The horses that Rudicus acquired for us were of a good stock, all in all they were well trained and proved in no way a problem. While we rode away from the city of Scintallia neither Rudicus nor I exchanged words, he would obviously tell me information when he felt it was needed. Personally I had no interest in talking to him at all, if he was worth respecting I'd learn that soon enough during the course of our mission.

Mission. The thought of having to do something like that aggravated me, I hoped that it wasn't going to be some years long horrid affair that left me wandering from city to city punching the helpless. The Legion normally don't do such horrid tactics, but given that the legionnaires defended cities like Vicna my opinion in them had waned a little.

Not that I was about to go back and tell Sciroco no, the man had trained me most of my youth and was the main culprit for my combat proficiency. While my father found me to be a horrid waste of space it was Sciroco who thought I had great potential, and often commented that I would one day be the equal of my mother.

The advantage to riding horses over using a carriage should be obvious to anyone who understands the basics of both, the horses move fast while the carriage is slow. Given that the driver also took his time so as not to disturb my mother the overall trip to our home was far larger than what the return would be.

Sadly we were not destined to head back to the orphanage, I had already grown to miss the constant sound of children playing and Skara's crazed laughter. Even the oft distant presence of Taryn was something that left a slight ache, although thankfully I was free from Alise and her wretched smacking of my head.

In comparison it was like the blink of an eye when we arrived at the camp which Rudicus had left his men at, a small little encampment that consisted of rudimentary tenting materials and a cheap looking campfire. The campfire had a few sticks near it, plus one that went over the fire and what was possibly the poorest looking metal tin hanging from it. It was standard legionnaire equipment, and it made me smile a little in remembrance of the harsh training.

When our horses loudly clopped up to the camp two of the soldiers present had already pulled out bows and notched arrows against their bowstrings. Rudicus lifted up one arm, open palm facing toward the soldiers in a sign that he meant no harm. A call came from the group, and then the five soldiers all fell into place while Rudicus and I finished closing the gap and dismounted.

"Jesson, take the horses and water them," Rudicus demanded of one of the soldiers while he stepped over to investigate the other four. I followed him, not exactly sure what I should be doing.

Jesson was a young looking man with black hair, blue eyes. His overall body was average, he wore the regular legionnaire armor and had a single sword belted to his waist. He had been one of the archers who had pointed their arrows at us, and looked a bit ashamed when he discarded his bow and arrow to follow through with Rudicus' command.

While he walked by I held onto the white sunhat on my head, while smiling pleasantly toward the soldiers gathered. Rudicus had no need for a smile as he stepped up and cleared his throat, which made every single soldier snap to and salute him. At a glance every single one of them looked to be a positive representation of the Legion, and I nodded my head absently at how this might turn out to be a fine venture.

Rudicus began to introduce each of them, with simply a name and an overall job referred to each. The cook and medic was an old looking man who was a bit more portly than one might anticipate from a military force. Alex had a large axe strapped at his waist instead of a sword, while he scowled at me as though unhappy with my presence.

The scout of our party was a thin young woman who was probably close to my age, she had short cut brown hair along with hazel eyes. Nala, as she was called, had been the other archer who had pointed their weapon in our direction, though she didn't seem disturbed in the slightest at whom she had aimed. Aside from the bow she had a long dagger strapped onto her waist, it seemed she was one who focused primarily on ranged combat.

One of the core warriors who served as vanguard in combat was a tough looking man named Braddicus, a short cut beard grown away from his face. He had a few scars on his face, along with an eye which had a white iris. Out of everyone he was the only armed with a tower shield, along with a long-handled mace which seemed quite capable of braining any ordinary opponent readily.

The fellow vanguard position was left to the tallest woman I had ever had the distinct pleasure of meeting. Her long red hair flowed down almost to her ankles, and she smiled quite often even though there seemed to be no reason for it. On her hands were spiked knuckles rather than regular gauntlets, and she had no weapons belted to her. Her name was Bell, and I doubted she was musically inclined.

Apparently the rearguard was left to Jesson, while Rudicus and I would supply support wherever we felt the need was greatest. "So you only use your fists to fight?" I asked of Bell.

The response from her was to smash her two fists together loudly, before grinning at me. The flash of teeth and the height made me feel a bit afraid of her, though until we had a proper fight I was uncertain of her capability in regard to my own. "Nothing more fun than smashing someones face in with your own fists," Bell told me. Dear god she was the female version of Skara.

