After extracting what they could from the Chimeraan"s carca.s.s they left the location and journeyed deeper into the woods following the perfectly paved path. They came across some felbeasts and quickly disposed of them with a mounted a.s.sault.
From Deimos" descriptions of the grove they should have already encountered many felbeasts, but to their pleasant surprise there were fewer felbeasts than they had antic.i.p.ated most probably because the Chimeraan scared them away, they easily cruised the path although they could hardly see the path because of lack of sunlight as the canopy of leaves became denser.
They ploughed through Irriton as quickly as possible and discovered that because of the lack of felbeasts they covered a lot more. This piqued Ezra"s curiosity.
"Sir Deimos, have you encountered any Chimeraan"s before here in Irriton?"
"My lord, I have except that the one we just met was more powerful and creatures that are both precantae and chimeraans are a rare occurrence. Normally it"s one or the other,"
"Oh? Where can we find more Chimeraans?"
"Usually in the core of the grove Lord Ezra, right now we are merely skirting the forest, the inner core of the grove has powerful mutants such as the beast we have encountered. My guess is that the creature we just fought accidentally found its way out of there."
"But sir Deimos, why is it that those things stay in the inner grove and not roam about the forest?"
"I am not too sure Lord Ezra, legends have it that they are there because they are protecting some sort of treasure. Many have attempted to conquer it but the creatures are too powerful, and Lords of Castle Blackfyre have long since prohibited organizing parties to kill the beasts in the inner core of grove, but the outer grove is fair game."
"Hmm, I see thank you, Sir Deimos,"
"I am glad to be of service your Lordship."
"Hmm there are so many mysteries out here in the world waiting for me to unearth their secrets," Ezra sighed in content.
He was tired and was looking forward to going back to the Castle, this adventure satisfied his boredom for the moment, though he knew that he would suffer a spanking from Aerwyna. He shuddered at the thought.
He had no idea how Reitz and Aerwyna would cover up his escape, he knew that they wouldn"t push the blame to a random person, of course, they could not blame the children that were guarding him at the time either.
"Hmm, am I truly the same person as I was before I was reborn?" Ezra a.n.a.lyzed, he was reflecting on his past actions an
"I have done a lot of things in this world that I would not have done when I was on earth. I have experienced dangerous situations here, would have I reacted the same when I was on earth? It seems that magic does have a big factor here, I"m constantly bombarded with how talented I am and I know that I am quite capable of manipulating magic to a certain extent and that praise has rubbed off on me, I become more arrogant. I have never held such strength before and that probably adds to it.
"Maybe genetics does play a role in this? Yeah, I have never suffered motion sickness before as well, but it seems in this body, as long as I don"t use magic I am affected by it. Hmm, what is the extent that genetics and hormones have played a part in my personality? I wonder.
"Heh, those two parents of mine, a lascivious war freak, and an overprotective killjoy of a mother. But I do enjoy being under their care, they are pretty good parents. After all, they put up with the c.r.a.p that I give them," Ezra slightly chuckled.
"So this is what means to be a son. I don"t know how to act toward them sometimes I admit and I do feel that they restrain me, but I never felt that it was because they were cruel or the did not want me to be happy, it was always out of concern. I am a pretty horrible son, sometimes. I"ll try to behave better in the future."
Ezra was lost in his thoughts but he did not notice that they approached the exit of the grove. Sunlight flooded his eyes and he was instantly drawn toward it. They ventured further out into the outer grove. Upon reaching the exit all of them were relieved. It was a long night and now they were out they felt safe.
"What do we do now?" asked Rycharde to Deimos.
"Well we head for Anticourt, it"ll be a four-hour ride from here. But we should rest here the horses need to eat as well. How about you and Lord Ezra?" Deimos turned to Evan. He was thoroughly impressed with Ezra and personally he wanted him to come with him in his expedition to help them but of course, this was just a pipe dream.
"Actually we are headed there as well. I promised Lord Blackfyre a message when I arrived in anticourt. We will spend the night and journey back to Bren tomorrow."
"Aye, well at least we can keep you company for the time being."
They dismounted their horses and led them to stream nearby which came from the forest. They fed their horses and with no more immediate threats in sight conversation quickly ensued.
"Lord Ezra, how is it that you appeared to us in the forest, "asked a curious Phobos.
Ezra recounted the story of how he escaped from the castle in detail, stowing away in a carriage and disembarking and tailing the knights so that they could not see him. He even told them his dealings with the felhawk and the felbear he did not hide anything and just talked in a normal tone. The knights were incredulous at his account.
"What? Lord Ezra, You killed a felhawk on you own? How did you?" inquired a shocked Evered.
"Well I timed my jump just right and tore away one of its wings with my dagger, my rock throw did not even damage it."
"You also killed a felbear, milord? Dare I ask how you did it perchance? " asked an intrigued Oswyn.
"Well, I had a dagger and just kept jumping on it until I stabbed it enough times that it lost blood,"
The knights involuntary shuddered at the strength of this toddler, not only was he intelligent but he was also powerful, they definitely knew that in all the kingdom it was only this little lord in front of them that was capable of such feat. This toddler in front of them could already rival the stronger barons. To be able to kill a felhawk and a felbear, one could only imagine how agile and dexterous his movements were, this was not only a feat of mere strength but that of skill as well.
When they were but squires it would have been impossible for them to kill a felbeast, let alone a two-year-old toddler.
Even though it sounded absurd they knew that it was definitely not the imaginings of a child. They saw how nimble he was when he was trying to push toward their defensive perimeter the night before and they discerned that he was truly capable of that.
It was just that it was hard to imagine that such a small toddler would be able to accomplish such a task, the night before tension was high and they did not even give it a sliver of thought but now that they could relax the impact and strength of the child before them gave them a crushing realization.
"Well, I did learn some combat from Evan," Ezra honestly said.
The knights gasped, their respect for Evan soared even higher.
"Nonsense Lord Ezra, even if I taught other toddlers they would only be capable of killing flies. Lord Ezra, it was definitely by your own power that you accomplished these things," even though Evan said this his face betrayed him as he was smiling from ear to ear and puffing his chest.
"Well," Ezra tried to come up with something but fell flat.
"Sire, no doubt you will be one of the future Primarchs, Looks like Fulmen will enter an age of prosperity in the near future," grinned Phobos.
"It is an honour to meet a future Primarch," Deimos and the others bowed in reverence.
Ezra was uneasy at this.
"No, no, I don"t think so, I can"t do actual magic yet," Ezra replied shyly.
"Sire, I think it is only a matter of time, from your stories you seem to have already mastered manipulating your body with magic, we look forward to your advancement Lord Ezra please show us kindness in the future," bowed Deimos.
"O-of course you guys helped me as well, but don"t expect too much," Ezra said, he still was not sure if he could actually conjure spells going forward but with the reverence, they showed him it was hard for him to refute them.
"Thank you, Lord Ezra," the knights said all at once.
After the horses were fed they once again rode. They journeyed toward Anticourt in the coolness of the afternoon wind.