Klarion found himself waking up as the small pillow he had been using hit the floor. Somehow in the middle of the night, he had twisted sideways on the bed. Shifting in the thin sheet, he reached over the edge to grab the pillow. Without it, he didn’t think he would be able to get back to sleep. His hand fumbled once, but on the second try was able to grasp it. He was in the process of lifting it back to the bed when he thought he heard something. Was that a howl?

The sound came again.

Setting the pillow aside, Klarion sat up. For a howl to penetrate deep enough into the inn, the dog must be almost just outside. Yet something seemed off about the howl, but he wasn’t sure what. Closing his eyes, he strained his ears, trying to hear. For a long minute, he heard nothing.

Several howls rang out, louder than the first he heard. Faintly, he thought he heard some screaming.

Even though everything was still so new to him, Klarion did not think that was normal. Pushing himself up and out of the bed, he moved over to the pile of clothes he had been wearing last night. With a grimace, he lifted them and began shaking them out, trying to get as much of the dirt and dried blood off as possible. After the first few shakes, nothing else was coming off. Giving up, he pulled them on. The last thing was the harness and his greatsword. With a now well-practiced touch, he tightly secured the harness, then gripped the hilt of his weapon to make sure he would be able to pull it if he needed it. He hoped he wouldn’t have to.

Doing one last, quick check, he made sure he had everything with him. Unlocking the door, he stepped into the hall and almost ran face-first into Rolfun. Already in his armor, the large half-ogre reached out to steady him.

“Good, you are up,” Rolfun said, a hint of tension clear in his voice. “We need to get going.”

“What is going on?”

As if to reinforce the urgency of the moment, Klarion could now clearly make out screaming coming from outside the inn. Howling soon followed, and what seemed like blasts of some sort were now echoing in the distance. Rolfun had paused, clearly trying to listen to what was happening. When the cacophony did not die down but increased in volume, Klarion knew at once that whatever was going on was coming closer.

“We are not sure, but based on what we are hearing outside, I would say something is attacking the settlement,” the half-ogre responded, apparently having heard what he needed to. “The Waypoint is still shut down for the night, but given the apparent situation outside, it is likely it will soon be activated for whatever emergency is unfolding.”

“So you’re taking me to the Imperial Academy now?” Klarion asked. He had come to enjoy the time with Rolfun and Alesin, despite how intense all the training had been. While his muscles still ached and felt even more sore at the memories of the days spent traveling with them, Klarion knew he was going to miss them. In the short time they had been together, each of them had stepped forward to help him come to terms with everything that had changed for him in such a short period of time. Alesin herself had continued to push him forward whenever any doubts had crept in, while Rolfun’s good humor had allowed him to better understand that just because he was entering into what was essentially a new life, that did not mean that his position and role would prevent him from finding allies and, more importantly, friends. For that is what he considered both Alesin and Rolfun now. Their relentless focus on training had also instilled the importance of preparing to the greatest degree possible. Even though he felt he had fallen short of what they had been trying to teach him, he would make sure to carry that momentum forward into whatever came next at the Imperial Academy.

“Yes,” Rolfun said, not catching the complicated look on his face. “As soon as Alesin is ready, we will be heading out.”

As if Rolfun’s response had been her cue, the door to the room where his escorts had been staying opened. Pack over the shoulder, Alesin stepped into the hallway, closing the door with a click behind herself.

“Oh, good,” she said with a jerking nod. “If you are ready then, Klarion, we really need to get going if we are to beat the rush for the Waypoint.”

Both his escorts stepped to the stairs, Klarion following in their wake. While moving to follow closely, he was about to ask more questions when the frantic ringing of bells sounded outside the inn. As one, both Alesin and Rolfun tensed up.

“I am guessing that is not good?”

“No, Klarion, no it is not. We have even less time now,” Alesin responded, picking up her pace to the stairs. “Every settlement has a bell like that, and it is only rung when attackers have successfully made it inside.”

“So the howling?”

“Likely the attackers,” her voice, if possible, got even more grim. “It might even be the beginning of a Beast Wave.”

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“Which is why we need to get you to that Waypoint. Now.” Rolfun said, picking up his pace as well.

“But can’t we help?” Klarion asked to their backs as he made to follow. “From what I can tell, you both are strong. I can even stay here, out of the way?”

“Not how this works, Lord Klarion,” Alesin responded, her tone and the title she used telling him this wasn’t his friend talking but a sworn protector of House Blacksword. “Our only duty is to get you safely to that Waypoint. Everything else, including our lives, is secondary to that.”

“But—”

“No,” Alesin cut him off with the heat in her voice as she pivoted to face him, her husband coming to a stop beside her. “I know its hard for you right now, but you don’t yet understand the value you represent to the Empire and to House Blacksword. It would be regrettable if Imperial citizens die tonight, but even the smallest chance that something happens to if we intervene is not acceptable. Do you understand?”

