"Hey Z, it's time to wake up!" a male voice called out.

I opened my eyes, staring up at the ceiling of a tent.

"Yeah, yeah I'm up."

I looked to my side and saw a girl, with long golden hair and deep blue eyes, lying beside me.

"Hey, Iva wake up."

Poking her with a finger woke her up. She slowly got up, letting the blanket slide down her shoulder, revealing her naked breast. Someone opened up the tent at the same moment. I instantly moved in front of her, covering her with my large body.

"Oh, I'm so sorry."

Turning my head revealed a woman. She closed the tent flap again and I only saw her head. She had short brown hair and brown eyes.

"Oh, Rey it's you."

"Ah . . . I'm . . . I'm so sorry."

Her face quickly disappeared behind the tent flap.

"You know you don't have to be so overprotective Z."

"Oh but I do."

I leaned in and kissed her. Her lips tasted nice, but also a bit sweaty. Probably from last night I thought.

"Well, let's go."

We got up and dressed ourselves. Ivara simple clothing and I wore hard leather armour. We left the tent and looked over the landscape beneath the cliff the tent was on. We had multiple tents set up around a large campfire, three people sat around it.

"Ah, you two are finally awake," a tall man said, in an annoyed tone.

"Yeah, yeah don't be like that Larkan," Ivara said.

Like his sister, Larkan had deep blue eyes and golden hair.

"Jo, where's Hiba?" I asked, "Still out hunting?"

Another man answered, "Yeah, said he wanted to get that one deer that ran away last time." He laughed at his own words. "Was too stubborn to even consider not doing it."

"Aren't you the same Mark? You two grew up together after all." Ivara stated.

"I wouldn't say that . . . maybe some times . . . but only rarely."

The group started laughing, all but Rey who was staring at the flame.

"Rey are you alright?" I asked her.

She was gripping her own hair. So hard that I could see the white of her scalp.

"Yeah . . . It's just that I," Tears started to run down her face, "I haven't really recovered . . ."

I sat down beside her and said, "It's alright now, you don't need to be afraid of something like that happening again . . ."

I took a deep breath, not knowing what to say but before I could even open my mouth again she had already pulled me closer and hugged me.

"It's just that I can't ever thank all of you enough for saving me from there . . . but well what I saw earlier kind of reminded me I guess . . .," through her sobbing it was hard to understand her.

Ivara had come up from behind and put her arms around us both, her head in between ours.

"Don't worry so much alright, it's over now, you will never have to go through something like that again but," before she can finish what she was saying I cut her off.

I knew exactly what she was about to say, "Don't get so close to my man!" It was always like this. She smiled at me and pulled away.

"Oh perfect timing," she called out.

Hiba, a man with a long, black ponytail and grey eyes, who was carrying a dead deer over one shoulder had arrived at the small camp.

"I will make an offering to Enid before eating this one!" he yelled.

"Never took you for one to worship the gods Hiba," said Larkan.

"Ah, this is different. Enid gifted me this great hunt and now I shall thank her, simple as that," Hiba replied.

"Oh yeah, that goddess 'gifted' you this great hunt. As if, the gods probably just laugh at us all day, everything we give them credit for is just coincidence." Mark said, in a mocking way.

"You know that the church would kill you for that right?" I asked, still beside Rey.

"What are they gonna do, hurl illusions at me?" he responded, still mocking the idea.

"Well I heard their Paladins are the real deal, apparently have some form of Aura that does more than just play with light a little," Larkan said, sounding insincere.

"Oh, really? Maybe Argider did something useful for once. Oh, wait I apologize, the holy lord."

All of us started laughing again, this time even Rey. Although she was still sobbing a little. Our group started preparing the food, Mark and Hiba skinned the deer while Larkan and Rey readied the cauldron, and Ivara and I went over to one of the tents and got vegetables for the stew. I glanced over to Hiba, who was really offering the deer's leg bones to Enid.

"As if that is gonna do anything," I whispered to myself.

Ivara, who had overheard it said, "Oh let him, Maybe she will like him enough to give him some Aura, that would really help us with our work."

"Oh yeah, not like he would probably have to kill at least one of us for that. I mean at least if the rumours are true that's the way to get it."

"Yeah, but do you think that's true? I mean that would make the church mass murderers with that amount of paladins."

"Does that even matter to them? Don't they just kill everyone who like, worships other gods, or even worse has Aura from any god but their holy lord. Especially those who dealt with Erebus or Argider forbid got their Aura from him."

"Yeah, you know I always pity those who got their Power from Erebus. I heard he only gives those who have reached the lowest point any Aura."

I nodded.

"Well anyways, dealing with the gods is never good," I said before going out of the tent and toward the cauldron that now hung above the fire.

I put in the vegetables and sat down. Larkan and Rey had already gotten the stew going, it smelt amazing.

"Oh yeah, by the way, Hiba. Did you get us a new job?" I asked while looking at Mark and Hiba who were cutting up the deer.

"Ah yeah about that. I actually found us a spot in an upcoming battle. This time we're on the side of our wonderful homeland," Hiba said.

