Back on the road, the prison convoy steadily moved forward. This time with three fewer guards and many fewer horses. As treatment of the guards was prioritised, many of the horses of course suffered from an ill ending.
The mood was quite depressing as the convoy trudged under the high sun. Due to the ambush the previous day, they decided to set up camp and recover for the day.
Their destination was the medium sized city, Joost, deeper in the Kingdom territory.
The goal of this prison transfer was just a guise to hide the elf as they transferred her over to Joost, where their expert interrogators would hopefully find some useful information from her. Otherwise, they would most likely execute her in secret to prevent the elves from finding and rescuing her. However, the job of these guards would be done the moment they stepped into Joost and handed over their quarry, it wouldn't be their call to decide what to do afterwards.
"Sigh, at the rate we're going it'll take at least a month to get to Joost," Certainly, the distance between these two cities were great, and although, there were some minor settlements along the way for them to restock supplies, the ambushed had already set the mood for the journey. And no one was looking forward to the long trip.
As the sun set, the convoy arrived at a small town beside a large river. Scouts had already relayed the news that the convoy would be coming, so the townsfolk had already designated an area for the convoy to stay and set camp for the night.
Restocking on supplies, they purchased a large amount of dried fish they had to offer.
"So how much is that going to cost?" A guard asked the town chief.
"Sorry to do ya' dirty like this, but winter's comin' an' I can't give ya' all ya' need," he replied. And it was true, in a month or so winter would be coming, so it would be best to stock supplies themselves as a small town before the river froze over and crops became near impossible to grow.
This was not an ideal response but was still okay, the convoy didn't have a need for all the supplies, but the commanding officer felt a need to have a bit more just in case. With the purchases in order, the chief had some townsfolk bring out baskets of fish to give over to the convoy as the guard paid the corresponding price. A hefty three silvers for ten baskets of dried trout.
Luckily, this was covered as part of travel expenses.
"Okay, point your bow up and try to hit that tree over there," Kelli pointed at a lone tree in the middle of the plain. Jeffrey was currently practising his archery skills, however, Kelli would always steal Lily when he went to pick up his bow. But in light of the fact that she was helping him out of goodwill - hopefully- he let her play with Lily as much as she wanted. Much to Lily's chagrin.
"Oh yeah, be careful of the wind. That can be a real pain if you don't account for that," This wasn't a legitimate training session or anything, it was just Kelli giving her experiences and helping Jeffrey out with using a bow.
As the sun set, the lone tree had a single arrow embedded in it, in its vicinity were dozens of others, just a few inches off the mark.
Archery wasn't easy, but persistence was key!
The next day as soon as the sun glimpsed the world, the convoy set off, with such a bad start to the expedition, the majority just wanted to be over and done with it, so they intended to save time every now and then.
"Lucky bastards, they get to enjoy such safety without doing jack," one of the guards complained as he glanced at the prison wagon.
"Well, at least we're getting paid a good amount for this," the other consoled himself. It was obvious to see the dipping morale the whole convoy was experiencing.
"So, Jeffrey, you think you're getting the hang of it yet?"
"Maybe?" Jeffrey wasn't entirely sure if he could be considered decent in archery yet, however comparing himself to Kelli, he sucked bad.
As the two conversed another horse strode in line with theirs. Atop it sat Savage. His height was made even taller when he was on horseback. And as he strode next to them, he kept his silence. Which was rather puzzling. If you're going to come up next to us, are you just going to keep quiet?
"Hi?" Kelli took it upon herself to break the awkward situation, with an even more awkward greeting.
"Hi," that was all he said.
After moments more of silence, Kelli spoke again.
"So, you need us or anything?"
"No,"
"So then, why are you riding next to us?"
"Because you haven't moved away from me yet," That sounded depressing. However, when taking into account his reputation and his previous actions, it was understandable.
Kelli was quite intimidated by Savage and could use a bit of backup, but Jeffrey was in his own world at the moment.
…
Bows work on the principle that a stick bends and is then released taut at a quick pace, giving its momentum to the arrow allowing it to move at high speeds. In essence, a bow was a bendy stick.
And if a bow is just a bendy stick, then birds should be masters of bows!
It made perfect sense, if one looked at a bird best, then it should be obvious that they are naturals in bending sticks to their will. Jeffrey could never figure out how a bird was capable of making their nests with no hands, but it was an undeniable fact that they could do it.
Therefore, to improve his stick bending ability and thereby archery skills, he should've consulted the resident bird, Lily.
"Gimme your knowledge," staring straight into Lily's soul he gave his request, completely ignoring the exchange happening beside him.