Sandra had been good to her word and provided all four of us with horses to use to get from Jewelston to Admonton. Aeolith flew overhead in circles to follow along the path while also giving us aerial updates of the landscape and city as it came into view. Admonton was definitely a small village. They had a tiny palisade fence setup that was barely six feet high and looked like something that was set up more to slow down attackers while the town ran than for actual defense. Most of the buildings were small almost hut-like dwellings set on either side of a dirt road running through the town. Admonton didn't have the same set of stores that the larger town of Jewelston had. They didn't have signs showing which building was which. It didn't even have a road other than the dirt path running through it.

When we approached the town gate, Aeolith landed behind me as we dismounted. There were a couple of guards posted at the entrance, but they looked extremely uneasy at the site of Aeolith.

"Halt, who goes there?" They called to us, and I had to give them some credit for not just running scared.

"Why do they ask who goes there? They can see us right? They can see who is going there?" I asked turning to the others in my party.

"Finally! Someone asks the right questions!" Rutherford exclaimed as though I had just said the one thing he had been thinking about for the past week and hadn't been allowed to say.

The guard rolled his eyes.

"Who are you and what do you want?"

"Now that, is a much better set of questions. I am Callan Ryder. I am here to speak with whoever is in charge."

"The mayor is...indisposed. Come back some other time."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I guess my voice accidentally inflected up at the end of my last sentence leading you to believe I was asking permission. I am here to speak with whoever is in charge, now."

I took a step forward and Aeolith began to growl deep and low. The guards took a half step back, but to their credit, they mostly stayed where they were.

"We're sorry, but we can't let you do that. You can't just come in here and do whatever you like."

"Well, I asked nicely twice. Now it's time to ask the hard way."

We walked forward and the guards lowered their spears at us. I swept the points to either side of me with ease and grabbed their armor and tossed them back to my companions to restrain. Their weapons were taken away from them and Aeolith towered over them with an angry look on her face. Smoke began to pour out of her nostrils and the guards' eyes went wide with terror as one was held by a hulking Rutherford with his full plate armor and another by Vokin in his iron-like grip.

"Now, tell us where the mayor is so we can decide how indisposed they are," I said, turning to face them.

Five minutes later we were strolling down the street toward the largest building in town. The place looked like a ghost town. People were either hiding in their homes or had fled. There was no one in the streets. Baskets that would normally have healed fruit of vegetables were overturned in the street, carts appeared to have just broken down and been left wherever they stopped, doors were off many of the hinges and just leaned against the openings of businesses and homes, while many windows were cracked or smashed out altogether. When we got to the main building I decided knocking was too polite and kicked the door in. The whole place was black. There was no light in the room at all. It also seemed to just be one big open room which was a bit odd. At the back of the room, I saw a pair of eyes open, glowing red.

"There you are. We need to have a little chat. I think you've caused enough trouble here and it's time to pay the piper."

The eyes narrowed slightly and then it rushed forward. I dodged back out of the doorway as the rest of my party did the same, and the Shadow Beast along with its host tumbled out of the building, clearly expecting me to have stayed there to be pounced on. It Smoked slightly in the direct sunlight but still seemed perfectly capable of coming after us. Once again the shadow grew out of the person and changed its form from duplicating the person it was attached to, into a cat-like shape. Unlike when we were in the warehouse with the dark rainclouds overhead, this beast was out in the sunlight and I could see how it was less substantial than the other one had appeared. Where the darkness was all-consuming in the previous Shadow Beast, this one seemed as though I could see through it if I tried hard and shielded my eyes from the sun. Vaguely transparent or not, though, it came for me. I drew my sword as it swiped at us and blocked it. Rutherford jumped in from the right and grabbed the man it was possessing in a bear hug on the ground. It screamed and thrashed trying to tear at Rutherford to get him to let go, its shadows scratching at Rutherford opening some wounds on the few places it could reach, and skittering off his armor where it couldn't reach him. I ran over to where they were struggling and put a thumb on his forehead and the rest of my hand across the right side of his face.

"From darkness, you came, to darkness, you shall return, LUX NEGAT TUUM ESSE!"

