164. Lyla: Wiremu.

“Wait up. You bonded with Dusk?” I asked.

Tabitha grinned, “It just happened mid-fight.”

“That is awesome. Congratulations.” I turned to Lyla, “Here,” I started to take off my jacket for her to wear and realised it wouldn’t fit with her wings.

“Don’t worry, Lionkin often go nude,” Lyla said to cover my embarrassed indecision.

“What happened,” Tabitha asked.

“Long story short, they captured and caged me. Trickery and deceit mainly. They wanted to test a monster core on me, but when I wouldn’t cooperate, they starved me until I was too weak to resist them. The core did this,” she indicated her wings.

“Griffon?” I asked.

She nodded, “With a Wind affinity of some sort, but I was incompatible. They must have thought that a lionkin might be, but I wasn’t. My Spiritual Attributes have been cut by over half leaving most of my better skills unusable. It started to transform me to be like a Griffon, but that is also incompatible. It shouldn’t have transformed me, but it did. My bones are lighter but not stronger. I broke my ankle just by landing. I might have all my Physical Strength, but I can’t use it because I just break my bones. The wings didn’t form properly and couldn’t be used even without the wind affinity. My Regeneration tries to fix me, but it is as confused as hell about all the changes. My mind is like having a roaring wind blowing through me all the time I have to fight in order just to think. I just want to die. I planned to escape to find somewhere to die where they couldn’t harvest me, but then I heard about them finding catkin with lion bonds, and I needed to warn someone.”

She just collapsed after that speech, and I figured it was the effort fighting the spiritual winds she was talking about. My Truth Sensing was telling me she was honest. I looked at Tabitha and nodded.

“Do you want us to help you get revenge before you die?” She asked.

“Yes, but there are too many, and they have a captured Griffon.”

“As for too many, the two of us took out eight, and Sten’s mercenary team and the Catkin are probably both on board. As for the Griffon, it will be as much trouble for them as for us. If they release it at us, it will probably just fly away,” Tabitha said.

“They clipped its wings.”

“We have killed a lot of monsters, but not a Griffon yet,” I said.

“I am not going to be a lot of help,” Lyla said.

“Then come and bear witness,” Tabitha said. “The coin we find there can be yours, and you might be surprised what the healers can do in Kirghiz.”

She just shook her head. I headed over to the first prisoner. I didn’t need Tabitha and her skills for this. If they were party to this, their sentence was death. Tāoke literally squeezed the truth out of him. He knew about it and the griffon. Tāoke squeezed the life out of him. The shadow guy added some details. The boss had an affinity that they were trying to replicate. He guessed it was an air affinity, and there were about forty ranch hands on the site. The blind guy didn’t have anything extra to add.

Lyla didn’t want to be seen by people in the caravan, so Tabitha stayed with her while I went to gather the troops. I took the spare horses we found, and Puia burned the corpses. The Caravan was underway but had not gone far. I gathered the Catkin, the Canine Queens and Modrica and discussed what we had discovered. They all wanted in.

This was not going to be an easy fight, and death was a real possibility. We are going against forty experienced ranchers, plus an affinity user and potentially a monster. We should not discount that they have some control over the griffon.

I persuaded Anni and Mayakku not to come as they were not warriors. Ört thought we should include Astrid for the extra healing, and she is very interested in examining Lyla. Selma wouldn’t allow any of the other caravan guards to go. The caravan would be one to two days ahead of us, but we should rejoin it before it enters Beitemark. If we were delayed, Tāttā would make all the arrangements for the Caravan.

We went through some of the biggest issues while Mayakku was there, as she may have some enchanting that might help. The biggest threat was the affinity user. Air was tricky. It could cut and overpower. It could throw you around if it were strong enough. The worst possibilities were if it was combined with poison or if he could take the air away. Not everybody had my poison resistance level. Mayakku had some enchantments for cleaning the air. It was popular with miners, and it stored about three-four breaths to enable them a chance to get out. That should help against airborne substances. She went to work.

The Griffon was the next problem. Even if it couldn’t fly, we had to assume it could at least glide short distances. We had no guarantee it couldn’t fly. My bow was the main weapon against flying creatures, and Težka might be able to keep it on the ground. Skavt would take extra javelins.

The team geared up and waited for the enchantments while Skavt and I headed out to scout the place. Lyla told us where it was and the layout, but we needed to see it to make a plan. Skavt was on Oske and Tāoke, and I borrowed one of the new horses. It took about two hours before we left the mounts and advanced on foot.

The ranch looked deserted. “Do you think it’s a trap?” I asked Skavt. We circled the place and worked our way closer. Maybe they are all out looking for Lyla? It seemed suspicious. I peeked through the window of the bunkhouse, and it was empty. My Hearing Aid was not picking up anything. I moved to the main ranch house. I picked up some noise around the back. An older lady was working in the kitchen. I decided to approach and see if I could get some information. I used Venere to change a few of my features and then used Roleplay to take the role of a lost ranch hand.

“Hello, the house!” I yelled.

The lady shuffled to the back door and poked her nose out.

“Hello there. My horse became lame a little way that way, and I was looking for some help,” I said.

“T’ait no one here but me,” she said.

“Oh? I must be lost. Whose is this ranch?”

“His Lordship Otto Henderson.”

Of course, he is a noble. Army trained and given a title and ranch to retire to. Sounds like a Kirghiz affinity user to me.

“Where did his lordship go? When will he be back?” I asked.

“His Lordship rode out with the full muster an hour ago. I don’t know when he will be back.” That sounded ominous.

“Full muster. Was there an emergency?” I asked.

“His lordship’s business is not your concern. He will be back soon enough.”

“Right, thanks for the info. I have to get back to my horse.” It was weak, and the cook looked suspicious, but Otto, whoever would not have mustered his ranch hands and ridden out without a target. I should be able to follow forty riders easily. I took off at a run.

Skavt met me with my horse, and we left at a gallop. Otto, the lord, had followed the road. We had missed him because we had not followed the road. We had not wanted to be seen. Word had obviously reached him about our tangle this morning, and he had reacted. There hadn’t been any more people by the river this morning, so I think there must have been a bond watching.