It turned out to be harder than anyone thought to follow the rune markings. The signs took them away from the beach and into the thick coastal forest, where the trees grew twisted and strange because of the constant salt wind.
Some of the markers were carved into rocks, while others were carved into old tree trunks. They all led deeper into an area that clearly hadn't been visited in years.
"This seems like a bad idea if we keep on going deeper and deeper." Greg said with a bad feeling.
"Come on now, Greg. Don't change your mind that fast. We haven't even started to see what's really going on with the markings."
Ryn stopped to look at another set of runes and said, "This path looked like it was all planned."
"Whoever made these wanted someone to follow them, but only people who knew what to look for."
"Or people who are stubborn enough to follow strange signs into creepy woods," Denna said, resting her hand on the handle of her axe. Not because they're scared, but because they're ready.
As always, Kael stayed ahead of the group, and his ranger instincts kept them from getting into any trouble. Marina directed their movement with practiced ease, and Greg simply followed, trusting their experience in a way that felt surprisingly natural.
"I guess if I die, I'm suing this party... but wait, how will I do that?" Greg said it in his mind out of boredom.
...
They walked for hours, and the sounds of the coast faded away until all they could hear was the wind through the leaves and their footsteps. The runes showed up every hundred yards or so, just often enough to keep them on track but spaced out in a way that made it seem like the journey itself was part of the message the creator wanted to send.
As the sun began to set, Marina said, "We should set up camp soon."
"We've been walking all day, and I would rather not have to find my way through this forest in the dark."
"We never know what kind of monsters could attack us in the dark surrounding, it would be a problem if one of the enemies could maximize the dark with its shadow power."
"Agreed," Kael said from where he was scouting. "About fifty yards ahead, there's a clearing. Looks like it can be used for us to camp, and the good thing is it has a nearby water source."
They put up their tents in no time at all, thanks to years of practice. Denna had already started cooking their dinner before Greg had even finished unpacking his gear. Tents went up in minutes, and a fire was started.
Denna teased, "You're slow," as she stirred something that smelled surprisingly delicious in a pot over the fire.
Greg said, "I usually have a workshop, not a backpack."
"City folk," Denna said under her breath, but she was smiling.
"This bitch..." Greg felt insulted by that word.
They all gathered around the fire when it got dark. Marina had volunteered for the first watch and was sitting a little away from the group, with her back against a tree and her eyes scanning the darkening forest. She looked awake but calm, like she was in her element.
"She's good at this," Greg said quietly to Ryn, who was sitting next to him.
"Marina? Yes, she is," Ryn said. "She had to accept it for a while, just because she would rather not be in charge when she first joined us."
"Why?"
Ryn was quiet for a moment and looked at Marina. "That's not really my story to tell. But since she's not paying attention right now..."
He stopped for a moment, as if he were thinking about what to say. "Marina doesn't say much about her past. She doesn't share much about what she was like before becoming an adventurer."
Greg said, "Most people probably don't because the past is something that's worth more than a treasure."
"That's true. But Marina is different. She makes an effort to stay away from it."
"She constantly changes the subject, makes a joke to get out of it, and so on." Ryn used a stick to poke the fire. "We didn't push for very long. I thought she'd let us know when she was ready."
"And did she?"
"About three years ago, a mission went very wrong and almost killed Denna." Ryn's face grew darker as she remembered. "Marina fell apart that night as if she were traumatized about something. That's when we found out the truth."
Greg waited because he thought that interrupting would end the story. "This is something that I shouldn't continue to listen to if her past contains something about a trauma..."
"Marina wasn't always an adventurer," Ryn said in a low voice. "She doesn't have any family other than her biological younger brother, who was two years younger than her."
"Does that mean she's...?"
"Yes, Marina and her brother are something that you can call homeless orphans, where both of them had a really suffering life trying to survive dehydration and starvation, so sometimes Marina is always willing to take a beating to get food for her own little brother."
Greg's chest tightened when hearing her story as a child, and he knew immediately that Marina was someone that covered all his pain behind her cheerful face. "That's so tragic..."
"It is..."
"When Marina was 12, she worked any job to get money so that she and her brother could survive, and one of her job was being a slave to some greedy nobleman, and that nobleman was hated across the whole continent for his own greediness."
"Someone was trying to assassinate the nobleman by setting fire to the nobleman's mansion." Ryn's voice was carefully neutral, but Greg could tell that she was angry. "The fire started at night."
"Because the fire was something that they didn't expect, and her little brother was inside..." Ryn stopped to catch her breath. "That night, Marina was out. She had snuck out to work at a tavern to get some extra money, of course."
"And... the building was already on fire when she got back."
"She tried to get in and save them, but the guards stopped her."
Greg felt something cold settle in his stomach. "Marina... you..."
Ryn said quietly, "She watched it burn."
Greg was out of words hearing how tragic was her past really is. "There's no fucking way..."
"...Marina, you are..."