"A hundred, at least. As soon as we enter their valley, they will start attacking us," One of the cloaked women says, I recognize her voice. Loretta "Do you carry any healing with you?" She is helping a witch remain on her two feet. Anaid glares at her and she glares back "We need help"

Anaid holds her gaze for a few seconds, then look back at me. I understand her, and motion the handful of hobgoblins I brought that are suited for the task, who reluctantly come down from the wargs and get to work, satchels of herbs and ointments in hand.

"Thank you," Loretta says as she helps the witch sit down, the others doing the same while taking out their cloaks.

I can see now just how badly injured they truly are. It is a surprise they could stand up at all. They have improvised bandages all over their bodies, bloodied in dark reds, some still wet. From thirty to this? I'm already considering turning back and bringing more men but it just doesn't seem possible.

Leaving a camp with mostly newly turned humans who hold no sense of duty or belonging in your camp? Even if my goblins are trained, it's not a smart idea.

"It's the damn Shapeshifter, it's rilling them up" One of the witches murmurs, and I sense a volt of energy traverse my entire being.

"...We suspect the Shapeshifter has something to do with the harpies organizing so well. We aren't that far from the Endless Green after all" Anaid adds, a slight jerk coming out from her when she rests her weight on one leg, she must be hurt too.

"This Shapeshifter, is he surrounded by wargs and goblins?" Anaid's face contorts in anger at the mention of my brethren.

"No, only wargs. Have you fought it?" She asks turning around and standing near Loretta, watching over the hobgoblin who has begun to undress her a bit so he can treat her wounds.

"Yes...he is dangerous and knows how to train his men to attack efficiently, if we are to face him, he is mine"

Dubby is here. When we last fought I never saw where he went and while I was regaining my strength his attacks on the camp were swift but unsuccessful. Lacking my tracking skills, there was no way for my men to know where was he coming from. But now I know.

And now that I know, what will do? I don't want to kill him. I don't.

"You have to let them treat you" Loretta's plead takes me back from my thoughts, she speaks to Anaid.

"Giant, can you treat me?" She asks me, pointing at Thorum.

"Thronpkai," He says crossing his arms.

"Whatever, can you?"

"I can't, and even if I could I wouldn't" Thorum turns around and walks away, taking his waterskin out of his bag.

"...what about you two?" She asks looking at Lina and Indri.

"If you want to ask my men to treat you, you ask me" Our eyes met once more like a pair of wolfs staring down at each other "Only the men you see can treat you, and there is one left among my men, I can let you-"

"That won't be necessary" She spits turning around and walking away, trying to hide her limp.

"Anaid" Loretta says but the witch doesn't bother to look at her.

"...I can treat you too" My comment makes her stop. She glances at me over her shoulder "If you let me"

"Please" Loretta begs her, and this time it does seem to work, as Anaid takes a deep breath.

"We have a camp nearby, passing this crossing. Tell your creatures to treat their legs and move on, they can finish when we reach our camp" She says walking away.

We follow Anaid through the narrow paths taking us even deeper into the mountains. The snow falls all around us, gathering on the stone walls next to us, and the deep deadly cliffs nearby. What little vegetation there is left, it is only shrubs and twigs. However, in the distance, I can see the Endless Green once we start ascending through the mountains.

And it does justice to its name, green leaves as far as one can see. The snow gathers on the tree tops, that by mere sight I estimate to be hundreds of meters tall, the further back I try to see, the larger they seem to grow. Some of them have penetrated the feet of the mountains at the other extreme, their long roots stretching and incrusting themselves into the hard stone.

Eventually, we reach a clearing that is surprisingly well fortified, with tall palisades and several tents inside. I realize this was not a camp they made, but rather one they found. If the skeletons of men laying around were anything to go by. The witches enter their tents followed by my men tending them, while the rest take this opportunity to set up tents of their own since the ones they bring are larger and more sturdy.

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"Bandits, they left this spot some time ago it would seem, She approaches one of the tents. I notice several bodies wrapped in cloth piled up at one end of the camp "We lost a few in the fight, the rest, after"

She walks inside and I follow her. The insides of her tent are simple, a bedroll in the ground and an oil lantern to provide light. She lights it up and collapses on top of the bedroll, sitting straight and letting her cloak fall.

"Try anything, and I burn you to a crisp" She threatens as she burns a spot on the bedroll with her hand.

I kneel next to her and begin taking out the medicine from my bag. I have to admit that it excites me a bit. On rare occasions can I feel any fog in my mind and any weight in my heart, lessen. Only when I train, and when I heal. Once I'm done she has already taken her pants off, showing me a large wound on her thigh, a deep cut made by sharp claws, previously hidden by bandages.

By the color of it, I can already tell it is infected and the rest of my men must have noticed the same in the other witches. If we are using our resources, may as well make sure they don't go to waste.

