The four adventurers decided to leave two days after the Flame Elemental attack, seeing as how the request for the guild wasn’t urgent but not wanting to keep the client waiting. Silvern had gone off to grab a wagon and two of his other pets, saying it would be better than walking. Becky and Carlyle went with him after the giant wolf gave Doran another lick on the face, the pale skinned man groaned as he was hit by the slobbery tongue but didn’t seem all that bothered by it.

Cyrus and Doran, on the other hand, followed Abby to one of the villager’s houses to pick up something for the dark elf as well as get a few other supplies for their trip. The trio walked up to the same house that had blue colored smoke the day they arrived in Roven, when Cyrus looked up at the chimney he saw that the smoke was now an odd purple color. Doran asked who the home belonged to as he wiped his face with his shirt sleeve, he finally managed to wipe off the last of Becky’s slobber before he saw Abby just walk into the home as if she owned it while completely ignoring his question.

“Will, you in here?” The beast woman called out. Doran was afraid William, who was the apparent home owner, would come out swinging a broom in a panic at the sudden entry. But he was almost disappointed when nothing happened and the home was quiet. Cyrus looked around, confused as to what they should do next.

After the three stood in the doorway for a moment, Abby’s face shifted to slight irritation before clearing her throat and called out another name.

“Beth? Are you here?” As if waiting for the call, a little, human girl of about ten years old ran in from another room and to the doorway before hugging Abby’s legs.

“Hi, Miss Abby.” The child beamed up at the white haired woman. “You need my brother?” Abby said she did and if he didn’t come out she’d drag him out by his hair, the woman said this with a playful grin but Cyrus knew she meant it and felt a hint of fear for the nervous man’s safety. The child released her loving hold and ran off to the right, moving to a large door that seemed to be made of sturdier wood than the rest of the house. She made a small grunt as she pushed the door open and let out a few small puffs of purple smoke from the room behind the door before carefully walking in.

Cyrus opened his mouth to make a comment, only to be cut off by the tailed woman.

“I’d go get him myself,” Abby said, expecting the question. “But the last time I went in there I almost blew up the place.” Doran and Cyrus wondered what she could’ve done to cause that but didn’t have time to ask as the small child walked back to Abby while holding her brother’s hand.

The nervous alchemist was now dressed in what looked like a blacksmith’s apron, a pair of goggles, thick gloves, and a strip of cloth that covered his mouth like a mask. In his right hand was a bandanna that Cyrus assumed was previously covering the top of his head, he also noticed how the front of his body was covered in what appeared to be pink soot.

“Oh, hello everyone.” William said politely, his voice was muffled from under his face mask and his vision had to have been blurred by the soot because the man was already trying to take them off. Cyrus and Doran saw that the soot also stained William’s skin as the goggles left clean circles where his eyes were covered, the two wondered if the man was going to be alright with the odd substance on him while Abby acted like this was a normal sight.

The alchemist’s face seemed to grow pinker when he finally got the eye protection off his face and noticed Abby standing in front of him, he began to fidget with his hands as though he was nervous. His voice seemed quieter now too.

“How can I help?”

“You know what I’m here for,” Abby said, taking a step forward which made the man’s face turn more red than pink. He thought for a moment as he grew more panicked before digging into a pocket on his apron. He pulled out two, simple silver bands that looked like bracelets. Both of the accessories had a ruby and sapphire embedded in them and appeared to have been made with a great deal of craftsmanship.

“Here you go, if Silvern can’t get them to fit let me know and I’ll resize them.” William held out the bands for the beast woman to take as he gave the trio a timid smile.

“Thanks, Will.” Abby smiled as she swiped the accessories out of his hand before wrapping one of her arms around his shoulders in a familiar hug. The poor man looked like he was going to turn into a tomato as he shakily told Abby he was happy to help. “Let’s go, you two, Silvern will be waiting.” Abby ordered Cyrus and Doran before walking out the door.

“She knows she’s not my superior, right?” Doran asked Cyrus, his companion shrugged with his usual relaxed grin before following Abby. As they were leaving, Doran turned to see William was still red in the face with his sister asking if he was alright. “Now I see what he meant by he felt bad for the man.” Doran said quietly, giving the alchemist a little prayer for good luck in the future.

Cyrus looked around as they walked to Roven’s entrance and saw several construction workers steadily repairing and rebuilding the village's buildings, he noticed how efficient they were and showed how often they must have received work from the villagers. If he looked off in the distance he saw more workers setting up foundations for a proper barricade that would be surrounding the area. That gold coin Doran gave the church was working out well for the people, apparently they still had seven silver coins left over.

