"Who are Gwinnett and Penelope you ask? Well, they are guests DUH! Those are not faery names AND I did not tell you they were 'the faery of something'.

Actually... The faery of something does exist, she's pretty funny to be around.

You did not actually ask about them? Well, my library, my rules. I wanna tell you about them so I will!

Gwinnett is a driad or to be more precise she's The Driad. She was the first Champion of the first God of Nature that was ever born.

She was called 'The Forest's Fury', cutting a branch or two is not a problem, the tree can survive that and sometimes is even beneficial.

Cut a tree and she will come for you! She made, with some godly help, her entire homeworld a verdant forest. A paradise really! Filled with life, tree loving creatures pranced everywhere and the bones of anyone that would kill nature acted as fertilizer."

-Bee May, the faery of knowledge

"Is nature cruel? Or because it's nature it's normal?"

Tom loved this escort mission, he was just walking and hunting. Pretty relaxing overall, the hard work was done by the kid. He looked a lot like a girl but was male, Little Wolf was really useful, his excellent sense of smell and hearing was a boon for the soldiers and for him. The nights were peaceful, they just had to empty the carts, turn them on the side, extract some planks from the sides and put them in between the carts. A walking fort, it was not as good as a real stone fort or the one they made in one year in the middle of the Hardwood forest but it could help them repel an assault. The other nights at least, this night Tom was fast asleep as usual, it was hard to be relaxed in hostile territory for a soldier but he trusted his instincts and he knew that the worst predator in the forest was Little Wolf himself, or the droppers but they were with him so...

A scream made him jump to his feet he, like the other soldiers slept with the armor on and weapons close by, readied his weapon and rallied his companions. Training kicked in, they divided in smaller teams, four to five each, keeping their backs protected, looking at every side for possible enemies. The night was moonless and darkness invaded the world, the trees and their leaves, their branches were oppressive fingers that strangled them, only the fire in the middle of the camp gave them sanctuary. The fire, light, heat, vision, protection and blindness, the fire was their best ally and worse enemy. The soldiers kept their eyes away from the fire, the forest outside the fort was lightly illuminated, the long shadows moved from time to time but they stood togheter. They knew that they were safer inside, togheter, Tom waited for John to speak, their leader was speaking with Little Wolf when they started their restful night. No order came, the voice of John was not heard, there were rumors in the forest now, in the little time it took for the soldiers to get ready and in formation.

A flurry of movements, thuds, screams, Todd knew he had to do something.

"Rotate," he whispered, his companions moved covering for him, his eyes left the dark undergrowth, he swept with his eyes the camp, the other soldiers, he easily found John, his armor different and recognizable, no Little Wolf. "Hold," he said and then marched towards his superior, Tom noticed that John's eyes were unfocused, his face white, he was shivering faintly. Tom gripped John's armored shoulder, his eyes searched outside the fort again for anything, he found nothing, the shuffling continued but the screams were being silenced. He heard a bleat, another bleat answered from the other side, Tom checked the little fort again, Little Wolf and the two droppers were missing, the strange woman, Miria? Mira? Maria, Mary? Her, she was missing too.

"Hey sir, do you have orders?" He called while keeping a strong grip on John's shoulder.

"L-l-Little W-w-Wolf," John whispered while shivering.

"What about him?" Tom asked.

"H-h-He's dangerous!" John screamed.

"Sorry sir," Tom spun around and punched him in the face, then he took the helmet that was on the ground near John and he messily put it on his head. "Get a grip sir, we need orders not chaos."

John touched his cheek, looked around him, most of the soldiers were looking outside of the fort, towards the forest but some... some were looking at him, the seniors, the veterans were looking outside, keeping their companions steady and ready for whatever was happening outside. The younger ones, just out of training were looking for him, for orders, for something to do, to not think for themselves, to not let the fear of a fight, of getting hurt, of death get the better of them. He failed them, he was failing them.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

John got up, fixed his helmet, turned around and punched as hard as he could Tom in the stomach, he had the gall of jumping back and selling an "oof" while clutching his belly.

"Insubordination will not be tollerated soldier!" He yelled, "thanks," he whispered. "You will walk until the capital, will be the last one to be served food and will be on pot scrubbing duties!"

"Really?" Whispered Tom, "fuck, next time I'll leave you on the ground sobbing..."

"Eyes outside! Around a hundred possible attackers, keep the formation tight!" The soldiers tightened the ranks, the veterans eyes hardened, while the younger soldiers were looking everywhere for possible enemies, now scared. "We have walls, protection, are you scared? Are you telling me that you cannot even fight two to three enemies with a wall? Is your training so worthless? Are the sons and daughters of Arthus scared!?"

