Evening was quickly approaching while Gardar and Audgils were lying on the cart, elaborating on their idea of Nuir-ksad. They were painting the city with words without ever having seen it and Torlov was half listening, half watching his dogs. The three animals were now flanking the cart and Torlov made sure that they stayed like that. After the chaos they had caused earlier, and the torment of having to listen to Audgils's bad mood, Torlov did not want them to go wandering about anymore. When the army train came to a sudden halt, however, he already got a feeling that his task would become more difficult.

Only very few commands were spoken, yet the whole army train acted in unison. The soldiers seemed to be used to the evening procedure and Gardar couldn't help wondering for how long they had already been on the road. Since there was no open space other than the road, the men dispersed into groups of about a dozen each and built a camp where they were standing. They had been carrying their own tents all along, just small, easily built up one man tents that merely sufficed to cover a soldier's upper body. When they were done building the tents, some men went into the forest to gather wood while others prepared their dinner in a big pot that each group could get from their nearest cart.

Gardar, Audgils and Torlov had already jumped off the carts when the train first halted and were now curiously watching the soldiers. Torlov had some trouble keeping his dogs near due to all the food being unpacked now and when Audgils made a joking comment about his leading capabilities, he bit his tongue to keep himself from answering.

'Hey Audgils, why don't you try taming yourself some dogs?' Gardar chimed in. 'I'm sure it would be funny to watch them take you into pieces once they notice you're less of a man than they are.' Gardar gave his friend a wink and the latter laughed it off.

'Let's go get some food,' Audgils suggested.

'I already know how,' Torlov said, pointing at one of his dogs who had just successfully stolen some food for himself. A careless soldier had put his dried meat down for a moment while eating from a small bowl with soup and the dog had taken the meat without anybody noticing. Well, until a moment later when the soldier noticed his food was gone.

The poor man searched for it on the ground around him but when he couldn't find it, he asked his neighbour whether he'd taken it. Of course, the man denied having anything to do with it and within a short moment, a fight broke out. However, it was quickly resolved when their commander told them to shut up.

'Are you sure you want to cause a war among the soldiers by stealing their food?' Gardar asked sceptically.

'Well, we'll just have to do it a bit better then.' Torlov walked over to one of the fireplaces where the soup was boiling over the fire. A soldier nearby had already finished his soup so Torlov took his unguarded bowl and spoon and filled it up again without anybody noticing.

'Ah, thanks!' Audgils said, stepping closer and holding his hands out for the bowl with a smile.

'Forget it, get your own,' Torlov said. When his friend just kept smiling at him, he added a growl and went away, sitting on the roots of a big tree nearby.

Gardar soon found a bowl for himself and joined Torlov, but Audgils ended up having more trouble. The mood of the soldiers was getting increasingly grumpy when more and more of them claimed others had stolen something from them and Audgils had to be careful not to walk into anybody while trying the now ever better guarded bows. In the end, he gave up and asked Gardar whether he could use his when he was finished. Feeling slightly sorry for his friend, Torlov, who had already finished, reached Audgils his bowl and spoon.

'Do you really need two bowls?' Gardar asked with a raised eyebrow.

'Well, no, in that case...' Audgils started. Then he smiled and walked away to get some soup for himself.

'Admit it, you like him,' Gardar said to Torlov when Audgils was out of earshot.

'I know hungry dogs are a pain in the ass, so I'm taking some precautions,' Torlov replied coldly.

'Sure.' Gardar smiled when he saw Torlov smile in the corner of his eyes. 'You know, your dogs are always a pain in the ass, not just when they are hungry,' Gardar said, watching the three dogs taking a backpack apart on the other side of the road.

'That's because they are always hungry,' Torlov replied.

'They're really coming with us then, aren't they?'

'Obviously. There's no way to send them back now,' Torlov said looking at his dogs.

'Won't that be a problem when we're in Nuir-ksad?' Gardar asked.

'Maybe. But they can get their own food and nobody can see them, so nobody will be able to kick them for stealing either. They'll be fine.'

'I'm more worried about us than them.'

'Why?' Torlov now turned to face his friend.

'They angered the soldiers and made them paranoid within less than a day. What will happen within a few weeks of being haunted by invisible dogs?' Gardar didn't get a reply to his question because Torlov had none. They sat in silence until Audgils returned to them. He had already finished his soup and was now excitedly reporting what he had heard from the soldiers.

