I let out a sigh as soon as I saw the look on Nishalle’s face and heard her utter those words. Unconsciously I began to gently stroke the tiny wisp in my hand, though I couldn’t really be sure if it was for its comfort or mine. Kinara said that the wisps were barely more than babies, a little too big to stay in their mother’s pouch, but far too small and young to be out on their own. They also seemed reluctant to leave us because they were comforted by the feel of our magic. We couldn’t even seem to leave them in one another’s care for long before they zipped right back to us, with comical results in Venika’s case. Kinara believed that they had bonded to us and the Sprite didn’t seem too thrilled with the idea. I suppose it would be like if I had to deal with an overly affectionate cú sídhe, they had no concept of personal space.

Now though I was more worried about what news my sister had for us. “What did you find, Sis?” I asked with a feeling of dread.

“Bodies, or rather what’s left of them, and not just those wisps’ parents either,” she replied, her scowl deepening. “There were three of them, all players, one of the smaller parties that set out on hunting quests this morning. One was that handsome Tokh'dhraí Magus, Pharen. Another was Lupin, the Beastkin Brigand with the scruffy white hair and wolf tags. The last was that Beastkin Druid, Hartu, the one with the dark auburn hair and fox tags, the one we thought was a Kitsune at first.”

“Wait, I know that party, they’re mostly pretty tough, but isn’t there usually a fourth with them?” Pete inquired.

“Yeah, her name is Salem, I remember her because she’s the only other person on the server with hair as bright red as mine and Amoiraishe’s. From the looks of if she’s having trouble playing her class if she’s a Magus like I believe. A lot of people think that she’s the weak link on that team. I was going to offer to teach her with Kinara and Becky, but I was afraid that she would take offense,” I responded absently as I thought of the four in question. They were all semi-professional gamers like Grell, Pete, and the jerks from H3lls-Pwn and none of the four were really famous for working with others, except for one another. It wasn’t that they were bad people, sure the guys could be male chauvinist jerks at times but they weren’t as bad as H3lls-Pwn. It was just that they were self-reliant and figured that they could handle anything that this game could dish out, especially since they were one of the few parties to make it through the Deadrush whole and alive. It would seem that they figured wrong.

“Oh yeah, the tiny Witch with the huge chip on her shoulder,” Lissany said, catching on to who we were referring to. “Not that I can blame her for being a bit bitter, she’s a Witch but she can’t even use magic because she doesn’t have a familiar yet. The rumor is that she screwed up the spell for summoning it. I don’t know why she hangs out with those jerks with the way that they’re always putting her down though.”

“How bad is it, Nishalle?” Rei asked after a moment.

“It looked like they were curious about the wisps and while they were looking they were attacked. There were a lot of tracks, but whatever killed them is gone and it looked like they were all drained of blood. Deep wounds, they were done with a sharp weapon and whoever, or whatever did the killing really mangled them good. I figured that you, Taelya, and Venika might be able to figure out what did it or where they went better than I could Rei,” the Tokh'dhraí replied. “You’re our Healer, Venika is the scout, and Taelya and Venika are our monster and lore experts. The three of you may see things that I missed.”

“Let’s go have a look, but everyone stay on your guard,” I suggested as I looked in the direction Nishalle had come from. “I want to try and find Salem too, she could be out there somewhere hurt, or worse.”

Nishalle led the way and soon we came upon a grisly scene. My sister had somewhat understated what had happened, those wounds weren’t just deep, whatever had caused them had nearly cleaved Lupin in two. Whatever had done this it had been vicious and very strong. I could feel the bile rising in my throat as we examined the scene and poor Lark was throwing up. Sure, the three of them all tended to leer at me and made me uncomfortable sometimes, but I wouldn’t have wished that on them.

Daenyss had taken Lark and Kinara aside so they wouldn’t have to look at the bodies too closely, but she made sure that they stayed where I could see them. They had also taken the three wisps along with them to keep them out of the way and prevent them from becoming too agitated after Lark had put the little critters to sleep with a magical lullaby. We didn’t want to miss something because one of us was being distracted. “Whatever did this was mean and hella strong,” Pete said with a frown as he echoed my thoughts. “Beastkin are tough and Tokh'dhraí are damn scary when they want to be, but their attackers carved them all up like a Christmas turkey.”

