“You may be right, but that doesn't mean we will.” Bjorn called back.
“Fool, you are hopelessly outnumbered, what do you hope to accomplish here? Why throw your life away? If you surrender there is a chance you can eventually get free, but if you fight you are sure to die. Of course we will have to kill the product that surrendered, I don't have much that can restrain them. We don't have a chance to really capture them.”
During his rant Meira turned her back towards the bandits and started to make hand gestures into the night, in the hope that Tayla could see them and understood what was trying to be conveyed. Slowly making her way to Bjorn she leaned in and whispered in his ear. “Keep him talking.”
With a barely perceptible nod Bjorn called over again. “Just like that you are going to let us get out of it? Will you let our friends live if we surrender, I am convinced I can get our werewolves stand down.”
A vicious grin crossed the half troll's face. “Just like that I will not kill you, you will still end up slaves, but don't think for a second you will be getting free. And as for your werewolves, unfortunately we are still going to have to kill them, someone needs to pay for the pound of flesh you have taken from us. I am pretty sure at least one of you is a spellcaster, I’m betting it is the elf, you all will fetch a better price than the werewolves. Besides, it's been a while since I've tasted werewolf, and magically I now have the chance to eat some.”
“You make some compelling offers but I'm afraid we will have to decline, we will not stand by as we watch you kill Aiko and Kallie.”
“Very well you have signed your own deaths.” The half troll raised his hand, as he did there was a creak that passed through the camp as the bandits all collectively adjusted their grips on their weapons, or the leather of their armor creaked, or as they tightened their grips on their shields.
Meira gave a panicked look to each of her group. “Hold up.” Alaric shouted. “I challenge you.” As he held his ax up to point at Aaron. “To single combat, to the death. If you win the rest of us will surrender, if I win you let us and all of the werewolves free.”
A silence fell across the camp as everyone was holding their breaths waiting for the troll's response. The silence stretched for a painfully long time. “That is unless your troll heritage makes you too much of a coward to accept.”
That last insult did the trick, the troll's face screwed up in rage as his mind started to work through the insult. “Very well, I accept. Your death won't be quick, or painless.” As the troll started to cross the no-man's land in between the two groups, stopping in the middle in between the two groups.
Bjorn stopped Alaric as he started walking forward. “What are you doing? He will kill you.”
“Oh, thank you for your faith in me. You're probably right, I won't likely win, but what I can do is buy us time which in this case is a precious commodity at this point” Alaric pushed past Bjorn and made it a few paces before turning back around and walking backwards for a few steps. “Besides I might surprise you, I have a few tricks up my sleeves.”
Aaron was standing there cracking his neck as Alaric slowly made his way forward. The half troll was almost double the height of the dwarf. It was almost comical seeing a dwarf stand up to this monster of a humanoid when the dwarf barely came up to the troll's belly button. The 4 and a half feet compared to the 8 feet of the half troll made Aaron dwarf the dwarf. Alaric didn’t seem daunted by the creature in front of him.
As Alaric drew near he heated his ax and shield, which made the troll grin even larger. The half troll un slung a massive two handed battle ax from his back. With a half hearted swing he planted the head of the ax in the ground letting it stand there on its own.
Kneeling down the troll grabbed a handful of loose dirt before standing and rubbing his hands together covering them in the dust from the dirt. “Are you ready to meet your maker dwarf?”
“I think you may be overconfident.” Alaric shot back. “I would ask if you were ready to meet your maker but I have a feeling you already have a rather intimate knowledge of your maker.” There was a stunned silence as the more quick witted bandits understood the implications. But Aaron just stood there looking confused. “Alright you dumb brute, I am saying you have sex with your own mother.”
The look of confusion turned into one of rage in a moment as Aaron bellowed a war cry at Alaric. The troll took two steps forward, hand clasping onto the handle of his battle ax and in one fluid motion the ax swung in a deadly arch aimed at Alaric’s shoulder.
If it was a lesser man on the other end of the swing the fight would have been decided right there, luckily for Alaric and his companions he was no such man. Bracing his feet against the ground he raised his shield to eye level and angled it ever so slightly upwards. When the battle ax made contact with the metal shield there was a loud clang of metal on metal as the ax slid upwards, deflected by the angle of the shield.
