Now assembled outside of the cabin, weary and coughing, we lit two torches and scanned the roof for the evil-doer.  There was no one.  Forcellus and Turmond ran around the cabin and into the woods beyond.  Nothing.  We looked for an easy access to the roof, there was none.  At least not with a bundle of twigs and branches.  I voiced my suspicion of "Kinesis", but it seemed unlikely that the mad inhabitant of this cabin would possess such a skill.  He would have had to have studied with the Grimdun, or at DOM University.  Or perhaps he was a Grimdon, but not if the daughter was his.  It was a mystery.  And one we would not solve that night.  None of us had gotten much sleep, and it was too dark to march, so we bedded down near the cabin and set a watch, something we should have done the night before but inexplicably did not. 

I had barely begun to sleep when I heard a cry from Veltek who was sleeping next to me.  I started awake and saw him sitting up clutching his shoulder.  Forcellus had taken the first watch and he was now staring at Veltek.  "What was it?" he asked.  "Someone hit me on the shoulder."  "Who?" I asked stupidly.  "How the blazes should I know? I was asleep"  We both then looked at Forcellus.  "I was looking outside of the camp, not at us" he said irritably.  The fatigue was showing on Forcellus.  I caught a slightly suspicious look that he shot toward me.  Did he think that I hit Veltek?  "I heard a thump" announced Turmond, his voice rising in volume as he continued to speak.  "But I heard nothing else.  I was awake, who could sleep with all this going on?"  I started to think that perhaps our invader also possessed Invisibility or Etherealness making him an Enchanter or a Transmuter as well as a Kineticist.  But if he was that powerful, why not just attack us?  Or maybe this was caused naturally, by a falling pine cone.  I looked at the others, it would not take much now to send them all over the edge.  "Everyone take a breath."  I said.  "We knew that this was not going to be easy, and we are all tired.  Veltek, did you check to see that something did not fall out of a tree?"  From the look on his face I guessed that he hadn't.  He scrambled over to where he had slept, and produced the probable culprit.  It was a rather large rock.  Naturally this sort of thing does not fall from trees.  It might have been there already, but we all knew without saying that it had been thrown.  We also realized that dawn had begun.  There was a slight lightening of the eternal overcast.  We decided that the best thing that we could do is to get this ordeal over with as quickly as possible.

Our march was beset by obstacles.  A covered hole nearly broke my foot, a branch fell on Turmond and knocked him senseless for a bit.  Someone was definitely trying to prevent us from reaching our destination.  At midday, we were climbing steadily up a series of rocks when I finally caught a glimpse of what I took to be our antagonist.  It was not a human at all.  It was a small green creature with tiny wings.  It leered at me, and then disappeared behind a distant rock when I stared at it.  "Did you see that?" I shouted.  Forcellus stopped the others.  "No, what is it?" he inquired.  "I think we are being harassed by an imp."  Forcellus looked at me as if I had two heads.  "Let's move on," he said, as if I had been merely complaining about the march. "The going will get easier soon" he added and turned to resume climbing.  As he did, II saw him give a sly glance to Turmond as if to say "the Raylan will be the next raging lunatic."  I decided not to pursue it further.  I would just keep up my guard.

Next: The Lair of the Dragon