The birds in the trees covering the path tweeted a happy little song as they enjoyed the warmth the sun provided to them on this warm summer day. It was midsummer, the time to enjoy in the life that was in full bloom around the countryside. This was a time of life and a time of love and a time of birth. The mockingbirds imitated the songbirds slightly off key, but somehow the songbirds would not be undone by this group of interlopers. Almost as if trained by some song master, the song birds changed their melody so that their tune quickly blended in with the mockingbirds off key anarchy, bringing peace to the countryside. This confused the mockingbirds eventually and they gave up, heading off to some other part of the woodlands in an attempt to cause some trouble and enjoy the summer in their own way.

    However, this aural battle mattered little to the three who were trudging along the dirt road. They had been traveling for what felt like days upon days, and could care less for birds, song battles, or even the brightly colored flowers that blossomed along the roadside. All that they cared about at this point was finding an inn that they could rest at and sleep in an actual bed, instead of on the ground. And a beer . . . God, what any of them would have done to get a beer in their hand and some edible food that was not the dry rations that they had been given days ago. Basically, they were sick of the road and were eagerly counting down the minutes until they were no longer on it. 

    Elian, a tall lean blonde haired man, glanced over at one of his travelling companions and blinked in wonder. In the last four days of travelling, he did not think that he had seen Zachia smile. Since they had left the town of Lawless, which lived up to its name in regards to the type of people who lived and visited it, neither Zachia or Lucy, a seemingly hopeless cleric but who had bouncing red curls and a bosom to match, smiled at all. They actually did not even so much as talk it seemed. They just kind of existed. This concerned Elian.

    The three of them were drafted by the adventurers guild in Lawless for a seemingly basic task. Being the newest recruits, the three were placed into the Red Team, a designation given to all new people as they were expected to die first and bleed the most. Their task was to deliver a letter to the head of the local church in Homlett. While Zachia grumbled about being a simple errand boy and that his years in the Mage College at Elsinor were being wasted on such menial tasks, it was a job and it provided about 30 gold pieces to each of them. Elian was a proud man, but early in life he learned that pride sometimes did not put food on the table or alcohol in his belly. He took the task and learned to deal with his two travelling companions: the cleric and the mage who seemed to have a slight knack in slight of hand, as he learned in his first night at the guild as Zachia made off with his coin purse.

    While it had not been the best of travels, at least the three each had their own skills to provide. Along with being a cleric, Lucy was able to develop a knack with bartering with travelling traders. It seemed that her father's side of the family were traders for as long as time could tell, so she had a certain way of being able to read expresions and know when a trader was making an honest deal or trying to rob them blind. Most of the time the traders had no idea that Lucy was capable of such a thing, and as such it ended up to their benefit.  Along with being good with slight of hand for making a quick couple of piece of gold, Zachia seemed to have a knack for languages. Seems it was one of his strengths that he picked up at the Mage College. This proved in useful with trying to avoid a couple of erstwhile occurences with some orcs while travelling. Zachia hated orcs with a passion. He never actually gave any reason as to why for this deep dark hatred, but just the mention of orcs seemed to bring him into a twitching frenzy and sometimes put a weird grin on his face. Kind of like the grin that a man would get when he was imagining strangling someone whose existence ate away at their very fiber.

    Such like the grin that he was seeing on Zachia's face right now.

    "So, ummm, what's up Zachia," Elian asked as he let his hand slowly reach for his scabbard in case he needed to subdue his travelling company for the last couple of days. The look of blood lust in a man's eyes was never pretty. Nor was it something that he wanted to see in the eyes of a travelling companion at any point. 

    Zachia chuckled in almost disbelief. "Can't believe it," he muttered. "It has to be an illusion of some sort." He rubbed his eyes several times as if trying to will away whatever it was that he was seeing.