Eru got a better view at the guards that were walking by. They were the council’s secret service. There was no council member with them, they must be patrolling the area Eru thought to himself. Charmalina and himself were quite well hidden and the guards weren’t doing a particularly thorough job. A loud noise or something visible would certainly alert them.

Charmalina wanted to avoid any contact with the guards as long as they could. Ideally they would get into the council’s meetings undetected. After a few minutes of waiting the guards were far enough away. Charmalina got up and got their bags. The road would be clear for awhile so they had to move quick as the path was much faster to walk up. More guards would likely be on coming down on the path.

After walking off and on the path, avoiding more groups of guards it was beginning to get dark out. Eru and Charmalina went further off the path looking for a good place to spend the night. It could not be close to the path or the guards would certainly find them. Tomorrow would be a busy day and they both needed their rest.

The weather forecast seemed accurate so far. The temperature was cooling down a little but not too much. There was no clouds in the sky and if you weren’t under the trees you could still see. They were about an hour away from the council’s lodge less if they took the main path.

Eru talked to Charmalina about the plans for tomorrow. His mind was racing, he needed to calm down and not let the adrenaline get to him, “Do you think it will be easy for us to get to the council?”

“It shouldn’t be too hard, but it will be hard to see them without any guards getting to us first. There seems to be more and more of them the closer we get. They probably have at least that many at the camp in reserve”, Charmalina replied back.

Eru was beginning to get sleepy and calm down. It was a fairly long walk uphill with enough gear on their backs. He could worry about the council tomorrow. He fell asleep quicker than he thought he would.

Some time later Eru was awaken by some voices.

“Hey what’s that over there?”, one voice said.

“I don’t know go check it out”, another voice said.

Eru groggily turned over to look around. Charmalina was just waking up as well. There was no time to hide. If detected they would have to try and be quiet and fight their way out of it.

One guard approached and yelled out at them, “What are you doing?”

Before he could finish his sentence Charmalina knocked him down and Eru went to control the guard. He grabbed the guard from behind putting his arm around his neck, lightly choking him. Charmalina ran towards the other guard and punched him.

It wasn’t enough though, a whole group of patrolmen had them surrounded. Guns were pointed at them. “Let my men go”, the patrol leader Eru thought barked at them. Eru let his guy go. “Now lay on the ground face first and have your palms facing up”, the leader continued on.

Eru looked at Charmalina, they really had no choice right now and laid down on the ground. Some guards came and handcuffed them and pulled them up to their feet. They began to walk away.