Jadis raised her collective eyebrows at the sight before her as the two men, not dwarves, led her out of the forest. There was quite a lot to take in, but fortunately, she had three sets of eyes to do all the seeing.

Spreading out before her was a twilight vista of strangely jagged hills rising like waves, smooth slopes of green grass on one side with vertical cliff-faces on the other, their tops cresting in sharp peaks of stone. None were so tall that they could be called mountains, but there were many such hills stretching across the land for miles and miles to the east, west, and south. The land itself seemed to slope downward the further south it went, giving Jadis an excellent view of the expansive rolling hills as they went all the way to what Jadis was fairly certain might be an ocean or a sea. It was hard to tell, the distance was so great and the setting sun wasn’t helping, but she thought she could see the sparkle of water on the far horizon.

More immediate than the hills and hypothetical ocean, was the wood palisade camp that stood before her. Tall pines had been chopped down to make a circular wall, a similar setup to one of the temporary camps she’d seen on the road, though quite a bit bigger. There were actual gates set up on this fortification, another major difference, and there was a tall wooden tower in the middle, no doubt serving as a watchtower for the surrounding lands.

This had to be the forward outpost Gerwas and Ludwas had told her about. The two were a bit light on the details, but they’d told her that they were a part of a mercenary company called Bernd’s Blades and that this outpost was one of several they had set up around the perimeter of the forest. How many camps there were exactly and how many soldiers there were manning the forts was not mentioned in their explanation, a purposeful omission Jadis suspected.

She didn’t blame them for being a bit cagey on potentially sensitive details with her. She’d probably be suspicious too if three random women of a race she had no familiarity with walked up on her out of nowhere and started a conversation, especially in an area that had hostile demons running around. So long as the rest of the mercenaries stayed as reasonable as the two brothers were behaving, Jadis would be happy. And, if they weren’t so polite? Jadis would be ready to run or fight. She hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

Speaking of the other mercenaries, Jadis could see three of them standing at the open gates. There were two men wearing much the same style armor as Gerwas and Ludwas, plus a woman wearing a tunic and leather pants. The two men looked to be cut from the same cloth as the brothers, if just a bit shorter. It was hard to make out their features under their helmets, but one at least had a beard and both had a thick, stout build that made Jadis think of muscled working men.

The woman was far more of a draw for Jadis’ eyes, if for no other reason than her bright ginger-colored hair. Long and straight, her red hair was blowing like a flag in the wind. Jadis couldn’t make out her features well with how far away she still was, but what she could see, she liked.

“Looks like our niece is waiting for us,” Ludwas commented from his spot next to Jay. The man had had to practically jog along to keep up with Jadis’ stride when they first started off together. Now Jadis had slowed her normal walk into more of a strolling speed, just to keep from out pacing the two men.

“Niece?” Jay asked. “Mercenary work a family business?”

“No,” Ludwas answered with a shake of his head. “Just the three of us. Most of our family is sane. Just us with more spirit than sense.” Ludwas laughed at his own assessment. He was certainly the more jovial of the two.

“I’ll not ask you to leave aside your… weapons,” Gerwas said a moment or two later, once again filling the role of the authoritarian. “But keep them shouldered. If you make any moves that could be seen as a threat, it’ll be a bad evening for you.”

Jadis nodded all three of her heads, but verbally answering with Jay.

“Noted. We’ll behave if you all behave, too.”

“Aye, they’ll behave,” Gerwas gruffly assured her. “Captain Renz runs things tight, and Bernd would skin any man of his who broke the codes.”

Jadis wanted to ask about what codes Gerwas was talking about, but just then the group had drawn close enough to the fort gate that the guards called out, grabbing all of their attention.

“Oy! Ger, what’s the word?” The guard with no beard shouted.

“Civilians! From the Wall!” Gerwas shouted back. “Aila, go fetch the Captain, you hear?”

With an obvious start, the redheaded woman Ludwas had pointed out as his niece turned and ran back into the camp, quickly disappearing among the pavilion tents and log cabin buildings Jadis could see clustered inside the palisade walls.

In another minute, Jadis and her escorts were drawn up against the gate, the two guards trading whispers with the brothers. Jadis didn’t try too hard to eavesdrop, but she at least heard a few words like ‘Nephilim’ and ‘mountain village’ passed back and forth.

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Setting down her supply sling, Jadis took the time to study the men, the camp, and her surroundings. She couldn’t get a full view of the camp just standing at the gate, but what she could see sent a certain thrill of excitement through her. Everything she saw looked like it had come straight out of a medieval fantasy novel: there were men walking around in armor, horses grazing on hay in a pen, and banners with coats of arms displayed on tents and flying from the top of the central tower.

As she watched in curiosity, some of the soldiers seemed to notice her, many stopping to stare, some whispering to each other while other just openly gawked.

Jadis got the distinct impression she was going to stand out in a crowd no matter where she went. Everyone she was seeing were about the same height if not shorter than Gerwas and Ludwas. They were all human, too, from what she could tell, though some had enough armor on and were wearing helmets, so she couldn’t be certain. Except…

“Ah!” All three of Jadis exclaimed, drawing startled looks from the four men standing around her.