There are a lot of boot prints here,” Venika provided. “They’re fairly deep on firm ground so whatever did this may have been roughly human-sized, but they were heavy and there were a lot of them. There’s a lighter set of tracks heading off toward the village at a run, I think it may have been Salem from the size of the prints and the spacing. One of the attackers followed her but returned later, just before the group left. She could have gotten away, it could have killed her elsewhere, or it could have brought her back as a captive for some reason, it’s hard to tell.”

Despite all of these deep wounds, there’s not near as much blood here as I would expect,” Rei added with a frown as he looked up from Pharen’s corpse. Then he looked to me with a hopeful expression. “Any idea what could have done this babe?”

I considered all of the evidence we had. “Whatever they were they obviously had a thing for blood. I think we can rule out Vampires and Shadow Walkers though. The latter would have kept the corpses, and kept them intact. Also, both of them would have just sucked them dry, there wouldn’t be any need to kill them so viciously. I have a suspicion, but it would help if I could find a witness to confirm things and maybe lead us to Salem, or what’s left of her.”

“Good luck with that,” Pete scoffed with an undignified snort. “The only witnesses are dead, the ones responsible, or the baby wisps. I don’t think you’re going to be able to get the wisps to talk with them being both infants and animals.”

“Oh ye of little faith, did you forget that I have all of nature at my beck and call?” I chided before reaching out with my senses. The first time that I had used Nature’s Call it had been instinctual and violent, but Mahair had been helping me to refine my skills so that I wouldn’t be sending off a flare to every Fae on the continent and to be able to use it to suit my needs.

I could feel the ebb and flow of mana through the forest and something, a lot of somethings, that didn’t belong in this forest a good distance to the west. I didn’t sense anything that felt like a Witch there, so Salem wasn’t there, was dead, or had escaped when she ran. I carefully noted both their direction and general distance and searched for any sign of the Witch heading northward toward Haven. I couldn’t sense anything Human, but Witches are tied closely to the flow of mana like the Fae, and that could be making her hard to detect since I was still a beginner with all of this.

Wait, there was something close by. It wasn’t Salem, but I suspected that I may have just found my witness. I smiled as I figured out just what I had sensed, opened my eyes, and looked to the large oak tree that bore the wisps’ nest. “Please, show yourself, gentle spirit. I am Taelya, princess of the Autumn Court and my companions and I mean you no harm. Our friends were attacked here and we want to know what happened so we can stop whatever did this and make sure that the Witch who was with them is safe.”

The others were looking at me like I was crazy, but then I was talking to a tree so I suppose that I couldn’t blame them. Then the tree answered. I could barely see it at first, the ethereal presence that seemed to emerge slowly, gradually becoming more earthly as it took the form of a nymph from the hips upward, seemingly growing out of the large tree’s trunk. I nearly fan-girl squeed as I realized that this was a Dryad and she spoke. “Welcome Princess Taelya, I am Gwenaralyn. Thank you for caring for the young wisps who made their home in my branches, I saw them born and am glad to see them still alive and safe.”

The others were staring and trying to pick their jaws up off the ground, well except for Kinara who was giving me a look of respect and admiration. While she seemed young, inexperienced, and naïve in a lot of ways Kinara had known a lot about the wisps, stuff that I didn’t even know with my animal-related skills. She didn’t seem surprised at all by the Dryad’s appearance, only that I had sensed it and managed to coax it out. She was way too comfortable with things like this, but it wasn’t like she was hiding that knowledge, maybe she just had skill-downloads that I didn’t? The pink-haired Yseil'dhraí even smiled at the Dryad as she introduced herself as well. “It’s nice to meet you Gwenaralyn, I’m Countess Kinara of the Summer Court. Could you please tell us what happened here?”

The Dryad began to explain what she saw with no hesitation. “Your friends followed the mother wisp back to the nest because the Witch was curious about her. While they were stopped her companions became impatient and they had a loud argument. The noise drew the Redcaps to them. A small clan I should think, there were nearly forty of them traveling through the woods. They killed your friends to soak their caps and the adult wisps who were trying to protect their young.”

“And the baby wisps fled in terror and ran smack into us,” I said, not happy at all that my suspicions had been confirmed. “I sensed a nasty presence to the west, so that’s got to be the Redcaps, but did you happen to see what happened to the Witch?”

Gwenaralyn gave a sad shake of her head before finally answering me. “She is a gentle soul, one who respects the balance of nature, but she is young and inexperienced with her magick. I was worried for her so I spoke to her mind-to-mind, I instructed her to run. It was too dangerous for her group to try to fight them. Her companions did not listen to her, but she ran after seeing the first of them cut down. One of the Redcaps followed her but I sent someone to help hide her and keep her safe. Follow her tracks and, when you reach the end, tell Brynna that I sent you to ensure the Witch’s safety.”

