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Chapter
Four

The Ambush

 

Timeline:

This story begins a few days after
The First Clue.

 

 

See? There, under that clump of wild berry bushes..”, Laila Wolvesbane whispered from where she lay.

Bremorel Songsteel peered intently at the bush from where she too, lay hidden. She gave the berry bush far and deep among the trees, some eighty yards away, a good, hard stare.

“Nope. Still can’t see anything.”, her cousin whispered back, frowning at the unyielding bush.

“Come.”, Laila said. “Let’s circle around it and see closer.”

“No. If you say it’s there, then it’s there. I trust your eyesight more than I trust anybody else’s, cuzz. Let’s go back and tell the others. And give that Aager-guy something to chew on.”, Bremorel said with a smirk as she slithered back, careful not to make any noise. When she was far enough, she got up and her cousin appeared next to her and they both started back towards the company.

“Bree..”, Laila reprimanded with exasperation. “You really should get over him, already. He’s doing what he thinks is right for the survival of the town. Would have been surprised if he did anything else, really. Everything I have heard about him says, he has no life.. I mean, almost literally.. He barely goes to his dingy little home, he skulks around the town ambushing the guards to make sure they are sober and awake, and when he’s off duty, he comes down on Udoorin in hopes of making him more than a dumb axe-swinger. To be honest, I feel sorry for both of them. I would have bailed my training if Ranger Master Davien had treated me like that. Not that he would..”
“Why are you defending him, Laila? You detest him as much as I do.”, Bremorel asked scowling at her cousin.

“It doesn’t matter what I personally think of him, cuzz. He is doing his job, and apparently, possibly because he has nothing else to do with his life. I mean, you’d wish, someday, that boy of yours would brave up and ask you out and hope it would eventually lead somewhere, or to something, right?”, Laila said.

“I am not answering that.. It’s clearly a trick question.”, Bremorel said with a brittle sort of grin.

“What I am getting at is, you have hopes and dreams. Everyone does. That man doesn’t. What’s truly creepy is, he doesn’t do anything for even a bit of satisfaction. And you’d think he would be all commanding and pompous, you know, since the sheriff chose him to lead us, right? But he hasn’t shown the slightest interest in any human ego. I mean, if that’s not creepy, I don’t know what is. I don’t think he cares if he is the leader or not. I mean, he really doesn’t care! But since the job’s been dumped on him, he’s doing it much like a surgeon would use his sharp knives to cut out a barbed arrow without shredding open an artery.”, Laila tried to explain.

“How do you know so much about him?”, Bremorel asked, squinting at her cousin.

“I asked around.”, Laila shrugged.

“Why?”

“I got curious. Particularly after Bane-Song operation.. and having seen the way he’d grilled us for hours even though we were recuperating. You know, it made me wonder why he got so obsessive over things that seemed so trivial at the time. I think it has to do with his past.. and likely due to some things that happened to him back at Drashan.”, the half-elf girl mused.

“Who cares!”, fumed Bremorel.

“My dear sister-cousin..”, Laila said seriously, though there was the tint of a smile playing at the corners of her lips.

“..of all people, I would have thought you would understand the consequences of misunderstanding people.”

Bremorel froze where she was.

Then she turned to her cousin and gave her a very frosty glare..

“That.. was uncalled for, Laila. Dammit, girl, that happened years ago. I was just a kid, then.”, she fumed, and somewhat guiltily.

“SH-12117601-1732!”, came a growling voice.

Both the ranger girls held their breath and almost dropped to the ground, Laila drawing her bow with a yard-long arrow cocked and Bremorel’s greatblade appeared in her hands! Then recognition dawned on both of them and they eased, just a little..

“Master Aager.”, Laila said coolly, though she was having a hard time keeping her cool. “You should never sneak up on a pair of rangers. An apology will be too late!”,

“If someone has managed to sneak up to a pair of rangers, I doubt an apology would suffice.”, Aager Fogstep growled as he stepped out from behind a tree.

“Why are you here?”, flared Bremorel. “Aren’t you supposed to watch over the company?”

“You are part of the company, Ranger Morel.”, the man replied as if stating the obvious. “You had been gone for more than your usual time. I came to check up on your well-being.”

“Our well-being? I doubt you care—”, Bremorel started belligerently but the man in dark leathers, hood, and half-mask cut in.
“—Do not afflict your personal doubts and issues upon others, Ranger Morel.”, Aager grated. “Wasn’t that the very reason you were conscripted as a ranger initiate in the first place? I would have thought you’d have learned something from that particular mistake. Your insistence in proving me wrong on this matter is baffling.”

Bremorel’s face turned black.

“Bree, please..”, Laila said softly to her, putting one hand on her shoulder and giving her a warning squeeze. Then she turned to the man and spoke in her calm, serene voice. “We were held up because we found another dead carcass hidden under some wild bushes. We wanted to make sure there was no one around or to be certain it wasn’t a setup.”

“Was this one eaten and discarded like the others you found?”, Aager asked intently.

“It appear to be, however, we are not sure yet. We opted to return and inform you and the others rather than risk any ambushes that might be waiting for us. We think, who or whatever killed the other animals, must have killed this one as well, though I suggest we go back and check to make sure.”, she said.

“I trust your judgment on this matter, Ranger Laila. We now have a very large, wounded wild boar you ended, and six other dead animals, killed by something, gnawed upon, then tossed under some bushes, and all in different locations. Your thoughts?”, Aager asked.

That was one of the many other things that irked both the ranger girls. As much as Laila and Bremorel detested or disliked this man, he rarely gave them direct orders if he could avoid it. He would opt to ‘want’ they did something, or perhaps even ‘wish’ they did whatever it was that he wanted from them to get done. And he always asked their opinion, and he gave the distinct impression that he didn’t do them to be polite nor out of professional courtesy, but only because of some practical and pragmatic reason; he simply trusted their judgment on matters pertaining to their skills and training.

Yup.

It irked the younger of the two girls particularly and to no end..

“I believe our previous assessment is still valid, Sir.”, Laila said coolly. “There are thirteen of them, twelve of which have had extensive and similar training, and are all humans. The last one, however, is not. I believe he is either an elf or more likely a half-elf and has never been outside a city before. At least that’s the impression we got from his tracks. Whoever he is, he is used to walking on flat, hard surfaces, much like cobblestones.”

“Not from a town?”, Aager asked.

“No. Towns might have cobblestones but they tend to be shoddy because of poor material and workmanship. Good quality cobblestone and professional workers are very expensive. And because they are trampled by cattle and sheep in towns and villages, they become uneven and eventually crack which also makes it a bit pointless to use the fancier stones or professional workers to lay them since under constant trampling of herds of cattle or sheep, they are going to crack anyway. Serenity Home has decent quality cobblestones but neither cattle nor sheep are herded through our town.. No, the half-elf was not from some small, rural town, but from a big city with flat, high-quality cobble. I have never been there but I am thinking he is from the Great Arashkan city. I hear they have and can afford such fancy utilities.”, Bremorel said grudgingly, then paused.

“You have more to add, perhaps?”, the man in dark leathers offered with his gravelly voice.

“I think he is some sort of, I don’t know..”, she said and her face flushed.

“What?”, growled Aager.

“..a man whore!”, she finished, her face burning now.

Laila stifled a laugh and her face also went pink.

Aager gave both of them a long, appraising look.
“And you would know what a man whore is how, Ranger Morel? Seems a bit out of your jurisdiction.”, he grated, though it gave the girls the impression that he was laughing under his half-mask.

“I don’t!”, flared Bremorel, her face going even redder now.

“I believe you, Ranger Morel. But by all means, do elaborate.”, Aager said, his growl amused.

“Ranger Laila noted one of the men was wearing a white, frilly shirt, the night of the attack. We have been following their trail for days now and we can both find each and every single one of these people as long as there is a trail to be found. And the frilly one was not wearing soft leather boots like the others, but hard boots made for a city dweller. I.. I picked up a scent that I believe also belongs to the same man. I had felt it before, but I didn’t recognize it for what it was, alright?”, the young ranger spat with flaring anger.

“Alright.”, Aager replied noncommittally. “But please, go on.”

“Well, he smells of perfume! A swooning sort of perfume!”, she blurted.

“Swooning, was it?”, the man in dark leathers said, both his eyebrows raised, now.

Bremorel’s face went totally dark as she dug herself deeper and deeper.

Laila was trying very hard not to smile and but she was starting to crack..

“What Ranger Bremorel is trying to say is..”, Laila coughed, “..she thinks the perfume scent she picked likely had some form of Aphrodite in it.”

Aager immediately understood what they meant. In fact, it was quite possible he understood more than they did. Not because he was a Drashan, but because of what he’d done there. Aphrodite was a rather enflaming and arousing chemical, highly illegal in the Kingdom of Isles, as he’d found out when he had come to Serenity Home some five years ago, but not totally unavailable either.

Slipped into the drink of a man would purchase the expected results. Sprinkled into an unsuspecting woman’s drink, however, the results would be.. well.. to say the least, rather erratic, if not outright erotic, and it came with quite savage demands on the now, totally, and unreasonably aroused woman’s part, depending on the dosage. Considering its somewhat vanilla and cinnamon aftertaste, it wasn’t unheard of for men and women of high standing and power delighting over it, even though it was very expensive and hard to come by. For inexperienced young girls such as rangers Laila and Bremorel, the effects of even the scent of the arousing concoction would be, likely as expected; sort of swooning!

Aager stared at the two young ranger girls and noted their eyes were just a tad over dilated. Which explained why they both were blushing so furiously. As an interesting side note, Aager Fogstep never opted to stay his silence and let them squirm. It was unlikely he did so due to some sense of honor, much like any decent human being would have felt, but because he found the whole, arousing concept to be foolish!

“Ranger Laila.”, he grated finally. “Do you have anything else to add to your report?”

“Yes, Sir.”, she said, her face flushed even more as comprehension of what was going on slowly dawned on her. “They have picked up their pace. Always before, their tracks were ‘a foot apart’, the way people would walk when they are going for stealth as much as for speed. A balanced ‘stalk’, per se. Now they seem to have dropped the need for overt stealth and opted to go more for speed.”

Aager frowned over that. Their trek through the forest was slow enough, constantly keeping an eye on the tracks so as not to lose them all the while keeping an eye for the unseen. If these people had picked up their pace, following them would become somewhat easier when they had two, experienced rangers, but they would also have to throw caution aside, which, all things considered, he didn’t want to do. True, rangers Laila and Bremorel were battle-tested. He surmised, so was the paladin girl, Lady Moira. As for himself, he had lost his chance to be ‘at ease’ by the time he was five, back at Drashan. Lady Magella had also seen some action, before and after she had become a Temple Guardian. But Udoorin was still lacking in real combat experience. As for the little gnome, Gnine, Aager didn’t really care one way or the other as long as he wasn’t a distraction or got under other people’s way.

“Very well.”, he finally said, adding a bit more stress and reverberation to his growl. “We shall have to pick up the pace as well. We can not let these people get away. We must catch up to them before they leave this forest. Ranger Morel, you are on point again, if you will. Ranger Laila, I would wish you to be only thirty yards behind her now. We shall no longer be spread apart as we were. The remaining company shall also be only fifty yards behind you.”

“They will hear you coming.”, Bremorel objected.

“Our query has picked up their pace, Ranger Morel. That tells me, either they no longer feel the need for stealth, which means they are somehow nearing their exit point and are about to get away, a something we can not let happen, or something has had them spooked, which means they know their stealth hasn’t worked and are now desperate to get away, also something we can not let happen. Either way works for us and against us at the same time because if this was some sort of convoluted plan, the people who are involved will want to remove the ‘middle man’ which just happens to be our query. If they are dead, our mission will have been killed as well.. Now, if you will, Ranger Morel, take point!”, grated Aager, then started back towards the main company.

Bremorel glared after him.

“Also, Ranger Morel, no more sniffing swooning scents, please!”, came the growl of the man in dark leathers, hood, and half-mask.

“Sir..”, Laila called after him.

Aager paused.

“That thing you said earlier. SH-1211—”, she began.

“—7601-1732.”, finished Bremorel.

“Yes. What is it?”, Laila asked.

Aager turned around and stared at the two ranger girls. Whatever their faults were, they had a good eye, and ear, apparently. Enough to recognize little details, an aptitude not to shrug them off, and an excellent memory to close the deal, per se.

Yes. They had a good head over their shoulders and Aager knew he had made the right call in choosing them over more experienced rangers.

“On the twelfth of November, year seven thousand six hundred —o one, thirty-two past seventeen hundred local time, an incident of some significance occurred in Serenity Home. That ‘thing’ is the incident report number of that event.”, the man growled.

The ranger girls frowned as they mulled over what they’d just heard, but came up with nothing and the man in dark leathers did not further elaborate, to their collective frustration.

“What incident?”, Bremorel snapped finally.

Aager stared at them some more, though there seemed an amused glint in his otherwise dead eyes.

“Three boys verbally assaulted a young but striking half-elf ranger initiate, culminating in a fight where the ranger’s twelve-year-old cousin showed her displeasure by breaking the nose of one of the boys, kicking the groin of another, and chewing the arm of the third.”

Laila’s face went red.

Immediately!

Her cousin’s face, however, had already turned black..

“As a ranger initiate..” Aager continued mercilessly. “..one would have expected the young half-elf to intervene, being what she was, and older than everyone involved, and break the fight. Instead, she opted to add herself into the fray as well, further adding to the confusion.”

Laila was staring at her feet now.

Bremorel was squirming, her face going even darker..

“The fight was dispersed when the sheriff arrived, but not before the ranger initiate’s twelve-year-old cousin had concussed a fourth boy, who was, in fact, there as collateral, by way of slamming him into a wall, then beating on him until he was hospitalized. The culminating events after that were; the younger of the cousins became the first underage to ever be locked in a jail, even if it was for a mere week, in all of Serenity Home’s history, consequently winning her the prefix, ‘Bre’, meaning ‘brave’ and ‘fiery’, given to her by no other than the boy who’s arm she had chewed, and then being drafted off to be trained by Ranger Master Moorat.”

Aager paused one last time before he left.

“Yes, quite significant, indeed..”

Are you sure you want to insist on carrying all that, young Udoorin?”, growled Aager Fogstep as he stared at the very big, burly man, his many weapons, and his very heavy backpack that he was sure contained more of the same. “Perhaps you might want to dump some of them? We are going to need to pick up our pace.”

“No, no, I’ll be fine, Master Aager.”, the young man said with a flushed face. “I don’t want to be in a position where I can’t find a weapon to use. Sounds like a bad excuse to die..”

“So is tripping and falling on all those weapons, young man.”, Aager growled. “Lady Moira carries only one sword. I can’t imagine why you would need so many?”

“Lady Moira has a different calling, Master Aager.”, Udoorin said, his face going even redder.

“Leave the boy alone. He wants his toys, let him keep his toys.”, scowled Lady Magella from behind the very large man.

Aager did not retort, nor did he retaliate. He simply turned around and started after the ranger girls.

“Master Aager seems tender about your well-being, Master Udoorin.”, Moira smiled.

Udoorin didn’t say anything. He made a hauler sort of stomp on the ground to get all his weapons, his heavy chainmail, and his dreadfully heavy backpack in place, then rumbled.

“Lady Moira, Temple Guardian, Master Gnine? Let’s get started. We don’t want to fall behind.”

Lady Magella allowed a discreet smile to play around her mouth but didn’t comment at the polite and somewhat formal attitude of the boy she had known all his life. She did, however, give a furious scowl at Gnine, just as the little gnome was about to make a snark about the young man’s formal attitude.

Gnine grinned impudently at her, then he too started after the rangers.

It was perhaps two more days later that Laila came running back. She was holding something in one hand when she dashed back at the main company and came to a skidding stop next to Aager.

“We found this.”, she said holding up the thing in her hand.

It was a small, compact leather pouch.
Aager took the pouch from her and stared at it, carefully inspecting its size and shape and seems.

“This isn’t a pouch. It is an exceptionally designed and crafted backpack. Very compact and made of high-quality Mox leather. It’s very slim but has a buckle for a blanket roll on top, pockets to hold various items on either side and even a clasp at the bottom end for a rope. Whoever these people are, they were well prepared.”, he said as he opened the pack to see even the content comprised of high-quality gear, rations, collapsible hooks, a hammer, several six-inch spikes, a dozen foldable caltrops, and a slender cantine of water.

“This is not Mox leather, Master Aager.”, Moira said, after she’d reached for the pack and felt its texture. “We grow herds of Mox on the mountains around Durkahan because its leather is extremely tough and durable hence we use it for many military and non-military applications. We have also been trying to soften it and make it more flexible for civilian use for centuries to no avail.”

“Huh.”, the man in dark leathers grunted.

“Though I agree with your assessment.”, she added. “This is, indeed, excellent craftsmanship, let alone, cunning in design. Our scouts and rangers have similar gear, but not of this quality.”

“It’s griffon hide.”, came a small voice and everyone turned to stare at Gnine.

“What?”, he said. “It is..”

“You would know this, how?”, Aager growled down at him.

“Does it matter?”, the little gnome asked a bit impudently.

“At the moment, we do not have enough information to include or discard anything, Master Gnine. Hence we can not assume which information is relevant and which is not.”, the man in dark leathers grated.
Gnine shrugged.

“I am the niece and the apprentice of an artificer.”, he said as if that explained everything.

Apparently, it didn’t, since everyone kept staring down at him.

“Artificers handle all sorts of different kinds of material. They have to if they want to invent and/or artifice things. To be honest, I don’t see myself as an artificer, though I have dabbled with it due to my uncle. I have, however, taken the Artificer’s Oath, meaning I can’t tell you or go into the details of anything about how certain things are crafted.. Not the specifics anyway.. What I can tell you is, this is refined griffon hide leather and superb quality too. But as uncommon as it is, griffon hide is not unique. There is any number of places that tan and utilize griffon hide. It isn’t as tough as Mox hide, but it can be worked with a lot less effort. It won’t stand against sharp objects such as swords, axes, spears, or arrows like Mox hide can, but it will withstand quite harsh conditions such as extreme cold, it is long-lasting, and you can make sophisticated craftsmanship like these slick backpacks.”, he explained seriously, which was quite a bit, unlike his usual stance.

He stared at the backpack for a moment, then added.

“This really is excelling work. It must be at least a hundred gold pieces worth.”, he mused as he eyed the pack. “I mean, if no one wants it, I could actually use it.”

“That was quite educational, Master Gnine. Should we figure its presence is, indeed, irrelevant, you may have it.”, Aager grunted, then turned to the young ranger. “You had best not leave Ranger Morel alone. Keep your eyes open, if you will. Something tells me these people are feeling threatened and not by us.”

“Yes, Sir.”, Laila said smartly and took off.

