It was night, by the time Nat reached a crossroad. At least five other roads bumped into this single one, which was supposed to be the main road. The half elf grinned at the signpost, which showed the town of Damascus in the direction he was heading, or more likely, the wagon tracks were leading. Behind him the signpost showed Sap town. Other roads took you to a couple of villages that Nat heard of, however, couldn't remember visiting. Gazing forward he understood that, even though it's dark, he could see smoke rising.

[i]"Damascus is being looted too. Interesting"[/i] he thought and continued onward. Not a hundred steps away he came across a barricade built from fallen trees and a couple of broken wagons. For a second, Nat was afraid that all his following was in vain and the wagon he was following was eventually caught and destroyed. That, luckily, turned out not to be the case as the tracks continued after the barricade. As soon as he got close to it, Nat heard running and soon found himself surrounded by three soldiers behind his back. A person's head emerged from behind the barricade.

"Hello, dear traveler. You are talking to the officer of the 103rd squad of Fusos' infantry. This barricade stops any movement into Damascus until the crisis in the city is solved. State your business in this road and we will consider letting you pass." the man briefly introduced himself and then gave a questioning look to Nat.
Nat looked behind himself and saw three archers ready to draw. [i]"These are the people that started following me after Sap"[/i], Nat thought. As if they heard him, one of the archers shouted "We followed you and we want to know, why's a heavily armed traveler striding all night without rest."
"Thank you, soldier." the officer nodded in approval and turned his gaze on to Nat again. The half-elf thought on what to do for a moment and figured it was the best to tell the truth. Spiced with a little bit of lie.
"I'm travelling, because I can't find a safe place to take shelter. My plan was Sap, but it was destroyed, I quickly stumbled upon these tracks, figured they would take me to the nearest safe settlement. Thus, I'm following them.
"What of your weaponry? No common traveler can afford it."
"I'll be honest, I stole them. I'm a scavenger you see. Traveling to sell them."
The officer's face grinned with a smile before asking "Unless.. You pay me the road toll. Tell me, why should I let an outlaw into a city. Why not scavenge these same stolen items from your dead body for myself? "
Nat answered the man's smile with his. "Because you are no officer of Fusos. A mere highwayman. No officer is ever accompanied by three clumsy archers."
The man's smile disappeared and him seemed a little hesitant for a moment. Nat continued talking "Just let me through and there is a chance that all five of us will see the Sun tomorrow."

He heard the tensing of bowstrings and saw that the supposed officer was looking at the archers. Henry understood that he wasn't up for a negotiation, thus the half-elf quickly stooped and grabbed a piece of wooden wheel and threw it at archers. One of them was forced to dodge and the other two distracted. Nat took the opportunity, to run into the forest, around the barricade. He heard a thump, as an arrow hit a tree left to him and a few of them. He quickly emerged in front of the barricade, however, on the other side. The "officer" seemed unarmed and in simple vest and somewhat scared. Nat took out his own bow and told him "If you promise to order them to not to follow me and get out of here right now, I'll consider not dipping a few arrows in you."
The highwayman looked at Nat for a couple of seconds and slowly nodded. As the archers emerged from the forest, after going around barricade, Nat has already left. He was tired as hell after two days of no sleep, thus he wanted to reach Damascus as soon as possible and get some sleep, rather than keep his original promise that took him there.