News from the fight in the woods reached me before I had a chance to reach the woods. I hadn't even been able to pull aside one or two guards to accompany me yet as I didn't want to keep anyone from more important things, like helping the wounded, they were busy with. One moment I was keeping an eye out for anyone not looking busy the next Quu'za was weaving through the crowd, heading directly for me. How she could go this fast without knocking anyone over was beyond me. It sure was a little spectacle though, a sight to behold.

She came to a stop next to me with a soft cooing noise for a greeting. Her feathers were a little ruffled and some of her ribbons had gotten tangled a little but otherwise she looked fine and maybe even pleased with herself. Otherwise only the steel claws she wore even hinted at the fact that she had been doing battle. She had of course tried to wipe them but a few stains of blood and worse remained. That would change soon enough as well anyway. She and the other harpies would take any chance to groom themselves and each other after all, once things calmed down.

For now though I needed to learn what had been going on in the woods. I needed to hear her report. “How are things in the woods? How did you fare?”

The harpy puffed up a little which put a smile on my lips. If she was like that than things had probably gone rather well for her and hers. She sounded quite pleased with herself as well. “Ghouls were coming at us from all around. A lot of them. Quu! But the traps worked. They didn't actually kill any of them but they slowed enough of them down to allow us to pick them off one after another.”

I raised an eyebrow at that but she just kept going. “Most of them weren't even proper warriors. Just normal people. Hardly any armor. No real weapons either. Clubs and kitchen knifes at best.” She sobered up a little. “Its actually quite sad. All those people, quu … I'm … I'm pretty sure they did not want to become what they were. It was a miserable sight.”

She shook her head, cooing sadly but before I had a chance to pat her back or ruffle her feathers she cheered up on her own again. “Quu! Did you know that you can take these ghouls out by just breaking or crushing their necks? They aren't dead … again, as they should be, but they can't move and fight anymore if you do! Tortho and his rangers are still busy making sure they are all properly dead again though. It might still take a little while.”

Just break or crush their necks. That sounded so easy, coming from her. Well, to be honest any strike of mine aiming to do that probably would sever said neck completely or crush the head as a whole. Still, I was pleased to hear that things had gone so well on that front. More of these shambling dead coming at our line from behind could have spelled doom for us.

Now that she finally finished I had a chance to ruffle her feathers a little as well. After the chaotic, bloody melee little gestures like this soothed my heart. “Lets circle around the camp once. I want to have look at these ghouls myself. And spread the word to get any wounded to the healers. They might be very busy right now but I want everyone who needs help seen to.”

Quu'za chirped happily and joined me as I started walking in the direction she had come from. She obviously had to restrain herself to match my pace. Otherwise she would have had to run circles around me. It didn't take us long to stumble across the first of the disabled ghouls the harpy had mentioned and my heart sank a little as I beheld it. This one had still been a child. Now it was one of the shambling dead, still hissing and growling at us as we approached although it couldn't move its body anymore. I jabbed my glaive down into its head to end its misery for good.

Soon after we came across the first of the rangers and harpies finishing disabled ghouls, in much the same way I had used. The ground was littered with the remains of these monsters all around. Quu'za spoke up as she noticed my look. “We started fighting them all the way out at the first traps. Then we fell back little by little so we could keep up our momentum.”

I nodded. That was a very sensible approach, especially when faced with a rather uncoordinated horde like this one. I sighed and shook my head as I took stock of the mauled dead. “Children, women, the old, poor or infirm. Is our enemy really scraping the bottom of the barrel to stoop so low? Or is there a deeper meaning to this?”

Tortho joined us at this point. I was happy to see that he was unharmed as well. “Gothol'uin is a bigger city. If they have a new ghoul king and he is willing to make sacrifices like this they could come at us in waves like this one for hours or maybe days.”

I blanched and groaned. “We will have to improve the defenses of our camp in that case. If they send in another horde like this one it could get messy otherwise, with everyone exhausted or recovering from wounds.”

Tortho's face was grim. “Judging by the sounds alone I take it the battle was much harder on you and the line of battle than it was on us.”

I bit my lip. “It was. We smashed them, both their infantry and their cavalry, but we have a lot of wounded. I'm glad we have enough healers and medical supplies with us but we can't fight another battle like that right away. We need some time to recover.”

For a little while we walked in silence, only jabbing a blade in the skull of another miserable ghoul every once in a while, as we made our way around the camp. Only Quu'za darted off to some of the others we came across to let them know to move any wounded to the healers. As she rejoined us after one such foray I spoke up again. “I'm worried about the ghoul king that commend the enemy army this time.”

Tortho raised an eyebrow and Quu'za tilted her head as she looked at me. “Worried? More than usual?”

“Yes, more than usual.” I paused for a moment to collect my thoughts. “It was different. It was human, of that I'm certain but its dress and gear were strange. It commanded the battle from afar, from atop a chariot.”

“A chariot?” Tortho sounded as if he couldn't quite belief it. “That sounds rather antiquated. No one uses chariots in this day and age.” Even as he spoke those words he paled. “If it is a ghoul king from elsewhere he might just really be willing to sacrifice every living soul of this kingdom or maybe even of the whole council of kings to achieve its goals.”

I swallowed hard and Quu'za's feathers stood on end as he said that. That thought was unpleasant in the extreme. “We better prepare for the possibility then.” I shook my head. “The only advantages we have in that case is that most of them were no warriors in life and that they can't all come at us at once.”

My captain of scouts looked grim. “I'll agree with the former but the latter might just allow them to wear us out eventually no matter how good our defenses are.”

As we finished our circle through the woods and reached the other side of the camp one of the men Gash'zur had detached to guard duty was already waiting for us. The look on his face was not inclined to improve my mood. I tried to keep my voice even anyway. “Report.”

He looked a little uneasy but spoke up after clearing his throat once anyway. “Captain Arngard has been found.” His voice broke briefly. “He … he was beyond help, my lady.”

Quu'za let out a sad little sound and I nodded. “Thank you. Return to your post and please make sure, to the best of our abilities, that all our dead are recovered from the battlefield.”

As the man left again I turned to face the other two officers at my side. “Once you are done mopping up, have the bodies of the ghouls moved to the rest on the battlefield. Gather dry wood from the woods as well if you can. I want them burned in one big fire before night falls if we can. We can't exactly move camp right now and I don't want to spend the night surrounded by rotting corpses.” I groaned and ran my hands thorough my hair, careful not to disturb my own wound. “And after that we'll have to see about properly fortifying the camp.”