Sieg looked around. Many things were happening in the light of the flaming cart. Firstly, the cart was burning then there was the man who yelled for help who ran away crying, desperately trying to avoid the incoming arrows. He saw the caravan members running around in panic, some with weapons other without anything and lastly, he saw the priests party standing next to each other. Geo spurted over to his friends. He knew that it would be safer in a group. Specially since he doesn’t know who attacked them or how many attackers there where. Diane was hiding between the two men who were both armed and ready to fight. Conrad held his long shovel like spear and Jaeger held a wooden construction. Jaeger turned around to Geo and yelled:

  “Geo over here! NOW!”

  The arrows seemed to fly from the opposite direction of the river. So that when was close enough he pulled his arms up to his face, as if he was trying to block a punch to the face and a one man high and one and a half men long wall ripped itself in front of the group protecting them from the arrows.

  “Thank you, Geo. We have to find Sieg and the other protective personel. Geo can you keep us safe?”

  The usually quiet man asked.

  “Since we won’t be stationary I can only drag a smaller plate near me. So where should we go?”

  Jaeger pointed towards the direction where Sieg’s tent was.

  “Ready? Go! Now!”

  Geo moved his right hand towards him and ripped a one and a half square meter plate out of his wall and controlled it to stay near him and serve as a shield for him. While they were running in the dim light of the burning cart the arrows stopped flying and Geo heard people running and yelling in their direction to kill them.

  The team made it to where Sieg was. He and a few others were hiding behind two food carts just next to the river.

  “Anyone has a plan?”

  The caravan leader asked. And Jaeger answered:

  “Geo will go out and fight and look for survivors. If we find any, we will send them over here.”

  He looked to Geo.

  “Did you understand?”

  Geo wasn’t to happy to have been volunteered for this but since he was the only one who could protect people with his earth magic he felt like he didn’t have another choice. He nodded, and Jaeger turned to Conrad.

  “And you keep Diane safe! Got it?”

  “Understood”

  Jaeger pointed with his finger towards the next nearest cart on the battlefield and counted down with his fingers. Geo understood and prepared his shield and one of the rocks he collected a few days ago. And as Jaeger closed his hand to a fist he held his shield up while Jaeger and Biss hid behind him. They ran over to the next cart.

  As they ducked behind it Jaeger took a look over it.

  “There is a guy being attacked by there around ten meters away from here. We will attack them.”

  He ordered his dog:

  “Biss Kill!”

  And the hound ran towards the fight faster than Geo has ever seen a dog run. Simultaneously Jaeger left the cover and aimed with his construction and shot an arrow out of it hitting the man in the leg. When the attacker realized what hit him it was to late. In the short time period between being shot in the knee and him feeling the pain he was pounced by a 30-kilo heavy dog who bit him in the throat without mercy. Killing the man.

  Jaeger made a signal to move and under Geo’s cover they ran to the man Jaeger saved.

  “Can you walk, sir?”

  Jager asked with a strong voice.

  “Yes, I can’t fell one of my arms, but I am mostly ok.”

  “Have you seen anyone else?”

  Geo asked trying to help to. The man pointed further into the battlefield and said:

  “About twenty meters away Gary fell down. What should I do?”

  Asked the man clearly in pain.

  “Go towards where we came from. You will find Sieg and six others there stay with them.”

  The man gulped and nodded in pain. To buy the man some time Geo erected a knee-high wall so that he was a bit safer. As he made the wall appear he spotted a big man with a dangerous looking axe going towards where that Gary guy fell. He judged him to be about 25 meters away. Usually not a distance that he would miss often. But the darkness was a problem since the biggest source of light was the burning cart from where the man came from. Not the best condition for him.

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  He pointed at the man and said:

  “Jaeger there!”

  The bodyguard looked up from the man he was helping to spot the dangerous man. And without his owner saying anything Biss ran to the man who was targeted. But the man was able to spot the dog who was running towards him and prepared his weapon to swing. Not wanting the hound to get hurt Geo quickly swung his fist in a short hook which shoot a fist sized rock from the ground towards the man. The man didn’t have a chance to dodge the projectile and got hit in the arm. Based on the way it was bent after the hit Geo assumed the arm was broken. Not that it mattered since Biss went for the kill and with deadly precision killed the man the same way the first one died.

  Bevor Geo was able to check if Gary was alive a flash came from behind. The light threw deep shadows from the shadows behind him. Immediately Jaeger started running back where they came from.

  “What about the man?”

  “He is dead, we have to go back! Diane and Conrad are in trouble.”

  Geo didn’t know how the man knew all of that, but he didn’t want to be left behind. So, he followed the man. And shortly after he started running a wall of fire came from the hiding spot where Sieg and the rest were. As he came even closer he was able to figure out that the source of the fire and possibly the flash was Conrad priest, who stood in front of the group facing the river with his right hand stretched out. In the river were at least six people running away while three people were burning in the shallow water. Their corpses didn’t even go out after falling in the water. Jaeger ran over to his companions.

