We finished fairly early, the afternoon sun only just rising. Numen returned, settling in a hiding place atop the prison, ready to reveal herself once they fell into the trap. I stood on a watchtower, a makeshift zipline linked between it and the top of the kitchen with spare lengths of my armour.

Qent nodded to me, the same bandanna around his face, they’d both been made a sandy colour to match our skin tones. We’d found some among the captor’s belongings, which reassured me somewhat that they might actually be fooled by our ruse.

The sound of raucous laughter was what signalled their arrival, the sound growing as they left the trees. I affected surprise, exaggeratedly jolting to attention then turning to the fort to shout. The group saw this, laughing as they approached.

I looked at them out of the corner of my eye, ostensibly still watching people get to their positions. They had just raided a passing caravan it seemed, many were hauling boxes of goods, while a few pushed forward several captives. They weren’t going to enter as a compact group when Qent made his wall, there’d be a few left outside. Good thing Numen had passed me a bow.

“What the hell have I said about guarding the fort?” A voice bellowed from below, their leader no doubt. “Maybe I should flay a few of you, what happens if we’re found?!” A little late for that. I thought to myself. The group entered, laughing and joking, then the ones in front saw the bodies in the prison. A collective gasp came from the group in front, and Qent finally released the magic he’d been preparing.

The earth groaned and shuddered as an earthen wall jutted up between the walls where the gate was, smashing it aside with a huge crack. Qent then turned his attention to the massing throng beneath him, and a number of flaming missiles poured down onto the group, he took pains to avoid the captives, who mostly cowered, too scared to run.

Amidst the screams I picked up the bow and sighted, loosing several arrows at those left outside the gate. I still had the skill it seemed, the arrows plunging into their necks or the area between the neck and their collarbones. A few instead carved gouges into their scalps.

They started to run, and I dropped the last few, turning to look back at the group below. Qent had slowed his attacks. His flames had nicely driven the enemies towards the traps, where Sel and Frejr dispatched them, then moved past them to engage the others. Qent instead used focused strikes, a few flames, but mostly crumbling the ground at their feet and mixing it with water. Less flashy, but crowd control was far more useful here than raw power.

Numen’s arrows found their marks in the throats and eyes of the bandits, but the group was still almost ten men strong. Screams and the smell of blood tinged the air. I pulled a piece of armour to use on the zipline. A roar took me by surprise as I slid down, and I craned my head to look.

A beast leapt onto the walls, its features draconic. It was without wings, and the size of a school bus. “Wyvern!” Qent screamed from the watchtower. It clambered onto the kitchen, readying itself to pounce onto the bandits. Well this is going to suck. I thought, bracing as I sped toward it.

I slammed into the beast feetfirst, barely shifting its mass. It turned to swipe at me, and I just barely managed to duck beneath its first strike. I drew my sword, hesitated, then rolled aside, the scales on most of it’s body were too strong for me to cut through, I needed a better position. I disengaged, tumbling to the ground and swinging at the first bandit I could. The wyvern pounced onto the group, scattering the ones at the edges and pinning down a few others, a captive among them.

It flexed its claws, and blood stained the ground, its tail sent Frejr back a few metres. The wyvern curled up, facing its back to Numen whose arrows bounced harmlessly off its scales. I looked around, picking a spear from the ground with my left hand as I sheathed my sword. “Stay down.” I shouted to the other captives, their ashen faces nodded, and they huddled on the ground.

I circled the beast, drawing its attention by banging the spear against my arm, its slitted eyes focused on me, and its body tensed. I rolled aside as it pounced at me, barrelling into the bandits behind me. I turned, grabbing the spear with both hands and thrusting downwards at its leg, the spear tip caught, but entered half an inch and stopped. I jerked it free as the wyvern swung its tail at me.

The swing knocked the breath from my body, and something cracked under the armour. I gasped, rolling to my feet. The wyvern’s focus fixed to me, and it lunged forward again, I shifted, and it shoulder checked me, it’s maw closing onto empty air and sending me rolling again. I coughed, someone grabbed me by the arm, pulling me away.

I pushed myself upright, turning to see Numen. “You really shouldn’t be down here.” I murmured, wincing from the pain in my chest.

“My arrows aren’t making a dent in that thing, I needed a better view.” She said, eyes running over my chest in concern. “Are you okay?”

I nodded. “Go get your view.” I said. A hiss came from the wyvern, and I turned to see Frejr’s greatsword stabbed towards the creature’s throat. She held it in a half-sword grip, but the wyvern shied away at the last moment, leaving a gouge instead of a critical wound. Sel struck at it from the back, having picked up an axe from one of the bandits, a solid strike, but it didn’t penetrate. Do we have anything that can penetrate that hide? I thought in frustration.