"What? The army of Ion pays more than Avalons?" I asked, not fully believing it. "I mean come on, Avalon's army used to pay like two or three times more than Ions. This is bad, the war might be over soon."

"You know, back when we were still employed by that noble he said the same thing," said Larkan.

"Guess both nobles and mercenaries profit from war," I said. The two of us started laughing.

Hiba and Mark finished cutting up the deer and put the pieces in the stew.

"So when's this battle?" Larkan asked.

"Two days from now," Hiba answered, "Up in the Ulva mountains."

"What?! Are they crazy? That close to known Amphithere habitat? You sure that's gonna go well?" I was confused, I didn't really understand but I knew something was going on.

"I mean it's the only job I found, and we really need the money . . ." Hiba said, seeming a bit down.

"Think they want to get him involved?" Larkan aksed.

"That's idiotic . . . I mean that one would wipe out both sides before we even knew he got there," I stated.

"Um, who are you talking about?" Rey asked.

"Oh right, you don't know yet," I took a short break to take the bowl that Mark gave me, "Vindictus . . . last we heard he was sighted up in that area."

"Who is this Vindictus?" Rey asked, quite interested.

"Vindictus is the most dangerous being alive, the one some even call the thirteenth god. He supposedly even has Aura from all twelve of the gods. Oh yeah, he's also responsible for Avalon's current situation."

"What? So he did something like that?" Rey asked in disbelieve.

I nodded slowly knowing how hard it is to believe that anything but a god did something like that.

"So is he an enemy?" she asked.

"Hmm, I wonder about that as well," Hiba said, "I wouldn't call him an enemy but definitely not an ally either . . . you met him before Z right?" He looked over at me.

"Yeah, once. But it was a brief meeting. Felt like I could have died by just standing in his vicinity."

"Did you talk to him?" Rey asked before she had even swallowed the food in her mouth. I now ate a bit of the warm stew as well.

"Not really, but he did say something the moment he looked me in the eyes . . .'You look like you just took a look at death little one. Am I that scary? You should know, she's much scarier. But anyways gotta go now'." My recollection of what happened then wasn't that good but I still remembered his deep voice as clearly as I did the day after.

Rey looked at me a bit shocked but also slightly amused, which I could understand.

"He called you little one?"

"Oh yeah, he was nearly twice as tall as I am. And then there are his massive wings. They were both beautiful and intimidating at the same time . . ." I gave my honest opinion. "But anyway," I continued, "we probably shouldn't go . . ." the others looked at me disappointed, "or at least be very careful." I looked down to the ground, counting the pebbles between my feet. "Since when do I make the decisions here?" I whisper to myself.

"Ah, don't be like that. You're our strongest member Z," Hiba said.

"Anyways let's eat now! We can talk about all this afterwards right?" Ivara said.

We all nodded and ate the stew. By the time we finished, it was around noon.

"So if we wanna get to the battle in tame and make some money we should leave now . . ." Larkan said.

I looked around our small camp, to the tents and the backpacks. I saw some spare weapons and a shield lying on the floor next to the tent Ivara and I had slept in. That gear would not be enough to defend against even a single attack from him, I thought. The more I thought about it the more I worried. Did they really plan on getting him involved, I asked myself, if yes then it would simply be a suicide mission.

"I don't think it's a good idea, if my intuition is correct they plan on sacrificing anyone who fights there. Probably also why the pay is so high, they know they won't have to pay it."

"You might be right, but if things go south we can just escape and pressure our money out of the general that posted the job," Hiba said.

I noticed that his undertone was the usual undertone he had when he was about to play an employer like a little child. He must have some sort of plan, I thought, a bit more hopeful than before.

"Think that will work?" Ivara asked.

"Yeah, imagine if some survivors start telling all the other mercenaries that the army of Ion sacrifices their own soldiers and those they hired . . . don't think they would get much business from any more mercenaries after that," Hiba sounded confident.

Of course, that's what he had in mind I thought.

"I agree, that might work," said Larkan.

Mark agreed loudly while putting a hand on Hiba's shoulder.

"That's the boy who stole all the money from the orphanage," Mark laughed while saying that even though I thought that it wasn't all that funny.

"What am I supposed to do?" Rey asked from the side.

"Hmm, you're not a fighter and that dagger we gave you probably wouldn't do much good in a war," Ivara said, "guess the two of us could stay at the war camp while our boys do the fighting . . ."

She talked about that idea with a grin on her face.

"For such a talented archer you are sadly too lazy for an actual fight," Larkan said, "What am I gonna do with a sister like that . . ."

"Oh it's not my fault, I give all my energy to Z in the night that's why . . ."

"Ah, so we're calling that 'giving energy' now. Got you, just be a bit quieter next time you give it to him."

"Oh, you're just jealous!" Ivara said while I just looked at the ground, again counting the pebbles and embarrassed on top.

"Alright then, guys! We should start packing up now!" I said before they could continue with the topic.

They all agreed and we started packing up the camp. Once we were finished we were all loaded with things to carry. The tents, weapons, and backpacks. The cauldron was especially weird to carry, we had to strap it to Hibas back. For the past few years, this had been our life, I wondered how I got used to this. With all our things packed up, we started moving away from our campsite and down a narrow path that led towards a forest.