A yawn stretched my mouth near the point of breaking as I stretched away the sleepiness that sought to overtake me. Once fully awake, I quickly untied myself and hopped down, landing on the grass below. After going about my brief daily routine, mainly just some exercises and hunting a small critter in my wolf form for breakfast, I started back along the beaten path. From the few sightings of the sun, I safely assumed the road ran north to south like the river, with me route headed toward the north.

It was just an hour of walking before I realized something was happening. As I continued on towards the north, the forest started to thin out more and more. It wasn’t more than five minutes before the forest thinned out completely and I saw the cause for such a phenomena.

In front of me was a massive city wall. The stone walls rose high into the sky, possibly even taller than the nearby forest. On top of the wall, dozens of guards were patrolling, keeping a sharp lookout for anything suspicious. The stonework of the wall itself looked impressive and sturdy, like it might be able to take more than a few hits from a giant monster. Evenly spaced on the wall, a lion’s head was engraved onto the wall. Directly below each of the lion’s heads was a brazier type protrusion sticking out.

I couldn’t help but feel a little bad about my Record reset as I inspected the wall. If I still had my stealth and climbing capabilities, I might have been able to scale the wall and sneak into the city because of the stonework. While it was impressive to look at, each of the engravings were vulnerabilities since they would have made perfect handholds.

I shook my head to clear the unnecessary thoughts of infiltration out. After further inspection, sadly without the actual ability, I noticed something else. The path I had been following just stopped at the edge of the forest. It didn’t continue all of the way to the wall and into a gate like I had hoped. My guess was that the route was some kind of smuggler’s trail and not an actually official one.

Without a proper entrance, I decided to make my way around the wall to find an entrance while staying inside of the edge of the forest. It took most of the day to get all the way around the walls, but I finally reached it. As my eyes locked onto the entrance, I couldn’t help but be extremely aggravated. I had spent most of the day walking around the awe inspiring walls, but if I went left instead of right, I would have reached the entrance at least a few hours earlier.

The entrance was a grand affair, at least, that's what it tried to act as. In reality, it was just a large gate with a dozen guards standing in front of it. The reason it looked like it was trying to be grand was because the gate was gilded with silver and in the middle of the gate was a huge lion’s head. While it did look cool, I guess, the whole thing was ruined for me. Where was the moat? I thought that was castling 101. Obviously whoever built the castle didn’t read Castling 101 since there was no moat. The wall hit the ground and that was it.

I was standing a little ways away from the road leading up to the gate, blocked out of site by the trees which was good since the road itself was full of people walking around. The majority of them were on foot though about a third of the travelers had carriages pulled by various different animals. Near the gate, three lines were set up. One was for people leaving, one looked like it was for normal people, and one was seemingly for VIPs.

I assumed all what they lanes were off of a few facts. The first lane obviously had people leaving, so that was a no brainer. The second one had about half of the people carrying large bundles and wearing beaten clothes, which just screamed ‘poor farmer’ to me. I would say that it was just a peon entrance, but the other half of the people in line made me change my mind. The other half was made up of various well geared adventurers and merchants. Since there was no one of apparent noble standing in the line, I dubbed it as the normal line. The third line, however, did have a single carriage in it. The carriage had a large coat of arms painted onto the side of it, showing off that the owner was some form of noble. Unfortunately, the back of the carriage told me all I would need to know about that particular noble.

Chained to the back of the carriage, a long line of people stood. Chains wove their way through the collars that everyone in line wore, restraining them to the carriage. The slaves were of various assorted races though the majority were elves.

Seeing the pitiful sight ruined my desire to sight see, so I turned away from the view and started to prepare. I put down my new bag and started on my plan to sneak into the city. The first thing I needed was rope, so I pulled out the rope I had been using and cut off two parts with my newly acquired daggers. Tying one of the ropes into a quick knot and making it look like an 8, I tied the looped holes of the 8 around my ears, pulling them together. If I could see myself from an outside perspective, my ears should hopefully appear as a hair bow and nothing else. The disguise wouldn’t hold up to magic and extreme scrutiny, but I had a plan to get around most of the security easily. Next, I looped my tail around the top of my hips, making it look almost like a belt. It was extremely uncomfortable, but my tail was hidden. I then tied the second part of the rope around my tail and waist but above my shirt so that my tail would be locked in. Once the rop was secured, I slid both of the sheathed daggers into position on either side of my hips.

Though it pained me to do it, I pulled off my cloak and started to slice at it with the daggers carelessly. With the cloak slashed up a bit, I put it back on and slashed even more at myself. The cuts weren’t too deep, but a few of them definitely drew blood.

My plan was to look like an innocent young girl that was running away from someone. The cuts were to imitate running through foliage. Afterall, who would believe a runaway girl ran a long way without getting injured even once? The cuts were all part of the plan to make this wolf’s tale more believable. If they took the bait, I would be able to, for lack of a better phrase, sneak into the sheep pen.

Right before I started my plan, I took out the majority of the camping supplies and ease of life items. It would be suspicious if I showed up looking like I had come fully prepared. With my plan fully set up, I started to sprint out of the forest.

As I was sprinting towards the line, I repeatedly glanced over my shoulder, almost as if something was chasing me. I continued like this while slowly angling myself towards one of the armored guards standing near the back of the line. Once close enough, I ran full force into him. I, of course, bounced right off without moving him a single inch. Not even resisting gravity, I fell flat on my rear.

>>>

Tyler was a guard employed to the great city of Serias, the capital city of the Roshan Empire. Although most of his days were boring as a guard, he was very happy to have the job. Ever since he was younger, he dreamed of being an adventurer. Sadly, he took an arrow to the knee on his first day adventuring, so he had to put up his traveler’s boots in favor of a more stationary occupation.

