The town that lay before the forces of Red Mountain was ablaze. In the streets, militia fought desperately in a futile attempt to hold off the knights that had come to bring ‘justice’ to the rebels and their associates. Nora looked down from the hill and issued commands to the troops with her. The orders were simple and straightforward; advance and destroy or rout the knights, save as many civilians as possible and, after those objectives had been completed, attempt to put out the fires.

Each formation advanced on its own, the individual groups having their own command structure and being not only allowed but encouraged to take initiative and cooperate with each other. With the aid of an enchanted earing, each person in the group could communicate with each other non-verbally. Add in the hand gestures they could make, and you had a martial force that effectively had built-in medium range wireless communications for each member and could silently advance on enemy positions to take them by surprise.

So, as each group of Red Mountain Bandits advanced, they did so silently save for the sounds of their apparel and footsteps. As this town had no walls to defend it (having been wholly reliant on the Trelawney Kingdom’s soldiers for defense up until that point) the Red Mountain forces were able to rapidly infiltrate the settlement and begin to do their work.

…

A young woman watched in horror from her hiding place, her arms clutching her two-month-old child tightly. She had no intention of either supporting or betraying the rebellion up until now, but after seeing the way the knights treated her friends and family, she felt that, if she did manage to escape, she would swear eternal vengeance upon the government.

She had watched as her next-door neighbor was savagely beaten, raped and then had her own newborn daughter thrown into the air and impaled on a lance before her very eyes before being disemboweled and strung up by her own intestines.

She had cried when her husband was dragged out of their house and beaten to death before the populace.

She had run and hid when the knights came after her and her babe with lustful and wrathful eyes.

She smelled the smoke and heard the screams. She felt the heat of the flames that were consuming her hometown. Yet she did not make a sound nor move an inch, for if she did she would no doubt be found and brutalized by the knights.

What had she done to deserve this fate? All they wanted was freedom to love who they wished, to own property, to worship whatever they wanted and not be forced to subsist on near starvation rations each winter. Was all of that really so terrible that it was worthy of such damning punishment?

“Oh! Look what I found!”

A voice accompanied a gauntlet-covered hand grabbing her hair and yanking her from her hiding spot. She almost screamed and held her child tighter; even if she was to die, she would not let her son come to harm.

“Come on! Fight back! Make it interesting before we get bored and gut you like a fish!”

The pain of a metal boot impacting her back made her wince, but she would not give them the satisfaction they desired.

“Monsters! Devils! Stay away from Anna!”

“What the fuck?!”

The familiar voice of Rupert Smithson accompanied the sound of a blacksmith’s hammer impacting the helm of one of the knights.

“RUN! Don’t worry about me! Save yourself and that boy!”

Anna did not need another moment. She got up despite the pain and ran towards the edge of town. As she fled, she saw the militia being cut down by the far more seasoned low nobility of the cruel Kingdom she was a part of. So many brave men, all dying due to the base and cruel monsters sent to ‘teach them a lesson.’

Then, she heard the growing sound of galloping hooves from behind her. She looked over her shoulder and nearly fainted in terror as she saw a fully armored knight on horseback barreling down on her. The horseman grew closer and closer, his lance leveled and aimed squarely at her back. If it hit her, it would tear though not only her body but also that of her child.

Just before the lance could meet her flesh, she tripped on a rock and fell forward. She twisted her body just enough to avoid harming her little one, but the lance still tore up her clothes. She could almost hear the clicking of the knight’s tongue as they passed by her. How could anyone be so monstrous?!

The knight stopped his horse, dismounted and planted his lance into the ground before drawing his sword. The armored man rushed at her and swung down. She closed her eyes and waited for the end.

But it never came. Instead there resounded the metallic ringing of a blade blocking another blade.

“Wha?! Sub-human trash! You came here to die?!”

Anna opened her eyes and saw a non-human that looked like a man with wild dog parts.

“Actually, mate, I came here yesterdie. Was just using a little trick to keep meself hidden.”

The Werean retorted jokingly and in a heavy foreign accent as he pushed the knight back and twisted a ring on his finger, causing an illusion to overtake his form.

“See? Just like a Human! Can’t do a thing about me accent though.”

The Werean that had saved her life now looked just like the wandering minstrel that had arrived just the previous day. But, weren’t there other minstrels that arrived with him?

The Werean charged the knight and began singing as he did battle.

“Travelling on a fried-out donkey; on a hermit’s trail, head full of Zombie; I met a strange lady, she made me nervous; she took me in and gave me breakfast.”

Another non-human, a Dwarf, crashed through a flaming, collapsing building, tossing a knight out in front of them. He too began to sing in the same thick and foreign accent.

“And she said; Do you come from a land down under? Where women glow and men plunder? Can’t you hear, can’t you hear the thunder? You better run, you better take cover!”

The Battle Bards fought bravely, but the knights that were being held back by the two were soon joined by others from their kill-squad, putting the two warrior bards on the back foot. It was looking hopeless…

Then, one of the knights fell over. A crossbow bolt was sticking out from the eye slit and had been lodged deep in his brain. The knights and two warrior bards saw this and while the knights immediately raised their shields, the Werean merely let out a shout of “Crickey, that was a damn good shot! Missed my ear by next to nothing! Who did that?!”

Anna, the knights and battle bards turned toward the direction the shot came from and all collectively dropped their jaws. The banners and markings on the forces that had snuck up on them were all the same. A black background with a red triangle in the center and a yellow sun and moon on either side. The state propaganda had fixed that symbol into everyone’s mind (with the possible but incredibly unlikely exception of the two non-human combat musicians).

Red Mountain had come to reap a bloody harvest, and no one would be spared from their brutality.

Or so everyone likely thought.