“Thank you for your assistance Gwenaralyn, we appreciate the help. You may rest now, I have heard how taxing it is when a Dryad takes a physical form to speak with someone and I am honored that you showed yourself to us,” I told her.

“I am bound to the Court as much as any Fae, Your Highness, it was my pleasure to serve. Please, do not try to hunt down those Redcaps by yourselves, I fear that that would only result in your deaths. The Red Dawn comes all too soon. Now, you must go to find the Witch, she was injured before fleeing. I fear that she may need friends now, more than ever, when she awakes. Be cautious, should you encounter a Redcap.” With that, the Dryad’s female form began to retract into the trunk of the large oak.

I considered Gwenaralyn’s words as we followed Salem’s trail northward, with Venika and Lissany taking the lead, Nishalle and Pete bringing up the rear, and all of our senses peeled for potential trouble. I had no intention of trying to take on an entire clan of Redcaps all by our lonesome, the Dryad had been right, it would amount to nothing more than suicide and what the Dryad had said about the Red Dawn coming was similar to something Moira had said regarding an event coming after the full moon. If that event involved a clan of Redcaps then we needed to get the players all unified in preparation for a large-scale attack if we were to have any hope of surviving. I made a mental note to call that players’ meeting I had been planning for that night rather than the next. There were things to discuss and plans to be made. First, though, we needed to find Salem, and we needed to hurry because Nishalle and Venika were both sure that she was bleeding badly.

I was beginning to suspect that Salem’s party had stumbled upon a pre-event unique encounter and that Salem herself had been warned as the female of the group. Dryads typically didn’t trust males of any Race and some of what she had said sounded like a typically scripted NPC. The idea was probably to warn the village and Glade about the upcoming event and as the first group with a female party member in the woods today they had happened upon the unique encounter.

Since we were the first this deep in the forest after them, and Salem’s party had chosen not to take her advice and flee with her, we had gotten our own little encounter with the wisps. That had started this questline, which would likely end with us escorting Salem back to the village so she could deliver her warning. The wisps were part of our incentive ‘reward’ and we’d probably get a party reward and XP when we completed the escort portion of the quest. As the one delivering the warning Salem was probably getting a special encounter or reward while we were tromping through the woods searching for her.

I didn’t know much about Salem, but what little I did know was enough that I could empathize with her, as she was obviously male before entering the game. I had overheard her talking with, or rather yelling at, her party-mates about the dysphoria once after they had made some comment about her at least being good for eye candy. It looked like her dysphoria was as bad as mine had been, maybe even worse than mine and she blamed them for it. At least I had my Fae mental exercises to help me to put it all to the back of mind, but Salem wasn’t so fortunate.

The conversation was limited as we followed Salem’s tracks, and as quiet as we could make it since none of us wanted to risk not hearing something important in the tense quiet that seemed to hold the entire forest in its grip. Mostly it was Kinara trying to distract us by encouraging me and Venika to name our new little wisp friends since she was pretty sure that they were with us for life now, or at least until we got out of the game. “Come on you two,” she said in a hushed tone as she walked beside me stroking the aquamarine wisp with black stripes she held in her hand. “You’re going to need to come up with names for them, they aren’t going to leave you now that they’ve imprinted on your magical presence. I’m naming mine Kimmie, she’s so cute.”

“It just so happens that I have the perfect name for mine,” I replied with a smirk and an equally quiet tone once I confirmed the snoozing wisp’s gender. Yup, definitely a girl wisp. “I’m naming her Willow.”

Rei got the joke immediately and I could hear him chuckling behind me. “Very funny, Tae.”

Venika looked toward the sleeping wisp that Lark was carrying for her and sighed before looking back to the tracks she was following. “Maybe I should name him after one of the bones that he’s sure to break the way he keeps tackling me, or I could just call him Dino. I’ll decide la…” She cut off mid-word as she stopped and stared at the ground before her. It was there that Salem’s footprints just suddenly stopped, right at the edge of a small mossy clearing. “What the hell? Did she just vanish? She left a trail that’s been easy to follow, but now it’s just gone,” the Sprite sputtered in confusion.

“I don’t smell her either. Other than us, I can’t smell anything but moss and trees,” Lissany put in with a frown.

