Yankoh sipped his drink as he sat thinking. He grimaced at the taste, the alcohol in this country was much too sweet for his liking but after the time he has had recently he needed a drink.

  "I still think we should just report that they stole our salt." Said Sten, banging his glass on the table so hard some of the mead splash onto the table.

  "Your just still angry that they managed to stop your magic." Treenja said with a flat smile.

  The mage's face twitched slightly at her comment and the other man at the table gave a huff of a laugh. "Weren't so powerful then, were ya?"

  Sten raised his hand, it starting to crackle with power. "You want to see how powerful I am?"

  Yankoh slammed his mug on the table, causing the three others sitting with him to jump. At a look Sten lowered his hand.

  "You fools need to remember that if anyone here knew what we were actually doing in this place, we would not be afford any hospitality." He raised his mug and took a drink. "As long as that grey skin is in those accursed woods, we can't get at it and as long as we can't we are at risk that they will report us to the city." He raised his ale to his mouth again, this time finishing it. "We are best to cut our losses and try to make out way home."

  "But Captain, if we come back with nothing, won't they-"

  "We were ship wrecked. " He interrupted. "We got that confirmed and a writ of proof from the city." He sat forward leaning on his hands. "Luckily the fish are hungry in this part of the world."

  Sten sat back and crossed his arms. "This is ridiculous, how can some trees protect someone, how can some tree's stop my magic?"

  "Oh, those trees can do much more than that."

  The four turned to see the source of the voice. A tall man in fine green and silver robs stood smiling at them.

  "Who's he?" Treenja asked to the group. "Can we help you?" She said in the common tongue of Hallia.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  "Don't bother." Said the captain. "He can clearly speak Astraquian."

  The man smiled wider. "I do, and couldn't help but over hear your conversation." He said in their tongue. "My I?" The man didn't wait for any of them to respond before sitting at an extra seat that was at their table.

  Yankoh did not like this man, he had done nothing but smile since he had started talking to them. The captain had been threatened many times in his life. His father had threatened to beat him every time he misbehaved; his old captain had threatened to kill him when he had started to catch on, he was planning a mutiny and many of the slaves he had taken had looked at him with such pure hatred he almost felt it burn into him. The smile this man gave him was more threatening than any of them.

  "Might I ask." The man said as he sat back cooly "This man who has stolen your slave, where about in the forest is he residing?"

  Even though he was speaking their language the fact he was talking so openly made all of them stiffen. When none of the answered the man continued.

  "Apologies, the forest is huge, let me be more specific. The area where he resides, was there a large white rock nearby?"

  Yankoh was considering if it would be best to draw his weapon or simply get up and leave when a voice suddenly spoke up.

  "Yes. Yes, there was."

  He looked at Treenja who almost seemed surprised herself that she had spoken.

  She looked at him and swallowed. "I remember noticing it as we came to their camp, they had an axe leaning up against it."

  The man's smile grew ever so slightly larger and his head cocked to side to look at her. "Tell me did it remind you of anything?"

  Treenja hesitated for a moment, thinking about the rock he remembered, before her eyebrows rose slightly. "I was like a chunk of bone."

  The man's smile didn’t change but his eyes widened in a way that made Yankoh feel even more uneasy.

  "My friends." The man said, almost gleefully. "I think we can be of use to each other."