Gula POV

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It was a clear day as we moved through the woods and boulders. The midday sun filtered in through the trees as my group of 12 plus Frojan and I made our way quietly through the woods, trying our best to avoid the occasional large clumping’s of huge stones that dotted this section of the woods. As I had predicted, the higher ups wanted us to perform a few scouting runs to get a better idea of how the humans were reacting to the decimation of the Crypt fort.

Of course, my bosses would probably also like to have known about a male mage with all the elements running around and I didn’t oblige them that task when I threw my mage report in the fire a few days ago. This was despite the fact that the mission I did deign to accept from them was more dangerous.

We were moving through a section in the north hugging the mountains known as Griffons pass. It was a good stretch taking up the northern area just south of the northern gang but above the Bulwark where the highest hills became mountains and were littered with even more boulders and rocks from Griffons setting up their nests in the track of land they had claimed as their species own. Which was very troublesome considering this used to be one of the quickest overland routes between the north and south before the dammed beasts started squatting on it.

Normally we would never risk such things, but we were spotted by a mage scout far from any of the rivers we could easily escape too. As we headed back towards our exit, the mages started patrolling around us. It was a close thing for a while, but they never expected us to go in here. For good reason, I noted as we moved around a boulder and came upon several corpses picked clean of their flesh. I spotted several human skeletons among the piles of deer, rabbit, and bear bones.

Moving on with not a word spoken, we gradually got to an area where the hills began to rise and fall with gentler slopes and the boulders of griffon nests dissipated. We managed to get within several yards towards a pond nestled in the middle of a grove of trees that we knew connected to the vast network of water filled paths that made up our underground travel network.

Before we could breath a collective sigh of relief, a sharp, deep cry rang out near the last nest we saw further back. A look passed between all of us before a sigh escaped my lips and we headed back to check it out. If another patrol came out here and we let them die, the local commander might just blame us. At least if we brought back one of them or a body it would demonstrate that we tried to help. It took a minute before we heard a clear stream of shouting and screaming back towards the nest along with the screech of a mighty bird.

Coming closer I noticed the voices were too deep and masculine to belong to my own kind. We snuck up to a large boulder and I peeked beyond the stone to see what was at the center of all of this ruckus. In the middle of an empty patch of grass between two boulders was a Griffon that had several long cuts and two arrows in its hide as it clawed and bit at the three dwarves with the distinct metallic sting of blood filling the air.

These smaller people were quite similar to humans but the irises that rested on the otherwise human eyes seemed to be made of gems around the dark center, having the same hard edges and colors of precious jewels. These ones were dressed in red leather with axes that seemed a bit oversized for their users. One with wild red hair was laying in the dirt with a bleeding forehead as his cross bow lay on top of him.

We had been getting some reports of increased dwarf activity in recent days. Nothing serious, just some scouting parties being spotted near the mountains to the north moving through the pass that connected the Coalition and the Phoenix empire. This time it looks like one of them wasn’t sneaky enough to avoid the natural predators out here. Diplomatically, they weren’t enemies but they weren’t friends either, so our orders were only to observe dwarf activity but not engage them unless they attacked first.

The other two were around the unconscious dwarf trying to fend the beast off as the black haired dwarves brandished an axe each with a heavy steel handle and solid thick blades embroidered with the rough solid lines of dwarven runes. Despite their skill and armaments, the griffon was clearly getting the better of them as it gradually pushed the bloodied warriors back towards their fallen comrade.

We all stood still for a moment before Baloo spoke up.

“You know, one of us could hit it with a spell from here and when it comes up towards us we cut it up with water blades.” He said to the rest of the group.

“Could and should are two different things.” I said in a neutral tone.

“Well, that mage didn’t have to help us either.” A younger red skinned Frojan said in the back. He was one of the two Frojan who got healed by our unexpected ally.

“He had a use for us to get into the prison and probably needs us to help co-ordinate with the other orcs.” I retorted.

“So why heal us after he had gotten into the prison? Letting three of our number die would have made us more dependent on him and it’s not like anyone woulda blamed him or risked upsetting him over it.” He responded. I merely responded in my thougts

‘Maybe he didn’t know we were outcasts, maybe he just needs us that that badly, maybe… Bah!’ I thought to myself. It wasn’t the mage or even helping these dwarves that was the problem, it was that damned report I didn’t send.

I didn’t regret it, but I felt like a tipping point had been reached. That some threshold or line had been crossed that couldn’t just be backtracked over even if I sent out the report now. The concerns of my race and my obligations to my own kind, things that had been the driving force through all of the brutal training and missions, were now more muted and felt like some idle distant thought that held no real importance. Like an old friend who had become distant, only the sense of separation had developed over the course of minutes.

