The merchantmen, happy to have the whole bandit fiasco behind them, hit the road with renewed vigor. They traveled along the dirt paths headed east from Nardth.
Sarkon and Grüshnag brought up the rear of the caravan train. All the staple supplies like food, water and any extra blankets were brought along in the last few carts. These were heavy laden carts. They swayed and creaked as they rumbled along. Easy targets for a wild animal or a lone highwayman.
Sarkon and Grüshnag were very much happy to be back on the road again. The bandit ordeal had really been shown that the pair couldn't stay away from action.
"How do we always seem to turn a simple 'go fetch' this or go fight a bad guy or two into a full blown grand adventure?" Sarkon bemused. "Seriously, Grüshnag, the divines must find us always getting the short end some sort of joke. What say you?"
"It's fine, I s'pose. Nothin' we can't smash our way out of..." Grushnag trailed off for a moment. "Hmm, you may have a point. I was being a sneaky git back with those humans. I hate sneaky, too much work. A straight fight is more fun. They tried to hold me, of all the orcs, me, prisoner. What a joke. They just had too many of them and just me. Not worth it................” Grüshnag trailed off again, this time longer. It must be a joke, you said you sliced them up face to face while I was down." He turned a crooked grin to Sarkon. They both laughed a bit and went back to watching the road.
The beaten path continued out for miles, at first. A day passed and then another. A certain doldrum fell over the whole party. Pushing forward for a day, stop and camp. Rinse repeat. This whole pattern repeated itself for several days. Nothing but the odd aggressive snake or midsize vermin to keep it interesting. How much further were they away?
As if taking a cue from the group, the path forward abruptly turned rough and then completely disappeared in only a mile stretch. This brought the whole caravan to screeching halt.
“What the hell? Why are we stopping? You see anything, mate?”
“No. Not good to stop here though. You smell that?”
“Indeed. I feel the storms coming in. The air is starting to get heavy too. We must be getting close but…” Sarkon stopped midstream as he heard some shouting further ahead. “Care to check it out with me?”
“Yeah. Not good to shout out here. Someone or something might not like it.” The pair then began walking quickly to the front, listening and trying to figure out what was going on. They reached the front and immediately saw the problem. The path was now nothing more than a vague trail into the thick green brush.
“Whoa whoa whoa,” Sarkon began, talking over the bickering leaders. “I see we have a problem. Anyone have our spot on a map? Kept pace count on the way in? I’m not familiar with these parts but I got a good idea how far we are.” The two men stared at Sarkon then each other for a moment.
One of the leaders called a young man over, map in hand. “Here, elf. You did save us back by Nardth but come on. Even you see the problem we are in. We planned 12 days at most with all supplies. This adds another 3 days of hard travel and no wagons. We need to….”
Sarkon tuned the man out and let him continue on. He wanted to see how bad it was for himself. And bad it was. If the map was to be believed, they were now in a very precarious situation. Mountain storms, limited supplies and they only just hit the foothills of the mountains. Even a way station was days away.
“Shit.” Sarkon muttered.
“I told ya, now. Why don’t anyone take me serious?”
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