Trying to take advantage of this opening left by the over extension Alaric stepped in to take a swing at the troll. It was a motion that he had practiced countless times and had used to end many fights early. Only to be met by the knee of the troll. It made contact with Alaric’s face, knocking him backwards and off balance, tumbling backwards and coming to a stop.
Aaron's swing continued its upward trajectory as the follow up kick landed on Alaric, sending him head over heels. Once again planting his foot Aaron finished the move by taking a step which made him rotate the whole 180 degrees putting the ax behind him as the ax soon followed Alaric downwards in an arch that would leave the ax buried in Alaric's chest.
Because of several years of training Alaric didn't let himself stop as soon as he registered that he was flying backwards. Not giving himself the time necessary to get his bearings straight. As soon as his back hit the ground he used the momentum he already had from the kick to roll to the side just barely missing getting hit by the ax. Continuing that momentum he used it to regain his footing and ended up facing the half troll again.
A sneer crossed the troll's face. “Not bad for a dwarf, not many would be able to survive an attack like that.”
“All dwarfs are taught it isn't the size that matters, it's how you use it. Wait, that came out wrong. They taught us that bigger doesn't always mean better… Damn it, that also came out wrong, what I'm trying to say is your slow and easy to predict with your size. I think it's safe to say you aren't winning in the size department.” Alaric insulted looking slightly downwards.
Bellowing in rage Aaron came at the short annoying dwarf again. Who for his part kept up the train of insults even when dodging life threatening attacks.
This continued on for minutes, it was clear to everyone involved that the half troll had the upper hand, he outclassed Alaric to such a degree that Alaric rarely had a chance to be on the offense. When he was able to get past the troll's defenses the armor the troll was wearing did its job to an infuriating degree. Alaric was not able to puncture the metal with what few strikes he was able to land skirting off the metal of the chest piece or slid along the metal rings of the chainmail.
On his end it wasn't pretty, Alaric took many blows from the troll, some landing solidly, others glancing blows, but the metal of Alaric's chainmail was enough to stop some of the more deadly strikes from the war ax. On one particularly close strike the head of the ax caught a piece of the mail that was already bent from a previous strike and it tore the shirt open from shoulder to arm. Leaving a shallow cut along behind.
Alaric's shield could almost no longer be called a shield, it was originally a concave piece of metal that was strapped to Alaric’s arm, now it was more a flat piece of metal, starting to get closer to a convex shape. It was this piece of metal that would be the impotence of Alaric's downfall. After a rather violent swing from Aaron's ax, that was caught by his shield, it left Alaric off balance, planting both hands on the ax Aaron pushed forward with his ax like a spear. The large end of his battle ax pierced through the weakening metal and stabbed through into Alaric’s arm.
This was the first solid hit that Aaron was able to land on Alaric. Gritting his teeth he flexed the muscles in his forearm holding the ax head strong in his arm. When Aaron went to withdraw his ax Alaric came with. Which surprised the half troll, so much so that it gave Alaric his first real chance to get a solid hit in. Drawing his arm back he swung it at the half troll with enough force to go right through the chainmail on Aaron’s sleeve. The angle of the chop and the force of it was enough to rent a hole in the mail and embed the ax into Aaron’s arm.
Relaxing his muscle he tried to pull himself off of the spike at the end of the ax head. Unfortunately the close proximity was enough and Alaric’s movement was hindered enough that Aaron was able to grab ahold of Alaric’s head with one oversized hand. In a motion awfully similar to a football player spiking the football he threw Alaric at the ground head first with all of his might. Alaric landed head first, and bounced once, before coming to rest 5 feet away and lay unmoving.
The sight of their leader thoroughly handling the dwarf made the bandits cheer. Laughing and drinking in the adulations of his men Aaron did a small victory lap around Alaric’s unmoving body, before he walked over to where his bloody ax lay. He pulled Alaric’s ax out of his bloody arm and threw it aside. The wound on the half troll's body started to visibly heal in front of their eyes. Picking up his own battle ax walked back over to Alaric, raising his ax above his head. Aaron looked over at the party wanting to relish the looks of horror on their face as they watched him embed the ax into Alaric’s body.
What he didn’t expect to see though was an arrow streaking through the air before it hit the half troll in his raised arm. As the smile faded from Aaron’s face a look of pure rage took its place. “You have shown you have no honor, attacking me after I have beaten your dwarf friend. You have broken his word.” Half turning to address his men. “Men, capture the lot of them, I don’t care about the value, I am going to torture them all and make the human watch.”
