"That wasn't very nice." Shaw told Casey. Casey just snorted.
Sarah stamped her hoof getting the men's attention. Chuck read the MORSE code she stamped out with her hoof. "They want us to mount up." Chuck told Shaw.
"I can't help but wonder where these two plan to take us." Shaw said as he swung up on Sarah's back. Chuck grabbed a handful of Casey's dark mane and swung up onto the NSA agent's back.
Once the two men were mounted, Casey led the way following the course of the river until they came upon the ruins of the cottage and the wild grown garden. Casey walked over to the garden careful of where he put his hooves then stopped. Sarah had followed him and when both of the stopped, Shaw and Chuck dismounted.
"Its a garden." Shaw said. "Looks like there is some vegetables still growing here." He knelt down and examined the plants. Chuck knelt down beside him and reached out to pluck some ripe tomatoes from a plant.
"We should gather as much as we can carry." Chuck said. "There is no telling when we will reach some sort of civilization."
Shaw nodded at that.
While Shaw and Chuck gathered what vegetables and herbs they could from the wild grown garden, Casey and Sarah took the opportunity to graze on the wild wheat and grain.
When the stolen saddlebags were full of what they could harvest, Shaw and Chuck walked over to where the two agents-turned-horses were grazing.
"Maybe we should gather some of this," Chuck slapped a grain stalk in emphasis, "for Casey and Sarah."
"Good idea." They used their swords to cut down some of the stalks, then gathered them together. They tied the bundles together using bits of leather found in the saddlebags, then mounted up, the saddlebags and the bundles of grain lying over the withers of the mounts they rode.
Casey led the way deciding to follow the river hoping it would lead to civilization. Sarah walked beside him matching his pace.
"What are you planning?" Sarah asked Casey.
"At the moment, I am planning to follow this river. If there are villages they would more than likely build beside easily obtained water." Casey answered.
"If we find a village and manage to get Shaw and Chuck settled there, are you planning to stay with them?"
"I really don't know." Casey answered. "What about you?"
"I don't know either. I am not sure that it would be a good idea. They would have trouble feeding themselves much less having to come up with food for two horses like us."
Casey nodded at that.
They stopped about mid-day to allow them to eat. Chuck and Shaw ate what was left of the jerky along with some cheese and a few vegetables from the wild grown garden, while Sarah and Casey ate some of the grain that the others had collected for them.
After they ate and drank, they continued on. As it got later, Casey began searching for a shelter for the two humans. A few hours before it got dark, Casey found a hollow beneath the spreading roots of a large tree. It was not the best shelter, but Casey thought it would have to do.
Casey stopped at the hollow with Sarah following his lead. He stamped out a message telling the human members of the party to camp here.
Shaw and Chuck dismounted taking the saddlebags and bundles of grain they had. Shaw explored the hollow and nodded to himself in satisfaction. While not as deep as the cave, the hollow would serve as an adequate shelter.
"Firewood and pine boughs again," Chuck asked the older agent.
"Yes. Which do you want?"
"I will collect wood," Chuck answered and headed off into the surrounding woods. Casey and Sarah walked away to look for more grazing ground following the course of the river. Shaw used his sword to cut down some pine boughs to be used as bedding.
Chuck came back several minutes later his arms filled with large pieces of wood and branches. "Hey Shaw, I found some mushrooms that I flashed on. Apparently the marine survival guide is in the Intersect. I even flashed on how to make some snares when I spotted some rabbit tracks. Of course the Intersect recognized the tracks." Chuck said.
"Do we have the supplies to make snares?" Shaw asked. He himself had very little wilderness survival training. As an agent he was mostly posted in urban areas.
"I don't know. I can look again," Chuck answered as he laid his bundle down near the entrance to the hollow. Shaw had arranged the pine boughs into two beds on either side of the firepit he had also built. While Shaw started the fire using the flint and steel taken from the saddlebags, Chuck rummaged through them for items he could use to make a snare.
Fortunately, Chuck did find the items he needed and went off to follow the Intersects directions on setting snares. Hopefully by morning they would have some rabbits to add to their meager food supply.
When Chuck returned to the hollow, Shaw had the fire going and was roasting some of the vegetables from the wild grown garden and the mushrooms that Chuck had brought back from his foray.
