The Orcs assisted Karl with escorting the varied assortment of slaves out of the inner city and through the nearly finished battle in the outer city, then past the gates to freedom.
The Elder Orcs looked impressed at the performance as they held off the remainder of the Giants so that the younger fighters could make their retreat.
The battle was a success by any measure, and though they hadn’t completely eliminated the defenders, they had inflicted severe injuries on them, including their most defended members, and they were going to have time to retreat from the battle before the other Giants could arrive to support them.
That was the goal of the night raid, and the Giants’ terrible night vision was working in the Orcs’ favour, as the massive warriors wouldn’t be able to even see where the Orcs went.
At best, they could follow the dust cloud, but Karl suspected that they were going to separate to create a massive dust cloud in multiple directions that would throw off pursuit.
They had run close to five kilometres, with the freed slaves loaded on the attack beasts as they were too weak to keep up with the pace, when the Orcish Champion jogged over to Karl, who was pacing the same pair that he had approached the battle with.
“Human, you fight like a true Orc. We kept records of the battle, and you earned a distinction. Take this for your reward, and turn off in that direction. It will take you west to the village of Baberg, just across the border.
It is the closest village outside the battle zone, but close to three hundred kilometres south of the Elves that sent you east.”
Karl shook his hand and smiled. “It was a pleasure picking on the Giants again. If we cross paths in the future, I look forward to having time to tell battle stories over drink.”
The Orc laughed. “You are pretty good for a human. Your name will be remembered, and not just because your mother named you after the human god of magic.”
They parted ways and Karl began to jog towards the southwest, headed for the border. Now, he just needed to find a way back home and his mission should be completed.
The problem was that he didn’t know how he got here, and there was no sign of the Anomaly when he arrived, so he couldn’t even go back to where he started to try to leave.
If it was out of sight thousands of metres in the sky above a lake, going home was going to be a nearly impossible task.
Karl ran for the rest of the evening, and began to look for a good spot to sleep as the sun came up.
[That looks like a good spot.] Cara suggested.
The target was a large sunny rock in the middle of the grasslands, next to a larger pile of rocks.
Karl adjusted his path towards Cara’s targeted sleeping location, and found that the rock was actually part of a destroyed temple.
There were still paintings visible on some of the other stones, and part of a doorway intact, forming a cave that would put him out of sight.
Cara wasn’t sold on sleeping in the dark. She liked to sleep on a warm stone in the sun, but both Rae and Remi were fans of dark caves for naps.
Thor liked sunny spots as well, and Hawk preferred trees, so it was always going to be a split decision.
[I am going to check the inside and see if it’s safe to sleep there. If it is, we can nap for a while then finish the trip back to Baberg.] Karl explained.
Once Karl stepped through the collapsed entryway, he found that it was a side door leading to a basement level of some sort that appeared to be intact. It was cavernous and empty, as well as fortunately bone dry.
If it had been full of stagnant water, they would definitely have been sunning themselves on a large rock.
[Hey, this place feels comfortable. I think it was an animal-friendly temple.] Remi noted as she exited her space to explore.
The space certainly did feel like it was inviting, and not hostile or filled with angry spirits of a maligned and forgotten god.
The rest of the team came out and relaxed in the forgotten temple, while Remi explored the ruins to see what she could find.
There were a number of side rooms, all empty. But no fun stuff left behind, not even a new statue for her altar.
The last one was pretty good, and she still got inspiration from holding it, but two copies would be better than one. It worked that way with golems, so it should be the same for statues.
But when she settled in to rest on the floor of the old temple, she could feel the energy of the patron deity imbued into every surface.
Remi curled up on the old altar to contemplate the nature of her existence as a Shaman Princess, and the rest of the team left her to it. This was a sacred place to the beast gods, there was no better spot to understand what she had learned from the storm god’s temple.
Karl sensed that something was moving outside, but couldn’t sense a power signature, so he brought up his barriers and motioned for the team to remain in place.
[You should be safe inside. Just stay here for a bit while I go see what’s going on.] He informed them before using [Silent Movement] to creep up the stairs.
Whatever was there would sense the barrier ability active, but it was safer than waiting until he’d walked into an ambush predator’s trap to activate his defences.
Karl searched the area for whatever he had felt moving, but there didn’t seem to be anything.
There was no sense of threat to him, no paw prints or claw marks, and the long grass was still upright, so there shouldn’t have been anything large in the area.
Karl was certain that there had been something here, though. He just couldn’t find it.
In the distance, perhaps fifty kilometres away, he could sense two beasts at the Monarch or Overlord Rank fighting. In the grass closer to the temple, he could see a number of rodents at the Ascended Rank popping out of their burrows, but none of them would have made the sounds of movement that he had heard.
Karl crouched so he wasn’t visible above the ruins and waited.
Some creatures could turn invisible, but very few creatures who could be invisible were patient hunters. They didn’t have to be.
If he just waited here while Remi did Remi things, he would find out soon enough what was hiding from him.
He would much rather be sleeping, but that wasn’t an option until he was certain that the area was secure.
Karl closed his eyes and whistled softly, using echolocation to try to find anything that might be hidden from his eyes.
What he found was nothing like he had expected.
It was ethereal, as if only half present, but Karl could sense the outline of the temple, still standing, with beasts moving through it as naturally as if they lived there.
But perhaps they did. No gathering of beasts would contain that many species. Even with the intelligence of the higher species, they didn’t get along all that well. However, these ones were working together, and even changing in and out of human form to take down books from the shelves, so their claws didn’t damage them.
Haunted. The temple was haunted, and what he had been hearing were the echoes of the former clerics who populated the location when it was still standing.
[Rae, do you see what I see?] Karl asked.
[There’s nothing down here. Maybe only the broken parts of the temple are weird? But Remi is doing strange stuff, and Hawk is getting mad at her.]
[Did she surround herself in a water shell?] Karl asked, guessing what might have been going on during his absence.
[Oh, you got it on the first try. I made it too easy. It’s nice down here, we will let you know when she’s finished.]
Did he just get evicted from the basement while he was upstairs looking for intruders? This was a temple by beasts and for beasts, so whatever Remi was doing might work better when there were no humans inside.
But he could also keep watch so that nothing interrupted Remi if she was really going to evolve today.
