One of the scouts returned to the group on a motorcycle, prompting the group to stop for an early lunch. While the scout went to talk to several of the expedition group heads, the others loaded the bike onto the back of a rig.

  Right on time, as Rudy had begun making his way toward their stopped overlander. A sight that had each of them groaning. Even Mika was hissing at the man. Seeing that, Angie grinned and quickly scrawled out a note that she slapped on the outside of the door.

  Inside the overlander, Nate and the others were keeping their mouths shut, and pretending they weren’t even there. The message Angie had put on the door said that they had momentarily gone into the forest to train Mika.

  As soon as Rudy reached the RV and read it, he tore the paper from the door and punched it, denting the metal and rocking the entire vehicle.

  The door had become malformed around the imprint of the fist and no longer fit properly in its frame.

  The group came out from where they had been hiding in the girl’s room and inspected the door.

  “Whatever is going on with that boy, it’s getting worse,” Angie said, her fingers trailing around the edges of the door. There were gaps near the top and bottom where she could fit her pinky through.

  “Bending that back into position will be a pain,” Nate muttered.

  The metal and various scales the Overlander RV was constructed from were strong enough that none of them, save Aura, were able to do anything about the dent. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the fine control required to actually repair the door. If Nate punched the door, it was more likely that he would simply end up hurting his hand than being able to cause a dent himself.

  Lindsay waited until Angie stepped aside before trying to open it. Which it did, with all three of them pulling on it, and even then only about a foot. With it now open, they could access the hinges and take it off the side of the RV.

  “Do you think those dwarves would be willing to help pound it back into shape? I don’t know how strong they were, but they had hammers and proper tools. Which is more than what anyone else in this caravan has.”

  Nate frowned. “Well, that is more or less what the communities were meant to do in the first place. Even if there isn’t one there yet. It can’t hurt to ask…”

  It took some work, but they managed to remove the door without ruining the hinges. With that done, Aura accompanied the two girls inside the dungeon while Mika stayed in the RV with Nate. Lindsay had finished learning the companion beast energy skill. However, for some reason, the weasel remained unable to enter inside with her for the moment.

  Aura believed it was because Mika hadn’t formed her core yet, but only time would tell.

  Either way, she seemed content to lie curled up on the passenger seat while he drove the RV toward whatever the scout had found. There had never been a proper explanation provided, so he was guessing whatever they had found wasn’t dangerous but merely something annoying. Roughly ten minutes after Lindsay, Angie, and Aura had entered the dungeon, a runner had been sent to the Richlow Group and then their Overlander. All they had said was that they were ready to continue moving.

  It took a minute for everyone to get moving again, but a short time later, Nate was finally able to see what had caused the scout to come back in such a rush. In front of them was a deep ravine, and the old metal bridge had suffered some damage. The downside of no new real road construction being done within the last hundred years was right in front of them.

  Occasionally, expedition and merchant groups got together to perform repairs in areas outside the reach of the cities. Nate doubted that anyone had taken on a project like this bridge in a while though.

  Nate glanced at Mika. “You want to come look at the bridge with me or stay here?”

  The weasel yawned, its tongue flicking out as it looked at him uncomprehendingly, before putting her head down and going back to sleep. With a roll of his eyes, he sent a message to Aura, letting her know that they shouldn’t come back for the next little bit.

  With that taken care of, he hopped out and joined the rest of the people who had already gotten out.

  “What do you think happened?” Jean, one of the Richlow Group leaders, was asking Shane when Nate joined them and the other expedition group leaders on the bridge.

  The man in question was standing next to two other people that Nate vaguely recognized as belonging to a different team than Shane’s.

  Stolen story; please report.

  “Well, all the visible damage is covered in some light rust, and I do mean light. Most of this looks like it’s all relatively new and not normal stress, age, or damage caused by weather like we’re used to seeing.” The woman who was speaking pushed a fingernail under a nearby piece of flaking rust and pried it up. “This is what we usually see, layers of it as it corrodes everything. Surface rust is unusual on the older construction. They didn’t typically put the proper material protections on metal to ensure they lasted.”

  Her partner nodded along with what she was saying and added to it. “They also weren’t typically building them with monsters and overpowered beasts in mind, either. Regardless, our group passed over this bridge two months ago and it was fine then. Whatever happened to it, was done to it in the time since, and this,” The man pointed to the metal they had been debating earlier. “Doesn’t look natural to me. I would say either beasts or-”

  “Cultivators,” Shane said angrily, not letting him finish.

  “I was going to say bandits, but in effect, yes.”

  Nate perked up, beginning to listen more closely to what they were saying.