Seemingly, they had come from all over the kingdom, some of them even were from Nuir-ksad. The king had decided to send a train full of armour and food with only a few warriors around the whole kingdom to gather any man they could find. He was up to something, but nobody knew what. Now, they were heading for the capital city, having gathered men from all cities and bigger villages in the kingdom. The mountain pass and the road through the forest were the fastest way back and nobody feared that any thieves would dare to attack an army train this big.

The three men were talking excitedly when they suddenly noticed that the whole army train had quieted down and gotten ready for the night. The last men who had gone off into the forest to do their business were now returning and heading straight for their tents. Somebody ahead of them blew a horn and then there were no more words to be heard.

'I guess that means it's sleeping time?' Gardar asked his friends.

'Seems like it. Now where can I get a nice tent like that?' Audgils replied. Gardar just laughed and walked over to the cart they had been on all day. There were many bags in it, some of them more or less soft, so he rearranged them in the dark until he found it acceptably comfortable to sleep on. He carefully stowed his knife next to the bags so it wouldn't cut any open and most importantly couldn't stab him in his sleep. His friends went away in opposite directions, heading for the respective nearest cart and made themselves comfortable in a similar way. For a while, only the dogs could be heard. They were running back and forth between the three men nervously but eventually settled down underneath the cart Torlov was lying on.

When the dogs suddenly jumped up in the middle of the night, Torlov was the first to wake up. The dogs were howling loudly and one of them was growling at the forest. A strange light was emitting from the trees and plants and Torlov rubbed his eyes to make sure he was really seeing it. Then the glowing got more intense and Torlov heard something running towards them. He grabbed his improvised staff and jumped off the cart, standing next to his dogs. Gardar had woken up from their howling, too and came running towards him, but nobody else had heard anything-Audgils was too far away and the soldiers could not hear the invisible dogs.

'What's going on?' Gardar asked when he came to a halt next to Torlov.

'I'm not sure, but there's something out there.'

'It's glowing,' Gardar said, only now really looking at the forest.

'I know.'

'It's pink,' Gardar stared at the trees, his mouth standing wide open.

'I know.'

Before they had time to discuss anything else, a huge scaled creature charged out of the forest. It attacked one of the soldiers lying on the ground near the two standing men. For a moment, they just stared in horror, not quite comprehending. Then, Gardar wanted to grab his knife but realised he'd left it in the cart. He swore loudly but couldn't do anything. Torlov was already charging forward, trying to help the soldier. The latter was now loudly screaming while being dragged into the forest.

One mighty blow from Torlov's staff and the creature let go. It made some loud clicking sounds before retreating into the forest. To Gardar's horror, there was more of that same clicking sound coming from all directions now. What he had seen of the creature had looked a lot like a centipede, but man-sized.

'Hurry up, get your knife!' Torlov shouted at Gardar who was still staring in puzzlement.

Gardar ran to the cart to get his knife. Audgils was coming his way, bow in hand. The whole army train had been woken up by the screams of more men who had been attacked. Within moments, everybody had their weapons at hand, yet nobody was wearing defensive armour. Commands were being shouted and generally ignored. Still, the groups of dozens who had eaten together were now taking some sort of formation and Gardar and his friends gathered near where the dogs were standing and growling at the forest. The animals didn't move, they just stared into what should have been darkness.

The forest, however, was glowing pink from all sides now. Nobody knew why, but nobody cared too much either. The attacking creatures were more important at that moment and there were many of them. Whenever one was beaten and disappeared, another shot forward. They bit into men's feet, trying to drag their victim into the forest. By the sound of distancing screams, Gardar judged that some men had not been saved in time.

'We should go look for those in the forest,' Gardar said. He didn't have to explain to his friends why he thought that was a good idea. They all knew from their lives back in the village that any animal born in the wild forest could not see nor hear them. Without another word, the three men charged into the pink glowing forest, weapons at hand, dogs by their sides.

// Hello there! I won't keep you here for long, hope those of you who remember Children of the Forest will like this connection. If you ask me about why the forest glows pink here, I may not answer yet. Spoilers :) It's one of the unanswered questions from the prequel that I've been waiting to elaborate on for so long, I'm not going to give it away that easily. Please let me hear your thoughts in the comments and don't forget to vote, thanks!