"Lady Marie... could you move slightly more to the center!" Amadela requested.

"Yeah sure!"

This… carriage is getting quite crowded….

I was sitting in the middle of the carriage where Roison was sitting gently like the nice girl she is on my lap, she was playing playfully with Nieve, who was in her human form sitting beside me in the right, and with Amadela who was at my left.

In front of me was three women doing their own thing, Sofía was staring at the window, daydreaming probably, Chloé was in her usual mode, observing and scouting the area, but by proxy this time with Ceniza being out there as her drone, and Eleanna…. she was like Sofía, sitting near the carriage’s door, looking out the window while daydreaming or…

Not, I couldn’t really described it but, I have this feeling that she was in some sort of telepathic conversation with her snake familiar, based on her body language and the fact that Jumque, was looking straight at her face.

Fun fact he changed his form to a small everyday snake, so it won’t be too crowded here and was wrapped around Eleanna’s neck like a scarf, it was still unnerving looking at him really, I am not really a big fan of snakes, but… Jumque is a well refined, honorable, and outright respectable from my first meeting of this man, unlike… her boyfriend…

When I heard they ‘define their relationship’ or actually ‘redefine their relationship’ by saying the L word, which I was surprised as well when Arthur told me that in their 3 goddamn years of their pseudo-couple relationship, they never said ‘I love you’ to each other.

I of course was already on board with this relationship on day one, even after knowing his sometimes annoying and sometimes unbearable personalities and traits, but… deep down I know, Martyn loves Eleanna enough to not be an annoying brat, but then it clicked on me… he’s not afraid anymore! and… that only means one thing, he’ll be telling her about Annie… I do, hope he takes his time to gather enough courage.

Eleanna… is not going to like what Martyn is going to say… but then again, it’s going to be their real test as a couple.

But still though… 3 years and no ‘I love you’? Christ… way to go Romeo…

Achoo…

"Woah, you okay there Mar?" Arthur asked concernedly.

"Yeah, yeah, I think it's because of this somewhat windy air!" I rested Arthur's concern.

"Well either way, bless you, Martyn!" Kristof chimed in.

Though the sneeze cause isn't that important, I have a weird feeling that someone might be talking about me.

* * *

As me, Arthur, and Kristof were on horseback, traversing in this paved road, choked by two endless forest, we were at the middle of the formation near the carriage, guarded of course from all sides, from the rear, whose being led by Sir Fionn, and to the vanguard, whose being led by Pere.

I suddenly spotted a white cat, laying on the carriage’s rooftop. I could tell from her white clear fur and sapphire blue eyes that she was Sapphire, but what intrigued me was why she is in the carriage’s rooftop on the first place? The air is fresh if I have to say, but it’s not really that windy enough to be soothing. Though… if I have to guess, it’s probably a tad bit crowded there in the carriage.

“I appreciate that you noticed me Lord Protector, but… don’t ogle for too long please… what would Lady Eleanna think? Hehe..” Sapphire who noticed I was observing her, said in a cheeky manner topped with a chuckle in the end.

“Dude, seriously?” Arthur said while shaking his head in disappointment at me.

“Wha… I…” caught off guard, I could only be bewildered like an idiot from this statement.

“Hahaha! The man just recently proclaimed his love and already his eyes wanders!” Kristof joined the bandwagon and took some pot-shots at me.

“…” I could only pout at Kristof’s teasing.

After that brief teasing, Kristof who was curious about my history with Eleanna, asked Arthur about it, it was… really embarrassing, he told all sorts of romantic-ish rendezvous and bumps me and Eleanna had.

From the timid ones like me and her discussing about our class talent show and the time where we were drinking coffee alone on top of the schools roof, to the risqué ones like the time where we almost kiss in the lab, that was interrupted by Arthur.

But then out of nowhere he told him about the time me and Eleanna almost hooked up…

It was a stupid story in a stupid night, I was drinking myself to sleep in our town’s pier where she found me almost dead drunk, after some drunken tangents and hugging here and there, she helped me on my way to home, but before that we took a detour and rest a bit at the sidewalk bench, where…. I touched her boobs and almost kissed her, thank God I smelled like alcohol and she pushed me away.

