"That… is smoke for sure, but is it a smoke signal?" A bearded man with an eye patch stepped forward on the hill. "Is that supposed to mean something?"
"I'm not sure…" one of his men said. "But if I'm not mistaken, that's where the merchandise is being kept… the person in charge might have forgotten the codes." He sighed. "I believe it's a minor mistake, nothing to worry about, boss. I guarantee he'll be here soon. After all, our envoy is a brave man who has taken part in many life-and-death battles." He laughed, amused as he remembered the good old days.
"Remember the raid against the Hydra? He was there! He personally tore the flesh from that beast and roasted it! But if that's not enough for you, remember when we fought the Kraken in the southern seas? He was there too! We had to fight underwater against that terrifying monster, many of our men were trembling with fear. But that man… hahaha… he simply laughed in the face of death! If he survived all of that, nothing can kill him anymore! There's no reason to worry, boss, no matter what the mission is, consider it done. Let alone just picking up a few slaves? That's nothing to him."
The boss nodded, lips pressed together in admiration. "Indeed, he is a good man. I'm proud to have someone like him on board. A man like that isn't found just anywhere, not at all. He is a rare talent. Our young men have much to learn from him."
"They sure do!" the man laughed.
Then silence settled between them. They glanced at each other briefly.
The boss then spoke in a light tone. "It's good to remember the old days… very good… but I'm getting old, you know how it is, my memory isn't what it used to be…" His voice suddenly turned serious. "Who exactly is our envoy?"
The silence stretched even longer. "Well… to be honest… I don't know… I left Borges' group in charge of that… all of them had the same feats." He shrugged. They looked at each other for a few moments. Then he frowned and turned back, where another dozen of them stared at each other with intense and genuine confusion.
"Who went to fetch the goods?" the boss repeated once more, and some of them began to sweat cold and accuse one another.
Each of them claimed to have called in a favor from another group or gone into debt to avoid the mission... but none of them had actually done the mission; they always passed the work on.
The murmuring only grew louder as the boss rubbed his temple."I'm gonna kill these idiots."
"Calm down, calm down!" Suddenly, one of them stepped forward with apparent bravery, though swallowing nervously as he had been pushed by his peers. "Don't worry about it anymore, boss. I was in charge of that, and as always, a mission given is a mission accomplished…"
"Finally…" the boss sighed. "Then tell me, who is the envoy?"
"Who is the envoy? Well… I mean… look, boss… I need to be honest… it was very cold outside and the drinks were excellent, the food even better. So I took the opportunity to collect a debt from Augusto's group… they were the ones responsible for it."
The boss narrowed one eye, shifting his gaze. "Tell me you didn't pass the job along." He then focused on another group, and soon a representative stepped forward. "Well, you see, boss… I… they… we were… damn… I'm sorry, boss…"
The boss slapped himself in disbelief, then it took him ten times as long to figure out who had actually taken the task. Worst of all, many of the groups were not even present, making it even harder to track. It took a few hours just to clarify what had happened.
At last, they finally found out.
"You sent Jimi?" the boss asked in disbelief. "Jimi, The More Useless Than A White Pencil? That Jimi?!" He shook his head from side to side in denial while laughing. "No, no. You wouldn't do that. It must be Jimi, Ragnar's son or something, the conqueror of the seven kingdoms… of course, of course, that must be it… hahaha I haven't had the chance to meet him yet, introduce me later."
"Boss… it really is that Jimi, The One More Useless Than A White Pencil." The boss bit his own lip in frustration, but soon sighed and kept staring at the smoke on the horizon.
"Well… at least now we know the truth." He said, squinting toward the horizon. "Jimi wouldn't be able to light a campfire, much less send a smoke signal… so our enemy is trying to pass himself off as him to buy time to escape."
"Are you sure about that, boss? He might not be that useless. Maybe he really managed it and is on his way here right now. In that case, going to meet him would be a waste of time."
