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Vol. 6 - Captivity - Prologue
🕑 Added 2019-09-25 01:09:59 +0000 UTCThe day after Thomas left the city of Bilri on his boat, Lexiana was jogging through the forest and complaining to herself. The day before she had realized that Thomas intended to leave Bilri and head somewhere else. Since she had no idea when he was leaving or where he was going, her only option had been to get to sleep early, wake up even earlier than usual, and watch his hotel for when he would leave. She had quietly followed him but was surprised when he went to the docks and bought a small boat. She was even more surprised at the strange device he'd attached to it.
After he powered the device and started to leave she took off and left the city so she could follow him along the river's bank. She made no attempt to hide the fact that she was following him, even going so far as to wave to him when he spotted her. She was determined to not let him get away with Snowlily! She knew she was fast, faster than any otherworlder, fast enough that when she went all out there would be loud booming sounds generated by her movement. There was no way he would be faster than her!
Well, she was right. He was not faster than her. The problem came down to her Endurance. Though she was amazingly fast, the cost of her speed was sacrificing some of her Endurance. Even lowering her speed to around one-twentieth of her maximum speed only let her keep up with him for over a hundred kilometers. After that, she had no choice but to stop running and catch her breath while watching him continue to go down the river at the same speed as before. She simply lacked the stamina to follow him.
Of course, she wouldn't just give up. She kept walking and when her stamina recovered enough she would jog at a decent pace. Since Thomas was going down the river it was easy enough to follow him without being able to track his scent. The problem would come when he got further down river and arrived at the first city, Gar. From there he could disembark and head for the city of Haugsnes or take either the river or road to the city of Djudavik. If he went to Djudavik the problem of following him would become worse. Djudavik was a bustling city and he could head down the river into the country of Lotenia. The river would lead all the way to the ocean if he continued on it. If he took the roads he could head anywhere and she would have trouble following him.
As she thought about the possible routes he might take to evade her she quickly approached the city of Gar. She went with her instincts and went directly past it. It seemed highly unlikely that he would buy a boat and attach that thing to it, only to stop at the first city on the river. His most likely destinations would be the next city, Djudavik, or following the river south into Lotenia. With that in mind, she kept pushing herself forward without rest to make the best time that she could on foot.
Lexiana traveled quickly, pulling snacks out of her inventory to eat while she moved instead of taking the time to stop for a proper meal. She even traveled until well after midnight before she finally had to stop and at least take a nap. Thanks to her persistence she arrived at Djudavik before noon the following day. After entering the city she immediately made her way to the docks to look for Thomas's little boat.
As she arrived at the docks she spotted the boat abandoned near the docks. At least, she assumed it was abandoned given the way people around kept glancing at it with hints of greed and desire. It obviously wasn't an amazing high-class boat, but it floated and had a little space. It could probably be used by one or two people for fishing. Seeing the boat she knew she'd made the right call and started to look around to find his trail.
Lexiana left the docks and went around the city sniffing the air to try and catch either Thomas's or Snowlily's scent. They'd gotten off here so she had a chance to pick up their trail. She spent hours wandering the city trying to randomly catch their scent, even going into inns to sniff around in the hopes they were staying in one of them. Near one of the cities exits she caught the attention of a guard and asked about the pair she was following. He gave her a suspicious look as she asked, "I'm looking for a friend of mine. We got separated and I was hoping to find him before meeting up at our meeting place. He's a young human male with light skin and dark hair. He's accompanied by a small white wolf."
The description of the man didn't trigger the guard's memory at all. Lots of different men and women came through the gate daily. The mention of the small white wolf triggered his memory though. Seeing something like that was pretty rare and would stick out. The guard rubbed the back of his head and looked Lexiana over. It was clear she was an adventurer and a rather attractive looking one at that. He gave her a friendly smile, "Yeah, they came through a while ago. Hopped on a small caravan heading for the capital a few hours ago."
Lexiana grinned broadly and thanked the guard for the information. She was only a few hours behind him now! She wanted to take off after him immediately but she needed to restock her food supplies. She normally only cared enough for a day or two and saved the rest of her inventory space for other things. She 'wasted' half an hour buying some food from vendors and tucking it away. Everything she picked was easy to carry and eat while on the move. With her supplies topped off, she immediately resumed the chance.
By the time night fell again she was completely exhausted. She'd been moving quickly for over thirty-six hours straight now and had no energy left. She was forced to come to a stop and make a camp for the night. On the bright side, she got to enjoy a warm and very filling meal before getting some much-needed sleep.
When she woke up she had a good breakfast before returning to trailing Thomas and Snowlily. She hoped to catch up to them today. She moved quickly and traveled down the road looking for the caravan. It took almost the entire day but she finally spotted the small caravan in the distance. Calling it a caravan was a bit much with so few wagons but whatever you wanted to call it, it was near! She picked up the pace and closed in on the wagon while sniffing the air intensely. She could faintly catch the scents of Thomas and Snowlily mixed in with the rest of the wagon crew and horses.
While she closed in she muttered to herself, "Think you can get away from me? Think again! I'm an expert tracker!"
As she closed in on the wagons she noticed a problem. The scents of her two targets were far too weak. She looked frantically but could not find any signs of them. Panicking she ran to the wagon in the lead and called out to a rotund man sitting next to the driver, "Hey! There was a man with a white wolf traveling with you, where did they go?"
The merchant glanced at her and then waved his hand dismissively, "They got off a while ago."
Lexiana froze and turned to look back in the direction she came from. A few hours back she'd run past the turn off leading to Utstad. She growled before shouting, "DAMNIT!"
Comments
Cody S.
It was not, it's fixed now. Thanks for the heads up.
Joe
Vol. 5 Journey Epilogue is locked at $1 per month even though I'm highest tier. I can't imagine that is correct.
Deathburn
Thanks