“No,” Klarion said honestly, but before Alesin could respond he continued, albiet in a bit of a bitter tone, “but I know just how little I still understand about everything, so I will follow your lead.”

“That will have to do,” Alesin replied, spinning back to the stairs. “Stick close then. We will be moving quickly.”

As a group, they practically ran down the stairs back into the common room. This late, only a single dwarf was passed out at a corner table. With how loudly he was snoring, it was possible he would sleep the whole way through whatever crisis was unfolding.

The only other person up was the elven innkeeper. Long red hair tied up in a crude version of a bun, she darted from window to window in her night gown, frantically pulling down thick wooden blinds and locking them. She just finished the last when the three of them made it to the entrance. The innkeeper saw them just as Rolfun stepped forward to open the door.

“If you go out, you won’t be able to come back in,” the innkeeper said, starting to scramble to the door. This close to the entrance, clear screams were coming through, and the howling sounded quite a bit nearer. “It sounds like a bad attack out there. You paid through the night, why don’t you stay?”

At first, Klarion thought the innkeeper was offering purely out of the goodness of her heart, but then he followed the direction of her gaze to see her eyes darting to Rolfun’s armor. Giving her the benefit of the doubt, he still knew by how hard she was staring at the half-ogre that keeping the three of them there would mean additional protection for her, and her inn, if it was attacked.

“Just bar the door,” Rolfun said over his shoulder as he stepped out.

Alesin and Klarion followed behind him, all the while, the innkeeper got increasingly desperate to get them to stay. The sound of her, now begging, was cut off as Alesin closed the door behind them.

Night still lingered, with dawn still a ways off, but despite that, the lighting along the streets within Thorn’s Reach allowed them to see what was going on.

The streets were in chaos.

Men, women, and children of many races were sprinting down the street along the inn. Some darted between carts to go down narrow alleys, probably hoping to find a place to hide. Others, clutching whatever belongings they had in hand, either moved in a tightly packed mob to the center of the settlement or approached buildings at random, demanding or begging to be let inside. Few opened their doors, but that didn’t stop many from trying.

Alesin pushed Klarion along, as he had paused to stare. Both of his escorts pressed in close, doing their best to protect him from the crowd. Klarion had no idea what levels either was, but no one in the crowd was able to get close to him as a result of their efforts.

Alesin pulled Klarion hard to the left as a horse, mad with panic, came galloping down a side street to overturn a stall that a merchant had practically been attempting to pack away. Hitting it fully on the side, the horse was barely slowed as all of the merchant’s goods were thrown over the street. Galloping away, it knocked several other stands and people over as it went. The merchant tossed his arms up in defeat, then grabbed what he could to join the crowd, rushing away from the direction the howls were coming from. Given some of the words many were shouting, Klarion finally heard what was going on. The front gate had fallen and the walls were under attack. The alarm had wrung right as the attackers, Storm Wolves, had gotten inside.

Alesin continued tugging him along, as Rolfun struggled to clear a path without hurting anyone too badly. Normally he would be able to do so without issue, but some people who had been driven mad in fear were trying to push against the crowd.

From the distance came another set of gut-wrenching howls, the Storm wolves sending another wave of panic through the crowd. Louder than the ones that had come before, it was clear to Klarion that they were coming closer. As if summoned by the impending threat, two squads of the Watch who had been deeper into the settlement came barreling around the corner further down. Formed up in a wedge, they were making good headway in carving a path through the panicked population. Garbed in chain armor, and wielding spears alongside upraised shields, any civilians they encountered moved quickly out of their way. Unfortunately, a side effect of their charge was that a significant number of people in his part of the crowd began to run in the other direction. Before he knew it, a massive dwarf in darkened leather ran full into his chest, pushing him back and away from Alesin and Rolfun, who at the time was struggling against a group of armored elves.

Tripping over the debris of another overturned cart, it took Klarion nearly a minute to get back to his feet, what with the press of the crowd around him. He was only able to do so when some beastkin man with pointed ears paused to pull him back upright. Before he could thank him, the beastkin was off again. Klarion quickly checked his harness, feeling some relief that his greatsword was still secured to his back. That relief turned to ice in his veins as he realized that Alesin and Rolfun were nowhere in sight.

Klarion looked around the street, hoping that he would see either of his escorts coming back around a corner to get him. No such luck. Even though the pressing crowd had already significantly shrunk, and the squads of the Watch had already passed through, he didn’t see the sun elf or half-ogre anywhere.

The weakening cries of fear became full screams of terror behind him as the largest howl yet rang out. Spinning in place, Klarion’s hand darted without conscious thought to the hilt of the greatsword on his back.

That was when he got his first look at a Storm Wolf.