Our journey back to Pitchhollow was uneventful and rather therapeutic for all of us. The girls had shucked off their trauma in less than a day. In a world of hardships, another to add to the already long list had less of an effect than it otherwise would. If the worst should have happened, I doubted their transformation would have been quite so swift. Thankfully we had managed to intervene and keep their innocence intact.

I’d talked to Sun about my own misgivings surrounding the fighting and she had assuaged some of my fears. If I couldn’t convince my brain that I was killing pixels, I needed to focus all my attention on finally hardening up my attitude. It was that simple. When Sun’s people had fought the ogres, and then each other, it was for the survival of their tribe. I took that to heart and tried to think of the wider peoples of Kherrash as my family. The efforts I was undertaking with Sun would ensure the survival of the great houses, but also the normal people who didn’t have the luxury of an army at their beck and call. Families. Children. Innocents.

We paused an hour from the garrison to water the horses who had done a phenomenal job dealing with an ever changing riding rota without complaint. Bolt had tried to bite the soldier a couple of times and I’d be lying if I said I attempted to stop the attacks. He’d managed to throw himself aside, the only evidence of the teeth being a torn patch of missing trouser leg.

“I hope we made the right choice,” I said to Sun as we waited by the brook.

“About?”

“About leaving the quest reward until we get back to the garrison.”

“If you’d claimed it in the cave, you would know the orc movements from two days ago. What use is that to us now?”

“Not much I guess.” We’d discussed the reward of uncovering the incoming army movements as soon as I’d completed the task. I assumed it was a one and done type deal rather than a free view of everything they were doing until the end of my time on the world. That would just make it too easy and I knew our observers wanted more from us.

“Do you really think you stand a chance?” asked the prisoner whose name we discovered was Godbert. There was no malice in the words, just a genuine curiosity. His mood was becoming more retrospective as he neared the end of his life.

Rowena, the eldest girl, gave him a kick in the side. “Shut your mouth! You don’t deserve to talk to Mark.”

“It’s ok,” I said, gently easing her away. Inga and Maewynn were content to throw evil looks his way. “And to your question, I don’t really have a choice. I’ll do what I can to help.”

His eyes glazed as he recalled the battlefield that broke him. “We thought we would send those green bastards back into the depths for another generation. The sky rained with fire! What chance did we stand against their monsters and machines?”

“As much as I’ll have when I face them, but you don’t see me resorting to treachery and rape, you prick!” I booted him in the other kidney. “How many families did you get killed? And for what? For Gutrender to kill you last?”

Godbert writhed on the ground. “He promised us our families would live,” he coughed out.

“And you believed him? Dickhead! People like that… sorry, things like that never let people like you live. You’d betrayed your own to save your skin. How could they ever trust you to not do the same to them?”

After a long, forlorn groan, he replied, “They couldn’t.”

“Good. Now shut up or I’ll let the girls loose with their knives. You can sing like a canary when you’re locked in the dungeon, but until then I don’t want to hear another word.”

“You’re hardening,” said Sun as I sat next to her at the fire.

My scowl vanished as I choked out a laugh. “You’ve got to stop saying it like that. Just say… I’m getting tougher.”

“As you wish. You’re getting tougher. A few days ago you’d have been kinder to our captive.”

“It’s hard to think of him as a man considering what he’s done. The orcs from our… books. Our history. They can’t help what they are. They’re bred for war and mayhem. It’s like asking a bird not to fly.”

“Some birds don’t fly,” Sun replied.

“I know that. I was talking in general. Most birds fly.”

“I think I understand. The ogres are much the same. If they aren’t waging war with other races, they wage war against each other. Only their complete subjugation stopped their attacks. And even then Daulf had to turn them loose on the humans.”

I tapped a finger to my temple. “It’s hard wired into their brains. The only humane thing to do is what we do when an animal becomes rabid.”

“Rabid?”

“It’s a disease in my world. It attacks the brain via the nervous system. As its brain dies, the animal starts to froth at the mouth and attack anything around it. A bite to a human is often fatal because we can’t cure it.”

“So your wolf, Honey, she would attack you if she caught this… rabies?”

“She wouldn’t even recognise me. I’d be dinner, or whatever it is they think they see when they start to bite things.”

“That sounds quite awful. I’m glad we don’t have it here.”

“With all your wolves and wargs in close contact, it would devastate their numbers.”

“If they weren’t already gone,” she replied, sadly.

“Sorry, Sun. I wasn’t thinking.”

She stood up and made for the horses. “Stop saying sorry. You’re a warrior now. It’s beneath you.”

“I can still apologise. I’m not a complete arsehole!”

Godbert grunted and earned another boot from Rowena.

“Thank you,” I said and the girl blushed. “Is everyone ready for the last few miles?”