The tanned man smiled as he thought about how much safer the village would be with a real line of defense from threats. As the trio walked through the village, the sister, Rosanne, quickly stepped out of the church and almost ran to meet them. Doran suspected she was watching through the window for them to pass by, he also noticed she was holding her wicker basket.

“Are you heading out, Sir Doran?” She asked the pale faced man. He confirmed her suspicions and thanked her for the hospitality she and the priest had given him, he did mention to drop the ‘sir’ in his name but she merely shook her head and refused. “You deserve that much, especially since you’ve helped Roven so much. Without your donation, we might not have had repairs for a few more weeks.”

Abby noted that he and Cyrus had been pulling their weight around the village, helping with some repairs and some of the village’s busy work. She was honestly surprised someone from the church would be willing to get their hands dirty for others, Doran found the comment odd, he figured everyone knew how Velina’s followers would aid others in need. When he asked what she meant by those words, she merely brushed off her statement and the question with a visibly annoyed look. Before the adventurers continued walking, Rosaine handed Cyrus the small basket which rattled with the sounds of glass bottles.

“This is for your journey,” the sister said while looking down at her feet, she had stopped blushing as bad but clearly had trouble looking at the spear fighter. “I hope they’ll be of use, come back safely. All of you.” Abby smirked and whispered to Doran as they walked away from the church to meet Silvern.

“Rosaine’s the village sweetheart, if your friend isn’t careful and hurts her, every man will be after him.” Doran gave his usual deadpan face before quietly responding.

“Let’s just say, none of you will have to worry about that.” After a few minutes of walking, the trio finally saw the dark elf as he was waiting patiently for his friends. The short man was standing next to one of two horses that were reigned to an open top wagon, Becky and Carlyle were resting next to the transport with Carlyle perched on top of the wolf’s giant head. The back of the wagon had camping supplies with Cyrus and Doran’s bags sitting amongst the pile, there was also some gear for fishing and what looked like a map.

“Hey, Shorty!” Abby called out, getting Silvern’s attention. “Here’s a gift from Wil.” The beast woman tossed the two bangles to him, he easily caught them in his gloved hands. Silvern looked at them happily and asked his horses to lower their heads, using the same doting tone he did on both his bird and wolf.

“Look at this, Joan, Riker, Willaim finished your presents.” Looking at the animals, Cyrus and Doran realized that the horses each had a pair of horns that bent backwards. Silvern slid a bangle onto one of their horns and smiled happily at how they matched before saying they could stand back up. “Now don’t you two look cute with those!” The tamer looked at his pets with pride before Cyrus spoke up.

“You have Bicorn?!” He couldn’t believe what he was seeing, he knew Bicorn were especially fierce creatures and difficult, if not impossible, to tame. Then again, he had learned that Becky was a Dire Wolf and Carlyle was a bird called a Yata-Garasu. He had no idea what the red bird was entirely but knew Dire Wolves would sooner rip out your throat than be passive, Silvern definitely knew what he was doing with these animals.

“I sure do,” the tamer replied with a grin. “Right from the Realm of Storms, and I’m so happy to have them in my life.” The elf hugged his horned horses which nuzzled him happily in response.

“So, are we ready to go?” Abby asked as she tossed her shield in the back of the wagon, showing how eager she was to get going. Doan and Cyrus hopped in the wagon as Silvern took the driver’s seat and picked up the reins. As the spear fighter rested the wicker basket alongside their other supplies, Abby lied down in her bench-like seat as she waited for the wagon to start moving. Silvern gave the reins a good snap and they were quickly off on the road with Becky easily following the wagon and Carlyle now perched on the seat next to his master.

Back at the city of Heimdallr, the well dressed man known as Sir Auren sat at a desk in a well kept office and looked over several papers that listed off murder victims, damage reports, and the theft of a weapons storehouse where three items had gone missing. The man ran his fingers through his short, greying hair as a knight walked into the room, the knight said that there had been another incident.

“What happened this time?” Sir Auren asked, concern in his voice.

“Another beast came from The Evergreen Forest and attacked a civilian, we were able to slay it but the person who was attacked has suffered some injuries.” The knight reported the incident while avoiding eye contact, he clearly felt some shame in what was happening. The moustached man saw the negative disposition the young man was in and he couldn’t stand it.

The knight flinched when he heard Sir Auren push his seat back and stand up, he heard the man’s footsteps as he walked on the stone floor and he closed his eyes out of fear for what his commanding officer would do. But was surprised to only feel Auren’s hand resting on one of his shoulders, the knight opened his eyes and saw that the older man’s face was one of sympathy.