I…. can’t believe I am remembering this again.

But hearing this story again made me remember that… I’ve only shared it with Miss Marie…

THAT RED HEADED BITCH!!!

As my head was steaming in anger after realizing that there probably a shit ton of things that Miss Marie had divulged about me and Eleanna, whether accidentally or intentionally, Arthur, Kristof, and Sapphire were laughing their ass out from the stories, but this brief carelessness and unwariness almost caused us our life, where… a loose arrow came in from the deep forest in our right, where it hit Arthur’s horse in the head, instantly killing it and making Arthur fell.

While my and Kristof’s horse were neighing in fear while stopping it’s canter, I managed to see that Arthur’s horse didn’t fall on Arthur’s leg nor body, he was surprisingly quick on recovering himself.

After that he draw his sword where we then noticed something at our front, there were a huge amount of bandit attacking our vanguard, they were struggling a bit from the ambush but Kristof rallied some of the soldiers in the middle to help Pere and the vanguard.

I then looked at the back where our rear was surprisingly safe, there were a couple of bandits, but Sir Fionn and his men were managing it, the line weren’t broken yet but, we still don’t know where all the bandits are, which they didn’t take too long to introduce themselves.

From the deep forest they emerge with axes and swords in their hands, weirdly no archers to be sighted even though they just recently shot an arrow, but… if I have to guess, they’re here to fight like berserkers or something, either way they came rushing in forward at us, they weren’t many, but they were enough for me, Arthur, Sapphire, and Kristof’s knights to be pre-occupied with them just like the rear.

One of them then suddenly charged at us, specifically at Arthur, which in turn I give him a heads up where he quickly noticed the charging bandit, he swiftly evaded it and stabbed him in the back, but… I felt something was wrong about Arthur after he pulled back his sword from the back of that bandit, as the bandit’s blood poured all over Arthur’s hand, he… looked at his hands, quite distraught and shocked probably that he just took a life.

Though taking a life of course is heavy, this wasn’t the time to wallowed it in so, I snapped him back to reality by alerted him of another incoming bandit charging straight at him.

As Arthur was taking some of the bandits defensively, Sapphire jumped down from the carriage’s roof and changed to a white lioness mid-air, she then trampled one of the bandits that almost strike Arthur in his blind side.

While they were fighting side by side, I saw one of the bandits rushing his way to the carriage, I galloped at him with full speed and struck him dead with the estoc in hand, but it wasn’t him alone, the other bandits came rushing in also, I turned my horse and galloped again as fast as I could to struck each and one of them, but… one of them somehow dodge my initial charge..

That bandit who survived, jumped at the carriage’s door and opened it quite roughly, I was in a fit of panic as I galloped again towards the bandit, but thankfully that bandit was greeted with a powerful kick from inside the carriage, he went flying and fell down hard at the ground, I took that perfect timing to struck him like his comrades with my estoc.

“Damn… this reinforcement magic is powerful as hell, I mean… look at him flying in the air like that!” Miss Marie in astonishment, commented in awe on her magic.

Hearing that voice, I knew right away that kick came from Miss Marie, which in turn made me realized at how dumb I was considering there’s already a veteran inside the carriage with magical powers even.

Miss Marie then took a peek at the surrounding mess, she noticed that we were between a rock and a hard place and because of that, she suggested we lose our track towards the forest, I nodded where Nieve then suddenly jumped out the carriage in her Lobo form, she said that she’ll guide us in the forest.

As for the vanguard and the rear, I ordered Sapphire to inform the vanguard, Kristof, and Pere of our escape in to the forest and for the rear, Chloé said that Ceniza will inform them of our departure to the forest. After that I ordered the knight who was controlling the carriage to rush this carriage into the forest, I then cantered my horse and I called Arthur, extending my hand to him, where he grabbed it and I lifted him into my horse at the back.

As we enter the forest, I noticed something was weird, there were sounds of hoofs from our sides, it wasn’t the vanguard nor the rear, no… it was the bandits! I was in shock seeing this considering that, their ambush was initially just a number of mindless berserkers rushing at us but seeing them on horseback made me realize that this is no ordinary highway raid.

