The marriage peace treaty

Chapter 19 The Harshlands part 1

When they entered the first thing that they saw was a vast temperate deciduous forest tree. With trees like birch, oak, aspen, hickory,  beech, magnolia, elm, maple and chestnut. Plants like ferns, Lichen, moss, mountain laurels, azaleas, white hoppers, prickly wild roses, wild garlic, and more. There are some less-known trees and plants like the White forest titanic rose. Which is a white rose as big as an average human head. The Snapping tree is a tiny tree that has levels that look like baby praying mantises. Blue birch, which is a birch tree with blue stripes and leaves. Wind catchers, which is a vine plant that likes to grow up trees then eventually become higher than the tree that they are growing on. Then there is the most famous tree of the harshlands the phoenix blood tree. This is a tree with firey levels that look like the feathers of a bird, a black tree trunk and when you cut into the tree trunk it looks like the tree bleeds out lava. 

There is no clear path for them to take as few ever venture into the Harshlands or out, there are normally only 2 times a year that some of the tribes peapole that live here venture into Avilen for trade. But that is not enough for real roads to be built. Luckily there is a natural path that is just big enough to let a horse carriage go in. Seeing the beautiful landscape Lucius and Maryden decide to ride on horseback the rest of the day. But they dont run off as encountering demonic beasts is very likely so they have to stay with the rest not for their safety but for the safety of the peapole going with them. After all, few demonic beasts can defeat a swordmaster and a powerful magic swordsman. It is well known that in the 10 countries here in the midlands both Maryden and Lucius are considered to be in the top 12 strongest peapole alive. The ranking is unclear as those on the list have never fought each other to determine that so it can only be up to speculation but the most accepted ranking is:

Number 1. Lanvin Fukker, The Inferno. Arch mange of the flame tower. 

Number 2. Henry Blanc,  swordmaster and Royal Guard of Hendrey. 

Number 3, Benedictus, The Restless. Archmage of the Ice Tower. 

Number 4. Maryden Avilen, Swordsmaster of Avilen, now of the Harshlands. 

Number 5. Zakery, wandering Swordsmaster. 

Number 6. Lucius Fireoak, Magic swordsmen of Dyrk, now of the Harshlands. 

Number 7. Lyra Scott, No eyes. Archmage of the Summoning tower.

 Number 8, Kanbrie Forest, Swordsmaster of the black order mercenary group. 

Number 9. Layla Rossette, Windcatcher Archmage of the air tower. 

Number 10 Enrick Huldahassen, Magic swordsman and the crown prince of Phallose. 

Number 11, Zevrey Dyrk, Magic swordsman and the second prince of Dyrk.

Number 12, Qlyne, The Necromancer. Magic elder of the illusion tower. 

They traveled for 5 hours without interruption and are now preparing to set up camp at a forest clearing. Not only is it a good location becuse of the open space but also becuse they are close to a creek. The atmosphere is very relaxed, not only becuse most of them are well-trained soldiers and knights but also becuse meeting demonic beasts is less likely so close to the border. That is becuse of two reasons, one of them is becuse it is there are expeditions 2 a year to clear out the strong demonic beats and to prevent miasma from becoming too concentrated. After all, they want to prevent a beast tide or a miasma infection. When living beings become exposed to miasma they either become sick and die or they begin to mutate and become demonic beasts or demons. The second reason is becuse it is the time of year when they are taking care of their young so they are usually not here during this time as the best feeding grounds are elsewhere where the miasma is thick. But there are still some low-level demonic beasts around but they are of no threat to humans. There are on only very rare occasions where a high-level demonic beast is so close to the border as they usually reside where the miasma is thick and those at the border are preventing the miasma from becoming too concentrated by purifying the air. But this is not completely foolproof so meeting a high-level demonic beast is not impossible it is just very unlikely.