Duskbound-Chapter 27Book 2,

The first fight didn't happen until shortly after noon. Velik and Torwin were doing a wide circuit paralleling the road at Torwin's insistence, something Jensen insisted was completely unnecessary but which both hunters had agreed they'd be doing anyway. Velik had the south side of the road to Torwin's north, and he was appreciating the time to himself. Being around other people was draining, and the last few months had only made it worse.

He didn't know what to say or how to act or who he'd accidentally offended, and trying to care about all of that was a mental burden he didn't appreciate being placed on him. That was why he'd leapt at the idea of watching for trouble coming in from afield when Torwin had mentioned it. It wasn't until trouble finally hit that he'd realized the wily old [Ranger] had foreseen a different kind of problem.

It started with a flash of light, almost like a bolt of lightning going the wrong way up into the sky. Velik's head snapped around, but by the time he could do more than blink, the light was gone. If it hadn't come from the road, he might have been tempted to ignore it, but since there was a possibility the rest of his team was involved, he ran toward where he'd seen the light instead.

"—the fuck would you know about it, you spoiled little bitch?" Giller was yelling as he got close.

"I know it's your fault Dad lost that contract with the Narlocks. If not for that, we wouldn't have had to borrow money."

There was a rasp of steel on leather—Giller drawing her sword. Velik got eyes on the team just in time to see Jensen step smoothly between the two women. Steam was rising from Giller's bare skin and out from beneath her clothes, and Aria was on the ground, mud splattered across her dress. Neither of their horses was anywhere to be seen, but Velik easily spotted tracks heading north. Torwin would likely intercept the beasts before they got too far.

"Please, if you two can't be civil with each other, then at least be silent," Jensen said. "I cannot believe two grown women, old enough to have adult children of their own, would attack each other like this."

"You'd better get the hell out of my way," Giller said, her voice hot. "I owe her for that, and I mean to see some blood."

"Try it," Aria sneered. "I'll turn you into a greasy smear half a mile long."

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"Both of you, shut up," Jensen snapped. "Unbelievable. It hasn't even been one day. I thought you were professionals. What would Shelir say to see his chosen representative picking a fight with someone else on her own team?"

"Probably that she deserved it," Giller said. "Now, move."

"She's right," Aria said. "This has been a long time coming. Step aside and let us get on with it."

Velik slowed to a jog as he approached and approached Sildra, who was barely mounted and clinging fiercely to her horse. The beast shied away from the group, no doubt sensing danger, and Sildra wasn't a good enough rider to keep it under control.

Velik grabbed the reins and forced the horse down. Try as it might to resist, it was no match for his raw strength, and once he got it to stop dancing around, Sildra was able to soothe it. I wonder if that's some sort of druid power. I thought all her skills were related to moonlight, though. Maybe she's just good with animals when they're not trying to dodge lightning bolts.

"What happened?" he asked softly. Fifty feet away, the two women were still spitting and snarling at each other while Jensen ineffectually tried to keep the peace.

"I'm not even sure," Sildra said. "They've been snipping at each other all afternoon. None of it felt targeted. Just general mean-spirited comments about anything they could think of. Clothes. Riding technique. Hairstyle. Then Aria said something about Giller's finances, Giller punched her off her horse, and Aria used some kind of skill to blast Giller off hers."

"Fantastic," Velik muttered. I think I've decided that I just hate other people.

Torwin appeared on the far side of the road, a few hundred feet back, leading Giller's horse by the reins. If nothing else, at least Aria's aim was good. The horse was completely unharmed. Aria's horse, on the other hand, was still missing. "Guess I need to go find the other one," Velik muttered, simultaneously annoyed at the task and relieved to have an excuse to disappear again now that he knew they weren't under attack.

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Leaving the team behind, he ran off into the field butting up against the road. It was only a few acres wide, and even without any sort of dedicated skill, it wasn't hard to pick out both sets of tracks from the two fleeing horses. Giller's mount had a small chip in one of its shoes, making it easy to tell them apart.

Velik tracked the beast down in minutes, still trotting through the woods beyond the fields and moving slowly since its ass end was far too wide for the trail it was on. He circled around through the trees and angled to come out right in front of the animal, which didn't notice him until he was right in front of it. Panicking, the horse reared up and flailed with its front legs.

