The Beast of Ildenwood 18. Thieves in the Night

The Wanderer is a strange one. Shoja cannot help but feel wary of him. There is so little to know of him, so much that is unanswered, and he cannot overlook the simple facts of his arrival. Lahab, who is young, to be a Guardian, but who wears the title well, seems to trust in him almost completely, but Shoja hesitates to do the same.

 

They are traveling on foot, the three of them, and while Lahab fusses over the artifact, Shoja watches the Wanderer from the corner of his eye. He seems an athletic person, with and impressive – no, frankly astounding – Strength measurement, but there is too much about him that is hidden in the Guide. He wonders if, perhaps, the Wanderer is purposefully hiding his information – if he has powers he has not shared with them. If that were the case, however, he would imagine that Lahab or Deletrear would have noticed.

 

So, perhaps his story of not knowing who he is and where he has come from is not completely untrue. Nevertheless, there is something undoubtedly… strange about him. Foreign. As though he does not belong here, and yet, all the same, here he is, walking alongside them, his gaze flickering towards the trees every now and then. It is quite ridiculous, but with his heightened sense of alertness, his behaviour reminds Shoja of a predator – like a cat, or more appropriately, a tiger – suddenly distracted by movement in their field of vision, like a flower being dangled before them.

 

When Shoja looks into the treeline, he sees nothing. Only trees and greenery and, here and there, flecks of sunlight drizzling through the foliage. Perhaps the Wanderer does not see anything at all. As the minutes pass by, the sky above them darkens, and they will soon have to make camp in a forest he has probably heard is dangerous to travel through. Perhaps he is nervous. He is, after all, simply a civilian, according to Lahab. He is not trained in any manner, and is only accompanying her because he has nobody else to go to, and nowhere to return.

 

Beside him, Lahab sighs in frustration and pulls out her enchanted sack, rummaging around in it and easing the rough, rocky, ovoid-shaped artifact into the bag, then putting it away again. “Nothing out of the ordinary?” Shoja asks, partly to make conversation, and partly out of curiosity. This Muna does not look as splendid or majestic as the stories say – the stories that he only knows of now thanks to Lahab’s patient explanations during their day of travel. She has mentioned that the artifact requires some kind of awakening, however. That may be why it currently looks so very… unimpressive.

 

“I cannot say,” Lahab responds, tying her hair into a bun. “Unfortunately, when it comes to Muna, nothing is ordinary. I have no certain idea as to what this crack means.”

 

“It is such a small crack, but it shook up the ground something fierce,” the Wanderer notes absentmindedly, still glancing at the trees. “As if the very earth was compelled to respond.”

 

“That might have been a coincidence,” Shoja points out. “Or the quake simply caused a crack. It was strong enough, I suppose.”

 

“It was Muna,” the Wanderer replies firmly, and still his attention seems divided. Somewhat irked, Shoja wants to ask him how he could possibly be so certain, but it is Lahab who speaks next.

 

“I suppose we will know when the next crack forms,” she states evenly.

 

“There will be another?” Shoja asks, his brow raising in surprise. “I thought this was more of a… singular event. Coincidence.”

 

“I have a feeling that it will happen again,” Lahab explains. “However, I cannot say what it means. I wonder…”

 

“The egg’s hatching,” the Wanderer says, and Lahab nods her head in agreement.

 

“Yes, I think… I think that is exactly what is happening.” She shakes her head wearily. “It is not supposed to awaken until it is delivered to one of the two locations. This is… unexpected.”

 

So, the thing was an egg. Strange, that the big rock housed within it a life form that would change their entire future, the future of their whole world. “Well,” he says, glancing behind him at the sound of a small rustling, “perhaps the two locations simply allow it to hatch quickly. Penetrate the – uh – egg’s shell, I suppose, and…” He trails off. Was that a shadow he saw, movement in the trees?

 

The Wanderer’s posture stiffens slightly. “We are being followed,” he says at last. “We have been followed for quite some time now. They are… closer than before.”

 

“Yes,” Lahab murmurs quietly. “Persistent fellows, aren’t they?”

