27 A Long Way Ahead of You

Soon Farsian and Joelle catched up with the rest of the group, together they went south to look for Kaiser that was supposed to wait for them there. But sadly even Joelle didn't know much about the whereabouts of Michelle, it was as if she vanished from the face of the earth. Farsian was very curious about her and asked Joelle many questions that she couldn't answer.

Joelle was also very curious about something, Farsian seemed to be stronger now, she wondered if something happened while they were seperated. But she decided to ask after they had found Kaiser, that way she wouldn't have to explain everything to him if something really did happen.

"How long do we need to travel in this forest without a road?" Farsian asked. Even if he was fine with the current environment he still preferred roads that were less messy. You could blame it on his need for civilization to survive or simply blame it on his former human self, perhaps not every habit had vanished in the transformation.

"It shouldn't take long, there is a road ahead of us, propably about a few kilometers in that direction." Joelle said as she pointed west, this confused Farsian, weren't they supposed to go south?

"Don't worry the road leads to a harbor in the south it's just that we have gone a bit to far east to meet the road." Joelle confirmed his thoughts. She could read Farsian pretty good when it came to such situations, that was propably also the reason why she was prepared for what happened in the city.

"I see, then let's go west then!" Farsian immediately changed directions towards the road. Left and right, it didn't matter where he looked all he could see was green, why couldn't it be red? He really liked the color red, the color of love. All you need is love right? Or was it blood?

*ROAR!

Something seemed to respond to Farsians thoughts, or was it that something was really angry or hungry, anyways there was a giant roar in the distance towards the west. The roar came from the road that they were heading to.

"What was that?! How come there are so many scary things out here in the wilderness? First that giant explosion that shooked the earth and now this roar! And worst of all we are running right towards it! Why is this always happening to me?!" Helena cryed on Marks shoulder, she still couldn't be bothered with getting down and walking herself, she would rather stay there and have a ride on this muscular fellow.

"Who is she your aunt?" Joelle asked as she eyed the woman suspiciously.

"What?! Aunt my ass! I'm still young and pretty you psycho bitch!" Helena snapped at Joelle, she was beautifull and only in her mid thirties. It would be exaggerated to call her old or aunty, something like sister Helena was more to her liking.

"Shut up both of you!" Farsian said, he had to concentrate to hear that beast or they might really run into danger this time.

"What are you worrying about? It's only a small Mountain Toad those things are to slow to catch us anyways right Farsian?" Joelle said with a smile, she was still upset but was the type to not let it show on the outside.

She was right, a Mountain Toad was something that often appeared near hills or rocky areas. But they weren't in such a area so why was it here? A Mountain Toad was a normal Toad that was about two meters high and had skin that looked like a rock. It would be really hard to pierce it's skin with normal steel weapons but it was slow, well at least if it tried to move normaly, if it actually jumped it could cross 10 meters in a second.

"What are you talking about?! A Mountain Toad is horrible news, if that thing actually spots us then we are finished!" Helena lamented again, her eyes almost unable to stop the tears from rolling down.

"That woman really is noisy. Where did you catch her?" Joelle asked, she couldn't understand why Farsian hadn't killed her yet or made her submit to him in other ways. She would have shut her up ages ago if it wasn't for her being with Farsian when she got there.

Farsian felt an headache coming, if he had known that things would get like this he would have used mind controll on her sooner.

They now approached the street and Farsian could allready see the clear cobble stone street that stretched out in front of him. Unfortunately he could also see the Mountain Toad on the steet, a few knights were fighting with it, they wore red plated armor and a cape that was made of red silk. They looked like royalty but their horses had deep red eyes and a black mane, dark particles were drifting in the air around the horses. It gave a rather ghastly appearance.

"What are those monsters!" Helena exclaimed when they had catched up.

"Shht! Be silent those are the guardian knights of the port that is down the road you don't want to anger them, understood?" Joelle said menacingly.

"Are those..." Farsian looked at Joelle with a frown.

"Yes they are." Joelle said with a nod, this were vampires dressed in armor and on horseback, there was nothing more devastating than to have an armored undead charge at you on horseback. In a battle they could charge through the front lines and not even bother about the spears that the defenders would erect to stop them. Only magic could stop these fantastic beings.

The knights had a rather relaxed battle with the toad, one was keeping it busy in close quarters while another would charge at it with a long lance, the third was just watching the environment to make sure nothing was amiss. When he saw Farsian and Joelle he gave a slight nod to indicate that he had noticed them, they should wait for them to clear this mess.

The Mountain Toad was strong, but the knight that was engaging it in close quarters was even stronger. He held his shield high and succesfully blocked the toad who was about to jump and escape from this encirclement, as it bounced off his shield he was pushed three meters back together with his sturdy horse. The toad now saw its chance and attacked with its long and strong tounge, at the end of the tounge there were small stone spikes that transformed the tounge into a weapon. It looked rather menacingly as it stood there towering two meters tall with its spiked tounge out to attack the knight.

The knight pulled his sword out of the sheath and striked at the tounge that was rapidly closing in.

*Cling

With a metallic sound the long tounge was flicked to the side where it burried itself into the cobble pavement, small rocks and stones were flung everywhere. The impact was to powerfull for the road to sustain and it now looked like a mess.

"Damn Richard be more carefull!" The knight that was on lookout shouted at the fellow that just casually flung the giant tounge to the side.

"My bad captain, won't happen again!" The man opened his visor and shouted back.

At that moment the third knight finally arrived and ended the poor beast. His long lance burrowed itself deep into the stone skin of the Mountain Toad. It was almost flung off its feet when the lance hit it, after it was hit it winced shortly before deflating and going limp on the ground. The monster was dead!

"Now dear visitors, I haven't seen you around here but your scent tells me your one of us. What brings you out here in this god forsaken place?" The knight that gave them a nod earlier came up to them and said.

"We are looking for the vampire covenant, we heard that it could offer you safety and a healthy environment." Farsian said, he looked rather sad, his armor torn from the sticks in the wildernes.

"Actually we were allready expected half a day ago, my name is Joelle and this is my friend Farsian." Joelle added.

When the knight heard Joelle he looked at her full of disbelieve.

"What does a trainee like you make outside the covenant? Does your trainer know about this, if not then could you please follow us? After we have cleared this mess up we will bring you back, but you should propably be prepared for some punishment." The knight said to Joelle who only had a bitter smile, she knew this would happen the moment she had left the island.

"He doesen't know yet, but Kaiser my friend stayed and would naturally have told him when he asked about it." Joelle said.

"I see, then please wait a moment. We will soon be finished." With that the knight waved at one of the other two, that one then came over and started asking random questions of Farsian. The other two were currently trying to clear the road from the debris and were trying to bind the toad to a horse. Unfortunately the toad was to heavy for a single horse so they had to use two.

"How long were you outside?" The knight asked of Joelle, who answered that she was only outside for a short while and only because she had to search for her friend Farsian. The knight also asked Farsian if what she was saying was right, Farsian naturally told him what he knew.

"Then can I assume that you were both created at around the same time?" The knight kept asking weird questions. After Farsian had told him everything he knew and the knight had asked everything he needed to, he turned around to Helena and the rest.

"And those are?" He asked Farsian.