One of the bandits swung at me from the side, I dodged, more surprised and confused than anything. A wyvern was here and they still wished to fight? I ducked under, dodging the blow and pushing his arm along its path to lock his movement and stabbing the sword into his abdomen. He snarled, and I jerked the blade, killing him and dropping his corpse.

[Can’t expect them all to be bright.] Page remarked.

I grunted, drawing the spear for another strike at the wyvern. It circled, seeing us surround it, and pushed Sel aside, grabbing one of the corpses as it vaulted over the wall. We were tense for a while longer, looking over to where it had gone. A minute later I slumped down, clutching my side as the pain caught up to me. I checked the potion I’d stored away, seeing a hairline crack running across the surface. I shifted it in my hand, checking if it leaked as I made my way to the other captives.

A few of them carried burn marks, not quite as serious as the bandits Qent had struck, but a few had been debilitating. I handed them the potion, cautiously rationing the amount as I passed it around. Sel joined me a while later. “I think that takes care of that. No more bandits still around far as I see.” She said, shrugging and helping to move those too weak to do it themselves.

Sel, Frejr, and I each had a vial of healing potion, but it was a better idea only to use a single vial at a time, it spoiled less readily when not exposed, or mixed with saliva. Most of them were grateful, thanking us in a hoarse voice. One of them simply stared at the corpse left crushed by the wyvern claw. As I approached him he spoke. “This was her first outing.”

“You shot at us.” He said. “You shot at us, and those traps!” He turned to me, pointing to the other captives who had run into them during the chaos. “You… You bastard!” He snarled, swinging a dagger at my person. I batted it aside, grabbing him by the wrist and ripping the dagger from his hand. I pushed him down, discarding the dagger. I looked at him for a moment, then spoke.

“I had no options that would allow me to decisively defeat them.” I said, voice raised to carry. “If they weren’t taken out completely, they would’ve continued hunting others, turning them into entertainment, or just target practice.” I snarled. “So yeah, I made the plan. The idea was that some of you would be injured, but we can heal those wounds. I didn’t expect the wyvern, nor the deaths, but if you think that this was a worse fate…” My words hung in the air.

The man stared into my eyes a moment more, then broke eye contact. I rounded up the group, many of whom looked at me with trepidation. While in effect the plan was a joint effort, there was nothing to gain in making it out to be one, better to accept the full blame than to spread it around. As we left I thought I saw a faint yellow gleam on the other side, watching us leave. Next time. I vowed.

A group as large as ours scared most creatures away by dint of size, and so the path back to Lrash proved uneventful. When we arrived some of the villagers greeted the freed with concern, and the group dispersed, led off by the people they knew in the village.

I let out a breath, hunching a little to ease the pain on my ribs. If I were normal breaking my ribs so often would likely have some serious consequences. I said nothing, there was nothing they could do for me, and worrying them would be pointless.

I changed my armour back to its original form as Sel went to find Jeff, the rest of the group in tow, as Sel believed that he would want to hear about the bandits as well. Once I was done I dressed myself again, following directions that Sel had provided to reach the Grathian church. It was a fairly small building, the only difference being that it was hewn mostly of stone instead of the wood that pervaded most of the other buildings here.

Numen was waiting inside. “You’re here. That’s great” She said, guiding me to the priest’s office. The main room, was it the atrium? Whatever it was, housed several idols, I counted a total of five main statues, roughly human height, yet elevated into their own alcoves. The candles placed at their feet lent them an imperious countenance. Other statuettes were also present, in their own small recesses besides the main statues, lesser gods tied to the others perhaps.

Jeff’s office had a couch, where several of the others had sat down, I looked at it with surprise. Frejr looked to me, dressed in plain clothes. “You’ll have to get another chair, there is no more room on this couch anymore.” How do they have a couch?! I wondered in surprise.

[It isn’t outside the realm of possibility for the time to possess these.] Page remarked.

I conceded the point, there was no upholstery to it, simply a wooden frame and a woven sheet of dried leaves to sit upon. I looked around, settling on a simple wooden chair that I carried over, sitting by the others. Jeff sat across us, at his desk, he’d prepared a quill and ink and once I sat, leaned forward to speak. “Great, you’re all gathered. Uh, can I ask you all to talk about the bandits?”

Frejr told him of the plan that had been made, and we took turns to tell of our involvement. I didn’t explain too much about the armour, making vague comments and substitutions, when I began to speak of the wyvern Jeff interjected. “You struck a wyvern while sliding down a rope, with both feet?” He said, astonished, it then turned to wry amusement. “Truth is stranger indeed.”