The adventurers woke and readied their gear. When they left their tent, preparations for departure were already complete; suppression and supply squad carriages were waiting by the road, and the magical beasts that would pull them along were ready to go. One look at their powerful bodies made it clear that the knights’ horses and magical beasts were specially trained; the sleipnirs neighed restlessly, ready to take off at a moment’s notice, while the tanngrisnirs that were lugging all the supplies munched casually at the nearby grass.
The Guild’s own horses were left in the care of the knights, and sleipnirs were readied for the adventurers’ carriages.
“Fine horses, these,” said Zack. “We’ll be counting on you guys.”
The beautiful black sleipnirs, buoyed by the dragon slayer’s praise, neighed boldly.
Departure was imminent. The knights would lead the way and the adventurers would bring up the rear. Before they left, however, Kristoffer came out to see them off. His stern expression never wavered, but there was a brief flash of emotion in his eyes as he spoke but three words.
“Come back safe.”
The words were not just a formality for the man; they came from the heart. Kristoffer was himself a soldier. Had it been possible, he would have led the charge himself, fighting alongside his allies. His position, however, denied him that luxury. That he was thus forced to send his soldiers and dear friends into battle on his behalf—where death was a very real possibility—weighed upon his soul.
Zack had a foot up on the ladder to the driver’s seat of the adventurers’ lead carriage, but spun and walked over to the margrave. He held his hand out at arm’s length and at shoulder height. For a moment Kristoffer was taken by surprise, but then he smiled as he raised his own to meet his friend’s. It was a tradition, a pledge between friends: “We will return.”
Very few among the gathered knights and adventurers knew of the connection between Kristoffer and Zack. But all understood at this moment that they shared a bond of brothers.
The carriages departed. Shiori, Alec, and all those with them kept their eyes ahead, where the dragon lay waiting. Not a single one of them looked back. The knights gathered at the camp watched them go, still and silent, and the carriages disappeared as if swallowed by the forest.
The carriages passed through the dense forest area that spread across the border and led to the frozen lake of Dima. They trundled along the paths flattened out by local hunters, which weaved around the roots of the forest’s giant trees, and proceeded farther along.
Shiori was overwhelmed by the gigantic trees with their huge branches and leaves soaring skyward under the summer sky. She couldn’t help but let out an awed sigh. The trunks of the trees were so thick it would have taken a whole group of adults to surround a single one with linked arms. Their roots, too, spread out like dragon tails slithering along the ground.
The forest remained largely untouched by human hands; cultivating the area would require too much effort and time. As a result, very little had been done save for creating the path that weaved through it from one end to the other. All the same, the forest was essential to those who lived nearby; it offered an abundance of nutritious soil, was a source of fresh water springs, and was dense with magical essence.
“Unfortunately, people won’t be able to rely on the blessings of the forest for at least the rest of the year...” muttered Alec. “The knights have had to slay a great deal of magical beasts to rein in the stampedes, and it will take time for them to breed and propagate the forest anew. Until then, however, a lot of hunters are going to be out of work.”
His eyes were on the magical beast corpses that littered the sides of the road, and the berry bushes that had been ravaged by panicked creatures. The effects of a stampede, it seemed, went far beyond just the damage caused by the stampede itself.
“But the reason all the corpses haven’t been cleared away—it’s not just because the knights didn’t have the time or help to do it,” said Shiori.
“Yes, that’s true,” admitted Alec. “At least the locals will be able to collect what’s useful when everything calms down. The corpses will rot if they’re left too long, but until then, there’s a wealth of materials to be found.”
“That’s why we have to handle this as quickly as we can.”
“Yeah.”
Once the ice dragon was slain, the recovery of the area would become a burden for the margrave to shoulder, though no doubt Alec and Zack would lend a hand in secret. At present, the ice dragon in question had not moved from the frozen lake. Having indulged in a surprise “breakfast,” the monster was now curled up by the side of the lake, dropping in and out of a light doze. After some two hundred years in slumber, it might have been resting and recovering, or perhaps it simply found its current environment comfortable; both were nothing more than conjecture at this point, and none knew when the beast might decide to move to a more populated area.
The advance squad on-site had been ordered not to attack the largely unknown dragon outright, and to wait for the arrival of the suppression team. Until then, they were given one main goal: to ensure that the dragon did not flee elsewhere, and to keep it from reaching a village or town. They’d dug holes covered in mud to slow down its progress, and also set up barriers. Though earth dragons couldn’t fly, mages and archers had been positioned around the area in the rare case that this one was capable of flight.
The forest was usually vibrant and full of life, but now there was only an unnatural silence and a magically laced, oppressively chilly air in which the knights watched keenly for movement. Whatever had once lived here was now all but gone, and the quiet brought with it waves of uncertainty. Rurii and Bla couldn’t seem to calm down, and Violid, too, glanced this way and that uncomfortably—all signs that this was not like any forest they were used to.
The carriages passed by the knights’ defensive line, and as they proceeded deeper, a heavy, suffocating chill that clung to the air settled over them. Shiori began to shiver. The cold was not natural to the forest, and it was not caused by their proximity to the lake either. Had one encountered it unprepared, no doubt it would have caused an ache in both mind and body.
It feels like a gathering of spirits...
The presence they now sensed was unlike that of any living creature. Rather, it was like the spirits of the dead—a unique presence that Shiori had felt on a number of jobs. A few among the carriages began to feel ill, and drank the stimulants that Nils had handed out. This did not work for everyone, however, and those who continued to suffer were left in the care of a camp they encountered along the way, where another knight was already being treated for the same symptoms. The knight had used his search magic to investigate the dragon’s presence and fainted as a result.
“That was a nightmare,” he’d moaned when he’d come to. “It felt like being absorbed into a spirit’s body...it was just terrifying...”