Getting out was pretty cool. It was nice to feel the wind on my face. Cutting a path through a ton of bandits and criminals, it took a month to get back to the big Swiftheart castle. It was pretty uneventful. No bandits could stand up to us on the roads. They did not have the numbers or the strength to stop us. Now we just had to cross the tribal lands. After we went to the town that we first met Anthony and Fabien, we were shocked to see that Casone there. He was supposed to have gone back home a long time ago. Petras and Jeran went over to hug him. The 3 of them were really happy to see each other. "What happened? I thought you were going to go back to your tribe." I said. He was wary of going back too. He did not want to be exiled. Going back was risky. He decided to just get a labor job here in this town. He could carry a lot of things as a centaur. He was martially trained if their town needed muscle to deal with criminals as well. Casone was able to get an exceptionally high standard of living here. He did have a bar of gold to get himself started with a shack on the outskirt.
He would be fine by himself as long as he did not do anything crazy here. No female centaurs were around, so he was pretty lonely here. When Petras and Jeran offered them to come along with us to the portal, he agreed easily. I was happy. We had started with 4. One was killed by that damn centauress. Now that it was time to go, we had nothing stopping us. There were a lot of ground to cover. Even going at the speed of a centaur, it was still 4 days. Since they were going to need a lot of food to make it, we bought a lot of supplies. I also needed food. I wanted meat, so I had to go to a butcher. There was some jerky I could get. That would have to do. It was not like I had a portable fridge here. Making due with what I had was very important for me. With the danger we would be in, there was no time to lose. I was also not the one most visibly exposed there. That would be the 3 centaurs with me. I would have to suck it up. When they were ready, I got on Petras's back and we set off. We went until nighttime. With them not needing to deal with heat, we made it in way less time.
Incidentally, we had a close call with a centauress. She was clearly interested in claiming them as hers. However, when she saw she only had a shortsword and 2 of the centaurs were wearing armor, she knew that she was very outmatched. We managed to walk past her without a problem. I did not blame her for trying to shoot her shot by flirting with them. None of the 3 were interested. "You know, she might have come with us if you wanted a mate." I said when we were far from her. Jeran just rolled his eyes at the suggestion. "No way. Tribal centauresses do not follow males around for no reason." he said. Petras nodded his head in agreement. He added "They just don't know how to do anything but fight, mount and argue with others." I could only shrug my shoulders. I had no clue if that was true or not. The one we fought the first time was certainly a bad first impression. We got to the town with the portal unscathed. There were town guards making patrols around it. It was clear that one could not simply walk through it. I would have to sneak in. That would be too easy for me.
