Mawri had hoped this moment would never come, but whether she liked it or not it was happening. Her heart fell as the whistle signalled an approaching army. (They used whistles because that way humans would not know they knew, unless they had spies in which case they would know they knew they knew, but best not continue that line of thinking or we’ll be here all week.)

The ragtag army approached, finally cresting the hill and reaching eyes range. Mawri was not happy at this, with good reason, most of her guards were busy keeping the confined humans safe from themselves. She hated this, it felt like fighting with a paw tied behind her back, but this wasn’t really a situation one could opt out of. Instead she had booby trapped the hell out of the city, and armed everybody with at least one thing capable of knocking a human out.

The humans began their advance, and headed for the road in an attempt to bypass the ditches. Being somewhat surprised by the presence of a bloody massive flaming feline (literally and figuratively,) who answering the instincts of felines everywhere bounded in and started batting people off the edge into the ditch. While elsewhere Puddles unleashed the dogs of war, as wave upon wave of Chi Wawa clan canines charged in, savagely snapping at the shins of the unwary while doing their best to trip as many as possible. While Elvira and Errol backed up rascal from behind with strategically placed swipes from Spikey The motivational pike, and a window pole reclaimed from the library modified with a paperweight carefully strapped to the heavy end.

Addy meanwhile was doing her best impersonation of a random rock, until an enemy approached, then uncurling and coming in swinging. (To most enemies there is nothing more disconcerting than being ambushed by the scenery, especially when the scenery is bloody huge.)

Kawn had already taken a few hits, but kept up with a constant hit and run approach (he was really good at fast strikes, dodging? Not so much, but hey we can’t be good at everything right?)

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Pip was a young Tur yur, and hadn’t really been in many scraps so far, much less this mess. But you do what you can when your town is in danger. He had a mission, and he would see it through. He was to escort The Princess alongside a few elite guards to the headquarters of the enemy camp. They had to stop the spell, and this was the way to do it. Pip wasn’t convinced in trusting a visiting royal with such a task, especially not a dainty little Princess. Then he saw her, and remembered the gossip.

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She was riding a bloody owl-bear of all things, with an axe as big as a Ter yur she held in one hand, and in her eyes was a light that suggested she had seen things he couldn’t even imagine. She wore minimal armour and a battle-scarred green dress. He was pretty sure that in a disagreement that girl could stare down a god. (If he knew the truth it really would not have helped here, which is probably just as well as the last thing Mibbet needed was some bugger starting to deify her and make her life even more complicated, she was quite content with mortality, and an intent to remain alive as long as she could physically manage thank you very much.)

Well it hardly mattered what Pip thought in the past, even if the past was barely an hour ago. Now he had his duty to fulfil, The Princess was to be guarded, and he had enemies to fill with the terror of Ter yur. So they charged forward with a valiant war-cry. AROOO YIPYAPYAPYAP (For those who are unfortunate enough not to speak canine you will sadly have to miss out on the true wording of this cry, a lot will be lost in translation, but if you miss out the true essence of this cry, what you are left with is “Hawayden ya bastard whelps, we’ll chew your ankles and pee on what’s left, except ya aint even worth the territory mark.” Trust me it sounds way better in non human, and would send a chill down any canines spine.) Tearing into the enemy ranks, while Mibbet and Alba slammed forward, in a mess of claws, beak, flat of an axe, and very creative froggy cuss words. They were going to get through this, and when they found who was responsible he was getting the bloody cone.

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Deep beneath the city the guards were too busy fighting the “heroes” to even notice that a small number had slipped off. The individuals in question did not show the vacant expressions of those afflicted with the curse, they were however extremely good at acting the part. Sneakiness being their job and all.

One of them, a woman by the name Honesty (Her parents had appalling taste in names, and a name like that would drive anybody to try to prove it wrong, a fatal flaw in virtue names,) carefully reached into a hidden pouch, and pulled out a communication array, “We’re in.” was all she said, beside her her ally “Jake Snake” Sampson reached down one leg, and extracted several wire blades, (which must have chafed like hell, but nobody ever said espionage was an easy business. Mainly because anybody who said that out loud tended to meet the ire of recruiters,) and within a few minutes they were prepared for phase two. They had to get to the gates, but first a weapon. (Not one of the guards ones, despite Jake whining about how fun they looked an actual set of blades was preferable.)

Getting out of the dungeon itself was easy enough of course. It wasn’t exactly at the most secure right now given the threat level of the average inmate and all. All it took was a few guards down, and they were done, and it was time for phase two.