Chapter 007:

Anton and Verona were nearing the north side of Atros. Anton was somewhat disappointed that there was no-one from Left Jeff's cronies had decided to follow them. It was getting to the stage where he would like to have just grabbed one and gotten out from them exactly what they wanted.

Still, the peace was nice. Verona was walking beside him with a new-found level of enthusiasm, humming something. It didn't seem like a song but it was light and sweet, something far more pleasant to Anton than the shouting and constant movement of the villagers.

They passed the last intact building and saw the wall for the first time. To be honest, Anton thought it was quite good for the village.

The wall was crudely assembled from rocks of all sizes. The largest rocks had been smashed to form roughly square blocks for the base with smaller rocks and shards forming the rest of the wall. The parts that he could see were at least up to half a meter while some parts were almost up to his shoulders. Reclaimed pieces of wood formed supports for the wall as well as steps and tops of the wall.

It appeared that the north side of the wall was the most complete, decreasing in size as it began to flow around the village. Hopefully, this was to deal with the likely direction of attack.

Almost all the stone was gone, at least judging by the stacks near the wall. With almost a thousand people and nearly a dozen huge carts and massive beasts, it shouldn't take long to build up an impressive wall.

Despite being early in the morning everyone was working hard. Anton could see Zac near one of the stacks, pointing and directing the swarming villagers.

“How's this going?” Anton asked as they both approached.

“Pretty good,” Zac replied, “Almost out of stone, as you can see. The wall is almost complete here in the north, the rest is barely there. Still pretty good for our first day of building.”

Anton nodded in approval.

“We're about to go and get our first shipment for the day too, just in case you thought that this would be it.”

“I didn't doubt you. How high are you planning to make it?”

“Above head height to start with. Then, if we're still alive, wide enough to properly stand on. At the moment it's just a few spots.”

“Excellent. We need to get everything done as quickly as possible.”

“You think that they're going to attack soon?”

Zac looked quite concerned and crossed his arms defensively.

“It's what I would do.”

Verona and Zac traded glances as Anton walked over to inspect the wall.

It appeared to be quite sturdy as Anton gave a wooden support a shove with his foot. Hopefully strong enough to hold up to the Yellow Goblins, at least for a little while.

“What'cha doing?” Verona asked, leaning over. Her slang was quite cute at times.

“Just testing that this is strong enough. Don't want them knocking it over. Also going to want some stands for archers. If we can kill some before they reach the wall the better.”

Verona nodded. “I see. That means that I can still fight, right?”

Anton tussled her hair. “I think if we left it to you, you would charge out there by yourself and kill all of them.”

Verona remained silent, eyes downcast. Anton kept his hand lightly on her head.

“You...You don't think I'm...wrong, do you?” She looked up at him, fear in her eyes.

“No. No, I don't. I think that you're a very brave person.”

“Thanks.” Verona chuckled as she gently removed his hand, retaining contact for slightly longer than necessary.

“I just...it doesn't matter.”

“Well, it probably does. If you do want to talk, you can always talk to me.”

She didn't reply but simply smiled.

“Um, you two?”

Zac called out to them. Anton noticed that several of the villagers had stopped to watch them.

“I hate to say this, but you're distracting the workers.”

Verona looked around, finally noticing everyone staring at them. She tried her best to remain calm but he could see her faintly turning red.

“Well, perhaps we should leave them to it. Zac?”

Zac perked up at hearing his name.

“Could we get a dozen or so wooden stands? So the archers can shoot over the wall properly.”

“Got it,” Zac replied.

The other villagers quickly returned to their work. Anton knew he could hear sniggers amongst them but chose to ignore them.

“So,” Verona started talking again after recovering from her flush, “What else are we doing today?”

“Actually, I wanted to speak to the recon group heading north before they leave. Hopefully, they haven't yet.”

“No-one's come through here yet.” One of the villagers yelled back at Anton.

“Thanks.” Anton looked towards the centre of the village. “Ah, I think I can hear them coming now.”

In the distance, towards the village centre, he could hear what could be only described as horses' hooves clopping over the mix of stone and dirt of the roads.

