When the carts were set into motion in the morning, silence hung above the train and anger filled the air between the three friends. The red soldier Gardar and Audgils had managed to save had tried to convince the leader of the train to send men to help bury the dead, since they could not be brought to their homes. However, when Stardon scouted the forest and reported that most of the bodies were half eaten and the creatures may still be around to protect their victims, the leader decided it was too dangerous.

Audgils, Gardar and Torlov had considered staying behind to do what the soldiers would not, but they knew staying with the train was their only chance to get to Nuir-ksad and thus to get help for their friends and family. They argued at first, but then agreed that finding a cure for the curse that left their village childless was more important than strangers' honour, even in death. Now the three of them walked besides the train, all feeling stiff from a sleepless night, glad to move and concentrate on each step instead of having to think about what they left behind on the clearing. The dogs were the only ones who did not seem affected by the previous night and cheerfully went about their usual business of upsetting any living creature nearby.

***

As their journey continued, there were two more attacks in pink glowing nights, but the soldiers were no longer unprepared and thus lost hardly any men. Once they left the mixed forest Gardar was used to from his home, there were no more attacks. The train now slowly climbed higher up, keeping in the valleys surrounded by high mountain peaks. Far up, Gardar could see snow, and around them, there were only pine trees, standing ever further apart.

At night, he and his friends would sit at a fire with the soldiers in red who knew they were there but did not tell anyone. One of them, a man of middle age who seemed sensible, had a tendency to start telling stories once he'd had his few drinks. First, he limited himself to incredibly detailed reports of his slaying of beasts during the three attacks, which left Gardar doubtful, but once they entered the higher regions, the man turned to stories of huge beasts. He said they were covered in scales and showed wings that could carry them to mountaintops where they would keep their victims, still alive, shouting for help in vain until they were eaten, bit by bit. While Gardar did enjoy the entertainment, he hated the descriptions of these beasts because it sounded exactly like the creature he, Audgils and another one of the red soldiers had faced in the forest.

While Torlov was convinced these were just stories, Gardar kept quiet even when Audgils told him to tell Torlov that they had slain one. The red soldier who had been with them kept quiet, too. Gardar liked the man, who went by the name of Ulfar. Since the five red soldiers were scouting ahead most of the time, so were the three friends. But while dinner was being prepared every evening, Audgils liked to spend his time around the leader, listening in to things others wouldn't have been able to hear. However, the man was no fool, he did not say anything of crucial importance, not even when talking to Stardon, who seemed to be his right hand. Yet Audgils enjoyed having the power to break rules, so he kept visiting them.

Meanwhile, Torlov was busy keeping his dogs under control. After the third attack, some of the men in the train had started putting food out onto the road in the evening, to appease the spirits of the forest. They thought their food being stolen from them was connected to the nightly attacks, which was of course nonsensical, but Torlov now felt comfortable letting his dogs steal the food that was laid out for them. After all, if left uneaten, it would probably have done a better job attracting the wild beasts than keeping them away. Still, Torlov was often running and whistling after his dogs for they loved upsetting the horses and donkeys pulling the carts so Gardar was left to talk to the scouting soldiers.

After some getting used to, Gardar no longer minded holding Ulfar's hand while they were walking together so they could keep up a conversation. Except for the occasional glance by Adgir, the scout in command, and some stupid comments by Thorstein, the youngest among them, looking even younger than Gardar, their hand-holding was silently accepted. However, they did of course keep it strictly to their scouting times when nobody from the train could see Gardar, who was still secretly travelling with them, after all. Therefore, Audgils and Torlov often found that Gardar was not really listening to them, being too busy saying something over and over again to himself so he would not forget to repeat the comment the following day to Ulfar when it was safe to give up his invisibility.

All in all, the three enjoyed their journey, they could not really complain of any hardships once they had gotten used to the walking and their food was no worse than usually. There was one point they all agreed on: Horizon, though a beautiful word, did not nearly come up to the grandeur of sight and space around them when they finally left the forest for good. They had slowly climbed down the other side of the mountain back, never seeing far ahead due to the forest and slow climb, but when they stepped out onto a field, all three friends froze in amazement.

What opened up to them was nothing less than the upper eastern arm of the great Plateau, stretching over most of the kingdom. Of course, the three had had no idea of the reaches of the kingdom nor its geography beyond their forest until Ulfar told them. Now Gardar took in the beauty of soft hills, covered mainly in wheat fields and interrupted only by the road they were walking on and smaller ones crossing it. The sky was of a dark blue and there was the occasional cloud being chased across it by a strong wind.

Within their first day outside the forest, the scouts met some farmers who were very surprised to hear of an army train this size coming their way. Ulfar told Gardar that they were now nearing Nuir-ksad, but from the opposite side of where they had started their journey, so these were the last men left to gather. When Gardar asked how much further it was to Nuir-ksad, Ulfar explained that it was about a three day march, but they could not collect the men close around Nuir-ksad, for these had already been called into the city upon the train's departure. It was only now that Gardar learned that there were indeed two trains, one of them being a part of theirs that turned around after crossing half of the kingdom.

'For supplies' sake,' Ulfar said. 'You see, we left all together from the North West of Nuir-ksad and told all men to be ready to join us on our way back. Therefore, they had time to organize who would stay to look after their farms and who could join our cause, and would be prepared for our return. This way, we had more carts to carry food all the way across the kingdom so we could share it up half way through, send half of us back and half of us onwards. Our train, which went onwards, got a bigger share of supplies by far. The other train will be supplied with food by those men who have been informed in time whereas we had to gather up men on the go, leaving them no time to gather supplies, so we had to have enough for them all. Also, we had a longer way with fewer men ahead of us, crossing the mountains. By now, the others should have been back a fortnight at the least, so they will have gone to work already.'

Gardar understood the benefits of their strategy, but he did not see how they could not have sent two trains out two different ways, crossing path in the middle instead. When he pointed it out to Ulfar, the man gave him a stern look.

'Lowering the risks. That's what they call it. If we would have gone opposite ways and crossed, both trains would have had to cross the mountains, one of them with only the men who initially left. You saw the threats of it, they would never have arrived on the other side. The men you saw on our train are the ones considered to be well-trained and tough enough to make it through. That's also why we brought armour.' When Ulfar didn't seem to want to add anything else, Gardar swallowed his comment about how badly trained and non-tough he thought their train was, knowing that it would mean even worse for the other. He did wonder about the cause of all this trouble, but despite his repeated questions, Ulfar would not tell him. Whatever it was the king wanted all these men for, it was no war, Gardar was sure of that.

If it had been a war, they would have travelled faster and gathered the strongest men, not leaving it up to the population to decide, or at least so Gardar thought. Torlov reassured him of those points and even Audgils thought it a silly army if their train had been one, so Gardar stopped worrying and enjoyed the rest of their journey.

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