Three days had passed since the delegation party left the village of Helgahvall on his way to the Frostwolf Clan. Their mission was to ascertain if the Orcs where truly planning to start another war and to investigate if there was anything weird that had happened recently.
The Party followed the conventional roads on their way northwest. This behavior was standard protocol for diplomacy visits as it allowed the receiving party to know ahead of time via their scouts that visitors were coming.
The delegation woke up early and started to cook breakfast. The supreme elder was famous around the village for his expertise on the used of rare herbs in the concoction of spirit food. He was the only one capable of cooking wonderful stews that increased the energy of low Level warriors. Even though the food did not increased the party's Level, it was very good in flavor and it helped replenish the energy use during their travels.
The Feline Warder belonging to the Beastlord of the party was responsible for hunting other creatures during the night hours.
The breakfast of the group consisted of Artic Bear Stew with Silverleaf and Earthroot. This two Herbs were low level herbs that contain some energy from the Realm. SilverLeaf had a little bitter taste when eaten by itself but when cook in a beef stew it gave a light and citrus taste. The Earthroot was peel and thrown in chunks. It had a white creamy color and a mild, sweet, and a somewhat nutty taste.
In the eyes of the group, the stew was a masterpiece. They all praise the elder as they ate with gusto. Even Spots ate until his belly was bulging. The group was able to put down half of the LVL 5 bear in one setting and the rest of the beast was Salt Cure for the next meal. It was Spots responsibility to carry the meat until it was needed.
During the last few days nothing unexpected happened and they were well on their way to having another uneventful day. They picked the camp up and continued their journey through the snow covered road until they arrived at the edge of the Barbarian Territory.
It was also about time the Frostwolf's scout greeted them. They crossed their territory line and continued their march towards the northwest under a couple of gazes. The delegation couldn't pinpoint the direction of the gaze but they were sure they were being observed.
Since this was what they were waiting for, they didn't fuss about it. They continued moving forward until they were stopped by two weary scouts.
"STOP!! This is the territory of the Frostwolf Clan. Trespassers will be killed".
The scouts were only LVL 14 and even though they appeared to be experienced hunters, in front of Elder Bear and the rest they might as well be toddlers. Elder Bear remained calm and took a step forward to speak with the scouts.
I am the Supreme Elder of Helgahvall village. We are here on official business of the village and request an audience with Chief Mogho.
HA HA HA....
"How could it be so easy to see Great Chief Mogho. You should go back to where you came from. Trass passer will be killed". The scout said while lifting his bow.
When the Ranger went to reach for an arrow he stopped. He felt a small prick on his cheek and at the same time a hand was holding his chin to one side and another was holding a knife to his neck.
As blood flowed down his cheek a voice whisper in his ear. " Hairless boys should keep their mouths shut before a knife gets lost in them. Where is Rex?".
Orcs were a fighting race by nature and did not have any qualms about dying in battle. However, dying for talking too much would make him a laughing stock to his Clan. Everything happened so fast that his friend had not register the situation. When he finally heard Aya's question, he snapped out of it.
The other ranger was getting ready to answer but the sound of an approaching beast quiet him down. The Orc in question, Rex, was coming their way on top of his Frostwolf. Despite the situation, he was fairly calm and just greeted Aya. " This should be my lucky day. I got to see Helgahvall's Shadow Trickster in action."
"In action? I was just talking to them. You on the other hand, might be able to give me a good work out. Want to go a couple of rounds?".
Rex got off his mount and glare at the 2 rangers for placing him in this awful situation. Rex padded the back of his head and with an awkward smile he addressed the Elder of the group. " How can I be of assistance to Elder Bear ,Supreme Elder of Helgahvall?".
Elder Bear smiled and proceeded to tell Rex the reason for their visit. Rex was one of the best Rangers of the ORC Clan. He had heard rumors about the Young Lord of the Barbarian Village being attack during a test and what was worst Cerdic mentioned of War with their Clan. The main reason he was not at the border was precisely because he was relying the information to his Chief and awaiting orders.
Who would had thought that the Barbarians will send such a strong group of people this time. The situation was quite serious.
Rex yelled at the 2 rangers and then said goodbye to the delegation. He mounted his Frostwolf and proceeded to head back and tell his chief about the delegation that was coming his way.
After Rex left the area, the Orc scouts apologized to the Elder and the others "Please forgive our arrogance and continue your travels. Thank you for teaching us how to behave".
HA HA HA!
The group laugh out loud but did not give the scouts too much of a hard time. They welcomed the little change of pace from the boring journey and were a little amused.
The next couple of hours were pretty lively and they manage to cover quite a bit of distance towards the Frostwolf village. The delegation didn't want to arrive ahead of schedule so they setup camp for the day.
Since there was not much to do, Aya decided to roam around a 2 mile perimeter from the camp and try her luck at the mysterious entity working in the shadows. She gazed towards the right side of the road where the village tracker should be and moved.
Aya decided to head in his direction first and see if he had discovered anything that could be helpful. The second Rogue the village sent out was a LVL 16 with pretty good experience with tracking and evasion. His fighting was not as polished as Aya's but he could still hold his on. The key point was his ability to survive.
The village had no information from the enemy, whether it was Levels or classes there was nothing available. All the information they had was that the mysterious entity employed pretty insidious methods.
For the last three days, Legolas had been trying to observed the delegation party but was unsuccessful. Every time he came within 1 mile he felt an uneasiness that he couldn't describe. Day or night it was the same feeling. Legolas was a very experience assassin. He had carried countless missions in an area of the world where death and deceit was everywhere. So far his instinct had never failed him.
Legolas decided to take a step back and do a very passive tailing. He knew where the party was heading they did not conceal their whereabouts and it didn't make any sense for him to risk being exposed.
The present situation was one predicted by his leader and also part of plan B. Legolas' job this time was to track them and determined their strength to see if they could wiped them cleanly.
Legolas had always being praised as a genius and now that he was Level 16 he thought that he could easily defeat a Level 18 in this back of the woods.
During the second day of tailing, Legolas noticed a fast moving shadow that made him do a double take. When he tried to check for it again, it was gone. He already had a bad feeling before and now he was a little spook. There should be no reason for the Barbarians to suspect a third party. The Barbarians had always been known to have more brawn then brains. 'Maybe I am imagining things' He thought.
This was a very hard task, it was like finding a needle in a Haystack for the Helgahvall's Rogue. If the other party was not careless, the chances of finding them was almost zero. It was his third day of scouting and he had only felt a slight Energy fluctuation that quickly disappear the day before.
With no other leads to go on, the Rogue decided to scout the area where he felt the energy on this day a little more throughly. He arrived at the place and started to search carefully around the area. As he was moving in between the shadow of the trees, his back hair stood up and he felt Death coming his way.
WOOOSH!