The following two days were even less eventful, for the most part. Due to the unfortunate surprise at the end of their first trip, Niphru was much more careful about his surroundings. In the end, however, they did not run into anything else that could see through his illusions. Oher hand, the only mutated life they found were some smaller pnts, all of which were fairly obvious and easily dealt with, even without magic.

  The third day of exploration, however, ended with a small bit of excitement. They arrived back at the camp first, and it took nearly an hour more for the roup to arrive. Wheher group exited the forest, it was quite clear that their hunt had not gone as expected. While everyone was still there, one of them was being carried and, once brought to the camp, was revealed to have a signifit gash on the back of each leg.

  Seeing as the group had no healers, both of Lisryn’s guards spoke with each other for a moment before one headed toward where Dawn and Niphru were resting to request their aid. They naturally agreed to the suggestion to try healing the wounded person, even if they were from a different group, and the guardiauro their terpart.

  Fortunately, they had been ihe day before switg to three days of guard duty, so they did not have to walk on it mubsp; This allowed Dawn and Niphru to put less effort into the healing, leaving some to heal naturally. This would then serve as a reminder for their fellow mage to be more cautious iure, especially if they cked a healer.

  A short discussion with the roup ter, and it was decided that they would take the guard shift at night, as Niphru had better night vision than any of the humans, and no one particurly minded wheook over.

  As expected, the guard duty was nearly useless over the hree days. Only a handful of animals exited the forest at all, and most had returned fairly quickly rather than tinuing into the pins. In the end, they only had to kill two boar, a lynx, and a hawk, even bining the t with the group on the day shift.

  , however, they would have a full three-day trip into the forest, with the expectation of going thrice as far as they had before. Sihey had been up all night, they were allowed to start ter in the day, allowing them to get some rest before heading out. Eventually, though, they did have to take their tents down and journey into the wilderness. As before, Lisryn’s guards had a short discussion before one of them joihe group, leaving the other behind at the inal camp.

  Initially everythi simirly to the first three days they had been in the forest. As darkness fell, however, they had to decide on if they wao tinue or to make camp for the evening. Sihey were still used to being up at night from their time on guard duty, they decided to tinue for a while, but still get to bed before m.

  Due to the darkness, they moved much more slowly, with Viera using multiple spheres of light around the group to give them advanced warning of anything that might approabsp; Niphru, however, resumed his earlier role of being a scout and ranged ahead of the group, ensuring that he remained close enough to get support quickly if needed.

  Though they were not attacked, there was a stant feeling of unease. Every so often, there would be a noise just a bit beyond the light, causing everyoo remain twitchy and nervous. This was certainly not helped by the occasional refle of light from the eyes of creatures that remaiherwise out of sight. Niphru tio report that there was nothing threatening in their path, however.

  Eventually, they made it to a small clearing in the woods and decided to camp for the night. Without the roups around, they did o set their own watstead of being able to all sleep at onbsp; In time, they decided on a schedule where Niphru and Viera would take first watch, followed by Dawn and Miana. Meanwhile, Lisryn, Thomas, and Richard would rest through the whole night and switch with some of the others tomorrow. This would give each wateoh light magic, as well as give others a ce to work with Dawn and Niphru rather thawo of them mostly w together.

  When this was decided, Morris and the guardiaered the camp. After expressing their approval over the pns fuarding through the night, they remarked that they would only help if things became too dangerous. Otherwise, they were only present to avoid having a sed, seemingly more vulnerable, group nearby.

  Over the night, there were numerous occasions when it seemed like something might ihe camp. In the end, however, the only things that happened were glowing eyes showing up and the sounds of movement nearby, as well as the sounds of animals hunting each other in the distanbsp; Niphru found himself the least worried, as he had spent much more time in the wilderhan any of the others, even if he hadn’t normally been out in the middle of the night.

  The following m, everyone packed their tents after a meal of some preserved food and tinued onward. Once again, their teacher and guardian both fell back behind them to take up watch without disrupting the group. Multiple times over the day, they saw glimpses of eerily silent, nearly skeletal wolves keeping pace with them in the distance, but none seemed willing to approay closer.

  While focused on the wolves, however, they missed the presence of a bear and cub, nearly running into them as they passed through a particurly dech of foliage. As one might expect, this did not particurly please the bear, and it immediately charged the group.

  During its approach, the bear revealed that it was one of the twisted creatures they were inteo hunt, fur bristling as fshes of the skin below seemed to glisten in the light. As Niphru began his favored tactic of going for the head with fire, the beast simply closed its eyes and snorted, spraying out a bst of mucus that pushed the fire back from its nose before taking a deep breath in. Swinging its head to the side, it turned and charged at the ter of the group, causing everyoo scatter.

  As the group split up, Niphru spotted the bear cub running away, but seeing as it did not appear to be mutated, he focused ba the enraged parent instead. The beast began to turn towards Richard, and everyone moved to join together into two smaller groups to either side of the bear. Richard, meanwhile, seemed quite nervous, but held his ground as the bear charged at him, croug down and f a small vortex of wind to his side.

  Just before the bear could hit him, a rge rock shot from the ground and collided with its head, just as Richard leapt into the air. While he didn’t mao jump over the bear, he collided with his vortex of air and was hurled to the side, tug into a roll as he umbling until he smacked into Thomas. Fortunately, the impact was light enough that he merely took a step backward to brace himself before a hand to help Richard up.

  During this, Niphru reached Viera, Lisryn, and Miana, joining their group. The bear, obviously quite annoyed by being hit in the face, turo face Richard again and began lumbering forward once more. Meanwhile, Niphru spotted the wolves from earlier approag through the trees.