Light shone from every hole in the man's head just like it had from Gregory, and there was a scream as the beast was destroyed from the inside out. We watched as the shadow that had been attacking Rutherford reared back in pain, screaming as the light shone through it, first as pinpricks escaping the darkness, then growing to the size of bullet holes, and finally cracks appeared before the light burst through it, completely obliterating the Shadow Beast. There was a popping sound this time, but the creature seemed to be completely destroyed. The man fell unconscious in Rutherford's arms and we stopped and let out a sigh of relief as Rutherford let him slowly down to the ground.

"That went nice and smoothly," Vokin said.

"Speak for yourself short stack!" Rutherford replied, beginning to cast some healing spells on himself.

Vokin puffed up at this comment, and I just laughed and rolled my eyes at their antics.

"Who are ye callin' short stack, ye great brick wall? At least being short doesn't come with the brains of a rock!"

"Oh, it's brains you're worried about? I'm sure that your brain just told you to stand there like a scared rabbit and shake like a leaf eh?"

"Ye dare call me a coward?

"Not a coward, just someone willing to let the big guys do all the work. What's the matter? Afraid he was too big for you?"

"Nah, I just felt like if we needed a big sack of meat to do the work, so I may as well let a big sack of meat do it."

Both of them stared at each other with seriousness etched across their faces. Then suddenly smiles cracked on their faces and they began to roar with laughter, clapping each other on the shoulder.

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"Look, we need to figure out where the actual mayor is and see what we can do to help these people in the meantime."

Some people started coming out of the homes nearby now and were staring scared at Aeolith. I had her move behind us and sit up near what I assumed was the Town Hall building. She laid down to try to make herself as unthreatening as possible.

"We mean you no harm. We have come to help. We destroyed the thing that was possessing this man and have set you free. Please let us help you." I said to the people of the town coming out.

One older woman came out of a home and hobbled over to me and looked up at my face. She studied me for a long moment. She reached out, touched my face, pulled me closer to look deep into my eyes, and then smiled up at me. Looking out to the crowd she spoke to them.

"He is no threat to us. It's OK, come out and say hello."

With that, more and more people came out of their huts. They were mostly wearing rags. None of them seemed to be in great shape either. Some were in better shape than others, and they helped the most injured come out to see what was going on. Children clung to their parent's clothes and hid behind their legs and the parents were barely peeking out of the door frame as it was.

"Why do these people look this way? What happened here?" I asked the old woman.

"The man you set free there came to town one day with promises to make us a lot of money. He asked us to invest in his new idea and it seemed great at first. He promised to make us rich, and bring prosperity to our town. But slowly he began to poison the minds of those around here. He took everything. Some began to catch on and we started refusing to give him more. He had some way of compelling people to give him what they had if they refused to do it willingly. Eventually, he killed the last mayor and took over. By that point, he had too many people under his control for us to do anything. They had weapons and were stronger than we were as well. He took everything we had and forced those who wouldn't comply peacefully to do what he wanted with violence or compulsion. We lost good people through the ordeal, men and women who wouldn't take it anymore and died just because they stood up to him. He sold all our goods to merchants or other towns so we had nothing left. We are hungry and broke. We didn't know what to do. Then you came." She smiled up at me again.

"That is terrible. You all should come with me to Jewelston. It's not safe for you out here. We will help you to get back on your feet and find you a place to go. How many people live in this village?"

"Only about fifty people were here, to begin with. Now there can't be more than thirty left. The loss we feel is great. We are not sure how we will go forward."

My heart broke at that statement. There were women and children in this town. They looked starving, wearing nothing but rags and living in huts with dirt floors.

"You cannot stay here. Come with me and we will make sure you are taken care of."

"But this is our home. Many of us were born and raised here. How can we just abandon our homes?"

"If you stay here we cannot protect you from the Shadow Beasts. There are more out there and they will prey on your village because it is not strong enough to defend itself. Come with me for now and once we can rid this area of the Shadow Beasts you can return home. Besides, there isn't any food here right now."

"Those were Shadow Beasts? So it's true then? They really have returned? Have the Dragonriders also returned?"

