Argus's eyes snapped open. He tried to stand; he couldn't rest yet, he had to get the prisoners out of this hole in the ground. He had to protect them.

His body didn't respond. His limbs screamed with pain and went out from under him as he tried to push himself up. They were too weak and damaged to follow the commands his brain was giving them.

He looked upwards; where was he? He was no longer in the tunnels, as for once, the sky was blessedly above him.

He went to speak but found that too was a struggle, his words coming out in painful groans.

"Thank Soltris." He heard Sol's voice. "Are you okay, Argus?"

The man's head came into view, looking down on him, radiating concern.

Argus went to speak, failed again, and slowly shook his head. He was not okay. And gods above, he was thirsty.

"You shouldn't move, is there anything I can get you? Food?"

Argus went to shake his head, then suddenly realized he was hungry in addition to being thirsty and nodded with agonizing slowness instead.

Sol vanished from his field of vision before reappearing moments later, holding a bowl.

"Ral! Brandi! Come here and help me sit Argus up."

Moments later, a pair of humans, both red-skinned, short, or at least comparatively to Sol. Argus still wasn't entirely sure what was short for a human, or tall.

They strained, grasping him beneath the shoulders and pulling him up.

He bit down on a groan of pain.

"Careful!" Sol chastised to the two young... or maybe old..? Argus tried to shake his head to clear his thoughts and regret it immediately as another burst of pain ran havoc through his brain, revealing an unnoticed headache.

Sol crouched down, spooning up what Argus could now see as some kind of soup or broth. And offering a ladles worth of it to the Drakon.

He moved forward quickly, gratefully sipping at the ladle, broth running down his mouth as he did. "Woah, easy there, easy. You've been out a couple of days now, relax. We're safe now. More or less."

Argus finally mustered the strength to speak. "Asgar?"

"He's fine. Right behind you, actually."

Argus squinted in confusion, turning his head ever so slowly to get his bearings.

He was outside, that much was obvious, and based on the plentiful trees he could now spot, he was in the forest. A clearing in it, to be specific. One circled by the spruce trees that grew in the region.

The second thing he noticed was the people and breathed a sigh of relief when he did.

Surrounding him in surprising closeness, humans were either lying or sitting, more of the red-skinned traders of Goldhome than the elf-kin who had guarded them.

Argus gestured vaguely at the group, struggling to find the words he wanted to ask.

Sol squinted, looking to where he was gesturing, then taking a moment to decipher it before asking. "The caravan guards are hunting at the moment. There hasn't been much food to go around on the run like we've been."

Argus nodded, slowly, before slowly leaning back, whatever energy that brought him to consciousness slipping away from him.

Sol struggled to help the heavy Drakon down, albeit Sol felt despite the weight of the man, he was still lighter then he should be.

He grimaced at the now unconscious Drakon. He still wasn't sure if either of them would survive.

It had been easy to ignore in the darkness of the cave, but the brothers were mutilated.

Their bodies were covered in bruises in the spots where flesh was visible. Despite the relative weakness of the zombies, the onrushing tide of them took a toll on the brothers. Their scales were broken, pulled off, and the dark flesh beneath was now even more colored from the damage done.

This was the least of it, however. Both brothers sported nearly two dozen devastating cuts and stabs, deep ones. And Sol suspected they would need to see a healer of considerable skill to fully recover, and they'd undoubtedly scar.

He kicked himself. He'd fallen in the battle, not to wounds, but to a single spell. One that, so far as he knew, wasn't even meant to hurt him!

He'd been unconscious the whole fight afterward, but some of the prisoners had awoken- while they were trapped in their cells and told him some of what happened.

The enemy clerics had risen, and rained spiritual swords atop the Drakon brothers, virtually ripping them to shreds, and yet they had stayed standing- going so far as to block most of the attacks.

Looking at them now, it appeared they hadn't managed to block a single strike. But whether or not the story was exaggerated, the brother had still stood and saved everyone.

Worse, even now, they were helping. The paladins' auras hadn't ended when they'd gone unconscious, and even now, the traders crowded around Argus for warmth- and Sol suspected, they were filled with a sense of strength and weight that Asgar gave off.

The Auras weren't as intense as they'd been during the fighting, thankfully, otherwise, they might be doing more harm than good, if the burns that had cauterized their wounds were anything to go by.

He idly wondered if their species felt less pain than humans, he didn't wish to demean their actions, but any other creature would have passed out from the pain of the burns alone, much less the cuts themselves.

His mind strayed to Aloro, and how long he'd screamed after Sol had blindly unleashed his divine favor upon him.

Maybe it wasn't so impossible.

Sol shivered and sat closer to Argus, relying on the light of paladin's Sun to push away the dark thoughts that threatened to claim his focus.