“What?” Gerwas demanded, “Some problem?”

“Ah, no,” Syd said, smiling sheepishly at the agitated mercenary, all the while Jay and Dys keeping their eyes on the man who was staring back at them. “It’s nothing. We just, you know, aren’t used to other peoples.”

“And?” One of the guards prompted, the one with a decidedly scruffy beard.

“Well,” Dys answered in a low voice, “Correct me if I’m wrong, but that man there with the yellow eyes. He’s an elf, right?”

The four looked back in through the gates, staring down the crowd of at least a dozen or so men and a few women that had gathered and were now eyeing the three of Jadis in open curiosity.

“Aye, Ulfraen is an elf, why?” Ludwas finally answered Dys’ question.

Jadis inwardly squealed in glee but kept her outward reactions minimal.

“We’ve never seen one, is all,” Dys responded. “This is all new to us.”

“Nice to guess right this time, too,” Jay said. “After getting it wrong about you and dwarves and all that.”

“Dwarves…?” One of the guards asked, but Jadis only half heard the explanation Ludwas was giving him.

The man Ludwas had identified as Ulfraen, and who Jadis now had confirmation was an actual honest to goodness elf, was both similar and different from what she had expected. He was taller than the other soldiers, by about half a head, and much more slender in build. His skin was faintly bluish in color, decidedly not a human complexion, and his eyes were solid yellow, no iris or sclera, just solid orbs of gold. He was wearing some kind of light armor and had no helmet on, so not only could Jadis see his dark purple hair, but also his sharp pointed ears. Strangely, as Jadis watched, his ears actually moved back and forth, angling out and in her direction like a cat’s or a dog’s ears would.

Jadis had really been hoping to run into elves first, and while she’d lost her bet with herself, since humans weren’t one of her three chosen options, she was still ecstatic to see proof positive that elves were real.

Was it wrong of her to be thinking up ways she might be able to chat up any pretty female elf mercenaries she might run across in the camp?

Her possibly inappropriate thoughts were interrupted by the crowd parting as the redhead from before returned, a short man in full plate armor walking next to her.

Wait. No, he wasn’t short, Jadis realized a moment later, the redheaded niece was just tall. Jadis hadn’t noticed the first time she’d seen her, but now that she was closer and had others standing nearby to give context, she could see that Aila was actually quite tall.

Well, tall for a human, Jadis supposed. Her uncles were both about mid-waist on her, but she guessed the top of Aila’s head would just barely be at chest height.

“I’m told you’re civilians,” the fully armored man brought Jadis’ attention back to the here and now.

He was the same height as the brothers, which meant he was a little taller than most of the rest. His armor was the most realistic-looking set of full plate Jadis had ever seen, with a green and grey tabard over his torso, displaying a stylized bear symbol that had a couple of swords crossed over it. He had one hand resting casually on the bastard sword belted to his waist, another sight that had Jadis gushing at how good it looked to see on what appeared to be an actual knight in shining armor.

Immediately Jadis remembered that the armor and sword looked fantastically realistic because it was real and she wasn’t visiting a renaissance fair.

Fortunately her lapse in attention wasn’t noticed. The knight was still talking.

“I am Captain Renz of Bernd’s Blades. By the authority of Prince Kestil of the Alfhilderunn Empire, I am charged with protecting these lands and have been given authority to offer aid to any man, woman, or child of Weigrun that seeks asylum from the demons who have invaded these forests. Do you seek protection from Samleos’ Spawn?”

The speech the mercenary captain had given was obviously one he’d spoken more than a few times before, the words said in a perfectly enunciated tone that screamed memorization. With how properly he had announced his reason for being there, Jadis imagined this was a required duty that had to be offered before any further action could be taken.

She briefly wondered what would happen if she declined the offer. Would that cause her to be turned away?

The answer to that question would have to be found out later. Jadis wasn’t about to turn down an offer of assistance, for two main reasons.

Firstly, she wanted to get as much information out of these mercenaries as she could and playing into the role of the lost refugee seemed a good way to go about it without arousing too much suspicion.

Secondly, Jadis could smell campfires on the light breeze, and with that smell of burning wood came the delicious, mouthwatering scent of meat. Jadis was one hundred percent on board with accepting asylum with the Alfhi-whatever Empire if it meant she’d get something to eat that wasn’t hardtack and honey.

“Yes!” Jay, Dys, and Syd answered the Captain’s question in unison, their perfectly synchronized voices seeming to startle the soldiers.

“We seek refuge; a safe place to sleep and something warm to eat,” Jay clarified. “If you’re offering.”

After taking a moment to perhaps consider, Captain Renz motioned for the three of Jadis to enter the gates.

“Come in, then. We’ll get you three a place to settle by the fire. Now, tell me, where exactly did you all come from and what happened?”

As Jadis entered the mercenary camp, she cranked her improvisational gears up a notch. She had a feeling she was going to have a lot of explaining to do, and depending on what the captain asked, a lot of lies to tell.