It was five days into their journey, and Marious was having the time of his life.
Already he had spotted a dozen creatures he could only describe as 'unlikely to be nonmagical', and he had to treat a dozen different broken limbs.
The Hunters had been stretched thin, the main group still off grappling some terrorbeast, which left the remainder to do twice the work. Slightly more than twice since Nickolas had left with his bride. Luckily for them, the Medicine Man had plenty of tinctures, potions, and poultices to go around. At least until his supplies ran out, which seemed at least days away.
Plenty of time to find replacements, he assumed.
Still it was slightly stressful, mostly because the other tithe men were so spooked by every blood curling scream. They had also made several detours for reasons Marious struggled to fathom, but he assumed the orcs knew what they were doing.
Really the other men were such worriers. They haven't even had a death yet. He'd seen worse bar fights.
It was true that Marious was worried about his friend, however the knowledge that said friend could unleash lightning strong enough to fry a Knight in her boots took the edge off. So instead Marious was enjoying the long march through the undergrowth.
Another scream echoed ahead, another beast slaughtered by the zealous Hunters. After the serpent was followed by the swarm, the Hunters had taken a more aggressive, and less cautious approach to their hunts. Speed was everything now. They killed fast, then moved the caravan onwards before anything else could arrive.
Marious was disappointing in the lack of sample taking opportunities, but he had already used his fair share of luggage space anyway.
The campsites had the opposite problem.
Each night the caravan had entered the rough circles of stone causing the orcs to relax significantly. Fires were lit, singing voices echoed through the camp, and their protective Hunters started enjoying hard as soon as they could manage with limited supplies.
At first Marious had been busy treating the variety of ailments, and wounds he couldn't manage while moving. He spent hours knelt by the side of rough mats stitching gashes closed. The moment he could find the time he rushed to the rough cut stones at the edge of the mystical campsite.
And they were cut. Marious determined that much. Though the stones under their feet were weathered, appearing natural, he noted what had to be tool marks along the edges of the outer stones. Subtle, but definitely present. From what he could tell they had been split off from a larger block. Yet there was no sign of runework, or anything else that would indicate how it's magical anti beast effect would work.
The Medicine Man spent far longer than he was willing to admit just moving his arm in, and out of the strange barrier. Testing the sensation.
In the end he had given up. There were too many other projects to make progress on.
It was a shame that he kept being interrupted.
"Where's Peter?" the Hunter who Marious was fairly sure had the name Kella asked.
"Hiding from you I expect." Marious commented, rolling the pestle over the leaves he had collected. "Same as last time."
The woman let out a hiss of breath before dropping to the warm stone in a huff.
Maroious went back to work, ignoring her as best he could.
"How do I let him know I just want to talk?" she asked suddenly.
"Have you tried shouting that really loud?" the Medicine Man suggested.
That got him a blank stare. He returned to his work again.
"I just....why are you all so terrified of us?" the Hunter said the moment he started.
"Men are trained all their lives to protect their bodies from the predation of hungry women that will stop at nothing to drag them to bed." Marious commented dryly, giving up on his work. "Then one day we're shoved out the door into a woman's arms, and told to make with the hoopla. This leads to problems. Problems you are now getting the brunt of."
"Hoopla?" the woman said incredulously.
Marious sighed deeply, then rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Just track him down." he finally said. "You girls are good at that part. Then don't touch him, just give him a small gift, and ask if he wants to share a fire with you tonight. Then, and this is the important part, if he says no take that for an answer. Don't ask again for a few days either."
"And that will make him come with me the next time I ask?" Kella responded hopefully.
"No." Marious replied. "It will make him less terrified of being in your presence. This is a long process."
"Soooo why aren't you afraid?" the Hunter cut in. "Or the Prince for that matter?"
"Nickolas was raised with the full knowledge that any woman who touched him would be fed her own entrails by his bodyguard." Marious deadpanned. "I learned how to make poisons that bypass auras at twelve. Peter is a butcher's son. He'll need more assurances."
"Sooooo?" Kella said leaning forward,
"Take. It. Slow." the Medicine Man said as if to a child.
"Rot." Kella huffed. "Why are men so complicated."
Marious released a deep sigh as he tried to continue his work.