Captain of the Guard: Choices

Cedric was not a scholar and he was of a more practical bent. If something had a reputation for being dangerous, then he treated whatever it was a such, if and until it was shown to be otherwise.

This left him in a quandary. It would normally be prudent to keep men scouting for possible antagonist in the field and to prevent ambushes, but the area’s reputation placed such a simple decision squarely in the area of putting men at risk.

He thought of sending the hound out as a scout, but it occurred to him that the beast might find itself with a kindred spirit, or creature, out among the ruins and turn on him. It was a consideration that had been playing on his mind when it had agreed to accompany them. While it had shown no indication that it wouldn’t keep its word, quite the contrary, it was a concern.

That left whatever gifts his traveling companions could offer. If Alstone truly had command of all the mystical forces he claimed to have at his command then the answer would be right there, or if the druid was actually capable of having the forest protect them, as the druids claimed, or at least warn them he would place it in the young man’s hands.

None of that seemed reliable in the slightest.

In the end he kept everyone together, with the druid and the hound in front, Alstone and Vul in the back, but everyone within sight of each other. He did not plan on camping anywhere close to the accursed place.

Not that any of his decisions would have changed the outcome in the slightest, but sentient beings, of which humans are arguably a subset, tend (unless they are nihilists or members of a death cult, which may seem redundant but isn’t really druids tend to fall into the former category, although they would argue they don’t, but not the later, with some exceptions) to think their decisions matter in the scheme of things.

When really, as in most things, it depends.