Marata was an accomplished Speaker, her service as a sergeant in the constabulary of Viertaal spoke to that. She specialized in Earthspeaking, so ensuring that the pests were exterminated completely would be simple, once she could get to the mouth of their den and have just a minute or so to complete the Calling.

As she thought about what was sure to happen the following morning, Marata retired back to her tent for the night. Some young fool had wanted to stage the attack tonight, but Marata had told him in no uncertain terms that if he wanted to assault a creature that fought and hunted best at night in the middle of the night, he would be free to do so alone, and she wouldn't even give him the courtesy of mourning for his idiotic hide. The young man had looked her in the eye then, his vibrant green meeting her mud brown. She had taken a step into his personal space then, saying "If you have some sense in that Dulvroc begotten skull of yours, you're going to sit down now and forget that you brought this up. We've had at least a dozen scouts die without any returning, and you don't need to join that number."

He took a seat.

Marata sighed as she sat down on her cot and removed the headpiece of her beralt. These young village boys thought they had something to prove here, that the keelish weren't so threatening as the old folks said. They were stupid. The Gran Verat had begun the keelish extermination over 150 years ago, and he had never taken an ill advised or unnecessary action, especially one of that size and breadth. There was a reason he had ruled for over 200 years, and these village hotheads thought they knew better than the centuries-old founder of their country.

She laid back and thought of her little family. Little Varali had Marata's lighter brown skin and hair, both the same shade, but had her father's beautiful, emerald eyes. She'd been so proud to have been the one responsible for finding the keelish presence in the area, and had been rewarded accordingly, ranking 2nd in her cohort, just behind the prodigy Giulani. Korali was no fighter, but he had been willing to come with her here, the silly man. He had only a modest understanding of the Words of Power, and his specialization (if you could call it that) was plant life. Maybe, if he was lucky, he could choke the life out of a squirrel or bullfrog, but he would only be a hindrance on the battlefield.

No, it was better, and it was her place here, ensuring that the stupid were reigned in and that her little family was safe. Marata smiled to herself and settled back into her cot, beginning to give in to the tiredness of the day. Her head was bobbing, about to sleep, when she heard a muffled scream from the outskirts of the camp.

Immediately, she sat bolt upright and started calling the camp to arms. The drowsy members of the camp began to come with her, but there was no urgency in their actions. Enraged, Marata began to lash out orders.

"YOU! THERE! Wake everybody around and stoke the fires! If there's anyone who is a Firespeaker, get them to the center of the camp, and have them create as much light as possible."

Without waiting for a response, Marata jogged forward. She realized in the back of her mind that she had left her beralt's headpiece in her tent, but continued onwards. While she hoped she was mistaken, she knew in her heart that she wasn't. The keelish were starting an attack tonight. Marata internally cursed to any and every god she knew, and there weren't a few. Somehow, the scaled vermin had realized they were here, and had staged a preliminary attack of some sort. The stupid things couldn't realize that they were here on death's errand, but that didn't mean they wouldn't inflict injury or death in their fruitless charge.

Marata was quick enough to see a pair of sentries getting their throats ripped out by a pack of the keelish. They appeared to be adults, a bit above 1m tall, and they were a group of at least 10. Marata quickly began to Speak, and the earth trembled beneath her. The pack swarmed forward and quickly closed in... but not quickly enough. Spikes of earth emerged in front of Marata, and rose to meet the charging creatures. The initial charge was spitted on that row of earthy spears, their lifeblood coloring the dark earth black with the wet from crimson blood.

Those of the pack of keelish (the clinical part of Marata's mind noted that there were 4 left whole) that still stood simply wheeled around the obstruction and closed in on her. Not wanting to exhaust herself, Marata began an organized retreat, pulling her short cudgel from her waistband. The first keelish to approach learned that this human had the experience and strength to wield it to deadly efficiency, as its brains splattered around the ground where its head was mercilessly pounded into the root-filled earth.

The other three keelish began to try to encircle her, and Marata began to worry, knowing that they weren't so stupid as to impale themselves on the earth spikes she created now. She wasn't a front line fighter, so she wasn't ready to engage, especially since more were sure to follow. The snarling maws approached, and Marata had begun to growl back at them when two youngsters stepped out from the camp, came to her aid, and helped her to quickly dispatch the encroaching keelish.

Marata let out a heavy breath, and let herself listen--there were cries of pain coming from all around the camp, and she knew that there had been somewhat of an organized attempt to strike at the same time here. That was concerning, but nothing too strange yet, as there had been a couple of intelligent keelish alphas in the last couple of decades, and they were all long gone by now. Regardless of how intelligent any currently existing leadership was in the keelish, they would be long gone by the next afternoon, and Marata's responsibility tonight was to ensure that as few casualties as possible were suffered. She grunted, and jogged off to where the sounds of battle were closest.

...

That night, the extermination camp lost 17 of their 130 currently surviving group, in exchange for the rout and killing of 53 keelish. When the sun rose, they began their march to where they knew the den of the keelish was.

There was going to be an extermination today.