The dirt road to the stable a bit far from the center of Coppercamp has only three people. The wind blows the wild flowers and overgrown grass and makes a hissing sound. None of the three breaks the silence, Fren is likely shocked that she decided to appear, Gregory is shocked by this turn of events but no doubt for a different reason. Gregory holds his book of prayers firmly in his hand and takes a small step back, the red eyed girl might be a fiend.

Fren’s reaction is entirely different, he smiles and takes a step forward, almost reaching his hand to her, but the red eyed girl finds this disturbing. She isn’t used to people acting friendly with her, in her mind the priest is completely normal and his adventurer friend is a lunatic. Before he acts friendlier she clarifies her intentions. “Don’t come near me!”

Fren takes his hand back but the kindness of his face is still ever evident of good intentions.

“I’m not here to say ‘hello’ I’m angry.” She remarks.

“We didn’t do anything to you. Leave us alone.” Gregory asks, his voice stronger and clearer than usual and he enunciates his words. As if talking to a savage with little understanding of basic common language.

“Wait, what is your name?” Fren has the opposite approach.

“Shut up! Both of you idiots! Why did you attack the bandits?!”

“Why did we-? We helped the innkeeper and his wife.” Gregory is surprised at the question, is she defending her bandit friends? Didn’t she fight them yesterday?

“Are you stupid?” She yells, Gregory can’t stand much more of this without shouting back ‘you’re stupid’ but he decides to listen for now. “Do you understand what you’ve done?”

“We saved the innkeepers life, stupid, what do you care anyway?” Gregory really couldn’t keep calm about it.

“We had to, he was about to kill them, he had a knife.” Fren explains their actions, in a mature way.

“Yeah, well…” The red eyed archer stutters and holds her eye patch. “Well… you don’t know what you’ve done!” Her tone is less certain of justified rage now. “You-you-”

“We helped people!”

“You made them angry!” She finds her resolution again and lashes out at Gregory, it's easier to argue with him. “You made the bandits angry, they were looking for a reason to attack and you just gave them one.”

“Attack? What do you mean?”

“They decided to attack the village, they’ll send a whole bunch of bandits.”

“How do you know that?” Fren asks, the red eyed archer is ashamed to answer how, instead she focuses on what the other two did wrong.

“Th-That doesn’t matter, they will, and it’s because you acted like ‘heros’ and made the thing worse!”

“Didn’t you say they we’re looking for a reason to attack?” Gregory silences her. “It would have happened anyway.” without noticing he changed his stature from battle ready to that of a debating man, a skill sometimes needed within the church.

“I just- You… you guys are stupid!” she has nothing left to say, she came here to scold them and tell them to never come back, but now that she reviews the situation she finds she doesn't have much to say. Why did she even come to tell them all this?

“We can stay and help the village.” Fren turns to Gregory.

“Yeah, of course we will.” Gregory agrees with Fren and returns to rile the girl “What side are you gonna be on, stupid?”

“Will you join us?”

“You guys just- Just! GO AWAY!” She screams and runs away hiding her face. Why did she even come here? What did she gain from this? Protect the village? Help the people? What a joke, she can’t help anyone, all she does is ruin everything. The village doesn’t need her, no one does.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“What now? Follow her?” Gregory asks, he knows Fren wanted to speak with her.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. We need to go back and warn the villagers.”

“What was that rude guard’s name? Carola?”

They track back to the center of town and find the place slightly livelier than the day before, there are actually some people outside who greet them hello and say good day, that have a slight pep in their walk. It’s the fact that the toll takers didn’t come by today, some people naively think they won’t come by for another week. There are a few guards with some happy faces, not Carola's, he's as grumpy as he was yesterday.

Fren and Gregory see the guards at the barracks yard from a far, the barracks is a sturdy wooden structure with big doors that are always open and have guards walk about the area. The top of the barracks has two flags, one is a light orange hue with two yellow spears crossed, the other one is blue and has a white griffon on it. The perimeter is plentiful with armored men, most of them middle aged with some proper medium armor such as shin guards and chain shirts, and the staple spears that all Coppercamp guards hold. Some veterans discuss the winding roads they took on their patrols and the places they will visit on their next shifts, all with a smile thinking that peace around the village is secured.

