The Vigilant

Chapter 3: Symbols

The first rays of sunlight traveled through the full forest foliage to cast a speckled pattern upon Pip's face, waking him to the coming day. He stretched as far his bondage allowed, yawning loudly. Hesten spared him a glance, then returned to hooking the horses to the wagon. Pip heard a crunching noise behind him and a moment later Reuben emerged in the clearing carrying three water skins.

"Glad to see you're still where I left you." He said in way of greeting.

"I fancied a stroll, but I didn't want you to worry." Pip earned himself a small chuckle. While Reuben loaded the water skins in the wagon, Pip discreetly made sure the knife was still safely tucked away in his boot. There was high probability that he would be caught with it, but at least he wouldn't be caught on account of idiocy.

Reuben returned to untie Pip and soon they were back on the road, repeating the silence of yesterday. At one point Pip started singing a tavern tune to combat the boredom, but Hesten kicked him hard enough that the throbbing pain gave him something to focus on instead. The landscape slowly changed, the trees growing farther and farther apart until soon they would soon be a rarity dotting the endless grass plains. Beyond the plains was farmland, fertile fields broken up by tight knit communities of villagers. Pip had spent several weeks in those villages, stealing from the fields to fill his hunger craved stomach. Until he got caught. He subconsciously rubbed a scar on his arm where a farmer's cleaver had swiped across his skin. He was in no hurry to return.

And it didn't seem he would be. Hesten had steered the horses off the well-worn trail, instead bringing them north through the sparse edges of the forest. The wagon jolted uncomfortably as they traveled over the bramble covering the forest floor.

"Are you sure you know where you're goin'?" Pip asked as the wagon jolted over a particularly large rock, sending Pip's head smashing into the side of the cart. "There's nothin' but cliffs and ruins to the north. You won't find nobody to sell me to there." Not that he was in a hurry to be sold. But each turn of the wagon's wheels brought them closer to the Kamoria Ruins. While Pip ignored most superstitions, even he cautioned away from the fabled ruins of the ancient castle. Tavern tales carried a shred of truth, and the Kamoria Ruins were the setting of many a tale.

"We know what we're doing." Reuben replied. But as they traveled farther along the tree line, Pip began to wonder.

"This is the drop off point." Reuben whispered to Hesten several hours later. They had stopped beside a large oak tree. Peering over the straw, Pip noticed a symbol carved roughly in the bark. A circle inscribed in a triangle, with a small hole carved away in the center. He'd seen that symbol before, a hazy memory pushed somewhere in the back of his mind. He shivered. Wherever he knew it from, it wasn't good.

"We'll walk from here." Reuben informed Pip as he pushed him over the back lip of the wagon. 

"Devils, you're pushy." Pip complained, stumbling to his feet.

"You're right." Grinned Reuben, pushing Pip so hard he rammed into the oak tree.

"Being right hurts." Pip commented ruefully.

"Being wrong hurts more."

Neither one said anything more as they plodded through the trees. The forest was getting denser, so they must be traveling west again. Hesten lead the way and Reuben took the rear. Pip tried to remember the landmarks they passed. A boulder twice the size of a grown man, with a large, jagged fissure running through its side. A stream that trickled alongside the path before veering south in search of a pond. And too often to be a coincidence, Pip spotted the same circle and triangle symbol carved into the bark of passing trees.