The road to Centralis was a long and winding one, but Willow and her comrades had stumbled on a certain degree of luck. They may have been behind bars, technically, but travelling in the back of a Watch cart was a lot more comfortable than walking the whole distance. Of course, if things had gone their way just one night before, they would have been in a different carriage with actual seats, and proper windows. Still, they were grateful for little blessings, and Rob was now the proud owner of a brand new bandana which he was wearing as a sort of trophy, grinning from ear to ear behind his thick bushy beard.
Willow looked around at her colleagues in the back of the cart. There were six of them in total, including herself, and her old travelling companion Rob, a dwarf barbarian who was currently swigging ale from a flask.
"Do you maybe want to lay off the alcohol, for once in your life?" Willow asked him, giving a pointed stare. He turned to her, and shrugged, and continued to drink. She sighed, and thought back to the events of the previous few days.
The previous afternoon, numbering just five, they had set off from the coastal town of Morfirth, with its palm trees and sandy beaches, following the path towards the capital of Centralis. A few weeks prior, Willow had received a letter, inviting her to join the 'Wish Seekers'; the letter gave no clue as to the purpose of the organisation, only that at some point in the past she had been involved with a member and had impressed them sufficiently enough to be invited into their ranks. Upon arriving in Morfirth by ship, she had encountered a number of others with similar letters, all on their way to the Wish Seeker headquarters located in the capital.
"Excuse me, young miss, but I'm looking for passage to Centralis. I believe a carriage can be hired here?" The voice belonged to a man of roughly middle age, and was aimed at a slightly dumpy, yet moderately pretty, girl, by the name of Jean. She just happened to be the owner of a coach service running between Morfirth and Centralis, and gave her assent to the man as she stood in a stable grooming a pair of sandy-coloured horses.
"That would be right, mister…"
"Lionel Grey. Although, less of the 'mister'. It's actually Cleric."
"Ah, I'm so sorry," said Jean, with a slight bow of respect for the holy man. "If you'd like to step inside, I'll go through the rates and we can sort out your payment." She led the way around the stables to a small door in the corner, and beckoned Lionel inside, who followed directly. Before the door could close behind them, however, a slender young woman with wavy red hair rushed up to them, slightly out of breath.
"I'm sorry, did I hear you right just then? You're travelling to Centralis?"
"Yes, that would be correct," said Lionel, wondering who this woman could be. "And you are…?"
"Willow. Just, Willow. I'm heading there myself, any chance we could maybe share a lift?" She looked at him earnestly, waiting for some kind of agreement. He turned to Jean and gave her a brief glance, to which she replied with a curt nod, and set to work organising the paperwork.
"As it happens, you're not the only ones looking to travel to the capital today. I've got three more in the waiting room all paid up and ready to go. Lucky the carriage has space for six."
Through a small window in the office, Willow and Lionel looked out to see three more people sat on benches, either reading or simply napping. Willow recognised one of them, the dwarf who was lying across two seats and snoring heavily. Also present was a half-elf, perusing a book the topic of which neither could quite make out, and a dark-skinned woman with features that seemed vaguely recognisable to Willow, but who she was certain she had never met previously.
"Popular destination these days," Jean continued. "Lots of people carrying these strange letters, not a clue what they mean, but I'm not complaining. Good for business, eh?" The pair muttered in agreement, as Jean drew up a set of papers to confirm the rates to be paid, the terms of travel and liability waivers in case of bandit attacks and other unfortunate and unforseen events on the road. With everything signed, and gold exchanged, they all shook hands, and headed to the waiting room to meet their fellow travellers.
As it turned out, the liability had been a very wise move by Jean. She was not only the owner of the business, but also the driver, and it seemed she did everything else within the company as well. Along the road, their carriage had been attacked by bandits and their Hell Hounds, and the poor girl had been knocked unconscious when the carriage overturned. A quick pursuit in the forest led the party to the bandit lair, inside an abandoned house, where they fought and managed to kill the remaining villains. Jean, however, had vanished.
The party had soon taken advantage of the now empty house, and slept off their wounds. In the morning, two surprises had come along, one after the other – an addition to their little group in the form of Kristoph, something of a new-age wood elf, who had also been tracking the same bandits and also received a card from the Wish Seekers – followed by a knight and a priest, affiliated with the Centralis Watch, along with their main church. Initially they had been ready to attack the group believing them to be the bandits, but when they saw the bodies and received a vote of confidence from their newest member, the pair had been all too willing to accept their innocence and offer them a lift to Centralis. Now, they were just a few hours away from their destination, hopeful of little disturbance along the road. Of course, they should have known things would never be so easy...