After buckling all of the straps to his armor, a mixture of monster hide and metal plate armor, Tyler stood up and walked out of the barracks. The barracks were the closest building to the main gate, built that way so the guard could be prepared any time. Much like the wall, the barracks was completely made out of stone with lions embedded all over.

Tyler nodded cheerfully a few times to a couple of the guards and civilians he was familiar with as he headed to take his post. Today, he was assigned to be the outermost line patrol, a new position in the city guard occupation. The line patrol didn’t exist until a few days ago. The reason for the new position was because of a fight between two farmers over who’s produce was better. Normally this wouldn’t be too big of a problem and both farmers would shrug each other off before meeting up for a pint at one of the local bars.

It became a problem, however, when one of the farmers missed a punch and smacked a horse that was pulling a noble’s carriage as it walked by. To make matters worse, the coachman in charge was piss drunk and couldn’t control the horse. The horse ran far, far away, causing all sorts of troubles for the noble. Luckily, ‘nobody’ remembered what the offending farmer looked like, or there might have also been an upcoming execution with the new position.

With a deep sigh, Tyler readjusted the spear strapped to his back and walked out of the main -and only- gate of the city. The three lines were as full as usual, filled to the brim with assorted peoples ranging from poor farmers to rich adventurers.

After a short walk to the end of the line, Tyler did some small stretches before getting ready for the long shift. He didn’t mind the long hours though since they gave him something to do.

An hour or so later, Tyler felt a small impact on the back of his armor. Following his training, he quickly turned and prepared his spear, ready to strike down whatever enemy came his way. To his surprise, he turned just in time to see a wounded girl fall to the ground. Some of the people of the line saw the moment, but they couldn’t care less since the situation didn’t involve them.

Quickly bending over, he checked on the little girl’s condition, worry settling deep in his mind. Upon closer examination, he realized that the girl was probably one of the more adorable that he had seen. What made him say that about the little girl was because she had pure white skin that really brought out the vibrant green of her eyes and the desolate black of her hair. What was even more surprising to Tyler was that the girl seemed to only be about eight or nine years old.

Shoving the thoughts about her apparel out of his mind, he continued to check her actual condition and not her aesthetic one. The girl was covered in small wounds and cuts, leaking out crimson blood that stained her clothes around the lacerations. Aside from the wounds she looked fine, but tears were constantly streaming down her face like a waterfall.

Tyler reached down and picked her up. To his shock, as soon as he touched her, she started violently moving around, trying to shake him off. Listening closely, he heard her say, “No… not again… don't hurt me again…” though it was in a quiet voice and every couple words was wracked with sobs.

“Calm down little one, I won’t hurt you,” Tyler tried to calm her down. After a few minutes of calmly talking, he finally succeeded as she stopped struggling in his grasp as much. By the time she stopped, some of the other guards had noticed the commotion and had arrived to see what was going on. Tyler, noticing their approach, motioned them back since he didn’t want to overwhelm the girl.

Trying to figure out what happened, Tyler simply decided to ask her, “What happened to you? Were you attacked? It looks like you were running away from someone or something.”

“Th-they killed my family. My p-parents… they're all dead…” the little girl replied with a stutter over her tears and sobs. The words caused the surrounding guards and some even the people in the line to tense up. The people didn’t know who they were, but one thing was for sure, they were bad news since they could kill off an entire family..

Tyler tactfully paused for a moment as the girl’s tears and sobs grew stronger. He wanted to give her more time, but as was his duty to root out potential problems for the city, he asked, “Who attacked you?”

The girl tried to speak, but her sobs were too strong and frequent. After nearly a minute of just hearing the girl’s sobs, she finally managed to calm down enough to try speaking again, “T-they were... people in armor… they k-killed my family for no reason. Why w-would they...” she couldn’t even finish her question as tears streamed down once more, though thankfully without as many sobs.

Although Tyler wanted to stop interrogating the poor girl and find her a medic or a counselor, his duty compelled him to continue questioning the poor girl, “Did the armored people have anything on them like an insignia or symbol?”

“Y-yes… there was one guy. He had on m-metal armor. I d-didn't see that well, but it looked like s-some scaled creature…”

The rage in the air was thick enough to be cut with a knife as the surrounding observers put two and two together. Shouts like “Those Eratros bastards!” and “Death to the stormclad!” filled the air as guards, farmers, and adventurers alike were ready to throw hands at the perceived slight.

The sobs from the girl started to come back as the shouts filled the air, once again evoked by the loud noises. Tyler wanted to try to comfort her, but within the time that they had been talking, a squad of guards had formed up and were about to set off on an investigation. Seeing their intentions, Tyler attempted to extract more information instead of comfort the girl, “Which way did you come from? And do you have family here?”

The little girl nodded her head, making her bowtie flop around slightly, “I c-came from the south I think… I c-could’ve gotten lost. M-my aunt and uncle live h-here.”

Tyler nodded his head and quickly gave orders out to the surrounding guards. While he may not have been the highest ranked guard, he was respected enough that the other guards listened to his input, “You,” he pointed at a random guard nearby, “Take this girl and pass her through the gate. Once she is through, go and report to Guard Captain Toran about what happened here. The rest of us will head out and attempt to do some scouting around the area. Serias will not fall!” The guard he pointed out quickly hopped to his orders while him and the squad started to move towards the south of the city..

Glancing back, as Tyler watched the little girl follow meekly behind the guard, tripping over nothing occasionally, he felt a little uncomfortable. For the briefest of moments, Tyler could’ve sworn he saw a sharp toothed grin across the girl’s face, but in the next second her face was back to the sobbing mess that first ran into him. Without giving it too much more thought, he dutifully led the group of guards out into the surrounding forest…