At the village gates, Aldrich sees a group of children waiting on one side of the towering gates. A few young and sleepy guards are posted along the gates and talking with them. Getting closer to the gates, Aldrich can spot out the many features of his friends. Standing tallest out of the group is Hiram. He’s wearing what seems to be light plate armor. Major parts of the plate armor are present, covering the upper thigh to the torso and also covering the neck while the armor doesn’t cover his arms and legs. Instead he is wearing plated gloves and shoes and an opened armet. Covering his uncovered body is linen padding. The most eye-catching piece on Aldrich is a large red dragon etched onto the breastplate. He is carrying a sheathed long sword on his back while carrying a pouch of supplies next to it. On his side is a short sword. Hiram’s combat style generally makes use of bulkier weapons to deal heavy blows. This makes him use 2 handed weapons quite a lot. He is also skilled at closer range combat and carries a short sword just in case. He is also skill in voice magic, making full use of his fast reaction speed. Leah is also present. The design of her armor is quite similar to her brothers but less bulky and less made of metal. Most of her armor design is replaced with leather and metal strips that cover more vital parts of her body. As headgear, she is wearing a padded leather cap designed to cover much of the head, leaving only the front part of the face exposed. Like her brother’s armor, she bears an red dragon insignia, but it is instead located on her shoulder plate. On her side is short sword while she carries a small pouch of supplies. Her normal combat abilities generally noted to be with magic. While she could use her shirt sword, she is much better at magical combat, being the only one in the group to be able to use symbol magic in the middle of fast combat. Next to the both of them are two also familiar faces to Aldrich. Issac and Danjela Sinclair. Issac, noted for his laughter and joy, is the younger brother of Hiram and Leah while Danjela, noted for her intelligence, is their cousin. They both wear similar armor to Leah and both wield a spear. While these people stand out with their uniformed armor and family, others are also present . Several children from the local orphanage and some neighborhood friends that were also present during Noriko’s story telling. Among them were a variety of races, all shapes and sizes. Faries the size of Hiram’s head, kitsune with fluffy tails and smaller but human sized stature, elves, humans, and oni, humanoids coming in vast amounts of colors and size, ranging from the sizes of small giants to small humans. Peter is also present surprisingly. Unsurprising however, he is excitedly chatting away while fantasizing about heroic feats he will perform today. He is wearing what looks to be a metal suit shaped like an onion. The armor is actually lamellar armor for dwarves. Underneath the lamellar is chain mail and finally linen padding. Strange to Aldrich, he wears a blue necklace that he has never seen before. Peter wields a decorated warhammer and a shield bearing the mark of his clan.

As Aldrich reaches the group, they wave to him. Peter gleefully pokes fun at Aldrich,

“Well well well look whose last to arrive.”

Retorting him, Leah points out,

“You just got here yourself buddy.”

Shocked at the betrayal, he proclaims dramatically with exaggerated hand gestures,

“I can’t believe you would sell me out like that.”

“Meh, it’s nothing new.”

Some of the children giggles as Hiram walks up to Aldrich and explains,

“You’re actually not the last one to arrive. We have 17 people right now and we’re waiting for one more.”

“Who is it?”

“Yumi.”

“Yumi? Why am I not surprised.”

As they speak, Aldrich thinks about Yumi. Yumi is Noriko’s niece. He remembers seeing her quite often when she would join them for his lessons but lately she had to help with her parents’ shop in the residential district. He recalls that they live on the second floor of their shop. Supposedly they sell high quality hunting gear. Just as he finishes his thoughts, a running elf child comes zooming pass several people behind Aldrich. While she is certainly rushing along to the gate, her movements are graceful as she closes the distance between her and the group with a running leap into a horizontal spin and then splendid landing on her feet. She proclaims with a big smile,

“Yumi is now here.”

Retorting her, Leah says

“Yumi is also late and last to arrive.”

Her face instantly shatters into a state of shock as she says,

“No way! Yumi woke up early today. Yumi even said she won’t be late anymore so Yumi ran all the way here.”

“Well you should have gotten up sooner I guess.”

