"Angus, do you hear anything? It sounds like footsteps?"
As the curtain of night became increasingly thick, the rain had lessened significantly, reduced to a mere drizzle. The space returned to silence. Jasmine, with her sharp hearing, picked up some unusual rustling noises transmitting through the darkness. She hurriedly shook the Bull-headed Man awake, who was sitting dozing on the driver's seat, his head nodding up and down.
The Bull-headed Man had never performed the job of keeping night watch before, so his vigilance was not high. When he was woken up by Jasmine, his entire person was still bewildered, his eyes half-closed and half-open. He thought he was still in the livestock stables of the Black Dragon castle. It took a moment before he reacted to his current circumstances.
"My Lady, is there an enemy attack?" The Bull-headed Man shuddered, hurriedly slapping himself hard on the cheek to wake up completely. He sat up straight, his hand gripping the wooden spear tightly beside him.
"Shh, keep your voice down." Jasmine was startled by the commotion the Bull-headed Man caused and hurriedly signaled for him to be silent.
The lingering rain had just ceased, leaving behind an atmosphere that was damp and cold. Any sound, no matter how small, became resonant in an unusual way.
The Bull-headed Man hurriedly covered his mouth with his hand. His eyes, large as copper bells, looked at Jasmine innocently, carrying a few traces of grievance as if he had done something wrong.
He shrank back, trying to make his large, bulky body smaller so as not to cause any more noise.
Jasmine had long guessed that slave guards could not be as vigilant as Knights, so she did not blame the Bull-headed Man for dozing off in the middle. She herself had remained awake the whole time; on the first night out in the open, Jasmine did not feel assured entrusting everything completely to these slave guards.
In her heart, she understood clearly that while their loyalty was abundant, their survival and combat skills still needed time to be honed.
Seeing that the Bull-headed Man was completely awake, Jasmine went to wake up the few guards responsible for the night watch nearby, and she added a few more logs to the fire which had grown dim.
The wood burned, emitting crisp "crackling" sounds that were extremely distinct in the lull of the rainy night. Small sparks flew up into the air and then quickly extinguished, bringing a meager amount of warmth to the frigid space.
"My Lady, is there an enemy attack?" The Dwarf brothers, having just woken up, immediately grasped their spears tightly. Trembling with fear, they surrounded Jasmine in the center, asking in lowered voices.
Their hands shook, and their eyes darted around the darkness as if afraid a monster would jump out at any moment.
The first reaction of the other guards was also to protect Jasmine first. Only after discovering there was nothing unusual in the surroundings did they remember to ask a question.
Despite their fear, they still used their own bodies as shields, forming a protective circle around her.
Jasmine felt a warmth in her heart seeing this. It was her first time meeting people like these guards, who unconditionally placed her safety above all else, even though their own status remained at the very bottom as slaves.
This trust made her feel that the responsibility on her shoulders was even heavier.
"It is not an enemy." Jasmine told them to listen carefully. Her voice lowered, trying not to reveal her anxiety. "Do you hear any strange sounds?"
When the night rain temporarily ceased, the thick layer of clouds in the sky was blown apart by the wind, and moonlight shone down on the wilderness. Insects that had been resting for more than half the night also began to come out and be active; the clumps of grass around them began to resound with the buzzing cries of insects.
The wind blew through the canopies of dry trees in the distance, creating soft whistling sounds like the sighs of the night.
The guards listened for quite a while, looking at each other, seemingly not quite understanding what the Lord wanted them to hear.
"Could it be that I am too suspicious?" Seeing nothing unusual, Jasmine also began to doubt whether she was overly tense.
She raised her hand to rub her temples, feeling exhaustion beginning to invade her mind after many hours of stress.
"My Lady, do you need to sleep for a while? It is still early before morning comes," the Bull-headed Man asked worriedly, his eyes full of concern as he looked at her somewhat pale face under the firelight.
Jasmine shook her head; even if she was told to sleep, she could not sleep. "You stay awake a bit later, too. Do not fall asleep again." Jasmine did not hope that the leader of the guards she had selected would be unable to even keep watch through the night.
At this moment, she actually missed that group of Temple Knights a little. At least on the way to the territory, Jasmine never needed to worry; the Knights arranged everything perfectly by themselves.
Their professionalism, though cold, brought a sense of absolute safety.
"Rest assured, my Lady, this time I definitely will not fall asleep again." The Bull-headed Man patted his chest to guarantee it, the thumping sound ringing out with certainty.
After midnight, occasionally nocturnal predators would wander near here, but seeing the fire and so many people, ordinary animals would not dare to actively approach.
Jasmine told the Bull-headed Man to build the fire up a bit larger, illuminating the entire camp area brightly. As long as any animal approached, it would not escape the eyes of the sentries.
The flickering firelight pushed back the darkness that was waiting to swallow them up.
*Crack... Clack.*
Amidst the sound of insects calling, a grotesque sound mixed in, like bones colliding. This time, Jasmine recognized the direction from which the sound came. She hurriedly turned her head to look toward the Dry Tree Forest.
That sound was dry, abrupt, and completely unlike the footsteps of any beast she had ever known.
The camp area they had chosen to rest in was located right at the edge of the Dry Tree Forest; only near here could they find enough firewood to start a fire and tree branches to build the rain shelter.
The black, twisted tree trunks in the night looked like skinny arms reaching out.
Jasmine had researched a bit of information regarding the Dry Tree Forest from the mouth of the old Butler, so naturally, she did not dare to go deep inside. The pine tree they were staying under, if calculated carefully, was actually at least fifty meters away from the Dry Tree Forest.
This distance was neither far nor near, but it could be considered to lie within a safe range.
This time, the Bull-headed Man also heard that strange sound of colliding bones. The guards who were resting also woke up. Everyone held shields made of vines, surrounding the carriage tightly.
The Bull-headed Man climbed up onto the driver's seat even more urgently, gripping the reins tightly. Once an unstable situation was discovered, he would drive the carriage to escort Jasmine away immediately.