need the flames to ward off any other creatures that might be stalking about in the woods.
Thom and three others walked away from the designated camp while the other two guards began collecting wood. Thom told two of the men to find some berry bushes and the third to collect water.
“How am I supposed to collect water with nothing to carry it in?” Thom sneered at the man’s objection.
“You will just have to figure something out.”
As he walked deeper into the forest, Thom fashioned a snare from a sturdy vine and went in search of rabbit tracks. Normally, he could catch a rabbit in a matter of minutes by casting a spell on the snare to lure the rabbit into its circle without triggering the animal’s instincts. However, Osric had taken his wand, so he would have to rely on his skills alone. Thom followed a trail until he came across tracks and some recent rabbit droppings. He found a low hanging branch that crossed a narrow part of the trail and tied the free end of the snare securely to it, leaving a noose dangling above the path. Stepping over to a nearby berry bush, he pulled off a few leaves, crushing them in his fist to make them more aromatic and then sprinkled them on either side of the snare. He hoped it wouldn’t be long before a rabbit wandered into his trap, but he pulled another length of vine from a nearby tree and continued up the path to set more snares while he waited.
Thom busied his hands with twisting vines into nooses, but his mind was distracted and occupied by thoughts of the attack at the volcano. So many things were bothering him about what Osric and his men had done that he could not focus on one of them long enough to figure it out. He knew that short devil, Machai, had much to do with their success in assaulting Aron’s crew. Obviously, they had managed to sway the dragon guarding the door to their cause before they had even entered the volcano. Also, they had somehow made it to the volcano without being seen by any of the patrolling guards. The next part was what disturbed him the most. Thom had awoken with a pounding headache to find himself lying on the ground with his hands tied behind his back. He could not recall hearing the alarm signal from the guard tower, nor hearing any sounds of fighting. He couldn’t even remember being dragged from his sleeping quarters, but he had woken up on the main floor of the volcano. Based on how he felt upon waking, he assumed he had either been drugged or spelled.
Thom thought back to the conversations with Aron and the other guards while they had been locked up in the dragon cell. “Ridiculous!” Thom rambled to himself as he walked. “I have a hard time imagining what they described, never mind believing it. So, Aron was sitting at the table playing a game of bones with Shrad, and Asram was manning the guard tower. Eric had been standing guard just inside the entrance of the volcano, and four men had been out on patrol. Nothing unusual there. Had I not been sleeping, surely I would have seen it all coming and we wouldn’t be in this position. But, even with five of us asleep, no one should have been able to sneak into the volcano undetected.” Thom stopped to set another snare as he mulled over the events.
According to the unanimous recount by Aron, Shrad, and Asram, Osric and the others just appeared out of thin air. “That idiot wouldn’t notice if the volcano erupted on his watch! Of course Asram said everything had been perfectly normal, and then all of a sudden, Osric was standing next to him in the guard tower. Why would he admit that he hadn’t been paying attention while standing guard? Sure he would say he only had enough time to sound the alarm and reach for his knife before Osric knocked him on the head. He wouldn’t want to admit his own incompetence. So why didn’t the alarm wake us all up?”
Thom glared at the ground as he thought about how his comrades claimed the attack happened. Asram had claimed that after Osric hit him on the head, he blacked out, and the next thing he knew, he was lying on the volcano floor with his hands and feet bound. Aron insisted that