"The snares are set," Chuck said.
"Good work, Chuck." Shaw added some more wood to the fire. "The vegetables are roasting should be done soon. There's no meat left but there is some cheese."
Chuck nodded as he sat down. When the food was ready the two of them ate as much as they could trying to fill their bellies and fuel their bodies.
Casey and Sarah followed the river until they came across something that pleased them both. Spanning the river was a large wooden bridge and on each side of the river the bridge connected a road that went as far as the eye could see in both directions. The road was hard packed dirt and from the tracks on it there seemed to be a fair amount of traffic on the road.
"Should we follow the road," Sarah asked Casey.
"I think so, but keep your ears open I don't really want to run into any people right now." Casey said.
They walked on the hard packed road following it as it lead away from the river. Within several minutes of walking the two of them heard the sound of creaking wheels and the snort of an animal. Casey and Sarah moved off the road into the trees and continued moving parallel to the road.
It didn't take long for the two long strided horses to catch up to what had been making the noise. It was a man leading an ox that was pulling a two wheeled cart loaded with full burlap sacks. The man's attention seemed to be on leading the stubborn ox, and the road ahead of him that he was unaware of the two big horses moving as silently as they could through the forest.
Casey hoped that the man was heading toward a village. Shaw and Chuck were running out of food. A village would hopefully have stores which they could use the coins found in the saddlebags to buy more food and some supplies.
Much to the surprise of the horses and the man with his cart, and arrow embedded itself into the man's chest. The ox startled when the man fell over onto the road bleeding from his chest. Three men came out of the woods on the other side of the road. The men were armed with bows and knives. One of the men grabbed the reins of the ox to keep it from bolting, while the other two men dug through the clothing of the corpse.
Casey realized that the three men were bandits and an idea began to form in his mind.
Once the men were done taking all they wanted from the corpse, they led the ox and cart off the road into the woods. Casey followed them keeping far enough back so as not to be seen. Sarah followed him wondering what Casey was up to but deciding to keep quiet.
Casey followed the tracks the cart made until they came upon a clearing beside a small stream. Casey and Sarah stayed hidden as they watched the three men enter the camp where two other men waited. The camp in the clearing was haphazard, but Casey saw that they had tents set up. Two fires going with a large cooking pot over one of them and spit over the other told Casey they had food. Five horses were tied to a picket line, their tack lying on the ground beneath one of the trees that the rope was tied to.
As they watched, the men slaughtered the ox. The carcass was then butchered, a few of the cuts going on the spit to be roasted slowly over the open fire while the rest was hung in a wooden box. The men put piles of wood in the metal container connected to the box and started a smoky fire. When the lid was closed to the container the smoke began to fill the wooden box. While one man turned the spit and watched over the smokehouse, the others began unloading the cart.
Casey backed away from the clearing far enough that he could speak with Sarah without drawing the attention of the bandits.
"What is going on," Sarah asked as soon as they were far enough away.
"Those bandits have everything Chuck and Shaw need."
Sarah immediately understood. "How do you want to do this?"
"I am going to circle around and attack from another direction. When I do you start your attack from here. Don't let them get to their weapons or their horses. Try not to destroy anything, just kill the bandits as quickly as you can," Casey explained.
Sarah nodded and Casey vanished into forest to circle around the bandit campsite.
Eventually, Casey got into place and began his charge. The men were startled by the appearance of a riderless horse and did not immediately go for their weapons. That was their first and last mistake. While Casey began his attack, Sarah also charged into the camp. The men were at a disadvantage without their weapons beyond the knives on their belts.
Hooves and teeth were effective weapons and the bandits died bloody deaths. The horses had been startled by the attack but had not managed to break the picket line. Once the fight was over, the horses began to settle down.
"I am going to deal with the bodies, I need you to go back to the hollow and get the others," Casey told Sarah.
"It's getting dark, should we not wait till morning," Sarah asked.
"I would say yes, but I don't want the meat over there to ruin. Hands will be needed to deal with it."
Sarah nodded and headed back to the hollow where they had left Shaw and Chuck.
Though her night sight wasn't very good in her horse body, Sarah was able to make her way to the road where the body of the man still lay surrounded now by carrion birds. Sarah then followed the road back to the river and then went upriver to the hollow where they had left the human members of their team.
