Chapter 181 - One Hundred And Eighty-One: Down The Mountain

We hurried as much as we were able to. This was still a mountain, and it was dark. Not all of us had great night vision and there was no way we could risk lighting a torch. Luckily for us the moon was still out, there was only a little cloud cover. I didn't want to think what it would be like trying to climb off the mountain if the weather was foul.

Descending meant it was less physical effort on our part, but keeping a steady footing was difficult. As we reached a steeper section and the path narrowed, we had to pair up so that those of us with poor night vision had a guide. Serin went up front with Altria and I was paired with Celine, she wouldn't take no for an answer when Serin suggested the idea in the first place. The rest of the party had much better night sight than either Serin or I, they all followed behind us. There was still the risk that one of us could lose their footing, we decided it was safer if we went up front and didn't take the others with us if we fell.

We made it to the foot of the mountain without any issue. There was still no sign that we were being followed, which was a relief. The problem we now faced was the path we should take.

The plain lay out in front of us and in a few hours time it would be dawn. Crossing the plain would mean that we would be exposed in the day, our other choice would be cutting through the harpy's forest. We would spend less time out in the open that way, but both paths had their dangers. As we walked a short way onto the plain the party came to a halt at Serin's signal.

As we gathered around she started to speak. "This is where we need to make a choice."

"If we cross the plain, we're going to be sitting ducks once the sun comes up." Liz said already guessing what Serin was thinking.

"I know that. Our other choice is to cut through the wood. That way we might be able to cover most of the distance in the open at night. The only problem with that is the harpies…" Serin looked towards Enna. "Enna, what do you think?"

"Me?" Enna said surprised.

"Yes, you're the best placed to judge our chances of making it through the wood undetected."

"I don't know, it will be risky."

"Do you think we'll be worse off than crossing the plain?"

"I suppose it will still be harder for the other harpies to spot us inside the forest. If we're careful, and we avoid the tree fort, we might just make it through undetected."

"Even if we are spotted, we would stand a better chance of holding them off in the wood. It will cut down their ability to manoeuvre around us." Added Altria.

Serin nodded. "True."

"But won't they be expecting us to take that route? I mean it's the obvious choice staying off the plain for as long as possible." Beth said joining in the discussion.

"Maybe, but that doesn't mean they won't be watching the plain as well. It will be easy enough for them to have eyes on it. If we don't cross through the wood, we will be exposed during the day. There's just no way around it." Replied Serin.

"That's true…"

"I want us to take the shortest route and head through the wood." Serin said seemingly coming to a decision.

"If that's your decision, then I'm happy with it. I don't think we have a better choice available." Agreed Beth.

The rest of the party were nodding their heads in agreement.

"Good, then we shouldn't wait any longer. We need to reach the wood before sunrise!"

It was a straight shot from here to wood. We could cross it in a couple of hours, but it was going to be a close call getting there before dawn. All of us knew this, and we were trying to move at as much of a pace as we could. It wasn't an easy feat considering the fight we had just been through.

As we walked Serin approached Enna. "You should take to the air." She told her.

"But what if someone sees me?"

"I don't think it's any more likely than it was before. I don't want you hurting your feet again, we need to move quickly, and you can be our eyes in the sky."

"Then I'll do it."

Enna stepped a few paces away from the group, opened her wings out and jumped into the air. My eyes followed her flight, but it wasn't long before I couldn't make her silhouette out against the night sky.

With Enna in the air above us, we picked up the already quick pace even more. We were all tired, but there was going to be no rest until we reached the wood. As we moved, we didn't keep much of a formation, only having Altria take the front, with Beth and Celine taking up the rear of the party.

As the mountain disappeared into the darkness behind us, we collectively relaxed a little. There was still no sign of pursuit. If the artifact could be tracked, I guess we would have been attacked again by now. We probably had until the change of the guard until anyone followed us in force. When they did follow, they would have to track us the old fashioned way and we had built up quite a head start. About an hour after I had lost sight of the mountain behind us, I could make out the dark shape of the forest ahead of us. Finally, it seemed we would make it there before dawn broke.

"It's in sight. Come on, one last push and we can ease up a little once we get inside." Serin said noticing the wood in front of us and trying to spur us all on a little.

Whether it was Serin's words or just the sight of relative safety ahead, the whole group picked up the pace once more. It was slog, but we were almost there. As we reached the edge of the treeline a dark shape swooped down from the sky. Enna landed a short way in front and waved for the rest of us to follow.

Once the rest of the group was under the trees she called out. "This way. We should move further in before we rest, I'll take us away from the tree fort."

Without discussion we followed after her. I looked over my shoulder and checked the horizon before it was obstructed by the trees. We had made it just in time, the edges of the night sky had started to pick up so colour as the sun rose. It was almost pitch black inside the wood, once the edge of the forest was out of sight, I couldn't even tell which way I was walking. All I could do was follow the faint outline of the person in front and hope I didn't stray from the group. We walked for about another half an hour until we stopped.

"We should be safe for a while here." Enna said as we gathered round.

Everyone was exhausted. There was hardly any chatter as everyone took up seating positions. We all had the same idea, water and food first.

"What now?" Altria asked breaking the silence.

"I'm not sure, we need to rest. We need a proper rest, I'm just not sure if here is the place to do that. What do you think Enna?" Asked Serin.

"Well, we're not near any paths here and it's quite a distance to the fort. Then again, we're only a short distance from the plain. We might be better to head further inside after a short rest here." She answered.

"That's what I was thinking… Okay, we'll rest up here for another half an hour, then we'll push deeper into the forest."

Serin looked over our party. She seemed to be trying to gauge how tired we were and much longer we could carry on for.

"I think we should try and press on as much as we can. If we can get at least halfway through the wood, we can rest until the evening. If we can do that, we can make it out on the plain the other side not long after nightfall." She said after thinking it over.

No one was particularly excited with this plan. I expect that Aetherin was the only one of us that didn't feel like they needed to crawl into bed right now.. Despite that, we all knew it was our best chance and no one so much as grumbled as Serin spoke.