Trials (An ErasermicXreader Medieval AU)

Chapter 15

You'd trudged through the snow for two days, looking for a stream or well tracked area to keep your trail to a minimum as you headed towards the valley. It had snowed the whole first night of travel, your tracks powdered over by the time you awoke the next evening in the small cave you'd used for overnight hunting trips a handful of times before. It was hidden behind a dense line of trees and frozen waterfall that sheeted over half of the entrance, making it nearly impossible to spot unless you were standing on the narrow frozen stream that the waterfall flowed into. You kept along the ice for the next night, hoping it'd be harder for anyone to back track where you'd come from should you get caught.

It took two nights of travel to reach the valley, it was warmer here and the icy path you'd been following melted into a much wider river that snakes from one side of the valley to the other. Although you'd never been yourself, you knew there was a village nestled in these hills. If House Noro wasa close to the Kaer as you'd been informed they more than likely were there, it would have basic supplies and a well enough trained private militia could easily occupy it. You could start making an obvious trail now and head around it hoping your movements would get picked up, but you weren't too far from the foot of the mountain and it still felt too close for comfort. The other option was to get closer to the village, try and gather some information and glean an understanding of their occupying force, then raise a little hell.

You made it to the edge of town by sunrise, the valley slowly filling with golden light as the long pointed shadows of the mountains shrank away. It was eerily silent, even for the time of day. There were no billowing puffs of hearth smoke nor dim torch light in the farm house across the river, not even an animal stirred in their pens. The closer you got the more you were able to realize that there were no animals, none that were alive anyways. There were mounds of snow with holes dug into them that held carcasses. There were deep wagon tracks leading to a fro on the main road, and you could see a cluster of covered wagons parked outside of what looked to be the largest building in the heart of the village, probably the local tavern or jail.

You stuck to the tree line, staying low in the underbrush and keeping an eye out for activity both in the village and behind you in the woods. It was likely that House Noro knew that would be at a disadvantage setting up camp surrounded by woods so they were keeping activity to minimum, or that they were actually in the trees and the appearance of occupation in the village was a red herring. Regardless you knew you'd have to be careful, you were by no means as proficient in combat as Hizashi nor Shouta were and they both were weary in engaging in head on contact with House Noro agents. You krept back further into the trees, knowing it would take too much time to get far enough away from the village to set up camp. You decided to instead scout for places of retreat should you need them in the coming days.

You found three promising spots before noon, two were overhangs in rocky hill-sides that were far enough from any road to be well known and the thirds was a clearing you could only reach by squeezing through a tall gap in between two stone hills that rounded into each other. From what you gathered both from Shouta and from the two small bands of Noro agents you'd skirted today so far, they operated in the groups and would have to bottle neck to pursue you into the clearing. If you were quick you could conjure up a decent long range weapon and pick off a few men before they had enough time to react. The last spot was a dangerous gamble and you decided it was best left as a last resort, too much risk of you being caged in too close to Kaer Yuuie.

You retreated to one of the overhangs and curled up between two large stones, willing rest to take you. It was an uncomfortable few hours, the sleep was scattered and you never felt fully disconnected from your surroundings. You managed a few hours before your body decided that it couldn't handle this attempt as rest any longer and made it impossible for you to close your eyes for any longer than a few minutes or so before paranoia reared its head. It was around the time you'd be sitting down to eat in Yuuie, the whole fortress operated on a time table SHouta said was similar to military scheduling. It made catering to the needs of a large group of people easier, and you assumed that it must have been similar to the schedule the Noro mercenary militia must follow.