"NO!" Roared the soldiers.

A man came out of the darkness, he had a javelin in hand. He screamed, took two steps, the soldiers raised their shields, the man could hit the walls of the fort or a shield but they were sure a single javelin would not take their life, unless extremely unlucky, the soldiers morale was high, they were ready to fight. And a dropper appeared from nowhere, it landed on the poor man's back, the javelin hitting the ground harmlessy. The man screamed and tried to roll but the dropper was too big, too strong, too heavy. The dropper looked at the camp, looked at the soldier and his eyes, his face, it was laughting at them, with a single head but it put the man that was under him unconscious. The dropper turned around and slowly started walking back into the shadows, tail held high. When it was almost outside of their sight it turned its head, looked straight at John, shook his backside at him and bleated. It was laughing! Then it disappeared in the forest, after that first attack, another man and two women appeared, promptly rendered unconsious by the droppers.

No sound came from the forest, the silence even more eerie now, something happened in the forest. And then the droppers came, two of them, the two that followed Little Wolf around, the ones that scared the horses from time to time. They had unconscious or dead people on their back or in their mouth. They started to make a pile of people in sight of the soldiers.

"Orders sir?" Asked Tom, confused but amused.

"Yes, scrub the bowls togheter with the pots, as punishment." Said John, the older soldiers laughed at that. "Seriously now, go back to relax, I want ten men keeping an eye out, we will take four ten guards shifts. Do not leave the fort, you know what to do, wake everyone if something happens. Oh, if Little Wolf is back wake me if I'm not around, he and I have to talk."

Tom got back to his companions grumbling, "Should I stab him in his sleep? Maybe I could make it look like a dropper attack?" He muttered.

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Meanwhile Little Wolf was following the suspicious guard, he was suspicious of the guard, not the other way around and the guard was a bad guard. He attacked his charge, that was bad right? So he was suspicious of the traitorous guard but, the guard knew the scout's language, that was strange too. Little Wolf was sure he would remember the guard if he ever passed near the village.

Every villager was white skinned, there was never enough sun inside the village or the forest to get a tan... Most villagers had brown straight hair, green or brown eyes, maybe black but really rare. This guard had the skin brown, his hair was curly and wavy, kept in a messy ponytail. His chocolate brown eyes were exploring the dark forest, looking for something, anything that could help him get back to the slaver camp. And the most obvious thing is the paint, Little Wolf knew that with some plant or fish you could get some paint and spread color around, the villaged used it on festivals, usually it was green or brown... The guard had golden lines under his eyes and some lines and little dots on his cheeks and nose. Little Wolf has never seen something like this he would remember.

Little Wolf had the slave leader on his shoulder, the man was fat! Like the fattest fat man he ever saw! The armor made him even more large and heavy, so he ripped pieces out of it and ate them. The cries and straining of metal the only sounds as the two men, or the man and the young White Stalker walked.

The guard gestured with his hands, without turning. "What are you doing?"

"Eating," shrugged Little Wolf, then he remembered that the man could not see him so... he shrugged again, "why are you not speaking? And, actually why do you know the scout's sign language?"

"I don't know how far we are from the encampment and I don't want to be discovered like this."

"Oh, we are far enough and why should we hide? We are going to free the slave and do good, why should we do it silently?"

"Are you serious?"

"Yes, and you did not answer me, where did you learn the signs?"

The guard sighed, "We came from the Merchant Empire, it's an empire where everything can be bought or sold, even people... In the Empire there are only two things, merchant and mech. Me? I'm merch or I was, we are trained to be warriors, we are dangerous so they take our family away. Our skills for our family survival... That was everything we knew, until a year ago, probably two. The Shadow of the Emperor appeared, no one knows who she is. The Shadow kills any merchant that mistreats the merch and is freeing the families of the warriors like mine. When she learned that I was to be sent over to the Arthus kingdom... She told me of the forest and the beast with the glowing eyes."

"Nice story, so I'm a beast uh?"

"No offence, but yes. You are eating a special steel alloy armor as we are speaking, you are pretty beastly to me."

*crunch* "Oh, I'm making him lighter, so spending less energy and getting some energy at the same time, Mira called it being efficient... I think? And the signs, don't change argument! I never forget, until I do..."

"The signs are the language of the Shadow of the Emperor, she taught it to the freed slaves so they could speak without fear of the merchants or the slave guards."

"WAIT! Does that mean that the Shadow of the Emperor is one of the villagers?!"