Remembering Gwenaralyn’s words, I looked around and called out just loud enough to reach the edges of the clearing, “Brynna, are you there? I’m Princess Taelya of the Autumn Court. Gwenaralyn sent us to help protect the Witch. Have you seen her? She looks Human and around my age, but she’s maybe a foot shorter than me with the same color hair and green eyes. Her name is Salem.” As I spoke I reached out with my senses and felt two things, though neither felt like it could be Salem. The first was a presence watching us from the trees. It felt similar to Daenyss and Naerysse, but it was different as well, the magick feeling like earth and plants and humming with the life of the forest. The second was similar to the first, but right below our feet. Whatever was beneath us felt powerful, nearly as much raw power as me or Amoiraishe and way more powerful than the presence in the trees beyond our sight.

I was beginning to draw in mana in case this was some sort of attack when a feminine voice called out from the trees, “Wait!” I stopped gathering mana to look at the young woman who just seemed to appear from nothing at the edge of the clearing. She was pretty, shapely, looked much like a Nymph in general shape, and her moss-like skin and the leafy vines of her hair had allowed her to blend into the foliage and remain unseen by even the sharpest eyes of our group. “Please, Your Highness, you must not disturb the induction process. It could be dangerous for my daughter, and you as well. I am Brynna, a Liyun'shael.” The last was said for the benefit of our non-Fae companions since they were all staring at the naked young woman unabashedly.

“A Moss Maiden?” Lark asked, translating the name from Elvish to English as she looked Brynna over. “It kinda fits.”

“Yup, though Humans used to call them Wood Wives,” I clarified.

“They are like cousins to us Nymphs,” Daenyss provided, seeming pleased to be able to offer some information that not everyone knew. “My mother introduced me to a few, but she told me that like our kind they do not stay in the Fae Glade all the time. Nymphs and Liyun'shael are often out tending the forests, not only in the Glade but throughout the entire territory of the Court.”

“And since the Autumn Court has an alliance with Haven, that means that all of the forests in the surrounding area are within our area of influence, even if we don’t lay claim to them, so the Nymphs and Liyun'shael are trying to keep them healthy and watch over creatures that can’t do much for themselves, like the Dryads,” I added before turning to the Moss Maiden and attempting a friendly smile. “I apologize, Brynna, we just came to help Salem and escort her to warn the Human village and the Glade. We’re not here to interrupt anything, so if you can just tell us where you’ve sent her, we’ll be on our way.”

“As I have said, my daughter is undergoing her induction, Your Highness. I am afraid that you will have to wait until it is complete and she has recovered her strength before she can go anywhere,” the Moss Maiden replied.

What she was saying suddenly clicked in my mind, and my eyes went wide in realization as the pieces all started to fit together. This daughter that she was talking about, it was Salem. “Dear Goddess, you’re turning Salem into a Liyun'shael.”

“Yes, Your Highness, the poor girl was terrified when I found her running through the trees and the Redcap following her would have caught up with her soon. She collapsed in this clearing and was not responding, I fear that she was close to death, so I made her swallow my seed and planted her in the earth for the induction process. It hid her from the Redcap and her body will heal as she becomes one of my kind,” Brynna explained.

“You made her swallow your seed? Uhhh… that sounds kind of dirty,” Pete pointed out.

“Of course you would take it that way Pete,” I pointed out with a sigh, not that I disagreed with him. I did explain though. “Liyun'shael are part plant so they don’t reproduce like most of us. They use seeds that grow in their bodies to induct women of other races into their ranks. They only have three seeds to give from the time they are inducted until their deaths though, and they live as long as any other Fae so it is a gift when they choose someone to become one of their daughters, one usually reserved for those that they respect and admire.”

“No offense to either you or Salem, but why her?” Rei asked. “I mean, it doesn’t sound like you got a chance to talk to her and get to know her very well.”

“She was in need,” the Moss Maiden answered simply. “I could not let her die at the hands of that abomination. Gwenaralyn spoke well of her as well, she said that she respected nature and heeded her wisdom.”

“And what if she doesn’t want to be one of you?” Nishalle asked pointedly.

“I doubt that she would rather be dead. At least I have given her the chance to live and choose for herself,” Brynna snapped back.

“True, we’ve all heard about what comes after death in this game and the waiting room sounds like torture,” my sister conceded, seeming to forget that Brynna was an NPC and probably wouldn’t know what she was talking about. “I think that you did the right thing, but I also think that you should be prepared that she may not be too happy about her new situation.”