"For now only I have returned, but I will be enough for the time being. I will fight them for you. I will stand in the gap between the beasts and the people."

"We have heard tales of the Shadow Beasts, passed down from generations passed. But we never thought we would see one here in our village. To think that we would live to see such terrible times."

"We are here for you now, and that is what truly matters. We need to make sure that we can get you to a safe point so that you can come back when the danger passes. Please say you will come with me, there is plenty of food and shelter behind the walls of Jewelston and the mayor will help set you up with what you need to get by. It's only temporary, but there is strength in numbers, and numbers behind the wall will keep you safe."

The old woman looked around at the people gathering. She saw their faces and looked back at me.

"Very well. We will go with you. You did save us after all. We should be able to trust you."

"Excellent! Let's get going on getting everyone ready to move. Since the Shadow Beast sold most of your goods, we should be able to load up and go. Take only what you need to survive for now."

With that, Rutherford, Vokin, Tristan, and I all started helping to get the people packed up with what little belongings they had to travel to the city. We passed out all of the rations we had on us as well to the poor starving people of Admonton. There were a couple of wagons left in the town and we loaded up the elderly and the sick or injured in the wagons and the rest walked beside the wagons. We had to repair wheels on some to make them travel-ready, and we had to replace boards in the bottom of one of them to be able to hold anything at all, but we were able to find some extra wood by taking some doors that were already off the buildings and laying them over the bottom and securing them in place. My background in construction came into play a little bit with the fashioning of these items. We let some of the villagers ride our horses as well, to keep as many off their feet as we could. The trip back was much longer than the trip out, and it was after nightfall when we returned. I had Aeolith fly back to the city first to let them know we were bringing refugees, then she flew back to us to keep watch overhead for danger.

Once we reached the city gates, Commander Harlow rushed out to meet us.

"How many are there?"

"No more than thirty. But they will need food as soon as possible. We handed out all the rations we had, but it definitely wasn't enough to give everyone a full meal. These poor people had nothing left. The beast really did a number on them. Can I do anything to help? Pay for meals or something?"

He called to some of the guardsmen inside to help escort the people to a place of shelter.

"You did the right thing bringing them here. Don't worry about their food, I will have someone see to that. I don't know if we can do that for all the villages, but we can't just leave them out there like this," he said looking over at the poor state of the villagers being escorted inside.

"I know. I had to get them here. We will see what else is out there in the morning. It has been a long day."

We walked back up the main road in town to the Dragon's Nest. Patsy, of course, had accepted our request to be housed in the Dragon's Nest while we helped deal with the Shadow Beasts. We offered to pay her, and in her usual fashion, she turned us down saying we needed to focus on the fighting.

"Come on Patsy, we need to pay you for the room we are keeping from you. It's taking away your business from actual paying customers."

"I won't hear of it lad. Ye did a favor to this town and we still owe ye. And yer out there helpin' the poor surrounding villages as well."

"Patsy, really, you are going to make me feel awful about not being able to pay for the room."

"Well, that's just too bad, yer gonna have to feel bad for a while then."

"How about this? We still pay for the room, you take the money that would have been your profits and you give it to whatever relief fund there is to take care of the refugees coming in. I know there will be more when we head out again to the next town."

"Why not just go out and give them the money yerself and keep me out of it?"

"Because I don't know where to give the money to make sure it does the most good. And I would still feel bad about taking away your business. This way you don't have to keep our money, I get to feel like I'm paying for my room to make me feel better, and the refugees are getting money to pay for their food so that they aren't just draining the Jewelston coffers. It's a win, win, win situation."

She paused for a moment, mulling it over.

"Alright, fine. Give me the money for the room and I will make sure it gets put to good use."

"Thank you, Patsy. I really wouldn't know where to send the money to help them and there are a lot of them. You should be able to put this money to use helping them. I'll call it my payment, and that will make me feel better. Also, you can feel better about knowing we are helping the refugees and that's what is most important right now. You should have seen them, Patsy. My heart broke over and over today for them."

She looked down at the money for a moment and nodded.

"Alright, lads. I'll do that for ye. Yer such good souls. Bless ye for what yer doin' to help those poor people."