Ezra couldn’t take his eyes off of the tall man. Just the figure of this person was undeniably mesmerizing. However, he had to remove those thoughts from his head for now. He turned to see the others reactions. And saw that Katreena was the one who was the most fazed by his appearance.

“Welcome to town, Grimm.” A young woman approached the tall warrior. “Here, I made some cookies. Try some.” Grimm took a cookie from the plate and ate the whole thing in one bite.

“Needs more butter, and uses less sugar. I told you about this last time.” Grimm critiqued the sample.

“Aww….but I like using lots of sugar.” The girl said back.

“Then your future husband won’t like your cookies.” grimm patted the girls head and started to move along. Other villagers started to approach him. Ezra stood confused.

“Grimm. Look! I wrote a new spell!”

“Grimm, where do you think I should take my wife for our anniversary?”

“Grimm, when are you gonna train me?”

“Grimm, is today the day you finally take me out to dinner?”

“Grimm, try this new recipe I came up with.”

All the villagers were surrounding him with request and other conversations. His young men had remained far behind. Engaging in their own conversations with the townsfolk. Grimm was catering to the people of Cloudwick’s every whim. Some of which were less than ideal.

“Good job on the flowers. They're really coming in.” he complimented the floral decorum of a shopkeeper. The shopkeep blushed at the older gentlemen.

“Grimm!” A young girl had made her way past everyone and to Grimm. He knelt down to speak with her. “My boyfriend left me again.”

“What did I say, Myla? I told you to stop worrying about dating and focus on your strength, your skills, all the things you can be good at. If you want to keep your boyfriend, then you have to show him your something worth keeping.” He responded to the young girl.

“Then why won't you let me come to your camp?” Myla responded in a child-like anger.

“You know why. I only take boys. Find yourself a nice strong woman to train you.”

“You just don’t want to train me.”

“That’s not true. Didn’t you say that if you beat me I have to marry you? Well. You won't beat me if I teach you all of my moves. Then I’ll know how to beat you.” Myla pouted to Grimm.

“One day Grimm, I promise. I’ll become the strongest woman. Then you’ll have to marry me! Because the strongest woman deserves the strongest man!” Myla declared.

“That’s right. Now run along I have work to do.”

Grimm walked around the whole village, checking in on families, helping with problems around the home, making sure that the streets of the village were clean, spending time with young children, telling them stories of his great adventures. He showed to be something different than what Ezra had imagined.

After some time had rounded back to the front of the village, all of the young men who were with him also now in the same place. Katreena had her eyes set on two young men, and not Grimm.

“Hey you lot! Stop standing around and come be with the crowd!” The group heard Grimm yelling at them. Ezra started to walk up to the man, Anabelle followed as well as Nicholai. Yet Katreena remained. Ezra stopped and looked to the girl.

“What’s wrong Katreena?” Ezra asked. Katreena clenched her fist. She threw away her fear and burst out into anger.

“It’s them.” Katreena quietly said. “THEIR THE ONES WHO ATTACKED ME!”

Everyone was shocked by the claim. Katreena pointed to two of the young men. Grimm looked over to confirm their faces.

“I was walking through a forest after I made it to the Freelands, I noticed something following me. Then those two emerged from the trees and attacked me. The blue haired one I scratched on the stomach. The pink haired one I broke one of his arms. Yet, they still managed to defeat me. That’s when they tore off my jacket. Then I feel unconscious. When I woke up I was inside Zarcah’s lair.” Katreena stated the whole ordeal for all to hear.

“Zarcah?” Grimm thought to himself.

Ezra and Nicholai looked to each other, then at the two young men angrily. Grimm stood up and silently approached the boys. The whole town felt a wave angry coming from him, yet they themselves began to feel the same.

“Well, what’s your rebuttal?” Grimm asked the boys. They both started to sweat profusely.

“Pops. We told you. We were attacked by some lightning monster.” One of the boys spoke to defend the two of them.

“If that was the case them you should have black streaks from the lighting. Or are you lying?” Ezra asked menacingly.

“You shut your damn mouth-” Ezra was yelled at by the boy. He was quickly cut off by Grimm.

