The morning dawns sunny and clear. The temperature has already risen quickly, foreshadowing the hot day to come. Once awake, James peers from beneath the bush to discover where the river had brought them. Off to the west rise the mountains they passed through the day before, still close enough to be imposing. On the opposite side of the river lies a road matching its course as it makes its way from the mountains. On this side, grass covered hills roll northward with the occasional trees scattered about.
“Looks like if we stay on the river we’ll continue to follow the road for a while,” he observes.
“Good,” replies Miko. “I would just as soon not walk.”
“Me too,” agrees James. “Let’s get the boat back onto the water and continue further down to see if there’s a town where we can get a couple of fast horses.”
Putting their things back in the boat, they push it to the water’s edge where Miko hops in first. James pushes the boat the rest of the way out onto the water before jumping in. As the boat floats away from the shore, Miko takes the oars and brings them to the middle of the river. Adding his efforts to that of the current, he keeps a steady rhythm with the oars as they move along.
They hadn’t gone very far before a column of dust is seen rising up to the sky to the east. As they steadily move toward it, they are soon able to tell the dust plume is the result of hundreds of men marching eastward along the road with a wagon train trailing along behind.
When James realizes they will shortly be drifting past an army on the move, he takes the oars from Miko and brings them quickly to the north shore, beaching their boat. “Think that’s the Empire’s army?” he asks Miko after they get out.
“Could be,” he replies, staring at the men in the distance. “Hard to tell from here.”
“I think it would be wise to assume they are the Empire’s for now,” James suggests. “We better leave the river and head overland.”
Miko takes the bags from the boat as he says, “Yeah, let’s hurry and get out of here.” When the bags are situated about his person, he looks back at the soldiers and asks, “Wonder where they’re going?”
“Don’t know, but we better find some horses soon or we’ll never get ahead of them and beat them to the City of Light.” Picking up his backpack, he slings it across his shoulder and sets out to the northeast, angling slightly more north than east to begin putting distance between them and the soldiers.
As they walk James scans the ground and gathers several fair sized stones, placing them in his pocket.
Miko sees what he’s doing and asks, “Expecting trouble?”
“Never know,” he replies as he bends over to pick up another, “but it’s best to be prepared.”
“Wish I still had my crossbow,” Miko says, thinking of the crossbow left under the stairs with the rest of their things in the abandon keep.
Nodding, James hurries them along.
They travel for no more than half an hour when dozens of people appear on the horizon ahead of them. Some are running but all are making the best speed they can. Several have small children in tow, others are burdened with bundles either tied to their backs or carried in their arms.
“Must be refugees fleeing from another town the Empire has taken,” James guesses. “Or is about to.”
“What’ll we do?” asks Miko, obviously concerned seeing as how the refugees are heading their way.
Coming up behind the fleeing people and riding hard to overtake them are six riders wielding clubs. As the riders reach the stragglers, they strike them in the head with their clubs, felling them. Then they leave them where they lie as they race to the next fleeing refugee.
Behind the riders roll three wagons, each trailing a line of naked people, both men and women of varying age. Out in front of each wagon walk two people who, when they come to a felled refugee, start slapping or hitting them until they regain consciousness. Once they’ve regained consciousness, they are pulled to their feet, stripped of their clothes and then have their hands tied behind them. After that they are taken and added to the line of naked people behind the wagon.
“Slavers!” James says in disgust. He stands there watching them for a moment as a woman carrying a baby gets struck in the head. As the woman falls, the baby goes flying out of her arms and strikes the ground where it begins crying piteously. The mother doesn’t lose consciousness and crawls over to her baby, wrapping her arms protectively around it. In a vain attempt at escape she attempts to crawl away. When the wagon comes, one of the men pulls the baby out of her arms. James can hear the woman’s scream as she tries to hang onto her child. The man strikes her across the face with his fist and rips the baby from her arms. With the mother’s pleas falling on deaf ears, the man returns to the wagon and hands the baby to someone inside. He then returns to the wailing woman, and dragging her by the hair, takes her to the rear of the slave line trailing behind the wagon. There she is stripped and put in line with the others.
