10 Onward (1/2)

Li watched as Zagan headed back home. As it was, the demon had to cross the water, and so it did with resolute will now that it had pledged itself to Li, doggy paddling away with all its might. Li turned and moved in the opposite direction, back to the main road where he could tend to Old Thane again.

As he walked through the forest, he shifted back to his human form. He shrank to a tall but human size and his bark peeled off, revealing his human skin, as if it had been there all along. His deer skull head shifted back to the dimensions of a human skull and flesh and skin grew out until he looked presentable to any regular man or woman.

The knight encampment was a pitiful sight. When Li burst out from the forest, kicking his boots on the worn dirt path to get off mud and leaves, he saw that the knights on guard duty had left. In quite the hurry, too. Their swords had been dropped on the dirt path. Recently, too, by the looks of how little dust covered the shining steel.

Li hurried to the encampment and saw that the knights had all peeled their armor off, tossing it every which way, gauntlets, helms, greaves all littering the ground. The fire had been put out and the pot of stew that had once rested atop it was upturned, spilling its savory contents all over the grass.

Li explored the camp and found the knights. They were unarmored and unarmed, huddled together behind several tents. The moon was bright enough that even without Li's night vision, he could make out most things clearly. All the knights were terrified, shaking in their boots.

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”What's going on?” said Li as he walked up the ring of scared knights.

”What are you doing!?” said one of the knights as he looked up at Li, the whites of his eyes

prominent. ”Get to cover!”

Li arched a brow. ”For what?”

”There was an earthquake!” continued the knight, his tone urgent and hurried. ”And Alexandre reported that he witnessed a star stone! If you do not take cover, the fire wave may yet take you!”

”Seems like a crock of shite to me,” said another knight. He squatted behind the tent with his arms lazily crossed. He had a grizzled look about him. Straight and unyielding posture. Cracked lips twisted into a permanent scowl. ”Gods know Alexandre sees all kinds of rubbish with how much hooch he drinks. And if he really did see a star stone, the fire wave would have melted us all alive long ago. And cover? Fat lot of good these tents would have done.”

”But you cannot deny the earthquake happened! The land buckled like an unyielding steed.”

”And now it shakes no more. How about we stop shivering in our breeches and do our job, eh? I, for one, would like to be paid the bonus for bringing back some fresh bandit heads.”

Li understood now. The [Fist of Ymir] had momentarily flashed a massive stone-like structure in the sky, visible even from the camp, and with the ensuing earthquake coming from its impact, these knights thought a meteor had struck, hence all the cowering. But it wasn't his job to tell the knights had really happened. All he really cared about was Old Thane who was notably absent from the group of knights.

”Tell me, where did the old man go?” asked Li.

A knight, the one that had urged Li to cover, answered as he scratched his blonde curls. ”I truly am sorry, but he walked out of camp when the earth started shaking. I tried to tell him to stay in cover with us, but he was convinced that being out in the open was safer. Very stubborn man, he is.”

Li didn't worry much about Old Thane's safety. The earthquake itself wouldn't have done any real damage to the land and the [Fist of Ymir] wasn't a meteor, despite how similar it seemed. There would be no fiery shockwave to worry about.

”Stubborn, that he is,” said Li. ”Well then, I'm off to keep track of him. Stay safe out there, all of you.”