Thinking it over quickly, the mage did indeed have some reasons to not bother with healing us, but he did. If our sworn enemy was willing to help us, maybe this aid should be returned in kind to another group in need. I sighed and hung my head.

“That wizard is going get me killed through second-hand good deeds. Get three people each with water staffs to those two boulders to our right and left. We’ll try and get its legs and arms trapped in a water shields while the others cut it to pieces.” I said. The rest moved with no argument and took up positions beside two smaller boulders on either side of us.

As the one who initially suggested this course of action, naturally Baloo was the one who would launch the first attack as I and the rest of the Frojan hid behind the boulders.

The dark-green Frojan summoned a large ball of water that gradually formed into a razor-sharp half moon that zipped out towards the griffon as it ripped an axe from one of the dwarves hands. The water blade cut deep into the hide of the beast who howled in pain before it turned towards Baloo with fury plain in the eyes resting above its beak.

I heard a hard churning of dirt and the rush of wings as I heard what must have been the beast charging him. Baloo leapt backwards as he shot off another water blade towards the enemy now unseen.

But it apparently had smelled us because I heard the hard clack of claws working up over the boulder we were behind.

“Get back!” I shouted. The boys took off but the beast was already over the boulder and moving towards us. It clacked its beak in annoyance when two water shields wrapped around its mid-section and stuck it in place. I pulled out a throwing dagger from my side and my aim was only slightly off as the blade took the beast in the chest. It roared in pain and finally struggled free of its restraint, the water shield dissolving into a mist and then into nothingness as the beast charged down the boulder.

This time it charged around the side of the boulder I was running behind, but two water shields suddenly restrained its two front legs and a flurry of water blades followed along with the dagger I threw a few feet to the left of the previous one. If it had been an elemental griffon or if there had been two of them this tactic would never have worked but after repeating this setup two more times the beast tired and a final blow of three water blades took its bloody head.

We came out from behind the rocks and I retrieved the three daggers I had lodged in its chest over the course of the fight. The two dwarves looked at us suspiciously, clearly confused at our apparent aid. I walked towards them as I rummaged through the small sack of herbs on the hip of my black leather armor. The two tensed but when I pulled out the green medicine and a bandage their grip on their axes relaxed.

The two dwarves were dressed in red leather with small wine-red capes and leather straps held all of their equipment on their backs covered up by the leather curtain. A dubious look passed between them but at least they didn’t raise their weapons.

“You can let him die or you can let me fix up that gash on his forehead.” I said plainly when I stopped a few feet from them.

One of them looked down into his left pouch and I heard the rattle of what sounded like empty bottles. After closing the pouch, he shook his head towards his companion. The other one put his axes handle to the ground and rested his right hand on the back side of the axes flat top.

“Thanks…. Miss.” The slightly taller one with the pouch said, his sapphire eyes showing genuine gratitude, while the others bulbous nose and lips twitched at his clear unease with the situation as he kept his ruby eyes on me. I spent a few minutes cleaning the wound with a wineskin filled with water before wrapping the herbs and bandage around his head.

As I was finishing tying the knot around the unconscious dwarf’s head, I heard the stomp of heavy feet of to my right. Looking up I saw a group of near 20 dwarves all looking at me with some bearing small compact crossbows that were trained on me and the Frojan as they looked down on us atop three large boulders. The rest were on the ground holding axes and small shields coming out behind the boulders. At the front was a grey bearded dwarf who was walking up to us.

He had a metal shoulder guard on his right side with a gold lined edge and red painted metal shining in the midday sun. His emerald outlined eyes looked over all of us as he took in the injured dwarf and the bloodied remains of the griffon. His mouth got a puckered expression which exasperated the lines in the dwarves aged face. Not that there was much to see aside from the eyes, bulbous nose, and sharp cheek bones in the middle of the full braided beard and grey hair.

“Well, I’m glad I got here before my cross bowmen. They’re a younger lot and probably would have made some rash decisions seeing a bloody dwarf being leaned over by an orc. So, I must thank you for your aid…” He said politely.

“Gula,” I said with a courteous bow of my head. There wasn’t anything about dwarves in our training and I didn’t have a chance at conducting any kind of official diplomacy, but I gave it my best.

“Thank you, Gula. May the stone accept you. If you ever find yourself in the dwarven lands, say Gashton Ingrand is a friend and while I can’t guarantee a friendly welcome, I will see you given a room and food.” He said with a gracious bow.

“I will keep that in mind. May the willows whisper your name, Gashton” I said with a light bow. I walked back over to my guys and we shuffled out. The time was now slightly past lunch as we munched on some hard crackers and drank from wineskins filled with fruity juice from swamp berries as we trekked back through the woods at a slightly slower pace with so many of our members now slower from the strain of having used so much magic. I took a big swig of the pink liquid as the conversation started back up.