“James!” Miko says as he pulls on his arm insistently, “we have to get out of here!”
Shaking his head, James says, “No.” He turns his head to look at Miko and says, “You don’t have to stay.” Turning back toward the oncoming horsemen, he reaches inside his pouch and grabs several of the stones he collected and holds them in his left hand. He then takes one in his right and starts walking toward the horsemen.
“Crap!” he hears Miko say behind him as the boy follows him into battle.
One of the horsemen is fast approaching a man who is carrying a bundle on his back. The man looks back and sees the horseman almost upon him. Tossing the bundle aside, he breaks into a run. The horseman closes with him and raises his club to bludgeon the man to the ground. Suddenly, something strikes him in the chest, going through the leather armor he’s wearing and blasting out the back. He looks at his chest for a moment in disbelief before toppling off his horse, hitting the ground dead.
Another horseman sees his partner fall and cries out alerting the other riders. He hooks his club to the saddle then draws his sword as he pauses, looking around for whoever it was that killed his partner. Seeing James standing defiant when everyone else is fleeing, he kicks his horse and charges straight at him, sword raised to cut him in half.
James cocks his arm and lets fly another stone, striking the charging rider through the forehead and blasting out the back of his head. Like a limp rag doll, the rider falls from his horse.
“Miko,” James says over his shoulder while indicating the horses of the fallen riders, “grab the horses, we’ll need them. Also search the dead riders for valuables or any papers.” Not looking to see whether or not Miko is doing what was asked of him, his attention remains focused on the four riders racing toward him, swords raised.
James concentrates and then lets the magic flow.
Crumph!
The ground under two of the charging riders erupts, throwing debris, horses and riders into the air.
James turns to the remaining two riders who are almost upon him and throws another stone, catching one in the chest, creating a hole as it passes through. James jumps to one side, rolling on the ground when the remaining rider strikes down at him with his sword. He feels its passing as it comes within inches.
The rider turns and tries to trample him with his horse’s hooves as he lies there on the ground.
James rolls out of the way quickly and then tries to stand up when one of the horse’s hooves clips him in the side of the head, knocking him down, causing the world to spin wildly.
He rolls on his back and sees a blurry horseman with sword raised, ready to finish him off. Sure that his time has come, James is surprised when two other blurry shapes jump up and grab the rider, pulling him off the horse.
Another blurry shape comes over and asks, “James? You okay?”
“Yeah,” he replies as he sits up, recognizing Miko’s voice. “The horse clipped me in the head. Be okay in a few minutes, I hope.”
“Thank you!” a woman cries as she kneels down, putting her arms around James and giving him a big hug.
As his vision begins to clear and becomes steady, he sees many people around him, all trying to express their gratitude. That’s when he realizes they were the people fleeing the oncoming slavers. Miko is standing there with two horses, smiling broadly.
The two riders who had been knocked off their horses by the erupting ground have been torn to pieces by the refugees. Several people are walking toward him from the dead bodies, each wielding a bloody knife or stick.
“We need to free the people in the slave lines behind the wagons,” he says as he tries to get up.
“Already being taken care of,” a man says as he points to four horses racing toward the wagon. Riding each is a man who earlier had been fleeing for his life. Now with a sword in their hands and vengeance in their hearts they ride to free their neighbors and friends. Others are following on foot to give what aid they can.
James regains his feet and looks around at all the faces. Some smiling but many have seen too many horrors to ever smile again. “Where are you from?” he asks.
“Pleasant Meadows,” answers one woman. “It’s further downstream where the road crosses the river. The Empire was seen last night heading in our direction and the whole town fled in every direction.” She looks at James and says, “I guess we were fortunate to flee this way.”