The horse looked exactly the same as the ones back on earth, perhaps a little bigger. A female rider at the reigns with a nervous looking man sitting behind her stopped when the came alongside Anton.

“We're just about ready to depart,” the woman rider said in a curt tone, “Get in there, take a quick look around and get back. Shouldn't be too hard.”

“Yes.” Anton was a bit stumped by her attitude. “What I really wanted to stop you for is that the north group, you two, must not get spotted under any circumstances. If they suspect that we are more organised than we have been in the past, they'll attack with everything they have. At the least, they'll try a lot harder.”

Anton looked over the wall to the north. The mountain looked rather beautiful with the morning rays upon it. What was important was that he couldn't see the base.

“Okay, it looks like there is at least one ridge between here and there. Just make it to that ridge then come back.”

“I know what I'm doing.” The woman replied. The man behind continued to look nervous.

“Well, I won't keep you then. Good luck to both of you.”

Both of them gave a nod before departing towards the mountain.

Zac walked towards Anton.

“I really hope that this a good idea,” Anton told Zac, “If it goes wrong...well, it's best if we keep working.”

“True. So...if you two are going to keep causing distractions, can you do it somewhere else?”

Anton couldn't help but frown.“You were much friendlier when you were drinking, you know that?”

“You couldn't handle that much.”

“I don't think that stuff was meant for human consumption. You were still drinking when I left, how are you still alive? ”

“Ha, and I thought you had no sense of humour. Don't you worry, I'll get you to a respectable level.”

Both started laughing. It was good to have a drinking buddy, but Anton didn't want one that would kill him.

“Well, I think I should be off. Need to see Right Jeff about getting archers together and Jonathan with the weapons.”

“Good luck. You know his name is Jeff, right?”

“Oh. Well, that's good to know. So what's the other one's name, the creepy one?”

“Jeffery.”

“Hmm...They just had to have similar sounding names, despite being so different. People at least won't be worrying about figuring out who I'm talking to.”

Zac nodded and looked towards some villagers carrying a large stone towards the top of the wall. “Hey, not there! Those are for the base, you'll knock it over and I won't be fixing it!”

Zac ran off to the villagers struggling with the massive rock. Anton took this as a good time to leave. He was about to get Verona when he felt her arm stopping him, raised across his waist to halt him.

“What's the problem?”

Verona looked back towards the village, frowning.

“Someone's watching us from the buildings again. I think it's the same person.”

Anton looked in the same direction. He couldn't see the face but he was sure that someone disappeared the moment they both looked. He let out a grunt of disappointment.

“Another one of Jeffery's goons I fear. Good job on finding them, I didn't even know that they were there.”

Verona didn't look relieved at Anton's praise. She finally relaxed after being patted and not seeing any further followers.

“Alright, no point in hanging about.”

She still looked a little on edge.

“We'll swing by the fire pit. Hopefully, Jeff is there too.”

Verona didn't change her demeanour.

“Those Razor Pigs should be done. Don't you want a piece?”

Her posture relaxed and her eyes lit up. She turned to face him. He was sure she was licking her lips already.

---[]---

“This is so good!” Verona managed to say with a mouth full of Razor-Pig meat. She had taken an entire leg for herself and was eating it like she hadn't eaten in months.

Anton and Jeff had just finished their conversation regarding training of the villagers as they stood around the fire pit. Most were doing very well and Jeff had even taken the initiative to get the 30 best archers formed into a unit who were currently training. That's how many good bows they actually had.

“They're doing pretty well. Got Avery in-charge of them.”

“Who's that?”

“The archer guy from the quarry. Remember him?”

“Ah, never been good with names.”

“Well, he's good. Can probably shoot the furthest, over 200 yards or so, the others are around 150 yards. Won't really matter when there are hundreds charging. We're doing quite well. Also got the arrows counted, three thousand! Huge stacks were hidden in some of the old buildings and just some that people acquired over time. Didn't know we had that much of anything. They won't stand a chance”

Yards, those are Imperial measurements. I think that a yard is roughly a meter. This is going pretty good then.

