It was a cool and damp spring morning. Gentle clouds had descended from the mountains, leaving a misting rain to mark their path over the land. Shallow puddles had developed in the ruts of the road, and wiggling worms crawled up from underground making easy prey for birds to feed their young with.

  The group of five had pulled waxed hoods over their heads, and walked along in silence. Nikolao took the lead, with Tex’ana right behind him, occasionally striding past to check out a suspicious bend or fallen tree. It seemed unlikely that anyone would take a look at the intimidating sight servant and decide that their group was easy prey, but they were all still on edge from the trifley attack just yesterday.

  They were on the way to Blackpool Outlook, with the hope that there would be spare horses for them to buy. It wasn’t the most direct path, and it took them up to a summit of one of the lesser mountains surrounding the Snowspire Range, but horses would buy them enough extra time to guarantee a timely arrival. The risk of needing to walk an extra few miles was worth it.

  Such a long walk in the rain gave Jarod more time than he would have liked to replay the scene in the alley. The scene where he’d been unable to protect Wilfurd. Jarod dragged a toe through the mud and pressed hard on his staff to push him forward. It was a mopey sort of day in many respects.

  Filgrin must have noticed Jarod’s discontent, because he took a couple quick steps forward to walk alongside the blacksmith.

  “A hike’s the surest way for a mind to wander places you don’t want it to,” Filgrin said. “Something on yer mind, lad?”

  Jarod sighed. He didn’t really want to talk about it, but they had a long journey ahead of them, too long to avoid the conversation forever. “Just thinking about yesterday again.”

  Filgrin nodded and waited for Jarod to continue.

  “So much yesterday felt out of my control. It felt like we were helpless against the attack. Like nothing I could do would stop their path of destruction. Shelley said she felt the same way, like she just needed some way to do something.”

  Jarod paused to collect his thoughts. He looked up to the other three ahead of him trudging through the muddy trail in the overcast morning light. He was sure that Basma was listening in on their conversation, but he would feel comfortable saying the same things to her.

  “I guess trying to rescue Wilfurd in the first place was my way of taking back control, taking back my agency,” Jarod said. “After everything that happened with the surveyors, it felt like I needed to do something with my freedom.”

  Jarod gripped his staff tight in his hand. “And it seemed like we’d succeeded, at first. We made it to the mill, made sure Wilfurd was safe, and ran off the trifleys from that side of the village. Maybe it was foolish, but it gave me hope that we could do more, that we could drive off the attack. Then that started falling apart and… well, you know the rest.”

  “We did succeed,” Filgrin said. He took a step closer and put a hand on Jarod’s back. “Can’t tell ya how many more are alive now because of what we did, stupid as it might have been.”

  “But we failed Wilfurd! I failed him. I didn’t attack in the alleyway, I held back and tried to defend myself, and then there were too many for us to deal with. If I’d attacked, Wilfurd might be alive now.”

  “Jarod, things could always be different. But if you’d tried to attack the trifleys instead of defend yourself and hold the line, you’d be the one dead, and maybe all of us after that.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  Filgrin caught Jarod’s eye under his hood. He looked as though there were something he was itching to share, but his face dropped back to watch the trail in front of him and said simply, “I know better than most.”

  “Besides,” said the bowyer, before Jarod could launch into another line of excuses. “If you’d attacked them and stood here now, you’d be wondering the same thing. Battle is full of these what-ifs. Best not to dwell on them and live in the past, you’ve got the future to worry about.”

  “I suppose,” said Jarod. Filgrin’s words gave him some comfort, but he wasn’t fully convinced. It would take time for that.

  Basma looked back as though she wanted to share something, but before she got the chance, Tex’ana interrupted them with a quickly spoken warning.

  “Danger lies ahead,” the sight servant said. “You shall be on guard.”

  Jarod’s hand immediately went to his shortsword, drawing his father’s blade out of the scabbard. He held it still down at his side, instinctively crouching as they got closer to whatever Tex’ana had spotted.

  They heard the sounds first. Animalistic groans pierced through pattering of rain. It sounded almost like a moose, but the sound was hitching, cutting in and out as though someone was rapidly covering and uncovering its mouth. Then a human cry cut through the animal’s noise, calling out commands too distant to hear.

  Their group continued down the trail, moving at a jogging pace now with weapons drawn. Tex’ana was careful not to bound ahead the rest of the group.

  The strange animal cries continued, until the layer of trees that muffled them cleared and revealed the source of the noise.

  A pair of riders atop horses wielded bows as they chased after the strangest looking moose Jarod had ever seen. After his first impression, Jarod realized it wasn’t actually a moose, or at least, not a normal one. The beast was just as large as Jarod was used to seeing moose, with the telltale pair of antlers. However, its body was covered in longer fur like a bear’s, and each of its feet had claws growing out of where the hooves started. Its head, the source of the jarring call, looked normal except for the second jaw halfway down its neck. The second jaw opened up intermittently as it bounded away from the riders, hinging the whole head back and open, cutting off the sound every time it did.

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  Jarod slowed to a stop with his head cocked, momentarily stunned by the perplexing creature. It looked as though bear parts had been haphazardly attached to a moose without caring in the slightest what made sense. Despite how nonsensical it might have seemed, it did leave a shocking impression, particularly when it was barrelling down the road right at them.

