The caravan, after dealing with the bandits, had set up camp right where they were attacked, due to the simple fact that most of the trees surrounding the road were flattened.

Riley, Elden, Drven, and Sven were standing around chatting idly while they waited for John to wake up.

Elden: “Yeah, and then I freed a slave, using some excess funds that I just happened to have.”

Elden was telling his usual stories with a gleam in his eye.

Sven: “Y’know I don’t like slavery whatsoever I think it’s wrong to enslave fellow Kin.”

Sven boldly gave his opinion which came from someone who was essentially a slave to the bandits, while practically snarling at Elden.

Drven: “I can see its uses in the form of indentured servitude but market slavery leads to a need for constant slaves. We should at the very least, reserve slavery for criminals, what do you think lass?”

Drven was looking at it objectively and weighing the benefits with the downsides.

Riley: “As someone who has been fighting off slavers for a good part of my career as a merchant, I think it should be eliminated all-together, but that leads to the issue of black market slavery.”

Riley after giving her two-cents on the matter, walked back over to the carriage to check on John, She peered in, saw that he was still deeply asleep, and sighed.

Etten approached the group and after noticing that John was asleep walked over to Riley.

Etten: “Oy! You WolfKin the queen has requested for you and the tall one to come and dine with us tonight. Be sure to inform him once he wakes up, also as for the rest of you, feel free to come along.”

Elden: “Alright dinner with royalty! You guys should feel honored.”

Elden began talking about how great of an honor dining with royalty was and how fun it was going to be while Drven began contemplating the reason for their invitation.

Sven on the other hand had sparkles in his eyes, as never once in his life did he think he would get to dine with royalty.

A few hours later, John regained consciousness and with a loud yawn announced the fact that he was awake.

Riley: “You do know how long it’s been right?”

John: “Do enlighten me.”

Riley: “Honestly I gave up counting… BUT it’s been a long time it’s almost evening, I thought I would miss out on the dinner we got invited too.”

John: “Oh cool, I’m incredibly hungry magic really takes a lot out of you.”

Riley: “It’s mostly just your magic, you keep going overboard… truly an idiot, the others have already gone to the dinner, but I told them I would wait for you to wake up first.”

John: “I truly appreciate that, so let's not wait any longer, DINNER IS WAITING!”

Riley and John began swiftly walking towards the main tent that had been set up for the people of importance. The basic setup of the camp was mercenary’s tents were on the outside, wagons and carriages were in the middle, and the giant tent is in the center of the camp with food areas and small campfires scattered about the clearing.

Once they entered the Tent, what greeted their eyes was a table lined with candles and food. At the end of the Table the Princess was sitting on a cushioned chair while Etten stood on her right, sitting down the table were Elden and Drven sitting across from each other whilst Sven sat on the opposite end of the table from the Princess.

Riley sat down next to Drven while John sat across from her by Elden, Sven meanwhile nonchalantly scooted himself closer to John.

Princess: “So I’m sure all of you are wondering the reason as to why I called commoners like yourself to this feast.”

Riley: “Is it because you just wanted someone to talk to?”

Princess: “Thash not SHO!”

Riley and the Princess were about to get into another spat when Etten stepped in.

Etten: “OK, basically you; the tall one, and you the WolfKin were summoned here by the Princess to talk about how you handled the battle.”

John immediately became alert and glanced at Riley who was currently glaring at Etten.

Etten: “We have some questions we would like you to answer.”

Etten motioned to the guard with his hand and in a moment all of the guards had their weapons pointed at the people sitting at the table.

John: “I just wanted some food, C’mon Riley let’s just answer the questions.”

Said John while sighing deeply clearly distraught over the current sequence of events

Riley: “I guess we really don’t have too much of a choice.”

Etten: “First off, let’s have your names neither of you properly introduced yourselves to the princess.”

Riley: “My name is Riley, and my companion here is John.”

Etten: “Now, I noticed something VERY peculiar about your magic; John, and Riley you don’t seem to be an ordinary

WolfKin, care to enlighten us on these points?”

John: “I would rather there be some secrets between us, is it necessary to reveal this much about ourselves to you right now?

The moment John finished his sentence; two of the guards standing by him grabbed his arms and restrained him.

John getting ticked off by the whole situation began to glow orange, the guards sensing something was about to go wrong quickly ripped off his cloak revealing to everyone at the table; his facial features.