While galloping in the forest and dodging the trees, I thought of what they might be after, robbing us is out of the question, why didn’t they use their horsemen to disorient us? but then I realized something about our escape towards the forest, Kristof’s knights in the middle formation were about 50 men back in the road, then he took about 3/4 of it and went rushing in to help Pere, leaving me with about 20 men, the bandit horsemen on the other hand, from what I observed was about 30… no… shit… there’s about 50 plus men…

Shit… that ambush was a ruse, shit, shit, shit, are they here to assassinate me and the others? Ohh shit… they might even be mercenaries under orders from the cultist riders… FUCK!! Shit, just… keep riding, but damn it… their gaining on us!!

My mind was back again in panic as the bandit horsemen keeps getting closer to us, “MUSH! MUSH!” I whipped the lead rope, desperately trying to increase the speed of my horse, but nothing really changed, the only one that were changing were them, their speed kept them more and more closer to us where it was even to the point they could draw and their sword at us.

As I was galloping and dodging the trees, Arthur who was in the back inform me that one of them is super close with us, I clearly saw it as that bandit horseman, ready in arms, was totally ready to strike.

He then tried to swing his sword towards us where Arthur stopped it with his sword, clashing and recoiling him back, he then took another swing, but it wasn’t at us, it was at my horse, but then suddenly.

Wooosh… chuk!

An arrow, coming in loose from my front, where it crashed to the bandit horsemen’s head, he then fell with that one swift shot, but it didn’t stop there!

Woosh…. Wiiish…. wasss…

Wait… Three? no, five? no, seven? no… maybe even more!

A hail of arrows, shot from all direction, with 100% laser accuracy, targeting and downing some of the bandit horsemen as Arthur observed and relayed it to me, it… was inhuman and I wasn’t wrong, I spotted a child, no… children! There were at least four of them teleporting left and right at the trees, with recurve bows in their hands, letting loose of their arrows at the bandits, It’s… puzzling to say the least, well… until one of them teleported right in front of me.

“I’ll guide you Sir!” He said in an enthusiastic tone as he already took a sitting position in front of me. “Just go straight and you’ll see it!”

I nodded at our little savior and rode I presume north, as we didn’t really have anywhere to go. I then noticed the thing that he said we’ll notice, it was a cabin, and a big man was there in front of it, though it was still far, I could tell from his hand and body motion that he was chopping wood logs, well… until he saw a couple of knights on horseback, a royal carriage, two men and a boy on a horse, and a Lobo guiding them in the front.

The boy then teleported towards the big man as we stopped in front of his house, I assumed that this man was most possibly this boy’s father, and… yeah, four of the kids, two boys and two girls, that I spotted running and teleporting around the trees, loosing their arrows, and helping us, were explaining to their father of a surprise guests they brought.

After I told Arthur to control the horse on horseback, I jumped down and went in to introduce myself to him, when I was near him I could tell that his height was about 200 plus centimeter, he has a thick beard and eyebrows, his eyes was more yellow than brown, and his hair was brown, short and unkempt, physique wise he was like one of those Canadian lumberjack, ehh… he’s like Paul Bunyan!

“I see that my children have brought guests! and… from the looks of it more are coming!” He said with a jolly tone, as I turn my head 180 degrees to see that the rear and the vanguard has merge and running towards our direction.

As Kristof, Pere, Sir Fionn, and Sapphire, along with the knights were riding towards us, the bandit horsemen from their behind weirdly stopped, giving time for the four of them and the knights to reunite with us, and suddenly here we were, a horde… no actually, just a company of bandits and bandit horsemen in front of us all, I still don’t know why they aren’t charging at us, well until their leader came to the front and…

“Pawl! Look… our business are with these guys!” The leader said, curiously with an afraid tone.

“Don’t care, my children brought them as guests, even if it was a sudden one!” Pawl said loudly at him.

“But… damn…” The leader couldn’t think of anything to say.

“Alain you still remember our deal, right?” Pawl said in a somewhat menacing tone.

“…yeah! But… urgh….” He is still insistent on capturing us.

“Ohh… I see… KIDS!”

After he said that all of a sudden, the four kids teleported to the trees as I spotted one who was knocking her bow and in a manner of seconds… arrows were flying loose in the air. The arrows were many, it downed about half of the bandits, it was…. truly a spectacle to see.