Surprisingly enough, the only one to not be overly eager to finish the journey was the condemned soldier. Still, I dragged him to his feet and pushed him onward. Myself and Sun let the girls take the horses while we watched our captive and the forest around us. I wasn’t sure if it was the knowledge of our previous observer, but I managed to pick out the covert movements of the scout on our tail this time. They were damned good, keeping to the darkest shadows while making no sound. Their efforts would be vital for the coming siege once I’d pinpointed the orc camps. I’d seen the movies. I’d read the books. The hardy defenders repelling wave after wave of enemy, sapping at their will to continue the fight as the bodies of their fallen littered the ground beneath the walls. Only time would tell whether the greenskins would break as they had in Peacehaven. When they had their masters at their backs, guiding the attacks, it would be a different story.

Leaving the winding trail, my old friend was waiting with a welcoming party. “Finneus! I would say it was good to see you, but after last time…?”

His steely gaze had softened slightly since we last met. “It seems you met with some success. The marshal is eager to talk to you.”

“And I’m eager to talk to him, but before that I want to make sure my friends and horses are well taken care of. I need to find lodgings for the girls.”

“I think you’ll find their families have already found suitable accommodation,” Finneus replied, motioning behind him with a rare, awkward smile that looked utterly out of place.

A gaggle of people were running across the open plain, their shouts of joy barely audible at this distance. Rowena caught sight of someone and her eyes widened in shock a second before tears burst forth. “Mother!” she cried. Jumping down from Bolt, she kissed the horse, planted a big smacker on my cheek, and then raced off through the cavalry. Inga and Maewynn followed, calling out names I’d never heard. At that moment, all the pain and all the horror I’d endured to get there paled against the warm glow that filled my heart.

“The garrison is abuzz with tales of the rescue,” explained Finneus. “You’re being feted as heroes.”

“Hardly,” I scoffed, shifting position to see the girls fly into the arms of their loved ones.

“Shall we get your horses stabled?” asked Finneus. “The marshal is not known for his patience.”

“I’ll get to the marshal when I’m good and ready, thank you. Sun, would you like an ale to wash away the dust of the road?” I didn’t know where that line came from, but I swore it was spoken in a film.

The commander huffed with exasperation. “Do you have no respect?”

“This isn’t my land. I don’t dance to the tune of anyone, not even your marshal.” I turned back to Sun once the point had sunk in. “Ale?”

“Can we have one after we’ve talked to the marshal?” she asked apologetically.

Her debt to the man was not my own, but I agreed to keep the peace. Finneus didn’t gloat, which was lucky or I’d have spent the next fifty years avoiding the meeting out of sheer bloody-mindedness. “What do you want to do with our reluctant guest?”

Accompanying the group of reunited family were a half dozen figures who bore no tear streaked cheeks. Their eyes were filled with murder. I recognised Scab, Sun’s second in command from the dungeon.

“These fine gentlemen will begin the questioning,” said Finneus, glaring at the prisoner. “They’re going to take you apart, piece by piece.”

“Nothing happens to him without my say so,” I interjected. “Torture is such a load of crap.”

“You dare countermand the marshal’s orders?” Finneus growled.

I climbed aboard Bolt and turned to him. “This is going to get really old if you keep questioning my orders. He’s my prisoner, kept in your cells at my pleasure. I’ll question him, do you understand? I can get a hundred times more from him than what you can extract with pliers and pokers.” I had no idea if that was the case but I was damned if I was going to let them torture the man. Execute, fine, but the rest was bullshit and these medieval morons needed to know it.

Finneus was once again stumped. He knew that I had achieved what a small army couldn’t. Not only that but I’d come back with nary a scratch to show for assaulting a group of twenty trained soldiers. When he realised I had him in checkmate, he huffed, “I’ll give your request to the marshal.”

“I’ll do it myself,” I replied. “Until then, he remains untouched.”

The commander whipped his horse something fierce in annoyance. It whinnied in pain and started to gallop away. That was until I put the horse in my backpack and the furious soldier squawked in terror. Gravity did what it always did and returned my antagonist to the mud. The speed he had already reached propelled him forward in a tangled heap. As quickly as I’d taken his steed I returned it to the world where it ran on for a short time before slowing to a trot. It looked around, wondering where its cruel passenger had gone. If Finneus’s men or the prison guards had seen what I’d done, they weren’t saying anything. Their eyes had mostly been on me when I’d pulled the trick as far as I could tell. Godbert peered up at me with fear in his eyes. He’d seen.

I held a finger to my lips and shushed him. “I’ll be with you soon enough. Be ready to talk or I will let them loose on you, do you understand?”

“Ye… yes,” he mumbled.

The other cavalry soldiers had finally seen their fallen commander and rushed to his aid. Finneus was swaying on his feet, eyes rolling from the impact of the landing. A concussion was a small price to pay for his petulant brutality. A broken spine would’ve been better. I trotted past leisurely. “Looks like your horse didn’t like your attitude,” I said as I passed. “Or your whip!” I shouted over my shoulder.

“Is there anything you won’t try and save?” Sun asked as she pulled alongside me.

“Spiders,” I replied.

“You’d better not let Spidey hear you say that,” she warned.

We headed for the gatehouse, and a hero’s welcome.