"Are we going the long way around, Captain Stern?"

This Hakim guy seemed rather observant, or at least knew his way around maps. He noticed my scouting party riding west before heading towards Nordhaben. But the Elder gave strict orders to avoid the old Cranta Proper area. She didn't want to provoke the monsters after the repeated defeats near the old capital. Even though she gave me a quota of how many men to lose, she didn't want it to happen at the hands of the Lesser Races.

"Indeed, I'm on patrol duty after all," I explained to the dark-skinned stranger. He rode along with his strange, quiet son. "Even if we found that dungeon entrance, I follow orders to keep the lizardmen away from the north. I can't take the direct route home."

"As someone who lived nearby and always under the threat of their kind, I'm thankful for your service." He bowed in the saddle his movements theatrical. I didn't want to destroy his illusions by revealing the Elder's intentions. "I didn't think I'd be able to make that trip to Sanctuary at last, and got a bit excited."

"It will only add an extra day to the journey," I pointed forward to assure him. "By the time the sun sets and we make camp, we will be out of the danger zone, don't worry. And in two days, we'll reach the gates of Sanctuary too. Since you didn't return to your tribe first, we will still arrive earlier than I intended. But we had heavy losses on this mission, so I doubt anyone would complain."

I rode at the head of the company, the gold plating on their armor glinting in the fading light. We made good progress today, but we'd been on patrol for a while, and it was showing. The relief that we headed for Sanctuary improved their wavering morale. My men dragged themselves along, their faces gaunt from the fighting and lack of rest. I couldn't outright tell them that half of them came to die.

We'd lost good men on this patrol too, and I could feel the weight of the Elder's orders on my shoulders. But in that sense, I was successful. We kicked up the hornet's nest, driving a few lizardmen tribes south. I lost the remaining witnesses who saw the Princess return and escape. To top it off, the magic-resistant armor I borrowed saved my life more than once.

Hakim rode on my left, often strumming his lute and never leaving his son's side. I couldn't put my finger on it, but something was off with the little guy. In the two days since they joined us, the bard told me more made-up crap than what I heard in my entire life. He was an oddity, with his dark skin and exotic features, and I'd never seen anyone like him before.

"Nice melodies," I noted but wasn't sure what to make of him. He was a scammer, and I didn't buy his story about living in a nearby tribe either. But his songs proved useful and my men liked him so I was willing to give him a chance. "I miss the court musicians and the parties from Nordhaben, do you know a few popular songs from there? Or something that helps these soldiers take their minds off of the struggles behind them."

He glanced at his son before giving me a response, then at the orange horizon as the evening caught up to us. Dio perched on a smaller pack horse, and the child was an even greater mystery. His eyes seemed too old for their face. While he was the carbon copy of his father, the way he moved and spoke was nothing like him. And why would a father seek his child's approval all the time?

"How about the Rains of Gold?" Hakim asked a few moments later, offering to play an old ballad, that wasn't exactly the song I had in mind.

"Um, something happier?" I laughed, and he glanced at the kid again. I took them under my wing, and he was quiet, but I could sense a spark of energy within him, tension below the surface. As we rode, chatting about mundane things, his eyes never stopped looking for ambushes. Or at the sky, or whatever he saw that none of us did. "You know the Crantan March?"

"I do but... It's not played on a lute." Hakim laughed, pinching the strings and playing the first few notes. I recognized the tune, but he was right. It didn't have the same energy as when played on wind instruments, but I appreciated the effort. He stopped midway. "In my old homeland, Appenon, people didn't like the Crantans, but this song they played all over in the capital. Outside the walls the sun was hot and the sand endless, this was the preferred song out there."

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The next piece had an exotic tone but felt uplifting. Dio listened with narrowing eyes as if he had gotten mad at his father. I smiled, remembering when I'd been that young, always arguing with my old man. The melodies continued, and I soon relaxed, forgetting where we were even riding. But it turned out to be a mistake when the air thickened around us, interrupting the song.

I sensed it too late, a prickle on the back of my neck, and my men shouted, pointing to the trees around us. I became too calm. Content with my successes after so long, attacking tribes and raiding caravans. I didn't even expect that the lizardmen could ambush us all the same, and the shower of arrows caught me by surprise.

