Thariel tapped the map she pced on the tree stump, "the camp should be around here somewhere..." The damphir murmured.

  Right behind her, Sylka looked around, her sharp eyes scanning for anything that might indicate where the bandits may have set up camp days prior- and this is assuming the map is accurate and that the witness wasn't affected by delirium by the time of disclosure.

  Sylka had doubts, naturally, most humans were soft when it comes to their mind. Panic and memory loss was a common sight to see whenever a human experienced crippling events.

  "I don't see any signs of someone having camped here," Sylka pointed out.

  "Yeah but that farmer said she was around here when she escaped," Thariel turned her focus towards Sylka, "or at least that was how her ramblings got interpreted,"

  "For all we know, the "ke" that she described seeing while escaping might not be the one in front of us," Sylka said while eyeing the ke in question.

  Well, it was more of a pond really, and that in Thariel's opinion made it more convincing because anyone who isn't in the right state of mind would not be able to recognize this as a pond and see it as a ke.

  "What got interpreted might be not be true," Sylka suggested evenly.

  "Or the farmer wasn't wrong but what she remembers got fragmented and where we are right now is just the path towards the camp, not the camp itself." Thariel rebuked.

  "That might be true, wanna keep searching?" Sylka eyed Thariel for confirmation and when she saw the damphir nod, she returned the gesture and followed after her as Thariel headed to the deeper parts of the woods.

  The forest was quiet save for the occasional sound of dry leaves crunching underneath their boots. For a while now, there had been no signs of anything bandit reted along the path, not one of them caught a whiff of the scent of blood and besides small critters and themselves, they found no other living being.

  "Are we sure that the witness didn't mistake things?" Sylka skeptically said, "usually we'd find our quarry by now,"

  Thariel looked at a nearby tree in search of a trap, Clyra has been teaching them how to make all purpose traps ever since they started this side gig and she told them that those have also been used to catch humans so if bandits were here at some point, then she'd find some kind of evidence of these sort of traps being set around the area.

  Her eyes spotted nothing unfortunately.

  "You're not wrong," Thariel replied quietly, she bent down and checked the soil. It was expectedly damp, she didn't find anything that might tell her people camped here or walked past this spot recently however.

  "Should we go back and tell the receptionist the information they got is wrong?" Sylka suggested.

  "No, it's fine." Thariel shook her head, "they're around here somewhere, I can feel it."

  "It would have been better if you willingly brought your mask I think," Sylka commented before she proceeded to check the area herself. Much like Thariel, she found nothing. "We wouldn't waste so much time searching for them if you had it,"

  "I didn't want to rely on it too much," Thariel shook her head, she stood up and began to make her way out of the area. "And I also want to train my tracking skills,"

  "Tracking? You're not using your nose, or your ears." Thariel felt Sylka's stare on her back as she said that, "what are you doing, exactly?"

  Stalling. Thariel thought.

  "I don't know?" She replied in a murmur, "but that's why I'm practicing, I think that learning how to track things without relying on my other senses isn't a bad thing,"

  "You're not wrong," Sylka confirmed, "but to properly track, we first need to be in an area where we know we can find something to hunt,"

  "What do you mean?" Thariel stopped and turned around.

  "I'm saying that one of the most important things to know when tracking animals is figuring out where and when they would be most active." Sylka answered, "if you want to know how to track without relying on your senses, then you better figure out where to find animals, that's how everyone else does it."

  "But the bandits are here?" Thariel's brows shot up, "the witness said so."

  "She could be wrong," Sylka argued, "and even if they are here, are we just gonna keep walking until we find their camp? Because that isn't tracking, that's waiting for something to happen so we can react." She retorted, "while tracking is more proactive."

  "I..." Thariel was speechless, "what do you want to do then?""

  Sylka pulled out the map from her bag and beckoned for Thariel to get closer, "where do you think humans will likely to camp on this map?"

  "Near the water?" Thariel answered, water usually meant something to drink.

  "We already know that," Sylka said, "we know they're close to a ke, but there are a lot of those on this map." She eborated, "what we're looking for is something besides that, think Thariel, what do you think bandits prefer to be close to besides water or resources?"

  "A pce to hide in?" Thariel said in an unconfident tone, "that makes sense right?"

  "Yes, but forests are already a good pce to hide in, that's why we're looking for them here after all," Sylka began to correct her answer, "I'll give you one st guess,"

  "Uh... People to kidnap?" Thariel answered what came to mind.

  "They're part of "resources" because bandits sell them," Sylka shook her head, "no, what we're looking for are avenues of escape as well as connections,"

  "Okay?" Thariel nodded, unsure of where this was going but is on board with it nevertheless. "Tell me more,"

  "The bandits are connected to someone, they have to if they want to sell their goods correct?" Sylka questioned, "and that someone can only be connected to people on the bigger cities or merchants who go through proper trade routes because otherwise they wouldn't be able to find people willing to buy their "goods"."

  "Which means?" Thariel asked.

  "Which means if we want to guess the most likely pce the bandits will be camping in, then it would be here." Sylka pointed to a ke close to a vilge, which didn't make sense.

  "Why? Won't they get caught by the local lord- oh." Thariel finished dumbfounded once what Sylka was trying to say connected in her head. "They're getting help."

  "Yes, from someone in a vilge facing the direction which will lead to the Tenlor Territory's main city," Sylka expined, "if we want to find our bandits, they would be there."

  "Okay, I trust you," Thariel nodded. Sylka's never been wrong when it comes to tracking people before so this makes sense, "we'll go there."

  "We will," Sylka rolled the map and stored it in her bag, "let's go."

  Sylka's guess had been correct and the bandits camped at the pce where she said they were on but instead of a quiet night with maybe one or two guards patrolling the outskirts of the camp what greeted them was... Fire.

  An inferno raged on this part of the forest and the all encompassing fmes refused to wane as their oil-like tendrils consumed wood and tents alike. The fme grew stronger with every piece consumed.

  The heat waves that emerged from the fire made Thariel and Sylka raise their arms to cover their faces and as the orange light of forest fire disappeared from Thariel's sensitive retinas and she was able to see again she saw her-

  A lithe form covered in silver armor and a head of bck hair, onyx eyes with a gaze so cold it quenched the heat sapping at Thariel's cold skin and repced it with hair tingling warmth.

  Virelith carried with her a sword, she raised it high as she commanded her small army to raze the camp.

  The two of them locked eyes and Thariel felt herself begin to detach from reality, time slowed to a crawl and Sylka's distant words almost didn't reach her.

  "- he's getting closer!"

  Thariel blinked and everything went back to normal, her mind didn't process her arms moving as she raised her sword and stabbed a man through the throat- no- not a man, but a bandit.

  She looked at Virelith again and saw the vilinness nod her way.

  The fuzzy feeling Thariel felt st time didn't come like she expected, instead, her thoughts were centered around the fact that she just killed someone.