Rikel followed where the villager pointed and saw the griffon. “There it is!” she shouted.

Bewr turned to face Rikel. “This doesn’t make sense!” she protested. “The griffons never come this far north.”

Lelwyn placed a hand on Rikel’s shoulder. “It matters not why it is here,” he explained. “What matters now is that we must prevent it from harming the denizens of Nighforest.”

Rikel nodded. “Lelwyn’s right,” she agreed. “I’ll run inside and get my sword. Unless it attacks first, wait until I get back,” she ordered.

Kirel turned to her. “What about armor?” he asked.

Rikel just shook her head and ran inside. Bewr turned to Kirel. “Do you have any idea how long it takes to put on armor like that?” she asked him. “Our fight with the griffon would be long over before Rikel finished getting it on.”

Kirel nodded. “Which would explain why she wore it during the entire trip here,” he mused.

Moments later, Rikel ran out of the temple with her sword in hand. “Are you ready?” she asked the mages. When they all nodded, she ran into the main part of the village.

They soon found Draleth shouting orders to the civilians to flee to the town center. Rikel ran up to him. “I need to find whoever is in charge of the town guard,” she told him briskly.

Draleth smiled. “You’re looking at him, captain!” he answered while herding the civilians to safety.

Rikel nodded. “We wish to help in your defenses,” she told him while motioning to the three mages.

Dralthe breathed through his teeth. “I don’t exactly have any experience leading mages into battle,” he admitted. “But I’d be a fool to refuse any help at this point,” he added. “Stay inside the village proper. Focus on keeping the civilians safe. Casting any offensive spells on the griffon is to be your second priority. Is that clear?”

Lelwyn stepped forward. “It will be as you say,” he assured the soldier.

Draleth snorted. “It better be,” he told them before grabbing Rikel and pulling her after him. Rikel jogged to keep up with him.

When the two of them got to the line of guards outside the village, Rikel turned to Draleth. “Just how bad is this likely to be?” she asked him.

Draleth chuckled humorlessly. “Well, none of the town guard have ever dealt with anything more than a bar-fight.”

Rikel rolled her eyes and tightened her grip on her sword. “Just great,” she answered him sarcastically.

Draleth led Rikel to the front of the formation. “Listen up you lot!” he ordered. “For the duration of this fight, I’m making Rikel here a member of the guard and my second in command. She has more real combat experience than all of you lot put together so I don’t want to hear any grumblings of being passed over or you’re being dismissed from the guard on the spot! Is that clear?” he demanded.

The entire formation snapped to attention. “Sir! Yes sir!” they all shouted.

Draleth pointed at three of the youngest in the formation. “You, you, and you!” he shouted. “I want the three of you to keep the civilians inside the town center where it’s relatively safe. Keep them from doing anything stupid like leaving the building to try to fight the griffon themselves!” he explained. The three guards nodded their heads and headed back into the village.

The griffon screeched and dived at the grass to the east of the village. Rikel held up her hand. “Hold your fire!” she ordered. She turned to Draleth. “It’s testing our attack range.”

Draleth nodded. “Listen up!” he ordered. “Our absolute first priority is to protect the lives of the people of the village. Our second priority is the livestock. We lose too many of them and people starve!” he explained.

Rikel turned back to face the formation. “The only buildings you should worry about are the town center, where all the civilians are gathered, and the food stores,” she added. “The other buildings can be rebuilt easily enough. The lives of the villagers are more important!”

As the two seasoned soldiers were giving orders, storm clouds gathered in the sky. Draleth turned to Rikel. “Is this one of those mages?” he asked.

Rikel shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I’ve never seen them in a fight before,” she added.

Draleth grunted as a lightning bolt fell from the sky and missed the griffon by mere inches. The griffon looked up and screeched a challenge.

When no further lightning bolts came, the griffon turned back to the village and made another dive. Rikel saw the trajectory of the griffon and her eyes widened. “Archers, fire!” she ordered. “The griffon’s going after the cattle!”

