A few days after Noah left Dragon's Claw he was just entering the Spear Forest. 'There are more people here than up north.' Noah thought. Well I guess that's to be expected since the area here is more populated. He breathed a sigh of relief knowing that he wouldn't have to worry about wild animals that much, smiling as he remembered Micheal. However, he also knew that bandits would be more likely to show up here. He subconsciously stopped to check his spear and knife as he thought about that possibility. He once again sighed and began to move forward, making his way through the other travelers.
As he got deeper into the forest the darker it got. Noah also saw a few guards patrolling along the road. He sighed knowing that the patrols would make it difficult for him to slip into the forest and head towards the mountain. The crowd also gravitated towards the center as they got deeper in the forest. Noah went with the crowd, knowing that it would be the safest option and he didn't want to stand out.
"Apparently there have been more attacks by bandits lately." Noah heard someone say.
"That's just another problem we have to deal with then." Someone responded. Noah remembered that the majority of the southern side of the region has already accepted their lives with Nightmare. The south was hit the hardest when Nightmare first came because of their economy. While the north was the poorer region the south was a lot richer. The better conditions for farming and raising cattle led the south to grow quickly and as a result relied a lot on trade. When Nightmare first came he put a halt on trade to prevent word of his arrival to get out. This hurt not only the economy of the south but that of the whole region. Noah remembered what that year was like in Northspear, money was so sparse that people would've had a better time in the streets than their own homes. It was only thanks to a southern diplomat that trade was opened back up the next year.
"It's no thanks to that no good dragon." Noah heard someone loudly say. It got so quiet and still Noah thought that maybe time had stopped. Then the whispers started.
"Why would he say that?"
"Who is he to question the dragon?"
"He must be really stupid to say that?"
"We're stuck here with the dragon so you might as well be grateful." Noah heard someone say as he was pushing his way through the crowd that had formed.
Noah saw that there were two men facing each other when he got to the front. The one closest to him was a tall, dark-haired, young man who didn't appear to be very strong. The other man however was only just a bit shorter than the first with white hair, a rough face with some scars, and a sword on his back, which with how he carried himself, Noah knew it wasn't just for show.
"What do we have to be grateful for?" The second man asked, "Poverty? Homelessness? And inability to feed ourselves? What about our children and grandchildren? Do we want them to grow up being terrified of the fact that their lives can be taken at any moment?"
"The fact that we still have our homes, our jobs, and our lives." The first man responded.
"Should we have to be content with just that bare minimum? We can't even start families for fear of the dragon tax." The second man said.
"If you don't like this then you can just leave." The first man responded.
"Then what would happen to the kingdoms or regions that we would go to? No place would be able to harbor the amount of refugees that would arrive and why should we have to leave?" The second man asked, "I've had enough of you dragon sympathizers." He turned and started walking down the path, to which the first man shook his head and soon after started heading the opposite direction. People began to speak in hushed whispers and not after long continued walking. Noah sighed and continued his journey. With the people around him being on edge after that incident, he would have to find a way to stall without being suspicious. He began to walk slower until he was to the back of the crowd. He didn't want to fully detach himself from the crowd for fear of being called a bandit and undergoing interrogation.
After a short while Noah began to hear a commotion behind him. He turned around and saw a carriage heading towards him. Noah quickly jumped out of its path and watched it go by. It wasn't as fancy as the ones the southern nobles would ride in and the northern nobles preferred to ride on horseback so he assumed that it was a merchant carriage. He sighed and continued on his way.
* * *
After a couple more hours of walking, Noah had yet to find a good time where we could break off the crowd and find a good place to go off the path. 'Welp, damn my luck. I'm probably not gonna find an exit before we hit the city. That's gonna make it harder due to an increase of traffic and less distance between places.' Noah thought. Noah's original plan had him heading fully into the forest on his current road as it's the longest in the southern region. It would be harder on the other roads that covered the forest as they were shorter and had more traffic as they went city to city.
Noah was suddenly jerked out of his thoughts as he distantly heard shouting and crashing up ahead. He looked around and while the majority of people hadn't seemed to have heard the commotion, there were a few people with confused faces. That was enough for Noah and he started pushing his way up through the travelers. As Noah got closer he began to hear steel clashing together. It took a while, but he finally reached the source of the commotion. The carriage that Noah saw earlier was broken on the side of the road with bandits all around it. He quickly began to approach the carriage, though it was difficult with all the people watching. 'Damn you cowards. If you're going to just stand there and watch, at least let the people who are trying to help through.' Noah angrily thought. As he just finished his thought, Noah saw someone cross his vision and engage the bandits. Seeing this, Noah began to push through the crowd even harder. Once he got through the crowd he quickly grabbed his spear and engaged the nearest bandit. As Noah engaged, there were whispers about him in the crowd.
