Chapter 29 - Tracker Problems (Patreon)

When the alarm started to go off, they could see a flock of birds take off from trees outside of the barrier.  It was so nice to see animals once again.  As soon as she stepped on the other side of the barrier, it felt like she had lost something.  Her magic responded to her without any issues when she tested it.  After a few more tests, she concluded that it was just the feeling of the barrier she was missing.  It had been with her for so long that she hadn’t even noticed it was there anymore.

The trees outside of the barrier were smaller and spaced further apart.  They were still close enough to create a canopy above their heads, but there were several places where the sun shone through.  The ground was muddy and had quite a few puddles that they were forced to walk around.  Her father told them to avoid stepping in soft patches of ground and walk on roots or stones wherever possible.

He was still worried about the possibility of a tracker being sent after them.  There was no way they would be able to hide their tracks completely but they could be careful and slow down the trackers.  Her mother called him a worrywart because a tracker should have already caught up to them if one had been sent.  She still humored him and tried to leave as few tracks as possible.

As they moved further away from the barrier, the number of shrubs and bushes began to multiply.  They had to walk quite a ways north or south to get around berry and bramble patches.  She was sad to see that the berry bushes did not have any fruit on them that was anywhere near edible.  It wasn’t until late afternoon before they found an animal trail heading east.

If she were on her own, she probably would have ended up walking in circles.  When they were inside the barrier, it was almost impossible to see the sky through the canopy.  Her father was able to navigate using the way the moss grew on the trees to keep them going in the right direction.  While the moss was not as abundant outside of the barrier, it was still there to help them navigate.

On Earth, she knew from before that it was a myth that moss only grew on the north side of trees.  She was initially very worried when her father started using moss as his guide.  When she asked him about it, he told her that the type of moss inside the barrier grew on the side with the most mana concentration.  The barrier used an enormous amount of mana to remain active and was constantly shedding ambient mana.

The sun was low on the horizon when they started to set up camp for the night.  She and her mother went to gather firewood while her father set up a fire ring and unpacked for the night.  They felt that starting a fire would not be a bad thing for tonight and it would keep away any curious animals.

As they were heading back to camp with firewood in their arms, they noticed a man in red armor lazily following the trail leading to where her father was setting up camp.  The system must have been highlighting their path for him because he never went far from the trail they had taken to get there.  She worried for her father,  he had not noticed the guard yet but the guard had definitely noticed him by his change of body language.  The guard was a large man with the muscles of a professional bodybuilder.   Her father was strong, but the majority of his stats were allocated to intelligence or wisdom to keep up with his profession as a researcher.

Before they had time to warn her father, the guard had sprinted up behind her father and hit him on the head with the pommel of his sword.  Her poor father didn’t know what hit him before he was unconscious on the ground.  The whole interaction happened so quickly that they didn’t even have time to attempt to help him.

With her father knocked out on the ground, the guard began to talk.  “I know there are two of you out there.  Come out nice and slow and I won’t kill this criminal.”

Her mother’s response was to whisper to Violet to run as fast as she could.  Violet summoned a decoy to walk a little behind her mother and quickly ran behind a tree.  Her mother called out “Please don't hurt him.  We are right here.” She then stood up so that the guard would be able to see them.

From behind a tree, Violet began to summon a shadow blade when the guard started walking casually toward their position.  She had summoned her blade many times and used it to cut objects, but she had never used it in combat before.  Before she came here, she knew self-defense and had spent some time learning jiu-jitsu so she did not feel completely helpless.  Unfortunately, she had the body of a seven-year-old so she would have to make her first shot count because getting a second shot would be extremely unlikely.

One of the tricks she had learned with her shadow blade was that she could make it invisible.  She just needed to summon it before she could do that.  With the extra time the guard was giving them, she cloaked herself and moved away from her mother’s position.  She put herself in a place that would be right next to the guard when he was about to reach her mother.

As soon as the guard saw her mother standing with her decoy, he stopped and started to laugh.  She ignored the monologue that he spewed telling them about the criminal camp they would end up at.  Time started to fly by along with her mana.  She was holding decoy, shadow blade, and cloaking up at the same time.  He needed to come close soon or she would run out of mana before she got a chance to do anything.

