“Good, the–” Craglim bolted forward and stepped before me.
“I has a question.” He stared at me as if he was daring me to stop him. “Who was it what hurt me kin? Rowland?”
The wolf actually smiled and spat again. James punched him in the side of the jaw, allowing him to speak, “Me and the other stronger guards. He was the most adamant and staunch supporter in the village other than the Paladin at the tavern. He needed to pay for his traitorous ways. He’s probably dead by now, right?”
I began to laugh, so much so that I actually reverted to my fox-man form. He looked at me in confusion.
“Oh sorry.” I tried to stop a moment to breathe. “It took that many of you filthy bastards to overpower him, and you still failed to kill him. They’re all dead, and you feel like you can gloat? Rowland’s fine, dickbag, but you won’t be. Hey, Yoh, you still got my morals in hand, man?”
Yohsuke made a fist and clenched it tightly. “Yup.”
“Excellent.” I picked Cudgel up, then looked to Craglim. “I don’t like you much, but Rowland is your family. You want to kill him, or you want me to?”
“I’d be likin’ a crack at him first.” He growled fiercely. “Iffin ye don’ mind?”
I tossed Cudgel away from me and motioned for Craglim to take over. We watched as Craglim took his time breaking bits of the Wolf’s body with his hammer, then taking the time to straighten the broken bits and hit them again.
Jaken had walked out just after the Dwarf had started his painful ministrations to the wolf.
“I’m going to go back in with the kids,” Jaken stated after the first few whacks in his presence. “I feel like, while this is called for, I can’t actively support it. He’s unarmed. Let me know when we can go.”
“You got it, man,” I said dispassionately. “You wanna go with him, James? Just in case?”
“Yeah, man.” He sighed almost in relief. “Don’t take too long.”
The wolf’s HP was draining quickly enough, but the damage was blunt damage, and it was all to extremities. So there was no “life-threatening” damage to things like organs and whatnot. Still, that damage was adding up.
“Finish it, Craglim,” Yohsuke ordered at last. “We need to get these kids back.”
“I’ll do no such thing!” he howled. “Hurt me kin! Rowland was a good smith. Good man. He didn’t deserve tha’ beatin’! He’s gonna pay!”
“Either you finish it now, or I do,” Bokaj said behind us on the wall. He hadn’t made a noise coming over here and had an arrow nocked and aimed at Cudgel’s head already.
The Dwarf looked outraged at the prospect of someone taking his kill, so he took a strong stance at the nearly unconscious wolf’s head and stopped.
“Ye hurt me kin, Wolf,” he spat, “but this be two-fold. You hurt me kin, and ye took’d those kids. I hope yer Gods will smile upon ye as the Mountain surely will me. This is the end of yer Way.”
He brought his hammer up and arced it down perfectly. Gore splattered against Craglim’s legs, and some had even found its way on to his face.
“Aye, thank ye, lads.” He looked to those of us standing there. “Ye helped me avenge me kin. I’ll not forget tha’.”
“Don’t mention it,” I said. “Seriously. Don’t tell Rowland. He’s gonna be pissed enough as it is that someone ganged up on him and he didn’t get a piece.”
Craglim loosed a torrential bellow of a laugh, his hand smacking his stomach. “Hahaha, aye, tha’ be true.”
He looked at me funnily, but I left it alone. Grateful as he was or not, I was in no mood to piss around with him. The little fucker was annoying.
The experience was a decent drop in the bucket. The experience from the normal guards had been negligible at best, but Asshole and Cudgel had given a good chunk—around a hundred experience each for all of us, I assumed.
Yohsuke pulled Cudgel’s pockets inside out, finding a single bead of orange, and slipped it into his inventory with a shrug. The armor and weapons we took because they looked like decent stock, some of the normal guards’ armors were sliced, singed, and wet beyond repair it seemed, so we left those. Asshole and Cudgel’s armors were still in great shape other than the straps being sliced through. We took them, even though it looked like the enchantments had been tied to the two wolf Beast-kin. Maybe we could have someone study them.