Aager took a quick stock of the rest of the group. Young Udoorin hadn’t said anything because he had been busy heaving for breath like an overhauled draft horse! After two days of near-constant running through the uneven wilderness of Ritual Forest carrying all the weapons and his own, gruelingly heavy backpack, and with shallow rests the kid seemed to have lost any access body fat he’d had.

Yet, he hadn’t complained once.

Lady Moira seemed strung out as well. There were dark circles around her eyes, she seemed somewhat disheveled and quite sweaty, and she was favoring one leg, which was expected. She had stepped into a rabbit’s hole and toppled over with a resounding crash. Had it not been for the unexpected reaction from Udoorin running next to her, the results of that fall could have been quite painful, if not crippling. The young man had simply stuck out his free arm and stopped the girl in mid-fall! She had thanked the young man with a flushed face, who had gone bright red himself, over the awkward situation..

..and hadn’t said a word since then.

The otherwise stoic she-dwarf, Lady Magella had not taken the constant running through the woods so calmly, though. Being a Temple Guardian had given her many privileges and well-earned prestige, but the long years of ritualized repetition of non-physical activities had ebbed what she’d claimed in grumbling discomfort and annotations as, unyielding dwarven fortitude. By the end of the second day, she had fallen asleep while on the run..

..and with some unprecedented wisdom, the little gnome, Master Gnine, had not laughed when the Temple Guardian had run right into a massive oak tree and promptly knocked herself out!

To the surprise of everyone, the same little gnome had somehow managed to keep up with the company. But then, other than what very little he’d been carrying, he had all but hauling himself. Even then, he hadn’t said much nor had he complained, not out loud anyway. Although he was also tired, he showed unexpected resilience. He also seemed a bit bored.

Of all those around him, sans perhaps the ranger girls who had spent years on-the-field training and been running through most of the southern end of Ritual Forest, all the lands around Serenity Home, and between Scowling Hills and back for the entirety of their career, only Aager Fogstep did not show any signs of exhaustion. Whether it was due to some inhuman mental resolution or due to his past life in Drashan where he had learned, firsthand, that those who tired or dropped their guard, died.

After all, he had fed upon that particular aspect of human nature many times..

Or perhaps it was merely due to the fact that his half-mask did the job it was intended for and hid his fatigued face from those around him. As the two rangers dashed ahead, the rest of the company followed them while the man in dark leathers, hood, and half-mask made wide circles around them as if to make sure he was there should either end of their company require assistance.

And now he stood silently, some two hundred yards off to one side, listening..

..and he thought he heard, from far, far away, the roaring of a wild and feral beast.

We found more of them.”, Laila reported, holding up another of the same backpack they had found earlier that day. It was almost evening now and both the ranger girls had returned to the main company, each holding various items, mostly identical slick packs, coiled ropes, spare clothes, scroll cases containing many empty parchments of various qualities, and strange, compact canisters which the little gnome, Gnine, cautiously identified as fog grenades, though he admitted they could be holding other kinds of, possibly poisonous and quite deadly gases, and were generally not very reliable and they would be better off to just bury them all.

“So, it is true, then?”, Udoorin rumbled as he unbuckled his shield, dropped many of his arms and his very heavy backpack, and sat on the ground. “They are spooked and they are on the run? As a side note, when do we eat?”

“Thinking with your stomach?”, Bremorel scowled at him.

“I am hungry, Bree. I wasn’t aware this was something I had to hide.. Is it?”, he asked honestly.

“I suppose you want us girls to cook for you?”, she scoffed.

“Never crossed my mind, really.”, he said with a straight face. “Not with all the girls here. But hey, I could cook if you like.”

“NO!”, came a chorus of protests from Bremorel, herself, her cousin Laila, Lady Magella, and Gnine. Moira didn’t say anything, possibly because she was being polite. And since so many had already objected, neither had Aager offered his opinion on the matter.

The ranger girls had already dug a fire pit, circled it with stones, gathered armloads of dry branches, cut them down to manageable sizes, and had the fire started. There was even a small iron pot full of boiling water hanging over it.

“What? You think I can’t?”, the young man said a bit taken aback. “I learned cooking from my father and he’s excellent at it.”

“Well, there’s something you never hear; that Sheriff Standorin being an excellent cook.”, Laila smirked.

“Yeah, what she said.”, Bremorel said, also smirking.

Lady Magella had dropped her backpack as well and was now rummaging through it. She pulled out several choice potatoes and tossed them at Gnine.

“What am I going to do with these?”, the little gnome asked.

“Peel.”, the she-dwarf replied gruffly.

“What? There are all these girls and you want me to peel the potatoes?”, he said incredulously.

“The ranger girls have been running ahead, tracking, scouting, and making sure no one snuck up on us without us knowing. I am cooking. By all means, do ask Lady Moira, a paladin, to peel potatoes, Master Gnine. I wasn’t aware you were thus important a figure that couldn’t offer what he could to his own company. Is this what Nymbletyne’s been teaching you? “, she glared down at the gnome.

Gnine shrank.

Quite visibly..

“Peel.”, she repeated, then turned her back on him and took out an onion or two and some carrots, and cleaned them, chopped them into little bits, then tossed them into the boiling pot. Then she started at the two rabbits Bremorel and Laila had shot while they’d been tracking.

“Of course.”, Udoorin was saying indignantly. “My father takes everything he does seriously, including cooking.”

“It isn’t that I don’t want to believe you, Udoorin. But this is something I just got to see with my own eyes.”, Bremorel laughed.

“You can ask him when we return. I am sure he can teach you how to cook.”, he said.

“Shots fired!”, Gnine piped from the side.

Bremorel glared at him as her face darkened.

Then she glared at Udoorin too.

“I doubt your father—”, she began through clenched teeth but the young man cut in.

“—Before you say anything you will regret, Bree, let me tell you that everything in our house is hand-crafted by my father, including the kitchen table, the stools, plates, the handles of all the spoons, the forks, and the knives, the bed frames and the posts, the cabinets, the wardrobes, the cushioned elbow seats and the chairs in front of the fireplace, and the bookshelves. He also likes cooking in the kitchen he built. He used to cook for my mother because, much like you are now, she was a ranger too, and she used to come home quite late at times and usually very tired due to her designated patrols. Father never complained, but he did make sure she ate well.”

“That was not nice, Udoorin. Bringing your mother into this.”, Bremorel hissed furiously.

“I didn’t bring her in. I only wanted you to know why my father is a good cook, other than being a good sheriff. So if you want me to cook, I don’t mind it. And I can put you to shame any day by doing it.”, the young man said with a slightly irritated shrug.

“Why so serious all of a sudden, Udoorin?”, Laila asked.

“I am serious most of the time, Laila. You should know that by now. You two are my friends. Best and closest ones. But I don’t like it when you question the things that I tell you, or when you joke about them. I have never lied to you, and I have never played you. I accept both of you the way you are and respect you for what you do for the town. I also respect you as my friend. I would, however, expect a similar attitude in return, that’s all.”, the young man said with a slight frown.

Both the ranger girls stared at him, then gave each other a guilty sort of glance.

“I am sorry, Udoorin. I really am. My intentions were not to question your word. But merely teasing for a laugh.”, Laila said honestly.

“Yeah, what she said.”, Bremorel added.

“I know your intentions are not ill. I doubt we would have been friends had I thought otherwise. But your tease for a laugh is at my expense. I mean, I would expect this from Gnine, who has no respect nor regard for anyone, just not from you. And certainly not from you either, Bree.”, Udoorin said, still frowning.

“Hey!”, objected Gnine. “I resent that.”

“Which part do you resent, Gnine?”, the big, burly man turned to look at him this time. “That you have been pranking me on a weekly basis for years?”

“You have no proof of any pranks I may, or may not have done to you!”, Gnine said indignantly.

“Gnine.”, Udoorin said patiently as he breathed from his nose. “Has it ever occurred to you that I am the son of the sheriff and the trainee of no other than Master Aager and that I might have picked up a thing or two from either of them? Do you really think I couldn’t find ‘proof’ if I really wanted to? Did you really think I didn’t know who was pranking me all these years? And that I never retaliated, not once, because I respected your uncle more than I respected your lack of regard for others? And why I never just tossed you over the town walls and into the Arashkan River? And believe me, that certainly would have been a laugh. But you know what? I don’t do laugh at other people’s expense. Not since I was a stupid kid. So tell me, Gnine, what makes you so special?”

The little gnome ogled at the big, burly, and frowning young man.

Udoorin waited for a moment to get an answer, but when he got none, he breathed from his nose once again, rose back up, kicked the dirt with one boot, picked up one of his greataxes, “I’ll take the first watch.”, he rumbled, then stomped off.

It was several minutes later when Laila and Bremorel appeared from behind some trees and walked up to him, making just enough noise so he would know their approach.

Udoorin stared behind, saw the ranger girls, fumed a bit, then returned his gaze into the forest.

“What is going on, Udoorin?”, Laila asked kindly, staring at the broad back of the young man.

“Nothing.”, mumbled Udoorin.

“Come on.”, Bremorel said. “We are friends. Whatever it is that’s really bothering you, you can tell us.”

“I said, nothing.”, rumbled the young man once again.

Laila sighed.

“Is this about the fight? It was years ago, Udoorin. We were all younger back then. And did stupid things. And among everyone who was involved, you were the only one to show any maturity. Hell, I still remember when you knocked on our door. I was still so furious when I saw you through the window and was about to open the door and shout at you but my father stopped me. I could see you squirming, yet you still braved up and knocked on our door and apologize, to me and my father. Then you did the unexpected. You told me you would like to be my friend and that you would be very, very happy if I didn’t refuse you. I only agreed with you that day because you broke my mind! I just couldn’t find anything to refuse your peace offer. And a good thing too. I got a lifelong friend that day.”, Laila said softly.

Udoorin didn’t say anything and didn’t turn around, but his fade did flush a little bit.

“I am not even sure if I could add anything on top of that.”, Bremorel said. “I mean, I thought Laila had betrayed me when I was finally let out of my week-long stint in jail and came home to find both of you talking and laughing in the garden. Turns out, one week wasn’t enough and that they should have given me a longer sentence because of what I did to you, and to.. uhhmm.. the other boy.. And I became ‘Bremorel’ thanks to you!”

Udoorin still refused to say anything as he silently fumed.

“So, tell us, Udoorin. What’s really bothering you?”, Laila asked.

“Yeah.”, her cousin said with a smirk. “You know you are going to cave in eventually. Might as well do it with grace.”

Udoorin fumed some more, then caved..

Laila and Bremorel were his friends and admittedly, were like the sisters he never had.

“My boots.”, he rumbled finally.

The sister-cousins stared at the big, burly man, then at one other in total incomprehension.
“Uhhmm.. Your boots?”, Laila asked carefully.

“Yes, my boots!”, Udoorin said angrily. “Some idiot dumped squishy and disgusting worms into them the night of the fire and totally destroyed them. I had to get me this new pair just before the council meeting and they are killing me!”

We found them, Sir.”, Laila said with a drawn face. Aager stared at her, taking in the details of her tautly sketched expression.

“They are dead.”, he stated in a low growl and started walking in the direction she had come.

Laila’s brows shot up.

“Yes. How did you—?”, she began, jogging after him.

“That is why they were spooked, Ranger Laila. They figured they were being hunted as well. Also why they dropped all their non-essentials and picked up their pace. And because shady people always end up dead under shady conditions. Not really something I would expect you to understand.”, he growled as he picked up his pace.

Laila’s face went a bit rigid.

“You would, though, wouldn’t you?”, she said hotly.

“Yes.”, Aager replied calmly. Then, for a bare moment, he paused to look at her and said, “But you misunderstand me, Ranger Laila. I would not expect you to understand, but not due to a lack of intelligence on your part. You will not understand because you are not a shady person. Quite the contrary. You are as honest as they come by. And as abrasive as your cousin is, and for whom I hold no rancor even though she can hold a grudge long past its due by four years, she too is a good person. But at the end of the day, she was drafted as a ranger initiate in hopes that her temper might be put to good use. You, on the other hand, volunteered to be one even though you were physically much weaker than all the other applicants. You were, however, also much more focused, smart, result-oriented, cool-headed, and you have a personal, not a vendetta, but a mission embedded in your calling; you want to make sure no one suffers as you did.”

Laila stared at the face he could barely see under his hood and his half-mask as he read her.

“As for the grudge your cousin wants to dearly hang on, you make a better show of hiding it, which is smart on your part.”, Aager continued as he started walking again. “The safety of the lands surrounding Serenity Home is your responsibility. I did what I did, back then, because the safety of the same Serenity Home and those that protect the lands surrounding it, is mine. Perhaps my timing was incorrect, back then. But the simple matter of fact is, I do not like complications and the unknown. Because what is not known can not be quantified nor can it be analyzed, thus making it quite incomprehensible, consequently turning it into a security risk that I can not prepare nor guard against. Suffice to say, I was doing my job.”

“Do I hear an apology in there somewhere?”, Laila asked tentatively.

“I find it to be needless, pointless, and quite arrogant to apologize for doing my job, and neither should you, Ranger Laila. Perhaps you have not noticed, public relations is not my area of expertise nor is it within my arena of interest.”, the man in dark leathers grated.

“Uhhmm.. you could handle things a bit nicer though.”, she mumbled.

“‘Nice’ is for people who have the luxury of being safe and can sleep in their beds unafraid. It exists so long as they believe they are safe. I, however, do not have such luxuries nor do I have such constraints. And should I foolishly think otherwise, people would stop feeling safe, and all ‘the nice’ would die.”, he growled.

“Your life must be lonely, miserable, and barren, Sir.”, Laila said with a lamenting tone.

“You assume what you do not know, once again, Ranger Laila. I do not seek a life.”, he snarled.

Laila ogled at him as they ran.

“But, why?”, she asked inadvertently.

“Just what life would the Heavens possibly have to offer a Drashan murderer such as myself? Perhaps you think there is some angel out there waiting for me.. No, Ranger Laila Wolvesbane, you are young and you have hopes. You can never truly understand ‘the shady’ because you are also honest. I, on the other hand, care little for hopes, and for me, honesty isn’t worth a speck on a pot de chambre! Your moral integrity is due to that same honesty. I, on the other hand, do not entertain such delusions. What I do have is mere pragmatic practicality. Should I fail to uphold my word, I will lose what credibility I have, which will reflect upon my intent in a very practical sense; when I tell someone I will kill them, they know, with absolute certainty, that I will do exactly that. What awaits you is endless possibilities which, in essence, is the very definition of life. What awaits for me, however, is nothing short of a noose followed by a very long stint in Hell.”, Aager grated, biting at his own words, murdering the conversation from his end.

Bremorel knelt behind a thick patch of bushes when the others came crawling silently beside her doing their best not to step on any dead branches. Her cousin, Laila, had appeared next to her and lightly tapped her on the shoulder, informing her she was there without speaking.

Gnine hadn’t really needed to crawl, but he did it anyway and was quite silent on his feet. Lady Magella, Moira, and Udoorin had been an altogether different proposition. Try as they might, their armor clanked and clinked as they approached on all fours, an exercise that Lady Magella had found quite offensive.

Master Aager, however, was nowhere in sight.

“What’s with you?”, Udoorin rumbled when he crawled up next to the ranger girls.

Bremorel didn’t reply. She stared at the big, burly young man with a pale and drawn face for a moment, then nodded towards the other side of the bushes. Udoorin frowned, then slowly rose and poked his head over the bushes, his great battleaxe in his big fists, and froze. There, some twenty yards away, lying on the forest ground were bodies in dark leathers and hoods, perhaps half a dozen of them. They lay sprawled and slaughtered!

Laila tapped the ogling young man on the shoulder and nodded at him to take the right. She looked back at Moira and nodded at Udoorin and the armored paladin girl, Lady Moira silently telling her to go with them.

Then she mimed the she-dwarf, Lady Magella, to hold her position then slithered to the left and behind a tree and waited while her cousin rolled to her left, and very quietly stalked her way to further circle the area.

“Do not stand in front of me!”, she hissed when the little gnome tried to creep up from under the bush. “And don’t move.”

“What?”, Gnine asked, turning to look at her with a frown, then fell silent when she saw the young ranger girl’s face. Whatever expression he saw there, it had been something he’d never seen before. Laila was afraid. But there was also a determined glint in her eyes and her lips were pressed tight, as she slowly drew her longbow cocked with a long, heavy, and deadly-looking arrow fletched with red and white feathers all the way up to her delicate, slightly pointy ear and held it there. Then Udoorin, with a big battleaxe, backed up by Moira, her long blade drawn, crashed into the clearing ahead and where the bodies were as Bremorel did the same from the other direction, her greatsword held low. Laila held her position, her bow pulled back and straight.

Then Aager appeared from the far end, a sharp, agile shortsword in one hand and a sharper dagger in the other. He looked up at where Laila was standing hidden behind the tree and curtly shook his head and the ranger girl lowered her longbow and put the arrow carefully back into her quiver.

“Udoorin, Lady Moira..”, Aager growled. “..secure the premises, if you will. Ranger Laila, please take a closer look at the bodies. Ranger Morel, I would like you to find any tracks leading here and from here, please. Master Gnine, check out their gear, their packs, and their pockets. Lady Magella, see if you can find anyone salvageable in this mess.”

“Salvageable?”, Lady asked a bit confused.

“Anyone that is alive and can be saved..”, the man in dark leathers grated.

“That is a rather inhumane way to put it, young man. These people were alive once.”, the she-dwarf said reprovingly.

“And now they are dead, Lady. These men infiltrated and burned your town. People you knew are dead because of them. You will have to forgive me if I do not share your sentiments for them..”, Aager growled.

“Life is sacred, Master Aager. We do not get to choose which one is better than the other.”, she scowled.

“It is good, then, that I was not here when they were slaughtered for I feel little remorse for their demise. The only thing that matters to me is that I still do not have the answers I want as to why they did, what they did.”, he shrugged as he knelt over the bodies, or rather, what was left of them.

Whatever had happened here, it hadn’t been a simple fight where people had cut one another. It had been base slaughter and there hadn’t been so much as ‘cutting’, as there had been ‘hacking!’

“This isn’t honorable combat.”, Moira said with a sick voice. “In combat, you run your opponent through and once he is down, you give him his last moments to make peace and perhaps cast a few last words of prayer. These people, whoever they were, have been subjected to deliberate acts of vile butchery.. After they were killed!”

“Yes.”, agreed, young Udoorin, also in a nauseated tone. “And unlikely by swords. Axes, I think. Rather big ones too. It is understandable to get carried away in the heat of battle and display access violence. But once the enemy is down, he is down. There is no point in continuing to hack at them. It is pointless and it also makes you vulnerable to further attacks. It is also a redundant exercise since you are wasting time killing someone who is already dead thrice over. I mean, just look at this mess. They have been beheaded, their innards have been pulled out, and they are missing their arms and legs!”

Lady Magella walked over to the carnage, all the while fuming. She took one glance at the cluster of mangled corpses, sighed, dropped her pack and undid the knots holding the shovel tied to its back, and started digging.

