238: Quill
I was surprised at the number of people leaving the city this early in the morning. I expected the streets to be rather quiet as the sun had only cracked the horizon. Even from the north side, there were at least six wagons ahead of us, and several adventure teams.
I could only imagine how busy the gate leading to the capital and the dungeon would be right now.
Looking around, I didn’t spot Luis. I at least remembered him though, and I know he left the inn with us, so his relics were likely in full swing right now.
The snow had mostly cleared now, and only the banks on the side of the road where it had been pushed up remained, but looking out over the field, I saw new life springing up, and importantly, shades of blue appearing.
Which meant more flavours to try, and more dishes to create.
In the distance I could still see a small line of fire going high into the sky, though it looked much smaller this morning.
“How long before we reach the next town?” I asked Jen.
She seemed to consider. “Honestly, we should reach the village tonight. Then there are two roads north of that. One heads towards the coast while the other goes towards the forest. I think we’re taking the forest route, but Hari and the merchants will make that call at the village.”
“Do you know the name of the village?” I asked curiously.
“No, not this one, or many of them for that matter,” Jen laughed.
As we continued to ride for the rest of the morning, I was surprised to see how quickly the farmland faded away, as all around were large rolling hills. The road also quickly went from smooth cobble to compact dirt, which luckily wasn’t too muddy.
That didn’t last long, however. Before I knew it, the road had turned into a muddy mess, and following behind the wagons became a real mess as mud was flicked up from the wheels, splattering onto Sable and myself.
Only two people seemed unaffected by it, with Crisplet burning so hot that the ground was steaming as he passed, completely unaffected by the mud, and Milo, who suspiciously had a perfectly clean robe and horse.
Leaning towards Jen and Liane, I asked, “He could stop all of us from being covered in mud, couldn’t he?”
Jen snorted. “Yes, but he won’t.”
“Ever since we pushed him into the swamp, he’s happy to see us suffer,” Liane spoke for the first time since leaving the city.
Jen kept laughing. “I’d do it again any day. It was still worth it.”
The further we got away from the city, the more I was surprised by just how much was growing. I understood that after winter new life would shoot up, but right now I was looking out over hills that appeared to be covered in green already.
I could easily see rabbits with white fur as they had not even had the chance to shift to brown yet.
Shaking it from my mind, I focused on a more pressing matter. Dinner.
I could have used a precooked meal that I had; however, it would be best if I saved them for times when we couldn’t cook. I also really wanted to try the voidscale hare. The problem with rabbit generally is that if you cooked it in any way that wasn’t slow-cooked, it would be incredibly tough.
But I still had options—
My thoughts were interrupted by a shout from the front of the wagons, followed by a loud whistle, causing everyone to stop.
Immediately stone walls went up on either side, as I saw Milo heading our way from the front, which I felt was a good sign. If it were an ambush, he wouldn’t be coming towards us.
Yelling, he said, “Quill beasts are attacking a wagon up ahead. Looks to just be farmers. Hari and Lewie have run ahead.”
Crisplet burst forward, leaving a small trail of fire behind in his wake as he blurred through the makeshift corridor. Jen and Liane dismounted and moved forward as well, both with weapons drawn. Not wanting to be left behind alone, I followed behind them all, keeping a safe distance.
The merchants also moved forward, but were clearly hiding behind the horses at the front; the drivers were already out of their seats.
Making it to the front, I got to see them for the first time. They were large, three of them coming up to half the wagon’s height, with almost metallic-looking spikes covering them. Their skin underneath was almost black. It was only then that I noticed all the spikes that were impaled into the side of the wagon.
“Trev, be careful. They shoot those quills off like an arrow,” Liane said, not leaving the front entrance.
Jen had her bow drawn and strung, with an arrow already nocked, a slight green glow appearing on the tip as it appeared like a small wind was blowing from the tip.
In the distance, I saw Crisplet diving right in beside Hari, punching one of the creatures in the head before it was engulfed in fire.
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While this was happening, Milo was putting up stone barriers between the quill beasts and the wagon being attacked. I saw at least one person on the ground being dragged back; I couldn’t tell if they were moving or not. Not waiting to be told, I started searching my storage for a strong regeneration candy or jerky.
Jen’s arrow launched from her bow, piercing the side of a quill beast, going deep just as it shot five spikes at Crisplet, which seemed to pass through him, embedding themselves into the stone wall forming behind.
I saw Hari deflecting two quills off his shield as a powerful strike blurred forward, stabbing into the creature.
I expected to hear a cry or a sound, but the only noise came from four more quills launching into Hari, one even making it past his shield and putting a sizeable dent in his armour.
Behind him there was a blur of fire, and I expected it to be Crisplet again, but there stood Luis with a long sword in hand that was lit up in flame, and from here it looked as though his hair itself was on fire.
He struck down at the creature in front of him, seemingly unnoticed. I couldn’t see the sword, only an orange afterglow arcing down, before I saw the head of one of the creatures cleanly removed as the body collapsed to the ground.
