A rather uneventful week of travel through the western Latreian, which consisted of long, rolling hills. One of the benefits of Latreian was the low rock walls lining the roads, behind which were pastures for cows and sheep. Which wasn’t to say the cows and sheep were beneficial, but the farmers running the ranches in the area kept it clear of bandits and other ne’er-do-wells.
Perhaps the only thing of note that had happened was when they’d pass by travelers headed in the opposite direction who stood aside to let the caravan trundle past.
Charlie yawned. Rearguard was so boring! It was such a well-guarded caravan than he didn’t think anyone would attack them now. Of course, like the three bandits he’d caught, some people might use the opportunity to shoplift or something. But that wasn’t really their job to stop, per se. It was the vendors who were required to guard their shops from theft.
No, they’d been hired to stop actual attacks on the caravan. So far, that seemed unlikely. However, up ahead, he could see the edges of the vast forest that cut through Latreia, dividing it in half. Whispers ran through the caravan as they got closer to the forest, and ultimately whoever was in charge of it gave the order to stop so that everyone could get a good night sleep. After all, it was no secret that the forest was filled with bandits.
Things had quieted down since Geoffrey had gotten a proper Trim.
Jeff was no longer here anymore. He was just a pair of rather nice magical boots built for polar bear paws. Veles said he could detect Jeff’s life within the boots and that he was thinking… well, boot thoughts, which was disturbing. Charlie guessed being two different objects at once was disorienting, so it was no small wonder that Jeff’s mind had essentially given up.
While he didn’t miss Jeff’s lackadaisical attitude, he did miss his knowledge of DnD. Charlie didn’t have as many years of experience with the game - he’d only just started playing this year after watching a roleplaying group online.
Still, now that the interparty drama about Jeff was solved, Charlie was hoping to really start adventuring.
He didn’t care if bandits ambushed them or they found a dungeon somewhere in the forests. Anything was better than the drama. The constant personal crisis of his fellow party members had really started wearing at him. Plus, he wanted to level up and complete his missions for the Order and he couldn’t do that while dealing with Jeff.
An uneventful night later, the caravan woke up and started its trip into the woods.
At first, it seemed rather idyllic. The day was nice and warm. Pretty oak trees towered over the path, their boughs letting dapples of sunlight through. The road shimmered with the rustle of the cool wind blowing through the leaves. They crossed over a sturdy bridge where a babbling brook rushed underneath. While the rest of the party seemed oblivious to it, Charlie’s high perception let him see everything in it – from the little fish swimming in the current to the small pebbles on the creek bed.,
He kinda wanted to fish.
Eh, he’d have time for it later. Or maybe he would be too busy adventuring to care. Whatever the case, this part of the woods, at least, was lovely and Charlie wanted to buy a small cottage somewhere near that brook.
But for all the anticipation of the night before, they must still have been in the safe part of the forest as the guard towers they passed were manned by lazy-looking anthros doing some outdoors grilling. Charlie couldn’t help but wonder just how big the forest really was when they stopped at the rest area that night.
They’d traveled an entire day through the woods but there was no sign that they were anywhere near the end. When he’d asked Veles, the fat fox just shrugged.
Charlie sighed. It was more of a Jeff question, but he was a bit preoccupied with being footwear at the moment. If he was here, he’d probably babble about deforestation.
The wolf assassin shook his head.
He didn’t need Jeff. It had been a dumb question anyways. All Charlie had to do was look at the map and realize that they were one day into a week-long journey through a massive forest.
“Fetch my coat, Geoffrey,” Gregory ordered.
“Yes, my love,” Geoffrey said with a bow, his little nub of a tail wagging between his muscular asscheeks.
Charlie rolled his eyes.
Those two had become rather inseparable. Apparently confessing their love to each other had reignited some kind of passion. Strangely though,it felt empty. Neither of them were real. Or maybe they were?
Charlie couldn’t really grasp how these things worked. Were they actually Jeff and Greg with NPC memories or were they NPCs? If it was the former, then how was Jeff able to exist after the initial Trimming at all?
It was all beyond the assassin. So he did what was best and took night watch.
The woods were a bit more scary at night with all the nocturnal forest sounds. Still, nothing happened during Charlie’s shift. The other party members were more on their guard but again, no attacks in the night.
Come dawn, Charlie arose and the caravan set out again.
Just after noon, the forest started to shift, the spaces between trees growing markedly smaller and the overhead foliage grew thicker, casting the trail in stretches of shadow marked here and there by dopples of sunlight. Manned guard towers were sparse and then they ceased being occupied entirely, nothing more than crumbling ruins marked by battle damage.