A collective shout escaped the waiting bandit’s throats as they started walking towards the group menacingly.
“Tayla, if you were going to do something now would be the time.” A clatter sounded out behind him. The sound was so unexpected that it made Bjorn pull his eyes from the group of salivating bandits slowly making their way towards him. The sight that greeted him was one that was also unexpected, but very much welcome. All three of the doors to the cages holding the Werewolves in were open, and the werewolves came pouring out.
The cheers of excitement and jeers died in the throats of the bandits. To all it seemed the world had come to a standstill, as the bandits all collectively stopped in their tracks in fear. To Meira, Bjorn, and Tayla they stood there watching Alaric’s body hoping for some sort of sign he was alive. The peace held for a long moment. It was Alaric’s arm shifting on the ground that broke the standstill, and pandemonium ensued.
Most of the bandits were torn between running away from the werewolves changing at them, and attacking the werewolves. Unfortunately for the bandits their uncertainty gave the werewolves a chance to close the distance and attack the front ranks of the bandits. The uncertainty further helped the werewolves as a third of the bandits turned to run.
Stepping over Alaric's body the half troll moved forward to meet the oncoming werewolves. “Come on you lazy bitches, fight back!” Aaron exclaimed as he took a swing at a werewolf. “If any of you run away I will personally hunt you down and kill you myself.”
The clash between werewolf and bandits was no where near balanced, with the group of bandits running away the numbers were a lot closer to being even. In an even fight the pure stat advantage of the werewolves was enough to overpower the bandits. Their only saving grace was Aaron.
If Bjorn Meira and Tayla decided to stay out of the fight the bandits probably would have won, as the half troll was a one man army all on his own. That wasn't even a thought that crossed their minds though. As the melee started Bjorn called out to Meira and Tayla. “If you can, distract the half troll, if you can't try and get Alaric out of there and back on his feet. I think I have something that just might tip the scales of the fight in our favor.”
“With pleasure.” They said in unison. Making eye contact with each other they stared at each other for a few seconds before rushing off to fight the half troll. Meria started casting her weak lightning bolt spell, and Tayla moved in close to Aaron before pulling a knife from her bandoleer and throwing it at him with surprising accuracy.
For his part Bjorn pulled a vial from his portable pocket and started to coat the heads of his arrows in poison. He also coated a dagger with the same poison.
Weak earth Bain poison
Rarity: Common
Weight: 1 lbs
This poison does 13-17 earth based damage per second for 20 seconds.
Once they engaged the half troll he switched his focus onto Tayla whos attacks seemed rather ineffective against the heavily armored and fast healing troll. He was outclassed in speed. Tayla moved through the air with a speed that was unattainable back on earth. She moved with speed and accuracy outpacing anything Bjorn had ever seen.
Not to be outdone, Meria cast her lightning bolt spell, with her hands being covered in a pale white light she moved through the intricate hand gestures with ease. As her mana bar dropped the air got the same coppery taste and feel right before she completed the spell. When the spell finished the arc of lightning shot forth from her hands and slammed into the metal of Aaron’s chest piece. In this case the metal of the breastplate worked against him as it absorbed the spell and amplified it, shocking his entire body instead of just a localized spot. Causing his body to freeze in place for 2 seconds.
Using the opening the momentary stun on Aaron provided Meira began casting a different spell. Again light covered her hands as she moved through another quick movement of hand gestures this time Tayla shone briefly before the light faded.
Spell: Weak Haste
Casting time: 3 seconds
Components: Verbal, Somatic
Range: 30 feet
Duration: 5 minutes
Mana Cost: 17 Mana
Increases target’s movement speed by 5%. This spell has a 5 minute cooldown before you can cast it again.
This Tayla used her new speed to its full ability, pushing her body farther and faster than she had before she moved in and slammed one of her daggers into the half trolls neck.
Even with all that it wasn't enough, the professed warrior recovered from the stun faster than Meira expected and snatched at Tayla who had to dive backwards to avoid getting snatched by the trolls large hand, leaving her dagger in place.
The warrior stood up to his full height, grabbed his chest piece and pulled. The groaning of leather could be heard throughout the battlefield before there was an audible snap and the piece of metal fell to the ground. After that he grabbed a hold of the dagger in his neck and with a jerk yanked it free from his neck. The wound left behind started to quickly close itself.