  “Diane, Conrad are you ok? I saw your flash.”

  Conrad hid Diane between him and the cart and calmly said:

  “One of the merchants heard people walking in the water. So, I illuminated for a second and saw these armed men coming at us. These ones”

  He pointed at the corpses.

  “were dangerously close. So instead of letting them come at us I reacted and used my magic. Don’t worry Diane is ok.”

  He looked over to the girl that was cowering behind him. It was obvious that unlike her companions she wasn’t mentally prepared to fight or to see people die. Even Geo who was trained in the military was never in an actual fight to the death. No one said a word for a while. The only things that made any noise were the startled animals that pulled the wagons and the fire of the cart that was on fire. Luckily no other carts were caught on fire. That is when Geo realized. There were no other sounds. He couldn’t hear any of the attackers or the caravan people. It seemed that the other present caravan members started to realize that too. After a few minutes where everyone was catching a break and were looking for another ambush regained his composure and started to order everyone:

  “Alright everyone. Half of you look for survivors and people who are hurt! Everyone else either help me to get the flames out and get your animals. I wane leave as soon as possible!”

  No one had the power to argue. Even the merchants who are never happy with Siegs decisions didn’t say anything. Only Conrad said something:

  “Please bring all the dead and wounded to one place. I will try to help wherever I can and send the dead.”

  Sieg grabbed his necklace and nodded at the suggestion. Then everyone went to do what they could. Geo went to the burning cart. He made a small wall around the fire and started to stomp it out with a block of earth. The other members of the caravan were happy that he could do this since no one wanted to get near the fire in any way. The sun started to rise out of nowhere. Geo didn’t know how long he was awake but as it got brighter he ran out of energy. The adrenaline left him finally. That is when Diane came to him. The usually energetic girl seemed to be tired. She handed him some bread water and a tasteless piece of meat and Geo sat down to eat. He didn’t even bother to make earth chairs like he is used to and just leaned against one of the carts.

  “Are you ok?”

  She asked Geo. Geo looked up into the brighter getting sky and said:

  “I feel weird. Like kind of empty.”

  “Why?”

  Geo looked at her. Even though she was terrified a few hours ago she was calm and sorted again. Geo looked back at his bread and finally answered:

  “I killed a man. I mean, I didn’t deal the finishing blow that was Biss but… I threw a rock at him and made him unable to defend himself. It feels weird, like I should feel terrible but… I don’t really know how to explain it.”

  Geo made a pause to collect his thoughts.

  “What about you, are you scared? I saw you terrified hiding behind Conrad earlier. How are you so calm already?”

  She sat down next to him and answered:

  “I am not sure. It might be that I barely saw anything happening or maybe I was just mentally more prepared for something like this to happen.”

  They both sat down in silence for a while. When Jaeger showed up.

  “Oh, so there is where you are Diane. Con wants you to accompany him during the burial ceremony. Geo although I don’t think you are a follower of Reso you are also invited to join us.”

  Diane sat up and left without saying goodbye, almost like she expects Geo to follow her. Geo sighted tiredly and followed her. The burial was about one hundred meters up the river the earth was darker then at the camping spot. There were two piles of bodies. On one eight and six on the other. The group with six were wrapped around in cloth the others weren’t. Geo recognized one of the dead due to his broken arm and bitten throat, so he assumed that the unwrapped ones were attackers and the others were caravan members. Conrad was digging a hole, probably a grave, next to tree other ones. He was using his shovel spear hybrid.

  “Do you want me to do this quickly? It’s ok. Just ask!”

  Geo offered his help to the priest.

  “Thank you for the offer. But Reso says: “Feel the pain of the ones you lost yourself.” Meaning that we must dig their graves by hand so that we can share the pain of the ones we lost. But if you want to help we can take turns. If that is ok with you?”

  Geo nodded, but when he held his hand out to the man to take over the digging tool Diane intervened:

  “Aren’t you tired Geo? You were stomping the fire out yourself. Take a break ok. We can handle it alone.”

  “Diane is right. You should take a break! Don’t worry we will call you when the burial starts.”

  Out of nowhere Jaeger put his hand on Geo’s shoulder and offered:

  “You helped my, out a lot today with your shield. Let me make this up to you. Biss makes a great pillow if he allows it. Come try it out!”

  He leads Geo over to his dog. The same dog that just hours ago killed two men. And he was sleeping calmly in the shadow of a tree. Geo was hesitant to use the beast as a pillow but Jager insisted. Half expecting to get his neck bitten Geo laid down on the hound. But the only thing Biss did was lazily wiggle his tail. He had soft fur an was warm. Geo quickly wasn’t afraid of the dog anymore and dozed off.