"We ought not to disturb the tracks as much as we can," Sir Gunnar ordered the others. "Who knows if these tracks will be useful to us later. The snow will continue to lt and erase the evidence anyway so we ought to use it while we still can."
A feeling of dread she was familiar with filled Irene’s heart as they all followed Sir Gunnar into the forest without any certainty that they would stumble upon a horrific scene. There hadn’t been monster activity, but what if it was just the beginning for them?
The snow had lted a lot that day, after all.
Rather than dwell on what she could not control, Irene kept her dominant hand, clad in brown riding gloves, tucked against her belt so she could easily access her sword if needed. Even though she wasn’t yet a confident archer on moving horseback, she could rely on her sword skills and she knew that much.
For a while, there was nothing more than the noises coming from riding on horseback through thick, lting snow and around tree trunks since the path the wagon took seed to be directionless and on no usual trail in those mountains.
Occasionally drips of lting snow would fall on them from the trees and, a few tis, Irene was caught by surprise to feel water on the top of her head. It reminded her that she needed to cut her hair soon. If she let it grow out too much longer she was sure she would look even more feminine than she did. However, it had been nice to have her hair against her neck through the cold winter. It did give her a bit of warmth. Others had grown out their hair as well was how she justified her decision.
Despite the constant internal thread of thought that seed to always race through her head, Irene’s eyes were deftly watching their surroundings. They never settled on one place for long and she would occasionally look down at the tracks they followed but Sir Gunnar was doing a fine job of leading them along them without disturbing them.
However, Sir Gunnar soon slowed and it caused Irene to wind up right next to the knight.
Instinctually, she pulled out her sword at what lay before them.
Not only was the sight hell on earth, but the stench was sothing she couldn’t fathom.
Although perhaps she could, because it was the very sa sll that her wound emitted whenever she had her bandages changed before the healer had got there. The only ti it stopped slling was when she woke up after the healer was long done with her.
On the ground at the end of the wagon’s trail, dozens of goblin carcasses and pieces lay in a pile. There was no explanation other than that soone had dumped them there.
"That sll..." Sir Gunnar trailed off, recognizing sothing he wish he didn’t.
"It’s so awful—"
"I thought I was going crazy," Felix admitted, cutting the younger apprentice off. "It reminds you of sothing, too, doesn’t it?"
Sir Sven and Leif both looked at the two apprentices with lowered eyebrows, unsure of what the two were assuming about the situation.
"Well?" Sir Sven asked. "Speak up."
Irene turned and Sir Sven realized she had a pensive expression, eyebrows lowered as if she were worried. Her worries turned to his.
How couldn’t she be? Each ti she thought she was further from the life she saw where she died by a goblin’s hand, and sothing happened to remind her of the fragility of everything.
"When I was wounded, this is exactly how it slled," Irene explained, but she put the back of her gloved hand against her nose. "Although, not to this degree."
"When I first had to pull out the arrow, this is exactly what it slled like," Felix admitted, disgusted.
His eyebrows were lowered. His anger surrounding goblins continued to grow. Despite them being considered the weakest monsters in those lands, they had power in numbers.
Sir Gunnar simply contemplated this for a mont before he squeezed his knees and his horse was forced to move forward, around the horrible pile of carcasses.
Since goblins were a familiar sight to the horse, it beca a bit skittish when he got to the other end of the pile and reared up on its back legs in disagreent.
"Woah!" Gunnar shouted at the animal, leaning backward so the horse would take the ssage to slow rather than getting worked up.
The horse’s feet went back to the ground and he shook his mane out, showing his vehent disagreent with the sight and stench.
"There are no tracks other than what we’ve already followed," Gunnar said. "We ought to follow them in the opposite direction... Unless the three of you are eager to get back to the library?"
"Not at all, sir," Leif, surprisingly, spoke first.
It caused Irene to smile faintly despite the discomfort of being reminded of how she had only just recently started feeling completely normal after being wounded. It was almost like her energy was sapped for a couple of months and it was hard to get over.
Even though she was one of the ones closest to the goblins, she managed to pull ahead first. The sll was making her feel nauseous and think of a ti when she couldn’t hold down any food or water.
No more words needed to be said for a long while as they retraced their steps going back to the edge of the forest where the wagon marks continued out and around the edge.
They all shared similar sentints, unsure of what could lay at the end of the trail going in the opposite direction. All were determined to solve the mystery even if it ant having to be out there all day. Fortunately, it was fair weather compared to what they had gotten used to when the world seed to be made of only blacks and whites in winter.
Eventually, the wagon did begin to pull away from the forest’s edge and the group continued dutifully following. They paid attention to their surroundings but remained mostly focused on the direction in which they were headed.
"Wait!" Irene was the first to shout when she noticed sothing odd.
The others, by that point, had pulled ahead and had to turn around to see what she was focused on.
It seed being slower and observing more intently was smarter for her to do because, as the girl slipped off the horse and knelt towards the ground, she saw footprints in what was left of the snow, mud, and grass, leading away from the wagon tracks and towards the Duke’s Tower.
She stood up and turned around, seeing no tracks coming from the other direction with a similar sized foot.
The girl then started running forward and she heard the knights and apprentices dismount their horses as well.
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