After the tents were loaded and the wagon and carriages were hooked to the horses, we headed back to the bridge. It was still very early in the morning, but the guards were out on the bridge already. Five men with white painted armor and green under clothing stood at attention holding long poleaxe halberds. There was one other man, a bit shorter and rounder, but he looked like a happy guy.
"Good day to you all, and welcome to the Tarcord Crossing, five gold per Carriage and ten for the wagon. That's a fair price to sleep safely for one night in the wilderness, right?" The little man asked Gastbo.
The bridge was wide enough to fit four wagons on so we had all lined up beside each other. I could hear Gerald muttering something about gouging, but then he horked-up spit, and I stopped listening. Lesha was sitting beside me and we had brought blankets and pillows, it was a bit cooler than normal and there was some fog out.
Mei was curled up on the bench sleeping in Gloria's lap. She was slowly running her fingers through Mei's hair while looking out the window. Gloria was smiling, and I knew it was more than because she had a good night. Mei was no longer a half-grown child, she was a woman, just the same as the rest of us, but she was still Mei for the most part.
I heard Gastbo complain, but in the end, the guard captain was paid his twenty gold and we proceeded across the bridge. So far, this was my favorite part of the trip, the mountain would have taken first, but the bandits ruined it. No, the rushing water and the very smooth stone we traveled over were relaxing, and I slowly drifted off.
Suddenly, we stopped, I was asleep, ugh...what's going on? I had put my arms out to the side, bracing them on the carriage, and I stopped both Lesha and me from toppling over. The fog was very thick, like rolling into the cabin thick.
Gloria was already opening the door, but Mei was still rubbing her eyes.
"What happened?" Lesha asked, rubbing her eyes as well.
"I don't know, stay with Mei, and I will go with Gloria," I told Lesha as I got up and followed Gloria before she disappeared into the fog.
"Stay back here with everyone, I will go with Gloria," Tim said, disappearing into the fog.
It was very quiet, and I wasn't liking the zero visibility. Suddenly, Gloria and Tim were back, jogging and breathing heavy.
"Is everything okay?"
"Hmm, hard to say, there was a tree down on the road. Might have just been a fallen tree, but if there are more, we could have just walked into a trap," Tim said when they were close.
"Do you think they will put the logs back to keep us from running and try to trap us? That makes sense, but is there another way for us to go? And is this place always this foggy?" I asked, looking around, but then I could see off in the distance the sun starting to break, and sighed in relief.
"There is your answers, I am going up front, but I think that Corbit should get in the back with Lesha and Mei."
"I will ride up with you, K. I don't know if seeing will make this better, I think the tree was something else, like a way to slow us down. This area has strange and dangerous things. These are swamps and there are giant crocodiles that like to eat horses, but they stay dormant in the fog," Gloria explained to me across Gerald and he just nodded along.
That was when the sun started to really break free from the clouds and the fog was starting to get burned off.
We had to stop again, another tree, and the fog was starting to clear, but that's when I saw what was going on. There was a tree knocked down every twenty to thirty meters down the road.
"This has to be the work of one of those girls, can't we just kill them?" Gloria asked me with a raised eyebrow that made Gerlad laugh.
"No, we don't know which one did it, and they are both pretty strong, so it isn't like we can just go and do that. They might be acting crazy, but we know them somehow. Right now, I think we should focus on what's important."
There were four massive long gray scaled lizards with long broad mouths. They had long teeth poking out and looked very angry like something had woken them up, lucky us. I looked over and Gloria looked at me.
"Cut the trees with your sword and we will have to run ahead. They will just have to keep up," I told Gloria and she reached back for her sword.
We both ran forward and I drew in the chocolate mint blood that left a cool and fresh taste in my throat. Gloria burst forward, running with her big sword towards the tree. A single strike split it and then she kicked one side before running ahead, and I kicked the other at a giant crocodile getting close.
"Keep going! We will clear the way, protect the ones in the back!" I said as I ran forward and kicked another log out of the way, hitting another one.
After almost an hour, we finally broke from the swamp and back out onto the open plains. I was really glad that we wouldn't have to come back this way, that was more than enough of an experience.
The trip had taken most of the day, and it was already starting to get into the afternoon. Hopefully, we could make it to a town or something, but Gloria told me that we would be sleeping outside for the next three days, and I sighed. The trip the rest of the day was uneventful, but near the end of the day, we stopped at a place that had a wagon and a man with a donkey.
"Howdy strangers, can I interest you in some of my fine items?"