Luis then moved to join Hari. A large stone spike came from below the one Crisplet was fighting, lifting it off the ground slightly as Crisplet launched under with a double punch, again engulfing the creature in a dark red fire as yet another arrow embedded deeply into its underside.
It stopped moving then. Crisplet, however, did not stop hitting.
Now with only one left and everyone focused on it, it was quickly dispatched while Crisplet still beat the one he was fighting.
It was a long distance, but I pushed across the feeling of victory and congratulations to Crisplet, causing him to stop and look around.
Not seeing any more, I took the moment and dashed forward, now with several pieces of jerky in my hand.
“Hey, Trev! Wait!” Liane called.
I didn’t stop, dashing in behind the walls Milo had put up for the farmers, with Liane close on my heels.
I saw ahead that there were four men. One was lying on the ground, and by the red staining the ground, he was clearly very injured.
Reaching them, “Here, give him this. It will help him!”
The farmer who was trying to wrap a shirt around his wound looked at me for a moment, but didn’t feel the need to second-guess me, didn’t even question the fact that it was a candy, and instead took it from me and placed it in the man’s mouth.
Liane, who was only a second behind me, quickly took over. “We need to get those quills out before it heals around them,” she commanded.
There appeared to be some hesitation to this; however, it was quickly overcome as the farmer muttered an apology to the man on the floor, ripping out the first quill.
I could already see the candy taking some effect as the blood went from flowing freely to a slow ooze. The farmer also saw this, quickly ripping out the last two quills from the man’s side.
“Thank you,” he stuttered out.
As we knelt there, the walls began to fade as Hari and Milo rushed towards us, a look of surprise on their faces. Luis, I couldn’t see any more.
“Is he still alive?” Hari called as he knelt next to us.
“Yes, yes, thanks to you adventurers,” the farmer said, bowing.
The man on the floor looked to be unconscious, but he was breathing, the bleeding now slowing to a very slow ooze that quickly stopped.
Despite being a moderate regeneration, it wasn’t enough to close the holes entirely, but as Jen caught up, she pulled out something I recognised from when I was in my first fight, a familiar healing salve.
Kneeling on the floor next to us, she quickly pulled out a knife, cutting the man’s shirt to show all the holes from where the quills had pierced, all of them now having stopped bleeding, but using that now-cut shirt, she applied the salve to every wound liberally and wrapped it best she could using the fabric.
I felt Crisplet behind me, expressing happiness, pride, and strength, and I had to fight not to smile at the difficult scene in front of me, but what was important is that at least today no one died.
“Where was your guard?” Hari said to the farmer.
Who responded by pointing to the man on the ground. “Usually the roads between Farnox and the village are safe. I’ve never seen these here before.”
Hari’s appearance softened. “Right. Well, we should move. Can you get him into a wagon?”
Two of the farmers nodded, quickly working together to get the unconscious man into the wagon.
While they did that, I didn’t want the carcasses to go to waste, so wandering over, I stored them all. My pantry, however, didn’t recognise the quills as a food item, even when I tried to imagine them as a spike to hold meat. Jen ended up using her storage ring to take all of those.
Once everything was stored, I got a chill down my spine, something I couldn’t explain. It felt like I was being watched, which wasn’t entirely unusual. I could see Jen watching me, but this was different.
Looking around, however, I couldn’t see anything; the hills looked empty.
Shrugging it off, I made my way back over. Nero, Anthony and Paro were all talking with Hari and one of the farmers. I overheard part of the conversation.
“If it wouldn’t be too much inconvenience, could we follow your group until the village?” the farmer asked.
I saw Hari looking at Anthony, who nodded. “It’s fine. Just keep a reasonable distance and don’t draw trouble.”
“Thank you, sir merchant.”
The farmer then quickly got onto his wagon. Currently, the other two were in the back with the man still seemingly unconscious, pulling it to the side of the road as we remounted and moved past them, with their own wagon falling in behind us.
It was only then that I noticed Luis was riding alongside us with his hood pulled up, hiding his hair, with just his bright, glowing eyes visible beneath it.
“That was fun!” he said with a grin.
Crisplet let off a burst of sparks in agreement.
“I’ve never seen you use any of that in your training,” I said, surprised.
“It was mostly newly evolved skills, and this is the first time I’ve actually got to use them,” he said in a hush.
“It was very impressive. The hide of those creatures is quite tough, so severing the head in a single strike is no small feat,” Jen acknowledged.
Crisplet put up an ash and fire picture of him punching through one of the creatures.
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Not quite, but you did really well,” I said happily.
I knew moving forward, Crisplet would be telling everyone about this fight, and I looked forward to seeing Hari and Milo’s reaction when they eventually get saved by Crisplet in future retellings.
While everyone was coming down from the fight and discussing why the creatures were even here, I was back to considering the plan for dinner.
A voidscale hare stew with onion, carrots, bacon, mushrooms and red wine, and maybe some fresh bread to go with it, sounded good at the moment.