The happy guards greet Fren and Gregory as they walk by to meet Carola just outside the barrack doors while he's talking to a few other guards about their patrol, at first glance it looks more like a scolding to his troops, his blonde handlebar mustache twitching while giving out orders with a half frowning face. When Carola notices Fren and Gregory he recognizes them immediately, from yesterday and from some gossip.

“You there! Priest and adventurer… there was another one with you, wasn’t there? You aren’t up to any trouble, are you?” He shouts at them, he doesn’t mean harm, he’s just used to shouting around the barracks.

“Another? Oh Klem, yeah, nevermind that w-” Gregory doesn’t finish explaining himself before.

“What are you guys doing here? Bandits normally come by today to threaten the folk around here, they treat strangers even worse, better be on your way!.” His voice is much too loud for speaking face to face, even outside where there are plenty of people talking about guard stuff.

“Yeah, we know, we dealt with them this morning. We came here t-” He interrupts Fren too.

“We know all about your heroics and all that, it's spread throughout town already. Why are you still here? Just came to tell us that and gloat?” Everything he says always sounds angry and confrontational, but deep down he doesn’t have bad intentions. He does feel disappointed that these two previously unknown travelers dealt with the bandits that the guards couldn’t get to leave even if they threatened them with spears.

“Carola, stop, we need to talk to you about the bandits!”

“We think they’ll attack the village.”

Fren and Gregory finally get what they tried telling him to exit out of their mouths, Carola ruffles his handlebar mustache for a sharp moment. “And who told you that?”

Gregory thinks for a moment, if he tells him that the red eyed girl told them this he might not believe them, or flat out decide they are cooperating with a fiend. Fren on the other hand has no such reservations and immediately answers the question. “The red eyed girl.”

“The red eyed girl?” Carola laughs for a moment before remembering he’s a grumpy old man “You found her? And you even believe what she has to say? That’s insane.”

“Carola! Captain Carola! Call the Captain quick!” a voice of a guard comes from the end of the alley calling for the guard captain urgently. “Captain! Captain, come quick!” A young guard is running with something in his hand, something red. When he finally reaches the Captain he struggles with his breath.

“Ca…tan… Ca…rola…”

“Get it together, boy, what do you want? What is that?” Carola takes the red thing from the young guard's hand, it’s a pigeon. Not a red pigeon but a dead pigeon died in red with blood. “Daminan’s signature, disgusting!”

“It came wi…hhh… with this letter, sir” The young guard hands the letter to Carola, only partially stained red.

Carola reads it carefully and meticulously, or at least it looks like he does, in fact he is shocked. There are three words written on the letter ‘This is WAR’. Carola turns to Fren and Gregory again and uncontrollably shouts the same way he shouts at rookies when he’s angry. “WHAT ARE YOU GUYS HERE FOR, THEN?!”.

Gregory understands quickly what occurred, it was no doubt the bandit’s declaring war on the village. “We’re here to help out.”

“Help out? Don’t you think you’ve done enough?”

They both understand what Carola thinks, it must be because of their interference with the bandits toll collecting that led to this.

“Never mind that!" He starts moving to the center of the barracks yard and gradually raises his voice. "We need to warn everyone on the town's border, we need to make barricades, a front outpost too, we need supplies and we need them now.” He then shifts gears and his voice becomes as strong as thunder, Fren and Gregory cover their ears. “THIS IS INVOLVING EVERYONE. A WAR WITH THE DAMIANS WILL BEGIN SOON, WE NEED TO BARRICADE THE VILLAGE AND BUILD AN OUTPOST ON THE NORTH AND WEST SIDES! WE NEED SUPPLIES AND MEN, EVERY LAST MAN WILL BE A HELP. THESE TWO ADVENTURERS WILL BE HELPING US TOO. FOR COPPERCAMP, FOR THE AETHER EMPIRE!”

Carola then turns around and walks inside the barracks, he doesn’t thank Fren or Gregory or even asks them to join, he just let them know in that speech. It’s his way to show kindness, to trust them. Besides, he knows he’ll need every last able bodied person.