“Uhhmm.. What are you doing?”, Gnine asked as he rummaged through the few backpacks he found, and carefully, and with a great amount of distaste, patted at the dead men’s bloody clothes and pockets.

“These men need graves, Master Gnine.”, she replied, fuming from her nose. “I suggest you grab a shovel yourself and start digging as well.”

“What? You want me to dig graves for these people? They attacked our village. They burned our homes and shops. They are directly responsible for the death of many of our townsmen! Hell, they almost killed my uncle and burned down our home and workshop!”, he replied angrily.

Lady Magella stopped her digging and gave the little gnome a long, steady gaze.

“And hence, they should also dictate our moral standards?”, she said, frowning at him.

“Well, no, not when you put it that way..”, Gnine trailed off.

“Start digging, Master Gnine, instead of looting. I would rather I didn’t have to dig one for you!”, she fumed.

“You could be harsh for a Temple Guardian, you know that?”, he mumbled.

“Excuse me?”, the she-dwarf glared at him.

“Nothing, nothing..”, Gnine said hastily and started digging as well.

“These are some of the people that I saw and tracked, Sir.”, Laila reported, as she also knelt beside the carnage. “See the soles of their shoes? I was right. They are soft caoutchouc and they have been eroded.”

“Very good, Ranger Laila. What do you think happened here?”, Aager asked.

“Some things ambushed them. Perhaps two nights ago. We were moving at a slower rate than they were running because we have to make sure we don’t lose their tracks and we are being cautious.”, she said as she began to ‘read’ the tracks she had found and composed the story they told.

“They were asleep. Accept that one over there. And that one.”, she said, pointing at two corpses, one on the northeast, the other on the southwest end of the camp. “They were the first to die. Whatever hit them, they came from the west side of the camp and they took out their lookouts and fast. Then they jumped the rest of them. I do not know what they are. I have never seen tracks like these. They are large. Humanoid in shape. I suspect they are at least three hundred, perhaps three hundred and fifty pounds in weight, and likely eight, or even nine feet in height. Their steps are ‘stomping’, rather than marching. Like a horde, then an orderly military formation. A bit like orc raiders but not as shifty, and certainly much more decisive, which is puzzling as to how they caught these men off guard. They used various weapons broad-tipped spears, much like the one we found on the wild boar I killed several days ago, and wide-bladed, and jagged-edged axes. The men reacted almost instantly, even though they were ambushed. They fought fast and bloody, but it was dark and their campfire had died down. The creatures waited for the right time to attack. They pushed and bullied their way onto them using the longer reach of their weapons and their own bulk, forcing the men to bunch up and crowd each other. That’s when the real butchery began. Even then, some of the men made it out of the ‘siege’. I suspect Bremorel will find their tracks and they will likely be heading north. What baffles me, even more, is that the creatures did not pursue them. After they cut the last of the men that stayed behind, they headed east.”, she said with a slightly flushed face, as succinctly as possible, and without trying to embellish her oration.

Everyone had stopped what they were doing. Udoorin was staring at Laila with amazement from where he stood on guard.

A similar expression clearly said Moira was impressed as well. Gnine was ogling at her with his mouth open and Lady Magella was looking at her with slightly misty eyes as if saying, how fast they grow!

Only Aager’s reaction was reserved. He stared down at the corpses as he mulled over the ranger girl’s narration.

“What?”, Laila asked, her face a bit pink, when she saw the astonishment on their faces.

“That was amazing, that was.”, Gnine said with an awed sort of tone.

“Not really. I mean, that’s what ranger masters Davien and Moorat train all of their novices to do.”, she replied, her face going brighter. “It isn’t just shooting arrows and swordplay, you know. Most of our training is on reading tracks and reading into the details of our findings. Bree can do pretty much the same thing. Better when it comes to elaborating, really. Perhaps it has to do with her being human. Or younger. Or having a better imagination than I have. Or even because she reads more than I do.”

“Bremorel reads?”, Gnine blurted.

Laila frowned at him.

“Of course she does. All rangers do. Wisdom and knowledge are not at the edge of a sword, nor are they on the tip of an arrow, you know.. Reading is almost mandatory for us rangers. At least our respective masters made it so. And not just any book but religion, philosophy, tactical warfare, law, and even art.”, Laila said.

Gnine and Udoorin stared at her some more. Lady Magella nodded in assent, and so did Moira.

It was about then the bushes parted and Bremorel appeared, her greatblade still in her hand.

“I found tracks heading north and very slightly west. There is another corpse about two hundred yards in the same direction. Seeing as he had an evisceration running right across his belly, I suspect his friends tried to drag and save him but left him behind once they figured he was already dead. He does not appear to be butchered like this lot, which tells me he was among the ones that took off. Sans him and these, we now have only four runners and the one with the white, fancy shirt..”, she reported.

 

• • •

 

They spent the next few hours digging graves for the butchered corpses of the men upon the persistence of Lady Magella who wouldn’t budge on the matter, and to Aager’s intense frustration who believed it a waste of precious time, but he kept to his silence even though he gnawed on his mental fingers.

The man in dark leathers never went the extra mile to make his enemies suffer. But he didn’t dig graves for them and neither did he pray for their souls. He simply killed them and moved on to the next with a frightening and practical economy.

After they were done, the Temple Guardian had said a few, short words of prayer over the deceased, then they had started their hunt once again. To their very much disturbed exasperation, they caught up to their query the very next evening..

..only to find them slaughtered as well!

I do not understand.”, Bremorel said, looking down at the corpses. “These people seem like professionals. And yet, they got ambushed not once, but twice in a row. You would think they would have been a bit warier the second time around.”

“The human body can stand only so much stress and continuous exertion, cuzz. They have been on the run for days and in a forest, they are not familiar with. No, let me rephrase that; they have been on the run for days in a forest! I mean, we could go on for days with little rest, certainly. But we have been trained for it for years. Ranger Master Davien made me run, climb, and carry heavy sacks for almost a full year before he thought I was ready for the longbow. Then for the sword. These people likely had training for large towns or cities. Having seen their equipment, I’d guess they could easily climb up any given wall, break into a residence without making overt noise, and do murder. Climbing straight walls and running on city streets is not the same as climbing trees or running through a forest full of hazardous undergrowth.”, Laila mused, also staring down at the bloody bodies.

Young Udoorin and Moira had taken their places and were keeping an eye out while Aager was searching the bodies with the little gnome, Gnine, while Lady Magella watched them disapprovingly.

“What do the tracks say?”, Aager growled as he dumped the content of a pouch he had found into his palm, noted the few coins, put them back and stuffed the pouch under his belt without displaying the slightest shame, and dug into the backpack of another corpse.

“They got ambushed and then had their arses handed over to them!”, Bremorel said irritably.

“Would you care to elaborate, Ranger Morel? Something more than what I could have figured out myself, perhaps?”, Aager grated as he continued to rummage and ransacked the bodies.

Bremorel fumed as she glared at the man in his dark leathers, hood, and half-mask who totally ignored her attitude and continued looting the bodies.

“They were sleeping, but not deeply. The way they are sprawled tells me they were facing west as if they were expecting an attack from that direction again. The tracks, however, say the creatures that ambushed them before, came at them from the east this time, explaining why they went east after they hit the original company the last time. Apparently, the creatures made a wide semicircle, turned north, followed these men by running a hunting pursuit somewhat parallel to them, then waited for them to settle in for the night, then hit them. Two made a run for it. One was wounded and he didn’t get too far. His body is right there behind those bushes. They skewered him in the back with a spear even though he was dying.”, she said, narrating the events of the previous night.

“And the other one?”, Aager asked.

“The second one got away unnoticed.”, she shrugged.

“How do you figure?”, the man in dark leathers asked.

“Because there are no tracks indicating he was followed. After they were done with the killing, the creatures trampled over the corpses and continued west. Their tracks go for a mile in the same direction. Unless they changed course after that, they are no longer in the vicinity.”

Aager mulled over that for a moment, then slowly, he rose..

“Thank you, Ranger Morel. And you, Ranger Laila. Both of you have done exemplary work in tracking down the miscreants that attacked and burned Serenity Home. The narration of your findings in a comprehensive and intelligible context has proven my point in insisting that the two of you, in particular, should guide this company. Your masters, Davien and Moorat would have been proud.”, he growled.

Laila went slightly pink but she tried to cover it with a frown.

Bremorel’s face went red, then dark, then she scowled at him.

“That being said, I believe the one that got away was the one in the white, frilly shirt?”, Aager ask, though he said it as if stating a fact, rather than to confirm a question.

“Yes, Sir.”, Laila said.

Bremorel opted to nod only.

“To further detail the context, I believe these men were cutters.”, Aager said, nodding down at the men.

“Cutters?”, Lady Magella asked.

“Assassins.”, he replied shortly, then, perhaps because he came to the conclusion that a more detailed explanation might be in order, he elaborated. “But to my knowledge, these are not of the regular variety. I believe these people belonged to some specific guild. Or even a cult.”

“How do you mean?”, she frowned. “I have never heard of a cult of assassins before.”

“These men.. They all wear the same outfit. Their gear, their weapons, and even the content of their packs are all standardized, which suggests they also had the same training. Your average cutter’s guild would have basic training in assassination, infiltration, poison, espionage, and close-quarter combat. But other than that, each individual cutter would have their own individual habits, quirks, preferences, and even have traits such as favorite poison and/or killing style. These people don’t seem to have any individualized trait that would make any particular one stand out among his peers.”, the man in dark leathers growled.

“You seem to know quite a bit about ‘cutters’, Master Aager. Makes one wonder as to why?”, Lady Magella said, squinting up at him.

“There is nothing there to wonder, Lady. I know them well because I cut open any number of them, back in Drashan.”, he replied with an ‘almost’ indifferent shrug. “A deed I never felt remorse for even after repeating as often as I did.”

Everyone gave a sort of sidelong glance in his direction.

“These people, however, do not fit any cutter’s profile I have ever seen.”, Aager growled on. “And they were good at what they did, and would have likely survived had their assailants been something else, which tells me the creatures that are now roaming freely in this forest are far more dangerous and deadly than anything I have heard. They ambushed a group of well-trained assassins, not once, but twice, hitting them from two different directions. These creatures did not pursue them when they ran but followed them at a parallel course, then circled around them. That tells me they are not only cunning but also deliberately cruel for they could have followed the ones that ran after the first hit and slaughtered them. Instead, they let them go, giving them a false sense of security that they had gotten away, before hitting them a second time. What is more, the cutters that ran in the first ambush did not run because they feared for their lives, nor did they abandon their mates, but were desperate to carry out their mission.”

“How do you know?”, Lady asked.

“Because cutters do not have honor. What they do have is a sense of professional integrity. Do not misunderstand me, Temple Guardian, for I am not praising them, but merely stating a simple and practical fact; if they do not accomplish the task they were paid for, they will lose all their credibility and no one will hire them again. Not to mention, someone will be sent after them and kill them, if only to clear their own guild’s name. I believe they took something from Master Nimbletyne’s workshop before they set that device off and burned it all down, along with all the neighboring shops and homes. That is why some of them stayed behind to fight while the others ran; to reach their destination and their likely client. The last survivors of the second ambush tried to do the same but were also slaughtered, leaving only one person running and hiding out there and he is not a cutter and neither is he a member of their guild.”, Aager grated.

“The man whore!”, Bremorel blurted!

A deadly, smoldering silence fell on the company.

And after a few, pregnant seconds, Gnine burst out laughing! Udoorin tried to keep a straight face, but a snort escaped him. Moira’s face was bright red and so was Laila’s. Bremorel realized what she’d just blurted and a horribly mortified expression appeared on her darkened face. Lady Magella was staring at the young ranger girl with both her brows raised. She coughed once, cleared her throat, then murmured..

“And you would know about man whores, how?”, she asked, giving her a level gaze.

Bremorel clamped her mouth shut as her face went even darker.

“I believe the esteemed Ranger Morel is referring to the man in the white shirt..”, Aager said coldly. “..with surprising affinity.”

Poor Bremorel..

..died.

Several times over!

“Now, then.”, Aager continued, leaving the blurting girl to her own, well-earned mortification. “Perhaps Master Gnine could enlighten us as to what was stolen from his uncle’s workshop, perhaps?”

“I have no idea.”, Gnine replied promptly.

Aager fumed from his nose as he stared, coldly, down at the little gnome.

“I can’t say.”, Gnine blurted finally under the coldly seething eyes of the man in dark leathers.

“You can’t say?”, Laila asked. “Why can’t you say?”

“I can’t, alright? It is privileged by customer-client privacy.”, the little gnome said, clamping his mouth shut.

“I see.”, Aager grated. “And does such privileges entertain clients attacking and burning homes and shops and causing the death of civilians?”

“Look, I don’t even know what they stole, exactly. I have a guess, but we are not even sure the people who attacked our village are actually these people.”, Gnine said pointing at the dead cutters. “And we are definitely not certain said client and these people are somehow related in any way, let alone have any form of definitive proof that they are the same people.”

“Really?”, scowled Bremorel, her previous mortification suddenly turning into anger. “You are going to hide behind some technicality?”

“Don’t you glare down at me, girl! It isn’t technicality, it is the law. And said law is backed by the Artificer’s Oath written down by the elders of Tinker Hills eons ago. I can’t just spill the identities of clients without definitive proof that there has been foul play by said clients.”, Gnine replied a bit heatedly. I would be banned and banished from the Artificer’s Guild and I am not even a full member but a mere apprentice. I would lose all possible future prospects and licenses.”

Bremorel glared down at him.

Laila, however, put one hand on her cousin’s shoulder and refrained her. She was just about to say something to the little gnome when someone else beat her to him and it surprised everyone.

“These may not be the same people, but they belonged to the same guild, or cult, or whatever you want to call it.”, rumbled Udoorin.

Everyone turned and stared at the young man, possibly because he seldom spoke, let alone offer an opinion, particularly when Aager, Lady Magella, and perhaps even Lady Moira were around now.

“How do you know?”, Gnine scoffed at him.

Udoorin shrugged.

“They wear the same quality and make of clothes as some of the people who came to our town asking for your uncle, Nimbletyne, about two years ago.”, he said with a frown. “I remember because my father, Master Aager, even you, Lady Magella, along with Laila, Bree, ranger masters Davien and Moorat, and a good number of the other rangers were off to stomp on the ogres at Oger’s Foot and father had left me in charge as the acting sheriff.”

“I remember.”, Aager growled.

“There were five of them then. Me and Thomas, along with several guards apprehended four of them for questioning because they were, well, acting suspicious, but one of them was not there. He was at your uncle’s workshop. We went to get him too but he wasn’t with your uncle anymore. When we returned back to the sheriff’s office, we found the guards knocked unconscious, and the four men killed in their cells. They had their throats slit. You wanted proof, there it is.”, the young man said.

Gnine silently seethed and glared at Udoorin, but it had little effect on the big, burly young man.

“I don’t know what they asked my uncle to craft.”, the little gnome said finally and with fuming distress. “For the same, customer-client privacy oath, my uncle never shared any information about who his clients were, nor did he tell me what he was crafting. I helped him, as his apprentice, but I never knew what it was that we were working on. After nearly a year of trials and errors, he finally finished it but the client never showed up. The only thing I know about it is that the thing he had crafted was small and round, not unlike a round-bottomed flask, except it was upside down, that it was made from some durable glass that wouldn’t easily break, and that it also had some very, very delicate wiring inside it. Beyond that, I don’t know what its purpose was and I don’t think my uncle knew either. A lot of clients just give him sketches or just tell him to artifice something that will do this or that. He did, however, suspect it was part of some larger device though, and that each part was outsourced to different artificers such as my uncle. So if they stole that, it wasn’t in any of the backpacks from the previous group, nor is it here. And it isn’t something that could fit into a pocket, considering its size and delicate make and nature, it would need very careful wrapping, then packed and boxed in something quite sturdy. In all likeliness, it would require its own backpack, and certainly lengthier, taller, and deeper than the slick ones these men were carrying.”

They all silently mulled over that as Aager squinted down at the little gnome, assessing him. And there, he saw what he was looking for. The slight dilation of his pupils and the tiniest twitch in one eye..

The little gnome had a secret.

And he was afraid..

“What are you not telling us, Master Gnine?”, he growled at him.

Gnine flinched.

“I don’t know what you are talking about!”, he said and clamped his mouth shut again!

Aager stared down at the little gnome for a bit more. At least long enough for it to become uncomfortable.

“If Master Gnine has more to say on the matter at hand, I am sure he will. Otherwise, back off, Drashan!”, Lady Magella snarled, stepping in front of Gnine..

..to everyone’s surprise.

“Harsh!”, Aager growled, his brows raised, though no one could really see them. They also couldn’t see him grinning under his half-mask. “I believe this was the tender touch of your calling at it best, Lady. Hence I bow to the inevitable and take my leave.”

Lady Magella scowled at him.

“Ranger Laila. Ranger Morel. I believe we have ourselves a sneak-thief to catch.”, he said, turning to the ranger girls.

“Sneak-thief?”, Bremorel blurted.

“Yes, Ranger Morel. As much as you would like the last surviving miscreant to be a man whore for reasons I cannot fathom, he is, in fact, a sneak-thief, which will make him quite a bit more challenging to catch than the cutters, here. Which is also why he got away from the creatures while the cutters couldn’t.”, Aager replied in his gravelly voice.

The ranger girls stared at him.

“I believe this will, indeed, be the challenge of your carriers as rangers. I would very much want you to prove me wrong that one sneak-thief is better at getting away than two distinguished ladies such as yourselves in catching him..”

It was perhaps around the shallow hours of late afternoon, deep in the glooms of Ritual Forest when it rose from under the bushes. It didn’t burst out. It didn’t shout any challenges. It certainly didn’t make any noise when it rose, quite silently and slowly, right in front of Ranger Laila, who had been a bit too distracted with her pursuit of the sneak thief’s trail.

As much as they did not want to admit it, Master Aager had been right. The sneak-thief had turned out to be smart, cunning, extraordinarily crafty, and bloody lucky! Particularly considering how the ranger girls had looked down on him as a ‘mere’ city dweller running in a very big forest with no training on survival nor any sense of direction whatsoever!

The sneaky weasel with the white frilly shirt, however, had proven them wrong!

Apparently, not having had any training on survival in the wilderness did not mean he was without any resources. To the abashed and somewhat mortified discovery of the ranger girls, the man had climbed up trees, jumped from branch to branch, and to the adjacent tree, a stunt that would have been quite impossible considering the distance between the trees and the thick foliage of the next tree. Yet he had, leaving no trails or tracks to be found.

After spending hours and hours of searching, would they finally find the spot he had ‘landed’, making them lose precious time. And he always seemed to run, quite tirelessly, in seemingly random directions. The smarmy idiot had gone as far as leaving his white frilly shirt stretched out on some bushes, clearly wanting the ranger girls to find, and once again taken up to the trees, practically mocking them.