Many people around her nod their head in agreement.
James looks off toward the wagons and sees that two of them have already been liberated, the people in the slave lines being untied and led this way. The four riders are closing fast with the remaining wagon, engaging the two men on foot as they try to make a stand. One of the riders is struck and James sees him fall from his horse while the remaining riders strike and kill the last of the enemy.
“You better make as best time you can before the Empire sends scouts out this way and discovers what has happened,” James says. “If you follow the river toward the mountains, you’ll find an encampment of soldiers at the beginning of the Pass, they look to be friendly. You definitely don’t want to be here when the Empire shows up.”
James motions to Miko and he brings over the horses, giving him one. James swings up on the horse and looks over the people that surround him. Miko mounts as well.
“Good luck,” he says to them, “and God speed!”
“Where are you going?” one of them asks.
“City of Light,” Miko replies, getting a stern look from James.
“You mustn’t go there!” one man insists. “The Empire will surely not stop until they take the City. It is the key to the entire southern region of Madoc.”
“He’s right,” another interjects, “their forces are swarming this area, looking for people fleeing. You’ll never make it.”
“I appreciate your concern, but we must.” Turning to Miko he says, “Let’s go,” as he heads his horse toward the northeast. The people surrounding him make way and soon they are galloping across the hills with cries of gratitude following them.
When they’ve traveled a ways and are out of sight of the people they just aided, James stops his horse and turns to confront Miko. With anger in his voice he says, “You never, NEVER! tell anyone our business unless I tell you it’s okay to do so. Do you understand?”
Withering under James’ stern glare, Miko says defensively, “But who are they going to tell?”
“How about the Empire for one! If those poor souls back there get recaptured, the Empire is going to want to know what happened to their men.” Pointing back the way they had come he continues, “One of them is bound to tell them who it was and where we are going. What someone doesn’t know can’t be tortured out of them!”
“I don’t think they know our names,” Miko says in his defense.
“True, but they know what we look like and they know where we are going.” Shaking his head, he continues, “Miko, you need to learn when to talk and when not to. Our lives could very well depend on it.” Pausing for a moment, he looks in Miko’s eyes to see if he’s gotten his point across, “Okay?”
Feeling like he’s let his friend down, Miko hangs his head and says, “I’m sorry James. I’ll try to do better.”
“Don’t say try,” James replies kindly, “try means you expect to fail.” He puts his hand on Miko’s shoulder, gives him a smile and then turns his horse and kicks it into a gallop.
Miko silently vows silently to himself not to let James down again as he races after his friend.
Figuring the Empire’s forces are to the east and south of them, James bears even further to the north. The terrain slowly turns from hills to a rolling plain, tall grass waving in the summer breeze.
They make good time for several hours, when Miko suddenly yells “James, look!” as he points to the south.
James looks and they can barely make out column after column of soldiers marching toward the northeast. The dust they’re kicking up must be visible for miles away.
“They must be heading for the City of Light,” observes Miko. “Think it’s the same ones we saw earlier?”
“Doubt it,” states James. “We better hustle if we’re going to be able to reach the City of Light and still have time to get out before they arrive.”
James angles them now almost due north and they ride quickly until the soldiers are no longer visible on the horizon. They then go no more than a couple more miles when out of the north appear a score of horsemen heading south, right for them.
James immediately veers to the east and brings his horse to a gallop, trying to put distance between them, hoping to remain unobserved.
Looking over his shoulder at the riders, he sees them turning to give chase. From behind he hears Miko cry out, his horse has put a foot in a gopher hole and snapped its leg. Crashing to the ground, Miko is thrown off the horse and sails through the air before landing hard upon the ground.
James quickly turns and races back to where Miko is getting to his feet. Reaching down a hand, he swings the boy on the horse behind him. Looking northward again he sees the horsemen approaching fast. He kicks his horse in the side and they race toward the east, the riders continuing to follow.