“We need to find a way to overcome his natural healing.” Meria shouted over the sounds of bandits clashing with werewolves.
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“I have a few fire spells that might work.” Tayla called back.
An arrow flew through the night and sank into the now bare chest of the half troll. “I have poison, it might help.” Bjorn said as he joined the fray.
For the first time that night the half troll felt pressured, and because of that he activated one of his warrior talents.
Name: Unbreakable Will
Activation time: Instantaneous
Cost: 31 Stamina
Cooldown: 5 minutes
Due to your indomitable spirit you will feel 30% less pain for the next minute. That includes any current pain you are feeling or pain you suffer during this duration.
It wasn't a good situation, looking at his bandits they were holding their own, but they were slowly losing the fight, if he didn't do anything the werewolves would overwhelm the bandits who decided to stay and fight. He had to do something about the group. He pegged either the human or the elf to be the easiest to kill so he started there.
Lunging forward he activated his second talent of the night and shot across 40 of the 50 feet separating him from Bjorn and Meira in around a second.
Talent: Lunge
Activation time: Instantaneous
Cost: 35 Stamina
Cooldown: 3 minutes
Once activated, travel 40 feet in target direction in a second.
Moving faster than even Tayla was able to move. Once he landed he went towards the elf, figuring she would be the easier target due to her lighter armor and her magic staff.
His rapid advance at Meira made her choose to abandon her lightning bolt spell and start to take evasive maneuvers. Suffering a slight backlash from her spell fizzling it slowed her movements down ever so slightly. Which allowed Aaron to land a solid hit on her, sending her back and sprawling.
Tayla tried to catch up but she wasn't fast enough. Bjorn on the other hand loosed another poison soaked arrow into the back of the troll, before dropping his bow, pulling his sword, and charging at the back of the troll.
Before the half troll had a chance to capitalize on Meira's state the second arrow slammed into his back almost point blank. Which caused him to turn around and face the charging human. Preparing his ax he raised it in defense of the overhead swing Bjorn was trying to execute.
The swing came down on the haft of the ax. A look of surprise crossed Aaron's face. “Weak.” Was the only word he breathed out before he turned the block into an overhead swing aimed at separating Bjorn in half.
His time training with Alaric paid off, because after his swing was blocked instead of standing there he already started to withdraw. May a time Bjorn had made that mistake and been hit upside the head by Alaric. That training saved his life. As the ax swung down into the position Bjorn had just been he had moved to the side. The force and speed of the swing still surprised Bjorn, as he barely moved out of the arc of the ax.
As the ax swung down and planted itself into the ground a hand shot out. As the warrior watched Bjorn’s movement he realized his strike would miss and abandoned the ax all together, the momentum still carried the ax into the ground and it embedded itself into the dirt. With his hands free he reached out at Bjorn and caught the human by the neck. Easily lifting the 180 lbs. man off the ground, and began to squeeze.
At first Bjorn’s started to see stars from the lack of blood making it to his brain, and then his vision started to become blurry. He tried to fight back, using his sword he tried to swing it down on the half troll but he caught the hand quickly disarming him. Tayla caught up and started to attack the half troll again. When she did so he let go of Bjorn’s struggling arm and started to defend himself from her attacks.
As Bjorn’s vision started to darken, and his attempts to fight back became weaker, he tried one final thing. Pulling the poison soaked dagger from his waist he stabbed it at the warrior. It plunged into the body and his fingers felt wet as his world turned to black.
When he came to next all he could tell was that he was alive. The next thing he noticed was a pounding headache. Opening his eyes he looked around expecting to see bars. But instead he saw walls and bodies laid out around him. From the soft moans that permeated the silence Bjorn figured he was in some sort of infirmary.
Sitting up he saw that he was laying in a low bed, and above the bed a water skin hung. Sitting up and grabbing it he drank his fill pushing through the hammering in his head. Then laying back down he fell asleep again.
The next time he was awake, Meira was sitting on the bed next to him. “Hey, you made it.”
Hearing his voice her head snapped around and then a bright smile that lit up the room crossed her face.
“That is a smile I never want to lose.” Bjorn thought as he did nothing but just stare at Meira’s exuberant expression.