Another thing that was weird was that the information didn’t pop up on our status screens when we touched things like normal items. Maybe we could have someone look at them at some point, but for now—other matters required our attention.
We went to check on the children with Jaken and James. The two of them stood in front of the gate like sentinels. The children seemed to have heard a bit of what happened outside and had begun to huddle together in fear. When the rest of us walked over, we had the Paladin and Monk call the kids outside.
I noted two friendly faces when I let the light from a freshly cast Fergus’ Flame Blade shed over the area. The others seemed scared, but that was natural.
“Mr. Zeke!” A little blonde haired girl with pigtails and freckles sobbed. I looked over, and her older brother looked so relieved he might pass out. He let her go, and she began to sprint at me.
I caught her with my left arm and hefted her up into a hug. “Are you okay, little one? Did they hurt you?”
“No, they left the younger children alone.” She looked to her brother and sniffed. “They talked to the older children for a while, though.”
“They kept trying to teach us about their order,” her brother said as he stood slowly. He held his stomach and limped toward us. “Those who didn’t buy into it were punished for treason. I don’t think any of us gave in.”
The other older children were beaten and bruised, and more than a couple of them seemed uncomfortable in our presence.
Couldn’t say that I blamed them. They had taken beatings for their faith in us and in their parents, and here I was with nothing good to tell them. They were safe now? They had been last time—at least we had thought they were, but this shit happened—and War’s minions and generals were still out there somewhere. They weren’t safe at all.
Jaken looked them over and began to mumble something beneath his breath. Then a large flash of radiant light and a wave of warmth swept over us. After the initial blindness and spots left our eyes, the children were all healed and so were we.
“What the fu–n was that?” Yohsuke nearly burst trying to correct himself before the children around us.
“Radiant Burst,” Jaken muttered with a hand to his head, then turned to the children. “Hurts enemies, heals my friends. And guess what that makes all of you?!”
The children all cheered and began to laugh and clap.
“Let’s get ye all home to yer mamas and papas afore they get to riotin’,” Craglim said, clapping some of the children on their backs and ushering them outside.
With the path straight back to the village being as straight a line as possible and no real need for stealth, we made the walk in a few hours with rests where we could. The party was spread around the children to be sure that no one fell behind, and some of the older ones carried infants and toddlers, while we kept a lookout for anything that may attempt to stop us.
I cast a Mental Message to Sam, letting him know we were on our way.
“Wha– how, DEAR!” Sam’s voice faded in my head. I blinked in confusion, then shrugged.
Moments later, we were in sight of the village, and all hell broke loose.
“The children!” a woman’s cry rang out. “The children have returned!”
Children and villager alike clashed just inside the tree line. Sobs and words exchanged rang out in the area, and more voices raised behind them, letting us know that we weren’t the only ones who had heard the news.
I noted Sam’s children bolted straight to their mother and father as soon as they were in sight.
“Mama! Daddy!” the youngest one cried, almost taking his poor dad’s nose off trying
to kiss him. Pointing back to us, he cried, “They saved us from the bad people!”
I froze. I had almost forgotten about our little ruse. The villagers turned to us, and I couldn’t see one look of anger or distrust. Sure, some of them looked worried—fuck, I know I would’ve been if my kid had been taken, but I didn’t have it in me to see anyone in this town being a part of what just happened.
The man I had seen earlier, the herbalist who had read the final words on that horrid letter, left his wife to stand in front of us. He looked me in the eyes, steadily with his stoic face and held out his right hand.
I clasped his forearm with mine, and he pulled me into a bear hug so tight I thought I would take damage. “Thank you, mister. Thank you for saving our babies. You ever need anything—you ask. You come find me and mine, and we will have your back. I swear it to all the Gods.”
“Your daughter and son—forgive me, I never learned their names—are good kids. They’re friends of mine now.” I smiled as he pulled back.
