Chapter XII: Discovered

Six days after the caravan had departed, life in the village carried on just as it had before, only without nine people. Manna had cried the night of the departure, but she had recuperated and taken up visiting Arthur's mother and sister almost daily. A week after they left, Manna was visiting Kurt's farm and helping Matthew's mother Anna to clean.

"Have you really recovered, Dear?" asked Anna, to which Manna nodded. "Well, I hope so. Arthur would be sad if he knew you were missing him so, or maybe he would be happy that's he's so missed. I don't know." She didn't know what to say to cheer Manna up. "Oh, did you see Matthew and Nora? The way they stayed together at that party! I'm so happy for him," she said happily.

"Yes, they are well suited for each other," said Manna, still missing Arthur. "Arthur told me that they would walk home together after lessons."

"Yes, I noticed that also! Did you know that Matthew has been completely enamored with Nora ever since he first met her? I could never understand why he didn't tell her sooner!" Manna thought of her own problems with Arthur.

"Some people are just foolish, I suppose. They can't find the words or the moment to tell their loved one, but mostly they lack the courage." Anna had quit washing the dishes and looked at Manna with a new opinion.

"Did you have similar problems with Arthur?" she finally asked.

"Yes." Manna's hair on the back of her neck stood.

"Well, I'll have to hear about that now!" Anna said.

"Excuse me, but you should prepare yourself or hide, I think," Manna said gravely as she headed to the door. She left the farm and sprinted down the road to her own house. When she got inside she went to the bedroom and lined her pockets with magicite, palming a light magicite before heading to the mantle to retrieve her sword. Out of urgency she left her shield and armor behind as she went outside.

When she reached the main street she saw some commotion at the town entrance, so she made her way towards it. When she got closer she saw townsfolk barring the way against goblins who were attempting to raid the town. Many people were unarmed, so they were injured easily and quickly fell to the ground. As they began to break through, Manna met them with a flare spell, burning several of them instantly to ash and breaking their ranks with explosions. They began to pull back as a curaga spell blanketed the injured townsfolk, reviving many who had passed out and mending every wound. Manna soon saw that Dio had cast the spell and that Guss was with him.

"I had to send them off with my best equipment!" shouted Guss. "I guess I'll have to settle for a lesser spear!"

"Quit complaining and take this," said Dio as he gave a tiny crystal shard to each of them. "Let's go hunt them down. There is no way that we can let them escape!" They all agreed as they headed off.

The town of Adriosc was enclosed on the North and Eastern sides by mountains and on the southeast by the Marr Falls and the Adre River. It was ten miles until the closest bridge across the water, and a root of the mountain came down the northwest side of the woods near Adriosc, so the goblins would be funneled into a passage only three hundred feet across before it would spread again. This small passage had helped to hide the town, and so too would it also help to herd all of the raiders together before escaping.

Dio cast a hastega spell, which doubled the speed of the target, allowing the three retirees to hunt down every last goblin. If but one were allowed to escape, it would only return with more. No goblin was spared as they retreated. The veterans ran circles around them, rounding them into a group and surrounding them. Then the caravanners finished them off by Dio casting a bioga spell, a widespread powerful poison spell that would kill any goblins who did manage to escape. After picking off as many as they could, the veterans let the rest flee to die eventually.

"Is anyone hurt?" asked Manna after the battle was over.

"We're fine," said Dio.

"That was great!" bellowed Guss. "They won't be going very far now, will they Dio?" Dio nodded his head and the three went back to town. When they make it back, they found that Anna was mourning for her husband and son-in-law, both of whom had fallen during the initial attack.

"What will I do?" sobbed Anna over her husband. "Can you do anything?" she pleaded to Dio. He pulled out the life magicite he had used in the haste spell earlier and thought.

"I hope it hasn't been too long," he said. Life magic couldn't revive someone who had been deceased for much longer than twenty minutes or so. It also couldn't work on someone who had been decapitated or had lost any vital organs. Regardless, Dio cast the spell and, after a couple of minutes the two men awoke.

"Oh thank goodness!" cried Anna as she embraced her husband. "Thank you!" Dio cried as well, almost having lost friends to the goblins. Soon everyone was accounted for and Dio's crystal shards were returned.

"That's was exciting," Guss said, but then changed his tone when he saw how everyone else felt. "Let's hope it doesn't happen again."

"They probably spotted our caravan leaving and back tracked to find us," reasoned Dio. "Otherwise I don't think they would have found us."