"Alright, lunch break. Everyone out!" The carriage stopped alongside a pleasant and shallow brook, sometime around midday. The knight, who was driving, came around to open up the back of the wagon and let everyone stretch their legs, and maybe grab a bite to eat. "You people got any food for yourselves?"
They answered in the affirmative, generally carrying rations along the way, before Kristoph piped up. He had a rather special skill, he explained, and was able to produce a number of berries that could keep a person refreshed and full for a whole day. To demonstrate, he conjured up a handful and distributed them amongst the team. Everyone received one, including the two holy men and the animated armour they had enchanted to stay guard. All in all, it seemed as if for once things would be quiet and peaceful.
As they rested, Lionel took the opportunity to strike up a conversation with the half-elf, curious to know more about the people he was journeying with. So far both Rob and Willow had proven relatively evasive, with the former more interested in his drink, and the latter resisting any attempts to be meaningfully sociable. It would appear the desire to share a ride had been borne more out of necessity, as this was one of the very few services to run between the town and the city, rather than her wanting to make friends or influence people.
"So," he began, "what brings you to the capital with the rest of us?"
The half-elf looked up, and paused a moment, as if weighing up the cleric, before answering. "I would assume the same reason as the rest of you." He reached into his pocket, and drew an envelope, the broken seal matching that on Lionel's own letter. "I take it we've all received one of these, as many of the people heading north have also done?"
Lionel was mildly impressed at the deductive reasoning shown, but didn't press it any further. Instead, he drew his own envelope, to confirm the other man's suspicions. "It seems we're of the same mind, then. What should I call you, friend?"
"The name is Corryn Sabrae," the half-elf replied. "And yourself?"
"Lionel Grey. It's a pleasure." He reached out a hand, and Corryn took it, shaking firmly. He continued, "What do you make of that one over there?", gesturing towards the dark-skinned girl who sat alone a distance away from the group.
"Ah, now. That would be Kaylessa. Truth be told, I've not spoken much to her. She doesn't strike me as the friendly sort." Corryn went on, explaining that she appeared to be something of a warlock, and had spent most of the day praying to her patron, an Archfey whose name had escaped him. "There is something of the darkness about her, I will say that much. Not too sure I trust her."
The rest of the meal was spent in relative silence. The calm was soon interrupted, however, as the members of the group each looked up to see the armour on either side of the stream shutting down, slumping to the ground as if an invisible switch had been put in the 'off' position. Almost simultaneously, the knight and the priest sank down where they sat, leaning against rocks and trees. Concerned, Corryn ran across to the nearest one and checked to see if he was still breathing. Fortunately, his enquiry was met by a loud snore.
"They're just sleeping. It should be okay..." The words had barely left his mouth when suddenly a large creature emerged from the trees, screeching in a twisted fashion that was somewhere between an owl's cry and an ursine roar. Willow was standing near the edge of the clearing, and recognised them immediately. "Owlbears," she called out. "Watch out!" She ran back and attempted to enter a defensive stance, ready for combat. As one, the rest of her party assumed whatever passed for them each as a fighting position, not only to defend themselves but also their sleeping acquaintances, gathering in a tight circle in the middle of the clearing. A quick count confirmed there were three of them – two larger owlbears, and a smaller one that Willow could only assume was their offspring. Although she hated the thought of fighting against a child, she knew well the damage a full grown owlbear could do. It had been a while since she had faced off against one, but on her travels in the last century she'd certainly encountered the odd few here and there. Something about these seemed strange, though. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but as she looked across to the nearest creature, she saw into its eyes, and thought she could observe a brief glimmer of intelligence. More so than any she'd previously come across. She had little time to dwell on this, however, before the first of the parents charged towards the group, bellowing as it approached.
First blood came swiftly. As a group they were able to hold their own, but soon they were all scattered, each fighting a different opponent. For her own part, Willow was facing off against one of the parents south of the stream, while further upriver the other parent dealt with attacks from Kaylessa and Lionel. They made an unlikely pair in combat – Kaylessa's attacks were brutal, unrelenting, pushing the beast back with barely any effort. Lionel, in contrast, was calm and commanding, serious in his approach and much more controlled, albeit no less effective. Further away, Rob was attempting to take down the baby while Corryn stood away from the melee with his longbow drawn, assisting wherever he could.