A volley of arrows passed over her head and went towards the griffon, forcing it to abandon its dive to avoid the arrows. Rikel smiled. “Good shooting people!” she complimented with a shout. “Preventing the griffon from grabbing anybody or the livestock is more important than actually hitting it.”

A strong gust of wind blew the griffon further away followed by another lightning bolt. The griffon changed its flight-path and dove at the guards. “Scatter!” Draleth ordered over the building storm with a shout.

The griffon landed on top of one of the guards. Rikel ran at the griffon while screaming wordlessly. The griffon, hearing her, turned from the fallen guard.

The griffon opened its mouth to bite the knight but she rolled under its mouth to protect the fallen guard.

The griffon kicked at her with its powerful hind legs, knocking her back and on to the ground.

Rikel rolled over and then stood up with her sword in her hands. While Rikel was distracting the griffon, the guards had recovered from their shock and started firing arrows at the griffon, wounding it slightly. The griffon tilted its head back in pain. Rikel saw the opening and ran forward to stab it in the throat, killing it instantly.

Rikel carefully pulled the sword from the griffon’s neck and checked on the fallen guard, finding them to be wounded but alive. She pointed at one of the guards still standing. “Go find the mages and lead them back here!” she ordered while trying to stop the guard from bleeding to death.

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The guard saluted and ran off. Draleth ran over to her. “Good work, captain!” he told her.

Rikel shook her head. “Compliment me after we save this guard’s life,” she objected.

Before Draleth could retort, the three mages came from inside the village. Rikel saw them and motioned them over. “Lelwyn!” she shouted. “We need your healing magic over here!”

Lelwyn ran over and immediately started casting some healing spells on the wounded guard. “It is fortunate that we were already on our way when we were summoned,” he mused. “Had we been any later, it would have been too late.”

Draleth lightly slapped Rikel on the back, causing her to wince in pain. Draleth raised an eyebrow at her. “Just how hard did that griffon hit you?” he asked.

Rikel held back a groan. “I’ll live,” she answered. “I’ll just be in a fair amount of pain for a few weeks.”

Lelwyn, overhearing this exchange looked up at her. “Once I have finished with the rest of the guards, I’ll heal you as well,” he announced.

Bewr walked up to the griffon’s remains and knelt down to examine it. “Well, that explains that,” she mused.

Draleth turned to her. “Explains what?” he demanded.

Bewr stood up and dusted off her robes. “You can see the griffon’s ribs through its skin,” she explained. At the blank stares from everybody else gathered, she continued. “It was starving and just wanted something to eat,” she summarized with tears in her eyes.

Kirel walked up to the sobbing enchater and placed an arm around her shoulder. “We had to kill it,” he explained.

Bewr nodded. “I know,” she answered. “That doesn’t mean that I have to like it.”

Draleth kicked the griffon’s remains. “This may solve one of our problems, though,” he mused and pointed to one of the guards. “Tell the butcher to get over here! This griffon should feed everybody in the village tonight!” The guard saluted and ran off to find the butcher.

Lelwyn walked up to Rikel. “I have finished with the others,” he told her before casting healing spells on her. “You may be sore tonight. If you still feel any injury in the morning, inform me that I may cast another round of healing spells on you,” he ordered.

Rikel nodded in understanding. “I feel much improved already,” she told him. “But I’ll let you know if that changes.” Lelwyn smiled before Rikel walked off when Draleth. On their way back to the main part of the village, Draleth led the around the outskirts of the village. “We had best make rounds on our way back,” he explained. “No telling what kind of mischief some of our less savory townsfolk have been up to while the entire town guard were distracted with this little fiasco,” he pointed out.

Rikel shrugged in answer while following. “How likely is that?” she asked. “And, what kind of mischief could they have gotten into in so short a time?” she added.

Draleth laughed. “Well, we have our usual youthful pranksters, just like any village,” he pointed out with a smile.

Rikel stopped in shock. “Certainly, even the most rambunctious of children would know better than to try anything during a griffon attack!” she countered.

Draleth shrugged. “You’d think that, wouldn’t you?” he asked back. “But you haven’t had to deal with a half-elf child with more gumption than sense have you?” he asked in admonishment.

