Eru started to walk up the backside of the mountain with Charmalina behind him on the narrow trail. The council would be meeting in a lodge up the mountain. There was only one heavily secured road up to the lodge. It was too dangerous and they would be spotted too early if they took the road. Finding maps of the area they decided a half day hike up was the best option.

After the train arrived without incidence, they found a quiet hotel and bought supplies for the hike and the confrontation with the council. Eru and Charmalina had no idea what to expect when and if they actually made it to the council.

Charmalina thought about the council as they settled into a slow and steady pace up the path. It wasn’t that steep, just basically uphill the entire way. “Do you think meeting with the council will solve anything?”, she asked Eru.

“I don’t know if it will solve anything, we always seem to run into new problems but I think we will find out if it is part of the council or all of the council doing this”, Eru laughed but did not know why. He just felt like it. It was a good way to relieve some tension.

“What if it is the entire council?” Charmalina responded.

“I suspect we would have to fight our way out to survive and try and force the council to resign and stop what they are doing.”

“Ahh, so we use pain on them”, Charmalina laughed.

“Yeah I think that will be the most efficient way.”

They had to decided to start at midday to make it most of the way towards the lodge and camp out until the next day. The council was just starting to arrive today and they would all be there by tomorrow.

“It’s sure a nice day out, do you think there will be guards out preventing us from getting closer?” Charmalina asked.

It was nice out Eru thought to himself. Sunny, warm but not too hot, and the trees provided a nice shade. At this time of the year it did not get very cold at night which provided relief to Eru. “There will be guards around, we probably won’t see any until we get closer to the top, lets do our best to avoid them and not let them spot us. They will probably be pretty noisy and won’t go off the main paths very far.”

There was no sounds out here but nature. It reminded Eru of some of his training days when he was much younger. They were about halfway there now and found a spot to sit down and take a break. Drinking some water and eating some nuts most of the stress had left Eru. He knew it would come back as they prepared to confront the council. His life and career were at risk. If the bad ones in the group succeeded with whatever their grand plan was, Eru knew life would get worse for a whole lot of people.

Birds in the trees all of a sudden got noisy and then stopped and went silent. The insects continued to buzz. Charmalina looked at Eru and they went silent and listened. They heard loud heavy footsteps and people making loud noise. The people were coming towards the path they had been on before their break. Charmalina hid their bags and Eru found a spot in the undergrowth besides a bush that they could hide in.

The path was about 15 feet away and they could see the big boots of 4 people getting closer and closer. They were armed with guns hanging off their shoulder’s. Eru and Charmalina laid in the ground quietly and waited.