Their warriors emerged next, rushing us from the treelines. They ran almost as fast as our horses, their scaly skin glinting in the fading light.

They looked determined. Their eyes were cold and calculating and sprung at us before I could react. I drew my sword to feel the familiar weight of its comfort in my hand, but I didn't cherish false hopes. I knew how tired my men were.

"Form up!" I shouted, and they gave a sluggish response. As the lizardmen closed in, we formed a tight circle, our horses shoulder to shoulder. They outnumbered us by quite a margin. A second volley of arrows sent two of my soldiers to the ground as they flanked us from both sides. Those didn't have to die, but karma finally caught up to me. "Keep an eye out for their magicians, and stay together."

They were everywhere. Thirty or forty, or even more, and they kept coming. I fought hard, my sword rising and falling. They rarely blocked it, but it mattered little when their skin was so thick. We had to break out before they wounded our mounts, or we'd all die here for the glory of the Elder. I wondered what she would do in this situation. The lizardmen were her toys, but she had so many that she never hesitated to throw some away.

She had similar plans with her undead farm hands. She might have already sacrificed them to further her goals. But feeling a sharp pain in my lower leg, I realized it wasn't the right time to think about her.

The tide of the battle completely washed over us, and the formation started to break up. When we didn't catch them off guard, they matched the strength of our best soldiers. And those were missing from this patrol from the beginning. She sent me to lose a few troops, not wage war.

I considered myself a decent fighter, but the former captain humbled me enough to urge me to practice. Witnessing what she could do, I invaded the training grounds whenever the Elder didn't need me. Her schemes left me time for everything, yet, these beasts outmatched me. I was getting old.

And then the lightning bolts started raining down around me. My magic-resistant armor protected me, but the man beside me wasn't this lucky. Two shamans, their eyes glowing with an odd light appeared at the forest's edge.

They chanted and waved their hands in a trance, their spirits washing over us like a wave. The men cried out, their bodies contorting in agony from whatever strange spell they cast on them. No matter how hard I fought, my sword could not slice through the reptiles.

They were about to overwhelm us, but the air changed. Hakim disappeared from my side too. He fought like he meant it earlier, one moment his sword flashing around, and the next he was gone. I didn't have time to worry about him, whatever happened. Something distracted the lizard's onslaught, and I needed to use this to break out.

I kicked towards the reptile closest to me, but it was a bad idea with my injured leg. Still, my horse jumped into a gallop and trampled over the enemies I couldn't take down.

Dio was a surprise. The child came alive, his small body moving with speed and agility ill-fitting his image. He darted between the horses, a dagger flashing in his hand, and pierced a lizardman's skin even I couldn't cut. His movements were cold and calculating, stabbing with the precision of a veteran. I made a mental note to observe the child later, but I was busy fighting for my life.

"Break out, come on!" I shouted to the remaining men but didn't wait to see if they followed. "Stay here and you die."

There was something about the battle that didn't add up, but I wasn't about to complain. The lizards finally gave us a little breathing room when we would have lost. Whatever made them stop for a moment, I refused to stick around and find out. My men fell, their bodies broken and battered, and I took this chance to get out of there, fleeing the battle.

"Keep moving, don't slow down." I urged them, fearing the reptiles would catch up to us, but they didn't follow. It must have been my lucky day, but I refused to stop until I lost sight of the last of them. I reined in my horse exhausted, and looked around the battered soldiers. Only half a dozen survived and even if the goal was to lose most, their deaths were heavy on my shoulders.

Hakim reappeared on my left from thin air, and his kid or whatever was there too, cleaning his bloody dagger. His face was grim, but seeing how he fought, he didn't seem tired like me.

"Where the hell did you go?" I asked the dark-skinned nomad with a sharp voice, but he shrugged it off, his eyes avoiding mine.

"I got separated," he stated, his voice pitching higher than normal. I knew as much but didn't believe it was that simple. Either way, we had to keep moving, far enough from the danger, before we could rest.

"You two are a weird bunch, but fuck it. Let's ride."