“Nora, Daisy, and Seth come here, please?” He held my wrist in his as he waved his family over. He pointed to his wife first, then his daughter and son. “This man is family now, ya hear? They all are. Thank him proper.”
Little Daisy came over and hugged me fiercely. Her brother, a little more shy, grasped my wrist like his father had and smiled. His wife, Nora, just stood in front of me with her eyes downcast in thought.
“It’s okay, ma’am,” I said. “I know that it was because of us that the kids were taken, but we can’t control those kinds of people, and we’re still here for all of you.”
She looked at her kids, then the rest of us, and nodded. “Thank you. All of you.”
“You’re welcome!” Jaken’s big ass barged into the center of the group of parents, kids, and curious onlookers. “All of you, you are welcome! You don’t have to thank us. All we ask for are two things. One, that you take care of your families. I have a little girl myself, and I know I would do nothing else but try and hurt the people responsible. They are gone! And with the bears helping to watch over you—you are safe!”
Jaken spread his arms wide as if in gracious acceptance.
The fuck are you doing, puto? Yohsuke asked through our earrings so we could all hear.
We need them to like us, and being selfish isn’t going to help our cause. Look at them, man. They need to feel secure, and they need to lighten the mood—trust me.
The crowd cheered wildly. I saw some reflecting light in the area—eyes peered at us, and I saw one ursine head poke through the brush and sniff before they disappeared.
“The second thing is for you and your families to join us for a feast in two nights from now.” People began to chatter quietly, but Jaken continued, “Let us welcome your loved ones back with a meal in their honor, and let us thank you for your service to this world!”
The crowd whispered and chattered excitedly, and I watched as Bokaj and Tmont slunk away while everyone else was distracted. There was a scowl of disgust on his face, and I could imagine that the delay, although well intentioned, was grating on his nerves. I couldn’t blame him.
“On behalf of all of the residents here and those who may still be asleep,” the purple and gold of the rising sun alighting on his mildly scratched face, Sam spoke with his arms raised in welcome, “we humbly accept your offer. Please, accept our sincerest thanks. Friends, no—FAMILY. You are all of our family now. Come, we must prepare! Go home! Love your families and know that you are safe!”
The crowd cheered again, and children danced and pranced around their parents as they flooded into the village and their homes to be together in private.
Sam, his wife, and kids stayed behind to watch over them as they left. Some of the families nodded. Another human woman promised us cookies and food any time. They looked at the families still making their way home, then Sam turned to us.
“Again, we cannot thank you enough,” he said. He looked weary. His wife came over to us and hugged us each in turn. She was quiet, tears welling in her eyes, but she smiled nonetheless.
“You’re fine, and you’ve got to go get some rest so you can be with your family properly.” I clapped the mayor on his shoulder. “You both have to be exhausted. Get some rest and keep those kids close.”
Sam nodded and tried to speak again, but he was interrupted.
“You don’t have to thank us, man. Jaken said that.” Yohsuke waved him and his thanks off. “He meant it. So do we. You guys took us in, taught us and made sure we were set. There’s almost nothing we wouldn’t do for you all.”
Sam nodded and seemed to take that to heart, but before they could leave, we got together, and we each offered a hundred gold to the village. He could use that to pay for the food for the feast and also build some better defenses. He floundered with his thanks, but we cut him off before he could get too far. “Take it. No thanks needed. It is the right thing to do.” He just stood there staring at us.
He did. Sir Dillon, looking bedraggled and half asleep, came to the edge of the village wearing a nightshirt and a pair of night pants. His sword and shield ready, he said, “Wha– what’s happened? Is the village safe?”
We all laughed pretty hard for a few minutes. Then we returned to the tavern for the night. With that one bit of business off my heart and mind, I turned my thoughts to what Samu had said about more aid coming.
I tried and failed to turn my mind off after a bit, eventually falling into a fitful sleep.
* * *
I woke and started my normal routine. I shuffled down the hall and into the dining room for something to eat. Sir Dillon smiled at me warmly as he offered me a plate. I was the first one of our group in the room that morning,
“You’ll be happy to know that Lady Radiance saw fit to grace me with word.” He thumped the bar. “She said, ‘aid has come’ last night.”
