After a few hours, Fero knew no one was coming back.
Fero thoughts: 'Maybe she forgot? Can't find a rope? I don't know.'
He devised a plan to get out. The tip of the sword was still stuck in between the boulder. If he could run at the exposed break and place the other broken half of the sword against that and push up, maybe he could get enough height to catch the ledge. He tried his idea.
Fero ran at the broken blade, thrust the broken half in his hand forward. The two broken halves momentarily met as he used the hilt to push off of the other broken half of the sword while nearly upside down. He managed to flip mid-air. To his surprise, he did catch the ledge with his free hand. As he began to pull himself up, he realized the boulder was taller. He could have just jumped off of the boulder.
"Oh well. What's done is done." He sighed.
He made his way back to the camp. On the way, he stopped by the blacksmith. He was still awake doing quiet work while others slept.
What brings you here at this hour?" The smithy asked.
Fero handed the blacksmith the hilt half of his sword.
"What in the hell? How did you manage that?"
Fero told the story to the blacksmith. The smithy could see his disappointment. He took the hilt from Fero's hand. It was incredibly heavy.
"I have no use for that, If it helps with the new sword you can use whatever you need from it," Fero said in a sad tone.
"Actually that would speed up the process a lot. I won't have to make an entirely new hilt, I can work off of this one."
Fero lifted a brow. "I'm no blacksmith but, wouldn't the hilt have to be a bit more... part of the work?"
"I have my ways. I'm sure I can get it done by the morning of the attack now." The blacksmith smiled at Fero.
"Thanks. At least I won't be useless in the attack." Fero said with a little more enthusiasm in his voice.
He waved goodbye to the blacksmith.
Fero intercepted the search party before they could rush out to the now vacant rescue location. He found out that there was a small demon attack force that took priority over his rescue, since he wasn't in any unmodulated danger.
Fero returned to his tent after a bit more training and found it cold and empty. Some tents still had lights on. One tent had no lights but it had the sounds of a couple in heat. He yearned for that kind of connection. Not with just anyone. He yearned for Kasila. Her tent was next to his. She was asleep. He could hear the sound of her breathing. It was relaxing to listen to. He fell asleep quickly.
Fero and Kasila awoke to some commotion. People were shouting. The two quickly dressed and left the tents at the same time.
"What is happening?" Kasila asked Fero.
"It sounds like you know as much as I do, Kasila."
Fero waved down an infantry unit. They explained that a high-level demon had been passing by the camp. The hero and other fighters were battling it right now. Fero and Kasila ran to the battle. Fero wanted to see firsthand how the hero fights. Kasila simply wanted to see more of the hero.
They arrived at a ledge with the perfect view of the battle between the demon and the hero. It was a massive 9-foot or 10-foot tall, four-legged beast. Its skin had a purple hue. Its eyes were glowing red. It had massive horns with cracks that also glow red as if there were some sort of evil energy in them. It had giant fangs that could pierce any full-grown man. Fero was impressed with the movement of the hero. He dodged with inches to spare every time. Whether he was just fast enough to keep up or he was keeping his enemy close, It was a sight to behold. He is called a hero for a reason. He cut into the demon with his one-hand crystal blade over and over. The beast had to be slowing down now with all that blood loss.
At this point, other fighters joined in while the beast was weakened. Jenny, Hira, and Aneka all ran in to do some quick attacks. Stepha stepped up to the edge next to Fero and Kasila. She took aim with her bow and let her arrow loose. It hit the beast dead center of its eye. Following arrows hit open wounds inflicted by the melee fighters. Not a single miss. She was a force to behold.
By now, the beast had so much damage that it had no way to keep up with the dance of death that had surrounded it. It made one last massive swing with its left paw. The hero easily dodged it and rammed his sword up into the demon's skull from below its jaw. It was finished. The hero quickly withdrew as the head began to drop. The sound of the body hitting the ground was proof of its size. The battle was won. The fighters retreated back to the camp while gatherers began to nitpick at the body for resources and meat.
"That was a sight to behold," Fero commented out loud.
"He truly was. Wasn't he? That was only a lower mid-level demon though." Stepha informed Fero.
"Yeah, he was too. I was more impressed by you though. I've never seen an archer with such accuracy at this range." Fero tried to complement Stepha.
"And yet, you missed your chance with her." The two turned to each other. Stepha showed a scowl of disapproval to the man. He gave an awkward smile back. He was unsure how to act with this development. She took her leave.
"Did you screw it up with yet another woman?" Kasila teased. She punched Fero in the right shoulder and let him have a view of a mischievous grin.
"Well, I can't say the desire wasn't there. But I couldn't choose her ove..." Fero cut himself off, leaving Kasila in the dark about what happened in the cave yesterday.
"Let's go pack our tents. Once the harvesting is complete, the caravan should start moving again." Fero used the opportunity to avoid her pursuing the subject.
The morning excitement was over. People were packing and compiling their things to begin traveling again. When all the packing was done, all that was left was to await the callout for travel. Kasila wandered off and found her friends to talk to during the wait. Fero stayed in place. Viktoria and Jikal were walking down the line examining the state of people. Fero saw Jikal walk up to an older gatherer woman and begin to harass her because she was not done packing. She was having trouble lifting the heavy pack onto the cart. Fero began walking over to help since Jikal was not attempting to lift a finger for her.
"What are you even doing here if you cant do what you are supposed to? Huh?!" Jikal callously scorned the woman.
Fero arrived behind Jikal. Before Fero could say anything, Jikal turned around and slammed into the solid body.
"Whao, Sorry there. I just came to help. I was about to say hi before you ran into me." Fero attempted to make nice.
Jikal was visibly intimidated by the man he had to look up at in order to see a face.
"You ran into me, smart-ass. Don't let it happen again." He reprimanded Fero as he walked around. Viktoria saw the amused look on Fero's face as Jikal was looking away. Fero lifted the bag for the old woman with one hand and placed it securely on the cart. Viktoria was surprised at how much the cart lowered when the bag was placed on.