It didn’t take long for them to stumble upon the first signs of the Gorelock Toads after only thirty-five minutes of traveling within the forest.

  Large webbed footprints accompanied by patches of dark poison littered the forest floor intermittently, eating into the soft, well-worn path and vegetation that surrounded it. The corrosion had spread steadily into the ground surrounding it, the dirt tinged with dark purple and the grass that lined the path was shriveled and black. The path wasn’t completely blocked by the poison, but unless their horses magically learned how to fly in the next thirty seconds, there wasn’t a great way to make it past the obstacle without the horses getting injured.

  Sulaiman, who had been leading them, pulled his horse to a stop, frowning at the ground.

  “Do you think you could burn us a pathway through, Sulaiman?” Priscilla asked, pulling her horse next to him.

  “I could,” Sulaiman said slowly, “but we’ll have to travel much slower.”

  Priscilla squinted down the path ahead of them, though she couldn’t see well with the limited lighting. The poison looked like it ended after another fifty feet or so, but Priscilla didn’t want Sulaiman to waste all his mana on this.

  “For now let’s go ahead with you burning a path for us,” Priscilla said, “and reassess the plan if you start to feel the strain or if it starts raining. I don’t want you to be empty of magic because with this much poison everywhere, I’m sure we’ll encounter the fuckers eventually.”

  “I can try to wash it away myself,” Kavil offered but Sulaiman shook his head, after considering it for a moment.

  “Your magic should be reserved for as long as possible in case any of us are wounded,” Sulaiman said, raising his hand. “I can at least turn my fire into a better weapon against a beast, so I’ll handle this until the rain arrives.”

  A small fire began to burn along the edge of the poison covering the middle of the path accompanied by a prickle of easily ignorable pain in Priscilla’s shins as the smoke curled up through the air into the dark canopy. Sulaiman burned enough of a path the horses could walk in a single file with him in the front, but it was a good thing that they had calm horses. Priscilla put Kavil in the middle while she kept her head on a swivel.

  The next few minutes passed by in tense silence, the only sound disturbing the small crackle of poison burning and the horse’s hooves hitting the ground. Each flare of movement within Priscilla’s vision was a potential enemy. Even if it only turned out to be branches rustling in the wind it still wound Priscilla up, making her breath catch and fingers flex. But Asha hadn’t twitched once and Pricilla forced herself to be a little calmer, reminding herself she’d probably hear the toads coming.

  It took nearly thirty minutes before they reached a stretch of road that Sulaiman didn’t have to burn clear and they could travel normally again.

  Priscilla let out a slow sigh of relief before she asked, “How’re you doing, Sulaiman?”

  His brow was furrowed but he finally looked up from the ground.

  “I think I could keep up that pace for two more hours at most,” Sulaiman said, hesitated, then continued, “Though I’ll limit my magic use, if we encounter monsters that time will go down significantly.”

  “Then we’ll try our best to end battles quickly,” Priscilla said, “and cover ground we can.”

  Sulaiman nodded and they were off, traveling in silence once more.

  Just under an hour had passed by quietly, just enough for Priscilla to take a moment to roll out some of the tenseness in her neck, when Asha squeezed her hand four times, tugging her fingers sharply to the left.

  Priscilla felt her body stiffen as she glanced around. She couldn’t see anything, so it had to be, “Hyenas. To the left of us.”

  Sulaiman, who was the closest to the left side, looked sharply at her, asking, “Only the left?”

  Priscilla waited just long enough to get a feeling of affirmation from Asha before nodding.

  Sulaiman adjusted his posture to sit a little straighter as he calmly pulled his shield onto his arm.

  “Three seconds and then we enact the plan for the hyenas with Kavil making the opening move,” Sulaiman said, his voice even. “One.”

  They’d decided against her staying mounted because her reach on horseback was abysmal and it’d probably end with the horse injured. Priscilla loosened her grip on the reins, and hoped the horse wouldn’t mind too much when she flung herself from its back.

  “Two.”

  Kavil pulled his horse farthest from the left, before he fully unhooked the crossbow and pulled it into his hands quietly. He brought the sight up, aimed into the forest’s depths.

  “Three.”

  Sulaiman and Priscilla dismounted moments before Kavil pulled the trigger, the bolt flying into the bushes. Sulaiman held his shield in front of him as he slammed his free hand into the ground, his magic infusing the ground by their feet.

