Perhaps you will find this shocking, but most of these seemingly monstrous animals are easier to get along with than other people: it’s easy to discern the intentions of a hungry troll or lonely warbel, but it’s not the same with your fellow man.

Lavanya Sanghvi - the Monster Bane - Adventurer’s Guide to Surviving the Idroan Wilderness

____

Warily glancing around, Silas searched for the damn owl, sensing it was close. Some time ago, he had heard a soul-piercing hoot and known then that it was back on his case, a bitter pill to swallow. Well, his feelings be damned as it appeared the owl had taken a liking to him.

Hoping it had passed the area without noticing him, he resumed walking, idly wondering what roast owl would taste like when suddenly he stopped and groaned in exasperation. There, several hundred paces ahead sat the owl with a deer splayed out in front of it. It must have likewise spotted him as it stopped nibbling on the deer and flew up to a nearby branch.

“Not you again,” Silas called.

The owl whistled back, a cheeky smile on its face.

Despite feeling a headache coming, Silas approached the owl, knowing he couldn’t outrun it, anyway. As it clearly understood him, at least to an extent, he figured he might as well get some answers from the damn bird. Moving to the deer, he blinked in confusion and fired his first question.

“What’s this for?”

The owl immediately flew down, forcing him back a few steps (although he didn’t level his spear) and started nibbling on it again, slowing the motion for his benefit.

Could it be it had hunted for him? “I can’t eat raw venison.”

The owl drew back and stared at him with its electric eyes, unblinking, until he sighed and gave in. “I need a fire to cook it, you know, like dry logs and sticks.”

That was all the owl needed as it was off before he could sneak in another word. Knowing what it was up to, he cleared out space for a fire and waited several minutes for the owl to return, at which time it dropped several sticks of varying size.

“More,” he said, arranging the sticks and starting a fire with his lighter. He chopped the deer up into rough cuts and did his best in skinning two legs that he thought looked filling. By the time the owl returned with more logs, the two cuts were half cooked, fat dripping and hissing on the sizzling stones below. He accepted its delivery with a grunt and seasoned the cuts with salt and pepper, eventually taking them off the heat when they looked done.

Throwing a leg the owl’s way, he let it watch in its creepily fascinated manner as he bit into his meal, finding the freshly cooked meat surprisingly succulent. Copying him, the owl took several pecks at the cooked leg before waddling over to the butchered deer and eating it that instead.

“Oh, come on, it’s not that bad. I think it’s actually alright,” he shouted with indignation, although the owl seemed unmoved by his comment as it continued feasting on raw meat. “Well, suit yourself,” he said, reminding himself he was getting agitated at an owl.

Following their meal, the owl disappeared for a few hours, in which Silas refused himself the false hope, before reappearing and flying uncomfortably close for the remaining time. The next day, Silas grew further at ease with his companion and eventually named it Ruffle, which aptly ruffled its feathers. After several minutes of hissing and shrieking, he gave in and renamed it Bandit after a rabbit he used to keep.

Although immensely tense at first, he even started scratching its head, finding the simple action almost as calming as Bandit found it. By now, he was certain Bandit had once been someone else’s pet as it was overly eager to befriend him. Still, it must have seen hundreds of humans prior to him, so who knew why it had followed him and not them.

It was on the third day after his departure from Riverside that he spied on New Derby, a bustling town that seemed to go on and on, ending at the foot of a craggy mountain. He hoped, in all its people, that there would be someone who could help find Ethan and Chloe.

****

“So, in four day’s time, Dom will lead a group of forty to scout out the quarry. Are we all agreed on that?” Elise asked the rest of the council. Several nods and concurring murmurs answered her. “Great, we’ll review that again after the horde to see if it’s still a good idea then.”

Josh leaned back from his chair and stretched his arms over his head. He moaned as his lower back popped. Returning to his usual posture, he faced Iris beside him. “Are you going to go with them?”

She shrugged and wrote, There’ll be many injured there, so it would be silly of me not to go. You?

“Probably, I guess, if everyone else is going. Besides, how sick would it be if it turned out to be a village exclusively made of animals there?” he said, chuckling at the thought of hedgehogs in little suits filling out bureaucratic forms. “Maybe they won’t all be as quick to violence as that lynx; maybe they’ll see our forces and decide to just talk it out, you know.”

