.

“Vex, your stance is off. Janna can easily knock you down,” Bryce called out.

Vex quickly adjusted and pressed Janna, her sword clashing against the kitsune’s. Bryce smirked as he watched the girls spar. They were becoming decent swordsmen, and he was proud of how far they had come.

Neither of them would be close-range fighters like Bryce. Vex was skilled with a bow, and her wolfkin heightened senses made her quick to locate her target. Janna’s control over fire with her pyromancy was impressive, and she practiced the techniques Nicole showed her every night. Fighting at range was their strength, but he wanted them to be able to handle someone if they got close. Versatility could be the difference between life and death in a battle.

When the sun had set enough that visibility was becoming difficult, Bryce called a end to the sparring.

“Good work. Now come eat,” Bryce said.

He was busy fighting Omelet, who was underfoot while he put together their plates.

“You’ll get the scraps, you greedy little terror,” Bryce growled as he pushed the griffin chick back.

The little bastard was determined, but Janna came to Bryce’s aid and scooped Omelet up.

“It will be good to see Alice again,” Janna said as they ate around the campfire.

Bryce stabbed a cut of pork and some onions with his fork and took a bite.

“It will. I hope she’s settling in at the guildhall,” Bryce said.

He still regretted that they had left Witchbrook so quickly after returning from the Red Pine Kingdom. Only staying long enough for Bryce to talk Mark into hiring Alice to work the guild’s tavern and to snag a contract. He had his reason for rushing, a redhead sea elf whose eye he caught. Red Isabelle, one of the crime bosses of Witchbrook’s slums. Bryce hoped when he got back that enough time had passed since his attack on the fighting pit that Isabelle would no longer be interested in him.

“We should all do something together when we get back,” Janna suggested.

Bryce nodded approvingly at the idea, then focused on Vex and Omelet. The wolfkin had finished her meal and was training Omelet with the fat trimmings from the pork. She would make a hand gesture as a cue for the griffin to perform a feat. A downward push by her hand triggered Omelet to lie flat to the ground. Vex would then point at an object, and the little fiend would crawl on his belly toward it. Once there, she would throw him a bit of fat.

She’s teaching stealth tactics, good.

Vex then pointed at a small sapling, about knee high, and closed her fist. Omelet barreled toward and ripped the small tree to kindling, bringing the remains to Vex. While the act was almost comical right now, Omelet would grow bigger. A few years from now, the griffin would be the size of a large horse, and it wouldn’t be a sapling he was ripping to shreds at Vex’s command.

“Good boy, Omelet,” Vex praised as she tossed some of the trimmings to him.

He was looking to Vex for more when he turned and stared out into the darkness past their campfire. Bryce watched as the griffin’s feathers poofed out, and he raced to hide behind Vex. A quick glance at Vex and Janna showed both of them with their ears perked and staring into the darkness.

Bryce’s hand went to his sword as he pulled on the Manticore Aspect. He only smelled it for a moment, then the scent vanished. The scent of dried blood.

“It’s moved downwind of us,” he said softly.

They stared in that direction, waiting for something to emerge from the shadows at the edge of their camp.

“Smelled of death,” Vex stated.

Janna looked over at him.

“Are you going to go kill it?” she asked.

Bryce shook his head.

“Right now, it’s hunting us, and we don’t even know what it is. I go after it, there’s a good chance I won’t be coming back,” Bryce answered.

The memory of the red eyes at the edge of the woodline came back to him, and his grip tightened on his sword. They had traveled most of the day. Would a monster pursue them that far? Some types of monsters had large ranging areas…maybe his Aspect triggered a territorial response?

Bryce and the girls continued to stare in the direction, but the creature never came toward their camp or moved upwind. Time passed as they kept watch and before he knew it the sun was rising. Bryce cursed the sleepless night and they packed up quickly, determined to leave the area.

“Janna, get some sleep,” Bryce said as he held the reins.

The rocking of the wagon wasn’t helping the kitsune stay awake, but Janna kept fighting the urge to sleep.

“Don’t you need me to help keep watch?” she asked with a yawn.

Bryce just smiled at her.

“This isn’t the first time I’ve stayed up all night, Janna. I’ll be fine, get some rest,” Bryce said.

Janna looked into the back of the wagon, biting her lip in thought. Vex was already sound asleep in the back, her head resting against their packs.

“Go to sleep. When you wake up, I’ll let you take over steering the wagon, and I’ll get some rest myself,” Bryce said.

Janna started to move, only to pause and give him a worried look.

“Vex has been sleeping for a while. I could wake her up to help keep watch.”

Bryce laughed.

“Janna, she would probably try to bite your head off, and I mean that literally,” he smiled at her. “You’re worried about what happened last night, the monster outside our camp.”

Janna raised an eyebrow at him.

“And you’re not?”

Bryce shrugged.

“I doubt it’s going to keep following us,” Bryce answered. “It didn’t even try to enter the camp last night. Fire usually deters most monsters.”

Janna shivered.

“I just keep thinking about the scent of death that was in the air.”

Bryce fought a grimace at those words, his mind trying to push away thoughts of the red eyes he saw back at the graveyard.