She had pointed out the dust cloud an hour earlier.  At first, Keto was simply excited that they might see some others on the Greenway.  Dust trail meant a larger caravan, which may mean some gossip and news from elsewhere in the Provinces, maybe even time to play a few songs if they took a shared rest.  Quartes’ pale gaze though had watched the rising dust, his stern gaze lengthening into a frown.

“We should move faster,” he announced, hunching forward and his steps falling into a jog.  Keto pulled the straps of her pack up and rushed to keep up.

“What’s wrong?” she shouted up ahead at the landian.

“People are running from something,” he called back.  Keto didn’t bother to ask how he could know that, he probably noted something about the dust cloud, she just lowered herself into the run, took deep breaths and did her best to keep up.  They had been making their away along the top of a ridge, the old cobblestones of the road more easily seen up here with less underlying grass.  It was inclined upwards, and as the burning in her lungs increased, Quartes pulled ahead of Keto.  He reached the edge of the ridge, where Keto saw it turn to the side and stopped.  When she caught up to him she looked down the path, at the series of switchbacks as the old road made its way downwards.  She then looked out at the plains before them, following the dust cloud down to where she could now see the caravan.

There were a pair of wagons.  They were of aenesi design, the tall central mast and array of floating balloons trailing the wagons giving them away. She could imagine what had happened now, that the watcher up in the mast had seen dragonkin and a chse had ensued.  That’s what was indeed following them, a pack of dragonkin spread out behind the wagons and closing now.  At this distance Keto wasn’t sure what had caused it, an exhausted animal, a shattered wheel, but the wagons had come to a stop just as they had started to head into the low rise at the base of the ridge.

Keto looked back down at the winding switchbacks.  “Can you get to them in time?”  She asked, looking to Quartes.  She was still pulling down deep breaths from their run, Quartes’ features were set in a grim line, his pale eyes running back and forth along the descending trail.

He looked towards her, his eyes drawn back into his stern mask.  “Cheriss stay with her.”  The sword withdrew from its sheath and hovered besides Keto.  Quartes unslung Keid from his pack, strapping it to his arm as he looked down at the switchbacks.  He then stepped over the edge.  Quartes slid down the slope, sending rocks, dirt, and uprooted tuffs of grass down ahead of him.  His arm was lifted, the shield held over his head as Keid steadied his decline.  Keto watched him reach the trail of the first switchback, the landian stumbling a few steps as he regained his balance before plunging down the cliff once more.

It was certainly faster, assuming Quartes didn’t fall and break himself on the rocks.  A voice noted to herself that the landian meeting his end that way wouldn’t make for a good story.  Keto ignored it as she looked back to the caravans.  Faster or not, Quartes wasn’t going to reach the caravan before the kercs did.  The question wasn’t going to be if he could save them, it was going to be how many would be left for him to save.

Which is when she saw the first flash.  An orange sphere shot out, exploding amongst a trio of kercs.  A second fireball quickly followed.  The spheres had shot out from a figure striding away from the caravan, steps slow and confident as robes billowed about her.  More of the kercs were still closing but more figures were leaving the caravan.  A duo ran past the robed figure.  One wielded a waisted swords in both hands, the other advanced with hammer and shield.  The style of the two warriors couldn’t have been more different.  The former cut through dragonkin in elegant slashes, the blade dancing through wide arcs, its tip trailing through dragonkin flesh as its wielder always seemed to be a step away from where the beast had struck.  The other crashed into the kercs, shield leading and as much of a bludgeon as the hammer the man wielded.

When the press of the kercs seemed like it would overwhelm the two warriors, the mage acted again.  Grass and dust kicked up into the sky as a gust of wind exploded out, blowing back and scattering the kercs.  It took a concerted effort, some of the best that Keto had every seen out of adventurers, and even then she saw the sword wielder sustain at least one injury, but they drew out and beat back the press of the kercs.  The dragonkin never fled, were worked up into too much of a frenzy to do that but in that frenzy they were even more mindless and the adventurers took full advantage.  

By the time Quartes had dropped down from the rocky hillside the battle was over.  Keto, with Cheriss following, made her slower way down the switchbacks.  She found the landian waiting for her, his stoic gaze watching as the occupants of the Aenesi wagons shared high fives and celebrated their survival.  Keto stopped next to him, brazing her arms on the straps of her pack as she leaned over to catch her breath, a smile on her face..

“Adventurers, doing their own little bits of good across the Provinces,” she commented looked back over to the landian.  “I should see what stories they have, might be worth a song or two.”

That got a small smile out of the landian, “Brave of them to fight,  and impressive from what I caught of the battle.”  He nodded towards one of the wagons, Keto could see the split axle underneath it.  “Their carts are overloaded, even for an aenesian wagon.”  He looked back to Keto, an eyebrow raised.  “Makes me wonder just what they have found on their adventurers.”

“Besides a good battle, adventurers most like lost treasure.”

Quartes’ eyebrows raised and dropped, he was then grabbing and sheathing Cheriss before heading towards the wagons.  “Come on, we’ll see if they need any other help, and if they don’t have a minstrel then I’m sure they’d love a bard to share their stories with.”

With a roll of her eyes, Keto caught up with the landian.