“I am prepared for that. At least this way she will live and I will help her to adjust to her new life and learn her duties. I planned on returning to the Glade for a time anyway,” Brynna answered before looking back down at the mossy ground. “The process is nearly complete. She may need to rest a bit longer before going anywhere, as she will feel weak for a time and need nourishment.”

I quickly checked the game clock and sighed. It looked like we were going to be heading back in the dark and I didn’t like that idea, especially with a clan of Redcaps somewhere in the woods. I was going to have to try to keep tabs on their location as we walked. Finally, I told the Wood Wife, “We have some energy bars that she can eat and plenty of water in our canteens. We should go as soon as she feels strong enough though.”

It was half an hour later and the sun was setting behind the trees to the west, painting the sky in brilliant shades of gold, orange, and red when Brynna announced that the process was complete. She carefully extracted Salem’s body from the earth using her magick and once the former Witch was settled on a bed of soft moss the others, including Brynna, went to the other side of the clearing to talk amongst themselves. It had been decided that I alone should be there when she awoke since too many people might spook her and, even though we hadn’t really talked, she would at least probably recognize me and any familiarity would be good for her.

She had indeed become a Liyun'shael, her skin now resembling a slightly mottled dark green moss that would allow her to remain unseen should she need to hide in the forest. It looked soft to the touch and so different than her formerly pale complexion. Her hair was composed of long verdant green leafy vines and while her facial features and small stature still showed her to be the same Salem that I had seen around the village and Fae Glade. There was a lot of Fae there as well, especially the nymph-like ears. Overall, people could probably still recognize her, but it was impossible to deny that she could no longer be taken for Human. I wondered just how I was going to break this to her gently as her emerald eyes fluttered open. “Wh…” she started to ask, her voice sounding hoarse and scratchy.

I pressed my canteen to her lips and encouraged her to drink. Once she had had enough to slake her thirst I tried to give her a reassuring smile. “Try not to move yet, Salem, you’ve been through a lot. Do you know who I am?”

“You’re Taelya right? The Yseil'dhraí princess? What happened? I was running through the forest and I... I think I passed out…” Then her eyes widened and I had to hold her down to keep her from bolting up into a sitting position as she blubbered, “They’re all dead! Redcaps killed them all! We need to warn Haven and the Fae Glade!”

“They’ll respawn tomorrow, there was nothing we could do when we found them,” I told her seriously. “You would have died too if someone hadn’t intervened, now lay still and rest, we have a lot to talk about. Once you’re ready we’ll all head back to the village together, my team is waiting for us to have a little talk.”

“I probably should have stayed to help them,” Salem said, looking away from me with a guilty expression on her face. “My friends are dead because of me. Another in a long line of stupid decisions.”

“You did the right thing. If you had stayed you would be dead too and you were asked to warn the village and the Glade weren’t you? They should have run with you, you were all outnumbered by powerful enemies, don’t take the blame for their foolishness,” I admonished her.

She at least looked like she had taken my words to heart as she replied. “I guess you’re right, I just… I have a history of making the wrong life choices, so I doubt myself a lot I guess.”

“Don’t, you made the right call, your friends are idiots and from the way I’ve heard them talk to you, they’re not very good friends either. Why do you hang around with those jerks?”

“People aren’t exactly lining up to be my friends in real life,” Salem admitted reluctantly. “As I said, I make bad decisions. They didn’t seem that bad before we got the invites for this game, but we only really knew each other online. When we got the invites one of them commented on a girl in our guild in Starseed Online, the game that we were all playing. He said that she was a guy in real life and I didn’t believe him, so he bet me that he could prove it. Whoever lost the bet was supposed to choose a girl character for this game once we started playing. I lost, and since we entered the game they’ve been jerks about the bet and me living up to my part of the deal.”

“They are jerks,” I agreed. “Playing a girl has been hard enough for me without people like them leering and making comments that made the dysphoria feel worse.”

“Wait, you’re a guy IRL too? I wouldn’t have guessed it, you seem like such a natural girl,” she said, her eyes widening in surprise.

“Yeah, but I’m not playing a girl by choice,” I replied with a shrug. “There was a problem with the gender selector in my character generation process. As for being natural, well, I’m Fae and we’re naturally graceful. Between that and some of my skill downloads, it’s made it kind of hard to not move and act like a girl. My dysphoria seems to be gone now though, and it’s about time too, that’s the worst feeling in the world. Now, how do you feel?”

