A knock on Gants door spurred him awake; a hazy bit of light came into his room, sunset was approaching, and it was Ruk knocking on his door. The man was covered in sweat, it seemed he wasn't lying about going to train before we left. After a few minutes to get his meager belongings, including his pendant that hadn't left his side yet. The pendant that got him in this mess in the first place, the pendant that always tugged at him, never letting him leave it. He tucked it into the safest place he could, in his front pocket, covered by layers of armour so it would never be harmed.

  "How long are you gonna take!" Ruk began to shout at his window. Just as Ruk finished yelling Gant stumbled out of the door, wearing half of his armour already. He was informed they would be carrying with them, as keeping it on would disrupt there journey, but Gant felt far safer with it on himself at all times.

  Gant stepped out of his room, and felt a yawn come up and suddenly wondered, "Do you know why we are leaving so late?"

  For once Ruk didn't have an answer for him, he just shook his head. "No, that thought hasnt been racking my brain for the past few hours. Surely its more dangerous to go out there at night we won't be able to see if we get surprise attacked. Sadly, most of my learning has been in human realm affairs and stories from my clan." Gant was shocked by the verbose answer from the usual annoyed and quiet Ruk, he decided not to press him on his past as he assumed Ruk would just dodge the question. "I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the old stories, some say the old gods still punish humanity for walking off of the path."

  "The old gods?" Gant had heard whispers about old gods back in the day, but if it pertained to his safety, he wanted to know more.

  "Yes, the gods that were around long before they gods we know of, and these gods never fell during the great purge. No, these gods stayed in power, yet they never seemed to exercise it, thus leaving people to wonder if they were ever really real."

  "What does that have do with night?"

  "Well, you see, the story went during the mythical age, gods, demons, dragons, and many other mythical creatures were alive. During this time there was a small tribe of non-powerful creatures, these creatures were capable of using tier-0 magic, the magic that is innate to your blood. Their magic was quite weak, capable of some healing, some growth magic and the ability to summon a small shell around themselves. They hadn't had much going for them, but what they did have was some divine protection from a god, this god told them 'as long as you walk my path you will never fear for your survival', and for the most part he was right. However, humanity had begun to become bored with the monotonous life that was following a predetermined path. Talks began to rise about stepping off the path... living life on there terms."

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Gant leaned in, intrigued. “What Changed?”

  "The human spirit demanded more, there are other stories similar but it all boils down to the human spirit hates the idea of stagnation. And when the tension finally broke when they saw a dragon corpse, the first dragon to fall during the purge. They took this as a sign, its corpse is what sparked humanity to step off the path, and live...." Before he could continue he was interrupted by Selina. Gant was slightly annoyed as it seemed Ruk had a genuine passion for telling this story, and he wanted to know how it pertained to the night.

  "No, were leaving at night because to simply lower the chance goblin patrols may see us. It seems none of you learned the basics of foreign diplomacy, even a teenager from Elysium knows that goblins are everywhere, always watching, even at night. Its just that at night they have much harder time seeing you." Gant was slightly surprised, it seemed the mushroom fanatics had a lot of knowledge on the outside world.

  As the three made there way over to the gate, they saw Kash waiting for them with four horses, each equipped with large saddlebags, with enough room to carry armour and food for them.

  "Thank you for being on time, are you all ready to leave now?" Kash asked, seemingly ready to mount his horse.

  "Yes" Selina proceeded to mount her horse with ease, another talent she seemed to posses.

  Next were Ruk and Gant, both just looked at each other; the first to speak up was Ruk. "Sorry I don't know how to ride a horse, my village never really used them, except for messengers."

  Gant spoke up after with a simple answer of, "Cant afford a horse, never learned to ride one."

  Kash seemed to expect these answers, and was more surprised when Selina hopped on her horse with ease. "We have specific horses that are very easy to handle, you'll get better as we go, but for now you'll at least be able to ride them."

  Gant spoke up again, "Sorry, but why are we not just using a cart like... like when I got transported."

  "Because, a cart is simply to unreliable and makes to much noise,; we need speed and maneuverability." Both Ruk and Gant accepted these answers and awkwardly attempted to get on there horses. Gant felt his large size was definitely not meant for horse riding but to his surprise this horse didn't seem fazed at all. To his side he saw Ruk seamlessly get on the horse, despite never riding one Ruk was still smaller and extremely agile, it almost looked like he was meant to ride.

  After all three of the chosen were on horses, Kash turned his horse to face them, his horse was of darker color, and much larger. The only way Gant could think to describe the difference was an adult horse compared to children, in terms of both size and demeaner. This was slightly off putting as Kash was about the same build as Ruk, but riding a much larger horse.

  After getting everyone's attention Ruk started his debriefing, "Tonight we will be riding all through the night and day, we are leaving at night as to not alert goblin patrols of our exit. We cannot guarantee they don't have more stationed on our path, but we do know they are watching the exits at all times. Our first stop is going to be the border outpost between the human realm and the dwarven realm, once we reach there it should be smooth sailing to the dwarven capital."

  Gant took in Kash’s words, the reality of their journey settling on him. This was only the beginning.