"Why is that kid throwing himself into the fight?"
"With that level of idiocy he must be from the North."
"Is that what the North are raising their kids to do?"
Noah didn't pay much attention to those remakes as he was too focused on the fight.
"Oh, is this a kid trying to be a hero?" The bandit Noah engaged remarked smugly, "Well this is a good time to teach you a good lesson about reality, even though it'll be your last." Noah sighed and responded by stabbing the bandit in the chest. You left yourself wide open. Noah quickly turned to another bandit who was rapidly approaching me. As he did that the whispers changed to gasps of horror.
"I can't believe that he did that so calmly."
"Is the North raising their children to be killers?"
"You bastard." The bandit growled. He stopped just outside of Noah's range and Noah took note that this one was a lot more careful than the last. They started circling each other and for a while nothing was happening. Then the bandit charged and Noah, holding it out defensively in front of his chest. Noah responded by dashing to the right and stabbed with his left hand. The bandit just barely managed to stop himself before he got stabbed, he quickly lept back out of Noah's range. However, Noah didn't go back to circling, instead, he did a series of stabs to push the bandit back towards the carriage. They could've easily been parried, and would've left Noah wide open, but Noah knew that the bandit was scared and that his plan would work.
Once they reached the carriage, Noah had the bandit pinned against the carriage. The bandit had realized what Noah was trying to do and had tried to run to one of the sides but Noah stopped him each time. In a last ditch attempt to escape, the bandit charged and Noah spun his spear and hit the side of the bandit's head with the butt end of the spear, knocking the bandit unconscious. Noah looked around and saw the man fighting two at once with a third sneaking up behind him. Noah quickly sprung into action, sprinting towards the third bandit. He lept towards the bandit, stabbing at the same time. He missed however, but before the bandit could react Noah swung the butt of his spear, hitting the side of the bandit's head and knocking him unconscious. Noah looked over to see how the other man was doing and saw that the two bandits were grabbing some of the unconscious bodies of their comrades and heading into the forest. Noah sighed, sat down, and began to clean the blood off his spear. The man approached Noah while the people watching changed their whispers to wonder what will happen next.
"Hello there young one." The man said.
"Hello." Noah responded.
"It's rare to see someone go into a fight in this part of the region." The man said.
"Well I'm from the north." Noah said, feeling a sense of pride.
"I figured that." The man responded, "What's your name?"
"Noah, what's yours?" Noah asked.
"Cliff." Cliff responded, "Walk with me, let's get to know each other."
"Alright then." Noah said standing up, "So how did you know I was from the North?"
"Before I settled in the country I was a guard in one of the Northern towns that headed to the South, so I know where people who live in this region are from." Cliff responded, "More importantly I would like to know where you got your combat skills from and why you're here."
"My father is the Chief Guard of the town I live in." Noah responded, "He taught me everything I know. I'm bringing a message to one of the cities."
"Alright then." Cliff said, "You're either really stupid or brave for jumping into that fight."
"I won't pick a fight that I won't win." Noah replied. That's a funny response considering I'm on my way to fight Nightmare.
"Being logical and safe is nice and all, but sometimes you need to take risks in order to win a fight." Cliff added, "So what brings you here?"
"Bringing a message to one of the cities." Noah responded, "What about you?"
"I'm getting salt for my family, I'm also hoping to see my son." Cliff answered, sighing.
"Why the sigh?" Noah asked. Isn't visiting your family a good thing?
"My son has a young daughter that he cares about more than anything. I'm just wondering how you can raise a child in these times." Cliff replied.
"Oh, well I suppose my parents were lucky with me as I was twelve when this started." Noah added.
"Yeah I guess they were." Cliff said.
"Well I suppose I should go now.It was nice talking to you." Noah said.
"Yeah, well I wish you the best on your mission. It was nice talking to you." Cliff responded. Noah sped up leaving Cliff behind, thinking about what just happened.
Authors Note:
Here's chapter 9, I'm almost done with chapter 10 so I'll get it done real soon, expect it in two weeks.