Luckily for Ragna and company, they were traveling light. In a matter of seconds everyone gathered up their belongings and disappeared into the jungle, long before the orcs landed onshore. Wyn figured they had a five-minute head start on their pursuers, and under normal circumstances, that would have been sufficient. The Drublogs were known for their melee-fighting prowess, not their tracking abilities. In fact, their eyesight and sense of smell was plain lousy. But Kirkley informed everyone that the orcs had a durzog on each barge, and that changed everything. These lion-sized, four legged reptilians had bulging red eyes on each side of their lizard-like heads and a mouthful of long, sharp teeth. Worse yet, durzogs possessed infrared vision and a keen sense of smell, which made them natural trackers.
Kirkley urged everyone to pick up their pace as they moved through the underbrush and Ragna suggested that he and Tealeaf were best equipped to deal with the durzogs. As a boy, Ragna had been trained by the Greybeards in the art of wilderness living, and he knew Tealeaf's ability to take advantage of her natural surroundings would be outstanding, she was a Wood Elf after all. Tealeaf was surprised that Ragna would consider her or any female well-equipped to do anything other than cook or bear children. She agreed to assist him, albeit reluctantly. The pair traipsed away from the rest of the group, only to return minutes later, their arms loaded with stinkhorn. The orange, spike shaped mushrooms grew in the dark, loamy soil under rotten timber and they were perfect for masking one's own body odor. Unfortunately, as their name suggested, stinkhorn also smelled horrific, a cross between rotten eggs and vomit. Ragna crushed several of them in his hands and despite Aiz'lee's pleas, smeared the juice on everyone except Tealeaf. He even made sure to rub some on the Dead-lad's Dog and Blood Meridian.
Next, Tealeaf unloaded most of her gear: armor-plated vest, bow and arrows, rucksack, water skin, blanket and sword, giving them to Ragna. The only item she kept with her was her dagger. Ragna explained that Tealeaf would need to be light on her feet since she volunteered to lead the durzogs away from the rest of the caravan.
Kirkley objected. "I don't think that's a good idea. Why don't I go instead?"
Tealeaf replied, "No worries, Kirky. Just as you're at home on the seas, so am I in the woods." She smirked. "Actually, I plan on having some fun with this." Then with a sparkle in her eye, she turned and headed off into the jungle, heading in a northeast direction. Everyone else continued heading northwest. Ragna made sure to bring up the rear of the main group, removing any traces of their route, such as telltale footprints and any damaged foliage.
Excited, Tealeaf bounded through the woods, her movement a combination of sprinting and bouncing like a deer. Rather than taking the path of least resistance, see sought out the exact opposite. First, she ran up and down several steep hills in a figure-eight pattern. She was running in larger and larger circles. This might not wind the durzogs, but the orcs will be cursing! In addition, whenever she came across a hollow tree trunk (particularly the smaller-sized ones), she made sure to crawl through them. She couldn't help but grin when she imagined the durzogs getting their heads stuck inside the logs and the orcs having to rescue them!
Sure enough, Tealeaf could hear the durzogs off in the distance, yipping and yelping as they followed her circuitous route. Coming to a massive grove of bamboo, she stopped to catch her breath and think. These bamboos were so thick you could barely wrap two hands around them. Smiling, Tealeaf shimmied thirty feet up the first stalk she came to and with her legs wrapped around the top of the pole, reached out and grabbed onto another shoot nearby. She continued doing that, moving from the top of one bamboo to the top of the next one, until she had traveled about thirty feet through the air. Then, she finally slid back down to the ground. Welcome to my obstacle course, you fang-toothed slumgullions! She then changed directions and ran northwest, hoping to catch up with her comrades, who were now almost a mile away.
Tealeaf didn't wait around to see how the orcs and their pets fared, but if she had, she would have been ecstatic with the results. Despite their size, one of the durzogs had squeezed itself all the way into the middle of one of the hollow tree trunks, and since none of the orcs thought to bring an axe, it took them quite a while to hack into the tree, and pull the animal out. By the time they reached the bamboo grove, both durzogs where tired and beat-up. Even so, one of the animals managed to follow Tealeaf's scent up the bamboo pole, only to fall and snap its neck when it hit the ground. That's when the orcs realized that the two durzogs were mates, because the second one immediately started rolling on the ground and howling inconsolably. Flustered and nearing exhaustion, the orcs turned around and trudged back towards the rest of the Drublog army.
