### 188

You pretend that you have not heard the sergeant’s request and you continue on your way. You hear the Eldenoran curse you and then a burning stub of firewood comes whooshing through the air. It narrowly misses you as it arcs over your head and hits the frosty ground, exploding with a splash of crackling sparks. The sergeant’s curses echo across the fields as you canter away from his campfire and head towards a distant ribbon of silver that is the River Storn, glimmering in the starlight.

Shortly you come to a highway that runs parallel to the Storn. You cross over this road and descend a bracken-covered slope towards the river’s east bank. As you approach the rushing waters, you happen upon a derelict hut in the middle of a copse of apple trees picked bare by the invading army. The hut is empty but there is some straw on the ground that will feed your horse, and so you decide to rest here for the few hours that remain before dawn.

Unless you possess the Discipline of Grand Huntmastery, you must now eat a Meal or lose 3 ENDURANCE points.

To continue, turn to 272.