Suffice to say, after three days of the infuriatingly frustrating, and depressingly grueling hunt, Laila and Bremorel wanted to catch ‘that man whore’ in a worse way. Hence they had changed their pre-ordered tactics and had ranged out quite a bit further than they should have in hopes of never losing his trail again. Whether it had been chance or act of deliberation, they never quite found out when the creature, some seven and a half feet tall with dark, coarse black and matted hair, pale, grayish-green skin, well built yet lean, and in dirty brown leathers and chain armor caked with blood, rose up from behind a dense tuft of bushes, taking Ranger Laila by total, and horrified surprise, who had been too hyped with frustration and engulfed in seeking tracks.

The creature rose..

..and back-handed her!

Laila couldn’t even let loose a yelp as she flew back, a yard or two, and crash-landed on her back, her face bloodied, her nose broken, her lips split, and her eyes glazed, as she stared blankly up at the waning sky, vaguely visible through the forest canopy.

“Get up, girl..”, she slurred to herself, and only because of her years of constant and grueling training as a ranger, she rolled to her side..

..and saved her own life when the creature brought down its massive axe!

“Bree!”, she yelped as she rolled again, but not fast enough, as the edge of the axe bit into her thigh.

The moments that followed were a bit blurry for the Ranger Laila when she came to the intimate and immediate understanding that her life depended on what she would do next and that her friends would get to her in time.

As frightened and in pain as she was, she staggered to her feet, not even bothering with her bow, she drew both her longblades into a defensive stance to buy herself some time..

..and the axe came down again.

At that point, Laila made her second mistake. She tried to block the jagged blade of the axe by cross-barring her swords. The creature showed no emotion on its face but the faint sneer of disgust around its tight lips as it brought down its axe once more..

..and shattered both her swords!

Laila shrieked in pain as the splinters of her own sword shrapnelled and shredded her brown-green leather armor and her shirt and red hot stains of blood splattered as she dropped to her knees.

“Mat X’mar Parar Loshka!”, the creature snarled and rose its big axe for one last time.

With a whispering buzz, something hit the creature and it staggered for a bare second.

It turned and stared at its left shoulder to see a long, thick shaft that ended with dark brown and white feathers sticking out of it!

It turned in the direction of the arrow’s flight path to see Ranger Bremorel drop her bow and start running at him as she pulled her greatsword from her back with a very angry and determined expression on her face..

..just as the bushes on its other side crashed apart and the big, burly Udoorin came charging at it, his massive axe raised.

The creature turned to face him and tried to raise its own axe in kind, but even the arrow from the charging ranger girl wasn’t fatal, it had, however, pierced right through its packed biceps and effectively pinned his arm to his own torso.

The creature gave another disgusted look, once at the big, burly man coming at him, then at the shaft, and with a grunt, snapped it off, then slid his arm free just in time to face..

..Ranger Bremorel!

Expecting the creature to defend himself against the charging Udoorin, and to slash at its unprotected back without the need to defend herself and coming at it too fast fearing for the life of her cousin, Bremorel was caught off guard when the creature swung its axe at her. The ranger girl’s face went pale the moment she understood her mistake and knew what was going to happen next.

With defiance born from desperation and ingrained training, she made a split-second decision and dropped to a skidding stop, one leg stretched out, the other folded, and counter swung her greatblade at an almost parallel angle with the axe coming down at her. Unlike her cousin, however, Bremorel did not try to stop the big, jagged axe at the end of its arc by blocking it, a fatal mistake to make in a conflict between an axe and a sword, she didn’t try to dodge it either because that option was not in the picture anymore. She had come at the creature too fast and too blind with fury. Hence, she opted for the next best thing and dearly hoped it would work. She caught the axe at just the right angle where she could slide it along the blade of her sword and sort of ‘steer’ it away from its intended course.

To be sure, Bremorel had many faults and many more traumatic character flaws most of which she was fully aware of, but the girl had earned her name as ‘Songsteel’ for a good reason; whether by some instinct, or due to the harsh training of her ranger master, Moorat, who was also an expert swordsman, or she was just a natural, or even the collective combination of all of the above, Bremorel Songsteel ‘understood’ the sword. But unlike most good swordsmen, her sword was not an extension of her arm, but the other way around. When she drew her sword, she became the extension of her own blade! Hence her swing was almost perfect and it did steer the jagged-edged axe as it sliced her armor, cut a shallow, diagonal gash down her abdomen, and landed right next to her outstretched leg and bit into the ground and she inevitably came face to face with the grayish-green creature.

“Mat Loshka, yourself, you stupid orc!”, spat Bremorel..

..and punched it in the face.

She might as well hit him with a feather pillow for the creature barely registered it.

And that is when young Udoorin rammed into the creature and sent it flying past her. With his own, rushed momentum, he swung his own greataxe and slashed open the creature’s chest. He swung again but the creature showed unexpected defiance to pain and ducked under his second swing, stepped up, and got into his face. With a low punch, he knocked the axe out from the young man’s hands and grabbed him by the throat, and squeezed.

Udoorin grunted as he bunched up his shoulders, and he went for the creature’s throat as well, and a gurgling and strangling wrestle for life ensued.

The creature was taller than the young man by nearly afoot to be sure, but the young man was stubborn. He clung to the throat he was trying to crush with both of his powerful arms just as the creature tried to do the same to him.

Neither noticed the little gnome creeping up to them from behind the thick undergrowth. Gnine crouched low, made a small, clawed fist, murmured a few odd words, and a tiny, burning mote appeared in it. He took careful aim at the larger of the two, struggling men, and hurled the red-orange mote at it.

The small, fiery mote of fire fizzled past them both. A second mote followed this one, but it splashed on a tree some few feet off to their left and winked out. Gnine cussed at his own poor aiming and hurled a third and hit the creature on the side of its face and it let loose a strangled grunt of pain as harsh, red, burnt marks appeared where he’d just been seared. Unable to breathe, the creature showed another display of survival instinct and took one step to his left even though the young man was clutching at its throat, using him as a human shield.

They struggled back and forth as both of their faces went purple, then black as throbbing veins appeared on their temples, and their eyes started to bulge out of their sockets, yet, neither would yield.

The creature suddenly went for one of the many knives on the young man’s belts and swiped it out of its sheath and tried to stab him but Udoorin grabbed his wrist and the struggle became a two-way death trap as they continued to strangle each other as one also tried to cut him while the other desperately denied him his blood until the creature grunted once, its eyes rolled up, and it dropped limply onto the ground and the young man drew a long, stuttering breath.

“You.. you sure took your merry time, Master Aager.”, the young man rasped, holding his own neck and staring at the man in dark leathers, hood, and half-mask wiping a long and bloody dagger in his hand.

The man seemed unruffled as he coolly cleaned his dagger, checked its pointy end, grunted once in disgust, then put it back into its scabbard.

“All those axes and swords and knives, and you ended up trying to strangle your opponent while defending yourself against your own knife. Something seems off with your preparations, wouldn’t you agree, young Udoorin? I have one sword and two knives and used only the knife, and I used it only once.”, Aager growled.

“The bloody creature was all over Bree!”, Udoorin fumed as he coughed for breath. “I couldn’t risk hitting her so a bulled him off her. I hit it once but he just wouldn’t die.”

“That is how things work outside the safety of your town, young Udoorin. People, creatures, and oft-times, monsters do not comply to your wishes and die just because you want them to.”, the man in dark leathers grated as he leaned over the dead creature. “Now, go help the rangers girls, Laila and Morel, if you will, and have Lady check your throat.”

Udoorin scowled at him.

“I am fine.”, he croaked.

Aager turned and gave the big, burly man a level stare.

“Fine.”, Udoorin rasped angrily and stomped off.

The man in dark leathers returned his gaze down at the creature.

It was tall, but he noted that it didn’t have ‘bulk’. Instead, it had well-defined muscles that could only be defined as ‘lean’, and Aager had watched it as it engaged the rangers girls, first Laila, then Morel. One might say it was cruel, at this point, or even evil of him to watch from the sidelines as the girls struggled against it. It was interesting, and more than darkly frightening to figure that he hadn’t done so to have the ranger girls ‘baptized by fire’, per se. Much like the rest of the company, they were his responsibility, true, but training them wasn’t his job, nor was it within his jurisdiction. If their respective ranger masters, Davien and Moorat hadn’t been able to do that by now, the girls did not deserve to be rangers, and their masters did not deserve to be ‘masters’, nor did they deserve any respect. The aforementioned ‘darkly frightening’ part was, he had watched just to see, not what the girls were capable of, but what the creature could do because it had opted to attack the ‘rear guard’ ranger first, rather than take out Ranger Morel.

This creature had watched and observed the behavioral pattern of both the ranger girls and came to the conclusion that it would take time for the ‘sword wielding’ ranger leading the party to reach and help the ‘bow wielding’ one. Hence, it had chosen to take Laila out first, then take out the other ranger. After that, and with no one left to track, he would either make itself scarce and disappear in the woods and likely return and pick the rest of the company one by one, at its own leisure.

No, Aager thought.

This creature, whatever it was, was not merely cunning. It was innately, and sinisterly cunning. And there were more of them somewhere out there in the forest.

As a side note, he did admire both the ranger girls.

Even when she had been taken totally by surprise and knocked down with such brutal force, Ranger Laila had somehow thought to roll aside and save herself, and likely her father a lot of grief. But as good as she was with her bow, her judgment had been abysmal where her swordsmanship was concerned, the way she had tried to block a battleaxe at full, spitting speed with her longblades. As for Ranger Morel, Aager thought she had fully earned her name as ‘Songsteel’. That counter swing of hers to steer the axe to relative ‘safety’ had been something he knew he, himself, wouldn’t be able to do. Certainly not with his shortsword. But the idiot shouldn’t have needed to go to such dramatic straights had she used her mind not to charge at the creature like a stupid Mox!

At least young Udoorin hadn’t tried to chop the creature then and there. Aager thought he would have to compliment the young man at some point for his choice of approach, just to boost his morale, if for nothing else. But then the young man had spoiled it all when he had made the same mistake Ranger Morel had made even though he had had the creature dead to rights and came at it like a stupid Mox!
Aager did something he almost never did.

He sighed.

And searched the creature thoroughly and found nothing other than a thick, jagged hunting knife, a skin of water, and some rations in the form of raw, and somewhat ‘meat gone bad’ bits of animal parts. He examined the make of its armor and boots and noted they hadn’t been stolen nor had they been looted from some random corpse, but tailored for it specifically, which meant, somewhere out there, these creatures had weapon and armor smiths, and possibly other artisans among them which he found to be disturbing, for he had never seen nor heard of anything like this thing before, and as of now, all he could say about them would be, ‘a very big orc’, which would have been acceptable by some country bumpkin, just not by the sheriff’s right hand..

He stared at the creature for a few more moments, further observing and contemplating what it would entail should more of its kind come in force..

Then he shrugged.

‘Probably a blood bath.’, he thought and drew his dagger out once again, sliced open its throat even though he had killed it by the simple expedience of thrusting his blade into the base of its skull. And for a good measure, he also stabbed it in the heart.

Overkill?

Aager shrugged again.

A kill was never ‘over’ until it was over..

How are you?”, Udoorin rumbled, his voice still raw, as he came near Bremorel who was sitting on the ground, nursing her side and her stomach with a bloody bandage in her hand.

The ranger girl scowled up at him and was just about to burn him with her usual abrasive and quite pugnacious, ‘How the Hell does it look like I am doing?’, sort of attitude, but she bit her tongue and merely grunted with a pinched face and said, “I hurt.”

“I am sorry I couldn’t get to you in time but I stopped to make sure Laila was alright.”, rasped the young man.

“Is she?”, Bremorel asked gruffly but Udoorin didn’t miss the fear in her voice.

“She is hurt too. Busted quite a bit, really. Lady Moira rushed to her side, shield, and sword ablaze. Should have seen her. She looked so cool and dangerous and told me she would guard Laila with her own life, Heavens willing —her own words.”, he replied.

Bremorel tried to snort, but that only bought her more pain. The young man knelt beside her and saw blood seeping out of the gash in her leather armor.

“You are leaking badly. Let’s have a look at how bad it is.”, he said leaning over her.

“I am not showing you my belly!”, hissed the ranger girl. “Go get yourself a girl and stare at her belly. This one’s reserved!”

“Reserved? Reserved by whom?”, Udoorin asked with a flushed face.

“That’s none of your business!”, she snarled at him.

The young man sighed. He had no idea what the girl was talking about, other than the fact that the young Temple Guardian Thomas had had an eye for her for like, ever, but she had shown no interest to him whatsoever. He also noticed that her face was pale now. Too pale.

“Alright.”, he said gruffly. “Please don’t take this the wrong way but you are about to pass out and you need Lady to look at that wound. And no biting!”

Then, without waiting for her to reply, object, or threaten him, he put one arm behind her back, another under her legs, and scooped her off the ground! And before she could even show her displeasure, and to add further insult to ‘injury’, he rumbled, “If you make a fuss or try to scratch out my eyes, I will tell Thomas that you are a wuss!”, he rumbled.

Bremorel shut up and let the big, burly man carry her without a fuss, though she did hiss at him, once, with mortified vehemence, “No biting? Really? You are bringing that up now?”

In retrospect, young Udoorin never knew the ranger girl’s in her arms actually had any interest in the young Temple Guardian. He even had some reservations that she might even be toying with the poor kid, which he thought was not all that nice of her to be doing because Thomas was his friend and was a good, decent man and he had been desperately trying to garner some or even a glimpse of affection from Bremorel, but Udoorin had always thought it had been a lost cause because, well, Bremorel just never had been the ‘affectionate’ sort of girl even though she was quite pretty. If you were going for a fight, you wanted her on your side. For matters of the heart, not so much. The odd and blisteringly flushed silence that settled over the young ranger girl in his arms changed everything he thought he knew about her.

“Huh..”, he said to himself. “..just when you thought you knew someone.”

With steady steps, he carried her to where Lady Moira was still standing with a serious and determined expression on her face. She had her shield held high and in front of her, covering almost all of herself, and those behind her, and her other arm was stretched out to one side with her sword pointing slightly down; an on-guard stance.

“Bring her here.”, he heard a gruff tone; Lady Magella in her no-nonsense voice, which was basically her usual mode. “I believe little Morel and I have some talking to do that’s long overdue.”

Bremorel flinched and her face went even paler.

To give the young Udoorin credit, he didn’t laugh. He didn’t even snort. He silently carried her over where Lady Magella was, and carefully set her down next to a bloodied Laila.

“Well, aren’t we a pair of idiots!”, Bremorel snarked in pain.

“Yeah..”, replied Laila blearily. “..The bastard totally caught us with our pants down.”

“Language!”, scowled Lady Magella.

“What?”, Laila slurred at her with bleary eyes. “Never got caught with your pants down?”

Bremorel snorted, then hissed as the pain hit her again. Lady Magella glared down at Laila, then reached over and tweaked her nose and set it in place.

Laila let loose a terrible and painful shriek!

“That is what happens when you sass your Temple Guardian, little Laila..”, the she-dwarf said coolly, then turned to the other ranger girl. “Now, young Morel. I believe you and I have some things to discuss as well.”

“I would rather not!”, Bremorel said hastily.

“Ahh, but we do..”, Lady smiled at her pleasantly. “..Laila here has been careless. I have just taught her the consequences of that. I have also reminded her just how her father would feel should he lose his only child. With you, we shall talk something else..”

“Such as?”, Bremorel gulped as she stared at the she-dwarf with a freaked expression.

“Such as how you have been so abrasive, quite rash, and rather reckless up to date. A conversation we both know you have been avoiding for years.”, Lady Magella said as she gave her a very creepy smile. “And then we shall discuss the peculiar habit of skulking around my temple come sunset, that you have picked up of late whenever you and your cousin return to town..”

Aager Fogstep stared down at the two ranger girls. Both of them were sweating profusely even though they were asleep, wrapped up carefully by Lady Magella, who kept checking in on them, not unlike a mother hen.

Harsh though she was, the Temple Guardian had not been stingy at all when it came to those she thought were her children and had used a considerable amount of her skills to mend both the ranger girls.

Aager stared at them some more and noted they still seemed very pale and their lips had turned a bit grayish-blue.

Upon scowling orders from the Lady Magella, the little gnome, Gnine, was peeling potatoes again, as the girls would need some decent and hot meal when they came around.

Udoorin was sitting near them, one of his greataxes propped on his lap, his heavy pack tossed aside along with the rest of his arsenal. He had his back to a tree and he was still nursing his throat. He was also staring at the fire burning in the pit he had dug and lined with stones.

And he was silently seething.

What had happened to the ranger girls was not his fault. But for whatever demented reason, the young man didn’t see it that way. And other than ramming the creature off Bremorel, he had basically been useless, and quite redundant at that. After having lost his axe and ended up grappling with the thing, he knew, had there been a second one of them lurking around, he would have been dead, and likely Bree as well. He hadn’t seen Lady Moira fight, and even though she looked competent, two rangers and a fighter, as he saw himself, and to his surprise, the little gnome, Gnine, had entered the fray by throwing some things at the creature, and they still hadn’t been able to bring one of them down. Not until Master Aager had shown up. And had it gotten past the paladin girl as well, it would likely have meant Laila would have died then and there, leaving the Temple Guardian Lady Magella to fend for herself..

This one fight had been a wake-up call for the young man at a colossal scale and he didn’t take it well.

“I do not recall having trained you to mope, young Udoorin.”, growled Aager as he came to sit next to the young man.

Udoorin pressed his lips together in frustration.

“Perhaps you think this was all your fault.”, the man in dark leathers continued. “Be sure that it was..”

Udoorin turned to stare at him, his face turning sick.

“..but not for the reasons you think. Not unless you figure you are responsible for the rangers, missing the point; you aren’t. They have been trained by two of the best ranger masters this side of the Kingdom of Isles has to offer.

“The fault began when young Laila and Moral chose to discard and disregard my orders and spread out the way they did, acting out of frustration rather than sound logic in hopes of catching the sneak-thief. But the fault did not end there. It was my job to make sure they followed the orders I gave them. It is for the same reason I have been ambushing and, consequently, beating our own town guards all these past years; to make sure they all are where they were supposed to be, awake and sober. It is for the very same reason the ranger masters have all the rangers, including young Laila and Morel, patrolling the lands around your town over and over and over. We do this because we all know ‘safe’ is an illusion. Your childhood friends forgot this and got themselves almost killed. I neglected the very same thing and did not curb them to fall back and almost got them, you, and Lady Magella killed as well. Of the lot of us, only Lady Moira did not go out of her way to be foolish nor did she try to impress those around her by showing off her battle prowess. She stabilized her fallen comrade then stood to watch over her and made sure her condition did not deteriorate for the worse, and she is not even from your town. She did her part and stopped there because she expected to do ours. That, young man, is at the core of any given military unit. Thus far, we failed. Utterly.”, Aager grated harshly.

