At night, on the open ground of the Eastvale Logging Camp, Gerred and Jess practiced sword fighting for two hours. Finally, exhausted, they collapsed on the nearby pile of logs.
On the other side of the main road, the soldiers' camp was lit with bright campfire. There were patrols and sentry posts everywhere on the road from the Eastvale Logging Camp to the mountain pass entering Redridge Mountains in the east.
To protect the trade routes of the three towns, the kingdom can be said to have taken great pains.
But in this way, some of the troops from Westguard Keep and Westfall will be withdrawn. It is foreseeable that the gnolls there will gradually start to run wild.
The two returned to the borrowed tent. Gerred moved his nose and said, "Do you smell a stinky smell? Has some animal urinated in our tent?"
Hearing this, Jess felt a burst of nervousness. Could it be that he smelled the sulfur smell on Zaernol?
He glanced at the warlock's bag where the imp was hiding. It was still deflated and lying there without any movement. Logically speaking, the dark energy waves that the scholars and mages of the Wizard's Sanctum couldn't detect. How could Gerred detect it? Does the Wildhammer dwarf have any racial talent for detecting demons?
"I don't smell it." Jess said, "There are no animals here. Foxes, meerkats?"
Gerred lowered his head and sniffed everywhere. His nose passed over the warlock's bag but didn't stop. Only then did Jess feel relieved.
In the end, the dwarf put his hand on the package given to Jess by Marin and said, "It's the smell coming from this thing. What's inside?"
"This is what the boss wants me to deliver to Stonefort." Jess was so tired that he collapsed on the cloth cushion and said, "Don't mess with it anymore. He didn't let me open it. What if he fines me if I open it? Let's go to sleep quickly."
"But this thing stinks." Gerred said, "Don't you care?"
"How stinky can it be?" Jess couldn't smell any smell at all. He approached the package and put his nose close to the tightened opening. Sure enough, he smelled a stinky smell.
It was like the smell emitted by something that had been covered for a long time. But it wasn't just cloth. There was indeed a stench.
Now, Jess couldn't sleep calmly either.
The two sat and stared at the package. Gerred looked at Jess from time to time and said, "Open it and take a look. How could your boss know if you opened it or not? There is no lock on this."
Jess scratched his head and said, "Are you sure mages need a lock to know if it's opened? This is really not good. What if there is a magic trap? What should we do?"
"Indeed." Gerred paused for a second and suddenly reached out. "Then I'll open it."
"Hey, don't." Before Jess could finish speaking, Gerred had already untied the package. In addition to that letter, a khaki thing rolled out. It looked like some kind of clothing made of animal skin.
"What's this thing?"
Gerred took out a piece and looked at it. He found that this wasn't a piece of clothing but simply a processed animal skin product.
"Is this an animal skin carpet or something?"
"Put it back..." Jess said helplessly.
And the more Gerred pulled it out, the stronger the smell became.
Finally, when Gerred completely unfolded the whole thing, the whole tent was filled with a stale stench, like the smell on a tiger in a zoo. Jess could hardly stand it.
But it was only at this time that he realized what this thing was. This wasn't clothing or a carpet. It was a flag, a battle flag of the Orcish Horde.
"This is the flag of the Orcish Horde."
"I also think it looks like it. Can you tell what the emblem on it is?" Gerred completely unfolded the part with the emblem and put it in front of Jess and asked.
Jess tilted his head and found a suitable angle. Finally, he saw what was on the flag.
"This is a dragon head."
"Dragon head?" Gerred asked, "There will be a dragon head on the orc's flag? Is there also dragons on Draenor?"
Jess didn't know how to answer this question all of a sudden. Originally, there were no dragons on Draenor. But now whether there are dragons or not, he couldn't say.
If Teron Gorefiend has returned to the Dark Portal, it means that the Black Dragon Aspect, Deathwing, who cooperated with the Orcish Horde, has also crossed the Dark Portal with him.
Did he go to Draenor to find a safe place where he wouldn't be disturbed by other dragons to store his dragon eggs and plan to build a new Black Dragon Nest there?
"There is a clan among the orcs called the Dragonmaw Clan." Jess said, "Those orcs who fight on red dragons. Didn't you think of that?"
Gerred immediately said, "I... Of course I know about red dragons and the Dragonmaw Clan. But just because these orcs tamed red dragons, they simply changed their clan names?"
"How would I know? Ask their great chief yourself some other day." Jess said, "My boss may have found this orc flag somewhere. So he thinks that showing the flag to his colleagues in Stonefort will help track the whereabouts of the red dragons, right? I don't know. Anyway, I'm just responsible for delivering the letter."
"Track the whereabouts of the red dragons?" Gerred said in surprise, "Why track them? Let them go wherever they want. It's best if they disappear from this world forever. Why bother looking for them?"
In the eyes of most soldiers who have participated in the Orcish War, red dragons are evil and brutal monsters. Now is not a good time to popularize the worldview. He is so sleepy that he is about to explode.
"Mages all hope to find an eye-catching research topic and then publish some sensational articles in Dalaran to gain popularity and promotion opportunities. Let's not get involved in their messy things, Gerred. Let's go to sleep quickly."
After saying that, he wrapped the battle flag back into the bag, put the letter back in place, tightly blocked the opening, and then opened the tent door to let in ventilation.
In autumn, a cool evening breeze blew in. Jess wrapped himself in his coat and hid in the corner.
"I should have gone to your house to get that wolf skin coat first." He muttered.
"There will be too much luggage and the horse won't be able to bear it." Gerred lay down and said, "I still care a little about the orcs."
Before dawn in the morning, the two set off on the road with the cavalry patrol going to Redridge Mountains. There were also some travelers and merchants who rode horses and did business on their own.
By around 10 o'clock in the morning, they could already see a vast lake from a distance.
Jess looked at the water surface that seemed like a bay and took a deep breath as if he wanted to draw the smell of the water over there into his nose.
A cavalryman in front shouted, "In front is Lake Everstill. We'll be in Lakeshire soon, everyone!"
The merchant caravan and travelers let out cheers. Gerred also shouted.
I don't know what these people have experienced before. There was no attack on this trip. Is it considered lucky? Perhaps it's also an unwritten tacit understanding, just like people clapping when the plane lands.