There was an uncertain expression on her face when she responded a moment later. “Tired, but good? I mean, I feel good for someone who you said almost died. My dysphoria was fading but it’s kind of been worse since I woke up, something feels a bit off. I kind of feel the mana around me now too, better than I did before I screwed up the whole getting a familiar thing.”

“That’s not surprising really, you probably have species dysphoria now on top of the gender stuff. One of my people, a type of Fae called a Liyun'shael, found you but you were damn near dead. To heal you and save your life she had to change you into one of her own kind. Your avatar is Fae now, and part plant. The good part is that Fae are much more connected to nature and mana than Witches so you can probably use magic without having a familiar. Some things like fire magic are going to be impossible for you, but you’ll do well with other stuff and excel at anything with earth or plants. I’d like to help teach you if you’d like that.” I tried to break the news to her as gently as I could and show her some of the positives.

Salem took it like a champ. Oh sure, she was shocked and a bit scared and she definitely cried a bit, but she also couldn’t blame Brynna for doing whatever it took to save her. She was happy to be alive and the thought of actually being able to use her magick now seemed to make her feel better. She even accepted my offer of an apprenticeship. It turned out that she had chosen to play a Support with both Mage and Medic aptitudes, but she hadn’t been able to use magic since she cast the spell to draw her familiar to her. The reason for this was that her familiar had turned out to be a large spider and crawled up her arm and she reacted without thinking, killing both it and her conduit to her magick.

We got to know one another a little as she started to calm down and we talked, between her drinking from my canteen and eating the ration bars that I had given her. She really needed friends who treated her like a friend and not an object of ridicule, her life had been too rough and she didn’t need to feel any worse about it, she had enough confidence issues already. That wasn’t all that surprising though with the turns that her real-life had taken over the years.

Salem’s real-life name was Gary Lincoln and he had grown up an orphan. He worked hard in school though and tried to make something of his life, earning a full ride at McGill on a football scholarship to study environmental sciences. All of that had gone out the window though when he, his fiancée, and some friends had too much to drink one night and one of the friends decided that he was sober enough to drive. The girl that Gary was in love with died in the crash and he had lost the use of his legs and everything else in his life that had any meaning to him. He became a broken man, both physically and spiritually, and began to immerse himself in gaming, losing himself in worlds that didn’t hurt as much as reality. That brought him to Starseed Online and thus eventually to his, or rather her, current situation.

The game had been a Godsend when she had first started playing. She could feel her legs and walk under her own power and, at first, it helped to negate the dysphoria. Her body was so different from her real-life body though, even from when he still had the use of his legs. He had been a big guy, six foot seven, and very athletic. In the game though, Salem was a soft, pretty, and an extremely feminine looking girl who stood at five foot nothing. She had no Fae exercises to help with her dysphoria and her ‘friends’ only made things worse. I made a mental note to keep her away from those assholes if possible, to invite her to stay inside the estate and make her feel welcome with our group while she adjusted to her new situation. I thought that she and Daenyss could become good friends with their similar issues.

Once Salem was feeling strong enough I helped her up and introduced her to her ‘mother’ and my companions. It was dark by that time and the wisps were giving off a bright magical glow; pink for Willow, aquamarine for Kimmie, and azure for Venika’s yet unnamed and overly affectionate new ‘friend’. She was fascinated by the way they glowed and wanted to know about how they just floated in the air. Brynna’s simple answer was ‘magick’.

She did stare a bit nervously at her fellow Liyun'shael in the light provided by the wisps. I think it finally sunk in then that she looked like that now too. Still, she thanked Brynna for saving her and told her that she would do her best to become a Liyun'shael worthy of the name. That took a lot of class, given the situation, and raised my opinion of her a great deal.

I didn’t want to hang around any longer than we had to though, so I got everyone moving after that, occasionally expanding my senses to look for the stomach-turning presence of the Redcaps. They hadn’t moved since I had first sensed them and I assumed that they had made camp and were getting settled in near the coastline, maybe in some caves. My monster lore knowledge suggested that they wouldn’t camp in a place that wasn’t defensible. We probably wouldn’t see them until the event unless we went looking.

There was a smaller presence though, it felt different to my magical senses than the Redcaps, and I had noted its position each time that I used my Nature’s Call. Whatever it was it was moving northward fast, following our path almost exactly. It was tracking us, and gaining ground, despite our brisk pace. We were halfway to Haven when I realized that we weren’t going to make it before whatever it was caught up. “Aww fuck, this is why I hate escort quests,” I muttered before gathering the others close and telling them, “You might all want to get ready for a fight.”