“Hey.” She said, jostling him out of his revelry. “I asked you a question, how are you feeling?”
Bjorn did a metal check. “I don't feel too bad, I hurt but it isn't terrible.” Looking down at his health bar it was around 3/4ths full. “What happened after I fell unconscious? I'm assuming we won due to the fact that I'm not in a cage right now.”
“Yeah we won, and I think we have you to thank for that, that stab into the half troll was enough to make him retreat. I think the poison started to do its work. After you stabbed him he threw you away from him taking the dagger with you. We are assuming that the accumulated poison was enough to overcome his natural healing. That and Tayla cast a fire spell burning the wound and keeping it open.”
Pausing she looked up and when Bjorn turned his head he saw Tayla standing there in the doorway leaning on it. “Between the two the half troll came back to his senses and got what he could of his bandits and retreated into the keep. From there it was just a matter of time before the villagers pushed all the way in and killed the rest of the bandits. They tried to barricade themselves in but it didn't work. The rest of the werewolves finished the bandits off, taking care of the troll as well.”
Once she stopped talking Tayla stepped in, And took up the tale.” Once they finished off the bandits that stayed most of them slunk off into the woods tracking down the rest of the bandits that fled the battle. They assured us that they killed all of the bandits. A few of the villagers didn't come back until late the next day, but all who left to hunt down those who had ran returned.”
“I don't see Alaric, where is he at?”
“He woke up yesterday, and didn't want to lay in bed any longer. He stated that it would ‘reduce his effectiveness.’ In what I don't know, but based on the looks he has been giving some of the women, it is in a more intimate way.” Tayla rolled her eyes as she said that. “Regardless, it seems to me that he is having a hard time. Which I'm sure you'll understand when you get out of here.”
“Well I see no reason not to find out now.” Bjorn said as he started to climb out of bed. Upon sitting up he realized that he was shirtless. Looking around he found his portable pocket and quickly remedied his half nakedness. The room entered into a hallway, with multiple doorways leading off of the hall. “Take me to Alaric, please. Oh how long was I out for?”
“Two days.” Remarked Tayla.
The girls who were close on his heels started to lead the way to an open foyer and from there down a set of stairs. At the bottom it opened up to a large communal area where most of the saved villagers were at. Out of the 16 villagers that were captured 8 of them were sitting around in the room, half of them were women. All of them were mostly naked. All except for Alaric. Who was surrounded by villagers as the group talked.
“Why are they naked?” Bjorn asked dumbfounded.
“Yeah that is why I said Alaric seems to be having a ‘hard time’” Tayla said as she elbowed Bjorn’s side. “Turns out when werewolves transform any clothes they are wearing usually shreds due to their bodies growing in size. Who knew.”
As they were standing there at the top of the stairs, Aiko spotted the group and stood up from her spot at the table and rushed over to the bottom of the stairs, her long bare legs carrying her over, her tail swishing out from behind her back as she ran. The commotion drew the attention of the rest of the group, who all quickly rushed after Aiko all in similar states of undress.
When she got to the bottom of the stairs she knelt down and bowed her head, with the rest quickly following suit. “Thank you for coming to our aid, we thank you for saving us. If not for you I have no doubt we would have all died when we transformed into our true forms. We can not thank you enough, if there is anything you want don’t hesitate to ask, if we can we will do everything in our power to help you get it.”
Bjorn, who was blushing at the sight of 8 mostly naked people running over to him, got a grip on himself. “First off, stand up, there is no need to stand on formality here, we are all friends. Secondly, where are your clothes?”
Aiko stood up at Bjorn’s request but her cheeks were a rosy color, embarrassed at her state of undress. “We scrounged through the camp trying to find clothes, these bandits had little extra clothes, I don’t think they were overly rich. They sure were a large group though. Turns out most of their clothes got ruined by our claws and bites.”
Alaric pushed through the crowd and made his way up the stairs stopping in front of Bjorn. They stood there staring at each other for a few seconds before Alaric pulled Bjorn into a hug. “It’s good to see you lad. Good job out there.” Alaric’s head was bandaged in strips of colored cloth.
“How's the head? You had me worried there for a moment, after Aaron spiked you and you didn't get up I thought you might be dead.”
“Ha, it was not even close. It will take more than that to stop me. Let me tell you I have a hard head. Well I guess most dwarves have hard heads. But mine is especially hard, when I was younger I wanted to see how many times I’d have to hit my head to break a rock.”