The boss shook his head without turning around. "I highly doubt it, but in either case, going to meet him is not a problem. At worst we lose some time, but not going right now could cost us greatly if somehow an escape is happening." He then looked over his shoulder at his subordinates. "What do you prefer, to sit around scratching yourselves, risking losing everything, or to ensure our success?"
They swallowed hard, stepping forward.
"That's what I thought." He turned forward and then jumped off the hill.
Ryan rolled the dice of fate... and failed.
The enemies were on their way even sooner than he expected.
***
Step after step, Ryan pulled the large sled.
However, despite being large, the sled was made of little wood, just enough to hold its structure, and many thick blankets. As such, most of it was relatively light fabric, making the sled's own weight almost negligible.
Still, the weight of the slave combined with the supplies demanded caution. If Ryan felt that one or the other was too heavy, he had to consider discarding it in a cold and calculated way. After all, he was in a hostile place and his stats were under negative effects. He could not allow his pursuers to catch up to him, nor could he afford to be too exhausted to deal with unforeseen problems.
However…
The slave regained consciousness after a few hours, yawning at length. Then he sat up, stretching lazily, almost like a sleepy cat after a pleasant afternoon nap. With nothing much else to think or do, he soon peeked outside the sled, his two ears twitching with endless curiosity.
Then he saw Ryan, who was pulling the sled relentlessly with his own arms and legs. Because of his feral traits, he certainly resembled a sled dog doing its usual work. However, his human features revealed another reality. His breathing was heavy, his face was red from the intense effort, and his muscles were clearly swollen.
The physical exhaustion was evident.
Even so, he didn't get rid of anything.
"Is… everything okay?" the slave asked in a low voice. Ryan reacted extremely. His fur bristled instantly and his two ears snapped toward the source of the unexpected sound. Ryan quickly turned, eyes shrinking to pinpoints and teeth clenched, ready for a fight, frightening the slave.
"C-calm down! It's just me!"
His eyes locked onto the figure right behind him, ready to pounce and tear it to pieces. The slave broke into a cold sweat for a few moments. However, they simply stared at each other in silence.
He then sighed heavily, bringing a hand to his forehead as his body naturally relaxed. "Geez… don't scare me like that… Do you know how long I've been walking alone in silence? Just listening to the sound of my own footsteps and this sled dragging behind me?"
"I-I'm sorry… I didn't think I'd scare you that much…" the slave swallowed nervously, while Ryan simply rolled his eyes.
"Don't apologize for something so silly… look at that, it's even refreshing to feel something other than cold and blisters. It was a great little scare. It even reminds me I'm alive." He laughed before continuing on his way.
The slave watched him silently for a few moments and then asked, "Is everything okay? I mean… isn't it too heavy? Am I too heavy?" He shrank a little at the end of the sentence. Ryan kept walking through the snow with a neutral expression. The only thing that had drawn any reaction from him earlier was the reason for the scare, the voice.
The slave was recovering, his voice had changed from dry and hoarse to something still rough but a little stronger.
"If you're heavy?" Ryan repeated, amused by the question. "That's a rather strange question… but, well… to be honest, I feel sorry for someone so thin and small… you need to put on a little weight, don't you think? Anyway, don't worry about that anymore, I'll fix that quickly." He laughed and then paused briefly before saying, "It's almost instinctive, this urge I have to fatten you up."
"instinctive? hmmm…" the slave observed Ryan thoughtfully for a few moments in silence and then murmured, "How peculiar, it almost feels like he's taking care of a malnourished child… he must have strong paternal instincts… that's so sweet." He chuckled and smiled in admiration, but then frowned.
"Hey! How old do you think I am?" Ryan frowned at the question but did not answer. "It's not a hard question, why is it taking so long to answer?" Ryan frowned even more and then coughed lightly.
"Don't distract me!" he said, focusing on the road ahead. "I need to hear if someone approaches! And you're getting in the way!" That drew a few chuckles from the slave, who soon reached an amused conclusion.
"He can't say…" the slave smiled, finding it peculiar. "How strange…"