“Oh?” I said around a mouthful of eggs and biscuit. “Waph’s tha’?”
“You will see.” He chuckled and poured some cider into a cup. “Eat your food and be patient.”
The rest of my friends, except Bokaj, wandered out of the hallway in bursts.
“Anyone seen Bokaj?” I posed as I lifted my fork to my lips once more with my final bite of food.
“I think he’s out training right now,” Willem answered. We looked his way, and he continued, “Hunters found arrows in trees around the area with crudely drawn targets and claw marks on the trees from a great cat.”
“Makes sense, the idea that we would celebrate anything right now seemed to piss him off.” Yohsuke turned an ire-filled gaze on me. “Speaking of pissed off—the fuck was that shit last night?”
I knew what he was talking about, and I had been wrestling with the answer since the kids had been found relatively safe. On the way back to the village, I hadn’t had an answer. Now? I sure as fuck didn’t. But I did know one thing.
“I did what had to be done.” Even saying it had felt bitter. Like a lie.
“Yeah, and what Pastela did was necessary too, right?” he spat venomously. “As she beat the shit out of you, tortured you, and treated us like playthings for a couple days in the Fae Realm? She wasn’t fuckin’ wrong either, was she?”
“Dude, you know she was a monster,” I shot back, my vision darkening with that same red veil of rage.
“That was some Pastela-level bullshit, and you know it.” Yohsuke began to stand, and suddenly, I realized I was growling deeply in my chest. “You gonna turn and attack me, motherfucker?”
The others were standing now too. Jaken had a hold on my left arm, and James looked ready for a brawl.
I took a steadying breath, and the red faded slowly.
Yohsuke walked over to stand in front of me on my side of the table and muttered, “I ‘held’ your morals because I knew it was necessary at the time, but that shit was cold blooded. If we keep that shit up—we’re no better than War’s minions or the generals either.”
Jaken’s grip tightened considera
bly, painfully, around my arm. “We’re better than them.”
I nodded. “I start to lose it again and it isn’t called for, or it’s too callous–”
Yohsuke interrupted, “We’ll beat your ass.”
I had to laugh. “Thanks.”
About this time, Bokaj walked in, grabbed a plate of food silently, and began to eat, tossing food to Tmont as he did. He ignored our greetings at first, but finally, an apple thrown at him from James brought him out of his reverie.
“Yeah?” He blinked at us, our questions plainly visible on our faces. “T and I were training last night. The whole prospect of this party thing pissed me off, and I needed to clear my head. I don’t like it, but I get that it’s a necessity to keep the goodwill of the village. Just don’t take too long. We got a Dwarf to go save and some minions to kill and shit.”
After a nod of agreement, I looked at the sunlight streaming through the windows and smacked the table. “Alright, time to see what this ‘aid’ is. Sir Dillon?”
“Well, he’s asleep still probably.” The older Paladin grinned at our disbelief. “Last room on the left, but it would be rude to wake him.”
I looked at him, then looked at my friends, and bolted for the hallway. Bokaj tripped over Tmont trying to get off his bar stool. Yohsuke was fast, but Jaken shoved him playfully aside. James tried to push me into Jaken, but I shifted into my fox form and skittered into the hallway before shifting back.
At the end of the hallway on the left-hand side was a door that I had never noticed before. I leaped into the air and kicked it open, landing in a heap as the others followed me in, causing me to fall with their momentum.
“Huh, wha–” a groggy voice said from the bed.
In the bed was a blanketed form that began to move. A green-scaled head poked out and looked around. Draconic features dominated the face, but the voice sounded familiar. So familiar. Huh…. Wait. I looked at Yohsuke, then Jaken, and they looked from me, back to the figure.
“Nick?” The three of us asked at the same time.
The figure blinked lazily. “Weirdest dream ever.”
Into the Dragon's Den (Axe Druid Book 2) Page 9