He was surprised by the sudden attack, but even if he hadn't been quick enough to dance back out of the horse's range, he doubted it could have actually hurt him. Steel-shod hooves on a creature with maybe a 30 or 40 physical wasn't even close to enough to actually damage him, not even if he removed the chimeric leather vest he was wearing first.

The horse tried to flee, but it didn't have enough room to turn around. Changing tactics, it tried to rush forward and trample Velik instead, only for him to deftly snag its reins and pull it down to face him. "Alright, that's enough of that," he told it sharply. Unsurprisingly, the horse didn't react well to its tone.

It fought him for a few minutes while he led it to a small glade where he could get the beast turned around, but by the time they'd returned to the road, it had calmed down. Aria strode up to him the moment he came back into sight and reclaimed the reins, then gave him a disgusted look. "You truly have no idea what to do with a horse, do you?" she asked.

"I've never interacted with one before," he said.

"Your iron-ranked training should have included lessons."

He'd failed those tests, but since he could run faster than any horse anyway, he'd still passed overall. He wouldn't be caring for one anytime soon, but he also didn't need one to carry him around. He knew that horses were a lot of work, and he wanted no part of dealing with that. That was exactly why he'd told Jensen not to bother getting him one, not that the idiot had listened.

"You two done fighting?" Velik asked.

"For the moment. I have no doubt that Giller will open her mouth and demand I blast her off her horse a second time before we make camp tonight."

"Why did you agree to join the team if you knew someone you hated so much was going to be on it?" Velik asked.

With a sigh, Aria produced a brush out of nowhere and started working it over the animal, which calmed down immediately at her ministrations. "I guess I stupidly thought it would be an opportunity to mend some broken fences, but no, she's the same as she's always been. It's not ideal, but we'll make do. My business with her will stay with her, and neither of us will jeopardize the expedition."

Velik glanced over at the rest of the group, where Torwin was chortling and examining a rather spectacular black eye blooming on Jensen's face. "That a fact?"

Following his gaze, Aria snorted and shook her head. "Well, I won't jeopardize the expedition. I can't make any guarantees about my cousin."

We're not even one day into this and it's all falling apart, Velik thought as he stared back at her. You know what, this is not my problem. Jensen can handle this. Once we get past the border, they can go on their little treasure hunt and I'll go dig up some clues about the source of dungeon seeds, whether the tree actually does exist or not.

"Try not to lose your horse again. It was a pain to make it cooperate with returning," he said.

Walking over to the rest of the group, he came to a stop next to Torwin. Giller was already a few hundred feet down the road, riding by herself and apparently not planning on waiting for the rest of them. That was probably for the best, at least until tempers cooled off.

"What are you going to do about this?" Velik asked.

"Get punched in the face, apparently," Jensen told him.

"You'll be fine," Torwin said. "Doesn't even need a healing potion."

"That's really not the point."

Velik cut off Jensen's whining. "I agreed to this because I thought it would make my life easier. At this point, I'm really starting to wonder if I'm just wasting my time. I could already be in Slokara if I'd left on my own."

"Don't be so sure about that. The mountains down there are no joke," Torwin warned. "Level 40 is about the minimum level of the monsters you'd find. Some of them get up into the sixties, though you're not likely to stumble on those by accident. That's not even considering armed Slokaran patrols that'll do their best to arrest you, or just kill you if you resist, when you can't produce your border pass. And trust me, you're not going to pass for a Slokaran native with that hair."

"Fine," Velik growled. "But no more of these… mishaps. No more delays."

"I can't control—" Jensen started to say.

"It's your expedition. You're in charge. Controlling your team is exactly what you're supposed to do. If you can't do it, then why are any of us here?"

"Easy, lad," Torwin said, placing a hand on Velik's shoulder. "It's his first time, and he ended up with two people who have a lot of history and volatile tempers on his team. We'll get there. Just calm down, enjoy the scenery and the fresh air, and relax. Slokara will still be there next month."

Velik shrugged Torwin's hand off. "I don't care about the excuses. I just care about getting there."

Then he stalked off, back into the fields south of the road. I am so sick of… people. Monsters are easier. Just kill them when you find them.