“James!” Miko hollers. “They’re gaining.”
“I know,” he replies. “We’re not going to outrun them, not riding double.” Regardless, James continues to ride hard, prolonging the inevitable.
Miko starts shaking James’ shoulder, “James, I don’t think they’re the Empires’ soldiers.”
“Are you sure?” he asks.
“Yes,” Miko responds. “Their uniforms are different than the ones we saw marching earlier.”
“Madoc’s?” James asks over his shoulder.
“Could be,” he replies. “They’re not from Cardri.”
James slows his horse to a canter then turns to face the oncoming riders, finally bringing them to a stop. They both dismount to wait for the riders to approach.
Upon seeing them dismounted and waiting for their arrival, the riders slow their advance to a trot. When they reach James and Miko, they encircle them while two men with crossbows take aim and wait. One of the riders, an officer by the embroidery on his uniform, comes forward and asks, “Who are you and what business do you have in Madoc?”
“Then am I safe in assuming that you are not of the Empire?” James asks hopefully.
“That is correct,” the officer replies. “Now answer the question!”
“My name is James and this is my traveling companion Miko. We are on our way to the City of Light with a package to be delivered to the Great Library.”
“What package is so important that it requires you to pass through a war zone?” the officer asks.
Shrugging, James says, “I don’t know, only that the Custodian of the Royal Archives in Cardri requested that we deliver it.”
The officer signals for his men to stand down and the crossbowmen to lower their crossbows. “Let me see this package,” he demands.
James reaches into his backpack and brings out the package bearing the seal of the Archive Custodian. He hands it to the officer.
The officer takes it, examining the package as well as the seal and then hands it back. “Okay, so you have a package bearing the seal of the Royal Custodian, but there is no proof that you are the couriers.”
“Well, no, that’s true,” James admits. “But I assure you that we are.”
Miko nods agreement.
“I don’t have the time or the manpower to deal with you right now,” says the officer, “so I will take you at your word. A spy from the Empire would have a more plausible reason for being here than that. Now,” he continues, looking intently at James, “on your way from the Pass, did you see anything of the Empire’s forces?”
Nodding, James tells him of seeing the columns of men they saw before leaving the river.
“Damn,” the officer exclaims, “we were hoping they hadn’t moved that far yet. What else?”
His men crowd around to hear what James has to say. “We ran into people fleeing the fall of a town called Pleasant Meadows,” he tells them, though leaving out the part he played in their escape. At the mention of Pleasant Meadows, several of the officer’s men curse and James can see anger and sadness appear on many faces.
“And then not too long ago we saw another army heading northeast,” he adds.
“Dire news indeed,” he says. “You may go on your way, though be careful. If Pleasant Meadows is taken then they are most likely continuing up the road to the City.” Pointing east the officer says, “They will be using the road due east of here, so if I were you I would make almost due north and hope to swing around them.”
“Thank you sir,” James says, and then looks over to Miko’s horse that’s lying on the ground, in great pain. “What about our horse?” he asks the officer.
The officer looks over at the horse and then gives a signal that’s followed by two crossbow bolts striking the horse, one in the head and the other in the chest, bringing an end to its pain. “Hate seeing a horse suffer so,” he says. Then to James he continues, “Can’t spare one for you, sorry. You’ll just have to make due with what you have.”
He signals his men and then mounts up. “Good luck,” he says to them before he and his men ride off toward the south at a gallop.
“Grab our stuff;” James tells Miko. “We’ll have to ride double, at least until we can acquire another horse.”
Miko collects the few bags he had on his horse and takes them over to James’ where he secures them behind the saddle. James mounts, then reaches down a hand and Miko swings up behind him. “Still better than walking, eh?” he says as they begin heading northward.
“A little bit,” Miko replies. “How far do you think the City is from here?”
“I’ve no clue,” says James. “Maybe a couple days, more if we have to detour around any of the Empire’s forces.”