“You know that explains a lot.” Meira quipped from the back.
Alaric shot Meira a dirty look. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing, forget I said anything. Aiko, do you want to step aside into a room again where we can talk? I’m sure Bjorn has questions and I know there are things you’d like to fill him in on.”
“Of course, I think there was a mostly clean room on the third floor with not too bad chairs. Follow me.” Aiko made her way to the third floor with the other 4 following behind, once on the landing she went down one of the hallways and took a door on the right. Inside was a cozy room with 6 chairs inside around a small table.
Once they were all seated, Aiko led the discussion. “I want to apologize for not telling you about us being werewolves. Our kind doesn’t have the best reputation. And as you can see with us being captured, we aren’t really the best fighters and aren’t the best at defending ourselves when we are in our human forms. We do make up for it with our raw attributes when we transform, but we are mostly helpless the rest of the time.”
“That’s alright Aiko, you have nothing to apologize for. I understand you wanting to keep that a secret. Is that why you were so adamant on us leaving town by the 5th night.” Meira said.
“That is in fact the case, it was a full moon that night, and because of that we wouldn’t be able to keep our secret without either forcing you into joining us, or killing you. Many of our brethren have a hard time restraining themselves at night when in our true forms and because of that we are normally killed on sight. If word got out about our little town the soldiers of Escar would quickly come down and put an end to us.”
“Fair point.” Said Bjorn. “You have nothing to worry about Aiko, your secret is safe with us. Right Tayla?”
She sat there surprised to have been singled out the way she was. “Look.” She started directly at Bjorn. “Tieflings are generally not accepted in society as well. It has to do with our heritage. Tieflings are the spawn of demons and other humanoids. Because of one half of our heritage we are vilified and are not welcome in most places. That is why I am a thief. You have nothing to worry about, your secret's safe with me.“
Hearing everyone agree to keep their secret Aiko’s body relaxed, she didn’t realize she was tensed up hoping to hear what she did. “Thank you everyone, I truly do appreciate it.”
“I do have a question for you though.” Alaric began. “If you are a werewolf, how often do you change?”
“That is a good question, we are only common werewolves. As such we change every full moon, as you can guess seeing how we have 6 moons it happens quite frequently. There are other were-creatures who are tied to a specific moon. For example I do know of a werecat race who is tied to Aiger and as such only transforms when Aiger is full. They also have some awfully powerful air based abilities because of that connection.”
“Wait, you're telling me that the moons have affinities?” Bjorn said disbelievingly.
“Not just the moons. There are 8 bodies that move across our skies. Each one is tied to a basic element. Our suns are tied to fire and light. Sol is the reddish one, and is tied to fire. Polaris, the pure white sun is tied to light. You also have Aiger the yellow moon, who is tied to air. Umbriel, the black one, is tied to darkness. Rhea, the green one, is tied to the earth element. Ida, the moon of water. Diana, is the moon of life. And lastly Mortum, the purple moon, who is representative of death. Unfortunately for us, as common werewolves we don’t get any of the benefits from our specific moons. Instead we just change at every full moon.”
“My next question is, why did you say we had to leave down to remove that mana absorption bead from me?” Meira asked.
“That one is also straight forward, the smell of blood can drive us mad. Many of our young haven’t learned how to control their impulses. So we wanted you out of town so the smell of blood wouldn’t affect our children. And yes we are all werewolves, including our children.” After a minute with no other questions forthcoming. She continued. “What are your plans going forward? You of course are more than welcome to stay with us, and if I was to guess there is a lot of work that needs to be done around town. It is also early fall, crops are going to need to be brought in soon. With this attack unfortunately we are going to be short on manpower, having you around would be a great help.”
They all sat around looking at one another having a silent conversation. “Yeah we will gladly stay around and help around town. Tayla you are also welcome to stay and help, but there is no pressure to do so. I don’t know your situation back in Vanta, but your welcome to stay.” Bjorn said.
“I’ll gladly stay and help. I have nothing pressing that needs to happen back in Vanta, nore do I have anyone I need to get back to.“
“It's settled then, once Laine, Jaine, Zaine, and Paine are well enough to walk we will head back home.” Tayla gave Aiko a questioning look. “They are siblings.”
