"This shouldn't be here," the courier repeated. "I came to gather material, but I found… this." He gestured toward the dead bear's body.
Jax stepped toward the man, Mira not far behind. She wiped the frost from her blade before storing it.
The group looked down together at the carnage. A clean cut had produced much blood. The man rustled through his bag.
Where the bear's head used to be sat a small black pillar, the same kind that had been on the hobgoblin's back, but much smaller.
"I've seen a ton of dead monsters and animals, but never this," the man explained. "I regularly collect samples, and this one is strange. I've never seen a creature emitting that kind of aura."
Jax and Mira stared at the pillar embedded in organs and muscle, neither able to take their eyes off it.
"Hey, isn't that the same thing we saw in the dungeon?" Jax asked, panic in his voice. "The thing that made that hobgoblin leave its floor. How is there one out here?"
Mira realized she had been holding her breath. "Yeah, it looks exactly like that," she said, her breath still catching.
Her heart started to beat faster the longer she looked.
"Hey," Jax said sharply, snapping Mira back to solid ground.
"What does it mean, Jax?" she asked. "The guild seemed worried when we said it was contained in the dungeon. We aren't in the dungeon." She continued.
The words rang in his mind as he started to think deeper. He sat down, murmuring to himself until tears formed.
"Mira, what if what Arthur said is really happening?" he asked. "What if the world is about to face another threat?"
"We can't do anything stuck on this escort mission," Mira said. "Alex, we're picking up the pace. Try to keep up."
Mira and Jax gathered their supplies and waited for Alex to finish assessing the bear. He picked up his pack and joined them.
"Sorry, I needed to make sure I wrote down every detail. I was even able to chip off a piece of the pillar for research," he explained.
"I didn't think of that," Mira replied. "Will your report be sent to our guild?"
"Yes," Alex said. "All the research I do is shared with the surrounding cities and guilds. I'm kind of a big deal."
The group looked back at the man in shock. He was who he said he was. How had they not recognized it sooner? They glanced at each other.
"Why would the guild have us escort Alexander Harth?" Jax asked, urgency in his voice. "He was partially responsible for predicting the last cataclysm."
"Probably because it was supposed to be an easy mission," Mira said, poking Jax with a stick. "Probably because this guy didn't tell them."
The man raised his hands in protest. "I told them who I was," he said. "They decided to stick me with you guys to avoid suspicion. If they sent out a platinum ranked guild team, it would attract attention."
Jax thought for a moment, then asked, "What are you carrying? What are we protecting?"
Alex tapped his bag lightly. "Medicine. I bring supplies to the village from your city. I make this same trip quarterly."
Mira tickled the back of Jax's knee with the same stick. "Well, we aren't going to get anywhere sitting and talking. Let's walk and talk."
Jax shot her a quick glance before nodding. They moved on and continued their journey, not running into anything out of the usual.
"I'd say it's a good time to stop and set up camp for the evening," Jax said. "Alexander, can you handle setting up your own tent?"
The man nodded and started to assemble his tent, quickly putting cloth over wood and arranging a makeshift bed.
"Mira, mind giving me a hand?" Jax asked as he started putting theirs up.
"No problem. I wouldn't want you hurting yourself now, would I?" she teased.
Jax's face flushed hot as he tried to reply, but the words never quite came out. They finished setting up and ate, talking about the doctor's research. Jax took any moment he could to steal a glance at Mira.
She looked beautiful on a normal day, but tonight, under the night sky and the embers of the fire, she looked especially ravishing.
Elegant and majestic. Until she talked. She went on and on about staying in the dungeon forever.
As the night grew late and the fire dimmed, they went to sleep. Alexander in his own tent, and Jax and Mira sharing theirs. They could only afford one.
Another night of forced proximity. At the inn they shared a large bed. In this tent he could feel the heat radiating off her body and smell her hair, freshly washed the night before.
He could feel the heat rising in his chest as it tightened. Unable to say anything, he closed his eyes and tried to sleep.
"I can feel your heart racing," Mira whispered. "What's got you so worked up?"
Jax opened his eyes and turned toward Mira. For a split second he was nose to nose. Too close. He immediately rolled over and muffled a response. "I'm just thinking about that bear," he lied.
Mira understood he was anxious and, without thought, tucked herself against his back, her cheek pressing into him, trying to ground him in the moment.
"Don't worry so much. I believe in you," she said, her voice vibrating through him. "We make a pretty good team. I trust you to have my back."
With that, Jax calmed down. His thoughts stopped racing, and he was able to manage one sentence.
"Thank you. I was spiraling again, wasn't I?" he asked.
Jax closed his eyes.
Mira's breathing steadied behind him, warm and even.
The forest outside their tent should have been alive with insects and distant movement.
Instead, it felt muted.
Just… listening.
Jax told himself it was exhaustion.
The bear.
The pillar.
Arthur's warning echoing louder than it should.
He tried to let it go.
Tried to let Mira's warmth ground him.
But somewhere beyond the thin fabric of the tent, a branch shifted without wind. Something else had moved it.
And for the first time, Jax wondered if something had left the dungeon with them.