“Good. Make sure that they know of the wooden stands near the walls. Don't want them thinking that they're just decorations.”

Jeff nodded

“Right, back to work then.”

He headed off to a group of villagers standing in a rough formation. Hopefully, they were about to undergo more training.

Anton turned his attention back to Verona. In the short few moments that he had been talking with Jeff, she had devoured almost half the leg of meat. He hadn't had a piece yet and the rest of the pigs had been divided up amongst the nearby villagers. Her face was covered in succulent looking juices and she did not look like she was going to slow down any time soon.

“You going to share that?” he asked.

She stopped eating for a moment, looking momentarily between the meat and Anton. She shrugged and continued to eat.

This really annoyed Anton.

Without saying anything, he snatched the meat from her hands. It took her a moment to register that it had just been stolen.

“Hey!”

She tried to take it back it was out of her reach. She looked quite annoyed.

Anton raised the leg above his head, Verona started jumping to try and recover her food. However, her lack of height was proving a problem, though she was starting to push Anton over. Using his spare hand he held her back by holding onto her head, her arms flailing wildly about.

“Come on, you've had nearly half this thing and I haven't had one bite yet.”

Verona stopped flailing, instead adopting a pitiable pose, begging for her food back. He was tempted to give her the food back but he resolved himself to at least have a bite.

The meat burst with flavour and juices the moment he bit into it. It tasted like the best pork he had ever had. He spent some time enjoying the flavour and texture, though it was hampered by a whimpering noise emanating nearby.

Anton looked down at Verona who was practically salivating. Anton moved the leg from left to right, her eyes following it like a hungry dog.

This girl can be so simple at times.

“Here you go,” Anton said as he handed back the meat, “I told you I just wanted a bite.”

She happily retook the meat and began munching on it again, this time not like a wild animal.

“Come on, we still need to go see Jonathan before we get to anything more serious...You can take your meal to go.”

“Okay!” she managed to reply, with a small chunk of meat popping out.

As they started to walk to the blacksmith, Anton was surprised when Verona stopped walking. She used the blade of the spear to slice off a piece of meat. He was even more surprised when she offered it to him whilst wearing her massive grin.

“Thanks,” Anton replied, somewhat stunned by her rapid change in attitude.

And then she pulls this...She can be quite confusing. Better than being boring I suppose.

---[]---

Jonathan's blacksmith, like everywhere else in the village, was starting to look very lively. Smoke rose from the repaired chimney and the ringing of metal striking metal rang throughout the air. Jonathan was working outside near the blazing forge.

He wore what Anton would call blacksmith attire: a thick apron and gloves, light clothes protecting his skin from the sparks and a crude mask to protect his face.

He stopped when he spotted Anton and Verona, putting the piece of worked metal back into the forge. His two children, who were working the bellows, stopped as well after receiving a nod from their father. They ran out, covered in soot, and stopped before Anton and Verona looking quite expectant.

“Hey you two,” Anton began, “Are you helping your dad?”

Both nodded furiously. Jonathan stood between them, patting them both on the head.

“They've been good little helpers today. Most people won't want to come anywhere near the forge until it's winter that is.”

Another thing I'll need to investigate.

“I've got quite a few things to ask you, Jonathan. How busy are you right now?”

He shrugged.

“To be honest, only just started the next spear tip. It can wait for a bit. You want to take a look at what we've already got?”

“That and other things. Verona?”

She turned and looked at Anton, still chewing on what remained of the leg of Razor-Pig.

“This could take a while...”

“I can wait.”

“How's the new spear that I made?” Jonathan asked.

“It works as a very carving knife actually,” Anton replied before Verona could.

Jonathan looked genuinely shocked to hear that his works were being used for something so mundane.

“I'm kidding, she likes it quite a lot.”

Verona nodded whilst holding the spear very close. Jonathan relaxed after seeing this.

“That's good. Not really what I intended but I am sure you'll have the chance to use it soon.”

She chuckled lightly.

“Shawn and Jocelyn, can you play with Verona? This will probably be quite boring stuff.”