"Alright, we'll clean up the camp and start moving out once the horses have enough time to rest, any questions?" Rudicus asked of his soldiers. Jesson had walked back over to join us, picking up his fallen bow and arrow from before.

"So we're taking the princess of the Legion along with us?" Alex growled out, he shifted a bit and glared in my direction as though I had spit on his face or something.

"We are indeed, do you have a problem with that?" Rudicus said as he glared at Alex.

Alex turned his gaze away, though he grumbled a few choice words which may or may not have included comments about my sexual proclivity. The way that Nala stiffened up made me all the more curious about what he had said, and by curious I meant interested in punching him in the face.

The last time I got to punch someone was when I fought with Skara, so it might have clouded my judgement with what I did next. Without waiting for Rudicus to reprimand his soldier I stepped forward and poked a finger at Alex and his distended belly. "If you have a problem maybe you should approach me about it?" I inquired sweetly, although my eyes held nothing but cold steel.

The other legionnaires backed away immediately, while Alex could only splutter out a few words from his pig-like mouth. Rudicus loudly cleared his throat, and then calmly stepped back two big steps from us both. "Don't break anything," he requested of the both of us.

Alex could only chortle at that, while he unslung his axe and gripped it tightly in one hand. He stood there, holding it and watching me for a few moments. "Aren't you going to get a weapon?" he asked, while he looked over my body. There were no visible weapons to be seen, and he was all too assured that I was subsequently unarmed.

My only response to that was to scoff and then lift up a middle finger. Alex did not take that too well, he squealed almost like a pig as he charged toward me with his axe swinging for my head. All the soldiers took a half-step forward while crying out, it was a lethal move and one that was not supposed to be used in personal duels. If anything he should've struck with the blunt side of the axe, rather than the sharpened edge.

While I was not on par with people like Alise, the attack from Alex was almost a laughable assault in regard to my favorite sparring partner Skara. The swing was slow enough that even without unloading all of my power I could still easily duck under the assault, before pushing forward and ramming a fist hard into the massive stomach of Alex.

He coughed out loudly, a bit of moisture fell on me from above, and I winced at the thought I might've broken one of his ribs or burst an internal organ. The legionnaires are a tough sort of folk, especially with the enhanced armor they wear, but a piece of trash is a piece of trash no matter how pretty it looks.

Alex growled though and it relieved me, even as he attempted to drop the handle his axe on my head. My response was to catch the oncoming axe handle, grip it tightly and rip it from his hand. While he could only stare in confusion at how easily I had overpowered him I brought an elbow up at his jaw and sent him reeling backward.

"That's enough!" Rudicus barked out, most likely due to the fact that Alex's lip had busted open and he probably had a bruised jaw. The fat soldier lightly snarled as he looked at me, but he for the most part demonstrated a certain degree of self-control. With a slow salute he stepped forward and offered one hand toward me, as though expecting the axe to be given back.

If I had been in a worse mood I would've broken the axe, but given that we might need him as a meat shield in the near future I chose to toss the axe gently up in the air. He shouted a few swear words of surprise, and then tried to catch his weapon without grabbing the bladed end. While he played his juggling act I had already turned away and started to walk toward the horse Rudicus had acquired for me.

"As I said, we'll take a short rest to let our horses recuperate, and then we'll head out for our target," Rudicus said in a calm voice. He placed one hand on the handle of his sword while he stared at his soldiers. "If anyone has any more issues with the presence of Liliana I am always willing to listen."

The five soldiers for the most part understood, though it seemed that out of them all only Alex had any visible distaste for me. As to why I couldn't quite understand, perhaps he had been one of the many legionnaires I had trained with as a youth and summarily stomped into the ground?

♪ ♫ ♬ ♫ ♪

After my little scuffle with Alex the other four soldiers welcomed me quite nicely, though I spent most of my time talking with Braddicus. He interested me in that he used a tower shield, it was a rarely seen tool amongst the legionnaires.

"Well I was out on patrol with some friends and I noticed during our fights with some bandits that they tended to nick us in our legs and arms a lot," Braddicus told me while we rode next to each other. "After I picked up my fifth scar on my legs I decided I was tired of leaving most of my body unprotected, so I asked the Legion blacksmiths for a larger shield."

"Ohh, they don't like that," I murmured.

"No they don't, god forbid their flawlessly designed equipment not be up to my standards, I thought for a moment they were going to kill me," Braddicus admitted. He chuckled a little, "I managed to get them to take it as a challenge, so they designed the tower shield for me. Since then I've noticed a few more have popped up but mostly only the crazy vanguards tend to utilize them."