  “Are you thinking that they’re nearby, or that they might be herding us toward the next bridge or location to crossover?” Jean asked, already looking back toward their vehicles.

  “Is there even a reason for them to go through that much work?” Nate asked. “They’ve already destroyed the bridge. I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that the next closest bridge is some kind of old train rail bridge.” Shane nodded and pointed to the east. “My point is how many suitable paths are available for vehicles like ours are there to that bridge?”

  “Ah, I see what you are saying. It doesn’t even matter if we reach the bridge, since they might set up to ambush us at any point along the route.” Jean muttered, standing, and brushing the rust from her hands. “Does anyone have any other suggestions? Is there a possibility that the bridge can be fixed?”

  “Oh, it can probably be fixed, just not with anything that we brought with us,” Shane said, scratching the back of his neck. “I know Greg’s group keeps a TIG welder on one of their rigs for emergencies. With metal this thick though, I believe you want a MIG welder, or something else; you could ask him for more information. Either way, we don’t have the metal. It looks like the beams that broke off dropped down into the ravine. This will require a crew to come out specifically for this.”

  “Let me talk it over with the others, and then we’ll decide how to proceed. How much leeway do we have before this auction you were hoping to attend?” Shane asked Jean. He already knew that Nate and his group weren’t on any specific timeline.

  She sighed. “Plenty of time if we need to slow down, but not enough to wait for someone to go back to Richmond and come back with a repair crew.”

  This was one of those occasions where Nate was a little annoyed to be part of a group. It would be so easy for him to store the Overlander and just jump over the broken section. There was a reason they had come with a group like this, and that didn’t change simply because bandits had suddenly entered the picture.

  Behind them came a screeching noise. Whirling around, Nate spotted a furry noodle being flung from the window of his RV as the vehicle was stolen and driven away. He hadn’t thought to take the keys out of the ignition since they might be forced to make a quick exit. It was a decision that he was now regretting.

  Mika sailed through the air before hitting the ground and rolling. She hissed and spat before running toward Nate, leaping into his arms.

  “Uh, everyone, who just stole my RV?” He asked, glaring at Shane since he already had an idea who it might be.

  “Just to clarify, you’re sure it wasn’t one of your two female companions, right?” One of the people who had been inspecting the bridge asked.

  “I’m sure. Mika here is Lindsay’s companion beast. She wouldn’t treat her that way. Besides, both of them are with my companion beast exploring the area at the moment. They left to stretch their legs as soon as we got here.” He explained, hoping the excuse made enough sense that no one questioned him further.

  He discreetly sent a message to Aura, updating her on the situation while running after the dust cloud.

  “We’ll find out who did it,” Shane yelled from behind him. “Just find your companions while we find out who is missing.”

  Nate raised a hand over his head and vanished into the brush and trees instead of continuing after the RV. ‘Can you three come back now?’ He sent another message off to Aura, finding that they had been waiting on him for the last couple of minutes.

  As soon as he was out of sight, they slid out of his core and materialized in front of him.

  “What happened?” Lindsay asked as soon as the three appeared before him.

  “It looks like bandits wrecked the bridge we needed to cross.” He replied as they turned around to return to the road. “Then, while we were inspecting the bridge, someone stole the overlander. I had left the keys in the ignition since I thought we might need to make a quick exit.” He passed Mika over to her. “Whoever took it tossed her through the window as well.”

  “Oh, you poor baby. Are you alright? Did that mean thief hurt you?”

  Angie rolled her eyes in amusement before narrowing them. “Any idea who did it?”

  “There is the obvious one that I know we are all thinking of, but all of this only happened a minute ago. They were about to start looking through everyone to see who might be missing when I entered the trees.”

  Aura, who had bounded ahead, came back right then. “It was Rudy, and someone else. I don’t recognize the smell of the second person. I don’t believe that they were a member of our group before now.”

  Lindsay, who was still carefully checking Mika over, looked up at that. “You mean to say that Rudy was accompanied by a third party, then? It sounds like he is definitely working with these bandits to me.”

  Nate sighed. It seems like he would need to reveal that Aura could speak with him. Companion beasts that could speak with their bonds were typically limited to stronger cultivators and beasts. However, there were some beasts that were simply smarter than others. Mika, for instance, would likely pick up the skill faster than other companion beasts.

  The telepathy skill they learned was typically limited to only their bonds. Whereas, Aura could speak to everyone. It was an oddity that in time, they had become more and more aware of over time.

  So, while Nate was fine with revealing that Aura could speak with him. They needed to be careful just how much information actually got out.

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