They make good time, even riding double. The ground continues leveling off until it’s fairly flat, with tall grass swaying in the summer breeze. They continue their course for another two hours when they see an unusually large congregation of birds off to the east. Curious, James angles eastward to take a closer look.
There they find around fifty of the Empire’s forces, dead and bloating in the sun. The birds squawk and take to the air as they come near. The smell of rotting corpses is nauseating so they keep their distance.
“Looks like the Empire took a beating here,” says James.
“Good!” Miko exclaims. “Serves them right.”
They circle the field of battle for a ways but fail to find anyone other than the Empire’s men. “Either Madoc was really fortunate or they took their dead with them,” James reasons.
“Yeah,” Miko agrees, “the losers tend to stay where they fall unless their rotting corpses will bother someone.”
Not seeing anything of interest, James once more turns and makes speed northward.
During the ride, Miko eventually nods off, head lying against James’ back. He begins to dream of his life before James when he lived on the street and had no one to trust. In some ways he’s glad to be gone from there, but in others he misses his old life. No one was ever trying to kill him, at least not seriously.
Deep in a dream about he and a friend filching fruit from a merchant’s stand, he’s suddenly startled out of his reverie by the sudden motion of James jerking his arm forward. “What’s going on?” he asks sleepily.
James points off to the right where he had dropped a rabbit with one of his stones. “I figured it was time for dinner,” he explains. Then he breaks out in a smile as he adds, “Didn’t mean to wake you.”
“Wasn’t sleeping,” Miko exclaims defensively, “just thinking is all.”
James grins knowingly. “Let’s take a short break and cook us some dinner,” he says.
Miko nods and swings down, James following right after. While James gets the rabbit ready for dinner, Miko makes a fire from some of the dried grass and small sticks in the area.
James watches him as he begins putting the fuel for the fire together and says, “Make sure you have a bare area around the fire, we don’t want to start a wildfire.”
“Wildfire?” Miko asks.
“If you catch some of the grass on fire, the wind can blow it along and before you know it the entire grassland is aflame,” he explains.
“I’ll be careful,” says Miko as he strikes flint making a spark and then blows gently to coax it into a flame. When he gets a small flame going, he gradually adds more fuel until a sizable blaze is burning.
James notices with worry at the smoke rising like a signal to all in the area that they are there. “We better eat fast and leave before someone comes to see what this fire is all about,” he says.
Miko glances up and sees the smoke rising like a beacon, “Should I put it out?” he asks.
“No, just use the driest grass you can find and that should minimize the amount it emits,” James replies. “Besides, we need to eat or we’ll be too weak to defend ourselves in an emergency.”
James finds a fair sized stick and impales the rabbit upon it, using it as a skewer to cook the rabbit over the fire. When the rabbit is done, he quickly extinguishes the fire by kicking dirt over it until the smoke stops.
They eat in silence, all the while keeping watch for anyone approaching. Once finished, they remount and proceed on again, riding quickly until it gets too dark to see. They make camp, staking the horse out near them.
“We’ll take turns keeping watch tonight,” James says.
“Alright,” agrees Miko. “Do you want me to go first?”
“No, I’m not that tired,” he replies. “You go ahead and sleep. I’ll wake you when it’s your turn.”
Miko settles in and is soon asleep.
James lies back and watches the stars overhead, marveling how different they are from the ones at home. At midnight he wakes Miko for his turn.
“Now don’t fall asleep,” he tells Miko who seems to be having a hard time keeping his eyes open.
“Don’t worry,” Miko assures him, as he stifles a yawn, “you just get some sleep.” He then gets up and begins pacing around the camp, keeping himself awake.
James lies down and listens to Miko’s steps for a few minutes before sleep takes him.
As the sky begins to brighten, James awakens to find Miko asleep a few feet away. Shaking his head, he goes over and nudges him in the side with his foot. “Wakey, wakey sleepyhead,” he says as Miko begins to stir.