With a brief pause in her one-to-one combat with the first parent, aided in no small part by Corryn's bow, Willow was able to glance briefly at Kristoph, stood to one side. At first, he had taken part in the combat, using druidic powers of transformation to take the form of a dire-wolf, but repeated assaults had left him bruised and battered and now he was attempting to recover as much as possible on the sidelines. So far, the owlbears had failed to notice him. She caught Kristoph's eye, and realised with a shared look that he too had noticed the oddity in the situation. She had no time to react, however, before her target took another swing.
Before it could connect, Willow dodged out of the way, staggering back and responding with an assault of her own. In her years at the monastery, she had trained in a number of disciplines, but one had always stuck out for her. Drunken Master, the art of fighting whilst appearing to be intoxicated, using the distinctive movements of inebriated souls to both avoid attacks while also confounding the enemy, putting one in a perfect position to strike. She remembered her first lesson after requesting to be trained in the style. She had naturally assumed that Drunken Master meant fighting whilst drunk, and so she had turned up at the dojo after downing two full bottles of mountain plum wine. In all fairness, her instructor had admitted quietly later on that he'd been impressed that she could hold two bottles without being sick, given the wine was a speciality of the region's monks who were themselves no strangers to the joys of an incredibly high alcohol content and very little oversight. On the other hand, Willow had spent the next three weeks covered in bruises and aching all over, learning the hard way that it wasn't a good idea to turn up to a training session straight after drinking her way through Grandmaster Tei's private stores. In the following months, she had slowly become rather proficient at the use of the Drunken Master style, and now it proved to be handy for weaving in and out of the clumsy attempts of this owlbear to land a hit against her.
One, two, three dodges and a staggered dash to the right, and she found herself in a position to land a critical blow. She brought her quarterstaff down hard on the beast's head, before following it up with a palm strike directly to the face. She heard a loud crack, and blood began to pour from the owlbear's mouth, ears and nose. It dropped to the floor and didn't get up again. Before she could turn and join the others in their own skirmishes, however, Willow heard a loud cry. "No, Momma!"
This startled her, and she quickly looked around to see the baby owlbear rushing towards her, having escaped from Rob who now stood alone, slightly dazed but otherwise seemingly unhurt. Another look towards Kristoph confirmed her suspicions. He could tell as well as she could, that something wasn't right here. Since when did owlbears have this kind of intelligence, let alone the ability to speak the common tongue? Granted, it wasn't much of a speech, the words coming out as guttural and barely intelligible. Willow doubted that the creature would be able to say much else, if anything at all, but clearly it was in distress. Before she could react, it crashed down upon her, clawing and biting, attempting to do any sort of damage as if seeking vengeance for its fallen mother. All she could do was try and fend it off, unwilling now to hurt the poor thing before either she or Kristoph could discover more.
Left and right again, she staggered around and dodged as well as she could to keep the claws and teeth at bay. Soon enough though, she found herself being driven back and with no other option but to strike out. She attempted to pull her blow, but the quarterstaff still did some damage, she could tell. However, it was enough. The baby owlbear cried out in pain, and ran to the side, heading south. Kaylessa looked across, but Willow shook her head and the other girl turned back to her own opponent. She seemed exhausted, but Lionel was managing to hold it off without breaking much of a sweat. Kaylessa retreated slightly to lick her own wounds, and the baby owlbear continued away, escaping successfully into the woods.
For a brief moment, Willow considered following it. What could be causing the strange intelligence that it possessed, and why had they attacked? She thought about it, then decided to hold back. It didn't seem too important, and her colleagues were still in combat. She turned back to the stream, intending to cross it, only to stop when she saw the other parent retreating to the north, bleeding from a number of wounds in its side. Rob stood across the stream from her, panting heavily and clutching his red-stained axe.
"Ah showed that beasty who was boss, eh? Huff, huff..." He tried to catch his breath, but dropped down to the ground, where he was caught by a running Corryn.
"Let's get you up, back in the cart...", he said, half dragging Rob and half guiding him towards the cart parked just a short way up from the battle ground. As they went, their sleeping companions started to stir.
"What... what happened?" They looked over at the corpse of the first owlbear parent, a baffled expression on both faces. "Is everyone alright?"
"We're fine," said Willow, walking over. "Let's just get out of here." Without a further word, she climbed inside the cart with the others, and waited. She knew she would have to discuss the strange behaviour of these creatures at some point with Kristoph, but that could wait. They'd not come out of the fight unscathed; with Kaylessa even more exhausted than Rob she had fallen asleep before they even started moving. With the opportunity to rest though, and renewed resolve, they continued on their journey to Centralis.