  Just in time too, as a cacophony of high pitched hyena’s laughter left their ears ringing, but the ground tremor didn’t knock them onto their backs. Priscilla’s legs shook and her feet ached from the magic but she regained her footing as she saw two hyenas ram into Sulaiman’s shield, their fur shifting as they dropped the camouflage. He grunted as he pushed them back and pulled out his sword just in time to stab a third coming from the side through the stomach.

  Two more hyenas came cackling through the brush. Priscilla darted forward, drawing the dagger but planting a solid kick into the closest hyena’s side. It let out a pained bark as it crashed into its pack member, making them crash back into the bushes.

  But that wasn’t anything to celebrate about as a third followed them, rushing Priscilla with a wide muzzle to clamp around her ankle.

  Priscilla threw her foot to the side as it snapped shut, and was too unsteady to kick in retaliation. But she swiped at it with her dagger, forcing it to back away so they were now in a stand off. The other two hyenas were scrambling to right themself a few feet away, making the bushes shake as they rolled.

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  The hyena in front of her growled at her but didn’t go for another lunge immediately. Priscilla had only a moment to react when she saw it open its jaw towards the ground. As the bark sank into the ground, Priscilla was already dropping to one knee for a slightly more stable position.

  Priscilla learned that a hyena’s breath smelled like rancid ass when the Dappled Hyena’s jaw snapped towards her shoulder, spit dripping off its lips. But Priscilla ducked backwards as she twisted the dagger up and out, and it sank home into the hyena's chest. The hyena let out a raspy whimper as it snapped weakly at her before collapsing atop her.

  It took two tugs to pull the knife out as she pushed the corpse to the side and Priscilla looked up to see how everyone else was.

  Two dead hyenas laid at Sulaiman’s feet and the last one that had attacked him was near to the edges of the path, eyes gleaming even in the low light. The bushes shook for a moment before backup arrived and they rushed him.

  Priscilla didn’t have enough time to worry about Sulaiman as the two she pushed had recovered and were growling at her. One held itself gingerly and growled even louder when she looked at it.

  The two lunged forward in a mirror image of each other and Priscilla knew she couldn’t dodge both of them. Priscilla brought up her right hand holding the dagger to be caught in the injured hyena’s jaws while she hauled it into the other hyena’s path. Asha’s material hardened to metal just before the teeth clamped down and a spike jutted out towards the back of its throat. The hyena let out a choked noise and let go of Priscilla’s hand long enough for her to finish the deed and stab its neck.

  Priscilla was panting and facing the last hyena as Kavil said, “Sulaiman watch–”

  Sulaiman let out a grunt of pain that drew Priscilla’s attention. A hyena had sunk its teeth into his calf, trapping him in place as two came from the front. Priscilla didn’t even know she was moving until the dagger whipped forward, slipping from her fingertips until it sank into the offending hyena’s flank. It let go and Sulaiman was able to deflect the other two before finishing it off.

  She couldn’t savor the victory, turning on her heel just in time to come face to face with the last hyena. Priscilla’s instinctive reaction was to jab her fist forward, catching it in the nostrils with a spiky Asha, which made it come to an abrupt halt as it yelped. She pushed the advantage and laced her fingers together and slammed them down onto its head. A crack went out as a spike from Asha went through the hyena’s skull to pierce its brain and it went still beneath Priscilla.

  No time to rest as a hyena tried to slip by her to get to Kavil’s horse. Priscilla lunged to the side and wrapped a hand around the beast’s leg, wrenching it to a sudden stop with a popping noise.

  A twang went through the air and the hyena she was holding onto fell on its side, convulsing as a bolt had struck its paw. Kavil was breathing heavily from a few feet away, staring at the beast but Priscilla didn’t have any time to speak with him except to say, “Nice shot,” before she finally pushed herself back to her feet.

  Sulaiman had focused on the defensive since getting injured and four hyenas had arranged themself into a semi-circle around him.

  There was just enough distance to sprint that when Priscilla had extra force as kicked into the hyena on the end’s ribs, its paws lifted from the ground as it slammed into the one next to it.

  “See!” Priscilla panted as she pulled her dagger out with a yank. “Punting is a valid tactic!”

  Sulaiman didn’t respond and took advantage of the distraction to kill another beast, shifting his feet so his injured leg was closer to Priscilla.