“No need to feel shame, young man. We’re all doing our utmost best to defend the people of Heimdallr, you need to keep your head high. If you lose faith in your abilities, then the people won’t have faith in us.” The aging man’s words rang with sincarity and gave the knight some drive to keep up whatever he could. The knight stood straight and his face gained some confidence before replying.

“Sir!” He nodded in understanding.

“Is there anything else you need to report?”

“We’ve just received word from the Blue Star Guild. A small group should have left their base by now and will be meeting Sir Collin in the town of Moran.” Sir Auren was pleased to hear about their requested support coming, but was confused as to who they were meeting. When asked who Collin was, the armored man replied by saying he was a knight that had been dispatched by the king to help the guild members and was on his way to the city. Apparently they would reach Moran around the same time and would use this as a meeting point.

“I thought Lord Valden was sending Sir Fredrick?” Auren responded, clearly baffled. Sir Fredrick was one of the king's personal knights and a man Auren had fought side by side with before, a man more than worthy of the current task. Who was this knight coming in his place?

“I’m not sure about the specifics,” the knight replied, just as confused as Auren. “But I assume there’s a good reason why the king made his decision.” Auren stood in silence for a moment before ordering the knight to return to his duty, the knight quickly left the room and Auren looked back at the papers on his desk.

Despite the recent curfew being enforced, there were still murders happening but now the victims were mostly his knights who were patrolling the streets at night. In the two days since the discovery of three bodies in a courtyard there had been another four murders. The knights of Heimdallr weren’t weak in the slightest, considering the dangerous forest that bordered the city, they had to be able to defend themselves. Even so, the knights that had been defeated seemed to have been cut down with little to no effort. Just what was going on here?

All Sir Auren could do was come to the conclusion that the bandits in the forest, the robbery of the weapons depot, and the murders had to be connected. He just didn’t know how, hopefully the Blue Stars would deal with the bandits and Sir Auren and his knights could focus on the strife in the city. He remembered how the king himself had commented that the Blue Stars were some of the best adventurers he’d ever had the pleasure of working with, this thought made Auren smile.

“Some of the best, are they?” Auren said aloud to himself. “I’ve never heard of the Blue Star Guild, but if the head of the Guild Association and Lord Valden vouch for them, they must be some kind of amazing group…”

Abby rested her hand on a tree as she threw up her breakfast in a bush, Silvern let out an irritated sigh as he let his Bicorn chew on some grass and waited for Abby to finish. Cyrus and Doran looked at the beast woman in wonder, they were only an hour into the ride when it happened.

Abby suddenly gained a complexion and demanded Silvern to pull over, she didn’t even wait for the wagon to come to a complete stop before running to her bush for the sudden regurgitation.

“I told you to take the herbs! I’m sure Rosaine packed some.” Silvern shouted at the retching woman. Abby didn’t respond right away, having to take a few deep breaths before speaking.

“I fucking forgot, alright?!” Abby managed to say, ignoring her stomach pains and leaning against the orange leafed tree.

“This happen a lot?” Cyrus asked, visibly concerned for the white haired woman. Silvern said she got motion sick easily so she often had to take some special medicine the church makes. “I can understand that, I knew someone who would get like this when on a boat.”

Cyrus dug through the bottle filled basket, a few were labeled: ‘Abby, travel medicine’. He laughed and pulled out a bottle to pass to the green faced Abby, Doran got the spear fighter’s attention before he could take the medicine to the beast woman. He and Silvern were looking ahead, quickly noticing they were about to have some trouble. Doran pointed to a group of bandits slowly coming out of the surrounding woods, all armed and dressed in poor quality armor. Abby was still hunched over her bush and seemed to ignore the crowd and Silvern looked more bored than anything else.

“Well then… what do we have here?” The largest bandit said, he was dressed in rusted armor and carried a chipped sword but looked fairly strong. Stronger than the rest of his group at least. “Here I was, taking the boy’s to a little village that apparently has enough cash to hire a good batch of carpenters and I see a little group of travelers. Silvern looked to the woods to the right without turning his head, he knew Becky was there and waiting. “Why don’t you hand over whatever you got along with the woman, and we’ll let you go?”

“You really want her?” Silvern called out in confusion. “She’s been vomiting for the last five minutes. She’s barely a woman, more like a muscular bear. And don’t you know that a beast woman’s womanhood is filled with teeth?” Abby adjusted herself against her tree and told Silvern to fuck off with that second comment. Cyrus and Doran were surprised how eager Silvern was to taunt the bandits, he must have been making up for his sickly friend. A slender beast man in the bandits said that the bit with the teeth filled womanhood was a lie, only to be hit by the large bandit.