When the guard finally shut up and started walking toward them, she made her move as soon as he was right next to her.  She flashed Dazzle as she jumped from a crouching position.  The Dazzle must have been aimed improperly because it didn’t affect the guard at all.  As she was jumping, her foot was caught on a root causing her to lose concentration on all of her spells.  She ended up falling on the guard’s leg and not moving him an inch.

As he was bent over laughing at her sorry attempt to attack him, a dagger was stabbed into his throat.  Her mother had used Violet’s distraction to use one of her daggers in the most vulnerable area she could reach.  When the guard fell to his knees holding his throat, she followed up with a dagger to one of his eyes to finish the job.  When Violet looked at her mother, she was looking at her bloody hands in shock.  It took Violet jumping up and running to her dad to knock her mother out of her state of shock.

They quickly ran to her father’s side.  Her mother caught up and passed her on the way with the longer reach of her adult legs.  He was still breathing but he was no longer conscious.  Her mother quickly took charge ordering Violet to get first aid supplies from their bags and to bring one of the canteens full of water.

She helped her mother wrap the wound on his head and then they moved the fire ring to right next to where he fell.  They started a fire and moved their camp supplies as well.  There was no way either of them could move him without injuring him further.  They hoped that he woke up soon and they could move away from the body of the guard.  She worried that her father might have a spinal injury or a bad concussion with him still being unconscious.

Her mother trusted her to take the first watch that night while she tried to get some sleep.  Based on the amount of tossing and turning her mother was doing, she would not get much sleep before the second shift started.  While her mother tried to sleep, all Violet could do was replay the events of the evening in her mind over and over.

‘Why didn’t I try Fear or Hypnotize?  Just because they are new and untested doesn’t mean I shouldn't have tried to use them.  Making my shadow blade invisible after I planned on using cloaking was just a stupid waste of mana.  Maybe my decoy could have caused a distraction and I could have snuck up closer to the guard.  There was no way I could have used water manipulation, I’m not strong enough with that yet and there is no way he would have held still long enough for me to do it.’

She was upset with herself.  Her magic was supposed to be her ace in the hole and it ended up just being a distraction.  She didn’t even want to think about what might have happened if her mother had not saved the day.  Looking at the guard’s body she reflected on just how lucky her mother was.  If he had not been partially bent over laughing at Violet, it was unlikely for her mother to have been able to get a very good shot at his neck.  There was no doubt he would have been more guarded if he had noticed that her mother was armed.  In the end, they had won because the guard was arrogant.

If the noble had sent anyone else with this guard they must have turned back when the alarm started going off or they would have already been there.  The chances of two adult citizens and a child taking that guard out were next to nothing.  Citizens were not trained on weapons unless they were selected to become enforcers.

When Violet caught herself nodding off for the fifth time, she gave up and nudged her mother awake to take the next watch.  She was initially practicing her magic to keep herself awake but it was not long before she was at half mana and she didn’t think it would be wise to drain her mana completely while they were alone in a forest.

Her mother immediately checked on her father when she was woken for the second shift.  There was no change in his condition that they could see by firelight.  Her mother said he had extra points in Constitution so he should be up and moving soon.  She hoped that was true and it wasn’t her mother’s wishful thinking.

She woke the next morning to her father speaking to her mother.  When she jumped up, her mother was telling him what had happened and letting him know everything was ok.  He was extremely confused when he woke up because he had never seen the guard and did not know what had happened to him.

After he had calmed down and gotten a meal in his belly, her father seemed to be doing better.  He was able to retrieve very little of value from the guard.  It appeared that the noble had sent him off without even allowing him rations.  They were only able to salvage the canteen he was carrying and some fire-starting sticks from his belt pocket.

They did not make it far that next day.  It was decided with a vote of two to one that her father needed more time to rest after sustaining such an injury.  When they found a sheltered area near a rock pile around noon, they made camp and rested for the remainder of the day.