At the hollow, Chuck and Shaw were wrapped up in their cloaks lying on pine boughs around a banked fire. When she reached them she stamped her hoof to wake them up. Shaw and Chuck came awake instantly and saw Sarah.
"Sarah, what is going on? Is Casey alright," Chuck asked looking up at the white mare whose body glowed in the moonlight.
In MORSE code Sarah stamped out, "Casey is fine. Need you both to come with me. Bring everything."
Chuck read what she said out loud to Shaw. Daniel nodded, and began packing up their little camp while Chuck put dirt on the fire to make sure it was completely out. When they had packed up their camp, Shaw swung up onto Sarah's back. Chuck then mounted up behind Shaw and Sarah carried them downriver to the road.
"It's a road. They found a road. Do you think they found a village?" Chuck asked Shaw.
"I don't know. They must have found something or they would have waited till morning." Daniel said.
Then they came across the dead man on the road the body being eaten by carrion birds and the two of them began to worry about what Sarah and Casey had found.
At the body, Sarah turned off the road into the surrounding wilderness. Shaw and Chuck ducked the low lying branches as they moved through the trees.
Eventually, Sarah brought them to the clearing where Casey waited. The bodies of the bandits were gone, but the fires were still burning and the encampment was just as Sarah had left it.
"I dragged the bodies far into the woods. It shouldn't attract animals to the camp." Casey told Sarah.
Sarah nodded as she stopped to allow her riders to dismount. Shaw swung his right leg over her withers and slid down her left shoulder while Chuck slid down her right shoulder to the ground.
"Oh wow." Chuck said as he looked around the encampment. "No wonder Sarah came and got us!" Chuck went immediately to the pot that was hanging on a tripod over a cooking fire. He used the hook tool hanging on the tripod to lift the lid of the pot and a ladle also hanging on the tripod to stir the contents.
"Beans, these are beans cooking. They look as if they might be ready." Chuck said.
Shaw was searching the tents. A couple of the tents had bedrolls in them but one of the tents had bags and crates stowed inside. Shaw called to Chuck who came over quickly. Together they searched through the bags and came up with a variety of supplies including bags of sugar, salt, flour, coffee, beans, potatoes and other vegetables. There was also a larger pot, a small kettle, a frying pan, some plates and bowls made from fired earthenware, and utensils made from wood or metal.
After searching through the supplies, Shaw went and checked on the real horses that were picketed between two trees. Shaw being the horseman he was, checked over the animals' carefully. Though the animals weren't in the best of shape, they were not in danger of dying.
While Shaw checked the horses, Chuck found the cart with its full burlap bags. Using a knife, Chuck opened up one of the bags to check the contents.
"Oh wow!" Chuck said as he dipped his hand into the oats that filled the bag near to bursting. "Look Casey!" Chuck told the big stallion who had followed him to the cart. He held his hand filled with oats out to the stallion. "Try some."
Casey stretched his neck out and smelled the oats in Chuck's hand, then began eating the handful of oats. Sarah and Shaw came over and Shaw dipped his hand into the sack to offer Sarah some of the oats as well.
After Sarah ate all the oats from his hand, Shaw picked up the sack and carried it over to tree where the horses were picketed. Among the saddles and other tack where several feedbags. Shaw filled the feedbags and placed them over the horse's faces so they could eat the oats. Shaw then left the sack open for Sarah and Casey.
"Don't eat too much of it, you'll be sick if you do." Shaw warned them. Casey and Sarah nodded at that, then began to eat the oats from the open sack.
"I am going to check on the meat hanging over the fire there and the smokehouse. Chuck why don't you check on the beans again," Shaw said. "We should be able to eat the beans tonight along with some bread and cheese. After I check the meat I will get us some pine boughs to sleep on, I am not to sure of those bedrolls. I am thinking maybe lice so we should probably clean them tomorrow."
"Yeah, definitely no lice." Chuck said shuddering dramatically at the thought as he went to check on the beans.
The beans were ready and Chuck took a couple of bowls from the supply tent along with some spoons. He filled the bowls with beans, added a hunk of bread from the supply tent and a small wedge of cheese, then handed Shaw his while sitting down near the fire on a pile of pine boughs. The two of them sat and ate in silence. Casey and Sarah had eaten enough of the oats and had started grazing on the grass around the camp.