“You shouldn’t put your hopes on that,” Rolf commented from the side, his voice shaky and tense. As it was to be his first time out of the village proper, he seemed both excited and worried about what was to come. “What if they try to maul us to death the second they spot us?”

“Ah, I’m sure it’ll be fine. Anyway—” Josh said, cutting off as he heard boots loudly clacking across the floorboards. He looked over and saw a guard with a flushed face racing through the hall, heading for Dom.

“There’s a large armed group coming here right now. They’re led by Mike.” Her strained voice silenced the hall at once, and the council members gaped at each other with wide eyes, looking to each other on how to react.

Dom’s chair screeched across the ground as he rose, his roughly hewn features creasing into a stern expression. “Well, I guess it’s time he did something.” The pencil-moustached Squire blinked and let out a breath. “Has anyone else moved after seeing his band of chumps?”

“No one that we could see,” the guard answered.

Dom grunted. “The other nine are still outside, yeah?” he said, referencing the Riverside Constabulary officers he had assigned to protect the council. She nodded. “Good, so we’ve got you ten of you there and a bit over ten in here. It’s workable.” He beckoned Rolf over to the war table, “Time to work your magic, Tactician.”

Rolf unfurled the map and stared at it for a dozen heartbeats before sighing deeply. They couldn’t make good use of the geography considering they were stuck on this hill. Perhaps the height advantage would have helped in another situation, but they had no bowmen here and their enemies could easily run up the gentle incline as well.

Raising his head, he gazed around the hall and noted the number of non-fighters in the council. “Maybe we should barricade in here?” he suggested. “If Elise buys buildings, we can quickly stack up the bricks by the entrances.”

Clicking his tongue, Dom answered, “They would smash it down given a few moments. Best we face them outside.”

The Tactician’s shoulders sunk and he shook his head. “There’s nothing I can think of then. Just that we should focus on Alice before she manages to do heavy damage with her fire.”

His faltering words made Josh think of Natalie. He wished the Cryomancer had been in the council as her magic would have been beyond useful now. Then again, perhaps she would notice the commotion and come anyway.

“Well, then,” Dom said, bringing back everyone’s roving attentions with a sudden clap. “Looks like it’s time to go clean up some scum.”

Following the procession out of the building, Josh rolled his sword in his grip, his heart settling into a thundering warsong. However, it sank as he saw Mike waiting in a group of thirty on the hilltop, the rest of his faction stationed at the bottom the hill, preventing others from climbing up. As expected, Alice and Sabine stood with Mike, as well as several other notable figures including Peng and Ernst, the captains of his pack of goons.

“I was beginning to think you had burrowed yourself in there,” Mike called out, offering a dashing grin. His dreads ran down to his shoulders, resting on the thick armour which would have weighed down a lesser man, and he casually balanced a bastard sword over his shoulders. There was no fear in his eyes, no worry, just mirth.

“I was giving you some time—” Dom said, spinning his mace in one hand and raising his large round shield in the other, “— to ready yourself for your beatdown”. He had repositioned his blue bandana from his head to his neck, and it fluttered in the whistling wind. Although he strode confidently and valiantly, the men and women behind him walked with a dead man’s gait.

Elise stopped next to him, veins showing on her lean forearms as she clenched her Dane axe. She venomously glared at Mike’s party. Josh came next to her, and Iris next to him, her eyes nervous and her arms shaking. This was to be their last stand.

____

Alice Reid, the Pyromancer, was originally a showgirl from Ireland. Passing the normal tutorial, she came to Idroa classless and joined Big Mike’s Den, a settlement under Michael Eze’s rule. Michael immediately took notice of her, and she relished in the attention of a celebrity. Swiftly entering a relationship, she gained her class soon after and helped him solidify his position in Big Mike’s Den in an attempt to keep his eyes on her even as they roved to other women.

Almost two weeks after its founding, the Ratkin tore down Big Mike’s Den, and Alice fled to Riverside along with Michael. Although she wanted to oust its mayor, Silas Wycliffe, the Duellist, at once, Michael urged her to wait for reasons unknown to us. While she listened to him, she grew increasingly frustrated with time as he began seeing several women in addition to her, including Sabine Gantzmann, the Blood Fist.

However, before her frustration could boil over to rage, Michael made his bid for mayorship, and she gladly aided him in this endeavour.

Stefan Sommer - the Chronicler - Heroes and Villains of the First Age