Observing her outfit, Aldrich notes out her green leaf like armor. Unlike normal armor of the village or of Lord Sinclair’s militia, the armor was designed with an old elven design, dating back a least a century. Perhaps dating to the now destroyed Elven nation. He notes this to Yumi,

“Is that new armor Yumi?”

Returning back to her childlike behavior she responds with,

“New for Yumi, but Yumi’s grandma gave it to her.”

“I see.”

Now that all 18 members of the Volunteer Defense Group were present, their group well ready to leave now, or not as the group of children were disorganized and chatting due to the arrival of Yumi. Clapping his hands together, Hiram calls for the attention of the group before announcing that the group will be leaving right now. With that, they set off.

Setting off on their course, the group travels on a solid dirt path. Looking behind him, Aldrich sees the tall wooden walls that surrounds his village and the great gate before looking at the massive tree he calls home. Turning to his front, Aldrich sees farms. Wondering about their task Aldrich ask Hiram,

“So where are we headed?”

A few of the children perk up their ears between their conversations and discussions as they too did not know their mission.

“We’re headed to Pickle’s Farm. Apparently they have a bunch of Teleportation rabbits coming from local forest and eating their crops.”

An lithe orange furred kitsune girl spoke to Hiram.

“Teleportation rabbits? Isn’t that really bad for the farm?”

“Yeah, especially if their leader has actually learned to teleport.”

“You mean they don’t already know how to teleport?”

“No Kaori, we have reports by the farmers that they aren’t using their teleport spells yet. They should still be relatively easy to catch and take out.”

At the mention of Teleportation rabbits, Aldrich recalls their image and abilities. Looking like regular rabbits, these rabbits are in fact very magical. Perhaps due to a god’s design or by developing the ability in the forest, Teleportation rabbits obviously have the ability to teleport, or so they can if their numbers grow large enough to have a leader. Their usual abilities consist of the spells “camouflaged invisibility” and “haste”. With their chittering they can cast magic via their voice. In later infestation cases, a leader of the rabbits will appear and teach them teleportation. From then, catching a Teleportation rabbit will be much harder as they will teleport short distances almost instantly, meaning that they can escape almost everything and everyone if they are not killed or wounded greatly.

“So we just need to cast “detect invisibility” on ourselves before we encounter them right?”

“That and casting “muffled” to cover our movement. If the information is correct then they should currently eating the crops at Pickle’s and we’ll come from the forest behind them and cut them off.

“Good plan, but it would have been nice to know that before we set out. I wish I brought my bow instead of my kunai.”

Behind her Yumi catches up with her, cheerfully skipping along she pokes fun at Kaori by saying,

“Yumi always brings her bow.”

“Yes yes, I’m quite aware that you always have your bow on you.”

In her hands, Yumi carries a large bow designed with elven features. Despite her size however, Yumi wields the bow with grace and ease.

Leah chimes in saying,

“Well at least you didn’t bring just a warhammer and shield like Peter.”

Peter is outside of hearing range and is currently striking poses as they continue walking down the dirt path.

As they travel, Hiram looks over at an empty field. There he sees his father with an entire company worth of soldiers and militia training. They appear to be training combat exercises.

Peter catches up with Hiram and says,

“Isn’t that your dad?”

“Yeah he’s –“

“Training to fight?!”

“No he’s just doi-“

“Just training to fight?!”

Seeing the regular cycle of Peter and his chaotic nature, Hiram pounds him the head before telling him,

“Damn it Peter, let me talk. I was trying to say that he just came back from the sector we’re headed to and cleared it out of hostile creatures. He’s coming back and training the troops before heading back to his office.”

Peter, rubbing his head, responds with,

“If he just came from there then why didn’t he take care of the rabbits?”

“Because the duty is assigned to reserve militia and volunteers like us mainly because we have free time and the creatures we fight aren’t very dangerous.”

“Whaaa, but how will be earn glory for cleaning up creatures that don’t fight us?”

“Well for one we’re not fight for glory and two, the farmers appreciate us for helping them with their pest problem. It’s also for experience in organization and real life combat. It’s good to practice on weaker foes first before we do anything truly dangerous.”

Peter surprisingly looks satisfied at the explanation and goes off to talk to other children. Before long, Aldrich and the volunteers reach their targeted location.