L’Stre stayed to the directions, walking just out of the desert but not to deep into the forest. The merchant warned him of ogres in the forest and of giant ants and scorpions in the desert. If he were not careful these creatures would kill him almost instantly. The merchant however said that lycanthropes also walked along the edge of the forest and desert, but these could be easily outran or even killed. He had told the merchant that he had seen many ogres in hidden valley, the merchant replied with a heavy laugh and told him that the ones in Hidden Valley were only a small comparison in strength to the strength of the great ogres of Aden. L’Stre reminded himself to keep to the path and not stray at all.
The merchant explained to him that there were two types of ants, the smaller ones were about the size of a dog. These were strong but manageable by even novices if battled correctly. However where the ants roamed so did the soldier ants. These soldier ants are three times the size of the other ants, and are exactly what there name means soldiers. They can tear apart some of the strongest warriors in the land if they are not careful. Also around are scorpions that are of enormous size, they roam around waiting to poison nearby food. Not to mention the giant powerful ogres that roam in the forest. He reminded L’Stre that the best idea would be to fight the lycanthropes. He smiled and told the merchant he will not try to fight anything that he did not feel he could handle. The merchant whose name he found out was Glen, patted the young elf on the back and told him he would do just fine.
As he was heading on his path, he walked past what looked like a mill of some sort, but it was broken down. At one point this area had a stream running through it. He wondered when this mill actually functioned and what it produced. He however did notice around Silver Knights Town that many races of creatures roamed around looking for scraps of items. There were goblins, hobgoblins, dwarves, orcs, gnolls, and several groups of knights clad in black mail. These fierce knights scared L’Stre; they fought with deadly intent upon any individual who opposed them. Once and a while he would see a group of young knights venture out and try to lay waste to the knights clad in mail. Some of the knights succeeded, but many died in the attempt. He ignored any group that tried to battle these knights and pushed on to get away from this area as quickly as possible. He was astonished that a lot of these creatures did not attack on site, instead went about their business collecting items that were left around on the ground. He hoped that most of his journey would be like this.
For the most part he was safe walking along the edge of the two environments. He got to see many things including beautiful country. A couple of times he ran into skeletons, he heard about dead walking around but he never believed it until one jumped out behind a tree and took after him. Startled he ran for a moment before he realized he had a bow. He turned and fired several arrows not knowing if he could actually kill something that was already dead. After several arrows hitting and dislodging bones, the skeleton literally fell to pieces. He waited for a moment to see if the skeleton would put itself back together again but it had not, so he began on his way again.
Along his way he passed by orcs and Orc mages. He saw a young knight no older then himself, walk up to an Orc warrior and attack it. An Orc mage came up behind him and cast a powerful magical spell that engulfed the knight in flames. The knight brushed it off like it was nothing and continued to slice up the Orc warrior. When the Orc warrior was finally dead he turned and ran after the Orc mage and also tore him into pieces. He wondered exactly how that young knight went unscathed when that fireball engulfed him, and noticed the lad had on a shiny red cape that seem to take the magical power out of the flame. Since the knight was quickly off after dismissing both orcs he could not simply ask him, but made a mental promise to ask someone in the next town exactly what type of cloak that could be.
By the end of the day L’Stre had traveled a great distance and had yet to get himself into any trouble. He had killed several rabbits for snacks along the way though other then that he did not need to worry his bow any. He saw several werewolves but none had given him any trouble, they just basically ignored him. The merchant told him that lycanthropes were a lot more aggressive then werewolves though and would attack with their mace on site. He would be prepared if he saw one though. The edge of the forest now started to head southwest, he decided now would be a good time to rest up for the night and start out at dawn. He took his quiver from his shoulder and hung it on a snapped off branch a little ways up the tree. He did the same with the baldric for his sword. He kept his dagger at the small of his back in its sheath incase he needed it. He built a small fire to cook the rabbits that he had gotten earlier that day. He finished with his meal, feeling full and ready to take a rest. Not taking any chances though he set his mind to fall asleep in that first stage of sleep that elves managed to do.
