POV: Member of the Titan's Footprint branch of Pergament.
We all sat in our main hall, Gapler was still covered in bandages and was all grumpy about losing to the Crow a few days ago. On top of his grumpiness was the fact that he, just like all of us, was on edge. Today was the day we were supposed to fight against a paladin of the church. In my head I had gone over the plan many, many times even though it was quite simple: Let Ilaria do everything and don't get in her way. But I still had a bad feeling about all of this, I had seen the power of a paladin but I had never seen how powerful Ilaria was...
"I just hope this all works out in the end," I said.
"Don't worry, I've seen Ilaria in action, the only reason this town still exists is that she wants it to exist," Mel said.
Her soft voice was calming.
"If you say so I'll believe you," I said, taking a big sip from my tankard.
Can't they get us some new alcohol? Always drinking the same sweet stuff.
For a while, the chattering inside the hall continued uninterrupted. One could hear the occasional shout from Gapler or Sarge or any other member of their little group. Ilaria sat at the bar counter, as usual. Suddenly there was the sound of a door opening and closing. I looked up and saw Cole walking down the stairs that led up to the second floor. He was covered in sweat and had a grin on his face.
"Man, nothing better than a noble cunt," he said as he said down.
Gapler let out an annoyed groan.
"How come all of you get to play with the little dove?" he asked loudly.
"Because we can still sell her afterwards, the buyer wanted her trained, not ripped apart from the inside," Cole responded.
Gapler let out a groan.
"Who'd want such a small frail thing anyway?" he asked.
"Don't question our clients," Sarge responded.
Over the past few days, he had been acting a little strange, saying he didn't remember the fight between Gapler and the Crow.
"I wish I could get a turn on the little dove," Bert, a tall man sitting at my table, said.
"Luckily for her, only the inner ring of this branch is allowed, or else she'd be constantly busy," Mel said.
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"Oh, you can't have her anyway. Any man here would like a turn with her, ain't that right Dal?" Bert asked me.
"I mean... I guess," I responded.
My voice was drowned out by a loud crash which was followed by gasps. I turned towards the origin of the sound, the door, or what was left of it. The door itself was now in the back of the hall and the door frame was completely busted. Standing in the destroyed doorframe was a familiar figure. Tall, almost as tall as Ilaria, who had giant ancestry, and Gapler, who was an orc. He had light brown skin, red eyes and two small, light grey, antlers on his forehead. White hair fell down his back in a ponytail and the sides of his head were shaven. His ears were a good ten or so centimetres long and they were as sharp as any dagger. On his face, he wore a sinister and crazed smile, and in his eyes, I saw madness.
"Crow!" Ilaria called out. "What's the meaning of this?"
The Crow didn't answer, the tall wood elf walked into the room with, slightly shaky, as if he was drunk, and he was whispering something I couldn't understand.
"Crow! What is the meaning of this?!" Ilaria asked again, louder than before.
"The meaning, yes... yes, the meaning, right," the Crow responded... sounding strange.
Before he had this commanding but bored and neutral tone in his voice, but right now he sounded way different. I couldn't describe it but something about him felt off.
"W-What happened to you?" Ilaria asked, backing off a little.
"You see, I had a revelation, yes... and the past few days haven't been that kind to me either. But that doesn't matter, you know, what matters is that it is strange that you have yet to contact me... regarding that information, you know, about the girl. But oh, don't worry I know why... she's here," The Crow said, tilting his head slightly.
Slowly but surely he approached Ilaria.
"Wh-What?" she asked, trying to sound surprised by his accusation.
She knew exactly that she had slipped up somewhere... but where? I had no idea and judging by the look on our bosses face she had no idea either.
"Oi, Altair! What are you-" Sarge began but a loud croak interrupted him.
A large black bird, no doubt the reason for the nickname: Crow, flew into the room and landed on the bar counter.
"Listen here, Crow, this is all a massive misund-" Ilaria began but she was interrupted by the large black bird.
"Shut it!" the black bird said loudly with a deep, rough voice.
W-What? A talking bird... here?
I had heard about talking animals, those were mostly spirits that chose to take the form of cats or dogs or other animals that are close to humanoids, but this bird was different. It didn't seem to have even a speck of mana, but somehow the mere presence of the bird was more effective than the mana pressure of most of the people in this hall.
"Now then my friends, let's play!" the Crow said loudly, with a near voiceless voice.
"Kill him!" Ilaria yelled at the same moment.
I saw Gapler burst forth, most likely hoping to repay the favour from their duel, and at that moment I thought that we had already won because flames swirled around Gapler, flames that came from the fairy in the cage that he held. Black and white mana burst forth from the Crow and I could see a runic magic mark crawl over his neck and face. Gapler was about to punch the Crow with a flaming fist when the Crow casually grabbed Gapler's fist with his right hand. pulled him closer and sunk his left fist in the orc's face. In the few moments Gapler was in the air the Crow grabbed his head and drove his knee right into it, bursting it open and splattering blood everywhere.
I and most others looked in shock as the Crow landed on the ground with a blood-covered knee while Gapler's dead and headless body fell to the ground behind him.
"What's with the rest of you!" the Crow yelled angrily and even more mana burst forth from his body. "I said let's play!"