The torches had all been extinguished, and the food pantries emptied. The group slowly pulled out. The Convoy had been filled with many of its members and left Jake the alchemist to walk. Not that he appeared to care, climbing over everything like a monkey. Evan felt the same pain he had once felt while leaving the capital. Now he was leaving everything he had once known and moving on to foreign places.

Sounds behind the group worried Evan. "I know that there are reasons to move slowly, like the well-being of that girl we found, but if we don't pick up the pace, it sounds like we're going to have company." Evan beckoned the group onward and began sprinting as the rest of the group followed suit. Through breaks in the canopy, he could see dragons from Geraden flying through the skies. Not that they would be of any help; the canopy was far too thick for them to recognize anything beneath.

When he was certain they had gotten far enough away, he let the group slow in its pace. "I think we're safe," he said, but he had spoken too soon. Short, impish creatures holding small, run-down weapons broke out of the trees and began to run toward the group. Goblins. They weren't particularly lethal to a group this size, but they were still a threat. Then something else came out of the thicket: a man. No, not a man: a Laguz. He looked similar to a wolf, but his tail was far too bushy, and his ears more mangled.

"There they are, children. They have plenty of gold for you," the Laguz hissed as his body sprouted fur, his snout lengthened, and two bulges began growing on either side of his head. When the transformation was complete, a three-headed canine beast stood before them.

That alone was intimidating (not the Goblins, but the [i]thing[/i] leading them), but fate wasn't done with them yet: Evan turned as if to make an escape, but tracing their trail was a small Geraden scouting unit. Then, as if fate wanted to be sure they had died, three feline beast-tribe Laguz joined on their other side. Tigers. Excellent. They were done for. He heard his companions readying their weapons, and drew his slim sword as he gulped past a lump in his throat. They were going to have to be lucky to survive. Thank Aurora they t least had the convoy with them.