After they finished eating, they placed the lid back on the pot with the leftover beans inside then buried it in the warm coals of the fire. Wrapping up in their cloaks, Chuck and Shaw then lay upon their nest of pine boughs and slept.
In the morning, Shaw was the first to awaken. After taking care of his morning business in the copse of trees, Shaw went to check on the real horses. He untied them from the picket lines to allow them to graze knowing that Casey and Sarah would make sure the animals didn't wander off. He then went to the warm ashes of the fire and unburied the pot of beans. Using more wood, Shaw built up the fire some more to heat the beans and toast a few slices of the bread.
Shaw's movement eventually woke Chuck and the young man sat up on his bed yawning. "Beans for breakfast?" He asked.
"They won't last for very long, so it would be better to eat them now." Shaw answered.
"Not going to complain, not after eating moldy bread the first few days." Chuck said. "I just remembered the snares I put out last night, I forgot when Sarah came and got us."
"After breakfast ask Casey if he will take you back to the hollow. Maybe we will be lucky and there will be a few rabbits caught in the snares." Shaw said as he filled up two bowls with beans and laid a slice of toasted bread over the top.
"Isn't that meat over there enough?" Chuck asked.
"It will last us awhile, but why waste perfectly good snares."
Chuck shrugged as he took his bowl from Shaw. The two of them ate quietly. When they were done, Shaw took the bowls as well as the ones from the night before and went to the nearby stream to wash them. Chuck walked over to where Casey and Sarah were grazing along with the real horses.
"Hey Casey any chance I can get a ride back to the hollow. The Intersect showed me how to make some snares and I left them set near our old campsite." Chuck asked the black stallion.
Casey sighed, then nodded his head. Chuck grinned, then mounted up on Casey. The big stallion broke into a ground eating trot heading away from the campsite to the road. Chuck ducked low over Casey's neck to avoid any low lying branches.
At the road they avoided the half eaten carcass of the man the bandits had killed and headed toward the bridge. Casey kept an ear out for any other travelers on the road. Fortunately, the road was deserted that early in the morning and Casey was able to get them to the old campsite at the hollow. Once there, Chuck dismounted and went in search of his snares.
Luck was with him for he had two rabbits caught in his snares. The Intersect gave Chuck the knowledge and skill to field dress the rabbits which he did using the knife he had taken to carrying at his belt. He then pocketed the snares and hung the rabbits at his belt, then walked back to where Casey waited.
Once back at the hollow, Chuck mounted up grabbing a handful of dark mane and leaping up onto Casey's broad back. Casey pivoted on his hind hooves rearing slightly, then broke into a trot heading back toward the bridge.
He stopped however before they got to the bridge when he heard the sound of hooves and the voices of men. Chuck hunched down over Casey's neck, the hood of his dark cloak over his head. Casey stood perfectly still in the deep shadows of the trees and watched through the branches as three riders walked over the bridge to the side where Casey and Chuck waited.
The riders were wearing a uniform of some type made from hardened leather. They all wore red cloaks and one of them had a golden knot on the shoulder of his cloak.
Soldiers, Casey thought. He was hoping that the shadows hid them from the eyes of the riders. It was still early in the morning and the sun was casting deep shadows among the trees.
As the soldiers rode slowly down the road they spoke, "I am happy to know that we are only a few days out from Dayspring. It will be nice to sleep in a bed rather than the hard ground." One of the soldiers said.
"Aye. Especially when the bed is occupied with a sweet lass." One of the other soldiers said. The others laughed.
"Didn't think you had the coin to spend on a whore, Sergeant." The man with the officer's knot said.
"Who needs coin when ya got a face like mine." The Sergeant answered with a grin.
The others laughed even harder. Eventually they got far enough away that Casey and Chuck could no longer hear what they were saying. Still Casey waited, making sure that the riders were beyond sight before moving out of the woods and onto the road.
Casey deliberately kept to a slow walk so they would not overtake the soldiers. Casey stopped when he heard the soldiers find the body. He could barely hear them but it sounded to Casey as if they were planning to bypass the body and to only mention its presence to the town constables.
Once Casey and Chuck came upon the body they left the road and headed for the campsite.