  The hyenas pulled back from them, their odd laughter holding a sinister edge as they cackled at the ground to send tremors through it.

  Sulaiman’s leg buckled but Priscilla stopped him from falling prone by propping him up from the back even as she kneeled unsteadily. Sulaiman had enough presence of mind to wave his sword at the hyena that tried to dart around the side.

  “Forest fires be damned,” Sulaiman muttered in a low voice and Priscilla didn’t even have time to savor the words before a staticky pain bloomed atop her head.

  Fiery darts glowed brightly as they slammed into the hyena’s fur, burning greedily across their flanks. The beasts yelped and turned in a circle, snapping at the pain, but it wasn’t until a crossbow bolt sank in the ground in front of them that the hyenas finally decided they weren’t worth the effort. The pack sprinted back into the underbrush from whence they came.

  Sulaiman kept his shield in place as they listened to the sound of the remaining hyenas fleeing deeper into the forest. Priscilla kept her hand tight on her dagger, panting hard.

  But after a few tense moments, Asha’s alertness faded and Priscilla allowed herself to relax.

  “Kavil, will you–” but before Priscilla could even finish her request, Kavil had unmounted and was kneeling next to Sulaiman with a water skin in hand.

  “I need you to sit and extend your leg,” Kavil ordered, his tone leaving no room for arguments if you ignore how it shook. He was tugging insistently on Sulaiman, who hadn’t turned away from the bushes.

  “I’ll keep watch,” Priscilla promised, patting Sulaiman on the shoulder and preemptively cutting off any complaints. Sulaiman pursed his lips but finally complied as Priscilla kept up appearances by scanning the forest. After a minute of calmness, she checked up on the horses, who had been mainly forgotten during the battle. They were calm beasts and had stayed in place, but the wild look in their eyes didn’t fade until Pricilla began whispering assurances to them, gently rubbing a hand down their neck.

  By the time Sulaiman was healed up, Priscilla was able to fully calm down their horses and they were taking the opportunity to graze.

  “We should collect the crossbow bolts since ammo is limited,” Sulaiman said after testing his leg and finding it up to standard, “and cut off the left ears of the hyenas.”

  Priscilla grimaced at the bloody task but reluctantly knelt near the closest body and got to work. The ear was hard to cut at first with a dagger but Priscilla found the right angle and cut clean through.

  “Why the ears?” Kavil asked as he pulled a bolt out of the ground.

  “The adventuring guild in Meadowyar has a periodic quest to cull the Emerald Forest’s monsters,” Sulaiman said, cutting through an ear easily. “Last I checked, Dappled Hyenas were worth five silver per ear, although it might be more since they’re causing more problems than usual, so we should get a tidy profit from them.”

  “Will we have to cut something off the toads too?” Kavil asked, eyeing the nearest body with a wary expression.

  Sulaiman paused, glancing up. “I’m not sure. I’ve never seen a bounty for them since they’re not native to the area.”

  “We can cut off their tongues and drag them with us,” Priscilla suggested and laughed at the twin looks of disgust she got from the boys.

  Sulaiman insisted on being the one to search the forests for the bolts as Priscilla and Kavil dealt with the hyena bodies, dragging them to the side of the road. The ears were tucked into a bag before they were on the road again.

  Sulaiman led the way once more, glancing between Priscilla and Kavil.

  “You both followed the plan well and kept a cool head,” Sulaiman began. “If I hadn’t been conserving my magic, I think we would have escaped this with no injuries. Kavil, congratulations on hitting a target.”

  Kavil sighed and muttered, “I barely grazed it only because Priscilla was holding it still.”

  “Yeah but considering you’ve only had the crossbow for half a day, that’s still impressive,” Priscilla said, “so don’t sell yourself short. I’m sure with practice you’ll be hitting them in the eye in no time.”

  Kavil didn’t seem particularly convinced by her encouragement, but he did smile. The crossbow was still in his lap, ready to be called upon when the moment arose. Priscilla knew he was uncomfortable with violence, but she knew that Kavil wasn’t the type of person who would be content to just be protected.

  If someone he cared about was in danger, Priscilla knew Kavil would bloody his hands without a second thought, even if later he'd berate himself for compromising his morals. It was one of the things she loved about him, but for now, Priscilla would do her best to make sure Kavil could keep his hands clean for a little longer.