The group takes off their hoods one by one as they reach Erik/Finn, revealing the figures underneath them. One lady sits down next to the first scout, letting out a relieved sigh as she stretches out her legs.

  “Alright, Erik Finn the Scout, I’ll admit defeat this time. You clearly found the best lunch spot out of all of us.” She says, as she tiredly pulls off her backpack and drops it next to her in a dramatic fashion. She rolls her head from side to side, letting out a satisfied moan as she does so.

  Emily feels a small bit of satisfaction, as her generalization and totally not a lucky guess about his name turns out to be right.

  Erik Finn cocks an amused, bushy eyebrow at the lady. “Told you I always find the best spots, Maddie Grimm, the fire mage.”

  “And you didn’t disappoint this time.”

  Emily holds back a curse. She’s a fire mage? Just what Emily needs. And by the looks of things, she seems like a confident one as well. Emily’s never even seen another mage besides her uncle, and now the first ever one she “meets” is on the enemy’s side? Fighting their group, if it came to it, was already going to be difficult. But now? It seems almost impossible without the advantage of magic exclusively on her side.

  Maddie Grimm turns towards the second lady of the group, gesturing for her to come closer. “Rachel Lee the medic, come over here and let’s crack open that wineskin already.”

  Emily wonders why this Maddie person keeps saying everyone’s full names and titles, but she’s not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. The more she knows about the group, the better.

  “And why, exactly, are you calling us by our full names and titles?” Rachel asks, as she rolls her eyes and steps closer to the impromptu picnic blanket, reaching into her pack to presumably bring out the aforementioned wineskin.

  “Because she was a theater actor for ten years before joining the army, and she hasn’t been overly dramatic and/or annoying in over a week.” replies the second last member of the group, a massive, bald man with dark skin and a large two-handed sword on his back. “Just let her be before she reaches critical mass and casts fireball or something on us.”

  “Ah, ah, ah! You didn’t do it right, Brad Chadwick the Frontline!” Maddie tuts, as she places her hands on her hips and pouts.

  Brad lets out a sigh, rubbing his head and turning to the last member of the group, a lithe lady with a bow strapped to her back. “Angela –”

  “Angela who?” Maddie asks, as she raises an eyebrow and stares at the much larger man with reproach.

  “Angela Roost the huntswoman, now would be a fantastic time to double-check our heading. Can you get the map out for us?”

  Angela smiles at the big man, an amused twinkle in her eyes.

  “Sure thing, Brad Chadwick the frontline.” she replies, as she walks up to the rest of the group and reaches into her own massive pack, carefully pulling out a folded map as she crouches next to the other two.

  She shoos Erik and Maddie off of the cloak, which elicits much grumbling from Erik, on account of it being HIS cloak that she’s now using as a table. She spreads it out on its surface, then sits back on her heels, staring at it for a moment. She then reaches into her pocket and pulls out a compass, placing it on the map in one of the corners.

  Emily feels an overwhelming sense of curiosity, as the rest of the Wrenfall Group clusters around the map, looking over Angela’s shoulder to do so. She wonders to herself how they could have possibly gotten a map of the forest. Her party didn’t get a map of the forest. Emily didn’t even know that there was a map of the forest. And why didn’t they get compasses? She’s been trying to figure out where East is for days now!

  “So if you look closely over here…” Angela says, as she points to something on the map, “We’re clearly next to this tiny stream right now. We’ve just got a few more days to go in this direction before we reach the first advance post and link up with the other scouting parties.”

  “And this circle over here is where we’re heading?” Erik asks, as he taps a spot on the map.

  “That’s right. It’s a highly-defensible spot against a cliff face.”

  “Hmm… It does trap us if we’re attacked.” Maddie says.

  Angela shrugs. “But that’s only if anyone knew we were there. This deep into the forest? The chances of us running into anyone, nevermind someone on the enemy side, is slim to none.”

  Erik nods his head, satisfied with that explanation. He turns to Brad, a questioning look on his face.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Well, Brad? What do you think?”

  Brad lets out an impressed whistle, as he stares at the map, following along. “Wow, this is a really well done map. You can see every little detail in it.”

  “Apparently our spies have been paying off any and every cartographer and high-ranking adventuring party they could find that has entered the forest, so that they only give the information to us. We’ve got multiple sources refining the map over time, so it’s as accurate as possible.”

  “Would the enemy scouts have maps just as good? Or better?” Maddie asks, as she bends over and stares at the map with a squint on her face.

  “That’s the best part,” Angela replies, “They don’t even have a map. We’ve got exclusive rights to them.”

  “Not even a basic one?” Erik asks, disbelief on his face.

  “Not even that.”