“Okay!” they both cried. They ran towards Verona, grabbing her and dragging her towards the centre of the road.

“Hang on a sec.” Verona managed to squeak out. She broke free of the kids and ran up to Anton, handing over the spear and leg bone.

“I really don't need this one, Ver.”

She tilted her head at being called “Ver”

“Sorry, I just gave you a nick-name without thinking about it.”

Verona looked at Anton blankly for a moment before smiling.

“I kinda' like it. Short and nice. Call me when you're done!”

She ran towards the kids, looking quite happy.

Anton turned his attention back to Jonathan, who was also looking quite happy.

“What?” Anton asked, no emotion in his voice.

“Nothing.”

Anton knew he was having fun at his expense but decided to drop it. Focusing on defence would be more constructive for him now.

“Anyway, show me what weapons you've got.”

Jonathan motioned for Anton to come around inside the open section of the blacksmith. Leaning against the wall were dozens of spears. Anton picked one up. The weapon did not appear to be as well crafted as the one Verona had but still quite well made. He placed Verona's spear against the wall, separate from the others. He also chucked the leg bone onto the forge, the last remnants of food burning ferociously. Hopefully, she wouldn't get too mad.

“Got 20 spears here. To be honest, just got some straight pieces of wood and fastened a metal tip to the end. Just used some scrap iron. Would be better if we had some better metals...but we've only got what we've been able to salvage.”

“What other metals are there in this world? I'm guessing there are some special fantasy metals?”

Not really necessary for our current survival, but thinking ahead is important. Plus it'll help us bond...I suppose.

“Um, yeah. No one usually bothers asking about that, even before the attacks. Most people thinks this stuff just sort of happens.”

Jonathan seemed rather happy, disappearing inside to reappear with two chairs which he placed next to the forge. Anton took one. Thankfully they could see the three playing outside. It appeared to be some sort of game of tag, though it was probably just them running around.

“I only know of a few outside of iron. Speaking of which....do you know the ways you can get iron here?”

“I presume digging for iron ore? I...get the feeling that that's the way it's done.”

Jonathan nodded.

The other main one is to plant an “Earth Stalk” on the ground over the ground where iron ore or any ore, for that matter, is. It absorbs the minerals as they grow. Not the most efficient but by far the easiest way. They excrete the pure metal or whatever mineral is there. Do not have any here, I knew you were about to ask.”

Anton was.

“And they're expensive to buy. The Royals had complete control but they're dead. Might be able to find someone in a neighbouring kingdom willing to sell the seeds.”

“How do those things breed?”

Jonathan shook his head.

“No idea, but they do somehow. Anyway, apart from iron there's Titanium light and strong but hard to extract and work. Adamantian, super strong and ridiculously heavy and difficult to work with. I've seen it a few times being forged, does not look like fun. There's also Chelium, which is as soft as bread when it's pure but gets stronger the longer it is worked. The last major metal I know of is Gliyrhil. Seems to do something with nullifying magic...or amplifying, not really sure as I have never seen it.”

“That's quite a few.”

“There are many more, I have only just been able to work with iron.”

“And none of them here then?”

Jonathan shook his head.

“Wouldn't know what to look for. Apparently, there are different types of soil and other things to look out for but I have absolutely no idea. Maybe it is in one of those books?”

“Still can't read. Mining is such a large endeavour and those Stalks sound difficult to acquire, so we definitely don't have time.”

Jonathan smiled causing Anton to frown questioningly.

“Nice to know you aren't delusional.”

“That remains to be seen,” replied Anton.

They both looked out towards the three playing. Verona would occasionally look over at Anton, but when she saw that he was still talking she continued playing.

“It's weird to think that they can play so calmly with everything going on.”

Jonathan nodded.

“I don't think she's been happy for some time.”

As good a time as any.

“I haven't asked anyone yet but Verona doesn't seem to like Bertram and Sybil at all. She'll tolerate their presence and I haven't been willing to ask her. Do you have any idea?”

Jonathan sighed and leaned forward.

