Captain of the Guard: The Difference of the Path Less Taken

Upon reaching the road that led in one direction to the burial of Ro, and on the other in the direction of their quarry, Cedric was tempted to direct Autumn to the grave, but desisted.

As they travelled over the course of the next two days, a vague unsettling feeling that he made a mistake somehow nagged at him.

Despite the fact that nothing eventful had occurred uneasiness seemed to be spreading over all the men. The hound assured him they were on the right track.  At the moment, he could hear the beast harrying something in the underbrush.  The outriders saw nothing, the weather was warm and pleasant, the wind barely rustled the leaves in the trees.

Yet something was amiss.

Whatever it was, he noticed a rise in irritability among the men, Vul’s rash had all but gone away, yet his rash enthusiasm (pun intended) was muted. Alstone spent a lot of time to himself, and was getting testier daily.

On the afternoon of the second day they came to a fork in the road. The road to the south was marked for the country Ryllos, the other wasn’t marked at all.

The Ryllos road was wide and inviting, the road deeper into the forest was overgrown, obviously less travelled, although cut stone still showed in places.

The hound actually whined when it looked at the fork in the road.

“Problem?” Cedric asked and swung off his horse and approached the monster.

Pookie had his teeth barred, Emile looked actually scared. “They went that way . . .” Marious answered.

Vul, Alstone and Whisper got off their mounts and joined him. “And?”
“You have heard of the Desestasu?” Marious asked.

Whisper and Alstone nodded.

“Its that way?” Cedric asked.

“What’s left of it.” Marious answered.

Vul looked puzzled, “I thought that was just a story?”

The hound didn’t answer, but Al did, “Desestasu isn’t story.”

“Seriously?  And there are no warning signs?”

Alstone gave the rake a look, “you of all people know better.  Tell me what happens when you tell people not to do something?”

Vul smirked, “draws people like moths.”

“To the flames,” Alstone nodded.

“We might as well make camp.” Alstone suggested, “so we can figure out what to do, and if we decide to travel that way, it would be better to do it in full light.”

Cedric agreed.