Monsters in the Mist: The Tales of the Territories, Book Two by Peter Wacht

Author:Peter Wacht [Wacht, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kestrel Media Group LLC
Published: 2023-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

13

UNWANTED VISITOR

When Jakob stepped out of the cave, leaving his father asleep against the back wall, he made sure that the long vines extending down from the knoll were draped over the entrance to ensure that nothing could be seen of the inside of the crevice.

That task done, Jakob moved stealthily through the forest, careful not to make any noise or leave any tracks, gliding through the wood with the quiet of a Wraith in the Murk.

Just to be certain, he climbed a tree and walked from one to the next on the thick branches that often twisted and twirled around one another above the forest floor. Doing that helped to ensure that there would be no way for any of the slavers to find where his father was hiding if he made a mistake during his scouting and left a discernible mark somewhere.

Whoever was tracking them knew what they were doing. There was no reason to make it easy for them.

When Jakob finally dropped back down to the ground, he stayed several dozen yards away from the trail as he made his way to where the path led up and out of the hollow. Finding a good spot among the brambles where he couldn’t be seen but he could see all that was going on around him, he waited there for more than an hour, not moving, barely breathing, allowing the rapidly falling darkness to settle over him.

He had picked this particular location that was close to the trail but not too close after searching the vale with the Talent. Jakob didn’t have much longer to wait.

Torches appeared along the meandering path, continuing haltingly until they reached the base of the climb. With those torches came more than a dozen slavers.

He watched intently as the men engaged in an animated conversation, the results of which clearly didn’t please some of them. He couldn’t hear what the slavers were saying, but he didn’t need to. He knew what they were discussing.

The slavers faced a dilemma of Jakob’s creation, and in the end they did much as he expected that they would.

After discussing the situation for only a few minutes, most of the slavers started hiking up the steep trail that led out of the valley. Five of the men stayed in the hollow, giving their comrades who were leaving them behind forlorn glances.

Based on the brief glimpses he caught of their faces thanks to the illumination provided by the torches they carried, none of the slavers tasked with staying in the valley appeared to be all that pleased about their fate.

Jakob identified several different emotions, the most common being fear. Clearly, they didn’t want to be there, and he could understand why.

Most people avoided being out in the wild at night if they couldn’t find a strong defensive position, especially when the clouds blocked the moonlight and the stars. The almost pitch black made it difficult to see more than a few feet around in any direction even with their torches.

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