“You forgot Gnine.”, Udoorin mumbled.

“Master Gnine is not my responsibility. He came of his own volition and he certainly was not of my choosing. I owe neither him nor his uncle the effort to keep him out of trouble. I am not his mentor nor am I his babysitter. Responsibility is something he must learn for himself, likely the hard way.”, the man in dark leathers growled.

“He might have issues, but he is still a part of this company, Sir.”, Udoorin said stubbornly.

“Admirable as it may be, your sense of loyalty is misplaced, young Udoorin, and certainly lost on Master Gnine.”, Aager almost snarled.

Udoorin shrugged.

“Doesn’t matter.”, he said.

Aager fumed at the boy’s obstinate stance where his friends were concerned, even though said ‘friend’ had punned and ridiculed the young man since he had been but a boy. The troublesome little gnome’s attitude hadn’t changed towards young Udoorin even when he had grown to be the big, burly man that he was now.

The fuming Aager considered how he’d dealt with boys of his age, and those even much older than he’d been back at Drashan. Then, oddly enough, his seething frustration evaporated.

He gave the young man a sinister smile, even though it was hidden behind his half-mask, and grated..
“If he is, as you say, part of this company, perhaps he should comport himself as such, starting by telling us what he is capable of, instead of keeping things to himself and springing surprises on us while we are under duress. That is not only irresponsible, it is idiocy. I warned him not to be a distraction. He has thus chosen to ignore me. Hence I shall tutor him as have I tutored you..”

 

---

 

Chapter
Three

First Encounters

 

Timeline:

This story begins a few hours after
A Day After.

 

 

Well, at least we won’t be dealing with that arse, any time soon!”, Bremorel Songsteel sneered with spite.

Bremorel was a striking young woman with a deceptively slender figure. She had dark, coarse hair running freely down either side of her beautiful face and back, and she gazed upon the world around her through deep green eyes, though her ‘pretty’ was somewhat marred with a seemingly permanent mark of petulance.

“Which arse is that?”, her cousin, Laila Wolvesbane asked amusedly.

Laila was perhaps an inch shorter than her cousin and had a decidedly supple figure that hinted at the wood elf side of her heritage, with long, dark brown hair that she’d pulled up and bunned into a ponytail. She had fair skin, though slightly tanned, and beautiful blue eyes. Unlike her cousin, however, Laila asserted or had perhaps adopted a calm and cool aura.

“That Aager-guy.”, Bremorel hissed.

“Good to know where we stand, Ranger Morel.”, growled a voice and Aager Fogstep appeared from behind the trees at the edge of Ritual Forest..

The man, Aager, was a lean, almost ‘gaunt’ figure and an edge above average. He was in his dark leathers again and he wore a low hood over his head and had a half-mask covering his face just below his black, soulless eyes.

He carried several daggers on his person and a shortsword that he’d chosen to hide under his tattered cloak. In all his tenure in Serenity Home ever since the sheriff had brought him from Drashan, no one had really seen him in anything other than his current outfit and very few had actually seen his face.

The two cousins had asked what the sinister-looking man actually looked like to the sheriff’s son, Udoorin, who had been trained by the very same man in his dark leathers. The burly young man had simply refused to make any comments on the matter and always seemed to have this haunted look on his face whenever Master Aager was mentioned.

Also, no one had ever heard him say a word without his growling voice. One might even say, if not very charitably, that the growl was his actual voice and he wasn’t going out of his way to make himself appear more intimidating, not that he needed it. Hence, when he stepped out from behind the trees, Bremorel’s face went bright red, then turned black when she came to a few, immediate conclusions..

One; he had heard what she’d thought about him.

Two; he was here, meaning he would be coming with them.

And three; she hadn’t heard nor felt his presence.. in the woods.. and she was a ranger, dammit!

“Master Aager.”, Laila said coolly and quite seamlessly. “What brings the sheriff’s right hand all the way out here? I would have assumed you’d be in the town, looking for possible clues there.”

“You should never assume what you do not know, Ranger Laila Wolvesbane”, Aager growled. “It is a bad habit to adopt and harder to lose. I am here on Sheriff Standorin’s orders. Seeing as you are here as well, I can safely say, his plan to put a team together late last night has born fruition.”

Laila stared at the growling man in the dark leathers. She tried for a moment to stare into his soulless eyes and stubbornly refuse to look elsewhere, but failed. She wondered, but for a moment, was this man truly soulless as they said he was and already dead inside? Or perhaps he was merely a corpse that didn’t know it was dead. She averted her eyes, fearing she might be pulled into the depths of his bottomless pit, fumed once, then gathered her cool around herself and breathed..

“Your orders, Master Aager?”

“What?”, exclaimed Bremorel, first gaping at her cousin, then at the man in dark leathers.

“Apparently, Sheriff Standorin was a few steps ahead of us, the mayor, and our respective ranger masters, Bree. And has appointed Master Aager as the leader of this company. Would have been polite of him the have mentioned it in the council meeting, though.”, her cousin said coolly, even though she was quite angry about the way the sheriff had totally ignored protocol and ‘man-handled’ everyone in the group.

“Well, shit!”, Bremorel spat. “I knew it was too good to be true.”

“A bit crude, but essentially accurate, Ranger Morel. Though I find it an odd assessment, calling the burning of your town and the death of your townsmen a good thing, particularly coming from a rank ranger. I suppose congratulations on your promotions are in order, here. Well earned..”, he growled.

Bremorel glared at him as her face flushed.

“Now, if you will..”, Master Aager continued. “..I would appreciate it if you two started following the tracks you found this morning. Ranger Morel, I want you to take point and as far as two hundred yards and I want Ranger Laila to be no more than half that range. Should either of you encounter anything, I want Ranger Morel to stay hidden and Ranger Laila to warn us.”

“Why am I taking lead?”, flared Bremorel.

“Why am I staying behind?”, asked Laila, though less belligerently than her cousin.

Master Aager stared at them both for a silent moment. Then spoke in his gravelly voice.

“I have been following your reports for over four years now. And thus far, both of you have adopted a certain pattern where you, Ranger Morel, prefer close combat and like to make good use of her greatblade and you, Ranger Laila, would rather use your longbow. Thus I have put both of you in a position where each one of you can best utilize your habits. Unless the reports you have been giving are false.. or maybe you would rather change your habits?”, he said.

“Why didn’t the sheriff just tell us you were coming?”, Laila asked, though more out of curiosity now than any belligerence.

The man in dark leathers paused for a moment as if considering whether he should tell or not, or perhaps decide on how much he should tell. He and the ranger girls had a history and not a very good one, though admittedly, it hadn’t been anyone’s fault, really, but merely the culmination of circumstances at the time.

Then he shrugged.

It was possible their journey would take them far, and even to unexpected places. He didn’t really care whether they liked him or not, much like didn’t feel the need to trust them, which wasn’t really saying much since he didn’t trust anyone, but they did have to learn to trust him. At least enough not to question his judgment or orders at the wrong time.

“Should you give it but a mere moment’s sentient thought, I believe you would be able to figure out as to why the sheriff did not bring up my involvement in the council, Ranger Laila.”, Master Aager said steadily.

Both the ranger girls stared at him, but it was Laila who grasped what he meant.

“The sheriff does not trust the council!”, exclaimed Laila.

“You seem surprised, Ranger Laila. Which is surprising all on its own, seeing as how your respective ranger masters do not share all the information they gather with anyone, let alone the council, or even the sheriff himself. Suffice to say, the security of a town that harbors over ten thousand souls is not on the priority list of certain people.”, Aager said in his growling voice.

“Haradin!”, spat Bremorel.

“I believe you have already filled your quota for blurting things you shouldn’t for one day, Ranger Morel. I dearly hope you are better at tracking than you are otherwise.”, Aager said coldly, as he gave her a very frosty stare, nodded curtly at them, and then stalked past them to assess the rest of the company..

I so hate that man!”, flared Bremorel as she ran past her cousin while keeping an eye on the tracks, some one hundred yards away.

“Can’t say I like him either, but he was right, you know. And apparently, very observant. We never mentioned our weapon preferences in any of our reports. Yet he’s managed to deduce the fact that you like bashing things and I prefer pinning them.”, Laila mused. “Perhaps there is a side of him we are missing?”

“I don’t bash things, I cut them!”, her cousin said hotly, then added with a nasty grimace, “And whatever side he’s got, I’d rather he just dropped dead, already!”

“Bree..”, Laila said reprovingly. “That’s not nice. Yes, he is irritating the way he is, and I did not appreciate the way Sheriff Standorin handled things either, but I understand why he did them. Whoever these people were, they had intimate knowledge of how to enter the town, who to hit, where he lived, and get out unseen.”

“I know that. I just dislike that man, that’s all. Ever since Bane-Song operation. And what’s with the growling, anyway? I mean, who talks like that?”, Bremorel fretted.

“Maybe that’s his actual voice.”, her cousin shrugged. “A bit like Missus. You know, the innkeeper’s odd cat?”

“That cat doesn’t growl, she caws like a crow!”, Bremorel objected with a snort.

“That’s what I mean. Maybe it’s something like that with Master Aager, too.”, Laila said, looking down at the tracks they both were following. “One of these guys is really dragging his feet.”

“Yeah. Maybe he’s tired.”, Bremorel said, pinching her face. “Missus dropped on a rake and had her throat punctured. Poor thing. Lucky she survived. You think that Aager-guy dropped on a rake and had his throat poked as well?”

“I don’t want to know. C’mon. Let’s pick up the pace, shall we? Take point, Ranger Bremorel Songsteel!”, she said with a grin.

“Will do, Ranger Laila Wolvesbane!”, her cousin grinned back and took off..

Uhhmm.. Master Aager?”, Udoorin stumbled when he saw the man in his dark leathers, hood, and half-mask stalk their way.

Udoorin Shieldheart was a large young man. Large in height, large in width, and large in depth! A largeness in bone and hard-packed and earned muscle, rather than mere bulk and a height to go with it. He had dark brown hair, dark brown, puppy sort of eyes that hadn’t quite seen full maturity, and for whatever reason, he was entertaining a scruffy looking patch of beard, possibly to make himself look older than his eighteen years and perhaps be taken more seriously by his elders.

Aager had never commented on the boy’s facial preferences, but had preferred to reserve his opinion on the matter even though he thought the boy looked ‘silly’ with it, a word he seldom used, possibly because he had never cared what others thought about himself. He also preferred to never get involved in other people’s private lives or their issues. And now, the boy also looked like a walking armory; a heavy chainmail showered down his bulk, all the way to his knees, two very big battleaxes were strapped on his back along with a shield, another battleaxe in one of his large fists, and his father’s longsword hung on his belt. There were at least five or six knives and daggers tucked into several other belts and a like number strapped around his legs and in his boots! He looked very much like a kid who had been given free rein at a candy store!

“Perhaps you are planning on rolling over the enemy in hopes of cutting them down to minced meat with all the sharp and pointy things you are carrying”, Aager grated amusedly.

Udoorin’s face flushed.

“I just want to be sure I have spares, Master Aager. You know, in case one of them breaks..”, the young man mumbled.

“Just how many of them are you planning on breaking?”, Aager asked.

The young man flushed some more.

“Lady Moira.”, the man in dark leathers then said, nodding at the tall, young woman in her shining plate armor.

Lady Moira Hooman was indeed a tall girl, almost matching the young man she was walking next to in height. She certainly wasn’t as packed as him, but the tight straps of her armor and the ease she showed in her step in her fifty-pound sheer steel she was carrying said she likely had some serious muscle and a lot of battle training to go with it. She wasn’t a beautiful girl in a conventional sense, but with her light green eyes, her quite generous mouth, and her long, reddish-brown hair bunned up the way she had, her beauty glowed with a sunny and honest appeal. It was clear this young woman liked smiling and laughing at silly things, rather than adopting a more somber or perhaps scowling glare at the world around her. Considering what she was, it totally ruined her high status as a paladin.

“Master Aager Fogstep.”, she said as her sunny face lightened as she returned the polite nod. “So nice to finally meet you.”

Aager paused, for he got the distinct impression that the young woman had actually told the truth, rather than made a polite or even passing comment. True, he was a Drashan and that stinking island of thieves, cutthroats, lechers of all stripes, whores, and pirates had never harbored a paladin, yet he’d heard of them. Particularly after the sheriff had brought him to Serenity Home. And one of the few things he’d heard was, that they always spoke the truth; the girl had actually meant what she’d said!

“Is it?”, he growled.

“Indeed it is, to finally meet the man skulking outside my room back in the guest house I was staying.”, she replied with another sunny smile.

Aager paused again.

For he had also come to the intimate conclusion that this young woman was not merely sunny and honest, she was sunny, honest, observant, careful, and knew how to disarm a man without using her base femininity or a sword.

And apparently, she was not some mindless knight in shining armor.

Well, she certainly was not stupid.

How had she heard him though? No one heard him coming. Not when he didn’t want them to. And the guest’s inn had carpets.

The girl grinned at him. It had a pretty grin, really.

“No mystery there, Master Aager.”, she said happily as if reading his thoughts. “We humble paladins have certain existential senses, hence we can, at times, feel when evil is abound.”

Aager’s dark eyes became even darker than they already were.

“Well, at least she knows something I do.”, he mused silently.

“I have sent the rangers, Laila and Morel, out to find the tracks of the people we suspect to be responsible for last night’s attack and to follow them. Should anything happen, I have told them to fall back and warn us. I want you and young Udoorin here, to face the enemy while the rangers do what they do best. Is that acceptable with you?”, he asked aloud though his tone gave the impression he wasn’t really asking but merely being polite.

“But of course, Master Aager. That is what we knights and paladins do best. To face the enemy head-on.”, Moira said happily. “I would, however, have it made clear; has the good sheriff assigned you as the leader of this company? Rank and status should always be made clear to avoid confusion, particularly in battle.”

“The sheriff has assigned me to make sure everyone here comes back alive and functional. I believe he gives me more credit than warranted for such a harsh endeavor, particularly with so few battle-tested, sounds unrealistic at best.”, Aager growled.

Udoorin gave him a side-long glance.

“A dour but reasonable assumption, Master Aager. I shall follow your command, then, and do my best to make sure all your townsmen return safe and sound.”, she said with another sunny smile.

“Huh.”, Aager grunted. “Will a paladin willingly follow a man she can sense coming at her in the dark?”

“I try not to judge people at their worst, Master Aager.”, Moira replied happily, then asked, “Curious though, are you perhaps related to an Aager Farstep? He was a well respected and quite a pious man.”

Aager Fogstep stared at her for a bare moment then growled.

“No.”

Then looked behind her and at the temple guardian, Lady Magella.

The she-dwarf, Lady Magella, was a blocky sort of dwarf. Although she was known for her care, back at Serenity Home, and the temple, her kind of care was not always as tender as could have been. She had a comfortable weight, and if one could get past her perpetual scowl, they might reach her kinder side. And when she spoke, her words tended to be as ‘bludgenous’ as the mace hanging at her side.

For many reasons, Aager had avoided her and her master, the Senior Temple Guardian, Demos Lightshand, even though she had accompanied him, along with the sheriff, and the two ranger masters, Davien and Moorat, on several troublesome occasions in the past. He had been strictly polite and politically correct with all the Temple Guardians, then stayed as far away from them as possible. And now he was going to be stuck with the she-dwarf for an extended period, who was even now, scowling up at him.

“Temple Guardian.”, he growled politely and nodded at her.

“Master Aager.”, she responded, almost in kind. “We never see your happy presence at the sermons.”

“As a matter of fact, I have been inside your temple, and attended to your sermons. Twice.”

Lady Magella cocked an eyebrow at him.

“Once to see what kind of security risks your temple might present.”, Aager said blandly. “The other was to actually listen to your oration. Turns out, your sermon was wasted on me.”

“Didn’t like what you heard?”, she frowned at him and even though she opted to ignore it, she had not missed the underlying reasons for his first visit.

“No, ma’am. It was about the Heavenly punishments pertaining to theft and murder. I thought I got the gist of your calling at that point.”, he replied with a grin, though it was lost under his half-mask.

Lady Magella made a huffy sort of snorting noise.

“You missed the sermon the week after.”, she said.

Aager did not nudge her to continue.

“Yes. It was about kindness, compassion, and the beauty of love shared with others.”, she scowled.

“I doubt I missed much then, Temple Guardian. I do not even know what those words entail and it is unlikely I ever shall.”, he growled at her.

“Perhaps you will, someday, Master Aager.”, Lady Magella said, squinting up at him.

“People like me deserve what the Heavens have in store for us, Lady. Suffice to say, I do not live for your standards.”, he grated from under his mask.

“You must be a wise man, Master Aager. Seen the future so thoroughly, have you?”, she said angrily.

Aager didn’t know what the Temple Guardian was getting at nor did he understand why she was suddenly angry. People seldom got angry with him. Feared him, yes. Hated him, certainly. Angry? Not so much, for the man in his dark leathers seldom left angry people alive in his wake.

He fumed a bit, then spoke.

“Lady, should we encounter anything during our journey to find the miscreants that burned Serenity Home, I would rather you stay at the back by at least fifteen yards. I would also like you to keep a base watch to your rear as well. Now, if you will excuse me, I need to be elsewhere.”, he growled and took off without waiting for her reply.

He had just been reminded why he had thus avoided the town’s temple and her guardians so thoroughly.

Psst!”, hissed someone and Ranger Laila froze, her longbow half drawn with a red and white feathered arrow cocked on the taught string.

“Psst!”, came the sound again, and Laila breathed from her nose.

“Gnine..”, she fumed as she turned around to see the little gnome hiding under some bushes. “..what are you doing here?, she fumed.

Gnine Tinkerdome was a mischievous little gnome, slightly on the stocky side. Mischievous, proactive, curious, intelligent, obsessively observant about queer and bizarre things, highly creative, yet insusceptible to his surrounding, and mostly up to no good. He wore immaculate clothes consisting of a pair of trousers tailored to his size, a somewhat flamboyant, colorful shirt, a similarly colorful vest, knee-high soft leather boots, a shoulder bag, several small pouches on his belt, a jarring cloak, and the only things he had on him for a weapon was a little knife and a wooden, hand-crafted sling. It appeared like he had gone out of his way to be spotted and become the sole focus of attention under any circumstance. All he seemed to need was a sign that read;

 

I AM HERE.
PLEASE SHOOT ME.
PREFERABLY SOONER
THAN LATER!

 

“Getting away from Master Aager.”, the gnome replied with a broad grin. “Saw him grilling you and Bree. Then he filleted that oaf, Udoorin, which was a happy thing, really. Was fun watching him squirm like a little girl.”

“Gnine..”, Laila fumed again. “It isn’t nice of you to say such things about Udoorin, considering he saved your uncle from the fire just last night. Got his hands burned for his efforts too. Had Lady Magella not worked on them, it would have taken months for him to make any good use of them.”