The bull guard who now rode rear with them, Gavin, trotted up to ride alongside the carriage. He was the replacement for the boar who had lost his horse. Unfortunately, the boar hadn’t been able to afford a new horse and was forced to sit on a wagon near the front.
Gavin was nice, though. Big, huskily built, and clearly created to catch the party’s interest. A companion NPC, basically. Now that Charlie was more aware of the simulation, he could spot the setups.
“Look lively lad,” The bull snorted authoritatively, his hard eyes searching the thickening undergrowth. “These next three days are the dangerous stretch.”
“Shoot anything that moves?” Charlie growled, straightening in his saddle.
“What?” Gavin’s eyes widened, then he chuckled. “No! There’s still a few little hamlets out here. Mostly logging camps. Tomorrow when we get into the thick of it, there’s even a small town. Diamond Hollow. They’ve got an Inn and a lumber mill.”
“Oh yeah? What’s Diamond Hollow like?”
“Dreary. Desperate.” Gavin shook his head, “It’s on the river. Big lumber mills there and a mine in the hills nearby. Most folks in Diamond Hollow are people that have nowhere else to turn and the rest are people the folks who exploit them. It's a dark, gritty and violent town centered on mining, logging, and the entertainment of the workers.”
“How’ve they managed to survive the bandits?”
“Where do ya think the bandits come from, lad?” Gavin grinned tuskily. “Not saying they’re all untrustworthy, but they’re a hard and desperate people scratching out a living in the wilderness.”
“Should we expect bandits?” Charlie asked.
“Hmmm, hard to say,” Gavin rubbed his snout thoughtfully, “We’re a very big caravan, it’s not likely but not impossible. Depends on how desperate the bandits are.”
“Or how stupid.”
“Haha!” Gavin snorted, “Right you are, lad! Right you are!”
The bull slapped Charlie’s back, his trotters lingering a little longer than the wolf was comfortable.
“Hey, you wanna get a drink at the inn later?” Gavin asked, giving the wolf a side-eyed glance.
“Are you asking me if I want to sleep with you?” Charlie turned to address the rather muscular bull directly, giving Gavin a once over. He was huskily built and likely a good fuck if the bulge in his groin was any indicator.
“Yes.” Gavin grinned again.
“My tailhole could use a good stretching,” Charlie grinned back.
“That’s a lad!” The bull guffawed, slapping Charlie’s back again.
Charlie rolled his eyes as the bull fell back to patrol behind the wagon.
He hadn’t had sex with a bull yet. Not like he was looking for different species to fuck, but his tailhole had been acting up recently and a bull’s huge cock giving it a proper stretching should calm it down. Charlie wasn’t sure why his ass kept spasming, though. Maybe males went through heat too?
Anyways, thinking about sex right now was probably not the number one priority. They were in the dangerous stretch now. That NPC had all but confirmed it.
Charlie paused, considering the advice Jeff had given Veles in regards to his new accidental boyfriend.
Maybe he would start asking the bull a few questions. Or-oh! Maybe he could experiment and ‘mold’ the bull’s interests himself! Charlie wondered if… if perhaps, he had asked the bull if HE wanted his tailhole stretched, Gavin would have agreed to that and become a bottom instead of a top. Or was he programmed to be a top and Charlie had just guessed well?
It was something to think about.
Not the sex, because, again, he was looking out for bandits, but the idea that maybe he could manipulate the bull, he could manipulate the rest of the world. Perhaps not drastically, but by NOT taking the obvious route to victory, he’d force the simulation to adjust and thus, get better. Or just give him free shit because it didn’t have the processing power to stop him.
If Jeff were here, he wondered….
There it was again. Why did he care about that stupid fat bear so much? Well, he was smart. And Charlie found his knowledge of the AI simulation absolutely fascinating. Maybe if he could manipulate the bull like Jeff said, maybe he really should find a way to bring him back?
Plus, there was that whole thing with Geoffrey and Gregory. Too many names with G’s and y’s at the end. In writing, his teachers had advised him not to use similar names because even if that kind of thing happened all the time in the real world, in fiction, it was easy to confuse them. Like, his classroom had three guys named ‘John’, but if he were writing a novel about his school days and named three people ‘John’, that was a big no-no.
The forest grew even denser when night finally fell and the caravan had halted at the stopover site.
