Sally had called Sieg and Haylee for breakfast. Or maybe dinner – Siegfried was never sure what time it was above ground. They settled around a small table in one of the smaller rooms on ground level. It was primarily vegetables with only a few strips of dried meat.

„Had everyone else already eaten?“ Sieg asked, wondering about the seclusive setup.

„They are upstairs in a big dining hall. I thought you would appreciate some privacy after just waiting up.“

„Thanks, you might be right with that. Well, let’s dig in!“

After the first bite, the hunger took Sieg as if he hadn’t eaten in days. Most vegetables hardly sated him, but there were enough beans, nuts and some thick yellowish root that was oddly substantial.

When he looked up from the bowl, Haylee and Sally were standing by the door, whispering to each other quietly.

„Hey Sieg!“ Haylee called out when she noticed him squinting his eyes at them. „I thought we could go to the training room first. I know you like to work out if you have the time, and I could use the training too.“

Sally cleared her throat, “I’ll go up and join the others. We’ll let you know if anything comes up.” She turned around and left Sieg alone with an innocently grinning Haylee.

“Did I miss something?” Sieg asked suspiciously.

“Not really— let’s change into some more suitable clothes and meet in the training hall, okay?” Haylee deflected, running off to her room.

Siegfried went after her with a shrug and changed into a simple pair of wool trousers and a shirt.

Haylee had changed into her skin-tight black bodysuit again. She grabbed his hand and led him with a childlike bounce to her step that made Sieg smile automatically.

The training area was empty and Haylee immediately began some light stretching which did wonderful things to her enticing assets. Sieg had to force himself to look the other way and focus on his own warmup. All thoughts gave way to his routine when he started squatting with the weighted log across his shoulders, and a calming stillness suffused his mind.

After working up a decent sweat, Siegfried put the log down and went to string up the largest boulder to hang it across the rafter. When he heaved it up to get the rope under it, a grunt of effort came from Haylee, causing him to look her way.

The cat-girl had fashioned two ropes with slings for her ankles that hung from different rafters. That way, she could keep a full split while doing pull-ups from the rafter above her. The downwards movement widened the split, and at that moment, Siegfried lost the grip on his boulder.

The heavy rock crashed on his foot, wringing a cry of pain from his mouth.

“Siegfried!” Haylee called, alerted. When she saw him hobbling in a circle, his regenerative powers were already healing the damage. She looked at the boulder on the ground, and the instant she made the connection was evident when Haylee started laughing.

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The pain quickly abated, and Sieg glowered at the laughing woman.

“I’m sorry,” she panted, fanning herself some air. “I really shouldn’t laugh.” Then her grin transformed into a mischievous smirk. “I might be at fault for that little incident after all,” she all but admitted have strategically planned that particular exercise to catch his eye.

“You little minx,” Sieg growled playfully and charged.

Haylee squealed and dashed away at full speed.

Siegfried chased her through the room, jumping over obstacles and even following her over the rafters. He played every trick— cut her off, threw a rope at her legs. But try as he might, he couldn’t catch the nimble cat-girl.

He was slightly winded when he finally gave up, a broad grin splitting his face after the energy-draining run. And out of the blue, he started to laugh. He laughed just for the sake of laughing, and it felt great.

After several minutes he calmed down and found Haylee smiling at him. It wasn’t a playful smile but a soft and delighted one. She was happy for him.

Sally’s voice cut through their shared moment as she opened the door. “Hey guys, are you done soon?”

“Didn’t I ask you to keep everyone out for a few hours?” Haylee shot back, irritated.

“It has been a few hours, Haylee. Grandma Bah has gathered the people outside to make our take-over public, and we should show our faces there.”

Sieg shrugged his shoulders at Haylee. “I guess we’ll still have time afterwards. I’m intrigued by what this is all about.”

Outside of the fortress, they found Ryden, Rak and Bahsah standing on a hastily erected platform. A mangled corpse lay at Rak’s feet. Behind them was a crowd of several hundred people. Countless braziers and torches lit the area, and Bahsah was in the middle of her speech.

“No longer will this vile creature reign over you!” Bahsah shouted, and Rak theatrically threw the furred body in front of the crowd.

“Victor’s balls,” a grizzly looking man murmured as he looked at the dead feline. “It’s Shadow! She speaks the truth— Shadow is dead!” The cheers of hundreds of voices followed his declaration.

Bahsah turned and grinned at Siegfried. „Hrn, come up here so everyone can see you.“ She held her hand up to address the people again, and the shouting slowly simmered down to a muttering. „Commit the faces of these brave warriors to your memory. It was by their strength that we liberated you of this plague,“ she spat at Shadow’s body. Then she continued to introduce Siegfried’s party without really giving any information but their names.

She indirectly told them that only six individuals took the fortress, and the reactions ranged from awestruck to cynical to frightful. To Siegfried’s surprise, most of the nervous glances went to Ryden, Sally and himself instead of Rak. He discreetly asked the former enforcer about it.

“It was a clever ploy from Grandma Bah,” Sally whispered. “We look like normal humans, so we must have an ability if we entered Victor’s Bounty. She has not told them which ability— only that we overwhelmed the Shadow Claws,” she recounted. “Their imagination is running wild with possibilities.”

Over the following hours, Bahsah was busy delegating authority and explaining the new hierarchy. The people were allowed to select some of their own to represent the various workforces. Instead of filling the fortress with conscripted fighters, Bahsah asked for volunteers to patrol designated areas— a militia, as she called it.

As the representative for the food production stepped out of the crowd, he went straight towards Sieg and Haylee. “Ha! Who would’ve thought my new drinking buddies are the heroes of our people,” he laughed hoarsely.

“Fitz!” Haylee cried out, hugging the old lizardman.

Siegfried settled for a handshake, grinning broadly. “So you’re overseeing the food production? Guess I know where I have to look for extra rations,” he joked.

“Hehe, that’s not even the best,” Fitz said with a glint in his eyes. “The water reservoir is part of the food production. Usually, no one’s allowed in there, but we owe you a lot. So if you two want to go for a romantic swim in a beautiful grotto…” he hinted with a wink.

Haylee accepted before Sieg could even open his mouth. Her enthusiasm was infectious, and they agreed to meet Fitz after his duties in the evening.