“I am grateful that he saved my uncle. Really..”, the gnome said honestly. Then added, “Doesn’t disqualify him from being an oaf, now, does it?”

“What is it with you and him, anyway? What’s he done to you that you would treat him like this? I mean, me and Bree fought with him once but that was years ago and he was honest and mature enough to come and apologize and decide to be our friend rather than hold a grudge, considering what we did to him after the things he’d said about me.”, Laila said a bit angrily.

The little gnome shrugged.

“He’s my outlet!”, he replied impudently.

“You could be mean sometimes, Gnine. Do you know that?”, the ranger girl frowned. “Now go back. You should be with the main group, not out here.”

The little gnome shrugged again.

“Nah.. I’ll hang around with you two. I don’t want to hear Udoorin babble all day, and I certainly do not want any preachings from Lady. Although I must admit, the paladin chick is kinda hot and she has a very pretty smile!”

Laila glared down at him.

“You have no idea what is going on or what we are doing, do you, Gnine? I’ll tell you what, you are going to turn around and go back to the group, or you are going to turn around and go back to town. It’s up to you.”, she said, still fuming down at the little gnome.

“You can’t tell me what to do.”, Gnine objected.

“I am a full ranger now, Gnine.”, she almost hissed at him.

“Yeah, so?”, the little gnome asked, sticking his chin out.

“It means, I am the law in the wilderness, Gnine. I have the legal power to command anyone short of a major, and certainly any civilian. Anyone who does not comply is subject to heavy fines and serious jail time.”, Laila said frostily, pretty much losing all her cool.

True, the little gnome and she were friends but they were not inside the safe walls of Serenity Home now and this was not a game. Last night had proven that. Apparently, Gnine’s point of view of the world around him made him somewhat impervious to certain, quite deadly realities. For him, this was, perhaps, something of a challenge, or perhaps even a dare.

“Chill, girl, it’s just a stroll through the forest. Nothing’s going to happen here—”, he said..

..but his words got cut when they heard a crash through the woods and something huge smashed its way right through a fallen tree trunk just fifty yards away!

Large, shattered splinters of half-rotten bark showered all around them. One landed merely a few feet from Laila just as she took a few smart steps to her left and behind a tree, as another, foot-long splinter clipped the little gnome on the shoulder and promptly dropped him spinning on his arse..

“How rude!”, the little gnome said angrily, holding his shoulder.

Then he looked up to see a giant of a wild boar, some five feet high hoof-to-hunch and perhaps four feet wide, its coarse fur matted, its eyes red and blind with fury, its twenty-inch tusks bloodied, and it was foaming and grunting at the muzzle as it came charging at him!

“What the—”, he spluttered, as he ogled at the beast.

“Gnine!”, barked Laila from behind the tree, but the little gnome just continued to stare at the beast with stunned and somewhat disconnected admiration as if it were some kind of a memento on display.

“BREE!”, she shrieked!

With a shrill shriek of her own, Bremorel burst out of the bushes almost on top of the wild boar and took it by total surprise. The boar squealed in recognition of the danger coming at it from its flank and tried to swirl but its massive momentum worked against it and it skidded sideways some fifteen feet before it lost its balance and tumbled over once, twice, then crashed dead, right before the little gnome!

Standing behind him was Ranger Laila, her longbow stretched taut with a second arrow cocked and ready..

And she was fuming balefully down at the little gnome.

“Good shot, cuzz.”, Bremorel said appreciatively as she dashed up to them.

“Good distraction.”, Laila nodded. “Worked like a charm.”

“Yeah. That’s me, Bree the Charming Distractor!”, her cousin smirked.

“I think I soiled my pants.”, Gnine mumbled in awe as he stared at the monstrosity that had piled right before him.

“You must be. Poor Thomas tripped and fell on his face when we were leaving the mayor’s office while ogling at you.”, Laila said with a bemused expression.

“And you just had to spoil the moment by bringing him into this, didn’t you?”, Bremorel scowled at her.

“Just saying. You do know someone else is interested in that boy, right?”, Laila said.

Bremorel’s face turned pure black.

“What? Who?”, she snarled.

“You sure you want to know?”, her cousin asked, sort of offhandedly.

“I will need to change my pants, I think.”, Gnine mumbled.

“WHO, DAMMIT!”, Bremorel hissed.

“The mayor’s eldest daughter.”

Bremorel ogled at her.

“How do you know?”, she asked, a bit freaked.

“My father..”, she said with a shrug. “She came to his workshop last week to put in an order for a new hope chest. Father offered her some tea while he started drawing some sketches and they gossiped.”

“What the bloody hell is a hope chest?”, Bremorel asked.

“It’s a chest for girls to put their dowry.”, Gnine prompted!

Both the girls stared down at him.

“Whot?”, he said. “It is! Hey, can I have one of these tusks? Looks like an awesome bit of memento.”, Gnine said eagerly, staring at the steaming boar.

And now Bremorel was really freaked.

“That.. that woman is like twice Thomas’s age!”, ‘eeped’ Bremorel.

Laila stared at her like she did when she was staring at an idiot.

“What?”, Bremorel asked, her face flushed a bit. She knew that look.

“The hope chest wasn’t for her, cousin, not to mention, not only twice his age, but she is already married. It’s for her daughter, Janith, obviously.”, Laila said.

Bremorel’s face deflated.

Quite visibly.

And her shoulders drooped.

Janith was a very pretty little girl. She was also kind and well-liked by the townsmen. Always smiling and always polite. She had silky, auburn hair, soft, baby-pink skin, and lovely brown eyes. And she was the granddaughter of no other than Mayor Arthandos Yuleman. Bremorel, on the other hand, was only a ranger and that’s all she had to offer. True, being a ranger had its privileges and was nothing to sneeze at, and she, herself, was a pretty girl with coarse black hair, beautiful pale-green eyes, fair skin slightly tanned under the sun, and a striking figure to go with them all. She was also a troubled girl and trouble. She was abrasive, she was angry all the time, she scowled at everyone, and she was sullen at her best behavior. Not to mention, she was gone most of the time due to her duties and her household skills were next to none. Her best cooking was over a campfire and somewhat charred quail, though, admittedly, she could make a mean rabbit stew! She also had the bad habit of starting a fight at the drop of a hat, which explained why she was also banned from pretty much every public place in Serenity Home other than, ironically, the temple itself, where the young, well respected, very polite, caring, and pious young man, Thomas, lived and worked as a Temple Guardian. And a match between him and Janith would very much appeal to the whole town, as opposed to her.

“Hey, can either of you girls gimme a hand with these tusks?”, Gnine asked as he tried to pry them off the beast’s snout.

Laila smacked him over the head!

“Ouch, girl! What was that for?”, he glared up at her.

“What were you thinking, Gnine, standing right in front of a charging wild boar?”, she hissed down at him with an angry frown.

“Whot? It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! When else was I going to ever see a boar this big and charging at me?”, he asked.

Laila just stared at him.

“She can have him..”, mumbled Bremorel in a barely audible, defeated voice.

“You are an idiot!”, Laila said with exasperation.

“Who? Me or her?”, Gnine asked.

“Both of you!”, she flared, glaring at both of them. “You, for standing in front of a charging boar, and you, for folding the moment you hit a snag.”

She glared down at Gnine and fumed at him.

“Did it ever occur to you that you might be trampled by an eight hundred pound animal, if not outright gored?”

Then she turned to her cousin and fumed at her as well.

“And did it occur to you that the boy just might have a say in this, much like you do? It is clear he is interested in you, much like you are interested in him. He is also very much afraid of you and you are acting like a stubborn mule and insisting that he should man up!”

“Ow, you are talking about Thomas!”, Gnine piped. “I like Thomas. He’s smart, reads books all the time, and he is excellent at debates. Horrible at hog-ball, though. He can’t seem to play without getting knocked out! But I agree with Bremorel on this matter. He really should man up and ask her out. Not the other way around.”

“There!”, Bremorel said, grinning at Laila triumphantly. “Gnine agrees with me!”

Then she smacked him over the head as well!

“Whot? I just agreed with you, girl.. What was that for?”, whined the little gnome, cowering from the ranger girl.

“That was for standing in front of a charging boar, you idiot”, she hissed.

Good kill, Laila.”, Udoorin said with a broad grin as he stared at the great beast.

“Excellent shot indeed, Ranger Laila. You do your calling justice.”, smiled Moira.

Laila’s face flushed a bit.

“Yeah. She shot it right in front of my eyes —literally!”, piped Gnine.

“That’s my cuzz, Laila Wolvesbane. She could shoot threads through needles.”, Bremorel beamed.

Lady Magella didn’t comment, though the expression on her face showed she was clearly impressed as well.

Aager did not comment either. He had knelt beside the beast and was carefully studying it. After a long moment, he rose.

“Young Udoorin. Perhaps you could help turn the beast over.”, he growled.

Udoorin walked up to the beast, stabbed his battleaxe into the ground, grabbed the boar by the hind legs, and heaved. His trunk-like arms bulged and his face turned red. It took him a full minute until the beast finally budged, turned over, and fell onto its other side..

..to reveal a thick, broken shaft of a spear sticking out of its flank!

For a moment, everyone just stared at it.

Only rangers Laila and Bremorel made any noise.

“What the..”, Bremorel exclaimed.

Laila hissed.

“How did you know?”, Udoorin asked finally.

“Didn’t. Just a hunch. As great an archer Ranger Laila is, a beast this size downed by a single arrow seemed unlikely.”, growled Aager.

“What? You think Laila can’t bring down a boar?”, flashed Bremorel.

Aager stared at her for a moment.

“I have little to no doubt about the archery skills of your cousin, Ranger Morel. A single arrow to the head, or through the neck would have brought down an average boar. But one as large as this seemed improbable. Hence it occurred to me that the animal might have been previously wounded.”, he replied calmly.

Bremorel glared at him.

Laila, however, reached down and pulled at the shaft but it didn’t budge. She tried some more, but she was unable to pull it out. She gave her cousin a look and Bremorel grabbed hold of the broken shaft, and with the use of the whole of her supple figure, she managed to wrench it out of the boar.

“This isn’t a ranger’s weapon.”, she said, looking at the broken shaft, then at the long, sharp, jagged blade of the spear. “It is too heavy to make a good throw. I don’t recognize the make of the blade either. And no ranger nor any self-respecting hunter would purchase a spear with jagged edges like this one and hunt with it. It would be good if you have a rope of some sort tied to the other end of the shaft, I suppose, but it is a cruel way to kill an animal. Not to mention, it would be a rather short throw, and should you fail, you would have a wounded beast running around and slowly dying of gangrene. Again, a cruel way to hunt. We kill for food or when an animal has gone rabid. Either way, we make sure we get the job done and swiftly.”

“Yes.”, Laila agreed, musing over the blade. “This isn’t one of ours. I do see some runes on it though.”

“It isn’t dwarf make.”, Lady Magella declared and everyone turned to look at her, probably because it was one of the rare times she had actually said anything.

“What? It isn’t. Dwarves mark their weapons to take responsibility for their craftsmanship. Those runes are not dwarven. They do seem to be a derivation of orcish, I think.”

“Orcish?”, Moira asked. “I wasn’t aware there were orcs in this region.”

“There are orcs in every region.”, Laila said sourly, avoiding looking at her cousin. “We watch them when we see them. Sometimes they merely want to pass through. Sometimes though, they want to raid. Those, we kill.”

“You let orcs live here?”, Moira asked a bit surprised.

“As much as I dislike them, Lady Moira, yes, we let them be because they have as much right to live as we do. We have many communities and races living in Ritual Forest. We even have ogres here. Hell, we have an orc in our town who works for Master Gurk Larson, the blacksmith. Came out of nowhere some fifteen or sixteen years ago and said he was tired of the blood spilling and wanted to work for his bread. Many people objected but Mayor Arthandos agreed to let him in, saying anyone who came in peace, worked and sweat for the peace was welcome in Serenity Home.”

“That is amazing.”, Moira said. “I am afraid we have no such luxuries at Durkahan.”

“So this is an orc weapon.”, Aager said quietly.

“Likely.”, Lady confirmed with a scowl. “Dwarves know orcs very well for our history is full of conflicts and confrontations with them. This spearhead, however, seems a bit too perfectly cast and sharpened for your average orc. They are not mentally equipped to care for their weapons and armor. If this did, in fact, belong to an orc and has access to similar quality weapons, we are in trouble because that thing will penetrate a shield and even plate armor.”

“You seem well educated on weapons and armors, Temple Guardian Magella.”, smiled Moira.

“Call me Lady. That is my name, not a prefix.”, Lady said.

“Oh, I apologize, Lady. I was not aware of that.”, Moira said sincerely.

“Tis alright.”, she shrugged. “My mother had strange ideas when I was born, I guess. And yes, I do have extensive knowledge of weapons and armors. After all, I wasn’t born a Temple Guardian, nor was I even consulted on the matter, which is beside the point. Suffice to say, a raiding party of orcs is a serious matter to consider. A raiding party of orcs with weapons of this quality is altogether a different proposition.”

Everyone mulled over that.

“Thank you for your insight, Lady.”, Aager growled a bit stiffly, took the broken shaft from Ranger Morel, and handed it over to Udoorin. “Put this into your pack. We might want to show it to Master Gurk’s orc apprentice when we return back to town. Now, rangers Laila and Bremorel, take point, if you will.”

Laila didn’t say anything. She nudged Bremorel, who seemed like she wanted to snarl something, possibly in way of retaliation to the man in dark leathers for ordering them around. She gritted her teeth instead and took off with her cousin.

“I so hate that man!”, she flared again, when they were several hundred yards away..

Not you, Master Gnine.”, Aager said in a low voice just as the little gnome was about to take off after the rangers.

“What? Why?”, piped Gnine innocently.

Aager Fogstep gave the little gnome a stone-cold stare, but the little gnome was a bit too hard-boiled for his own good, and he stared back at the man in dark leathers, hood, and half-mask, with the same innocent eyes.

“Master Udoorin, Lady Moira, and Lady Magella.. I would like a private word without esteemed master gnome here if you will”, he growled, not taking his eyes off the little gnome.

Udoorin grinned and didn’t bother to hide it. He pulled his big battleaxe from the ground and started after the ranger girls, followed closely by Moira.

“I want to see him in one piece.”, Lady said ominously.

“That will be up to him.”, Aager replied.

Lady Magella gave him a long, steady look, then she too started after the ranger girls.

Aager waited for the duration of perhaps a sixty count, never taking his eyes off Gnine.

Then, slowly he spoke..

“You are a distraction, Master Gnine. When Sheriff Standorin suggested we might end up looking for possible criminals who might have started the fire in your uncle’s workshop, he offered me to lead the company. He asked me who I would pick for such an extended hunt and I told him I wanted the ranger novices, Laila Wolvesbane and Morel Songsteel, but only if they were promoted to full rangers before we left. I asked for them specifically because they had proven their mettle many times before. I asked for his son, Udoorin, as well, because I thought him to be ready and that he couldn’t keep him locked in a town for the remainder of his life, and that it was time for him to see the real world. I asked him to speak with the Senior Temple Guardian, Demos Lightshand, so he would lend us Lady Magella because I believed we would need her wisdom, if not her skills. I then asked him to convince Lady Moira to come with us, because a paladin would be more useful to us than help dig through the rubble. You, however, I never asked to be burdened. Would you like to know why?”

“Uhhmm.. Is this a trick question?”, mumbled Gnine, for as hard-boiled as he was in his insolence, an extended conversation with this man was a bit too much for him.

“Do I seem like a man who does levity, Master Gnine?”, the man growled at him, still staring into his eyes and the little gnome saw, really saw the bottomless pit of his dark soul.

Gnine gulped.

“No?”, he said as he swallowed something crawling up his throat.

“I never asked for you, because you are a distraction, Master Gnine. You were a distraction to everyone around you back at Serenity Home, and you are a distraction now. You endangered the lives of both the rangers with your distraction, and we just got started. Of all the people in this company, only you are here of your own volition. That means, everyone but you, are under my protection. I am responsible for everyone here. I am not, however, responsible for you. And should you put the lives of those under my protection in danger with your distraction one more time, one of two things will happen. Either I shall tie you into a knot and leave you behind for someone to find you, if at all, or I shall kill you and tell your uncle why, then face whatever punishment I am to suffer..”, the man in dark leathers, hood, and half-mask grated.

Gnine ogled at him, his face going pale.

“You must understand, Master Gnine, this is not a game and we are not here to have fun. How you see the world and the people around you is something I care not. But everything we do has its consequences. This, you must accept even if you do not understand nor comprehend. Now, I shall share you, and perchance, learn you, something I have shared with no other..”, he growled, stressing each word.

And slowly, he pulled off his dark half-mask, then his dark hood to reveal a face to go with his soulless eyes; scarred and stitched, with short, black hair plastered on his scalp. And finally, he opened the front of his dark leathers..

“What.. what are you doing?”, yelped the little gnome.

..to present a lean, somewhat gaunt chest toned with spring coil muscles.

“I am showing you the consequences of stupidity, Master Gnine..”, he growled in disgust, for it was a chest mauled with dark, ugly whip scars.

Gnine just stared at his chest, and at his scars, for there were so many of them and they looked horrible. The little gnome turned around and dumped the content of everything he’d eaten that morning! Aager Fogstep did not smile nor did he show any signs of satisfaction at the after-effects of his lesson over the irresponsible, indifferent, and impulsive little gnome.

“If this is not to your satisfaction, Master Gnine, perhaps you would like to exhibit the other side. The best ones are there..”, he grated almost savagely.

“No, no.. I think I got the gist..”, Gnine spluttered, then hurled again, and only after gulping down many deep breaths.

“It is good that this is gist enough for you. Otherwise, I might have had to grill you.”, Aager said.

“No, no.. No grilling is necessary.”, the little gnome said hastily.

“I am happy to have lived up to your expectations, then, Master Gnine. I would hate to have to resort to the other two options.” Aager growled as he covered the crime scene of his scars, and soon enough, he was the man in dark leathers, hood, and half-mask, again.

Young Gnine Tinkerdome peter pattered after the group with Aager Fogstep silently ghosting behind him.

The little gnome held his silence for as long as he could, then inevitably blurted..

“I was tempted to say, chicks dig scars, Master Aager, but yours are a bloody landscape!”

 

---

 

Chapter
Two

The Day After

 

Timeline:

This story takes place the day after
The Hubris of Men

 

 

The old man stared out the window of his office and at the choking haze; the clear evidence of the terrible fire that had burned down eight homes and shops, killed nearly twenty of his townsmen and wounded three times as many. He coughed as the sulfurous smoke seeped inside and clawed at his throat.

He watched in quiet contemplation as a pair of children, a boy and a girl no older than ten, struggling with heavy buckets of water, push past under his window followed by men and women with shovels and rakes making their way in the same direction. He felt sick when he saw two guardsmen carrying a half-covered charred corpse on a makeshift gurney towards the temple in hopes of identifying who he or she was to put a name on their gravestone.