“Well, her father, Janos and Bertram disagreed on just about everything. That probably rubbed off on her. But it wasn't too bad, until the attacks started. They...both had different ideas on what to do. Janos wanted to attack right away while Bertram wanted to go get help.”

“So what was the problem?”

“When you have the two effective leaders arguing day and night...It paralysed us from doing anything. And if I'm honest...”

Jonathan looked over at Verona and leaned in closer to Anton.

“I don't think either had much of a plan. Janos didn't have a serious plan to equip everyone and Bertram appeared to presume the Yellow Goblins wouldn't attack. If they worked together...”

He sighed again.

“When they first attacked properly, Janos and Dahila where both killed. Bertram assumed leadership of the village...but seemed to have lost his nerve. He was quite brave back in the day. It also let that creep, Jeffrey, to get some idiots to follow him.”

But only after Verona's father died. There's going to be a connection.

“Anything I should be worried about?”

Jonathan frowned and pursed his lips.

“That 'boy' tried to come over to their house, far too often. Her father snapped when he went too far and beat him up. After that, he didn't come around, hid away for a time. It was a good fight if I am honest. That little boy realised that no adult liked him, not even his parents.”

“I don't think I want to know what 'too far' means, do I?”

“Nothing too bad. From what I heard it was trying to get into her room through a window. And to be honest Jonas probably went overboard, though no-one told him off for it.”

“Hmm.”

Anton was hesitant to go any further. He looked out at Verona, still happily playing. Now she appeared to the one being chased and doing a good job of it.

They both remained silent for some time.

“It is probably better for you to ask yourself. She would appreciate it more. Anyway, that's enough depressing stuff for now.”

“Yes,” Anton agreed, standing up, “How good are you at making armour?”

Jonathan shrugged slightly. “I'm okay I guess, far better with metal.”

“Can you make a small set,” Anton nodded in Verona's direction, “She's going to keep coming with me on each battle and I don't want to see her dead.”

“I can, just need the measurements. Judging by her mother...”

Anton turned to face Jonathan. His mind appeared to be in a different place.

“She was...big.”

For a moment Anton thought that he meant that Verona's mother was overweight. However, he realised what he really meant when he saw Jonathan's hands imitating large breasts.

“So?...”

“Probably almost the size of your head, each of them.”

“Hmm. Quite popular with the boys then, huh?”

Jonathan nodded frantically, still in fantasy land.

“Never flaunted it though.”

Anton turned to look at Verona. He couldn't tell how she looked underneath the villager clothes. They way they moved could mean she had large breasts but it was difficult to tell. Anton shook his head, trying to focus on the matter at hand.

“That shouldn't be an issue. Just make a small set with adjustable straps, use your best guess.”

“Got it.”

“Though, I think that weapons should be the priority. Try to have one weapon and set of armour being made. Also, talk to Bertram if you need more people to help, your kid's enthusiasm won't enough I'm afraid.”

Jonathan smiled and nodded, waving for his kids to return. The ran over, slightly tired from running around. Verona also came over, out of breath herself.

“Right, back to work you two,” Jonathan turned to Anton, “I think I'll get some people to help move stuff around.”

“Great, I'll let Bertram know now.”

Anton turned to leave when he heard the unmistakable sound of horses running. He looked towards the sun, it was halfway up in the clear sky.

Allot more time must have passed then I thought.

A scout pair trotted up and stopped outside the blacksmith. It wasn't the pair that went to the north.

Those two should have been back first. Hopefully, they're just at the main hall and waiting.

“We have a good map of the area to the south.” The male rider said to Anton.

“Head to the main hall. I'll meet you there, we'll do it all at once.”

The scout pair nodded, the horse set off at a quick pace towards the central plaza.

“Come on Verona, no use staying here.”

“Do you have the leg?”

“Umm...I finished it.”

“Awww. Oh well.”

Verona did not look that unhappy. She took her spear from the blacksmith wall and raced to walk beside Anton.

---[]---

Four of the scout groups had returned and had gathered in front of the main hall. The north group was still absent even though they probably should have been the first group to return. No one in the central plaza had seen them. It didn't feel good to Anton.

