The outpost was now more like a shanty town with buildings stacked on each other. Tents had appeared in what were the pathways of the outpost. It seemed like even with all the structures I built. It wasn’t enough. Tiger was so occupied that now she had secluded herself with a few of the elders from each of the races to strategize. They told Marco and me we needed to stay out of her way for a while. So, Marco and I took the chance to escape while Tiger occupied herself with war plans.

We had gone off far enough into the woods to no longer be visible from the outpost. It was a pretty little spot with a small stream. The stream washed out into a small pool that the outpost used for drinking and cleaning water. But Marco and I liked to wash upstream of the orcs and trolls. So, this spot had become a bit of a retreat for the two of us.

“Marco, do you ever wonder if we are the ones in the wrong?” I asked.

“Devin, you know it doesn’t matter. You have said so much yourself.” He retorted.

His body exposed itself to the elements. Marco may not be the athlete that Alfonso is but his body had a warmth to it. The familiarity of his small potbelly and his untoned shoulders were more than enough for me. Not to mention his touch had always sent shivers down through my body when he held me near. His embrace made me comfortable and accepted. We both had our imperfections, but they never got in the way of the raw passion I felt for him. It was something that I felt he was beginning to feel for me too.

“I forgot.” I rolled over back into him. “All you want is strength.”

I looked deep into his eyes as I said this. They were a deep brown with an almost crimson feature. I was lost in them as I found myself back on top of Marco. Before I had a change of mind I began kissing his chest.

“Hey, now no need to tease the simple-minded. Speaking of that, why don’t you and I fight them head-on already?” He said as he pushed me off of himself. I guess he didn’t want round two after all. Was his mind elsewhere or was I not enough for him?

“Tiger said…” He put his hand over my mouth.

“Who cares what Tiger says? Besides, you only say that because she sent you off recently. On a combat mission too, of all things! Why’d she send me out for diplomacy and you for war, I still don’t get it.”

He gave me a small little smile. That was it even now he was thinking about fighting. It made me a little jealous that he could have me. But instead, all he wanted was to go off and kill another enemy.

“Fine,” I said with a shrug. Looking around for where Marco had tossed my clothes. If Marco wanted to fight already I guess it couldn’t be helped. Tiger was going to have us fight the dwarves one way or the other. So, what was the harm if we started earlier?

“But if we fight, and I mean that as an if!” I said while looking straight at him, “then I will come up with the plan. Okay?”

“Yeah, that’s fine! Besides, I don’t have the head for it, anyway,” Marco said.

He then jumped back onto his feet. My face turned red as he did. He stood in front of me fully exposed in all of his unrefined glory.

“We should put our clothes on before we head back out.”

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“Why you…” Before he could continue, I had the quartz golem push him into the stream.

“Sorry, my hand slipped,” I said, holding in a grin.

“I had finished drying off too!”

Marco and I stayed like that for a few more hours. That was before he wanted us to collect ourselves. Our time of play gave me a chance to think up a way to deal with the most damage to the dwarves. We would have to strike fast in one shot. It would have to be an ambush of sorts. Enough time for Marco to deal out his hellfire and take as many of them out as possible. Killing might be wrong, but I had already lost one person to conflicting ideologies. I didn’t, couldn’t, lose Marco the same way. So, if he wanted to kill, who was I to judge?

“Let's kill some dwarves,” I said giving Marco a small wink.

“They won’t even know what hit them by the time we attack,” Marco replied.

He was right if we did this with a sound plan both of us would make it out. Not only that but we could deal a large blow to the dwarves with or without the rest of the army. But to do that I would need everything in my power. So, I sent my quartz golem into the outpost to gather my other golems. I hadn’t been using them since the creation of my quartz champion. But I would need all the power I could get to make our plan work.

As all my golems arrived, Marco asked me, “So what’s the plan?”

“First, we send golems out to scout where their largest road network is. Then we wait,” I stated.

“That’s it?” Marco asked as I created three small bird golems.

“What did you expect?”

“I don’t know. I thought you would come up with something crazy.”

“Your power will trap every single one of them in a fiery prison. Why would we need a complicated plan?”

Marco laughed at me as he led the way. We both had grown to know the woods well. Though there were only two primary directions that helped. With the dwarves being uphill and the outpost downhill, it was hard to get lost.

I motioned for the canine to take the lead and the ox to take the rear. The quartz golem didn’t leave my side. If we were ambushed, I would need it to shield me.

“With those birds of yours, this won’t even take that long to set up,” Marco mused as he jumped over a fallen tree. He was trying to leap over it in a single fluid moment. But, he quickly found himself stuck on top of it with one leg dangling on each side.

I couldn’t help but giggle a little as he quickly switched gears to pretend it was a part of his plan. He did this by reaching out a hand to me so that I could get over the tree without the same difficulty.

“That is the point,” I said, as I graciously accepted his outreached hand and followed him over. “Speaking of which looks like they are already coming back.”

“That was quick, even for you. Right?” Marco questioned.

“Yeah, that was maybe twenty minutes. It should have been over an hour to find a good ambush spot.” From the panic in the golem’s exacerbated expressions, I made a quick assumption. “There seems to be a lot of them in force.”

“You got that from that bird?” Marco questioned.

“More like an educated guess,” I admitted.

“I say we go for it!” Marco’s eyes glowed with determination. I knew there was no way for him to say no now.

“Fine, but give me a second first.”

“What are you going to do?”

We paused near a large stone outcrop. I turned to the quartz golem and pictured him combining with the others. I then pushed all but my soul into the golem. It radiated with the darkness of undeath affinity. The same light and energy that came out when I received my curse erupted out now. The other golems seemed to gravitate into the light by an unseen force. What came out of the amalgamation was a humanoid. But, had the head of an ox and teeth and tail of a canine. The quartz shell now lay behind an outer stone armor. The creature also had large wings protruding out from its back.

“Woohee Www,” Marco let out, “It seems like you were right. We are the bad guys.”

I let out a laugh as he said that. “Shall we?” I asked.

“Oh, we shall!” Marco exclaimed.