Chapter 215

"You're right there. Nothing worse than getting caught out in the open by a monster attack. They've been active lately, too; we saw signs that might have been another attack between here and Assah, but whoever it was, was long gone by the time we arrived. Could have been the Guard Patrol putting down some bandits as well I suppose, but we didn't see a patrol." Cain tells the merchant, striking up a conversation. 

"Doubtful that. Most guards are bought and paid for; they don't bother the bandits. They just tell the bosses that they never saw a thing while they were out. If you saw signs of a battle with no bodies it was most likely monsters. But if it's an old sign, they will have left. They don't stay in one spot long; it makes them too easy to hunt."

The jug makes it around to Misha, who looks a bit shocked at the fruit punch level sweetness of the drink, followed by the harsh aftertaste of strong liquor. It's definitely not Elven wine, it's just a cheap knockoff. "Did you see many signs of bandits along the way?"

"Far more than we'd like to. It normally takes us ten days from the mountains to Assah; we're twelve days in the desert now. For you lot, I'd say it's usually five given the speed of the Nightmares, but this trip, we've detoured almost every day, avoiding signs of bandits. Just cutting straight through the desert crossed our minds a couple of times, but the going is so harsh that we might not have made it anyhow."

"That's a pain. We were hoping to make a decent time across the desert. If we've got to detour that much, we'll have to push hard to make it up on the safer stretches." Mythryll sighs. 

"The desert is never an easy crossing. Even if you go with a military expedition, you're still liable to run into trouble, plus the bigger the group, the slower you move and easier you are to target. I heard that some merchants now have given up the wagons entirely and are just using pack animals to make it easier to avoid trouble and harder to track them. The problem is the wheels, especially on a carriage like yours. They leave easy-to-follow tracks. If you block up those skis, though, you can lift the wheels out of the sand entirely and make it much harder to track you until you get back to solid ground."

"Not a bad idea; if we start seeing signs of bandits, I'll change the wagon over, maybe the change in the tracks will make them think we're headed the other way, and the wind just blew in our tracks." Cain smiles at the merchant, pulling a bottle of sweet Rum, procured from the Pirates, from his inventory.

"Sailor's Grog? That is a bit hard on the head for this old merchant. But there are plenty of guards here so I can't see why a little sip would hurt anything." The merchant should have gone with his first instinct, he's a severe lightweight, and a few pulls from the bottle later, he's snoring peacefully next to the fire.

Once he's ready to retire for the evening, Cain does the same while the ladies head back to the carriage. The fire is central to both camps, so if they're attacked at night, Cain will be equally close to a battle from any direction. 

Elmira finally made her presence known again once they arrived. Startled awake by the noise of the door opening the Pixie almost attacked them when the ladies came in to sleep. 

"Elmira, you've got to stop going invisible. You scared the crap out of me, and I almost forgot you were with us." Misha complains. 

"Sorry, sorry. It's just habit, you know? But I'll try to stay visible most of the time during the day instead of sleeping. Did I miss anything?"

"Were you awake for the bandit attack? There was that. But everything else went pretty smoothly. I think Cain might have sent out patrols without telling us because the quest said that merchants were reporting multiple groups a day no matter what route they tried to take."

"Yeah, I was up for the fight; I just stayed invisible, though, and tried not to get squished by the Naga while picking off the casters." The stealthy Pixie informs them proudly. 

"Well, we need sleep. Are you joining us?" Mythryll says, stifling a yawn.

"I'm good; I just woke up. I'll take the first watch. That way we're not having everyone's safety rely on the Puppets and a couple of merchant guards." With that, the Pixie dissipears again, and Mythryll shakes her head. That girl's too used to being alone. She doesn't even remember to become visible while traveling with friends. 

The first thing the following day, Laura was driving Cain insane, so he released the Dragon from the Merger to let her fly around for a while. Every other creature he's merged with either relaxed, went into a sleep like a state, or completely vanished from his mind after the Merger, but not the Dragon. No, she just got more hyper and stir crazy until even the other Companions were begging Cain to let her out.

Once she was free, she immediately went hunting for Elmira, wanting someone to play tag with, finding the invisible Pixie asleep on a cushion in the carriage. That was enough to get the Pixie to stay visible, and the air was filled with laughter while both groups got breakfast ready and packed up their camps. 

"Pixies, is it? They're better guards than people expect. The size and the flying let them get right up close without anyone being able to catch them." One of the merchant caravan guards says in appreciation. 

"Yeah, they might not be able to win a wrestling match, but when it comes to a fight, they're second to none." The merchant laughs, grilling sausages over the newly stoked campfire. 

Their good morning doesn't last long, though. The Primordial Shamans have reported multiple groups of bandits headed for their location. They stopped two of them, but there are still signs of more. 

"Elmira, Laura, why don't you make a quick sweep of the area while you play tag? I've got a feeling like it's going to be important." Cain calls out, not knowing where the two tiny flying creatures are. 

"Premonition or Beastkin senses?" The merchant asks, indicating Cain's burly Lion kin form. 

"Bit of both, I think. Hopefully, it's nothing, but I feel we're not alone."

"Incoming. Two groups of bandits. One of them must have Montauk Guardians in it because they're looking for us in particular, not by name but by Guild." Laura reports, flying back.

"Look out for Elmira, make sure she doesn't do anything silly and get herself hurt. Some higher levels can see though most forms of invisibility." Cain instructs as the groups get ready to move. 

"No fear of that. Pocket Pixie is here." Elmira announces, settling into his shirt pocket. 

"Welcome back. What way are the bandits?"

"Both are south of us and coming fast."

Cain looks at the merchant, who nods in agreement. They're after Cain, not him, so he will take his caravan and flee, hopefully avoiding being attacked. They're ready and moving on in an impressively short time, out of Cain's hearing range before the bandits enter it from the other direction. 

This time Cain calls for Kone clones, instructing Su to stay in her Nymph-looking form, so she's not recognized, and to Summon snake kin instead of Turtles. If the bandits communicate, they should have heard about Naga attacks by now, so finding more of them out in the desert won't surprise them. The Beastkin are quickly Summoned and sent away from the oasis to stage an ambush on the bandits. 

Just by pure numbers, the bandits won't stand a chance, but still, he orders some of the Summons to block the escape routes north to protect the merchants. 

"Misha, would you mind coming out of the Carriage? I've got an idea. They're organizing to attack because they've seen me here. If they see you, one of the Lieutenants here as well, and can identify you, it should draw most of the brave Bandits in the area to us without any extra searching."

"How will they know I'm a Lieutenant? It's not like we've advertised that particular ability."

"Easy, once they're in sight, you call out a group of your Summons and make a show of it. They will realize it's not me, and they should know about the Lieutenant ability from the other Puppet Master in the region. Then we have to hope they're bright enough to put it all together and decide the escort is to take you across the desert."

It is not a terrible plan, and with the bandits coming fast, there's no more time to improvise, so Misha decides to play along. The first few dozen bandits gather just within sight of the oasis, an intimidation tactic intended to scare the travelers with their numbers. 

Once enough are gathered that she feels they'll get the idea, Misha calls out a mass of Lesser Acolytes, small flame casting demons from the psychedelic type Demon dungeons, and Warped Scribes, a Greater Golem level Demon that is upgraded to an epic by her new ability. She keeps a pair of Record Keepers merged with her at all times now for safety but doesn't see the need to let them loose just yet. 

"You think you can take me? Keep dreaming.." She taunts the bandits, and Cain can see some recognition, they've been updated on who is essential in the Guild, and they're relating the message to their allies.