The group continued on until they reached a spot that was relatively clear and began setting up camp.

“Captain, I must ask what your plans are as we move forward,” the man’s deep voice and burly body always caught Knox off guard.

“Sir, I’m not sure what you hope to hear. I didn’t suddenly gain knowledge of the area or the terrain to have any knew plans since the last time you asked me for one of your so-called ‘status reports’.” The two men stared eye to eye, before the second finally gave in, pushing his glasses up his nose.

“Well, you don’t have to be so rude. I would like to report that I still haven’t seen any new plants since the other day, and as I said before, none of them are edible.”

“No shit. I assumed that if you had, I would’ve heard you scream like a little girl from your spot in the back,” Knox turned his back to the scientist.

Knox hadn’t questioned the king when he had told Knox that there would be a scientist sent along to help keep track of everything they encountered on their trip, and Knox hadn’t expected to see any of the king’s top five favorites either. What he had expected was some scrawny little apprentice who had gotten in trouble for peeping into a woman’s powder room or something. Instead, on the morning of their departure, this man, Bernard Rew, had shown up and introduced himself to Knox. At first, Knox had gotten along with the guy. He didn’t need anyone to protect him, as evening spars had proven, and he wasn’t some little shit that screamed at every little thing. Nor was he painfully socially awkward. What killed Knox was the man’s stickler for protocol and everything rulebook. To Knox, as soon as they passed the tree line, everything was out the window other than survival and the mission. If the mission was accomplished, then there would be time to back track and make sure everything looked good in a report.

The group had nothing left to eat, simply gnawing on what was around them before going to bed. Their topics of conversation had worn thin, with nothing new to see each day, but with the sudden discovery of possible women, the camp was abuzz with quiet chatter for the first time in weeks.

“Do you think they’re human?” Taylor asked.

“Well they’re definitely humanoid,” Tristen gave a sly grin and elbowed Isaiah who sat next to him, focusing into his mug of water.

“Gonna fuck ‘em if we see ‘em again Taylor?” Mathew laid out his playing cards for a game of solitaire.

“Nah, but Tristen would,” Taylor groaned as he stretched out on his mat.

“That’s obvious, though, innit?” Bay flicked Mathew, “You gotta two there.”

“Tristen’ll fuck anything that’s feminine,” Mathew said flipping his cards between his fingers.

“Hold on, that’s not true,” Tristen’s eyes widened as he placed a hand on his chest in an attempt to look horrified.

“Sure, it is, it’s amazing you don’t have a hoard of bastards back home,” Sven snickered.

“Ok, what’s your definition of ‘feminine,’ then?” Tristen leaned back, trying to punch Sven, who sat behind him. “And it’s called protection. Maybe you should try it sometime.”

“Anyone with long eyelashes,” Nicholas batted his eyes at Tristen.

“A decent number of teeth, I think,” Isaiah chimed in.

“Nah, I once saw Tristen walking off with what I assumed was a woman and she had only two,” Taylor said.

“A big chest,” Bay said yawning.

“Why are y’all out here describing Bernard like that?” Taylor cried out.

The group bantered on a little while longer before going to bed. Knox didn’t bother trying to shut them up. It had been so long since they had been so light hearted.

When the group awoke, there were three fish piled next to the remnants of their campfire. Knox looked around, but couldn’t find any sign of where the fish could have come from. The men scrambled to get the fire going again, starved.

“We shouldn’t be so quick to eat those fish,” Bernard whispered to Knox.

“And why not?”

“We don’t know where they came from, what kind of fish they are, or if whoever or whatever left them has done something to them.”

“Bernard,” Knox faced the beefy man. “We’re starved. We’re out of food. Honestly, we’re probably going to die anyway if things continue the way they’ve been going. So, if being poisoned by some mysterious fish, or wasting away from starvation are my only options, then I think I’ll take the fish. I think my men would agree with me, and if they don’t, nobody is forcing them to eat.”

Nicholas handed Knox his share and Knox followed him to join the rest of the group who had already begun to dig into their breakfast. When no one immediately started to show any signs of death, Bernard reluctantly joined them.

Two more days passed, and various meats continued to appear at their campsites. The group discussed who it could have been, and why, to pass the time. They also couldn’t figure out how the culprit was able to slip into the entire camp and not get noticed by the rotation of watchmen. On the third night, they decided to change it and go in shifts of two, because two pairs of eyes would be far easier than one in catching their mysterious visitor.

“It’s probably those two girls we saw a couple days ago,” Sven offered, knowing that the group had exhausted every aspect of the possibility at least three times already. “I mean, you saw the one had silver eyes, but the other one looked normal. Maybe she’s human under the control of some little fairy and she’s been giving us food to help us.”