Everyone in the caravan was stressed. Instead of the rowdy cheers, people talked in hushed tones. Campfires were shrouded and the wagons were clustered in a much tighter circle than they had been a day ago. Even Madame Illusia was sitting on a raised porch that folded out form the side of her wagon.
Charlie was pretty sure that the wagon was bigger on the inside than it appeared on the outside. Illusia was a high-level magic user, after all. And if Veles was to be believed, a hag. Stronger, even, than Granny. He shuddered. Definitely not interested in dealing with a hag’s illusions again.
“Charlie,” Prince Gregory’s voice brought Charlie out of his thoughts.
“Yes?” Charlie replied, turning to meet the handsome white-furred mink.
“North of Falcon’s Hollow is a temple to the Forest Spirit.” The mink said, “It’s said that local hunters killed the Spirit hundreds of years ago. They stuffed it and displayed it in the center of the temple, which they desecrated and turned into a hunting lodge for wealthy nobles.”
“And?” Charlie asked.
“The noble who now owns the temple ALSO backs my brother and runs the logging company in Falcon’s Hollow.” Gregory continued, “His manor is at the far end of the forest.”
“I see.” Charlie nodded. “So what?”
“We should do something to ruin him!” Gregory hissed, staring off at a point in the distance that was likely where the mink imagined the noble’s manor was. “Teach him a lesson!”
“Or we could just kill him,” Charlie shrugged.
“I mean, yes, obviously we could do that, but I’d prefer he fall under my control.” Gregory replied. “If we kill him, Louis will just replace him with another loyal nobleman.”
“Okay,” Charlie nodded, rubbing his muzzle in thought, “what about the temple? These hunters desecrated it, why haven’t they been punished?”
“They were. That’s why there’s so many monsters around these parts. They got turned into them.” Gregory said.
“Ah,” Charlie nodded. “Still not sure why that’s my problem.”
“Because if I want legitimacy, I need to stabilize my realm!” The mink stomped a paw cutely on the ground.
Charlie sighed, “okay, so is the temple haunted or something?”
“Yes.”
“Then I won’t be much use, since I don’t have any magical weapons. And no, we can’t afford any. I’ve checked.” Charlie said.
“Damn!” Gregory kicked the dirt, “I was hoping we’d be able to kill two birds with one stone. Tomorrow we stop over in Falcon’s Hollow for the trade fair. Now we’ll have to double back here at some point and deal with the temple then.”
“Hmmm,” Charlie nodded, “No, I understand. We might have some way of killing ghosts, but we definitely don’t want to get possessed. Our party doesn’t have a cleric, you know.”
“What happens if you get possessed?”
“Uh, normally, they make you kill your party members and then yourself and if the area is unhallowed, the party ends up just more ghosts stuck in the temple forever.”
“You said normally?”
“Well, that still might happen, but this is a fetish game, so probably transformation and sex is involved,” Charlie sighed.
“Are you saying ghosts are running around ancient ruins having orgies?” Gregory asked.
“What did you think ectoplasm was?” Charlie grinned.
“Ghosts are vile creatures!” Gregory declared, face red, and walked off.
Charlie was on guard duty half the night, but nothing happened. He watched everyone carefully but couldn’t detect any sabotage. No, now that he knew they’d be stopping over at Falcon’s Hollow, he guessed if something would happen, it would be there.
He nodded to himself.
Yes, if he were a bandit facing a large caravan he’d need to do something to break it up. The real attack would happen at Falcon’s Hollow. But it wouldn’t be anything overt, that would be stupid. Events would simply unfold, and when the caravan managed to leave….
He paused.
The bandits needed to get rid of as many guards as they could. Which meant that whatever happened tomorrow would target Charlie’s party. Not the caravan of easy-to-pick-off vendors. Though, considering Madame Illusia, he wasn’t sure just how easy some of the wagons would be to rob.
It was time to go over his facts.
There had been AT LEAST three corrupt guards on the caravan. Charlie couldn’t prove there weren’t more. Ones that were smarter than those three fat asses. Their mission was likely to gather information, then report back to their leader about how many guards and the goods they could steal.
But wait.
Charlie groaned and rubbed his muzzle harder.
Veles had WARPED REALITY when he got rid of the corrupt guards. Which meant they were never recruited by the bandits. That meant Falcon’s Hollow would be incredibly dangerous for his party, since now the bandits would want to gather as much information about them AND get rid of them at the same time.
“Shit!”
Veles may have made things much worse. Accidentally, of course. But still. He rolled over in his sleeping bag and fell asleep.