"Yes, that would be most probable. I hope our caravan's alright," said Manna. "I'll write a letter to them." Manna made her way to the local moogle hole and found Mago lounging outside on a rocking chair.

"Hello, Manna, kupo!" he said in a high-pitched voice.

"Hello Mago. I need you to deliver a letter for me." Mago stopped rocking.

"Have you written it already?" he asked.

"No, but I can right now," she said as she borrowed a piece of paper and a quill.

"Take your time," Mago said, not in any rush to leave just then. Manna did take her time, relaying all that had happened and the concerns for their well being. She also added "I love you" for Arthur since he was likely to read it first. "Finished?"

"Yes. Thank you for doing this," she said.

"No problem! I get so much food from the townsfolk. I don't mind at all, kupo!"

"Thank you again," Manna said as she left her letter with him. "Oh, they will probably be heading for the Cave."

"Got it!" said Mago. Mago hopped down and went to his comfortable moogle hole, which was furnished just as a house, and prepared to leave. He wiggled his way into a clean outfit, which covered his whole body in one piece. It was difficult since he had such small hands, which were invisible through all of his fur. His clothes he now wore had a pouch in the front for letters, and he also stashed a couple handfuls of kupo nuts for the journey. Having prepared and retrieved a drink of water, he closed his front door behind him.

On his way out of town he could hear the elder assuring everyone that the goblins only found them because of the caravan and that the further away the caravan went, the more unlikely that they could be traced back to Adriosc again. After passing the border of the town's aura, Mago sped through the woods heading to the gap and, after that northward to the Cave. He needed no crystal and breathed normally in the miasma, being impervious to it as a moogle.

"I hope they're alright, kupo!" said Mago as he flew away.

The caravanners at that time were indeed far from home, and just passed halfway to their first drop of myrrh. The wagon was stopped beside a small mountain stream so that the caravanners could refill their water barrels. Three of them had gone empty, but one was still left for them to drink over the next couple of days while the fresh water purified. The trees had thinned since they had started slowly up the mountainside. The provisions were running low, but Arthur knew that soon they would find some food along the road where he and the veterans had planted some years before.

"We haven't come this way for a few years, so there should be plenty of food up ahead," assured Arthur. "We just need to hope that the local fauna haven't discovered it."

"What is there?" asked Johann.

"I don't remember what we planted, but it would have to be either root vegetables or vine fruit since cherries and apples grow slowly on trees. You never know, though." Johann looked saddened by this.

"I wish there were some meat. We're almost out of jerky and I'd like something fresh anyway," he said sadly. Arthur looked to Nora.

"What do you say, Nora? Do you feel like hunting?" Arthur asked. Nora's expression darkened.

"You want me to kill something to eat?" she asked, not really enthusiastic about the idea.

"That is the definition of hunting. We may find something good enough in those trees over there," he said pointing to a far off forest.

"Why don't I do it?" Galen offered. The others looked at him curiously.

"Okay, you want to get in some practice on an animal, I take it?" Arthur asked. "Let's just see what we can find."

The three of them headed into the woods with the chalice, leaving the rest of them with the wagon. When they made it in a few hundred feet, they spotted a deer in the distance. They crept as close as they could before stopping.

"May I borrow your crystal ring, Arthur?" Galen asked. Arthur slipped it off and handed it to Galen, who put it into his pocket since it wouldn't fit on his fingers. Then he prepared a few magicite and ran off towards the deer as quickly as he could. When the deer saw him he cast a stop spell using life, thunder, and fire magicite. With the deer frozen in time Galen closed the gap a clobbered the deer on the head with his hammer. It died instantly and fell when it was released from the spell.

Nora was sad when they walked back to the wagon with their kill, but the Lilties were happy as could be. "I can't wait until tomorrow so we can have some meat!" said Michael happily.

"That's right, we'll butcher it today, then freeze it and eat tomorrow!" said Johann. All returned to the march beside the wagon save for Da, who butchered the deer out the back of the wagon.

"I don't like killing things," Nora said to Matthew.

"We'll have to when we get attacked," reminded Matthew.

"I know."

The next day came with no change of scenery. The mountains were still to the right and lightly wooded land lay to the left. The junior caravanners were really feeling their lack of sleep, but they were also learning to ignore it at the same time. It was to the point where the caravanners could take turns resting on the wagon four at a time. Laurel was nearly due for a break when Arthur signaled her to stop the wagon. Da hopped down and ran with the chalice to an area run over with weeds. Among the weeds grew a hidden garden tended by nature itself, full of roots crops and sweet cabbage growing in what looked like a mass of weeds. The weeds, however, only grew over and among the crops without choking them, thus concealing them from goblins and other fauna.