His old, pale blue eyes blurred and a sob escaped him.

Mayor Arthandos Yuleman had not taken this job for this..

In fact, he had never wanted the job and neither had he applied for it. He had been a man with little dreams and no aspirations. Not since his wife had died, leaving him to father three daughters. In time, he had lost what little was left of his already depleted motivation and even his base drive to live. To simply put, Arthandos had simply let go..

..and become the town’s drunkard.

Or ‘that gutter rat!’

And then something unexpected, and quite unprecedented had happened. The former mayor of the town had died in some silly construction accident and the seat of what power his office had held was suddenly left vacant, yet no one had wanted the job.

Evidently, people had better things to do than to deal with the foolishness and the stupidity of a whole town, as peaceful as it was. The only person who did want the job was the rich merchant, Master Haradin Franderson, who, in all likeliness, would have turned the town into his personal agenda.

The townsmen didn’t want the job, but they did not want Franderson to have it either. The only problem with that was, no one really had the monetary power or influence to stand up to him, and neither could they produce an alternative candidate, as in, someone foolish enough to apply for the job..

..until some overtly smart guy, whom Yuleman dearly wished to find someday and have a very ‘fistful’ chat, had placed his name as a candidate, possibly as a prank to throw at Haradin’s face.

Well..

If it had been a prank, it had certainly worked; Franderson had been, quite, but not quietly incensed when he had seen the final count of the vote!

And likely made him the laughing stock of the town, particularly when ‘that gutter rat’ had come out as the winner of a job he hadn’t even known he had applied by a ninety-eight percent majority!

It was at that point his daughters, ages varying from eight to sixteen at the time, had decided to step in, quite strenuously, that it was time their father, and the newly appointed mayor of Serenity Home, should come home and sober up!

Arthandos Yuleman snorted bitterly.

He had, in fact, sobered up, and given his all to the job, and, as it turned out, he had made a surprisingly efficient mayor and prospered the town, its surrounding lands, and brought her dwarven, gnomic, and elvish neighbors even closer in terms of relations in the past twenty years or so.

Yet, all his accomplishments had died, along with many of his townsmen, in the strange and creepy fire last night.

“Perhaps I should just resign and go back to being an old drunkard again. Apparently, I am not up to the task..”, he mumbled as he stared out the window, just to see another burnt corpse being carried off on another gurney.

“Perhaps you should stop with the self-pity, Arty..”, came a low, rumbling voice from behind and Sheriff Standorin Shieldheart stepped into the room.

Arthandos Yuleman turned around and stared at the big man.

For someone who was past his prime, the sheriff was quite a large man with broad shoulders, powerful arms, a massive torso, and still standing upright. His hair was tousled and he was covered in dust and soot He also had a bloody bandage on his right leg and he was limping.

“What happened to your leg?”, Arthandos asked with his somewhat wheezy, smoke-choked voice.

“Got curious.. and paid the price..”, Standorin said with a grimace. “Wanted to see if there was anything I could find that might tell us something in the burning workshop of Master Nimbletyne.”

“Did you?”, the mayor asked.

“Yes. Stupidity is painful.”, the sheriff replied.

Yuleman grunted.

“You should have that checked.”, he said.

“The Temple Guardians have their hands full as it is.”, Standorin replied, running one of his calloused hands through his hair. “They don’t need to deal with a cracked femur.”

“A cracked femur? Good Heavens man! You are walking around with a busted leg?”, the mayor exclaimed.

“The workshop exploded when I was peering inside and a large bit of debris sort of slammed on the leg and sliced it open. I applied some bandages. Should be fine as long as I don’t run around on it for a few days.”, the sheriff shrugged.

“You just don’t want to end up being treated by Demos Lightshand. Or worse, Lady Magella.”, Yuleman snorted.

“No, I don’t. I also don’t want a long, agonizing preach coming my way for missing out on their sermons. One stupid for one day is my quota.”, the sheriff said irritably. “Are you really thinking of resigning? Because if you are, you do know who will want to replace you, don’t you?”

Yuleman did not reply.

“And when he becomes the new mayor, it is likely I shall also resign.”, the sheriff continued with a grimace as he shifted his busted leg. “I have no desire to help Haradin dismantle this town and turn it into his personal warehouse.”

“You will leave the town to his mercy?”, Arthandos said a bit appalled.

“I can’t stand stupid, Arty. What’s your excuse?”, Standorin replied, looking at the old man with deliberate belligerence.

Arthandos sighed.

“I let this happen, Stan..”, he said, pointing at the forlorn scene outside his window. “I should at least take responsibility for it.”

“Don’t be daft, Arty. You didn’t let this happen and you know it. But I agree that you should take the responsibility for it. Just not the way you plan to.”, Standorin said harshly.

Arthandos Yuleman stared at him.

“What do you have in mind, Stan?”, he asked after a long moment.

The look Standorin gave him was quite grim. He took a deep breath and rumbled..

“Order us to put a team together and find the real perpetrators.”

Order, please.”, wheezed the mayor of Serenity Home town, Arthandos Yuleman, a man well past his prime with white, thinning hair and brows, pale blue eyes, and many worry-wrinkles. He reached for the canteen on his table, uncorked it, took a long pull, gargled his mouth, then spat into the bucket sitting next to his table. “Damn, this smoke! I apologize for that, gentlemen, my nostrils are clogged and my throat is still burning. Now, shall we get started?”

There was a pause of assent, as the mayor stared at the people gathered in the room. Sheriff Standorin was there and there was a determined expression etched on his face and although he was standing, he was favoring one of his legs. The one with the bloody bandages. The town’s council members were there too, each a standing member of the society; Thokan Silversong, a handsome man in his early fifties and was the town’s bard, Gurk Larson, a burly man with bulky shoulders and black, spiky beard and mustache, the blacksmith, Yarvel Stratler, a somewhat slender, wispy sort of man, also past his prime, the baker, Viranes Heidi, a tall, blocky, no-nonsense sort of woman in her late forties, the butcher, and Haradin Franderson, a man in his fifties and in custom-tailored shirt, jacket, and trousers, a very successful merchant.

They all had similarly grim faces, though Council Member Haradin’s expression was a bit on the haughty side as if it was his usual stance.

“We are missing Master Tinkerdome.”, Viranes said with a surprisingly soft voice.

“Yes. He was still at the Temple the last time I checked.”, Sheriff Standorin rumbled. “He was quite severely wounded last night, though he did say he would try and make it.”

“Very well.”, Yuleman said. “I would rather he be here and give us his side of the story.”

“What is there to give? Him and his silly experiments.”, very nearly sneered Haradin Franderson. “Who is to say this wasn’t all his fault?”

“Yes.”, agreed, Standorin. “Who is to say?”

Yuleman gave the sheriff a barely discernible glance just to see him staring at Haradin.

“We do not accuse people without proof, Master Haradin. If we did that, I am afraid this town would be quite empty, wouldn’t you agree?”, the mayor said mildly.

Haradin grunted.

“Now, sheriff, do give us an update of everything you have learned thus far if you will please.”, Yuleman said.

“There isn’t much to give, Mayor. It is simply too early to make any assumptions at the moment, or any decisions, for that matter.”, the sheriff rumbled.

“It’s been hours and you haven’t gathered any information yet?”, Haradin asked incredulously. “Perhaps you are not up to the task, after all, sheriff.”

Standorin leveled his gaze on the council member. He didn’t scowl nor frown at him. He merely stared at him.

Very steadily.

“Priority dictates town guards secure the area while we find and rescue the injured to avoid further deaths, Councilman. Not run around blindly seeking unknown culprits in the woods, which is what the rangers are for.”, he said quietly.

Haradin grunted again and mumbled something about the inadequacy of the town’s guards and the people leading them.

Yuleman carefully shook his head at the sheriff, but the sheriff chose to ignore it. He fumed from his nose as he spoke in his low, ‘warning’ voice.

“I saw many townsmen out helping last night, Councilman. In fact, I could vouch for the presence of almost everyone trying to put out the fires, digging through the rubble, and carrying the dead and the wounded. Even the town orphans were out carrying water. They all are still out there, still digging through the rubble, still carrying the dead and the wounded, and no one has really slept. I did not, however, see you nor your son, Lucious. Not last night helping or even lending a hand, not today, come sun up. Talk to me about inadequacy one more time, and I shall gladly call you upon your word.”

A choked sort of silence settled in the mayor’s office as Councilman Haradin glared at the sheriff.

Thokan Silversong, however, was grinning, though he did a good job hiding it behind one hand. The burly Gurk Larson was also grinning, though he didn’t bother hiding it. Yarvel Stratler was staring at the ceiling as if counting the candles up, on the chandelier, and Viranes Heidi was frowning at Haradin with a look that seemed to say;

“Sir, just how stupid are you?”

“Ehem.”, Arthandos Yuleman cleared his throat once more. “Perhaps we can talk about what we do know?”

“Yes, Sir.”, Standorin said, not taking his eyes from Haradin. “As of late last night, an unexpected explosion of unknown origin occurred in Master Nimbletyne’s workshop. We do not know what actually caused it. What we do know, however, is that it happened when he was asleep and so was his niece, young Gnine Tinkerdome. We do not know the nature of the fire other than it was unquenchable.”

“Unquenchable?”, asked Gurk Larson.

“Yes. Quite unquenchable. The amount of water we dumped onto what remained of Master Nimbletyne’s workshop was unprecedented, yet, whatever the fire was, it was bright green, and it just kept on burning. And spreading. In the end, we didn’t put it out, it snuffed itself out. From what young Master Gnine told me while his uncle was unconscious, it must have run out of whatever fuel it was running on, though he did admit he knew not of any chemical or alchemical compound that would be so indifferent to water. He also mentioned someone had hit him over the head while he was sleeping.”, Standorin reported.

“Did anyone else see anything? Or anyone?”, Thokan Silversong asked.

“Other than what Master Gnine’s claims, no.”, the sheriff admitted.

“Then it is possible this was, after all, Nimbletyne’s fault and obviously his niece is covering for his uncle.”, Haradin said and this time, he did sneer.

“I doubt.”, said a harsh voice, and the door to the mayor’s door opened and a man with broad shoulders, patched green leather armor, high leather boots, and a greatsword across his back entered.

He wasn’t a tall man, perhaps an inch under average with coarse black hair and he had a very sinister-looking face.

“This is a closed session!”, Haradin spat.

“Don’t care.”, the sinister-looking man said with an unperturbed and indifferent shrug.

Yuleman sighed.

“Ranger Master Moorat. What brings you here?”, he asked tiredly.

“My feet! But that’s beside the point.”, Ranger Master Moorat snarked harshly, then looked back and almost snarled, “Don’t just stand there, you dolt! Come in. And you two as well.”

Another man entered, a rather good-looking half-elf in immaculate green and brown leathers with a longsword at his side, a longbow in one hand, and a quiver full of dark-feathered arrows strapped across his back. His steps were light and careful and he smiled politely at the mayor, nodded at the sheriff, and hailed the councilmen with a somewhat vague expression.

Two more pairs of steps followed him inside.

One of them was a beautiful, brown-haired girl, also a half-elf, with bold, declarative features. Her armor was also immaculate and seemed like she was emulating the half-elf man in her step. She also held a longbow in her hand, a quiver full of arrows strapped across her back, and a pair of long blades hanging from her belt. She entered the room and though she was quite young, she stared at the council members with a cool, distant expression on her face.

The other was also a girl, younger than even the half-elf and she had a mane of coarse black hair ‘pouring’ down either side of her striking face. She stepped into the room with a slightly diffident posture evident in her deceptively slender body that gave the impression that it needed a few more years to fully fill out. She had deep green eyes and her lips were pressed tightly together. Although she was also dressed in greens and browns, her bow was hung over her shoulders and she had opted to carry her great blade, scabbard and all, in her hand. Her careful steps took her near Ranger Master Moorat, then she stared at the people in the room with a slightly guilty expression on her face like she’d been on the receiving end of a thrashing from every single one of them.

“Gentlemen.”, the half-elf ranger master said brightly. “I apologize for Moorat’s behavior. But we were sort of in a hurry.”

“Ranger Master Davien. Always a pleasure to see you.”, Yuleman replied with a smile. “What brings you here, other than your feet?”

Ranger Master Davien stared at the mayor with a blank expression.

Yuleman sighed again.

“Never mind.”, he mumbled. “What is so important that would require the presence of both the ranger masters?”

“Ahh!”, Davien said as comprehension dawned on his face.

Moorat gave him a disgusted look.

“We are here because we believe we have witnesses.”, he said brightly.

“Witnesses?”, asked Yuleman.

“Yes, Sir.”, Davien nodded earnestly, then pointed at the half-elf girl standing next to him. “This is Laila Wolvesbane, my ranger novice.”

Then he pointed at the other standing next to Ranger Master Moorat. “And this is Ranger Novice Bremorel Songsteel.”

“The ranger novices hardly need any introductions, Master Davien. We all know who they are and their accomplishments, particularly during the Bane-Song Operation.”, Yuleman said, giving the girls an encouraging smile.

That made the young ranger girls flush and squirm a bit.

“Indeed..”, Davien continued even more earnestly. “..and as it turns out, our young and esteemed ranger novices, here, were out over on the other side of Arashkan River and in the forest during the time of the fire and they witnessed a group of men in dark leathers, hoods, and cloaks running off into the night!”

The mayor’s office fell silent once again as everyone stared at the two, young, ranger novices.

“Where exactly did you see these men?”, the sheriff asked, looking intently at the girls.

There was a moment of silence as if the ranger novices couldn’t decide which one of them should speak. Then the younger of the two, Bremorel, nudged the other to take the lead. Laila grimaced then took a step forward and spoke, her voice a bit husky.

“A day’s march southwest from First Watch, Sir.”, she said, then amended that by giving him another point of reference. “Or two hours walking distance northwest from the town’s stone bridge.”

“How many were there? Can you describe them?”, the sheriff asked even more intently.

“I counted thirteen of them, Sir. With the exception of one, they all wore dark leathers, trousers, hoods, and cloaks. We, that is, Ranger Novice Bremorel and I checked for tracks this morning to be sure. Whoever they were, they were quite light on their feet, and they gave us the impression these people were city dwellers rather than men of wilderness.”, Laila reported succinctly.

“How do you know?”, Haradin asked, squinting at her.

Laila shrugged.

“The soles of their boots.”, she said simply.

“What of them?”, he asked.

“They were made of soft caoutchouc. Suitable for cities where there are flat cobblestones. Caoutchouc is expensive. Among many of its other uses, they make soft and spry soles for shoes, and hence, they are particularly good for sneaking. Not so much for wilderness since they will wear and erode in a week or two, or purchase holes in a hurry if they step on roots or dry branches, which is quite unavoidable while running in a forest. And the tracks indicated as such.”, she explained.

“And what were you two doing that late at night out in the forest?”, Haradin countered.

Laila, however, did not reply. She opted to silently stare at him.

“What?”, Haradin squinted at her. “You can’t answer a simple question?”

Laila continued to stare at him and the others noted the ranger masters had also gone still and were staring at him as well.

“She is being polite..”

..came a soft voice and everyone except the rangers turned to the young ranger novice, Bremorel.

“Being polite?”, demanded Haradin harshly.

“Yes. You may be a councilman of this town, but you do not have any authority over any ranger of any rank. You are not even military personnel, but a civilian. You don’t get to ask impertinent questions, make demands, or interrogate rangers. Only king’s magistrates may legally question a ranger. The silent stare is our polite way of reminding you of that fact.”, she said with a deceptively calm tone.

Moorat snorted from the side, not even bothering to hide a very toothy grin, which made his already sinister features even more savage, while Davien stared at Haradin with a slightly confused expression.

Laila, however, didn’t show any visible reaction. She was used to her cousin’s abrasive quirks. She also knew of the rangers’ legal stance versus civilians. What surprised her was that her cousin knew it as well.

“You insolent little—”, Haradin began, his face flushed darkly.

“Also..”, Bremorel cut in, suppressing her fury. “..if you publicly insult a ranger, one of two things will happen, sir. Either you will be fined heavily and face jail time no more than thirty-one days, or I will take offense, in which case I shall call you to task and run you through, then face the king’s law on criminal charges pertaining a ranger and an offending civilian. Either is fine with me. Optionally, you could insult me privately and we can skip all the legalities..”

“Please.”, said Mayor Yuleman sternly. “If you will, Ranger Novice Bremorel, this is, strictly speaking, not an interrogation. We are merely trying to understand what happened last night. I have absolute respect for you and Ranger Novice Laila. After all, the peace and prosperity this town have entertained these past centuries was due to the diligence of her rangers along with all the other men and women serving her.”

Bremorel’s face flushed a bit.

“We were out camping, Sir.”, Laila said, looking at the mayor. “We had just returned from our patrol last evening and decided we’d grab some food from home and have some fun on our own as two, off-duty rangers. We do that every now and then. It was past midnight when we saw the sky light up, hence we started running towards the town. When we reached the edge of the forest, we saw a bright green fire shooting up into the sky somewhere from the center of the town. We also heard footsteps coming our way. We didn’t know who they were, but we thought it would be wiser to bring back any information we could than to pick a fight with an unknown number of men. I counted the heads, Bremorel counted the steps, and came to the conclusion that there were thirteen of them. Then we ran to the town to see what was going on and if there was anything we could do to help. And this morning, we went back to where we’d seen the men and we found their tracks heading north and slightly east, carefully avoiding the outer reaches of Elder Hills on their west and First Watch on their east.”

Everyone mulled over that.

“You said, with the exception of one, they were all wearing black leathers, hoods, and cloaks.”, Sheriff Standorin said.

“Yes, Sir.”, Laila nodded. “The ‘exception’ was wearing tight-fitting pants, high boots that had soft soles, but were not made of caoutchouc. He was also wearing a short leather jacket, and a white, frilly shirt!”

“A what?”, the sheriff asked incredulously.

“White, frilly shirt, Sir. You’d think someone who’d be sulking in the woods would wear something green and brown, or at the very least, something dark, but this one seemed like he’d joined the wrong party. He wasn’t wearing a hood nor did he have a cloak. It was too dark to make out his face though. Should ranger masters Davien and Moorat agree, Ranger Novice Bremorel and I can track them down and hunt them. We will, however, need backup.”, Laila said.

Haradin sneered and mumbled something about sending little girls to do a man’s job.

Bremorel’s eyes blazed at that and she was just about to lose all her suppressed fury when Laila pinched her to silence. She stared at Haradin and with her cool, husky voice, she spoke..

“By all means, Master Haradin, be the man and hunt them down. We are all eager to see the legendary brevity of the Franderson’s who never shy from endangering themselves for the sake of others!”

Thokan Silversong chuckled at that while Gurk Larson snorted. Yarvel Stratler had a poorly hidden grin on his face, and Viranes Heidi was frowning at Haradin, again, and she seemed to say;

“Sir, you really are stupid, aren’t you?”

