Obbst paused outside the door the servant had indicated before it returned back downstairs, first meetings were always a chore especially with his cursed tongue tripping him up. But after long experience he knew exactly how to deal with that in this exact situation.

The type of people who waited on the other side of that door were very well known to him.

Taking a deep breath he pushed the door open and stepped inside.

He scanned the eight people waiting for him, trying to pick which it would be. There were three Minotaurs, a pair of Beastmen, one a Satyr, the other a Boarn and two Fae, both female.

Obbst would lay money on it being one of the Fae, though maybe one of the Minotaurs was a possibility, Beastmen generally had more sense.

He said, speaking wisentaur, “I am Obbst, y-y-you are to be under m-my c-command for a task w-w-w-which I will ex-explain.”

And there it was, two of them. One of the Fae, an exceptionally tall and well muscled warrior and oddly, the Boarn.

They looked at each other and mimed stuttering, then laughed.

The golden tipped flames of his magic ignited and he was across the room before any of them had moved. The Boarn hit the floor with a thud, eyes already glazed and uncomprehending. The Fae was slightly quicker, she at least had time to set herself to take the sweeping backhand that threw her into the wall hard enough to make the building rattle.

Getting up she swayed groggily but slowly settled into a fighting stance as her eyes cleared.

Obbst waited until she was fully ready, then very deliberately turned his back and walked to the front of the room again.

The Fae behind him moved as though she was about to attack... then stopped and leaned against the wall, rubbing her jaw.

Obbst smiled a tight hard grin while none in the room could see, he was happy. It had gone exactly as he'd expected.

The smile was wiped from his face before he turned back and said in Fae, while pointing at the pig faced Boarn and looking directly at the Fae warrior, “You will tell him what I am telling you. I will not tolerate disrespect. You are both lucky you did not know or I would have killed you for that. Does anyone else wish to try their luck, now that is known?”

He looked around the room with a flat glare and when none would meet his eye he nodded.

Noting that it seemed all had comprehended him when he was speaking in Fae he continued in that language, “Good. Now that unpleasantness is out of the way, our task is to raid the holding of the Frenshihet herd. The aim is pillaging more than destruction or despoiling and to that end your loot is yours. For perfect clarity, that means whatever is taken is to be distributed by your normal methods of dividing loot and neither I nor my Herdkeeper ask for any share of it. There is one caveat, we want them embarrassed not broken. So none of the inhabitants come under the umbrella of loot.”

There was a sudden murmur of conversation and the gleam of greed showing in many eyes, loot privileges such as these were not common but every mercenary would know of someone who had retired rich after a raid like this.

“I see that has gained your interest. It is my understanding your company has a reputation for discipline, show me that reputation is reality. The holding is five days travel from here and we can discuss the planning on the way. I will see you at the southern gate at dawn, be ready to leave.”

Obbst nodded, turned and walked from the room stony faced.

Inwardly he was smiling, the meeting had gone exactly as expected and exactly as he’d planned for. The target herd’s influence would be reduced because they had been unable to defend themselves and his herds influence would increase by carrying out a successful raid. The Frenshihet Herd had recently overreached badly and reduced their combat capable Bulls to less than a third of their previous numbers. Considering they had been weak before they were now simply spoils waiting to be taken, he'd be doing them a favour with a raid under these rules. Many would take everything they had including the fillies and the herds.

This afternoon he would spend organising his food and equipment and tonight it would be a good meal and an early night at a clean inn. He knew it’d be hardbread, dried salt fish, hunted meat, and a blanket on the ground for the next tenday so he’d enjoy the comforts of a soft bed and good food while he could.

*******

As the first faint lightening of dawn stained the sky Obbst was at the south gate fully equipped and ready to go, he’d found an outfitters near the mustering yards who dealt with the caravans who moved goods across the land from this port city. The outfitters had good prices as they wanted return business from caravan companies and he’d bought a large thick woollen blanket which was slung across his back and a tendays worth of hard dried rations. Most were in the bundle on the ground next to him and would be loaded onto a packhorse but he had three days worth in a sack slung below the blanket. A seasoned campaigner he’d hunt whenever possible if only to vary the boring blandness of the rations but he also wanted to be absolutely certain he could eat for the entire length of the journey even if hunting wasn’t possible. He knew from bitter experience almost nothing was as annoying and wearing as hard travel on light rations.

As the sky lightened further and as he listened to the city come alive around him more of the mercenaries arrived. First the three Minotaurs, all marked with the same herd markings so herd brothers at least if not full. Then the Satyr and the other of the Fae women… walking very close together and in an intimate seeming way. Lovers probably, that shouldn’t be an issue some of the best mercenaries he’d ever fought with were couples, they tended to look out for each other better then even family did or would. They nodded to Obbst then walked over to where the Minotaur brothers stood, as they approached they started talking rapidly with them in a language Obbst didn’t know.

Then the final member who hadn’t been at the meeting arrived, a Minotaur leading horses, three with saddles and five with laden packs and frames loading them down. Obbst received a minor shock when he looked more closely at the Minotaur as he loaded his bundle onto a packhorse, the Minotaur had no herd markings at all. Only criminals who had offended against their herd and the mad went unmarked and as this Minotaur was clearly sane, he was someone who would bear close watch.

