The next two days passed without incident, the winding forest road offering nothing more dangerous than the occasional squirrel darting across the path. The caravan moved in calm waves… rising with the sun, rolling forward at a steady pace, stopping near rivers or clearings to rest, and sleeping under the stars or canopies in quiet camps.
The group had grown more relaxed, their movents less tense. So of them even began humming songs as they traveled, believing, half-seriously, that Lance's re presence kept danger at bay, and perhaps they were right.
So far, no beast dared cross their path, no bandit leapt from the shadows… even the wind seed to blow more gently… that could have been their imagination also.
Lance kept to himself for the most part, either riding in the back of a carriage or walking quietly beside them. His tall, broad fra and quiet confidence made him seem like a sentinel, untouchable and serene.
Through this monts of peace, the wind shifted on the third morning.
The dew was still wet on the grass as the caravan slowly awoke and began preparing for another day of travel. So had started cooking breakfast, while others were checking the wheels and reins.
All of a sudden, unexpectedly, low, snarling growls spread across the encampnt, startling everyone.
From the undergrowth a pack of beasts appeared, doglike creatures, large and lean, with patches of matted fur and exposed muscles. Their eyes glead with savage hunger, and their limbs were long and sinewy. Their claws curved like knives, and their fangs jutted from their mouths unnaturally.
"Forest hounds!" one of the guards in the group shouted.
The alarm spread quickly and quickly, weapons were drawn, and the guards and everyone else, rushed to form a defensive periter. The beasts ca in fast, scattering across the campsite and lunging at whoever was nearest, comncing the attack.
Lance stood still a few tres away from the entire scene, arms crossed, eyes calm as he watched. He wanted to see how they fought the threat and perhaps, gauge their strength.
The guards fought bravely. Steel clashed with claw and tooth, n and won yelling commands and trying to hold formation. But the hounds were faster, cunning, and coordinated. One guard was dragged down, another knocked aside, while the older rchant, the caravan leader, tried to coordinate things, shouting above the chaos.
Watching everything go down, Lance sighed.
In the next instant, quietly, he vanished, reappearing in the middle of the fray.
A hound lunged at him almost instantly, as soon as he appeared, but he caught it by the throat with one hand and slamd it into the ground with enough force to crater the earth beneath its skull. Another ca from the side, and with a kick, it flew like a ragdoll and slamd into a tree, spine snapped. Three more tried to swarm him, but of course, they didn't land a single hit.
In seconds, the beasts were dead, their twisted bodies lying around Lance like discarded toys. Silence fell, broken only by the heavy breathing of the shaken guards and rchants.
Lance turned to look at them. "You all held back better than I expected," he said simply.
The guards, clearly embarrassed, gave short nods and murmured thanks. Eran stepped forward, panting. "We should've done better... we will do better next ti."
"Good," Lance replied with a faint smile. "But, let's hope there is no next ti." He said.
Before they packed up to leave, the guards and rchants gathered around the corpses of the hounds. They pulled out small knives and began prying off claws and fangs, placing them carefully into bags.
Lance watched curiously, only vaguely realizing what they were doing.
"What are you doing?" he asked Eran, who was inspecting a particularly large fang.
"Harvesting," the younger man said. "Forest hound claws and teeth are valuable. Their fangs can be used in alchemy or sold to smiths to reinforce blades. Even the bones fetch a price if they're intact… but I none of us here have the skills to harvest those. If it were an adventurer, this would be like taking a shit, haha."
"Huh," Lance murmured, crouching to examine one of the claws himself. "I didn't know that. You an adventurers go around doing this sort of thing?"
Eran nodded. "Yeah. In the human kingdoms, adventurers are the ones who take care of beasts, bandits, all that. Guilds give out requests, and the adventurers complete them for coin. So live hand-to-mouth. Others rise to fa and fortune. Of course, the kingdom's knights also play a role so tis, but not always." He explained.
The dumb looking guard who turned out to be smart walked over, wiping blood from his blade. "So of the big adventuring groups are so powerful, they can rival a noble house in influence. Of course, that ans politics gets involved. The nobles don't like adventurers getting too strong, but they need them to keep their cities safe. It's a tricky balance."
Lance looked thoughtful. "Are there any major nas?"
"Sure," he answered, sitting down beside a wagon wheel. "There's the Bronze Fla, led by that woman from the south, what was her na, Eran?"
"What Eran? Delira," Eran said quickly. "She's famous for slaying a wyvern on her own. Then there's the Steel Gauntlet, based in the east, though no one really knows much of them. They operate like a military unit. So say they've even got knights working with them secretly."
Lance listened intently, fascinated.
"And the guilds... how much power do they really have?" he asked.
"A lot," Eran said. "Especially in human lands. They can influence laws, cities, even local lords sotis. There's one guildmaster in the western kingdoms they say turned down a noble title just to keep his independence."
Lance let out a small laugh. "Sounds like sothing worth paying attention to."
That afternoon, the group continued their journey, their spirits steadier than before. The morning attack had shaken them, yes, but they'd seen Lance in action, their faith only doubled. And more importantly, they had a reason to improve.
…
When they stopped again near another wide river clearing around late afternoon, the sll of cooked at began to fill the air soon enough, as they hadn't eaten much in the morning. But, the mont they began setting up, the trees just had to rustle unnaturally.
Another pack of forest hounds appeared, this ti smaller. They had circled around from the north, clearly stalking the caravan for so ti.
Weapons were drawn again, and this ti, the guards were ready.
Lance remained seated on a nearby rock, watching their fight as he picked a piece of at that was ready to eat.
The caravan mbers moved more confidently. Their formation was tighter, and their coordination cleaner, this ti, the hounds found resistance, and one by one, the beasts fell.
Within minutes, it was over.
Eran wiped the blood from his face and looked toward Lance, who simply nodded with approval. "Better." He said, avoided many words as his mouth was stuffed with at.
The caravan cheered quietly, but they didn't waste ti celebrating. The sun would soon begin to fall, and they had lost precious ti. Rather than prepare another al, the group simply drank from the river, packed up their things, and got moving again.
That night, they camped a little deeper into the trees than usual.
Lance sat beside the fire, turning one of the forest hound claws over in his hand.
To hear that the adventurers he once read in fiction really existed in this world, it was fascinating.
He was really considering going into a human kingdom and pursuing fa as an adventurer, but then again, for the ti being, that was just temporary fascination.
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