“I bet that wizard would have killed the griffon and healed the dwarf before we would have had time to blink,” One of the younger Frojan said, this time a light blue one with a loose green robe.

“Yeah, right. There wasn’t any metal on it for him to use. More to the point don’t talk about him so freely unless you want to explain what you were talking about to the local commander” I said as we made our way through the trees back towards our patch of watery safety.

“She’s right on that point, but as far as the wizard goes, I don’t know.” Baloo said we came up to the several dozen yards wide and long pool of water as he helped usher the rest into the watery depths. “The metal magic he used was mighty convenient to use against those mages and bandits at the fort, but that doesn’t mean he’s any less skilled with the other two elements.” He said as another Frojan slipped out of the water and handed him a special helmet.

This helmet had a wooden frame that enveloped the entire head of the wearer and had several bags of stretchy, elastic substance ringing around the side of it. I didn’t know where the substance came from, or what it was made of but the grey sacks were expanding as they took in the surrounding air.

As I was putting the helmet on my head, what sounded like a furious digging of soil off to the left in between two trees drew both my gaze and Baloo’s as the rest had already gone ahead to double check the supplies and make sure this section of the tunnel was good. I put down the helmet and drew my sword.

There was no more noise and as we both went around opposite sides of the two trees, I saw a churned mass of dirt a bit further behind the trees along the downward slope of the hill. But whatever it was, it was long gone.

We both looked at each other and then back towards the griffon nest we just left.

“Can they move through dirt like that? Might have been a magically enhanced mole that didn’t like us poking around the water ways.” He said hopefully.

After biting my lip for a second, I decided to go back to the pool as I slid the sword back into the holster.

“I’m not telling those assholes in high command anything more than I have to. If they want him before the dwarves get him, they can come out here and fight the munchkins their damned selves.” I said in a sour voice as I made my way back towards the pool.

I got the wooden helmet on me and the world went black as I felt a band of grey, slick substance around the inside of the helmet expand around my shoulders that created an airtight seal. With practiced ease, I took out a small glass jar from my thigh pocket and smeared blackened grease around my swords holster to protect it from water before Baloo took my hand and guided me through the water as I put the bottle back. After a few seconds I suddenly got a sense of movement as cold water rushed over my body with extreme pressure.

Occasionally, a Frojan hand would push my head down or up as we moved through the tunnel at a speed that would only be achievable underwater using the wooden boards that the man frogs activated at certain points.

How long it took to get home varied based on how many people were using the tunnels but it was light traffic today and I only had to wait still with no stimulation but my own thoughts one time while another group was moved ahead of us in the pitch black darkness. Baloo told me they use some magic enchantment system to co-ordinate traffic down here but my training only ever touched on withstanding the tremendous forces on my body using the underwater travel system, not how to use it.

After a while, I finally arrived back in the swamps. We were in a section of the swamp that was only an hour from home. Baloo continued to guide me near to an island among the muck that was barely big enough to hold all of us. I had to wait under the water until the seal ran out of air and let water into the helmet. Stealing one last breath of air, I pulled off the helmet and made my way to land.

Breathing in the fresh air, I looked around at the several Frojan who stayed behind to look over me while as the rest scampered around for fresh fish or shrimp. Baloo was sitting on the bank where the land met the water. I got to my feet and wiped the mud off the legs of my armor.

“All right. The report will be increased movement indicating more supplies being brought to the Vipers main fort and the male mages were all being moved towards that academy and the Bulwark. Same as all the other reports we’ve seen” I told Baloo, who responded with a nod as he used magic to create a large popping splash of water in between the large cattails. A fish bobbed to the surface; its neck twisted at an odd angle.

I made my way home as I moved through the water and jogged over the few odd patches of land. While the wilder parts in the southern neck of the swamps and more eastern side were home to some larger crabs and other predators that would pose great danger to me, the bigger beasts had been driven from here long ago.

Walking up to my house, I saw a line of smoke from the cooking fire coming out of the window as it drifted up into the red and orange sky of the early afternoon. Going through the rough wood door, I saw mother working the pot to my left. She was wearing a blue skirt and white shirt this time with a white bandana that covered her head, including her three corn rows.

“Ah, welcome home.” She said as she got up off the stool and and got behind me for our ritual. She loosened the black strap around my neck until the belt buckle loosened completely.

“All right let’s get the bitches neck strap-“

“Grandma” I interrupted her, “Grandmas neck strap”

Mothers red eyes looked at me for a moment with a raised eyebrow as she thumbed the black piece of leather.

“Hey, there’s no point holding it against her now. Even if there was... I’m certainly not in the position to do so.” I said lightly as I went to my room to change for dinner.