"Lina," I say, knowing she is nearby, and indeed, I see her shadow near the tent, taking Anaid by surprise "Tell my men to treat them right, boil some of the water and use the salts, they are to be healed as if we were treating our own. And bring me a kettle with some water as soon as possible"

She slams the end of her spear on the ground and leaves to carry out my order. In the meantime, I clean the wound from the dirt and the forming pus. I notice the scars on her legs, to the untrained eye they would be mistaken for simple wounds made in an accident of some kind. But not to me, I recognize the mark of teeth and of fingernails.

"I didn't expect a savage from past the embrace to be a herbalist," Anaid says, I don't need to see her to know she has not stopped staring at me "Where did you come from? Hjornall? Or The Vast?"

"...from far away, a place nothing like this" I reply, I win nothing feeding into the lie, but there is no reason to try and tell her truth "And you?"

"The capital" he answers after remaining silent for a long time "I apologize, for treating you how I did when I heard you had killed a child. You were under pressure, and I'm as much a murderer as you are" I don't reply, her apology means nothing to me, she is just a job "I don't know why, but Scarlett seems to want us to work together often, so we should tolerate each other"

That, I can agree with. The less animosity between us, the better.

"But do keep your monsters to yourself"

"You didn't seem to mind Thorum or the Huani"

"They look human enough. As you do" Now, I glance at her "I see the necklace. You can be anything, and if you are surrounded by monsters..."

Her red eyes pierce into me, and the longer I see into them, the greater this creeping sensation that this is a face I have seen before. Whatever hides beneath the spell of her necklace, something within me commands me to see it.

Lina comes in carrying the kettle, accompanied by Loretta, who lets her hood fall and takes her scarf off, her long and pointy ears drawing my attention, as well as the blue paint on her face. The intrusion breaks the tension and allows me to look away, now busy mixing the ointments and cleaning my hands properly. For the rest of the treatment, Loretta remains with us, making the already tiny space of the tent all the more uncomfortable, but I rather keep her here to keep the witch quiet.

We share some of our food and the witches eat them with eagerness. Now that everyone is settled down and recuperating properly Anaid shares the details of her task and what happened with the harpies.

As I knew, the obelisk that Scarlet placed somewhere deep in the mountains had been disturbed by the harpies, and she sent Anaid with a large group of witches to kill all the harpies nearby. It was supposed to be a task of a day alone, but upon reaching the obelisk it turns out a great amount of harpies had gathered and settled there.

I used this opportunity to know more about the harpies. Turns out they are an old invention from the master alchemists of the past. Created to assist in the war against the Emperor and deal with their Wyvern Riders. The first Unhuayoj, are beasts the humans use to dominate the skies in battle. They were made with the old and sickened refugees that could not pick up arms to help in the war. But this was among the first times the alchemists tried to create beings, so like it would happen with the Wargs and Huani later on, they rebelled and escaped.

Now they form matriarchal societies where the elders guide their people. Taking refuge in the Endless Green and Mother's Embrace, possibly other places of Volatia. What makes them deadly is not only their capability to fly and use powerful screams to stun their prey but the special kind that still possesses the old blood of the first generations. Their feathers are as hard as iron.

The fighting was hard and only got harder once the Shapeshifter came. Anaid remained silent about the matter until Loretta added how the Shapeshifter killed two of the witches on his own. When Loretta tried to fight it, not even with her might could she kill it, since the Shapeshifter used the spear with a speed and lethality that caught her by surprise.

Remembering how she fought against Makur and the Knight long ago when we unknowingly first met...just how powerful has Dubby become?

They were forced to retreat, using the scroll they had to take their badly wounded back home, while the rest were forced to stay behind to allow for the scroll to be used in the first place. That's when they noticed that the harpies obeyed the Shapeshifter, following the point of his spear and the screams of his voice.

For two days they were trapped in constant combat, being forced to eat the corpses of their enemies and drink their blood to stay alive. Finding this camp three days ago, where they could finally tear some of the tents to make bandages. Until a Kon, the creatures that look like Cornus, came bearing the message that help was on the way, flying away soon after.

Turns out Scarlett is busy fighting the war against the Orcota, and the creation of scrolls is a lengthy process. So they have been waiting here all that time, two-thirds of the surviving witches dying from their wounds.

The sun already setting, we decided to march once dawn came, to deal with the harpy menace together. I discussed strategy with Anaid, making it clear that we would need their magic regardless of their health. Knowing the enemies were numerous, we would move fast and deep into the obelisk, repairing it meant the witches could summon devils to aid in battle, so we would need to be fast and keep Thorum safe while he repaired it.

A plan now formed I ordered my men to count their bolts and make sure their crossbows were working in perfect order. To rest and eat plenty. That we would need all our strength for the battle to come.