"Has anyone seen the village chief?" a male villager asked.

A female villager shook her head. "Not since a few hours ago."

"Me neither," said another male villager.

Aleister looked down to Mitre and asked, "I know you were with the chief earlier, and even though it has been a couple hours since then, you wouldn't know where he wandered off to, would you?"

"I wasn't with the old man!" Mitre said in a smug voice. "He chased me, but I ran so fast he couldn't catch up."

"Sounds like no," Aleister said.

"Then who's going to send the emergency missive?" a female villager asked.

"Don't worry, I already sent one as soon as I could," Gilmore said, exiting the village chief's office. "Captain Cynre should arrive with troops in under four hours. Based on our scout's report, the gnoll pack should attack before then. Holding them off for two hours is more than manageable."

The villagers all nodded and agreed with his words. Captain Cyrne was the man in charge of the nearby military camp's operations and a Weaver. Once he and his troop arrived, the village would be in safe hands.

Gilmore motioned towards Aleister. "How are you feeling?"

"Conflicted," he answered.

With a raised eyebrow, Gilmore asked, "Oh? How so?"

Aleister sighed. "I'm conflicted, because no doubt this will be a great opportunity to put all of my training into practice against actual enemies. But, this opportunity comes at the cost of the lives of the villagers."

"Who said any of the villagers were going to die?" Gilmore questioned as the two of them wore leather armor created from cowhide, the cheapest option. Boiled oil coated the tanned leather and provided more protection than basic hemp paddings.

"I don't want any of them to die, but realistically, its bound to happen, isn't it?" He wanted to move past this conversation and asked, "Anyway, do you have any idea on what could have caused this attack to happen in the first place?"

Gilmore scratched his bearded chin. "It's likely just a wandering pack of gnolls. An unlucky and rare sight, but an event bound to happen. Even more so since we aren't near a city. They shouldn't pose too much of a threat."

"I assume that you have a plan for me?"

"Of course," Gilmore said, taking out a map. "You're going to be with me, on the southern gate. From what our scout saw, this gnoll pack has about sixty members in it. Not the largest, but that is to be expected. Half of them should attack one gate while the other half attacks the other."

Aleister thought about the arrangement for a moment. "They should really just all swarm one gate. Splitting up resources is not the move."

"Correct but as you said, they aren't smart." Gilmore pointed to several points on a map as he pulled up. "The rest of the gnolls will probably scale the walls and attack any stray villagers."

"But we got news of them attacking and thus took the proper countermeasures," he said.

"News takes time to travel, and some people think they know better."

"Maybe they do. But, the way you phrased your statements was odd. Is something up?"

"I don't know." Gilmore rolled the map back up, placing it in his belt. "From what I know, there shouldn't be a gnoll pack anywhere near here."

"It happens. Highway patrollers can't always track every beast pack."

"True, but the fact they stayed undetected is quite the cause for suspicion," Gilmore explained. "With that though, there is a very good chance they would avoid attacking the village."

Aleister nodded in agreement. That would be their best outcome.

"Here," Gilmore handed him a spyglass, "Use this to keep an eye out for the enemy."

An hour passed. Aleister looked past the horizon using the spyglass he received. His elven heritage gave him a superior advantage in lower lights compared to humans. But it didn't seem to help too much in this situation. The range it let him see was limited, and there was also an absence of colour. It was kind of annoying, if he was honest.

Nonetheless, even though he spotted nothing, he stayed on full alert, like the rest of the villagers. A few of them made a couple of jokes here and there to help ease the tensions, but each instance only lasted several seconds.

Another hour went by with no signs of activity.

"Something doesn't seem quite right," Gilmore thought out loud.

Aleister yawned as he shook his head. He was beyond tired at this point in time. Almost on the verge of falling asleep while he stood. "Maybe its like you said. They saw all the lit torches and realized that we were expecting some uninvited visitors."

"Perhaps," Gilmore said, pacing back and forth.

"Sir Gilmore!" The urgent voice came from Athas. A young man with light brown hair and similar color eyes. In height, he was smaller than Aleister, but his body was much bulkier.

Aleister and Gilmore both turned around.

"Hm? Was there finally activity at the north gate?" Gilmore asked.

Athas shook his head. "No, sir. There's been nothing so fa--"

A guttural scream rang out. Aleister turned around, and as he did, the scream stopped. A fresh body dropped onto the ground right next to him.