Miko’s eyes shoot open and he sits up quickly, “I fell asleep!”
“Yes you did,” James says to him. “Luckily nothing happened, this time. Let’s get going.”
Feeling bad, Miko gets the horse ready and soon they are once again mounted and making good time northward.
They keep alert for others on the plains and once during the late morning have to veer more to the north when they encounter a force over three hundred strong marching from the southeast. They push the horse hard for a short time to put distance between them and only slow down to a canter again once the forces vanish from sight.
They again come across forces on the move in the afternoon, but this time they are moving from the northwest going generally eastward. “Must be reinforcements on their way to the City of Light,” observes Miko.
“I think you are right,” James agrees. “Still, let’s give them a wide berth, we don’t want to be mistaken for the Empire again.”
They backtrack half a mile before proceeding to the northwest for another two miles. Once they figure they have put Madoc’s army behind them they again turn more easterly. Moving quickly, they press on for several more hours.
When the sun begins to dip toward the horizon, a great body of water appears to the east. A road runs along the shoreline upon which many people are coming from the south. Most are on foot while some ride in wagons or pull carts. Those on foot carry bundles while the wagons and carts are filled to overflowing with belongings.
Coming to the road, James inquires of one traveler, “Where are you all coming from?”
The man looks up at James with a face totally lacking in hope or joy, “The City of Light,” the man replies despondently.
“It’s fallen already?” James asks him in shock.
Shaking his head, the man says, “No, at least not when I left. But those you see here didn’t want to stay and be there when the Empire besieges it.”
“It’s certain then that they are heading to the City?” he asks.
“That’s the rumor,” the man replies.
“Then the Empire hasn’t reached the City yet?” James asks anxiously.
“I don’t think so,” he says. “They said our army was going to engage them in the field before they can reach the city. With our allies and mercenaries, they hope to stop them before they get that far.”
“How far is the City from here?” James inquires.
“It’ll probably take you a day with your horse,” he replies. “I’ve been on the road two days, heading for relatives up north.”
“Thank you for your help,” James tells the man.
The man nods and then continues on his way.
“Still a ways to go,” Miko says.
James nods and turns his head to say, “But at least we’re close, and unlikely to run into the Empire’s forces along the way. Unless they are already besieging the City of Light by the time we get there.”
“Let’s get as much distance behind us as we can before dark,” Miko suggests.
“Good idea,” James replies. He looks at the sinking sun and says, “We probably only have a couple of hours left anyway.”
Bringing the horse to a canter, they quickly make their way down the road. The other travelers on the road are all going in the opposite direction, they are the only ones foolish enough to be going south. James and Miko have little trouble making their way through the people, most move aside when they see them coming.
Once the sun is close to the horizon they stop and make camp near the water’s edge amidst a group of trees. James takes a long stick found near a tree and wades out into the lake and returns with a fish for dinner.
Both are ravenous as they haven’t had anything to eat since the rabbit the night before. Once the fire is going well and the fish is cooking over the flames, they sit back and in the fading light watch the people on the road as they pass by. A few glance in their direction but none approach.
After they eat, James has Miko take first watch tonight. When asked why he replies, “Maybe you’ll stay awake better if you take first watch.”
Miko sits with his back against a tree and sets his mind to not falling asleep again this night.
Seeing that Miko understands he continues, “Wake me around midnight, sooner if you think someone is approaching.”
Nodding his head, Miko says, “You can count on me.”
“I hope so,” James says. “Don’t let me down.”
“I won’t,” he replies. “You just get some sleep. I’ll stay alert and keep the fire going.”
Lying down, James contemplates again the wisdom of going to a city that will most likely be under siege shortly. He feels that this is something he must do, though it scares him to death. Get in, get out, he tells himself as he drifts off to sleep.
“ James! Wake up!”