A gurgling sort of snort came from the door and Gnine Tinkerdome appeared there. There was a vicious grin on his face and a merry glint in his eyes as he winked at Bremorel and Laila. Behind him, a surly-looking she-dwarf, Temple Guardian Lady Magella, stomped her way in, helping another gnome, this one limping, Gnine’s uncle, Nimbletyne Tinkerdome.

And behind them came a venerable old man in plain brown robes, Senior Temple Guardian Demos Lightshand, followed closely by two more people. One was a serious-looking, clean-shaven young man wearing a plain jacket and trousers, Thomas Dimwood. The other was a tall, burly man, also young, Udoorin Shieldheart, Sheriff Standorin’s son, carrying something round, cylindrical, and blackened in his massive arms. Whatever it was, it must have been very heavy for the young man was sweating profusely.

I would have wished us all a good afternoon, gentlemen, but that would be quite churlish and insensitive of me to do at the moment..”, the venerable Senior Temple Guardian Demos Lightshand said with a serious expression.

Demos was more than venerable. His once light-blonde, shoulder-length hair and untrimmed beard were white and sparse and his face had many worry-wrinkles. His back was hunched and he walked with the aid of a slender, otherwise unadorned staff, but the years had not dulled his deep blue eyes which took everyone in the room with intelligent assessment.

“This is a closed session!”, Haradin said angrily.

“Ow, bite me, merchant!”, snarled Moorat. “But just so you know, I will bite back!”

“Gentlemen, please. The current crisis demands all hands on deck.”, Arthandos said wearily

“Senior Temple Guardian, please, take a seat.”, he added, rising from his own seat behind his desk and offered it to him.

“Thank you, Mayor. But that seat is yours. As are the responsibilities that come with it.”, Demos said kindly. “I apologize for the intrusion, but since Master Nimbletyne, here, insisted on coming, I thought it be wiser to make sure he can.”

Viranes Heidi did get up and with help from the surly-looking she-dwarf, they sat the limping gnome into her chair. Master Nimbletyne seemed quite battered and bruised, and he whined as he settled down.

“Thank you my dears.”, he said, trying to sound cheery, though he was sweating profusely and he had bandages on his head, his arms, his hands, and one of his legs was splintered.

Temple Guardian Lady Magella scowled at him and her scowl seemed to be a trademark of her sturdy features. She was not a pretty dwarf, but she did have a certain steady something about her. Her clothes were clean and tidy, and a cast-iron, diamond-shaped mace hung at her side.

The big, blocky Viranes Heidi, however, gave the gnome a big, generous smile.

Demos Lightshand turned to the large, burly young man and wheezed..

“Why don’t you put that thing down, young Master Udoorin.”, he said, nodding at the charred, cylindrical object. “I am sure it is heavier than it looks. Then find a few chairs for those standing. Perhaps young ranger novices Morel and Laila could give you a hand?”

“Yes, Guardian Demos..”, Udoorin mumbled, then with a great heave, he put the cylinder on the floor where everyone could see.

He might as well slammed it down.

The floorboards creaked and groaned, and several of them cracked and caved in!

“Good Heavens, boy!”, Mayor Arthandos exclaimed. You ruined my floor!”

“I am sorry, Mayor, Sir. It’s just heavy.”, Udoorin said, his flushed face turning even brighter.

Curious, the blacksmith, Gurk Larson, got up and came near the cylinder. He tried to nudge it, but failed. Then he hugged the object and tried to lift it, but he could barely tilt it. He heaved and pulled at it until his face flushed to no avail. He finally gave up and turned to stare at the young man with astonishment.

“I did say, it was heavy.”, Udoorin said, a bit embarrassed. Then he motioned at the two ranger cousins and they went out to find some chairs.

The other young man, Thomas Dimwood, was still standing next to the door, and he was entertaining a furious blush of his own. He didn’t look anywhere, certainly not at the ranger girls.

The ranger girls must have noticed this because Laila had her lips slightly pursed like someone trying to suppress her mirth while Bremorel had opted to totally ignore the young man but she had ruined it with a scowl and her cheeks had pinked a little.

Young Thomas shrank visibly and cringed as they went past him.

“What’s with him?”, Udoorin asked.

“How should I know?”, Bremorel said, snarling at him.

“What’s with you?”, he asked this time.

The ranger novice glared at him.

“Just how heavy is that thing?”, Laila asked.

“Don’t know. Must have been around twenty-five stones, I think.”, he replied as he poked his head into adjacent rooms, looking for chairs.

“What? That’s like three hundred and fifty bloody pounds!”, she exclaimed. “You could carry that?”

“Uhhmm.. Obviously?”, the young man answered a bit uncomfortably. “Look, let’s not make a big deal out of it, alright? Ow, here are some chairs.”

This isn’t iron, nor is it steel.”, the blacksmith, Gurk Larson, was saying. “I do not know what it is, but it definitely is neither. Or at least it must have something else in it besides iron.”

“I agree.”, Master Nimbletyne agreed as he coughed. “Sorry. Can’t seem to get rid of all the smoke I inhaled when I was out. And for those who are wondering, this thing, whatever it is, is not my crafting. I artifice items of certain delicacy that usually require magnifying goggles and tweezers, so to speak. Alchemy just isn’t really my area of expertise. This thing belched fire like there was no tomorrow! It must have contained a concoction of a certain complexity. Had I some of the original fuel, I might have been able to figure out what it was, given enough time but you’d have more luck by hiring an actual alchemist from Tinker Hills. As for why they brought it to my workshop, I do not know. And because the whole shop is destroyed, I can’t even say if they took something or not.”

There was a long silence as everyone mulled over that.

“Perhaps it was a former, unsatisfied customer, Master Nimbletyne.”, Haradin said, squinting distastefully at the gnome.

Everyone who was a senior in the room was seated now, with the exception of the blocky Viranes Heidi. She had opted to stand behind Nimbletyne as if wanting to make sure he was alright. She had grabbed the canteen on the mayor’s desk and kept on pushing it into the little gnome’s hand, forcing him to take a sip every now and then.

The gnome’s niece, Gnine Tinkerdome, was also standing behind him, though he was somewhat lost behind the very large Viranes.

Lady Magella and Thomas were standing behind Demos Lightshand, while Laila and Bremorel had taken their places behind their respective ranger masters, Davien and Moorat, and Udoorin was standing behind his father, Sheriff Standorin Shieldheart.

Nimbletyne did not bother glaring at him. He simply shrugged.

“I do not have unsatisfied customers, Haradin.”, he said like he was merely stating a very obvious fact.

“Whatever the reasons were, it was sloppy.”, the sheriff rumbled.

“Sloppy?”, Haradin scoffed. “Does what you see outside look sloppy to you?”

“I was out there all night, Councilman. Thought I mentioned that already. The fact that it caused so much damage and so many random casualties is not the mark of professionalism. If you want someone dead and gone, there are many other ways to do it. Easier and certainly with discretion. This..”, he said, pointing at the window, “..was a mess.”

“What are you saying, sheriff?”, Yuleman asked.

“I am saying, these people, whoever they are, wanted to make a statement. A very arrogant one. I suggest we use their arrogance against them. I have contacts all the way from here to Arashkan. I am sure the temple has contacts of their own.”, the sheriff said. “But while we are looking for answeres here, I offer we pick a few of our own people and send them after these miscreants. Sort of to harras them, if nothing else.”

“We will need rangers for that. But we will also need both the ranger masters here to make sure there are no more incursions coming our way.”, the mayor objected.

“True. I was thinking more along the lines of what Ranger Novice Laila offered. Both she and young Bremorel have proven their battle prowess and their skills in the past.”, Standorin said with a slight grin.

“Sure, you don’t have to ask.”, Davien said sincerely. “Laila is an excellent tracker and an excelling archer.”

Laila held her breath. So did Bremorel.

Moorat, however, gave Davien a disgusted look.

“Well, bugger. Now that the dolt has agreed, I can’t even say no, can I?”, he muttered angrily. “Ranger Novice Bremorel still has some training to go but I believe she can hold her end of anything that might come her way.”

Both Laila and Bremorel were grinning now.

“Father.. uhhmm.. Sheriff?”, Udoorin rumbled tentatively.

“You sure?”, his father asked, looking at him over his shoulder.

“Doesn’t matter if I am, father. This needs to be done and I’ll be more useful out there than I will be here.”, the young man said carefully.

“If Senior Temple Guardian Demos could be persuaded to part with Temple Guardian Lady Magella, that would make four. And four is better than three..”, the sheriff said and let it sort of hang there.

“Temple Guardian Lady is a strong-willed acolyte.”, Demos wheezed. “I am sure she would rather stay here and look after this old man but she needs to be out there, not wasting her life making sure I have eaten or have enough blankets.”

Udoorin almost whooped.

Lady Magella, however, did not show such enthusiasm. She just scowled some more.

“Perhaps young Lucious would like to join as well. I hear he is good with a longblade.”, the sheriff offered, smiling at Councilman Haradin.

“How altruistic of you to offer other people’s sons and daughters so callously.”, Haradin sneered at him.

Udoorin coughed.

“I offered myself.”, he said simply.

Haradin glared at both of them.

“Lucious is busy and has things to do.”, he spat.

“He must be. Seeing as, father and son, neither of you could be bothered to lend a hand in putting out the fires, nor with the aftermath. Tell me again, what do you do for this town, Councilman?”, the sheriff asked.

“Sheriff, please. This is a pointless debate.”, Arthandos said then looked at the four youngsters thoughtfully. “Four. Will that be enough?”

“I have two more candidates, Mayor, though one might require some persuading. Or perhaps not.”

“Very well.”, Yuleman said. “Five is better than four, and six is better than five. Gentlemen, I believe we have some work to do and it’s out there, not in this room.”

It was about then when everyone had risen to leave, and a tiny but decisive voice was heard.

“I am going too.”

Everyone paused and looked around to see its owner, and the little gnome, Gnine Tinkerdome stepped out from behind the big, blocky Viranes Heidi.

“What are you doing, boy?”, Nimbletyne hissed.

“My part.”, Gnine said boldly.

“Boy, this is serious. Everyone who is going has had some training. You don’t. You are the only one I got left.”, Nimbletyne said almost pleadingly.

“And you are the only one I got left too, uncle. And someone tried to kill you last night. And this lot’s all brawn but no brains. Surely they will need someone with intelligence.”, Gnine said stubbornly.

“Feh!”, Haradin scoffed. “Two little girls, a boy, a caretaker, and now a charlatan, just like his uncle!”

Haradin never quite saw what hit him and to be fair, he really didn’t see what hit him!

He stumbled forward as if he’d lost his step on a run and just dropped, face down..

..and stayed there.

“Viranes..”, Yuleman said in total defeat. “Why? Why would you do this?”

“I have just about had enough of his snark.”, flared the big, blocky woman.

“Do you know what he will do to you?”

“Don’t care.”, shrugged Viranes.

“He will write a petition all the way to Arashkan and summon a magistrate here and he’s got the power to do it.”

“Don’t care.”, Viranes repeated. “This is Serenity Home. Not Arashkan.”

“My dear Viranes, Serenity Home is bound to Arashkan.”, Yuleman said in a deflated tone. “He will make sure he gets everything you own when he sues you.”

“He can have whatever he wants from me. But he’ll have to dig them from under all the rubble, seeing as my home and my shop is also burned.”, Viranes said bitterly.

“He will need witnesses to sue her, you know?”, rumbled Standorin. “I honestly don’t know what happened. I was talking with my son and had my back turned. Whatever happened, must have happened too fast.”

“Stan..”, Yuleman said with a very disapproving tone.

“I was conferring with masters Gurk and Yarvel, here, and only saw him trip and fall, and I am sticking to that story!”, Thokan Silversong said from the side.

“Hell, yeah!”, barked Gurk Larson.

“Yes. What he said..”, nodded Yarvel Stratler with pursed lips.

“And Davien was talking with me. Isn’t that right, Davien?”, Moorat said.

“I was? I mean, you were?”, Davien asked a bit vaguely.

Moorat gave him a very evil glare.

“Well, I suppose I was.”, Davien said hastily.

“This sounds decidedly like a worldly matter that the Temple should not be involved.”, wheezed Demos.

“Nice. You all seem to have gotten yourselves covered.”, Yuleman glared at them all. “What about me? It happened right in front of me!”

“Don’t look at me, I am hurt. Isn’t that right, my dear Viranes?”, Nimbletyne asked.

“Damn, right, you are hurt.”, she said angrily.

“Uhhmm.. you could be busy trashing me, Mayor, Sir.”, Gnine offered in a small voice. “I don’t mind being trashed. Wouldn’t be the first time.”

Arthandos Yuleman sighed.

“This is doomed to come back and bite us. I am sure of it.”, he said in total defeat.

 

Lady Moira.”, Sheriff Standorin called over the crowd of people as he limped through the debris with his son behind him.

Lady Moira was a tall, athletic young woman, perhaps in her early twenties, with a mane of reddish-brown hair. She had broad shoulders, powerful arms, and long, shapely legs, all encased in heavy plate armor, and she was busy raking through the rubble, helping the townsmen move the larger stones. Apparently, she hadn’t bothered taking her armor off while doing manual labor. A sheathed longsword and a tall, heavy shield were leaning on a wall nearby. She was covered in soot and dust, her hair seemed disheveled, and her handsome face was all smudge smeared. She looked up when she heard her name and gave a sunny smile at the sheriff.

Udoorin just ogled at her.

“My Lord Sheriff Standorin. Good to see you again. Mayhap you should be resting. Methinks that wound is quite serious.”, she said solemnly.

“All in good time, Lady Moira.”, the sheriff said with a similar, solemn tone. “When you first arrived, you said you were looking for a job. Are you still interested?”

“But of course, My Lord Sheriff. I came here in hopes of righting wrongs and bringing shy miscreants to justice. And it would thus seem I could be of some use to your once merry town.”, she said, then grimaced, lowered her voice, and whispered. “Mind I drop the archaic? I am sure it hurts you almost as much it hurts me.”

Udoorin was openly staring at her now.

“However you wish it, Lady Moira.”, the sheriff said with a smile. “As it happens, our rangers have found tracks that belong to possible miscreants running from our town, and deep into the forest. We have put together a team of able young men and women to bring said miscreants to justice. Perhaps you could be persuaded to join them in this endeavor?”

“You need not ask, Sheriff. You have the legal authority to order any knight or paladin of a certain rank. They would be obligated to comply.”, Lady Moira said seriously. “I am equally comfortable helping these townsmen dig through the rubble as I am helping you find these bashful miscreants. Good is wherever we can help.”

“Thank you, Lady Moira. I would like to introduce you to my son, Udoorin. You will be in the same company with him, along with two rangers, a Temple Guardian, and an able young gnome. Someone will meet you just north of the town. Best you gather your belongings as soon as possible.”, Sheriff Standorin said.

“Then I am ready, Sir. Sans my sword and my shield, which do rest but a few yards over, all my worldly belongings are on me.”, she grinned, tapping her plate armor.

Yesh!”, whooped Bremorel Songsteel with an elated grin. “Finally!”

They had started soon after the council had adjourned. Young Udoorin and Thomas had carried Councilman Haradin Franderson’s unconscious body to his quite expensive townhouse, and told his son, Lucious, that his father had tripped and fallen, and possibly knocked himself out during the council meeting, then hastily left. Ranger novices, Laila and Bremorel had been promoted to full ranger status just before they had left and they both were quite happy about it. After a few farewells from the sheriff, the ranger masters Davien and Moorat, Master Nimbletyne, and Senior Temple Guardian Demos Lightshand, the group had departed for the long trek that would take them through vast reaches of Ritual Forest, and as far as their query would run.

“What are you so happy about, Ranger Bremorel Songsteel?”, her cousin Laila asked with a grin of her own.

“This is our first big and unattended assignment. That’s why I am excited, Ranger Laila Wolvesbane.”, Bremorel replied excitedly.

“How come you know so much about the law? You trampled right over Haradin, back there.”, Laila said, her grinning tone changed to something that sounded like she was rather impressed.

“I told you I read when we returned from our patrols. What did you think I have been reading all this time? Silly girly books?”

“Something like that.”, Laila admitted.

“Really? Just where do you think was I going to find those kinds of books? In the Temple library? All they have there are religious scripts and books on law.”, Bremorel said drearily. “Law seemed more exciting.”

Laila chuckled.

“I can’t believe the kind of things you do just to get a glimpse of that poor kid and then totally ignore him when he was standing right there, in the same room where we were. Could have said, goodbye, at least.”, Laila said.

“The conditions of my expectations haven’t changed. If he wants me so badly, he’s just going to have to man up and come speak to me..”, Bremorel said stubbornly..

Laila sighed.

“Your D.D. Dexter wasn’t there to say goodbye, to you either.”, Bremorel said a bit waspishly.

“D.D. isn’t in town. His master, Thokan Silversong, sent him on some journey a few days ago.”, she replied with another sigh. “That’s why he wasn’t there to greet me when we returned from our patrol the other day.”

“What? Why?”, Bremorel asked.

“Master Thokan said it’s a bard thing. All bards must travel every once in a while to gain certain worldly experience and perspective. Apparently, a bard can’t be stuck in one place for too long. They must set out and travel for a few weeks, or months, or years.”, she explained.

“Well, that’s a bummer.”, her cousin said. Then she added brightly, “But at least you two will get to miss each other.”

“I am not temperamentally equipped with the whole, ‘missing’ thing.”, Laila said quietly.

Bremorel fell silent.

She wasn’t temperamentally equipped with the whole, ‘missing’ thing, either.

Then she glanced back at Udoorin, who was wearing heavy chainmail and holding a big battleaxe in one hand. He had two more battleaxes strapped across his back along with a shield, his father’s longsword on his belt, any number of knives and daggers on several other belts, and even a few tucked in his boots. He was talking with the tall, reddish-brown-haired girl in her newly polished and shining armor, Lady Moira, who only had her heavy shield strapped to one arm, and her beautiful longsword hanging from her belt. The young man’s face was a bit flushed and was using his words sparingly. The girl, on the other hand, was quite generous with her words and her comely smile. Behind them came the little gnome, Gnine Tinkerdome, ogling openly at the paladin girl as Temple Guardian Lady Magella silently brought the rear, still scowling.

“This is going to be a merry band.”, Bremorel said with a touch of sarcasm. “Do you know her? I heard she is a real paladin.”

“First time I am seeing her. I did hear she came all the way from Durkahan about a week ago, but I don’t know why.”, Laila mused, also looking back.

They walked at a steady pace for the next two hours until they reached the edge of Ritual Forest when Bremorel spoke again.

“Well, at least we won’t be dealing with that arse, any time soon!”, her cousin sneered with spite.

“Which arse is that?”, Laila asked amusedly.

“That Aager-guy.”, Bremorel hissed.

“Good to know where we stand, Ranger Morel.”, growled a voice and Aager Fogstep appeared from behind the trees..

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