Rikel let out a low whistle. “You’re right, I haven’t. And wow, I’ve heard stories of half-elves,” she admitted. “You have my sympathies, my old friend,” she added with a mischievous smile.

Draleth smirked. “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up,” he joked back while the two of them walked.

During the rounds, they walked through the cemetery. While there, Rikel saw a statue in the middle of the cemetery and walked up to it. “Who was this?” she asked in curiosity.

Draleth bowed his head towards the statue. “That was Perhithos,” he answered. “The way the tale was told to me, while the two of us were still in the army, he came through the village. While here, the village was attacked by some kind of monster. Perhithos fought the monster but died from the wounds he suffered during the fight. If you want more details than that, you’d have to ask somebody who was living here at the time,” he finished.

Rikel hummed in thought. “Perhithos,” she mused. “That name is really familiar.”

Draleth barked out a laugh. “With a name as unusual as that, how could you forget hearing it?” he asked.

Rikel snapped her fingers. “I didn’t!” she shouted in realization. “I read it in a report!” she explained.

Draleth shrugged. “Maybe you read a battle report of how he died?” he suggested.

Rikel looked at Draleth in pity. “No offense to your village here,” she started. “But there’s no way that anything that happened here would have shown up on any of my official reports,” she told him.

Draleth chuckled. “None taken,” he assured her. “It was just a guess anyway,” he added.

Rikel yawned. “That’s a mystery that’ll have to wait for another time,” she explained. “I had better get back,” she added. The two soldiers saluted each other and Rikel headed back to the temple.

As the knight rejoined the others in the temples’ dining hall, a dwarf walked in carrying a tray of roasted meat. Lelwyn raised an eyebrow. “What is this?” he asked while pointing at the meat.

The dwarf barked out a laugh. “It’s your share of the griffon meat,” the dwarf explained. “And if you even think about trying to turn it down, it’ll not only be an insult on me, but my entire clan of chefs.”

Kirel grinned. “You heard the dwarf, Lelwyn,” he said. “If we don’t accept the food, we’ll be insulting an entire clan. You wouldn’t want to be rude, would you?”

Bewr poked Kirel. “Like you’re one to warn against somebody being rude,” she joked.

Kirel smiled. “Rude to an individual is one thing,” he started. “Rude to an entire dwarf clan is something else entirely. Especially when a freshly cooked meal in place of conjured food is in question,” he finished with a wink.

Lelwyn sighed in defeat. “Very well,” he said while taking the meat and passing it around so the group could eat the griffon meat for their evening meal. “You will be joining us for our meal, though,” he informed the dwarf with finality.

The dwarf barked out a laugh. “It’ll have to be a small portion, you’re not the first to insist I eat with them tonight,” the chef explained. Lelwyn nodded and gave the dwarf a small piece of the griffon meat. The dwarf took the offered meat and took a bite.

Rikel, instead, ripped off a piece of the meat and tore into it. “This is incredible!” she shouted between bites.

Kirel burped loudly. “I have to agree with Rikel!” he announced. “This is the best meat I’ve ever had!” he added.

Bewr rolled her eyes. “Kirel’s terrible manners aside,” she admonished, “I have to agree.”

Lelwyn turned to the dwarf. “My companions speak truthfully,” he added. “Your skill as a chef does your clan proud,” he complimented. “What is your clan’s name, should we have need to call upon their culinary skills in the future?”

The dwarf shook their head. “Knowing my clan’s name won’t do you any good. Last I knew, I’m the only one not at home and the others would likely to kill you as cook for you.”

Kirel laughed loudly. “There goes that idea, doesn’t it Lelwyn?” he teased.

Bewr put down her food and held up her hands. “Gentlemen,” she warned. “Though, I suspect that I may be diluting the meaning of the word by applying it to the two of you,” she added jokingly.

Rikel and the dwarf laughed loudly at Bewr’s joke. “The three of you have to have gone through much to be so free with each other,” Rikel intuited.

Lelwyn finished his meal. “That would be a tale for another time,” he announced. “We had best retire for the evening,” he suggested. The others finished their meals and headed to their rooms.