A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor-Chapter 798: The Pieces of Battle - Part 10

"See anything?" Oliver asked, after they'd passed through the first of two hilly forests between them and the enemy. Now, it seemed appropriate to start showing a good deal more caution.

"Hm? Oh, yeah," Nila said, not hearing him at first, as she focused her attention on a particular set of broken branches lying covered in snow at the bottom of the tree. "It isn't that surprising, but a group of people passed through here the day before yesterday."

"Any sign that they're here today?" Oliver asked.

"Not yet."

"What about where they came from?"

"The encampment, would be my guess… Do you want to see if we can track their footprints? Maybe we can find the main route that they use," Nila said.

Oliver nodded. It stood to reason that the Macalister men would be still using these forests to forage whatever they could in these winter months. Especially now that they'd cut down all the forests nearest them, they'd have to travel further for what they needed.

Still, they were at least twenty minutes of walking away from the base of the Macalister encampment's hill, so whatever caution that they might show needed not be that strong. After all, they were fairly confident that they could outrun a small detached force. In fact, that was one of the things that Oliver hoped to encounter.

The twenty-man strong unit that they had was far more capable than its size gave it credit for, after all.

With Nila guiding them, they clambered down rockier sections of the hill, following the faintest traces of the group that had been here two days prior. Signs that Oliver could hardly see, even when Nila stood right over them, and pointed them out. It wasn't long before Blackthorn and Verdant began to understand why she'd been placed in front.

Soon enough, the river came looming into view. Too fast flowing for the cold to properly claim it, and too wide for any man to enjoy crossing it. It was an obstacle for a certainty. Here too, the footsteps that Nila traced were more than useful. Skullic's map had depicted several places where they might ford the river, but it could never have shown them this.

Three long tree trunks were laid out over the river, forming a makeshift bridge that was difficult to trust, given its unevenness, and the distance the trees were spanning. Nevertheless, Nila seemed confident that this was where those men had crossed.

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"See?" She said, pointing. "It's impossible to miss. That deep a depression in the snow doesn't get filled in with a few snowy showers. They obviously were jumping off the end of this bridge and going here."

"It seems a weakness…" Verdant said.

"One easily remedied, though," Oliver pointed out. These logs are light enough that a man could probably shift them. If we tried to get any sort of force across them, it would quickly work to the enemy's advantage."

"True…" Verdant said, eyeing the bridge carefully when Oliver put it like that. "In that case, would it not be wise to mistrust it."

"Ordinarily, I would agree with you, but I'm quite certain that there's no one around," Oliver said, relying on Ingolsol's fragment to do that searching for him. He'd been walking with his senses cast out all around them, keeping the group as safe as he possibly could from any ambush that might have been waiting for them.

"Then I shall show no more hesitation," Verdant said. "Are we crossing?"

"We are," Oliver said resolutely.

The logs weren't exactly hacked clean to be smooth. In more than a few sections, there were branches sticking out that the party had to twist themselves to avoid. It was easy enough to do, athletically speaking. But when there was a great river rushing down ten feet beneath them, it was considerably harder.

One had to make an effort not to look down, lest they get drawn into the river's flow and make themselves dizzy from it.

Across the bridge, the going was quicker. Yet another hill they came upon, but now there was speed in every one of their movements. They understood that if there was a time to move quickly, it was now. After all, if they didn't get back to the log bridge before whatever pursuing party did, they'd be forced to ford the river, getting wet and awfully cold in the process.

It was definitely not an inviting prospect.

Here, the number of tracks picked up. It was the closest uncut forest to the Macalister encampment. It was evident that this was where they got most of their firewood, from all the footprints that they could see in the snow.

A tenseness came again with the sight of those tracks, warning them of incoming foes. But here, Oliver's progress once more gave them an edge. Within a rather impressive radius of a good twenty feet, Oliver could be certain that there was no one there. Beyond that, as far as a hundred feet, he could feel vague warnings of something before it stumbled into them.

Not enough to be sure, but enough to be tense.

"We're clear, for now," Oliver reassured them. That much made sense, at least, for by now it was approaching dark. Any foraging duties would have been attended to earlier in the day, when there was light. No General would risk his men over something as foolish as collecting wood in the dark.

Of course, that would soon be what Oliver's men would be doing – that was, making their way back through the forest in the dark. A dangerous endeavour at the best of times, but they'd brought with them precautions: three oil-soaked torches, and two sets of flint and steel to get them lit.

"Let's keep moving," Oliver said, encouraging them, as they came closer to the base of the hill. It was unnerving just how silent everyone had become. Only he and Nila really spoke. Even Verdant had settled into a painful silence. Was it simply because they didn't know how to act around someone that Oliver had known for so long, yet they knew nothing of?

Or was it a deeper matter inflicting a foreboding that they otherwise wouldn't be taken to.