Yuai rode out at the head of the elven hunting party with Onyx beside him. The horses trotted on the new road leading into the southern territories. Hyrondal rode near the back of the party with a handful of Yuai's students. Ahead of him but behind Yuai rode a dozen warriors.
Tufts of grass still dotted the new road between the ruts made by wagon wheels. Hyrondal glanced at the tree stumps left behind from the trees felled to clear the way forward and took comfort in knowing the wood was being used to build manors instead of being left to rot.
The scouts had reported close to three dozen orcs were attacking the settling elves living out in tents. Hyrondal knew the southern territories had no properly established guard, nor yet even its first town, but it was the builders and woodcutters and servants living under canvas while their masters slept safe behind wood walls.
Around the campfire at closing dusk, Hyrondal sat near the flames with Onyx on a tree trunk.
"What I want to know is," Hyrondal said. "Why have you come?"
Onyx clasped a gloved hand to his chest. His facial tattoos gleamed in the firelight. "Why, I practically created the southern territories! You need someone with you who knows the land."
"We have a map," Hyrondal replied.
Onyx looked sideways at him. "I have yet to see you in battle. It is not the same ground as a duel."
Hyrondal raised his dark eyebrows. "I hope you will not be disappointed."
As the days progressed small buildings showed through the trees. Hyrondal glimpsed great patches of cleared ground and saw new growth sprouting in garden plots. The hunting party pushed on into land where stumps no longer marked the miles, and the last garden patch was a thing of the past.
Hyrondal's neck hairs prickled. He glanced into the surrounding trees and saw the elf scouts' seconds before they dropped to the ground. Dressed in browns and greens, they became visible once they stepped into the slanting sunlight.
Yuai called a halt and leaned off his horse to speak with the scouts. One of the scouts pointed further south. "Several dozen orcs came out of the hills and have been attacking the more vulnerable woodcutters and builders. Several elves have disappeared as well. We picked off as many of them as we could and issued a curfew, but that only seemed to encourage them."
"Where were the orcs last sighted?" Yuai asked.
The scout gestured to his companions and they faded back into the trees. The remaining elf said, "I will lead you to the place of the last sighting myself."
The scout moved forward almost as fast as the horses, slithering between trees. It seemed he wrapped the shadows around him and left no leaf nicked in his wake. Finally, he stopped and crouched on a low tree branch. He gestured to the surrounding thick trees and undergrowth.
"I would stay," he said. "But the eyes in this part of the forest are spread thin."
Hyrondal blinked and the elf was gone, yet he heard a flutter in the leaves, a bird perhaps, and turned his head. He caught a glimpse of white.
As Yuai ordered the hunting party forward, Hyrondal lingered to press his hand to a tree. He closed his eyes and steadied his heart to the beat he felt inside the wood trunk. He let himself be free of his body and the tree allowed him to enter.
Hyrondal felt through the tree's roots into the giant maze of roots in the forest floor. He felt through the branches, felt the footsteps of the scouts, and passed them by until he became aware of heavy, tramping feet and followed them toward a—
"Hyrondal!" Faedre, not much older than him, shook Hyrondal's shoulder.
Hyrondal clucked to his horse and shook the abrupt fog out of his vision. The animal broke into a trot and quickly caught up to Yuai. Yuai turned in his saddle to level a glare at him.
"I do not care to see you breaking formation."
"There is a bog up ahead," Hyrondal said apologetically. "And the orcs—"
"I suppose you saw this through the trees?"
Hyrondal drew himself up. "Yes, but—"
"Trees," Yuai said, "Are not worthy sources of information. Go back to your place in line."
Hyrondal's ears flamed red. "I know you do not think much of what I see through the trees, Yuai, but last time I was right."
"Last time was a lucky guess," Yuai replied.
Hyrondal bristled. "I knew what I saw then, and I know what I saw now. I would not place lives on a lucky guess."
Onyx glanced at Hyrondal. "Leave it, Hyrondal, fall back." He winked.
Hyrondal gritted his teeth, but he jerked his horse back beside Faedre. A moment later Onyx joined him.
