Nonetheless, the owl began an extremely fast descent towards his target.
Closer.
Closer.
There was a flash of light, and the bird fell to the ground. An old human with a long beard stepped out of the trees, followed by two human youths covered in black garments, each of them holding a staff and burdened by a large pack.
"Bartemus threw a little door in the safety sphere when they recreated it," Malachi said, "So that I could still catch and release little critters, like this one."
He picked up the stunned owl and the fake white rabbit and put them gently into separate sacks.
"Are you ready? Once I leave you can't come back in unless I open the door, and I should probably avoid anything out of the ordinary until Barty gets back. We still don't know who's on our side."
Aidan glanced at Timothy, who shook his head.
"No, I think we're ready to go. We have the map, our staffs, and enough supplies to last us a year. I think we're good."
"Well then, the first landmark is that way," the warlock said, pointing nearly west. "You shouldn't have many problems with bandits, not many people live in these parts. If all goes well, I'll see you in a few weeks."
With that, the warlock turned into the trees and disappeared from sight.
Aidan took a moment to breath in the cool mountain air, to feel the wind on his face and the woods at his back. This was where he belonged.
Timothy on the other hand was already shivering, and his hand was drifting closer and closer to the strap on his pack.
"Alright, might as well get moving," Aidan said, turning to the south.
They had come out on the east side of the safety sphere, and so they would have to skirt around the edges of the entire bubble in order to get to the west side, where there should have been the ruined remains of a road.
That road would take them all the way to Camp Ward, the home of the amohgs, if it was still there. No one had used it in over twenty years, and so Bartemus didn't know if it was still intact.
They began to make their way through the woods around the sphere and made it to the other side just as the sun began to rise over the trees.
The road appeared intact, and only a little overgrown, considering that it hadn't been tread in two decades. There was a feeling of an old, powerful magic in the air, as strong as a dragon, yet somehow subtle. Aidan was sure it was protecting the path, though he was not sure how or from what.
Now that Aidan could see the road he thought he would be able to estimate how long it would take to get to Camp Ward.
He knew from experience that if he pushed himself the whole day he could walk a little less than forty miles. However, accounting for the forest, the heavy packs, and the fact that Timothy looked like he was thinner than a stick, Aidan could hope for at best twenty five to thirty. Camp Ward was about ninety miles away, so Aidan thought they could get there in four days.
"When we get to the top of that hill," Aidan said, pointing ahead, "We'll stop to eat. After that we should be able to keep going until we're done for the day."
They only made it halfway up before Timothy was panting so hard that Aidan decided to rest.
The sun rose over the sphere just as the two mages were pulling off their packs.
The large knapsacks somehow felt far lighter than they were and had three different openings, one for food, one for gear, and one that was lined with a silvery sheen. Dragon scales.
Malachi had explained to Aidan that one of the worst mistakes a sorcerer could make was to put magical items with anything else. Once a mage had put a live fire salamander into the same compartment as his friend's fire wood and, unknowingly, cooking oil, as a practical joke. Both had died in the resulting inferno. The salamander, the warlock had gleefully found, was unharmed and now sat in one of his cages.
Aidan's "magic compartment" was full of spineback scales and spikes, a gift for the amohgs, while Timothy's was empty. Both boys had a book in their supplies about magic, and any and all useful plants and herbs were to be gathered and taken back to the fort.
Aidan was just about to unpack some magic-dried beef, which probably didn't taste very good considering it was going to be their staple diet for the next few days, when he noticed a small tree touting perfect bright red apples.
He realized with alarm that it was already autumn, and he was fairly sure that it would snow when winter came this high in the mountains.
He went and plucked two of the sweet fruits and tossed one to Timothy.
They ate in silence, staring at the great blue bubble that had become Aidan's home.
Timothy sighed sadly and threw away his apple core.
"She could have come with us, you know." Aidan said.
"No," the younger mage said, "Don't you know it's bad luck to bring women on journeys? I think we've had enough bad luck. Besides, I left her a note, she knows we're fine."