So I actually wrote a bunch of scenes not in order yesterday, but I fleshed some of them out and put them in order today so without futher a do
The travel through the day had been long and slow Long, Feng and Flacidious were off a bit from the camp hastily hacking at branches, collecting bits of wood and bundles of leaves. Gilnar and Erek were making a fire while Meredith, Charles, Primela & Bedros patrolled. Thick fog still hung in the sky giving the forest a deeply sinister feeling dulling sounds and obscuring reality. The horses were hitched to trees around close to the centre of the makeshift camp and were grazing on wht little they could find.
AS the wood was brough back to the camp they started laying down the twigs and small branches then laying tarp on top of them and making make shift tents, as the fog turned black and the suns set the group sat around the small fire they had made quietly eating from their ration bag.
“We need to reach a settlement soon.” Feng said chewing unhappily on a piece of dried meat.
They all nodded and grumbled in agreement.
Primela’s ears pricked up a moment “Do you feel that?” She looked off into the darkness.
They all stopped and leaves began to rustle and the sound of wind cutting through branches whistled.
“Wind, at last!” Erek jumped up and started to perform a little jig.
“Thanks Iris.” Meredith stood up and looked around, the fog was clearly quickly thining.
“Finally a turn for the better.” Flacidious smiled and ate another bit of his ration while he looked up.”Looks like rain though.”
“I’ll take it” Gilnar exclaimed happily. As he said it a bolt of lightning arched through the sky in the distance and a few moments later the crack of it roared out. The horses made a little noise but mostly seemed to ignore it.
“Make sure everythings protected from the rain, soudns like it might be a rough night” Flacidious stood up and started checking his pack and the tent. The others set about checking guide ropes and protecting their gear, the wind quickly picked up and before long they were all sheltering in the dark in their tents. Meredith and Gilnar though were on watch and so instead of being curled up out of the worst of the rain they were hunched under a lean too looking out into the forest.
“At least we can see futher then our own noses tonight” Gilnar chuckled.
“That is small recompense Gilnar!” Meredith retorted glumly.
“It’s like the whole pantheon has taken up arms against us ha!” Gilnar laughed and rolled back on the saddle he was using as a seat.
“It seems that way sometimes.” She sighed and rested her chin on her hand and looked out into the trees the howling wind was almost defening.
“Hey, what’s that?” Meredith could see a glowing orb in the distance, it looked like a small spherical cloud that glowed and bobbed, it was a pale blue colour. Gilnar looked for a few moments.
Meredith stood up and Gilnar grabbed her arm and pulled her back down. “Don’t, they’re spirits of the damned.” He looked around and saw more all around and then he looked at Meredith who seemed to be lost in thought.
“Bugger me.” He cursed. “We must be near some old battle ground or some such, come to your senses girl” he shook her again but nothing seemed to change. She looked more doll like then ever at that moment, he maintained a firm grip and watched as the lights bobbed in the distance. The rain viloent thrashed the cover they sat under and the wind roared the tents were buffeted violently and Meredith and Gilnar became ever more soaked to the bone the sound of thunder rumbling and the flashes of lighting lit the whole scene up as though it were bathed in whiite. After one such loud clap Meredith turned and looked at Gilnar.
“What happend?” She looked at him and then the glowing balls in the distance.
“Back with me then?” Gilnar looked her up and down. She nodded and he let go.
“What was that?” She seemed to survey herself for a few moments.
“Dead lights, they’re spirits of the dead that are trapped in the mortal realm” his somber words made Meredith flinch a bit.
“mmhmm” she nooded and looked out at them.
“They hate the living it seems and try to lure those they find to their deaths”
“To their deaths?” Meredith seemed to shake a bit and bit her lip.
“Yeah, they call out to your very essence and trick your mind, when you come too you’re in a very unfortunate situation they drain your life force and leave you an empty husk.”
“Not the best of ways to go.” She frowned and her shoulders heaved.
“Most certainly not, no.” Gilnar concured.
“No. Lucky you weren’t affected.” She looked at him a moment.
“Yeah,this time.” He said bitterly.
“This time?” She looked at him her eyes seemingly probing for a story. One that he seemed ready to tell.
“Yeah, this time.” He nodded and sighed, a few moments past “I was a member of the Subraria Legion back in the day I’d been conscripted from a small settlement the kind of place that doesn’t even have a real name, just that place between that forest and that river” he smiled.
“Sounds peacful.” She said.
“I suppose, it’s so distant now that I don’t think I can really form the image properly in my mind, anyway after a few months of training in a march near the border with Tenrif the war started and we found ourselves marching into battle, me and my squadmates were part of a massive army that marched for almost a week”
“And?”
“Well, we lived off the land and made merry the way soldiers who haven’t thought a real battle do. Then we came to this place, a giant open field with a river to the left flank and mountains to the right, the Tenrifian forces had set up field forts and other defences, I thought I’d seen all the men in the world in our army!” He laughed “And now all the men in the world had doubled! It was a sight to behold I tell you.”
Meredith listened in tently and nodded “mm then?”
“Well this was clearly where all the generals had decided we’d have our little barny, it’s hard to explain what a battle between grand armies is like, to be frank I don’t even know, I was in a giant formation a massive square my brothers right and left of me and infront and behind. I held a massive pike and I had a short sword at my side somewhere behind me in the middle were archers and somewhere among them a captain and some signallers and as the drums roared out we started to march into battle. Others had great shields and spears, others small round bucklers” He paused and seemed to think a moment longer. Meredith sat quietly watching, listening to the roar of the wind.
“Well I can’t really remember a single sound, arrows blackened the sky and horses smashed into our square as we marched forward, massive bits of masonry landed around us pulverising men and beasts, bodies trampled under our endless march forward until after some period of time we met an enemy formation. The fight lasted an eternity, my arms and legs were on fire, the sound of screaming and drums and commands the sight of brothers falling and pike heads darting past my head arrows dropping left and right slowly I got to the point where I had to trade pike for sword and the real meat grinder started. I couldn’t tell you how many people I sawed through that day it was relentless but our force was discplined until the order came to begin the retreat, it seemed the other side had the same order and we withdrew and so we did under cover of the shields.” He stopped again and took a drink of tea from his flask.
“After that we returned to our camp, but turns out it was our turn to be on patrol, that’s when I first met these things we were checking to make sure nobody was going to assault us from the river at night, sneak an ambush over or some skirmishers to raid our supplies so that’s where me and the lads saw these balls hovering there. I came too waist deep in freezing water, some of my friends shouting from the river bank, others screaming in the water drowning while having their life force sucked from them, I could see this big orb not more then a couple of meters from me and I could see inside it the agonoised face of a soldier screaming at me, I could hear it whispering in my head, and I could feel my strenght leaving me then it seems one of the squad had ran and got a caster from the camp and she cast some kind of spell that let me and a couple of the others escape. Later they told me that you seem to only be able to fall victim to them once or some such, I don’t get on with this magic stuff, but yeah between the battle and that river our company of 100 became a band of 20.” He sighed and pulled his hood up a bit more.
“I suppose that’s the tragedy of war, is it where you met Sial and Erek?”
“Oh no, that was much later, Sial was when I was a pit fighter in Bajarn, Erek” he grinned “tales for another day young Mere.” The wind had died down and the terrenchal rain had moved to a normal autumnal downpour.
“You know I’m older then you right?” She smiled and lent back. The two of them waited until the spirits all vanished and then woke up some of the others to take watch. They didn’t have much time to sleep but it was better then nothing and warmed them up a bit for the day ahead.