  Brad shakes his head. “Poor bastards, they’ll die in this forest without a map.”

  Angela places a comforting hand on Brad’s arm, looking up at the big guy with a sad expression on her face. “It was their king that sent them out to die. Not us. We’ll just have to win this war before it even starts, so we can bring these barbarians under our loving wing.”

  Emily scoffs at the hypocrisy, calling them barbarians when Wrenfall is clearly the barbaric ones? Who do they think they are, sneaking through the forest and trying to incite a sneak attack? What cowardly cretins would dare to –

  Emily just barely stops herself from clapping a hand over her mouth, as her chest turns to ice as she realizes that she just scoffed.

  “Hey, did you hear that?” Angela asks, as she reaches for her bow and draws it, her eyes narrowed and looking towards the pond where Emily is crouching in.

  “Yeah, I heard it.” Brad replies, as he pulls his sword off of his back, holding it at the ready and getting in-between the pond and his party.

  “Whatever it is, it’ll regret attacking the Furious Five!” Maddie exclaims, as she strikes a pose, her hands beginning to glow a dull white that makes Emily’s heart pound in her chest.

  The forest goes quiet, as the Wrenfall party stands and waits for any further signs of life. But Emily is as still as a statue, refusing to even breathe in case they can hear her. She doesn’t even dare to prepare her mana, in case they can spot the glow through the reeds.

  Suddenly, Emily hears something coming from the forest:

  The sounds of trees being pushed aside and the rumbling of the earth, as something massive and heavy starts making its way single-mindedly towards Emily.

  Surprisingly enough, Brad seems to hear it first, as he turns around and shouts for his party to watch their flank. The rest of his party turn around as ordered, and they watch as the golem breaks through the treeline, its green glowing eyes locked onto Emily.

  “Don’t worry, guys, I’ve got this!” Maddie cries, as she steps in front of the golem and strikes a confident pose. She lifts her glowing hands up and starts trailing them in midair, leaving behind a glowing white trail of mana wherever her fingers trace, much to Emily’s confusion. She swiftly and confidently draws a complex pattern in the air, the whole construct hanging there by itself, before it swiftly shifts to red.

  “Fireball!” Maddie shouts, as she pushes against the construct with her hand. A massive fireball explodes out from the construct, dissolving it and impacting hard with the golem’s head.

  The fire engulfs it, before it’s snuffed out in the next instant, leaving behind some barely-charred rocks and a very, very angry golem that has very suddenly found a closer target to harass.

  It lifts its fist back and swings at Maddie, who just barely brings her arms up before it hits into her and sends her flying into the rest of her group.

  “Maddie!” Brad screams, as he runs in front of the golem, swinging his sword at it ineffectually and almost getting his head knocked off for the trouble.

  “She’s unconscious! Or dead! I don’t know!” Rachel replies, as she uses her immense medical know-how to check on Maddie.

  “We’ve got to retreat! We can’t beat that thing!” Erik screams, as he rushes up to Rachel and helps her lift up Maddie.

  Brad just barely dodges another swing, using his sword to deflect himself to the side and almost dropping the blade from the stone impacting it. He lets out a huff and assesses the situation, before making a decision as the leader.

  “Fall back! Retreat!”

  The whole group runs away into the forest, swiftly disappearing out of sight, as the golem slowly and ponderously turns to follow them. After a few earth-shaking steps, the golem also disappears, on its slow pursuit after a fresh, new party.

  And leaving Emily completely alone with five entire packs and one warm-looking cloak to pillage.

  Emily rushes out of the pond and goes from pack to pack, picking the juiciest and most useful things from each and placing them into the one that seemed the lightest to her, laughing merrily to herself the whole time. She takes a moment or two to stare at the map each time she passes by it, amazed by just how much detail is in it.

  “Brad was right. This is a really good map.”

  She snatches the compass and puts it in her pocket, and then folds up the map with glee, placing it carefully into the pack. She stops and debates the cloak for a moment, before ultimately deciding that it’s a really nice cloak, and if Wrenfall scouts are all over the forest, she’d prefer wearing something that would identify herself as one of theirs.

  Draping the new cloak over her shoulders and fastening it tight around her, she finds it thick and warm, well-made to prevent branches from snagging on it or pulling on the ground. Not to mention, she thinks it’s really cool looking. She considers checking it out in the pond, before deciding she’s spent enough time looting and pillaging. She can always find another stream. Or better yet, make Alastair jealous by how cool it is.

  With a final, mischievous titter that she hasn’t heard since she snuck frogs into Alastair’s bed when they were younger, Emily runs off into the forest, her ill-gotten goods thumping against her back reassuringly.