Warrior Priest of Dmon-Li - Brian Pratt [48]
As they hurry along, James asks, “How’d they catch up to us so fast?”
“Moving silently,” Jiron replies. “They’re trained for that, whereas we plow through the brush announcing our position with every move we make.”
“No time to rest then,” James announces.
“I wouldn’t advise it,” Jiron says and then hears a groan from Miko. Glancing back to him, he asks, “Tired?”
He just gets a nod from Miko as he tries to keep up with them. The added equipment he’s acquired burdens him more than he’s willing to admit.
After another hour, the sky begins to lighten and they can see that they’re finally approaching the foothills of the northern range of mountains where that lake is suppose to be. When the sun begins to crest the horizon, they locate a somewhat hidden spot and stop for a rest break. Miko immediately collapses to the ground, James hits the ground not too far behind as well. “You guys rest,” Jiron tells them, “and I’ll have a look around.”
Getting a nod in reply, he moves out and soon disappears in the trees. “Think we lost them?” Miko asks James.
Shaking his head no, he says, “I doubt it. I’m sure they have trackers and we’re probably leaving a trail a blind person could follow. It’s just a matter of time until they find us.”
“What are we to do then?” he asks worriedly.
“Keep going, try to stay ahead of them,” he tells him. “That’s about all we can do.” He leans back against the bole of a tree and closes his eyes. The pain in his leg throbbing and he knows he really needs to get off it for a while so it can have a chance to heal. His side has stopped burning from where he’d agitated it earlier. He’d looked at it after the sun came up and found some blood had begun oozing again.
Just them, Jiron returns and says, “I don’t think they’re very close behind us.”
“Good,” says Miko as he stretches out on the ground.
Jiron comes over to him and says, “We aren’t going to have time for you to take a nap.”
“I know,” he replies. “Just let me know when we’re leaving.” Then he closes his eyes as he lays there trying to get some rest.
“We’re not going to be able to keep this pace up,” James tells him from where he’s resting, not even bothering to open his eyes.
“Your leg?” he asks. He can tell James is in pain and the fatigue they’re all feeling is apparent in his face.
“It’s getting bad,” he admits. “Not sure how much longer I can keep going. I also opened up the wound in my side during that last battle.”
“Can you use a puddle or something to find out where they are?” he suddenly asks him.
“Perhaps,” James says as opens his eyes. He gets up and walks over to the river. Using some stones and dirt, he makes a small pool at the water’s edge and then settles down next to it.
As the image in the pool begins to change, they see them sitting by the pool and then he begins to expand the image. It’s quickly apparent that the trees are going to hide everything and that this isn’t going to work here.
“Afraid not,” James says as he cancels the spell.
“Then we’ll just have to trudge on as best we can and hope for the best,” Jiron says.
From where Miko is lying down, they begin to hear snores and they just smile at each other. “Hate to wake him up but we need to get going,” says Jiron.
James groans as he gets up and limps over to him, nudging him with his foot. It takes some doing, but he manages to get him awake. Jiron sets a quick pace, following the river north as they pass deeper into the forested hills. It’s not too much longer before they are able to see the sun glistening off of a large body of water through the trees ahead of them. It’s the lake that the mural back at the ruins had depicted.
It’s not nestled in among the mountains like they’d thought, but rather sits at their base. They can see how the foothills hug its southern shore and turn into mountains on its northern side. The lake itself is quite large and has a large island situated out in the middle of it. The island is wooded and looks deserted.
They turn and follow the shoreline east as the river