Etten: “N-no way…”

Princess: “Wh-what are you? You can’t be what I think you are can you?”

All of guards around John immediately backed off in terror John drew himself up to his full height while glowing orange.

Drven and Elden looked at John with wonder and stayed silent.

John: “WELL THEN, looks the secrets out Riley, TO confirm what you all are thinking. I am indeed a human who’s not from this world. I ended up here without knowing how, and am willing to do anything to survive here even if it means taking on a kingdom.”

John grabbed a cup from the table and turned it into a rapier. However, right before he did anything rash Riley walked up behind him and slapped him on the back of the head. Normally this action would just annoy people but this is Riley we’re talking about. John practically did a front flip and ended up face first on the ground clutching his chest.

Riley: “What an idiot of course we’re not going to fight a kingdom. As you can see princess my companion here is a bit unique, we tried to hide it but with him preforming giant feats of magic like he has been its nearly impossible.”

Etten: “Humans were said to have died off a long time ago any story of them has been legend, taking down dragons single handedly, possessing enormous amounts of strength and magic, each tale talks about humans leading the land to Ruin or Prosperity, they are almost equivalent to a force of nature, and yet here one stands… Er, so to speak.”

John while glaring at Riley clutched his chest and climbed back up to his feet, after confirming that he was indeed fine John casually threw a piece of food into Riley’s mouth as she yawned, which ended up causing her to choke.

John: “for what it’s worth I honestly have no plans to bring ruin I’m just trying to survive in a place that I’m completely unfamiliar with.”

Elden: “Y’know I could tell that you weren’t any species I had ever seen, your aura is completely off.”

Drven: “Honestly, I was just impressed by how weird your magic was.”

Etten: “As a living legend we need to do our best to keep a close eye on you, if you try anything unusual we will attack you.”

Princess: “SO become my subjects!”

John: “Ah, I knew that’s where this was going, look Princess I’m guarding you right now so while I’m guarding you I’m technically under your supervision and have to follow your orders. However I enjoy freedom, so I refuse as I don’t see many benefits to that right now.”

Riley: “Don’t forget the fact that I wouldn’t appreciate you restraining my movements I am a merchant after all.”

Princess: “Muuu..”

Etten: “We’ll let you think about it, however seeing your companion’s reaction to you revealing your identity I think it would be fine if you revealed your identity to the rest of the mercenaries and guards it should boost moral to know that we have a human on the same side as us.”

John: “So, mind giving me a quick damage report on the battle?”

Etten: “With your help all of the bandits were taken care of, however we had a few casualties on our side, 18 to be precise including that Hogen fellow and his body guard.”

Elden: “How could there have been that many casualties I blocked all of the oncoming arrows in that first assault.”

Etten: “No, see they got careless when subduing the bandits and got themselves killed.”

Drven: “That makes sense; I would feel like a god was on my side if I was them, witnessing all of their enemies getting restrained like that.”

Sven: “Yeah John is great!”

Etten: “Weren’t you one of the attackers?”

John: “he was held against his will as far as I’m concerned, that aside I’m firmly opposed to revealing my existence to the others just yet I’ve already had some run in’s with corrupt guards and would love to not have a repeat of that event.”

Riley: “As John says we intend on keeping our identities secret.”

Princess: “I understand, but for now John your disguise is gone.”

Etten: “Guards find them some cloaks.”

John was given a black cloak with a large hood and the royal tiger’s symbol on the back basically an orange purple and black cloak, John accepted the nice coat but made it very clear that he didn’t want anything more than just protecting them and getting paid if the benefits of going under her rule were substantial enough he would do it without a doubt but for now he was adamant in his refusal.

Once all of that was cleared up the group went back to eating. A single tear slid out of Johns left eye, Riley noticing this questioned him.

Riley: “Psst John why are you crying?”

John: “We talked for so long the food went cold.” *fake crying noises*

John was quickly pelted by some of Riley’s food.

Riley: “WHAT KIND OF PAMPERED NOBLE ARE YOU!”

Meanwhile outside the tent unbeknownst to the people on the inside a group of masked individuals was currently transmitting the entire conversation through the use of magic to an unknown source before quickly disappearing into the forest.

Quick shout out to Srnovels and vipers2304 your moral support gave me the motivation to post even though it was the week before thanksgiving break and i was still recovering from my charity event, as for anyone else feel free to comment and rate honestly comments mean more to me than ratings so PLS COMMENT it fuels me!