The horses did seem somewhat tired. They probably had been kept in barns for some time and hadn't exercised in weeks, probably a good thing to stretch their legs. Mounted units would be a great addition to their fighting capacities.

Regardless, the others were here and they each had a relatively detailed map of their area. A large table had been placed in the middle of the plaza, each scout group placing their map on the table. The writing and markings were ineligible to him. Verona stayed at Anton's right, looking like she was trying her hardest to understand the meeting.

“Alright, we should get this started. We'll have the squad to the east start.”

Two of the scouts stepped forward and gestured towards their piece of paper.

“Right, to the east there was little to find. Relatively flat grassland for the terrain. There is an old dirt and stone road heading far off to the east beyond the horizon. Some monsters roaming like Razor-Pigs, Thumpers, White and Grey wolves and some Green Goblins.”

The last monster type caught Anton's attention.

“Green Goblins? More varieties of their kind or what?”

The scout nodded.

“They're not very dangerous, probably weaker than a child. They also don't travel in large groups. Largest I've ever heard of was twenty.”

Anton wasn't entirely satisfied with the explanation. He motioned for the scout to continue but that was all the information.

“Okay, South East then.”

“Pretty much the same; a road heading south, flat grassland and the same sort of monsters. However, we did see evidence of poaching that's not human related. A whole bunch of dead Razor-Pigs and Thumpers...well, their carcasses at least.”

The scout reached into a bag and began ruffling around.

“What are Thumpers?”

Before anyone could answer a book was placed in front of him, detailing a Thumper. It was a large rabbit-like creature with over-sides legs and ears, its teeth did look somewhat menacing. He turned to see Bertram smiling at him. Anton didn't even know that he was there.

“Quick and flighty creatures. Got quite a lot of good meat on them if you can catch them.” Bertram explained.

Anton nodded and made room for Bertram at the table, which he accepted. Anton glanced at Verona. She had no emotion regarding his presence, only moving when Anton did. He didn't want to approach the issue now.

“Got it.”

The scout produced an arrowhead. It looked very crude, though it appeared to be furnished with some small red feathers on the arrowhead and tail. The scouts didn't appear to know what it was.

Bertram groaned uncomfortably before getting the book and flicking through the pages, eventually stopping on one that showed a near exact copy of the arrow.

“Here, arrows used by the Green Goblins.”

“What?”

Anton felt the blood drain. The thought that they were at their rear and prowling around felt terrible.

“I thought you said they don't move in large groups?!”

The scout was distressed by this news as well. Obviously, he didn't know about it.

Bertram continued to study and flick through the pages for a moment.

“Ah, here we go. It's scrawled on the edge two pages over. It says 'Goblin species can be controlled and form true settlements if they are intimidated by a more superior being, such as higher ranked Goblins, Orcs, Trolls or anything that can inspire fear in Goblins, not that that's hard. If the controlling being is killed the goblins will rapidly disperse.'”

“Well, that's something then,” Anton said to break the silence, “And you didn't see any of these things when you were there?”

The scout shook his head.

“Good. I think that we'll need to mark the entirety of the south as extremely dangerous.”

The other scouts nodded while Bertram continued to frown.

“The old capital is in that direction.”

Anton motioned for him to continue.

“Two or three days to the south. It had almost three hundred thousand people once. Large stone walls, vast crop-lands and many tunnels and secret caverns. It's probably where they would be. It was the only place with stone structures inside the kingdom. There could still be some good things hidden there.”

“We are definitely too small to contemplate something like that yet. Nonetheless, good to know. Alright, next scout group please.”

“Hang on, one last thing.” the scout interjected, “There is a lake far in the distance, almost a days walk. We could see the shimmering of the water and the pillars.”

The scout pulled out another sheet of paper. On it was a beautifully drawn picture of a lake but what drew Anton's attention were the pillars. They were massive stone towers that appeared to made from badly stacked tiles but truly gigantic, judging from the scale it was several hundred meters tall. There were nine in total and each was connected by a single slab. It was too far away for the scouts to see if anything else about them.

