Chapter Nine

A race to disaster

Gordon led the gang back to the Crossings and then headed west about a quarter mile before cutting through some brush and putting them on a small narrow trail. They walked beside their mounts so they could rest.

"Where are you taking us Gordon?" asked Natalie.

"We're headed to a secret spot for a quick rest."

"Good idea the animals are probably tired after the run." Egan piped in.

The path led to a small stream with crystal clear water, nice shade trees, and wildflowers growing along the bank.

"Wow… I never knew this was here and I've been this way quite a few times." Douglas said.

"Ya me and Buffus found this spot and we stop here everytime we come this way." Gordon said smiling.

"Buffus and I" Natalie corrected. Gordon's smile faded. She continued to talk without noticing his change in demeanor. "Yes it's quite nice here we should have lunch I packed some sandwiches." She untied one of her saddlebags and pulled out a brown paper bag. The delicious smell of roast beef and cheese sandwiches came from the bag and Gordon's smile returned.

After they ate lunch and the animals were rested they got ready to set off, but not before Gordon and Douglas got into an argument about how delicious Natalie's sandwiches were. Egan and Natalie broke them up and they were ready to go on their way.

Gordon led his friends up another small trail that led to a wall of thickets. Buffus had a little trouble with this trail thanks to his horns,but he just pushed through breaking a few vines and limbs along the way. Buffus then pushed his way through the thickets and was back on the main road. When they were all back on the road Gordon straightened the brush up so it didn't look so obvious there was a trail on the other side.

"Darn it Gordon that trail was pretty skinny. Now what are you doing?" Douglas asked.

"I'm hiding the trail." He responded.

"Why?"

"Because if everyone knew about it me and Buffus's spot would be trampled"

"Isn't that kind of selfish?" Douglas asked Gordon.

"I hadn't thought of it like that…" Gordon frowned as he said this and began to think. Is it wrong of me to hide it? Maybe I am being selfish… I'll have to think on this more later. "Let's go" he said sullenly.

"You ready Alicia?" Natalie asked her horse before mounting up. Egan and Douglas got up on their horses.

Gordon looked at Buffus, who was laid down so Gordon could get on, Gordon really didn't want to ride again. Buffus grunted and tossed his head back as if to say "come on or they'll think they're better than us". Gordon sighed and got on.

"Please don't try and kill me again." Gordon told Buffus. Buffus took off at about the speed of a horse's trot and Gordon started to relax as the rest of his group followed along.

It wasn't long before they came to a split in the road Gordon started to lead them to the left, but he heard Douglas start to say something.

"Hey where are going? It's quicker to the right and it's got better scenery."

"Maybe, but the road is a lot smoother to the left." Gordon replied.

The road to the right was shorter and it followed the coastline, but the frequent storms wrecked the road considerably and some sections were so rocky and washed out they didn't deserve to be called road at all. The road on the left was constructed further inland to avoid the worst of the storm damage. It was also a much newer road and was designed better.

"I cut straight through the middle it's fastest by far." Egan said this in a matter-of-fact kind of way.

Gordon and Douglas both looked at him like he was crazy. Gordon then looked straight toward the middle of the fork in the road. There was some kind of trail but it looked skinnier than the trail leading to and from his spot.

"What do you think Buffus?" Gordon asked his buffamoo "I'll let you decide". Buffus started to go into the trail then stopped. His horn span was wider than the the path in between the first two trees. Buffus backed out and snorted. He looked at the road to the right before walking toward the road on the left.

"Looks like we're going this way." Gordon said smugly.

"Well I'm going this way and I'm gonna get to Salty Harbor first. See ya on the flip side!" Douglas said before him and Shadow took off to the right.

"Hmph… Egan can we beat him if we go your way? Natalie asked the elf.

"Shadow is pretty fast… I think we can still beat them though; If we go right now." Egan answered.

"Wait! I can't go that way and we should stick together." Gordon said.

"That's fine we'll meet you there. Egan will protect me, right?" She smiled sweetly at the elf.

"Er.. Right!" Egan's face turned a light shade of red as he answered her.

"Bye Gordon" Natalie said as she and her horse walked into the trail.

Egan just shrugged his shoulders towards Gordon as they disappeared into the woods. Gordon and Buffus were left alone.

"Well Buffus it's just me and you… let's go" Gordon said. They took off down the left road Buffus keeping a more reasonable pace than last time.

000

"Egan. There is no way this trail is faster." Natalie said as she held a branch out of the way for her horse.

