“Now,” he says as he turns to Miko, “just where did this miner appear?”
Pointing to the spot, he replies, “Right there.”
Entering through the door, James comes to the spot and examines the floor carefully. If the miner had left footprints they were obliterated by Jiron and Miko walking over them when they left. He stands there a moment with his eyes closed but fails to pick up anything such as coldness or a sense of danger, things he heard always accompanies the supernatural.
Turning back to Miko he says, “Whatever it was, there’s nothing here now.”
“I tell you I saw it,” insists Miko defensively.
“I’m not saying you imagined it,” James tells him. “I’m just saying there’s nothing here now.”
With a tremor of fear in his voice, he asks, “What are we to do?”
“Let’s go have lunch while I think on it,” he says. “After that we’ll see.”
“Alright.”
They leave the house and rejoin the others. “There’s nothing there now,” he says when he draws near. “Let’s go back to the horses and have lunch. I want to comb this area after we eat.” The idea of searching a mine is forgotten after Miko’s encounter with the miner.
Moving down the street toward where they left the horses, Qyrll moves next to Miko and asks, “What did it look like?”
Qyrll seems to have a rather keen interest in this sort of thing and practically grills Miko about the subtle details. By the time they’ve returned to the horses, he brings his questioning to a close, for the moment satisfied he’s learned all there is.
Jorry and Uther have returned in the meantime and are filled in on what just happened.
They remove the food for their meal from their horses and take it inside a nearby inn where they sit at a table near a window. James sits there in silence while he eats, the others talking quietly among themselves.
Suddenly from outside, they hear the horses neighing and then see them racing away down the street. “The ghost!” cries out Miko as they all race out of the inn into the street. Weapons at the ready, they find the street deserted except for their fleeing horses.
“Fifer, Miko, you two go after the horses,” James says. As they race down the street after them, he says to the others, “Fan out and see if you can find anything. Dave, you stay with me.”
Qyrll returns his sword to its scabbard as he moves out quickly, Jiron right behind him. Jorry and Uther go down a side street. James motions for Dave to follow him as he goes over to where the horses were tied to begin their search from there.
Moving quickly, he races down side streets and ducks into buildings only to end up finding nothing. By the time Fifer and Miko return with the horses, they’ve all returned to the inn.
“Nothing,” Jiron says to James when they return. Jorry and Uther have likewise turned up nothing.
“What spooked them?” Fifer asks.
“Ghosts, that’s what,” replies Miko. Ever since his encounter with the miner, he’s been constantly on the lookout, head turning this way and that.
“I think we all need to be extra cautious from this point,” James says. “We still need to find what we came here to find.”
After securing the horses again, they return to the inn and finish their meal. Once over, they head back to the place where Miko saw the miner to start the afternoon’s search from there. “If any of you see anything out of the ordinary, call for me right away,” James tells them.
“You can count on that,” Miko assures him. Jiron just grins at his enthusiasm at carrying out that command.
“I still want us to meet back here every hour until dusk,” he tells them and then they head out to continue their searching.
Miko’s miner and the action of the horses have them all spooked, including James. He wouldn’t let the others know but he’s actually quite worried about the whole thing. Back in his world, these things wouldn’t bother him nearly as much. But here where gods are active and magic works, who knows what could happen.
Throughout the rest of the afternoon, several of them think they may have seen the miner out of the corner of their eyes, moving across a window of a nearby building. But each time after they called for James, a closer look revealed nothing.
When the sun at last hits the top of the western peaks, they call it a day and return to the same place they made camp the night before. While the rest get the camp set up and a fire going, James takes Dave and sees if he can’t bag something for dinner. Their store of rations is dwindling and he doesn’t want to run out before doing something about it.
Shortly after the camp disappears behind them in the trees, movement from up ahead catches his eye. Moving forward, they make their way through the trees until they see a deer-like animal standing still ahead of them. Its head swivels from side to side as if it’s trying to find something.
“He may have caught our scent,” Dave suggests in a barely heard whisper.
“I think you may be right,” replies James just as quietly. Removing a stone from his pocket he slowly gets into position and then cocks his arm back. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he aims for the deer and releases the magic as he throws the stone.
The deer must have noticed his movement, for at the last second it jumps away. Its hindquarters are thrust to the side when the stone catches it off center, ripping a chunk out.
Dave jumps up and races after the deer, knife in hand. It isn’t dead, only injured. James rushes after.
The deer, though faltering in its stride due to its injury, still manages to lead them on a merry chase before finally collapsing from loss of blood and exhaustion. Dave comes up on it first having moved ahead of James during the chase. The deer raises its head off the ground as he approaches, it tries to get to its feet to run away but is too week and stumbles back to the ground.
Reaching its side, Dave strikes out with his knife across its throat and ends its misery. The strike sends a splatter of blood droplets across his face. When James reaches him, he looks a gruesome sight with his face covered in blood as well as part of his clothing.
Dave turns at his approach and says, “Let’s get this back to camp.”
“Right,” agrees James. “Then maybe you need to wash up a little.”
Looking down at himself a moment, he then glances to his friend with a grin and asks, “I am a mess aren’t I?”
“Oh yeah,” affirms James. He takes the hindquarters and Dave takes the fore, together they raise the animal off the ground and that’s when James comes to the realization that he doesn’t know which way camp is. In all the excitement of chasing the deer, he got turned around. “Do you know which way is the camp?” he asks.
Dave glances around a moment and then says, “Uh, no.”
Trees in every direction as well as rolling hills, every direction looks the same. The light is fading fast and if they don’t find their way back soon they may not get back until morning.
“Which way?” asks Dave.
“Let’s set this down and I’ll figure it out,” he says. Setting the deer down, he picks up a small stick from the ground and rests it on his palm. Concentrating on Miko, he releases the magic and the stick swivels upon his palm until coming to rest pointing off to his right.
Nodding in that direction, he says, “They’re that way.” Releasing the magic, he drops the stick back to the ground and then bends over to pick up the deer. Grunting from its weight, he and Dave begin hauling it back to camp.
They slowly work their way through the trees as the light continues to fade, winding their way between two hills. It isn’t far before the smell of smoke from the campfire reaches them and they breathe a sigh of relief. Following the direction from which the smoke is originating, they continue around the hill until the light from the campfire comes into view.
He’s about ready to call a greeting when he stops in his tracks. Grabbing Dave, he pulls him down against the side of the hill. “That’s not our camp,” he whispers to his friend.
“Are you sure?” Dave asks.
“Yes. There are more people there than there should be,” he explains.
Letting the deer lie on the ground, they make their way to the top of the hill to overlook the camp. Upon