“I know that, you idjit!” The strong bandit looked back to the four adventurers after yelling at his follower. “So about that offer I ma-” The man was cut off, Silvern gave a sharp whistle just before Becky leapt out of the trees at blinding speeds before sinking her teeth into the bandit’s throat.

Her maw was so large in comparison that the man’s head was completely overtaken by Becky’s razor sharp teeth and his body hung limp from her mouth. Another bandit cried out for his boss, the voice came from above Abby and she glanced up to see a slender bandit was hiding up there. The thin man dropped from his tree branch with a dagger pointed down at her, aiming to injure her and take her hostage as she looks back to her friends.

Abby effortlessly shot her hand up as she watched what was happening in front of her and grasped the man’s head, within the same moment she slammed the man into the ground. His knife barely scratched her cheek from the maneuver and she honestly felt more bad for the guy who was now lying in a puddle of vomit. The white haired woman pulled her hand away and saw that her attacker wasn’t moving as he lay on his back, it was hard to say if he was dead or just out cold. The others in the group quickly rush in with panicked eyes, Cyrus quickly grabs his spear before he, Doran, and Silvern take action.

Cyrus lepted from the cart and gave three quick but powerful thrusts to three separate bandit’s chests, the blunt wrap on his pole arm made the men feel as though their ribs were cracking and felt their bodies get pushed back. Within that same instance, Cyrus gave a strong swing, the strike knocked into the heads of each bandit before they fell to the ground out cold.

Doran had followed Cyrus’ lead and charged at two other bandits. He used his short sword to smoothly slice into the hands and arms of the bandits causing them to drop their weapons and fall in pain, one tried to get behind him but was met with a fierce elbow to his throat. That particular thug fell to the ground holding his collapsed throat in pain and struggling for air that would never come again.

Silvern used his whip to lash at the remaining bandits, their poor armor left many open spots for his strikes to hit open skin. If a bandit didn’t fall unconscious their body part went horribly limp, any who tried to run were met with Becky who still had their leader’s bloody corpse in her jaws. Carlyle was still waiting for a commande from his master, but was certain he wouldn’t be needed in this fight.

The beastman bandit looked behind the wagon and hoped the small group his boss had positioned was at least overwhelming the woman, only to see the white haired beast woman had managed to defeat the five men that had tried to surprise her. Abby gave a fierce smile at the man and invited him to a real fight, even through her green complexion she was intimidating. The men at her feet were clearly dead and the beastman decided he didn’t wish for him or the rest of his group to join them. On his command, the bandits surrendered and left Abby with a look of disappointment.

“Really?” She groaned as the conscious men sat down. “You couldn’t even get a single hit on a sick woman?” The bandits begged for their lives to which Doran said they should lead them to the authorities. Silvern mentioned that there was an outpost not too far from their current location and said they’d drop by.

“Alright, listen here,” Silvern said loud enough for all the bandits to hear. “We’re going to take you to a knight outpost and you’ll be taken into custody, if you try to run or do anything stupid,” Silvern pointed at his wolf. “Becky will use you as her new chew toy, understood? Good, pick up your out cold friends and get walking.” The surviving bandits awkwardly picked up their friends and walked in front of the now slow moving wagon, Becky walked next to them still carrying the dead boss as though it was a trophy.

Abby, Cyrus, and Doran all sat in the back, leaving the dead bodies Abby and Doran caused on the road, deciding to bring it up to the knights. Namely because there wasn't that much room for six bodies in their wagon.

“Well, I feel better.” Abby said cheerfully after drinking her medicine. “Nothing quite like a warm up fight.”

“Glad you feel better, it’s still hot out here.” Doran chimed in, Cyrus laughed a little as Silvern fought back a slight shiver.

“Well, we haven’t even gotten to the city yet and we already landed into trouble.” Cyrus sighed. “Oh well, could’ve been worse.” Abby looked at the two men beside her, despite it being a simple threat they showed enough skill to handle themselves. And here she was worried that defeating the elemental a few days ago was just luck, she smiled and leaned back against the seat.

Silvern on the other hand simply wondered how those two were easily overtaken in a bar, he wrote it off as them holding back since they were going against normal civilians.

The bandits all talked quietly amongst themselves, mentioning how unlucky they were to have been caught after getting away from their last situation.

“I don’t know about that,” the beastman bandit said as he fought to keep his paralyzed arm up. “Anything is better than being around Garren, that man is insane.” The bandit had the image of a man imprinted in his mind, the man had well groomed hair, loose clothes, and an odd looking sword. “Why a man like that is having people like us go into The Evergreen Forest is a mystery I don’t want to solve. We barely got away from him, I’ll gladly take a cell over a sure death by him.”