As they got into sight of the city walls the group stopped, the large walls surrounding the city were painted black. A large gate with blood red stripes was opened but heavily guarded with troops covered in iron scales.

Beside Alaric Erik shifted his weight, Cara took Al’s hand into her’s as if she wanted to reassure herself he would stay with her.

Winter lead the way out of the forest and through fields on both sides of the road, like an ocean of golden wheat the fields covered the entire way from the forest to the city walls. Every breeze sent ripples across the fresh grown wheat.

Alaric tried figuring out how much food the harvest of only one of the fields here would yield, but he had never seen anything even close to the proportions of the fields here.

As they made their way towards the city things got even more absurd as it took them the entire day to cross the way from the forest to the city.

The walls were even larger than initially thought and the “Guards” they had seen were statues of fallen heroes.

The gates were luckily still open and as the group passed through them they could see that the gate building had two gates, on the outside and one on the inside. The walls in between the two were covered with burn marks and little windows from where any attacker could be shot at with bows.

Alaric was astonished, he had never seen architecture like this, he was wondering on how they could have built something this massive.

Cara was intimidated and glad she was still holding on the Al, he had those big eyes of his pinned to the ceiling as if he wanted to figure out all the secrets of this place at once. To her right Erik kept a small distance, but she could feel he was just as uneasy as she was, like a shadow hanging over her his presence seemed to challenge the buildings around them.

Once again she was lost, the two were her closest friends but neither of them seemed to have at least a tiny bit of common sense, once they were inside they could be locked in easily.

If they were walking into a trap they would have no chance of escape.

When they passed the inner gate she noticed something else, one of the other groups were lingering behind, trying to grip their weapons without anyone noticing.

Cara cursing she let go of Alaric’s arm and pressed past him, she could hear him say something behind her but she had to get to Winter, one of the other groups were not trying to join them.

“Winter!” she called out as she spotted his grey hair towering above the other recruits.

He turned to her, one eyebrow raised, she grabbed his arm and pulled him close before whispering.

“The second group is readying its weapons and falling back they plan something!” His eyes went wide, he stopped turned around to see the other group for himself. As tall as he was he could spot the other group with ease.

He cursed loudly then called out to the guards “Enemy in the back! The first group has been infiltrated! Gather around!”

Everybody stopped moving, the guards looked over to the group of nearly one hundred cloaked figures behind the main bulk of the people they had just let into the city.

Then chaos erupted as the first line of traitors drew weapons and cut into the back of the recruits. The second and third line drew bows and fired at the guards, most arrows missed or only hit chain mails but a couple hit a throat or eye. Shouts went loud as guards exited the barracks and formed a ring encircling not only the traitors but also the new recruits, there was simply no way of knowing to which group they belonged.

Cara was pushed past Winter who readied his warhammer and bellowed orders but most recruits had never heard the things he yelled before, only the group he had taught some basics formed a rugged line next to him as more and more fell to the blades of the traitors.

Cara looked for Al and Erik but the mass of people swept her against the line of guards now forcing the recruits back with long spears.

On the walls more and more bowmen took position and fired into the crowd, not all of them hit the traitors many archers did not know who they had to fire at and just aimed for anyone with a weapon in his hand.

Alaric was panicking, a guy he had just talked with about the architecture of the gates had been hit by an arrow and now Erik was beside him dragging him from the fighting lines past Winter. The guys attacking them were wearing chainmail under their brown cloaks and had actual weapons while the small group he and Erik had arrived with had tools at best and a couple of wooden stick at worst.

Winter held his own as Al saw him crush a man’s head with his hammer like a pumpkin, as he yanked the iron thorns back out of the man’s ruined skull. Grey matter flew through the air and Alaric had to try hard not to vomit right then and there.

Erik dived under the attack of one of his enemies, but the man stepped back before he could be hit. They had been properly trained, Winter’s men were melting under the onslaught of actual steel weapons as the recruits fell one after another. His opponent attacked again and this time Erik acted as if he stumbled over a severed arm, not expecting a feint the soldier closed the gap and stabbed at Erik’s throat. Exactly what he had expected, he dropped to all fours and launched himself past the blade, his teeth sinking into the surprised man’s throat. Before he managed to tear and get away from his enemy though the soldier sunk a blade into Erik's ribs, penetrating his lung.

As he managed to get away he coughed blood, pain filled his mind, anger rose in his throat as he ripped the blade from his side.

Erik spat part of the man’s throat to the ground before another man. Eye’s wide the man thrust his spear at him, a wolf like growl boiled up in his throat as he battered the wooden shaft aside and rammed his new knife into the man’s eye socket. He let go of it and threw himself at another one, the axe lashed out at the surprised man splitting his head and successfully getting stuck in it.

As he let go of the handle Erik noticed he was now surrounded by enemies, the last lunge had sent him too far into enemy lines as to retreat.

Three men advanced on him, each one with slow steps their eyes wide and arms trembling, to Erik’s luck they seem to have never experienced real combat before.

He on the other hand had spent the last few months fighting for his survival as a wolf. As the first of the group looked over to his comrade as to ensure himself he was not alone Erik attacked.

The soldier next to his target tried to intervene by slashing in Erik’s general direction but he was too far away to pose a real threat.

Before the man realized what happened Erik’s teeth sunk into his throat, his head shaped more like the one of a wolf.

Without fully transforming he tackled the man to the ground rolling past a spear thrust and pulling another from his feet.

All around him men yelled as they tried to hit him, but as close as they were packed Erik could pass through their legs pulling them down one by one before exiting on the other side of the group.

Blood was dripping from his mouth, cuts and bruises covered his arms and legs as he changed back into a human.

He still felt the throbbing pain where the knife had punctured his lung but he no longer had to cough. An arrow was lodged in his shoulder and he had lost a couple of teeth.

The men he had just attacked were now forming up with two fronts, one facing him the other facing the remaining soldiers of Winter.

The attack he had managed to pull off had given Winter time to rotate his already battered down recruits with some guards and fresh soldiers.

The fleeing recruits had been tied up and were being guarded by a few watchmen until they could figure out if they had been part of the attack.

All in all the attackers were now heavily outnumbered and the red gate was slowly closing behind Erik.

Arrows flew from the walls and pushed the men closer together, they had no chance of attack and even if they managed to escape through the gate they would not manage to cross the flat land before the city’s guardsmen could form up and attack.

For a moment they kept their weapons at the ready until a soldier called out, they were surrendering.

The arrows stopped, and the men threw down their weapons. Winter pulled his remaining recruits back and Erik was glad to get back in line.

Alaric was waiting for him, when the two saw each other Al did something he had never done before, he vomited right then and there. At first Erik was worried something had happened to him then a guardsman told him to “Clean the fuck up boy! You look like you just ate a man alive!”