"I've tried it out before, a bit too bulky for my build," I told him. "Though a nice thing to hide behind in a pinch."

"That it is, that's why I've pushed for more people to use them but...well, people are stuck in their ways I suppose."

It was the small conversations that made up the nearly three week long trip to our intended area, far to the south-west on the edge of the Empire. During the conversations I learned a few facts about each of the people who I was to work with, save for Alex who still insisted on avoiding me.

However to call any of the information useful would be a far cry from the truth. It showed aspects of their personalities, but that wasn't going to help us when we got attacked by someone. It was unlikely that Nala would encounter any type of mice in the middle of a pitched battle, for instance, and so the conversations only helped to stave off the boredom.

So rather than droning on about what you honestly don't need to know about, since I highly doubt you'd care to know every little detail of the trip, instead I'll focus on our arrival at Oakvale. The forest that surrounded the small little farm village was predominately oak, which wasn't all too shocking given the town name.

The oak trees in turn had been used for most of the lumber for the town, multiple squat little houses that were barely better than the ones I had seen at Fisk were clumped together. An actual wall, that was ten feet tall and three feet thick ran along the perimeter of the town. Nearby the northern gate that lead into Oakvale a lantern hung from a brass hook off of the wooden frame of the gateway, the light still flickered although it looked about ready to go out.

Our entry into the town was without any fanfare, there were no calls of alarm nor even noises that would mean people had locked and boarded up their homes. Instead it was as though nothing existed in Oakvale, it was the quietest place I had seen in a while and made a tingle run down my spine.

"Not exactly a wonderful place, is it?" Braddicus commented from my side. I smiled at him, but refrained from responding since it was obvious.

"Alright!" Rudicus yelled out, perhaps a bit too loud as the birds which had roosted on top of the houses took to the air in shock. "Alex start setting up a camp site, I want it out in the open away from those buildings. Braddicus go door to door, if nobody responds knock the door down. Bell you're with him, make sure nothing happens to him."

Rudicus dismounted from his horse and handed the reins over to an already dismounted Jesson. He lifted up one hand and pointed at me, then pointed at the largest building in the middle of the town. "Liliana and I will help scout the town, we'll take the mayors house first. Nala I want you on guard, Jesson set up the horses somewhere and make sure they're fed. Nobody goes out of line of sight of one another!"

With that everyone started to do their assigned task, Nala hovered inbetween Alex and Jesson while they both went about their duties. The near giant Bell, with a loud laugh, walked alongside the shorter Braddicus and started to talk to him about anything and everything. Rudicus looked to me, then nodded his head toward the large building once more.

We approached it slowly, the exterior of the building looked to be in flawless condition. When we reached the door Rudicus knocked loudly and yelled in greeting, then when nobody responded he shouldered the door open with enough force to knock the door off of the hinges.

He grimaced at that, probably since he hadn't intended to use that much force, and then stepped inside. "Liliana," he called out to me, and I stepped inside after him. "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

"Probably," I responded, and shivered in fright.

We went around the town and continued to check each building, and yet in each building we kept finding the same conditions. There were no cries for help nor screams of horror from the other members of our group, and so after a short while of searching we reconvened over near the gates, outside of the circle of wooden buildings.

"It's creepy as hell," Braddicus complained as he slumped down onto the ground. Alex had already started to serve out some stew for all of us in wooden bowls, and Braddicus had been the first to acquire his bowl. "Never seen anything like it before."

"None of us have," Rudicus told him. Then he sighed and looked up at the sky, at the clouds overhead and the hastily descending sun. "The Legion knew something was weird when three towns went quiet but..."

We could only sit there and eat our stew, as we thought on our discovery. Every single house, every single part of the town all said the same thing. Nothing had gone wrong, everyone had been fine and everything had progressed along at a good pace. There were no signs of conflict, no signs of death, nothing at all to mark a problem.

The half-eaten meals, the books left opened on tables, no weapons in any of the homes had been picked up and moved. We had found no signs of blood, nothing at all to help figure out what had happened.

"A ghost town," Nala murmured, as she stared at the wooden structures with fear. Fear of the unknown, something that could at any point take us all.

While we finished our stew a potential clue came upon us, though without any of us wanting it to happen. A loud scream from the forest nearby, almost a roaring noise that caused all of us to jump. Our hands all started to move toward our weapons, while we stood up and cast looks in the direction the noise had come from.

"What the hell," was all Braddicus managed to say before a dark shadow nearly the size of a house fell on him.