There came a light knock on the door as one of the men poked his head through it, his eyes settling on Aiko. “Aiko, they are back.”
“Thank the heavens, if you’ll excuse me.” Aiko got up and started heading for the door. Watching her walk away gave them all a view of her nice round ass, and the bushy tail that came out just above her ass crack.
Meira smacked both Bjorn and Alaric. “Stop staring.” As she stood to follow after Aiko. They followed her back to the first floor and saw two of the villagers carrying large bundles on their backs. Once they set them down they started unpacking them. Packs and a pile of clothes got unloaded and soon handed out to everyone who quickly stripped in front of each other and got dressed in their own clothes.
“They don’t seem to have much of an aversion to nudity.” Commented Alaric.
“It makes sense. If they transform at least 6 times a month, that would be a lot of clothes that they would go through. So the night before they transform they all strip naked to save their clothes. Over the years they are bound to have all seen each other naked at least once due to situations. So why would it matter to them.” Tayla remarked.
“You have a point lass. Well if we are to stay in town and help them with their rebuilding efforts I guess we will eventually have to get used to it. I guess we should help them sort through the keep here and organize what is worth taking back, and what is worth leaving.” Alaric started down the stairs.
“You guys go ahead, I think I’m going to go see what I can do to help the aines heal faster.” Bjorn broke off from his friends and headed back to the room he woke up in this morning.
In the end it took 2 extra days for all of the villagers to be back on their feet. As it turns out injuries suffered while in werewolf form transferred over to their human form. When they transformed back it seemed that the wounds weren’t as serious as they were as a werewolf. In the end they got the better end of the stick, only two of the villagers died. As compared to the 61 bandits who died at the camp. The increased stats of being werewolves were overwhelming. Every single one of the werewolves had some sort of injury on their bodies though, many could walk but it was still a struggle, and they were moving with a limp.
During the two days of prep before heading out they were able to burn and bury the bodies. All of the bandits ended up in a large mass grave that took roughly a day of digging to make. Each of the villagers who died ended up in their own grave. When a werewolf dies in werewolf form they stay in that form, so moving their oversized bodies and digging holes big enough for them was quite the ordeal. There was a little service for the deceased. The second day was spent sorting through the camp, and finding anything of use.
There was a huge stockpile of useful tools, weapons, and armor that would come home with them. There were also quite a bit of foods, supplies, and goods that also would come back, but not all at once. They assumed it would take 3 different trips to bring it all back.
Taking what they could, and with the portable pocket being excessively heavy, they took off for Lief’s Crossing. Due to the weight Alaric and Bjorn took turns carrying the heavy bag. Alaric carried it more than Bjorn did, but they still took their turns. Due to them being slowed down from members being slow, and their heavy packs it took them another 2 days to make it back to Lief’s Crossing.
There were many hugs and tears when they made it back to Lief’s Crossing. Loved ones reunited and tears for those gone were common. A surprising amount of the hugs and tears were thank yous for the now quartet of friends. The next day was spent reconnecting friends and families and doing some repairs on the city.
The day after, the quartet and a few of the villagers made their way back to the fort with the horses in tow this time, and with Bjorn’s portable pocket significantly lightened from the load it carried. They got most of the gear and food, enough for one more light trip. The entire trip lasted 2 days round trip.
Once it was decided that there wasn’t any need for the horses Bjorn, Meira, Alaric, and Tayla made their way back to Vanta to sell the horses, they didn’t quite get their money’s worth back, but they were able to recoup some of the cost of the horse and the tackle, before leaving Vanta and heading back to Lief’s crossing. With the group making some purchases that the townspeople of Lief’s crossing wanted or needed, the entire trip took 5 days round trip to make it to Vanta and back. During those 5 days there was a full moon, which made them think of the townspeople and worry about what was happening in their lives.
Making it back to Lief’s crossing they settled in to help rebuild and better the small community that took them in.
(If you don’t care you may skip to the next chapter.)
You have advanced your skill level in archery, reaching skill level 11, and 12. Damage from arrows you shoot is increased by 36% over base damage.
You have advanced your skill level in Light Armor, reaching skill level 2. When wearing light armor your defensive value for the light armor is increased by 2%.
You have advanced your skill level in small blades, reaching skill level 3. Your attacks with swords now deal 6% more damage over base value. Additionally critical strikes done with your small blades will deal 3% more damage.