The bright orange eyes of the falcon peered at us silently from the distant treetop. Wherever we moved, it followed. For the past day, the falcon shadowed our every movement while always staying just out of range for us to attack it.
There were no other signs of any other undead nearby. Only the one falcon’s constant stare. Rather than being a relief, the lack of other undead put me on edge. I preferred it when I knew exactly how many were following us. Irene would not simply give up and watch. More were coming. Everyone knew it was only a matter of time now.
Both my mom and dad were constantly looking over their shoulder at the road behind us. Their weapons were unsheathed and lying across their lap. Donte tried imitating my parents, but he was constantly fidgeting. Unable to sit still like them, he hopped off the wagon and walked alongside it with his weapon held in a tight grip. Charly was still furiously drawing glyphs, seemingly undisturbed by the pressure bearing down on us, but the drops of sweat on his brow despite the cool evening air showed how he really felt.
Our anxiety reached a boiling point when Esben sent one of his men to scout ahead. The mercenary should have reported back almost an hour ago now. There had been no shouts or sounds of fighting. We could not find a body, only a single bloodstain on a nearby tree in the area he was supposed to be scouting for us. Whatever happened to him had been instant and deadly.
“How much further till we reach this cave system?” Esben asked as he spurred his horse closer to our wagon. He held a spear in one hand and he kept his eyes peeled on the surrounding trees as he talked. “My gut is screaming that this forest is the perfect location for an ambush. It is impossible to see anything past all the underbrush. There could be an entire battalion of soldiers ten steps away and we would never know.”
My dad grimaced as he tightened his grip on his sword. “According to the maps, we are still an hour out at our current pace. Is there really no way you can get your men to move faster?”
Esben shook his head. “Not without breaking our defensive formation. Only a few of my mercenaries are trained to fight on horseback. Walking is better under these circumstances. Better to be slow and able to respond properly than to be fast and unable to fight back later.”
My dad bit his lip as he nodded. “I have never been in such a disadvantaged situation. If it was not for that cursed falcon watching us, I would have set up a counter-ambush, but with the enemy constantly watching us, all my normal plans are completely useless.”
Esben glance at the distant falcon, then at our wagon, and he lowered his voice as he spoke, “If you want to draw the enemy out, I might have a way to do that. It is risky though. We have no idea how many undead are out there. If we start a fight we cannot win, those abominations are too fast for us to get away.”
“What is your plan?”
Esben glanced at me as his voice fell to a whisper. “This Irene lady wants the girl, right? If Wren walks ahead alone, she would make the perfect bait to draw the enemy out.”
My dad pointed his blade at Esben as he snarled in reply. “I am not using my daughter as bait.”
Esben raised both his hands in surrender as he grinned at my dad. “I am not asking you to. I can use my innate talent and the seclusion of your wagon to take Wren’s appearance. I will be the bait. I am rather confident in my ability to survive long enough to draw the enemies back this way. There, we can fight them on the ground we choose rather than be surrounded in an ambush.”
My dad rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he placed his sword back across his lap. “That could work, but it is extremely risky. We have no idea how your scout died, or how many enemies have gathered out there.”
Esben shrugged as he casually rested his spear against his shoulder. “Would you rather just keep marching and hope not to get ambushed before we make it to this cave that’s not on any map and might not even still exist?”
“No, no I would not.”
“Good, then let’s find a place the make our stand.”
A few minutes passed before my dad and Esben found a location they liked. It was a small clearing with a creek running across one side. It was not worth much as a defendable location, but it had clear lines of sight in every direction and less underbrush hiding the forest than there had been alongside the road.
The mercenaries started preparing as if they were setting up camp for the evening as they set the scene for the battle to come. My dad carved a few glyphs into the nearby trees and Charly gave me a big grin as he lugged a big cooking pot out of one of the storage bins.
I felt the eyes of the falcon still staring at me intensely as I entered the wagon. Inside, Nox and Sylvie were curled up together on one of the pillows. Nox cracked open an eye to look at me curiously for a moment before deciding to ignore me and go back to sleep. Sylvie was a little more energetic at my arrival and tried to hop up, but she was tightly wrapped up in Nox’s paws and could not get free. She whistled in protest, but eventually gave up trying to free herself and huddled back together with the kitten and closed her eyes.
I sat on the bed and petted the two small animals while I waited patiently. A few minutes passed before Esben pulled open the door and ducked into the wagon.
“Well kid, are you ready to play a trick on your enemy?” Esben asked as he pulled the door to the wagon shut behind him.