At the head of the caravan, Kirkley paused to check his compass because it was his job to make sure they kept moving in a northwesterly direction. Satisfied that they were still on course, he continued pushing through the vines and spiked thickets in front of him. Wyn followed not far behind him, also on foot. She held the reins of Blood Meridian behind her, leading the horse through the briar patch, so Aiz'lee, who was still blind, could ride. Ragna and the Dead-lad's Dog continued to bring up the rear.
As the group moved even deeper into the jungle, the vegetation overhead got so dense, it prevented most of the available daylight from ever reaching the jungle floor. However, Ragna was grateful for the darkness and the incessant sound of the chirping monkeys which seemed to be everywhere. At least these things would make it difficult for anyone to realize that he was sobbing uncontrollably.
Ragna knew that Aiz'lee was aware of his "condition," but he had hoped she had forgotten about it, or at least thought it was a one-time occurrence. More importantly, he had no desire to let anyone else know about his problem, so he drifted a few extra feet away from the group as he continued to cry. Little did he know, everyone already knew about his condition, and they could hear him crying even now. They just pretended not to notice it! Meanwhile, Wyn quietly thanked the Divines that Tealeaf had not yet returned, as the Wood Elf would have most certainly made fun of Ragna's crying, and that would have only made matters worse.
Once his crying fit was over, Ragna dried his face and rejoined the group. "Hold up a second and I'll make us some lights so we can see where we're going. Don't want anyone stepping on a slumbering panther or giant snake. And believe me, that wouldn't be the first time something like that happened."
Kirkley stopped, dead in his tracks. "That's probably more information than we needed to know, Chap, which leads me to my next question; shouldn't we have circumvented this part of the jungle to begin with? I know it's the quickest route to Velyn Harbor, but-"
Wyn interrupted him, "Not only that Kirkley, but if we were to change direction, Tealeaf would have a hard time finding us."
Kirkley nodded grimly, resigned to staying the course. "True enough." Then he shook several beetles out of his long, white hair. "Make sure to check your clothing and hair ladies, this place is full of creepy crawlers." With that, the females immediately began checking themselves for bugs.
Wyn looked particularly squeamish as she brushed a furry centipede off her shoulders. "Oh my! This is just…grand."
Ragna stuck a chunk of dried welwa fat onto three sticks and handed one to Kirkley and one to Wyn, keeping the third one for himself. Almost instantly, torchbugs appeared out of the shadows, and swarmed to the fat at the tip of each stick. These flying insects pulsed with a green light, providing a decent amount of natural illumination. Wyn and Kirkley were impressed with Ragna's ingenuity.
Kirkley remarked, "Very clever. Or as Aiz'lee would say, that's-"
"Fantabulous!" Wyn and Ragna chimed-in, which made everyone laugh.
"Shadows lie, people die, don't you ever wonder why?"
The disembodied voice ended Ragna's laughter. It sounded like the same, feeble voice he had heard on the sailing ship. Ragna shook his head, as if he was trying to wake himself from a bad dream.
"Shadows lie, people die, don't you ever wonder why?"
He flashed his torchbug light behind him, but no one was there. He said, "Did anyone else hear that?"
Everyone in the caravan stopped moving, and listened intently. After a long pause, Kirkley whispered. "I don't hear anything but the monkeys."
Aiz'lee twisted around in her saddle, her ears twitching. "Me either." That is when Ragna noticed a large, green bug perched on one of Blood Meridian's saddlebags. Moving closer, he saw that it was a praying mantis. Could it be? Moving closer still, he could see that the insect had the same, red markings on its spindly legs as the praying mantis on the ship had.
"Shadows lie, people die, don't you ever wonder why?"
Ragna was incredulous. "Stop kidding around now, folks. No one else heard that?"
Not sure what to make of all this, Wyn and Kirkley looked at each other with a large measure of concern. No one said a word as Ragna gently lifted the insect off the saddlebags and held it up, just inches from his eyes. "I must be losing my mind, then…"