—-

Argus woke a few times again throughout the next couple of days, as did Asgar.

They had only woken up at the same time once so far, and it had been an oddly humbling moment to see them brighten up and talk about their favorite type of tree of all things.

It was only on the fifth day that they'd both awakened and stayed that way long enough for a proper explanation of what had and was, happening.

Asgar and Argus presently sat with their backs to a pair of trees, facing each other.

Sol was between them, answering Argus's questions with the occasional addition from Asgar, whose focus was more on his herbalist equipment and the remedies he was making with it than asking what happened.

Argus instructed Sol to "Start from the beginning." And so Sol had.

"After you and Asgar went down, Singard got his men organized and got every freed, then ordered them to pick you up."

Sol added quickly, "He's their leader now, at least of the guards. Apparently they're from Arrowhead, a mercenary company that rents out its men as caravan guards. That body that 'Snake' was using was their captain, so now he's the highest-ranking one left." He coughed. "The last body she used, specifically."

Argus nodded. "Natsza."

"What?"

"This 'snake,' its... her name was Natsza."

Sol appeared puzzled. "When did she say that?"

Argus shrugged. "I believe you were unconscious at the time."

Then it was Argus's turn to be puzzled, if only by the strange change in Sol's expression as he murmured. "Right."

"Sol, I do not mean to shame you, it was only thanks to my Sun that I stayed conscious after her spell. Even the undead faltered from it."

Asgar spoke up, his head still hung down in focus of his work. "I went unconscious too, Sol. We are in... what's the saying?"

Argus went thoughtful. "Do you mean 'In the same wagon,' Brother?"

Asgar snapped. "That's the one."

Sol interrupted. "It's 'boat,' actually."

There was a lighter tone to his voice, seemingly relieved.

Asgar nodded. "Yes, boat. I have not been in one of those." He then offered a mortar full of salve of some sort to Argus. "Rub this into your burns."

Argus reached forward then grimaced. "Could you help, Sol?"

The man nodded, taking the mortar and began gingerly rubbing it into the burns created by Argus's own Oath.

Argus sighed in relief. "What is this stuff, Asgar?"

Asgar shrugged by way of reply. "Jackowolf tail, thyme, water."

Argus squinted. "Jackowolf tail?"

"The plant, not the animal." Asgar clarified.

"There's a plant too?"

"Yes, one of the guards helped me find some after I had shown him the picture Major drew of it in his book."

Argus nodded, then turned back to Sol. "And then what happened?"

"Hmm? Oh, right. Where was I?"

"Singard got his men to carry us out." He turned to Asgar. "It seems we owe him a favor, Asgar."

His brother nodded back to him while Sol looked at either to see if they were joking. "Pretty sure he owes you guys the favor, but yes. Once he got his men organized and everyone out of the cages, we all marched up out of the cave. There was a lot of debate about whether we should follow the road back or avoid it. Singard argued hard to avoid it, and his folk agreed. So everyone followed."

Asgar spoke this time. "What of the two clerics?"

Sol grimaced. "We took them with us... but they disappeared into the woods a couple nights in."

"They ran?"

Sol shrugged, in response, grimace still present. "Or one of us killed them, I don't know."

Asgar leaned forward, winced, and sat straight again. "Do you think that's likely?"

Sol sighed before nodding. "More likely than them running. I haven't asked further into it beyond what Singard told me. I can't do very much about it."

Now both brothers scowled, and Argus spoke. "They were likely charmed."

Sol nodded. "Yes, likely."

"And you're okay with this?"

Sol shook his head. "No, but what are we to do, Argus? They killed their friends and family in front of them by bleeding them to death."

Argus nodded slowly as Sol finished rubbing the ointment into his burns.

"Now me, if you could, Sol?" Asgar requested.

"Right." The cleric nodded, moving over to the Drakon who'd made the ointment and applying it to his burns.

He then continued. "Since then, we've run into a couple patrols of the undead, wiped out one, avoided another. But the skirmish and the running put us off track, and now we're lost."

Argus groaned, aggravated over being lost in the forest yet again.

Sol nodded. "That's a mutual sentiment, it doesn't help that we're low on... well, everything."

He sighed. "Between the town and then Natsza's sacrificial chamber. Most folks here only have the clothes on their backs, and even that's running out. They may have been wearing traveling clothes, but it wasn't made for the offroad sort of traveling we're doing now."

Argus lifted his arm to rub at his face and groaned when the motion was punished with a surge of pain and settled for a sigh instead.

"That bad?"

"Yeah, if it weren't for your javelins, and frankly, the heat of your Oath, plus Asgar's book over there, we'd be struggling with both the cold and starvation."

Asgar looked mildly concerned. "You all have been using my book?"