“What are they?”

The scout looked stumped. All eyes trained to Bertram.

“I don't know. You would need to ask Jonathan. He knows quite a bit about ores and stones, or Zac for that matter.”

Neither were present.

“Alright, anything else?”

“Nothing else. Same as the previous report. Just that there is a road heading slightly East of South. Possibly the road to the capital.”

“Alright, the western scouts then.”

“Loads and loads of trees to the west, much larger than those around the village. You can see it and could probably get there in under a day if we really tried. There's a road into the forest but it looks very overgrown.”

“How far does the forest stretch?”

“As far as you can see either way. Almost reaching the mountain but it curves away before reaching the base. We also saw people working at the quarry. Didn't see anything trying to move back in or monsters on the prowl. Just Razor-Pigs, Thumpers and some wild Ix near the tree line. ”

“Thank-you everyone. Make sure you get some food and some quick rest. We'll still need you to help out with the rest of village.”

The scouts left very quickly. Bertram and Verona stayed behind.

“Good to know that there isn't too much of a threat, except to the south.”

Anton moved the four maps together. There really wasn't much terrain to worry about and the other monsters had kept their distance. A group of potential goblins to the south was worrying, but they were least of their problems now.

The northern scouts had not returned yet and the waiting was starting to get to Anton.

He only had given the village a few short days to prepare and they hadn't got that much in the way of weapons, armour or defences. If this did provoke an invasion he knew they wouldn't last long.

Had he over-estimated his own strength and sent everyone here, including himself, towards oblivion?

Thoughts and fears circled and churned through his mind, preventing him from thinking about anything else.

“You okay?” Verona asked.

Her voice snapped him out of his stupor.

She appeared to be quite concerned, frowning gently.

“Sorry, I'm just wondering if I made a terrible mistake.”

“It'll work out, I'm sure. You've been...a great help for everyone.”

She lightly tapped Anton's leg with the but of her spear, teasing him whilst wearing her ear to ear grin.

“Thanks.” he patted her on the head again. She closed her eyes, seemingly enjoying it. “Though I am worried...I think that's them now.”

The sound of a charging horse filled the air.

Anton almost felt a moment of relief, but one quick looked made him feel weak in the knees.

A horse was approaching, but not like he ever hoped to see it.

The horse was covered in blood, cuts and gashes. Its breath was laboured and it ran with an obvious limp. Worse still was that there was only one person at the reigns, the male map drawer. He too was covered in cuts and scratches, some looking worse than the horses.

He rode the beast as far as it could before it gave way, exhaustion finally claiming it. Its front legs buckled and its body fell forward, the man luckily falling off to the side. Anton rushed forward, with many other villagers already trying to help both man and beast.

Anton moved to the man first, placed his hand on his chest and using the prayer power. His wounds healed to a non-threatening level, though it still did use quite a bit of mana.

“What happened?” Anton asked, making sure the man stated lying down so he didn't use his strength.

“We...we made it to the third ridge before the mountain.” the man said in-between laboured breaths.

He reached towards his bag, another villager rifling through and retrieving the map before handing it to Anton. It was quite well made, though it was covered in blood.

“They were hiding behind that ridge...They tried to run off and we tried to stop them before they could make it back. They're quick. Made it to the last ridge before the mountain, fifth ridge from here. We saw...hundreds at the base. They were gathering for something. Before we could do anything more came out of hiding spots. They got Dana. And I ran as fast as I could.”

“Did they kill her?” Verona asked. She started caressing the man's head to comfort him.

He shook his head.

“They hit her in the head with a rock from a sling and she fell off. She was dragged off by them before I could get her back on.”

He fell silent afterwards, the shock and adrenaline withdrawal finally incapacitating him. He tried to say something else but he only spoke gibberish.

Anton turned to Bertram.

“Find your son and tell him that we will be attacked and soon. Tell the archers, make sure they man the walls. Get everyone that's free to work on the wall and to start securing the women and children in the larger buildings. They'll be coming for us.”