The Minotaur noticed his scrutiny and said in Harkag, “Keptborn, stare any harder and your eyes will fall out. Before you get any wrong ideas, I am no criminal. I was born to the Free, our herds have no claim laid on them by a… Keeper.”

The final word was spat with venom.

Obbst had heard of The Free, herds having no allegiance to any keeper. He’d never expected to meet one though, the Free usually kept to themselves on the plains of the upper Plateau where they fought with the Oruc who claimed those plains as their home. The life they led up there was miserable and hard but it did train very powerful Bulls. They fought from the day they first shifted til the day they died which was usually under fifteen turnings, any who survived longer than that were certain to be extremely powerful or lucky… often both.

“My a-apologies. My s-s-stare was n-not in-intended as disrespect. I have not m-met w-w-one of the Free before.”

The other Minotaur said in Fae, “I’ve been told this tongue is less troublesome for you if you wish to use it and I assign no disrespect to your trouble. I seek only to make this more comfortable for us both.”

“Accepted and I thank you for your consideration. It is known that the Bulls of the Free are great in strength, it is good to learn they are likewise great in wisdom and honour.”

Just then a commotion broke out near the main road that led to the open square in front of the gatehouse, running feet, angry pig like squeals and the baying of hounds. The Boarn and the Fae warrior woman burst into the square closely pursued by several houndfaced Beastmen baying for their blood. The mercenaries were covered in filth and bleeding freely from small wounds that looked like those that might be inflicted in a bar fight, they barrelled across the square shoving the other foot traffic which had slowly been building up aside and stopped right next to the other small group of mercenaries.

The beastmen ran toward the pair but soon realising they were now outnumbered by the mercenaries they made some rude gestures and some empty threats then ran out of the square almost as fast as they’d run in. The Fae woman and the Boarn howled with laughter, collapsing to the ground and struggling to catch their breath as the beastmen ran.

Obbst walked toward them but as he got close he recoiled. The stench of alcohol, slaveweed and sweat hung in a cloud over them and burned his eyes.

In Fae as he waved his hand in front of his snout he said, “Just what do you call this? You show up drunk, drugged and with the signs of a fight plastered all over your bodies. You disgust me. I will not be taking either of you on this contract and my Herdkeeper will be registering a formal complaint with your Captain. Get out of my sight.”

The Boarn looked up at him, little piggy eyes gleaming in the reddened folds of his face. His voice was deep and rumbling as he said, “Apologies Herdsprotector. I came into a windfall early yesterday afternoon, Jayosh and me may have celebrated a little too freely.”

He stood and hauled the still laughing and definitely inebriated Fae woman to her feet, there was a brief flash of soft unfocused light that reminded Obbst of the deep forest and both suddenly looked horribly hungover.

Voice cracking the Boarn said, “Please, allow us to fulfil the contract and clear the stain from our honour. Allow us to show you that the companies reputation is warranted. We made a mistake, we accept responsibility, allow us to make amends.”

Obbst snorted and thought. He now knew the Boarn man was a Druid, the magic he’d used to purge the poisons from their bodies told him that and that made him valuable. He glanced between them, the Fae woman was smiling shakily and seemed eager to work even under the discomfort of the hangover.

“Hrrmph, fine but you’ll be left behind if you slow us down.”

Turning from the pair as they babbled thanks Obbst signalled to the lone Minotaur that he should lead out the packtrain. The Satyr, the other Fae and the Boarn mounted horses. It seemed Rayosh, the extremely hungover Fae woman, intended to run with the Bulls.

Half a day later, Rayosh had paused to vomit a few times but had kept up and the Minotaurs were sweating freely after the reasonably challenging pace Obbst had set. It was not fast enough to tire the packhorses unnecessarily so for himself he’d found it a nice relaxing jog.

They’d paused for a food break now that the sun was high in the sky, while they could easily eat on the run there was no need to so might as well wait out the hottest part of the day in the shade of the roadside forest.

Even this far toward the coldlands the sun was fierce at it’s zenith in this season.

After spending the hottest part of the day eating then snoozing in the shade as the late afternoon drew in they started off again and would travel until after dark. Seeing was no trouble, either innate senses, innate magic or a spell from the mage took care of that.

This was the pattern for the next two days as they travelled through the farms around the city. Late in the afternoon on the third day they finally left the farms behind and entered an area of rearing peaks with thick scrubby woods at their feet. This was the area bordering the Dead King’s lands and none wanted to live too close, the walking dead of those lands kept to their borders but people still stayed away.

Obbst and the mercenaries weren’t overly concerned by dead things walking, they’d seen far worse many times before. But the paths here were untended and had become treacherous in places, travel at night would be too great a risk for the packtrain and the other horses so as the sun settled toward the horizon an early halt was called.

Camp was set up and the watch was set as it had been every night so far.

Obbst found a patch of ground clear of most roots and branches to lay out his blanket. After eating the simple stew that Hanra (the Satyr) made to feed the group he shifted to bull form and laid down on the blanket. Though he must sleep in bull form the blanket was welcome because the ground during the night became very cold.