"Just me, and just to look for plants listed as edible in it, no one in the caravan knows this stuff. The guards aren't familiar with the local fauna, and the caravaneers aren't the type for delving this far into the forest."

Asgar sighed in relief and nodded. He was intensely protective of the book. It represented an incredible font of invaluable knowledge, even if he could feasibly return to Major to get a replacement.

If he could, he was lost in a forest after all.

"So, any ideas?" Sol asked, finishing up his work on Asgar, who took the mortar back, rinsed in with water from a waterskin, and began to work on another concoction.

Argus glared upward, eyes calculating, and thoughtful.

"How many of us are there now?"

"Counting us three? Twenty-seven I believe."

Argus grimaced again, he knew the caravan had been at least twice that size when he helped load their carts.

Somewhere out there, there was likely more undead searching for them, perhaps the living clerics leading them or maybe undead ones, wights- if Natsza had already made her move.

It was terrible news, whether their hunters were living or dead. Made all the worse by the forest itself, it wasn't hospitable, and they were in no condition to protect humans from the more substantial threats. And even if they were, some things were beyond their means to reliably combat even at full health.

"How many weapons do we have?"

"Yours, the orc’s hammer, about two dozen spears, and almost as many javelins."

Argus nodded, they were surprisingly well-armed, and half the humans with them did seem to be warriors, which kept the situation from being a disaster.

"Where did we acquire all the spears? Were that many in the cave?"

"Partly, and partly the patrol we ran into. Singard ambushed them, we took some wounds, but no deaths."

Sol turned to Asgar. "On that topic, Asgar, I know you're hurt, but can you work on something for them?"

Asgar nodded. "I already am."

"Thank you."

Asgar replied by flashing a smile and continuing to work.

Argus grinned at his brother, he could not help but gather some of the calm joy that came off his brother in waves when he was working on his herbalism, perhaps when he retired, he could open a herbalist shop?

Argus put such far future thoughts away, however, focusing back on the problem at hand and grumbling somewhat at not being able to stand and pace due to the pain such actions would cause.

"Does anyone know when the next caravan will head through Dale?"

Sol frowned and thought. "I could go ask around?"

Argus nodded. "Please, do this."

Sol took his leave and began to speak to the caravaneers.

Asgar pointed over towards the shrinking form of Sol.

"Battle fatigue?"

Argus shook his head. "I don't think so, no nightmares that I've seen."

The brothers had been keeping half an eye on the man, while they were not familiar with human warriors personally, the brothers had been told stories of the species they considered to be comrades in arms since they were hatchlings.

According to the old texts, unlike drakon, humans had not been built for war.

It warned that humans could be unreliable allies in battle, for their minds could be wounded just by being in conflict.

The brothers, however, suspect that the texts might be somewhat exaggerated or simply dated. They had fought by the side of a human, and he had never run, fighting until his body and failed him.

Argus pointed at Sol, then at a small group of elf-kin humans. Finally, again at a group of the red-skinned humans of Goldhome and speaking a single word. "Unique."

Asgar nodded, his brother meant that just like Sol's appearance was unique in this crowd of humans, too could his bravery be unique. Then it was Asgar's turn to be, quoting a chromatic dragon who had joined Tavig, their god, in the great war some thousand years ago. "'What is better - to be born good or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?' Is it not the same for bravery?"

Argus nodded sagely. If humans were not brave by nature, it did make Sol's all the more impressive. But if the old texts were wrong, then all of humanity was more impressive.

Asgar smiled. "Either way, Sol is admirable."

Argus chuckled, watching the Cleric's progress from the corner of his eye as he asked the other humans questions.

He turned back to his brother, gesturing with a sweeping motion to the humans gathered some forty feet away. "Smart, carts."

Asgar nodded with a grimace, his brother was right, the humans might be smarter than them. Drakon did not make animals into pets or tame them to pull carts. But both brothers could not see the obvious benefits of doing so.

Asgar tapped the book he was holding, hesitated, then almost tentatively asked. "Kinder?"

Now Argus frowned. While they had been wronged by a human, he'd also saved them, albeit only after they saved him.

But most other humans they'd met had been kind, or outright saved their lives in the case of Major.

"Fear," Argus replied.

Asgar 'hmmed' softly. They were afraid of the brothers, but he was unsure if that was a flaw. "If we were Junda's, they'd be right too."

Argus shrugged, conceding the point. Then gestured to the now approaching Sol and other humans around. Then holding two of his fingers just barely apart.

Asgar nodded, they hadn't met too many humans, and should probably reserve a more intense judgment of species for when they were more world-weary.

Sol cleared his throat as he watched the brothers communicate. "Am I interrupting something?"

Argus shook his head. "We have finished speaking. What did you discover?"