"What did you see?" Onyx asked.
"Like you care!" Hyrondal snapped.
"I do care," Onyx said quietly.
Hyrondal drew in a breath to calm himself. "There is a hidden bog between us and the orcs. It is hard to spot from land, but I felt it in the tree roots. Orcs are not stupid, Onyx, they have scouts too. It is like—like they are waiting for us."
Onyx quirked a dark eyebrow. "The intelligence of the orcs is questionable. What do you advise?"
"Me?" Hyrondal said uncertainly.
"You," Onyx said firmly. "Direct me and I will follow."
Hyrondal narrowed his yellow eyes. "Really?"
"I never jest," Onyx said mirthlessly.
Hyrondal allowed his horse to fall to the end of the line of elves. He turned his horse into the trees. He surprised himself by riding forward with his heart threatening to break his ribs, but he went trusting his gut.
Onyx and Hyrondal rode on a roundabout path until Hyrondal dismounted and tied his horse to a tree. He sprinted with Onyx behind him until Yuai and his company came into view at their flank.
The horses neighed and tossed their heads but Yuai urged them on. The ground capsized, seemed to sink, turning from moss to bog. The horses sank down to their bellies. The animals screamed and thrashed, throwing their riders to the mud. Lighter than the horses, the elves floundered.
First came the black orc arrows and several elves took missiles to their arms and shoulders as they scrambled for the bank. The cries of pain and the rising stench of blood mixing into the bog curdled Hyrondal's stomach.
Onyx hissed and drew his sword. He glanced at Hyrondal, "I will take care of those bloody archers." He dashed into the woods on silent boots.
Orcs burst from the trees and crossed the bog with sure steps, their black blades naked. Hyrondal watched the way they shifted their weight across the swamp to keep from sinking as he bared his swords and left the cover of the trees.
Two elves were already dead, their throats gashed open. Their bodies were slowly being consumed by the bog. Hyrondal had no time to think, no time to ignore Yuai screaming at him to fall back. There was only him and an impossible situation. He turned to the trees for guidance.
First the tremors in the ground seeped into Hyrondal's feet; he walked the bog with the same sureness the orcs did. With the small and growing tremors, he felt the orcs shift their weight and so felt where they had to step to keep their balance.
The orcs red eyes gleamed. They knew he was a threat and moved to surround Hyrondal, but now elves had made it to the bank, and they lent their arrows and swords to the struggle.
The onslaught of orc arrows thinned. Onyx leapt into the bog, landing lightly, with his sword dribbling black blood. Yuai found his balance. The fight became to easy for Hyrondal and orcs fell around him. The last few creatures fled into the trees.
The elves helped the horses out of the oozing land with mats of woven brushwood. The bodies of their fallen comrades were already enveloped in thick, creeping bog.
Hyrondal sat down breathlessly on a tree trunk and propped his swords up beside him. He became aware of an ache in his shoulder.
"I have never seen anyone move as you did just now," Onyx sat down beside him.
"The roots of the forest sense many things," Hyrondal answered. "I only listened to their hints." He winced.
Yuai strode to Hyrondal's side with bandages and a bowl of clean water. Hyrondal turned a furious gaze upon his mentor as Yuai cleaned the gash on his shoulder and Onyx bandaged it.
"Every time you brush me away elves die!" Hyrondal cried. "It did not have to end this way."
"You do not know what would have happened if you had not blatantly disobeyed me!" Yuai snapped. His eyes flashed. "I begin to think it a shame you did not learn from your father's punishments!"
"That is a wicked thing to say!" Tears welled in Hyrondal's heart. He shoved Yuai away. "Leave me alone. I begin to hate you!"
"I wish you were not my mentor!" Hyrondal screamed after Yuai, as the elf coldly left him.
"He does not have to be," Onyx said quietly. "I am a Captain and entirely within my right to take on an apprentice. Think about it." He patted Hyrondal's shoulder. "Clean up your swords."
Next Chapter: Hyrondal makes a choice. Advance guesses on what he decides welcome!