"This is it!" called Da to the others. He returned to lead the two other veterans and the young Clavats to the spot. "You see?" he said, pointing to the patch of weeds. "We hid this crop from others by transplanting benevolent weeds among the food." Matthew and Nora stared at the food, wanting very badly to eat some.

"Whose idea was that?" asked Nora.

"Mine," said Arthur, "but Dio helped to pick the camouflage. He knew even more than I about plants!"

"That's brilliant!" complemented Matthew.

"Dio called it 'chameleon vine'. It grows over and around nearby objects, but not too thick or tight so as to strangle. Its leaves are so thin in fact that light passes right through them and onto what ever its host objects. By growing over the crop, goblins couldn't discern the leaves of such root crops from the vines. We'll get plenty of food to last to our first drop. After that I'm not sure. We can probably find another cache like this one."

"Actually, there were some fruit trees at the base of the mountain," reminded Momo.

"Right, so we'll be alright!" said Matthew. Arthur nodded.

After plans had been set, Mog flew out from the wagon suddenly and back up the road in the direction from which they had come. When he returned, he came with another moogle.

"It's Mago, kupo! He brings word from Adriosc!" said Mog. Arthur ran out to meet them.

"Greetings, Mago!" Arthur said. "What brings you here? Oh no, where are my manners? Come and eat with us!" He motioned for them to follow him to the wagon. When they made it back everyone began to eat. "We just happened upon a hidden garden of ours, so you can eat whatever you want from what's left of our store in the wagon, or if you would prefer you can eat from the garden," he said while pointing over to the secret crop. Being famished, Mago ran on foot to the garden and jumped in head first, wiggling his feet in the air as he pulled out some carrots and a potato. He sat next to the garden and ate his take and some kupo nuts, which were every moogle's favorite food. Some of the caravanners were taken aback by how cute Mago was when he was hungry.

"Well, what says the letters?" Johann asked. Arthur suddenly remembered and opened it. After a few minutes of reading while the others continued to watch Mago eat, Arthur finally put the letter away for his own keeping.

"A troop of goblins attacked the village yesterday," he began. The other whipped around with surprise. "They were defeated, but Dio thinks that they may be part of a larger group that saw us traveling away from Adriosc, and then traced us back to the town." Everyone was saddened to know that their home had been attacked after they had left. "There's no need to worry, though. They say that the fight was easy and that the further away we go the less chance there is to be traced home. They will be fine with Manna, Guss, and Dio there." The rest were quiet for a moment.

"Yes, they'll be alright!" assured Momo Zi.

"Let's just worry about our quest for now," added Da Keh. Nora sighed and the junior caravanners remained worried since they couldn't do anything to help the town but to hurry back after their journey.

Later than night after traveling for several more miles, they set up camp again and began their shifts, Mago sleeping with them as well. Matthew and Momo took up the first watch that night, followed by Nora and Da. As Nora passed Matthew's bedding, he awoke. When she had become settled, Nora saw Matthew coming to her bed. The sensation of Nora's light, feminine body resting peacefully, taking slow and deep breaths, had remained fresh in Matthew's memories. The nights had also felt colder to Nora since that night.

As he approached, she lifted the edge of her covers to him inviting him into her bed. He stretched out in her bedding and she pulled the covers over him before settling on his shoulder. She reached for his lips with hers and kissed him before resting her head on him. Matthew stayed awake for a moment to look up at the stars before drifting off into a happy slumber.


Yeah, I wanted to keep returning to the town to check up on how things are doing with the others. I can't just keep writing about the caravan all the time! (Besides, it gives me more opportunities to skip large spans of time to keep the story moving along...) I am currently hand-writing chapter seventeen, so I'm further behind than I have ever been:( Oh well, no pressure on me to type because it hurts my back to sit up straight for so long. Anyway, I hope this chapter satisfied and stuff. I'll get to the first dungeon in the next one, so keep reading! Reviews would be nice too. Just so you're forewarned, the next chapter is a biggy, so it may be a while before I get it up with all the typing involved. I mean, very long! Probably about 5000 to 6000 words. The first dungeon takes a while, but oh well. I'll probably end up splitting it into two chapters, now that I look at how long it is going to be.