“Leave Alain! This is just a warning shot, if you value your live, honor the deal that you made with me and my husband!” A woman, an elven woman in her 30s suddenly came out of nowhere and appeared in front of us all.

“Damn it… FALL BACK!!!” Alain the bandit leader, left running back with their tail tucked after seeing the power this family just released just to protect us.

“I… am fully in debt towards your family kind sir!” I said in grateful tone of manner.

“The Lord Protector’s isn’t the only one in your debt! the crown’s also is in debt too for your children’s bravery and your protection, Sir and Madam!” Amadela came out of the carriage and thanked gratefully at them as well.

“Wha… well… it’s not really that big deal of a deal….” Another surprise as well for me, that this bear of man that just protected us, was quite humble and even act like a gentle giant.

“Tchh… there he goes again, have some pride will you boy! I didn’t raise a wuss you know!” Nieve suddenly in a somewhat disappointed tone, criticized our saviour.

“Wait… Mother Nieve!” Pawl stopped for a moment. “What are you doing here? What about the pack? Wha-”

“Shhh, shhh… slow down boy, I’ll explain to you later, but first! An introduction should be in order!” Nieve cut him off and pressed the more pressing concern right now.

After that, we introduced ourselves to Pawl and his family and vice versa.

Our savior’s full name is Pawl Bevan, your everyday woodsman, his wife’s name is Elin le Àlainn, again, just another ordinary elf housewife, and their four halflings, Aoife le Ceanúil, their first born daughter, Rian le Toiliúil, their first born son, Niall le Cróga, their second born son, who jumped in my horse and guided us here, and Eimear le Sciobtha, their second born daughter, the one that I saw clearly loosing her arrows at the bandits.

Though they showed that they’re one very magically powerful family, they preferred to be only known as any other ordinary commoners, we respected of course, after all they saved us, it’s one of the things that we at least could do to repay them.

With that whole introduction being done, we made camp here which was suggested by Pawl himself, we at first respectfully declined the offer, out of fear that they’ll attack their homes at night, but Pawl assured us that it’ll be okay and said that Alain wasn’t the type of mercenary that goes behind his word, which was… relieving, but also weird considering… he is a mercenary.

But… I guess it’s more about not pissing off the bigger fish rather than keeping a pinkie swear. After that Pawl took Nieve where she explains her situation and she also explains her connection with Pawl.

“You see… he is my son… sort of…” Nieve took a breather.

She then explained that Pawl is product of an experimentation, Pawl was originally a Lobo like Nieve herself, but one day he went missing for more than a year which let to him being presumed dead until… well… Pawl came back with Elin, with their first child in her belly.

Pawl explained to his pack that he was merge with an unnamed dead human, Nieve’s pack were hostile at him first, I mean yeah… a human claiming to be a Lobo, a well renown Lobo at that, was super weird and suspicious, but of course he persevere on proving himself, even though his scent was gone, he was recognized as the prodigal son, but what I don’t get was why he wasn’t there with the pack, I tried to ask but they avoided the question.

Hmmm, okay….

Though I wanted to pressed it further, I knew I would only get sweet nothings out of them, so I refrain myself and wait for the right moment to tell Chloé or… maybe even Eleanna to dig in to this, but for now I went back to the camp and let grandma Nieve play with her grandkids.

* * *

As the sun fell, I was sitting in the middle of the camp, cozying up with the fire, eating some of the stew that the knights made, and bonded with them over a couple of mead. I then noticed something in the sky, it was a full moon and which made me realized something again from its position, it’s literally in the middle of the night! Everyone were already a sleep and the knights I was bonding over with a couple of mead was patrolling actually.

Jesus… now this is a first…

After realizing I was drunk and now sober, I left the knights and call it in for the night, but before that, I took a detour to a more private part of the woods and take out a huge number one.

As my penis was fully lock at the ground and loading all of its contents out, I heard ruffles at my right. At first I ignored it, thinking it’s probably just some forest critters passing by, but the ruffles got louder and louder until my curiosity couldn’t be contained anymore, and as I was looking at the direction of that ruffling… I… was… speechless, it… was a goddamn monster…