"Just a little further and the underbrush lightens up" Egan told her.

They pushed through the last of the brush and they entered a area where the trees grew so tall and thick the sunlight couldn't pierce the leaf canvas. With the lack of sun most of the foliage couldn't live leaving only small shrubs and shade loving plants with plenty of room in between. They mounted back up and Egan lead Natalie in between a few trees and down a straight path before stopping abruptly.

"Why are you stopping?" Natalie asked as Egan jumped off his horse.

Egan knelt down and examined the ground. There were tracks of a few different monsters crossing their path. Goblins, Orcs, wolves, and a few others made up the tracks; Egan even thought he saw a bootprint. "There's monster tracks crossing the path. Let's hasten our pace" he told her before remounting. He looked to the right in the direction the tracks were headed, but he didn't see anything.

"Okay" she said a hint of worry in her voice.

About a quarter mile further down the trail Egan stopped again. There were more fresher tracks crossing the path coming from a different angle, but still headed to their right. Egan focused his listening to his right ear; he then cupped his hands around his right ear. The cup his hands made was wide and his long elf ear stuck out like an antenna. Egan began to move his head left to right looking for a signal.

Natalie watched in fascination as he zoned in on something only he could hear and began to slowly move his head with it. She began to worry. Maybe we should have all stayed together. She noticed Egan motioning for her to come closer and obeyed.

"I've got a bad feeling. We need to get back on the main road." Egan could hear goblins and orcs hooting and hollering, but he didn't want to tell her that. To him it sounded like they were chasing someone, but he hoped that they were fighting each other. Egan led her further down the path and then took a left onto a side trail.

000

"The sun is shining, there's a breeze in the air, and the ocean is beautiful. They just don't know what they're missing. Ain't that right Shadow?" Douglas asked his faithful steed.

Shadow did not agree; It was hot, the salt air stung his nostrils, the path was rough, and he was wanting to race that buffamoo head to head again. He snorted in retort to the question, but Douglas didn't notice.

"Ah and there goes the sea" Douglas said as the path led inland and back into the forest. "Oh well at least the road is smoother. Are you ready to run?" Douglas asked.

Shadow responded by taking off down the road. He accelerated to full speed and pushed it even further until he couldn't run no faster. Next time he raced Buffus Shadow would be way ahead.

Douglas was uncomfortable with this new speed. The road was almost a blur as the wind whipped by. He tighten his grip on the reins and gave a slight tug to slow Shadow.

Shadow slowed to a trot. He was breathing a little heavy, but he felt good.

"Easy there Shadow. You don't have to prove your speed to me." Douglas said slightly shaken. "Maybe we should take a break" they turned a corner as he said that and next thing they knew they were right in the middle of a hoard of monsters mostly goblins and orcs. "Or maybe we should keep on running."

Shadow saw the situation at hand and bolted down the road again. The goblins and orcs began to hoot and holler and gave chase. The monsters without mounts were quickly left behind, but a couple of the goblins were riding wolves and a few of the orcs were on horses.

All the noise that the monsters had started up was deafening, yet Douglas could make out the words "Don't let him escape" come out from behind him.

000

Gordon already had a bad feeling and when Buffus veered to the right side of the road and stoped at the edge of the woods it got worse.

"What's up Buff?"

"Moo…" Buffus sounded worried.

"I know Buffus, we all should have stayed together." Gordon didn't like the way Buffus was staring at the woods. "We couldn't get to them that way even if we tried. All we can do is continue on and meet them there. Let's go Buffus."

Buffus continued down the road a little faster than before.

"You're wanting to get there quick huh..." Gordon made sure his gear was all still tightly secured before continuing "go on Buff get up to a good speed just don't kill me please."

Buffus accelerated to a speed just a tad bit slower than his mad dash to the Crossings had been.

Gordon had a good hold of the reins and felt comfortable with the speed they were going. He didn't know whether he was getting used to the pace or if it's because he knew how fast they were to be going ahead of time, but he felt like he was in control now. Buffus seemed to have sensed that and sped up some to the speed of his mad dash, but now it felt like a controlled run. Him and Buffus were one and they were one with the road. It felt good, no wonder Douglas liked going fast so much.

Gordon's attention was fully on the road ahead of him when a man on a horse came out of the woods to the right. There was no time to stop. Gordon pulled on the left side of the reins and Buffus veered left, they passed by the man narrowly avoiding his horse, Gordon pulled the reins right and they straightened back out. Gordon never skipped a beat as they continued, until he realized that man looked awfully familiar, he pulled on the reins and stopped Buffus.