“You sure gotta lot of nursery tales in that thick skull of yours. What next, we go on a big adventure to rescue her?” Tristen snickered.

“Nah, I think it’s something else. Some evil witch that’s trying to fatten us up to kill us and eat us,” Bernard licked his fingers.

“Says the guy who’s always eating the most out of all of us!” Bay laughed.

Knox just hoped the group would be able to come across their own source of food soon, and whoever was leaving the food did so with innocent intentions.

It was on the fourth day that they ran into the woman and what Knox had decided must be her daughter again. It was just after lunch and the group continued to wind their way through the trees that had seemed to spread out, leaving far more space between them than they had seen their entire time. Jackson pointed out the movement he had seen coming from behind some of the trees not too far ahead of them. Knox nodded and motioned for his men to be ready. There was a flash of a silvery eye and Knox froze. The little girl peeked out. Knox lowered his weapon slightly, still unsure of what to expect. The girl bit her lip and looked around before motioning for them to follow her. Knox turned to his second and nodded.

The group began to follow, cautious of the possibility of a trap. It wasn’t long before the girl’s mother appeared. She stepped into their path; her eyes tinged with a deep red. The girl looked up at her mother. They seemed to communicate with just their eyes, and after a moment, the girl gave a little smile before continuing on. The woman followed her daughter. Knox glanced at Jackson again, eyebrows raised. He only shrugged back. They continued to follow, not a single word was spoken.

As they started to catch up, the woman stopped and turned to Knox. Her daughter continued as if nothing had happened. The redness had faded to a faint ring around the edge of her eyes, and she looked more irritated than anything.

“You’re letting your daughter wander off again,” Knox said softly, nodding towards the girl who was still walking away. The woman didn’t bother to look around or call her daughter back.

Knox flicked a finger from Jackson to the girl. Jackson was a good man. He did what he was told and knew when not to ask questions, but he also knew when to tell someone they were being a dumbass. He wasn’t afraid to call bullshit, and he could hold his own in a fight, physically and intellectually. He was the kind of guy you wanted on your side.

Jackson stepped forward and made to pursue the young girl, but the woman stepped in front of him, blocking his path.

“Miss, I’m just trying to make sure she doesn’t get lost. I would hate for something to happen to her,” Jackson said delicately, as if trying to not piss off an angry bear. Knox nodded his agreement, and didn’t quite blame him for his caution. It was almost animalistic how she had responded to give her daughter a chance to get away while she faced the danger. The only difference was the little girl’s calm demeanor as she simply walked away without looking back, as if she hadn’t a care in the world.

“Fascinating,” Bernard whispered behind them, almost making Knox jump. “Perhaps they are indigenous to this forest?”

“Perhaps, but something tells me they aren’t super talkative,” Jackson whispered back. Knox smirked at the joke.

The woman turned abruptly and followed after her daughter. Knox made a point to stay in stride with her. It didn’t take long to catch up to the little girl, who had stopped momentarily to let them catch up, but stayed in the lead. He winced at the crashing noise that his men made behind them, and when he turned to look back, he was relieved that they were still marking trees as they went. It was especially important to not get lost now that they potentially had a woman and her daughter with them. Or were being led astray into some sort of supernatural trap.

The little girl stopped and the woman made sure to stay between her daughter and Knox. Knox looked out at where they stopped and was surprised to see a large natural clearing with a stream running through the middle. They had led him right to it without any hesitation. Knox realized how potentially useful they could be, if they knew the area that well, and he could be sure they weren’t dangerous. Perhaps, if they were indigenous, they could lead them right to the edge. Or, if they were from a village outside of the forest, then they weren’t too far from their destination if these two knew how to find their way. Were they close to the edge of the forest? They had estimated that it would take them a few months at least to get through to the other side, but it only took a couple weeks? This meant wonders for him. A promotion surely, if nothing else. He motioned for his men to start setting up camp. They would stay the night and then have the two girls lead them to their village in the morning. His men seemed to have caught on to the excitement and quickly set about making camp.

Knox turned to Jackson and he could tell that his second was already two steps ahead of him. They barely had enough food to feed their group, which they had saved from that morning, and adding two more was going to put a strain on them. They would have to make it work for the time being, but if the end of their journey wasn’t as close as they hoped, they would be in trouble.

Jackson had already assigned Isaiah to keep an eye on the two new members of their group, and to alert them if the two so much as got one step farther away from them, or each other since they clearly didn’t seem to be worried about staying together. Mathew, Bay, and Nicholas worked on setting up a makeshift tent for the girls, and Tristan, Sven, and Taylor started to build a fire. Bernard and Jackson went to check out the stream and see if there were fish, as well as refill their water bags.