"Not much, unfortunately. We do know that some caravans aren't coming this way, as the drivers of this one were familiar enough to know this isn't their route or the time of year that they do take this route. But they obviously can't know all the caravans in the area, people could be staying the night there right now for all we know."

The brothers shared a concerned look.

Argus finally spoke. "I don't know what to do, if it were just the people we have with us, I would suggest we keep moving, and see if we can not find Riverstead or our tribe."

Sol sat down between the two. "And if we weren't lost and knew our way around?"

"Go to Dale, stop them."

"Stop them from doing what? We may have time if Natsza starts a little civil war, a time when Elliot can't send people to sacrifice for fear of making her stronger."

"Maybe, but how much time? And we can not know if she is making her move now."

Sol nodded. "True, but we can't exactly rush in and fight them in our present state, in your state even."

Argus begrudgingly nodded, "We have to escape the undead chasing us- if they are still hunting us, and then find civilization and get people to help stop this."

Sol smirked. "More of what we've been doing then?"

"It appears so."

"Would you mind going out and telling them? They've kind of lost their mystique of me by now, but you guys still seem like knights in shiny scales to them."

Argus looked down at his own scales, many of which were missing, and rest were still coated in a layer of mud.

"Not very shiny at the moment."

"We found a stream, want to wash off before you give the big 'more of the same' speech?"

Argus nodded, slowly standing with faint popping noises and a groan. "This seems like a wise idea."

Asgar began to get up himself. "It might help with the burns. I will make more ointment for when we are done washing."

Sol gestured behind him. "Want me to go get some of the people together to get the stuff you need?"

Asgar shook his head in the negative. "I still have enough ingredients left."

—-

Almost an hour later, the brothers approached the camp- if the seemingly randomly selected portion of the woods in which everyone was sleeping could be called a 'camp.' But, they felt better, their bodies had started to heal somewhat, but they would not have been moving around even now if it wasn't for Asgar's mantle giving them strength.

Still, despite their clearly pained gait and the extensive wounds on their bodies- not to speak of their missing scales, which made both brothers somewhat self-conscious.

Despite this, the people they'd saved looked on them with a not-insignificant amount of wonder, now that Sol wasn't protecting their sleeping forms like an angry bear, people were approaching them, thanking them, offering repayment that they politely turned down.

It made them hold their heads up higher, practically growing with each expression of gratitude.

The elven guards had returned, and as the brothers entered, Singard stood and approached them.

"I don't have your money anymore."

Argus nodded. "We know, this is fine."

"I'll pay you back."

Argus went to protest, as he had been with the rest, but chose to simply nod instead. "Very well."

Singard hesitated, then stretched out a hand. "Thank you."

Argus took it, shook it, and smiled. "My pleasure."

Singard seemed to sigh and shrink a little as he did, before stepping back.

Argus reached out a hand and stopped him. "Come with us, please. We need to discuss what we are to do with everyone."

The four moved into the center of the camp, a trio of firepits were presently cooking the game the guards had hunted.

Argus spoke loudly so that all could hear him.

"We are lost in the forest, and most of you are not familiar with it. We are being hunted, and even now, any caravans which travel through or by Dale are in danger."

The group of people began to listen and watch him as he spoke.

"But, you have done well, fighting off the undead that came after us, or avoiding them. I recommend we continue to do this and move forward. We need to find some civilization so that we can warn someone of Father Elliot's misdeeds and secure our own safety."

He got vague nods from the people around him.

"I ask that any of you that have any skills or talents that may be useful to speak to one of the four of us, anything besides what is already known. If you are not sure if a skill is valuable, ask one of the four of us. But for now, eat, thank the people who brought the food to you and know. We will be fine if we work together."

Argus realized he was the only one standing and took a seat beside his brother.

"Not the most original," Singard spoke. "But still a half-decent speech."

Asgar patted his brother on the back, then took a bit of rabbit hunch that someone offered him and took a bite into it.

Singard gestured to Asgar as he ate. "You're a herbalist, right?"

Asgar nodded. "Not a good one, I have only just started to learn. But I have the equipment."

"I got some men who got hurt in that skirmish, think ya can take a look?"

"I heard, and I have some herbal remedies ready and made for them."

"I 'ppreciate it." Singard bit into a bit of game provided to him, chewed, and then spoke.

"I hate to ask- do you have any ideas on how to make the food taste better? It'll help with morale."

Asgar nodded. "There are some herbs that go well with meat, though I have none with me."

"That's fine, but if you could tell us what to keep an eye out for. Be a God’s sendin' to get some better tasting food, none of us are cooks."

The rest of the meal went by quickly, mostly filled with bad news about what they didn't have. Though people began to approach them later into the night, offering what skills they had and asking if they'd be useful.

The brothers slept with full stomachs, even if the food had been bland. They felt better for tomorrow's plans.