Buffus slowed to a stop and Gordon looked behind him. The man and his horse were joined by a woman and her horse and now they were coming toward him. It was Egan and Natalie and Egan's face was pale white.

"I thought for sure you were gonna hit me." Egan told Gordon as they got closer.

"Haha. I was in full control!"

Buffus snorted in disagreement.

"Ok I guess Buffus was in full control" Gordon said with a grin; the trill of speed still exciting him. "I'm surprised you didn't hear us coming Egan."

"All my hearing was focused on the monster activity in the woods. That's why we jumped back on the main road. I need to remember to look both ways at all intersects, that could have been bad." Egan said with a bit of embarrassment in his voice.

"What kind of monster activity?" Gordon asked.

"It sounded like they were chasing something to the south, they were headed east." Egan said while pointing to the right.

"South. East." Gordon said sligtly confused. He grabbed his map and took a look. "You mean North and West."

"No. South and East." Egan said as he took a look at Gordon's map. He let out a snicker before telling Gordon "You're holding that map upside down."

"Egan's right we're headed east." Natalie said.

"But there's the N." Gordon pointed at the cardinal dial.

"That's a S." Egan told him.

"Well if you turn the map this way.." Gordons voice drowned off as he realized they were right. He didn't feel too bad no one else ever noticed; Douglas hadn't noticed. "Wait they're chasing something towards Salty Harbour…"

"Douglas." Natalie said what he was thinking.

"Shadow's fast, but he can't run forever." Egan stated.

"All we can do is hope he makes it to town and gets help, while we try to catch up." Gordon said.

"We should have stayed together" Natalie said.

"I said that from the beginning." Gordon said before back off down the road. Egan and Natalie followed trying to keep up.

000

"Hang on Shadow! We're almost out of the woods" Douglas encouraged his horse.

They had gained a good lead on the horde behind them, but more monster calls could be heard all around them. It sounded like they were everywhere and closing in. Douglas knew there were monsters in the forest, but he had never seen them cluster and work together like this before.

Douglas hoped they wouldn't leave the forest; he didn't want to lead monsters into town. If they did follow past the forest boundaries he hoped Shadow would still have the energy to out run them. Douglas was sure if the terrain wasn't so rough Shadow would have left that horde far behind.

The trees started to thin out up ahead. Douglas thought they would get out without an incident, but a bunch of goblins ran out of the thickets and formed a barricade at the forest edge right in front of them. Shadow was going too fast to stop. The goblins, being cowardly creatures, moved out of the way.

As Douglas and Shadow shot through the hole in their barricade the goblins swung at him with swords and knives. Douglas felt a sharp pain in his right calf. He dared a look down and seen his leg covered in blood, but it wasn't all his blood. Shadow had been hit too; he either didn't notice or was too scared to care.

They broke free of the tree line and Salty Harbour was within view. Douglas could hear the monsters following behind him but he knew Shadow was exhausted and injured so he determine that their only chance was to head straight for town. As they got closer to town he seen smoke rising from the middle of it. It didn't look good at all in fact it looked like a disaster.

A special thanks to CWB for the detailed review and support and to my buddy who left his comment too.

Now Clara had a few questions that a few others may have had too so I'm going to answer them here. Everyone else can feel free to ask me anything.

[Reference the third comment of this story for her full questions and timeline.]

(Correct me if I'm wrong but, isn't Gordon the name of the Kardia town mayor?)

1. Godwin is the mayor of Kardia. Gordon is the Alvarna's priest with a warrior past.

(Are Kardia and Alvarna the same but changed over the years?)

2. Kardia and Alvarna are similar, but they are different locations. Kardia's beach is to the East and Alvarna's port is to the South. I made a mistake with my cardinal directions when I started that I addressed in this chapter (I was using someone's world map online and they had the sea to the north).

Cecilia she moved to Alvarna. I address this next chapter! (Don't hold your breath it takes me a while to type in my freetime).

(Her timeline is the same I follow and seems to be accurate).

CWB's take on the timeline is the same as mine so her explanation is great. Gordon's story takes place 20 years before RF2 so it's 10 years before the first Rune Factory game(Raguna would be about six). It's like a prequel. There will be more references to the other games.

(What do you think about all the in-game references?)

5. I think it's awesome how much thought the writers and developers put in on all the references and related details.