“Silence! I sent you two on a delivery and you come back with scratches and broken limbs. Your story better match up.VESTA!” Grimm shouted at the top of his lungs. The crowd all turned to the back of them. A young girl walked through the crowd. She wore a red robe going all the way down to her feet, leaving them invisible. A diamond shaped hole was placed at the center to reveal her cleavage. Her bright white hair was tied into a braided ponytail. And in her hand was a staff with a crystal in the shape of a flame.

“You called Grimm.” Vesta asked, coming very close to the man.

“You know the drill. 6 days ago. That’s when I sent them to Port Foyun. Show us the good stuff.” Grimm ordered Vesta. She moved to one of the young men and placed the staff over their head.

“Tell me. Did you attack this young girl?” She asked the young man. Everyone around waited in anticipation for the result of that question. The boy before her was shaking in his boots. He turned to his fellow brother, then they both sighed.

“Yes, we did.” The whole village gasped in surprise. Ezra began to reach for his weapon, about to let his anger out on the two. Yet was stopped by the villagers who were now chastising the two boys.

“Aww, and here i was thinking I could use my magic. Well guess i’ll have to try some other time.” Vesta removed herself from the situation.

Grimm walked through the crowd and picked up the two boys by their collars. He lifted them over in front of Katreena and dropped them to her feet. They looked back to see him glaring at the menacingly. They shook in fear, then bowed their heads before Katreena.

“We’re sorry. Please forgive us.” The two said simultaneously. Katreena reverted back to her normal self. She turned her head away from the two.

“Whatever.” Is all she said before walking away.

“Alright. Take these two and put them in the hold. I’ll come deal with them later.” A few of the villagers took the boys away. Grimm approached the whole team, mostly to speak with Katreena. He saw that the girl stood just taller than he did.

“I’ll apologize for the boys too. If there’s anything you need. Just let me know. I can get the mayor to help you guys out as compensation.” Ezra and Nicholai both had the same thought. They dropped to their knees and began to beg.

“We need money!!!!!!” Both were sobbing loudly. Grimm had no reaction to their plea.

“You know the mayor?” Katreena asked.

“Yeah. I’ve come to speak with the bastard.”

“I have too. I have a message for him.”

“Let me guess. It’s about the knights?” Grimm asked. Leading Katreena to nod in response. “I suspected so. You know, you look familiar. Have we met somewhere before?”

“Oh. I’m not sure. I’m from the Serx Empire. My dad sent me on this mission.” Katreena responded, she nervously scratched her hand.

“The Serx Empire. I used to live there. Who is your father? I’m sure I know who he was.”

“His name is Darland.” Grimm’s eyes widened in shock.

“Darland…..you must be one of his daughters.” Grimm said. Ezra and Nicholai noticed his surprise and tried to catch on with the conversation. Ezra once again noticed the scythe on Grimm’s back.

“Hey, old man.” Ezra got off the ground and spoke.

“What is it, kid?” Grimm returned, not caring of the comment.

“Were you the one who attacked Dustgarde a few days back?”

“Dustgarde. I haven’t been there in years. What makes you think I attacked it?”

“Some tall guy with a scythe, had long hair, and was riding a dragon, showed up and destroyed nearly half the village.” Nicholai intervened. Grimm started to think to himself about the two young men’s words.

“Guess I do fit the bill. But, sorry. I haven’t attacked any villages lately. If I did, well, I wouldn’t have done a sloppy job like that asshole.” Grimm answered before walking away from the group. “Also, girl. Come with me. Let’s go see the mayor. He’ll speak with me.”

“Hey, what about us?” Ezra asked as Grimm got further and further away.

“You can come as long as you're quiet.” Grimm said continuing on, not even looking back to confirm if they actually took his advice. The team all looked at each other.

“Well, guess there’s no fun sticking around here. And he seems to know more than he lets on.” Ezra said gazing at the tall warrior. He was truly intriguing to the young warrior. A figure who was not called the strongest in the land, but a man of such high authority. "Let's go."

They all followed closely to Grimm, and they approached the large pillar at the end of the village that stretched all the way into the clouds above.