Startled out of sleep, he bolts upright and quickly looks around the campsite. Miko is sitting by the tree where two men are holding him, one with a knife to his throat. A third man is coming toward him, a longsword in hand.
“Stay right there,” the man approaching him says, “and your friend won’t get hurt.”
James sits still and the man slows his pace once he sees that he is cooperating.
“Lim, get the horse,” he says to one of the two men holding Miko, while still continuing to approach James.
Lim releases Miko and walks over to the horse. The other man remains with Miko, his knife held to the boy’s throat.
The man with the longsword comes toward James and raises the point of his sword to rest against James’ chest. He then says, “Give me all your gold.”
James removes his coin pouch and hands it over to the man who opens it and looks inside. Smiling at the coins and gems he sees in there, he says over to his partners in glee, “Looks like we hit the jackpot this time!”
They both grin and laugh at their good fortune.
James begins to concentrate and forms a spell, then releases the magic. From the direction of the lake behind him, a squishing sound begins to be heard as if someone was walking in boots full of water. From out of the darkness lurches a slow moving glistening, shimmering form roughly man shaped.
The man guarding Miko sees it first and lets out with a cry of fear.
The man with the longsword looks up from examining the contents of the pouch and sees it approaching. Letting out a startled cry he backs away as it approaches, not realizing that he has just removed the sword from in front of James’ chest.
James waits until the man has backed up several feet then quickly bends over and picks up a stone. In one fluid motion he arcs his arm back and then throws it at the one guarding Miko. Distracted by the sight of the water creature the man fails to see it coming and the stone pierces his chest. The light in his eyes quickly vanishes as he slumps to the ground dead.
Rolling away from the man with the longsword, James puts distance between them, all the while maintaining his concentration on the creature. It continues its advance, steadily closing the gap.
Eyes wide in fear, the man raises his sword and strikes at the creature but it has little effect. The sword simply passes right through the water.
Seeing one of his partners lying dead on the ground and another battling a creature that is unaffected by the sword, Lim screams in terror and races off into the night, leaving his partner to his fate.
The man turns to run just as the water creature lurches forward and touches him on the arm. Unable to break the contact, the man watches in horror as the water from the creature begins to spread along his skin, moving to envelope his entire body in a thin layer of water.
Miko stares in awe as the man becomes completely cocooned by the creature. Gasping for air, the man’s mouth opens in a vain attempt to breathe. Water from the creature instead flows into his lungs and he starts to spasm as he chokes. Finally his eyes roll up in his head and collapses to the ground.
When he hits the ground, the water from the creature loses its integrity and splashes off him, running along the ground.
Gasping from the exertion of having maintained such a spell, James almost passes out but somehow retains consciousness.
Miko comes over and closely examines the man killed by the water creature. He turns to James and exclaims, “He’s dead!”
Nodding, James sits there and tries to keep the world from spinning.
Miko takes back James’ pouch from the man’s hand and brings it over to him. “The other one fled into the night,” he tells him.
“That’s okay,” says James. “I doubt if he’ll be back anytime soon.”
“What was that thing?” he asks.
“I suppose you could call it a cross between a water elemental and the blob,” James replies. “It’s something I cooked up a while back for a game a friend and I used to play. It was almost more than I could control though, it kept trying to lose cohesion and break apart.”
“Whatever it was, it sure was impressive,” Miko says. He starts to chuckle, “It sure scared the hell out of them.”
James smiles back, “That was the idea.” He lies back and can feel himself beginning to slip back into sleep. “Miko, you’re going to have to keep watch till morning,” he tells him, yawning. “I’m not going to be able to stay awake.”
“That’s okay, James,” he says. “You go ahead and rest, I doubt if I could sleep now anyway.”
James closes his eyes and quickly falls asleep.
Miko drags the dead men out of camp but not before going through their pouches and removing anything of value. Once the camp is clear of dead bodies, he begins walking around and manages to stay awake until morning.