To be quiet, or to not be quiet? The pen was nearby; little more than a hundred or so yards from the edge of the canal as the crow flies. I’m confident I can bring in all of the people alive. What would be most troublesome was if there were any archers on the rooftops or in the windows of the buildings, but I have ways to deal with that effectively. Once all of them were hunkered down here, and I made sure that my mother was with them, I’ll go on a rampage. Anger still wound in tendrils around my heart, and heated my blood. By the end of the night, there will be nothing loyal to Roki living within these walls. I had decided that, and so it must be.

I nearly collide with a dogman as I turn the corner toward the pen. It tries to yell out a warning, but I silence it by slamming my fist into its head. It falls to the ground, I place a foot on its chest and quick cast Earthen Spike. The mud in the ground hardened into a terracotta spike that ran through its head, and I continue on my way.

Something still eats at me; a town like this should be housing hundreds of creatures. Most of the town, aside from a forge and a mill, both of which stood near the edge of the canal, drinking in the waters to work their machinery, the large office building that Nyt was currently in, sifting through the papers on the desk, and a large, stone chapel at the northern edge of the town, sat up on a hill, all the other buildings were residential. Presumably. Or at the very least, could easily be converted into residential buildings. Maybe at one time, they held shops and stores, but now most sat empty. Why? There could easily be a thousand, if not more, posted here. Easily.

I didn’t run into a single other Efran on the way to the human pen, other than a pair of guards posted out in front of the gate to it. About 30 humans gathered together around a single, flickering flame with only pieces of cloth over the ground to sleep on. As I watch from the distance, I see one of the guards reach into a barrel posted nearby, pull out a handful of red berries, and chuck them on the ground near the wooden fence of the pen. Tens of emaciated humans rush forth to pick up the food in the mud, and the snickering ratman picked up a wooden pole leaning against the fence and begins striking them. Women, children, and men, all scouring the mud for food, he sends sprawling to the ground with heavy blows to their bodies.

I impale the other ratman with a quick Earthen Spike through its body but for this one? For this one, I’ll make it slow. Painful. The ratman turns toward his dead friend, and the jovial smile on its ratlike face slowly melts away as it turns toward me.

“Oh you ruler of Olympus, lend thy power to my steps.”

Boom.

In the blink of an eye, I ram into the creature; sending the both of us collapsing onto the rickety wooden fence of the pen and into the mud. I hold him down with my left arm, as my right fist slams over and over again; breaking apart the bones of its face; breaking ribs as I aim my punches towards the middle of its body so it doesn’t lose consciousness. Whenever my fist begins to throb, I quick cast Lesser Heal to ease the pain. At some point the rage fades, and I push myself away from the creature twitching and seizing on the ground.

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Most of the humans had gone to the barrel of red berries and were shoveling handfuls of them into their mouths. With how skinny they were, I don’t blame them. One man, however, stood up; his back bruised, and thick red blood running off the top of his head. He had been shielding a young boy from the blows of the ratman. He picked up the ratman’s spear; now discarded in the muck and grime, and gives me a smoldering glance. I know what he must do, and I step away from him.

Snarling in rage, the man drives the point of the spear into the body of the injured ratman over and over. The noise had begun to draw the attention of all the other Efrans in the area.

“We need to go. Now.” I order them.

The man nods and pulls the bloody spear out of the creature. The other humans seem reticent to leave the barrel of berries.

“I’m here to take you all home,” I tell them, as they continue to pull food into their mouth.

“They’re broken.” The man says, “I don’t know how long they’ve been here, but they’re all broken.” The man grabs hold of his child’s shoulder and pulls him away from the barrel. The child looks ashamed and hugs his father. “You should give up on them.”

I shake my head.

“They’ll recover. They just need a bit of a push to get going.”

I know all about people giving up on you too soon. I shove through the crowd of people and hoist the half-filled barrel to my shoulder.

“Hey! Give those back!”

“Please!”

“You’ll get them if you come along with me.”

They probably mull over attempting to overpower me. I can see a few glances at the two dead creatures, and chase that idea out of their heads. Eventually, they come around, and I lead them back to the building. The booming from my Lightning Step and the sound of the fence crashing down have drawn the attention of the other creatures living in the town. I hear the subtle sound of footsteps on the terracotta to my left and turn my head to look at it. An archer, on the roof.

“Bombard my enemies, O’ thou servants of Gob, the magnomious.”

I send the mana up the sides of the roof just as the ratman nocks an arrow. Two terracotta shingles rip off and shatter against the face of the creature, stunning it, and sending it sliding off the rooftop. A moment later the sound of it colliding against the ground in between the two buildings. More footsteps on the tiled roof.

“Dance for me, o’ daughters of the wind.”

Before the wind picks up too quickly, I push the mana out to encompass all of the people there. The little breeze that passed through them seemed almost enough to knock them down. Once the edge of the dome surrounded all of us, I poured more mana into it. Wind howled, and knocked free the arrows, and though we were safe from archers, the same couldn’t be said from melee. My being at the front of the group to lead them, when I heard the patter of padded paws against rough soil, I panicked.

Thwip.

Something stopped the approaching enemies.

“Keep running! I got you covered!” Nyt’s voice sang like a song.

I pushed on. Made the turns that I had memorized beforehand, and waited outside for the last of the humans to filter into the building. I toss the barrel inside and close the door, killing the wind. Thirty or so dogmen and ratmen had followed me. Ten on the rooftops, bows, and crossbows pointed down, and twenty approaching from the tight corridors of the street I had fled; forming a kind of semicircle around the building pressed against the walls of the town.