“Get out of there, Brynn!” But even as I yelled, Thornhold charged in and grabbed her by the arm, dragging her back. This was a battle only magic could win.
Another orb began drifting toward me and I brought my sword up in front of me, threatening it. It seemed to recognize that I could cause damage to it and so it backed away.
Once again, Reggie called out, “Blades of darkness!” And once again, the circular wheels spun through the air, but this time they met the mark. Five more of the orbs dissipated, and the message seemed to get through because the others began to back away into the thicket. We watched as they retreated and, within a few moments, vanished.
“What the hell were those?” Thornhold asked.
“Corpse candles,” Reggie said. “They’re also known as will-o’-the-wisps, and they can be deadly. They’re thought to be part of the Fae realm, though no one truly knows what their nature is. I’m not surprised that we found them here. This seems the perfect area for them, and the closer we get to the Cryptic Marshes, the more I expect we’ll run into them. They tend to hang out in swampy areas.”
“I thought they were the souls of the dead,” I said.
“There are some theories about that, and some people say they’re the souls of the Fae. But as I said, nobody really knows. We’ll have to be more cautious while camping.” Reggie took a deep breath, looked around again, and then sat by the fire. “I wonder if we should travel at night and sleep during the day?”
“I don’t know if I want to be on the road at night,” Thornhold said. “That just seems to be asking for trouble. It would be far too easy to miss a turn and end up lost somewhere deep in the forest.”
“I agree with Thornhold,” Brynn said. “We can go a lot faster during the day. Although, we might want to set two people on watch at a time, even thought that means longer shifts. I know we’d get less sleep, but it just seems safer.”
“I agree with Brynn,” Reggie said. “Two at a time, six hours shifts. Since there are five of us, each night one of us can get a full night’s sleep and we can round robin who it is.”
“All right,” Thornhold said. “Ray, shall we take the next watch together? I don’t want to take a chance on those things coming back. I think it would be a good idea to keep Ray and Reggie on separate shifts, so we have at least one spellcaster on alert at all times.”
We all agreed, so Ray and Thornhold took over the watch while I crawled in bed with the others. Luckily, the rest of the night was silent.
When we woke at first light, Brynn’s cheek looked mostly healed except for a thin, red welt. There were no signs of infection, so all was well. As we gathered around the campfire, stoking it so we could make a hot breakfast, I looked around the thicket. Although I couldn’t see anything out there, and everything seemed peaceful, the forest now made me uneasy, and I could hardly wait until we made our way out of it.
We had been walkingfor over three hours when we heard a small stream to the side. Our water bottles needed filling, so I suggested we go in search of it. But, memories of Hansel and Gretel fresh in my mind, I took out a chunk of bread and began dropping crumbs as we made our way into the thick of the wood.
“You realize you’re wasting food?” Ray asked.
“I’m also marking our path. Unless you have something that will work better than bread, I suggest that you quit worrying.” I gave him a long look, and he shrugged.
“Fine, but that bread comes out of your share,” he said.
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” I said. “Fine, I won’t eat any bread for lunch.”
I wasn’t sure whether it was the battle the night before, or exhaustion from being on the road, or just the fact that we were stuck in the game, but he seemed particularly on edge this morning. I thought about asking him what was wrong, but I had the feeling I wouldn’t get anywhere. So I kept my mouth shut.
Ten minutes later, we broke through the trees to a clearing. A stream flowed through the forest, at least twelve feet wide and with whitecaps churning over slippery rocks. Across the stream, set up on an embankment, was a small cottage.
As we stood there, a woman came out of the cottage and stretched under the faint glimmer of sunlight breaking through the canopy of trees. She froze when she saw us. She was pretty, about 45 to 50 years old, and she looked extraordinarily fit. As she began cautiously backing toward her door, I decided to make the first move.
“We’re simple travelers, working our way through the forest. We heard the stream and needed to fill our water bottles. We’re not going to harm you,” I said, hoping that neither she, nor anybody else living in the cabin, were looking to prey on an unwary pack of travelers.
But she simply paused by the door, and shouted out, “Who are you?”
I wasn’t sure if she was human, although I had the sense that she might be an in-game employee. “Do you know Liesel?” I asked. “We’re friends of hers.”
That seemed to make an impression. The woman, still looking uncertain, relaxed.
“What do you need?” she asked.
“We’re players in the game. As I said, we’re just trying to find our way through the forest. We needed to fill our water bottles, so when we heard the stream we decided to find it.”
After a moment, the woman nodded toward the water. “Go ahead. I’ll meet you down there in a moment.” She vanished back into her cottage.
Relieved, and feeling that, for once, things were going smoothly, I led the others toward the stream. Sure enough, as we reached the edge of the stream, the woman reappeared and made her way down the slope, carrying a basket which was brimming with muffins. I relaxed, and sat down on the grassy edge of the stream to wait for her.
CHAPTER 30: A HELPING HAND