 

They? Fellows? More than one? Shoja’s hand comes to rest on the hilt of his sheathed sword, his entire mind now alert. “What should we do?”

 

They are not yet through the Sheffar Forest, not yet even halfway, and this does not bode well for them, for the Sheffar Forest has only one known road, and that is the Ilden Road, which they now travel upon.

 

“Nothing,” Lahab says with a small shrug. “We know not if they are friend or foe. It would be wrong to assume that they mean us harm. However, that being said, it would be wise to decide how we shall camp tonight.”

 

“An enclosed space would be ideal, if possible,” the Wanderer suggests. “Somewhere with only one entrance. Somewhere we can guard more easily.”

 

“There aren’t any enclosed spaces around here,” Shoja replies nervously. “I say we confront them. Scare them off.”

 

“Perhaps there are more following us than we know,” Lahab says with a shake of her head. “I count five.”

 

“Seven,” the Wanderer says.

 

Well, that’s just wonderful. I count one – maybe – if that shadow I saw was anything to go by, Shoja thinks miserably. He finds it easier to believe that Lahab, being a Noble Guardian of the Ildenwood Forest, would be able to make such a thing out. As for the Wanderer… Does the Guardian not find him suspicious in the least?

 

“Between the three of us, we can handle seven,” Shoja says confidently. “Let’s get it over with.”

 

“Oh, undoubtedly,” Lahab replies, and Shoja realizes that if she truly wanted to, she could handle seven all on her own. “But I am curious. I would like to know… There are so many rumours about the dreaded Sheffar Forest. Aren’t you curious?”

 

“With what you’re holding, I don’t think we can afford to be curious at the moment, Guardian,” Shoja replies.

 

They walk for an hour more, looking unsuccessfully for an area in which they can set up camp, and by then darkness has swallowed the Sheffar Forest around them, its trees nothing more than looming shadows.

 

“Well,” Lahab says quietly. “I suppose it’s here or nowhere. We don’t seem to have much choice.”

 

The three of them begin to set up a campfire in the middle of Ilden Road – much to the Wanderer’s and Shoja’s disapproval, though they do not have any better ideas – and place their sleeping things around it, so that everything is illuminated by the fire. At Lahab’s suggestion, they set up burning torches along the sides of the road, so that if anything is to approach, they will see it. Then, they decide to sleep in shifts. The Wanderer volunteers to take the first shift.

 

“I am not tired,” he says quietly as they settle in for the night, his peculiar yellow eyes glowing in the campfire. “I cannot sleep in such conditions, anyway.”

 

“I will take the second shift,” Shoja insists.

 

Were it someone Shoja trusts, he would feel comfortable allowing the Wanderer to watch over them for the night. As it is, he does not trust the Wanderer, and decides, despite his own fatigue, to stay up, too, discreetly watching the Wanderer and the camp as he lies in bed.

 

The night is uneventful. Here and there, they hear rustles, snapping twigs in the forest’s dark treeline, and Shoja wonders if he truly hears whispers in the trees or if it is simply his imagination. After what feels like ages, as Shoja is fighting the urge to fall asleep, the Wanderer awakens him for his shift.

 

Whether he knows that Shoja has not been sleeping, he does not show it. Instead, he waits patiently and silently for the prince to clamber out of his blankets and take up his post, then quietly swaddles himself in his own sleeping things, settling in for the rest of the night.

 

Sleep threatens to overwhelm the prince, and he fights it, every rustle like a bucket of cold water thrown against his senses, awakening him. But he is tired, and after a while, he finds himself nodding off…

 

Sounds of snickers, scratches, and footfalls awaken him, and he jumps up to see the backs of a group of people running off, one of them trailing Lahab’s sack behind him.

 

“Wait!” he yells, startling the others awake. He is already running, following the thieves, sword unsheathed. He pulls a torch from its place in the ground and follows them into the curtain of darkness that awaits him beyond the trees.

 

Behind him, he heads the rushing footfalls of Lahab and the Wanderer, following him in the darkness, and he tries to keep up with the robbers ahead, for they have taken the sack, and with it, Muna.