“Always,” I replied with a big grin.
Esben’s eyes began to glow with a dark blue light as his skin began to bubble and melt. Within just a few seconds, an exact replica of myself was standing in front of me wearing a stupid grin on her face.
“Watching you transform is really disturbing,” I said with a grimace, “It is as if you do not have any bones as you melt into shape.”
“You can’t argue with the results though,” Esben replied with a perfect imitation of my own voice.
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I nodded as I carefully examined the perfect replica. No matter how much I looked, I could not spot a single difference between the two of us. Even the little sunspot on my arm was perfectly replicated.
I blinked a few times and cocked my head sideways as I realized that even the clothes were a perfect match with the same simple travel pants, leather boots, and dark green shirt.
“Your talent replicates clothes? What happens to your old clothes when you transform? There is no way your talent should have any effect on normal clothes, right?” I asked curiously.
Esben cleared his throat and I saw a small blush on the replica of my face. From the reaction, a realization hit me and I burst out laughing. “You don’t wear clothes, do you? It is just your skin. Your talent is just folding and coloring it to look like clothes, isn’t it?”
Esben quickly clamped his hand over my mouth as the blush deepened. “Be quiet! I do not want people to know that is how my talent works. Either I replicate clothes using my talent, or I have to strip naked every time I transform. It is more convenient this way.”
“I would have never guessed you were a nudist,” I said with a grin as I peeled his hand off my mouth, “Seeing myself so embarrassed is weird. Surely, I am not the first to notice. What do you tell everyone else when they ask?”
“Naturally I made up some story about transforming the clothes with my talent. You are the first to notice it is not what is really happening. You have to keep this a secret, understand? If my men find out the truth, I will never hear the end of it!”
“I don’t know… I might need some reason to keep my mouth closed.” I teased with a big grin.
“A reason? I can think of a few,” Esben replied as he returned an exact copy of my teasing grin with an additional dangerous glint in his eye.
Esben’s skin began to bubble again as a new transformation happened. The new transformation did not take long. He was still an exact replica of me, except there was one major change. All the clothes were completely gone!
Esben had a wicked grin on his face as he placed one hand on his hip. “Is this a good enough reason? It would be a real shame if I walked outside right now. Though, I am sure your little boyfriend would enjoy the show.”
“Ok! Ok! You win, I won’t tell anyone, just change back before someone sees you!” I shouted as my face turned deep red as all the blood rushed to my head.
Esben gave me a big smile as he changed back into a clothed copy of me. “Relax. There is no reason to be so embarrassed. It is not like you have anything worth seeing anyway.”
My embarrassment was immediately replaced by bright green flames flaring to life inside my chest with murderous intent. I drew the dagger on my waist, ready to lunge when the door to our wagon cracked open.
I paused my plan of attack as my mom peeked her head in. “Everything ok in here? Preparations are almost complete for our counterattack if you are ready to begin.”
“We are ready,” I muttered as I reluctantly sheathed my dagger back on my belt.
Esben’s face was pale as he collapsed against the wall of the wagon letting out a deep sigh of relief. “It felt like you were really going to try and kill me there for a second.”
“I was,” I replied with a hard glare, “And if you ever transform into me without clothes again, I will not stop next time. Consider this your one warning.”
Esben gave a nervous chuckle as he backed out of the wagon. “Right, right, never again, I promise!”
Esben quickly scrambled out of the wagon, but despite his reaction, I knew he was not really afraid. Even as he clambered away from me, there was a playful glint in his eyes that made me frown. He had not learned his lesson at all. I would have to fix that later.
The doors of the wagon closed, leaving me alone inside. The moment he was outside, I heard Esben's tone shift into a near-perfect imitation of me. More correctly, he was imitating how I acted when Aurielle had been in charge at Bastya Fortress.
I peeked through one of the small air vents in the side of the wagon while careful not to be seen by the distant falcon. I watched as Esben confidently marched into the surrounding forest with his head held high. He shouted Irene’s name, followed by a few colorful insults demanding to talk to her as he disappeared past the tree line.
After Esben had disappeared, I saw Charly place the large cooking pot down at the edge of the forest where we were planning to lure Irene’s undead. He then placed a single paper glyph on the side before making a mad dash back towards camp.
Esben’s shouting got dimmer as he ventured further into the forest. Only a minute passed before his insults were answered by a deafening series of roars that shook the earth. I knew instantly, these roars could never have come from a human or animal. These were the roars of Demonkin.