Kareet gave another glance back at the creature’s corpse. This was a particularly interesting find; something new, with properties that challenged what could be natural. Perhaps Shirik was right that she could return to examine it later, but that presented its own risks. It might not take long for scavengers to find the corpse, and any damage they might do could interfere with her findings. Still, she had to prioritize. Shirik was likely more valuable, and to refuse to help this Glen could her to lose their cooperation. If she was going to have to choose between two discoveries, it would be better to choose Shirik. She supposed it was a good problem to have.

“We just need to hurry and get him to the town. Sorry to say, but you don’t look to be in much of a state to walk right now, J’eon.” Kareet said, already moving towards his cart. She pulled back the canvas to take a look at what it was carrying, then gave a glance back towards the Glen. “I’m going to have to take some of these things out to make room for you. I’ll tell you right now, I’m not going to be pulling both your whole weight [i]and[/i] an entire anvil all the way back to town. I’ll hide these things as best as I can so you can come back for them later.” Even if she had the strength to do so over some distance, trying to do so over hilly terrain all the way back to Ertiseda would be far too exhausting.

“Come on, help me with this.” Kareet remarked to Shirik as she started to make room in the cart for the Glen.

[hr]

While tiring, the walk back along the road to Ertiseda was not so tiring that Kareet could not handle it. Tekeri were strong and quick, but they were not nearly so well-suited to long-distance endurance as the Glen. It was the middle of the night when they arrived, so there were plenty of Tekeri up and about. Kareet did not bother herself with the looks of concern from some of the bystanders, though. She was focused on dealing with this problem as quickly as possible. “Shirik, could you look after him? I’ll see if I can find this Life mage.”

From what she remembered when she was staying in town, Ertiseda did not have a Life mage of their own, but there was a traveler who knew Life magic who was staying in town for the time being. Traveling Life mages often found themselves inundated with pleas for healing whenever they passed through remote towns, but unlike the average peasant, Kareet actually had the coin to pay for the service.