  Jarod dashed off to the side among the trees to allow the creature free passage, and he saw the rest of his group do the same.

  At this though, the riders called out. “Stop that beast! Take it down!” They loosed a pair of crossbow bolts at the creature as they rode past, which sunk into its thick hide.

  The moose creature bayed loudly in pain, but kept running. Tex’ana’s glaive flashed out from the treeline, sinking into one of the creature’s hind legs, making it stumble and limp. It just barely kept moving now, it’s injured left side causing it to favor walking alongside the trees Jarod was hidden in.

  Jarod didn’t know what this creature was, but it must have been monstrous. He’d seen nothing natural like it in his life. He decided to listen to the riders’ instruction and help kill whatever this thing was.

  Roll to hit

  Shortsword: [5]+1

  Hit for [4]+1 damage (resisted)

  The shortsword sank into the creature’s flank, biting deep despite the tangled fur and thick hide. Jarod felt significant resistance as the blade slid in, but it slid in deep, deep enough that when he withdrew, he could tell the fight was over. The animal paced slowly on, its gait growing woozy with every step, before it finally toppled down and collapsed in a heap in the mud.

  “Much obliged sirs,” one of the riders spoke. His voice was gruff and heavy with a city accent. “Been huntin’ that one down for quite some time.”

  Jarod began wiping off his blade as the riders approached. They eyed him up and down, carefully taking him in until he sheathed his sword. They looked around curiously at each of the rest of the group. An observant pair these two were, until they saw Tex’ana, and they glanced nervously back to their kill.

  “What are you hunting these creatures for?” called out Nikolao.

  “For food sir,” the first one said.

  “Respectfully, sir, there’s no game laws against hunting these beasts,” the other one said. His voice was nasally, but still carried the thick, city accent.

  “Even if there were, you’re far from the king’s fields,” said Nikolao. “I’ve just never heard of anyone trying to eat them before.”

  “Look, we were just told to find some food, and so we found some food,” the first one replied again. “Appreciate your help though.”

  “You’re from Chath, aren’t you?” Nikolao asked. “Have you been to Blackpool Outlook recently?”

  The two of them shared an uncomfortable glance before the first one responded. “Not exactly sir, that is, not from Chath. We haven’t been anywhere near Blackpool Outlook though, just travelling through the forest.”

  “A shame, we’re headed there soon. I’d hoped you might know if they had spare horses or a carriage. All the same, is your camp around here? Perhaps you have enough spare horses that we might be able to purchase from you? We’re willing to pay richly for them.”

  “More or less around here,” the gruff voice said. “Can’t say we have enough horses for you though, just a couple more of us makes the group.”

  Observation (social) check (?)

  [2]+1

  Jarod thought there was something strange about the two men. The one with the nasally voice in particular kept glancing around nervously. Then Jarod saw the anxious sideways glance at Tex’ana and nearly laughed. He’d started to get used to the sight servant’s presence, but he was certainly an intimidating sight when you first saw him, particularly in a group that outnumbered your own.

  “Well do be careful if you run across another of the creatures,” said Nikolao. “It’s a shame you don’t have horses to spare, but we’d best get moving now.”

  Jarod gave the two riders a friendly nod as the group left them behind on their path to Blackpool Outlook.

  * * *

  The party soon arrived at the junction that would take them either up the mountain path to the village, or down out of the mountains, through the rest of the forest, and across the plains directly to Chath. As the group travelled uphill, Jarod’s mind was still stuck on the moose creature and the two riders they’d met. He just couldn’t get the encounter out of his head, both the monster and the odd riders who had decided to hunt it. Nikolao had made it sound like he knew what the creatures were, so Jarod picked up the pace to join the surveyor at the front of the pack.

  “You wouldn’t happen to know what the monster back there was?” Jarod asked when he fell into step alongside Nikolao.

  “Unfortunately, I do, and many others like it,” Nikolao responded. “They’ve only started appearing recently, more so in the northern parts of Excelsia. We’ve taken to calling them hinge-neck moose, although it’s not for official use, just a moniker.”

  “Are they fae creatures or something?”

  “No, they don’t seem to be. There’s some research investigating their origin back in Chath, but we don’t fully understand them. We’d really prefer people bring them in for us to investigate if they kill them, but it wasn’t worth the trouble with the riders we ran into earlier. As far as we can tell though, they come from the Tildan Republic, perhaps released intentionally to disrupt things down here in preparation for war”

  He looked seriously at Jarod. “Don’t speak of that to anyone. Information on the war effort that should best be kept under wraps.”

  “I’ll keep it secret.”

  The two of them were quiet for a while before Nikolao spoke up again. “Did you notice anything… odd about the riders?”

  “Nothing in particular,” said Jarod. “But they did give me a strange impression. Weird for them to be hunting a creature like that, and for them to run it down on the main road.”

  “Yes, a strange spot to run into hunters. Ah well, nothing serious, I’m sure. I’ll worry about it later, for now we have horses to get.”

  Jarod felt his staff hit the cobblestone of a town road. He looked up the slope. There, perhaps a quarter mile away, were the tall sloping walls of Blackpool Outlook.