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Eric entered a very familiar town while heading north, and he happened to pass by a very familiar man that stood at the end of an alleyway. He was a round man with a top hat and fancy clothes, Eric spied him as the slave trader that had sold him Lucia. Lucia's ears flattened at the sight of him, and she reflexively hid behind Eric's huge mass.

"Ah, my very favorite hero," greeted the slave trader happily. "I have something very special for you," said the slave trader, gesturing for Eric to follow. Eric summoned his chains, then followed the slave trader back into his tent.

"Are you sure," questioned Lucia cautiously, coming behind Eric.

"You don't have to be afraid of him," said Eric comfortingly. Eric's gaze shifted to the slave trader, his eyes cold and heartless as he stated, "She doesn't, right?"

"You payed for your product, I have no such disloyalty to a paying customer," said the slave trader. "Once you buy it, good or bad, it's yours."

"I'd say good," said Eric, petting Lucia's head between her ears. He noticed then that she had suddenly grown up again, now she was as tall as his own chest.

"That's great," said the slave trader, "but this time I have a very special lottery." The stout man lead the duo to a small table in the front of his store where a basket of eggs sat. Each egg was three times the size of an average chicken egg, and each one was painted with the spiral that Lucia once wore. "You see, I unfortunately misplaced the information on which egg was which, so I must unfortunately sell them at random. Each one costs only twenty copper coins, and there is a chance you could get a minor dragon."

"Aren't minor dragons basically like cats and dogs?" Eric pointed out.

"Yes, but they can be traded for the same price as a decent house," said the slave trader. "So, what do you say?"

"I'd like to look at your other selections," said Eric, "then maybe we'll come back to this."

The slave trader complied, but asked on the way back, "Out of curiousity, how much are you willing to spend?"

"Behind living expenses, I've got twenty silver coins this time," said Eric, looking at the various animals in cages. "But for now, I'm looking for quantity over quality."

"I see," said the slave trader, looking at Eric and Lucia. "I think I have just the thing for you. I've been getting more and more new arrivals recently, and I'm running out of space for them. If you're okay with training them yourself, you can have your pick of the new arrivals for cheap. It saves me time and space, plus gives you your quantity." Eric was taken behind a rack of various creatures that clawed at the group as they passed. Behind the stacked cages were a group of animal people chained together like a chain gang arranged in a square.

"Oh my gods," hissed Lucia, running around Eric and bending down to someone on the corner of the chain arrangment. "Lilly, is that you?" A little girl with rabbit ears poked her head up, a snuffly little bunny rabbit, nose twitching as she looked up at Lucia with enormous eyes.

"Lucia?" said the rabbit girl weakly, then Lucia and the girl embraced each other. Lucia petted the girl's pure white hair back across the collar around her neck.

"What happened to you," Lucia asked desperately, "I thought you had gotten away from the village with your parents!"

"We did," sniffled the bunny girl, "but we were caught on the run a few months later." Lucia looked around at the faces, but there were no more rabbit ears in the group. There was another child, a boy who had a lizard's tale and was sitting on the opposite side of the group.

"I'll take the two kids," said Eric, pointing at Lilly and the lizard boy.

"Very well," said the slaver, going to the table nearby and grabbing the quill as he had done before. He recited the words of the slave contract over Lilly, then released her to hug Lucia with all of the vigor she could conjure. The slaver then went to the boy, but he snapped at the slaver when the brush touched his skin. Eric went over to help, wrestling with the boy until the slaver was able to make the mark, then he let go as the young boy snapped angrily. "Ugh, good luck with that one."

The slaver unlocked the boy's collar and other chains, then Eric commanded, "Tell me your name."

"Draco," said the boy through clenched teeth. He clearly hated Eric with all of his heart, but Eric saw the same eyes he used to witness in the mirror. This kid had it tough, and the only way he knew to cope was to get tougher.

"I like you," Eric said with a cocky smile, "so let's fight together. Draco, I want you join my party." A little message popped up on the same white board as always asking Draco if he wanted to join 'The Hero of the chain's Party'. "Hit yes," Eric instructed, and Draco did so whether he wanted to or not. "Good, now we're getting somewhere. Lilly, I want you to join, too. Press 'yes' when it comes up." The message popped up, and Lilly automatically pressed the join button.

"Mister Slaver," said Lucia, looking down at Lilly, "could you please redo the contract between me and Eric?" Everyone was surprised by these words, especially the slaves who didn't have a choice in the matter.

"Lucia, you don't have to do this," said Eric softly.

"I want to do this," said Lucia, looking determinedly at Eric. "I want you to trust me absolutely, with no doubts about my loyalty." Eric wanted to say that she didn't need to do this, but he couldn't honestly trust her without the slave contract seal. It was the great comfort that he could never be betrayed by his companions, that there was a failsafe in place to keep her trust absolute. He wanted to trust her, but he knew from experience there were worse things than a slave contract.

"Alright," conceeded Eric, "then let's do this." The slaver painted on the symbol, uttering the same mantra as he had the first time Eric had met Lucia. Eric payed the slave trader three silver coins, then paused as he looked at the random assortment of eggs near the entrance. He did want to buy one just in case, and the price was certainly affordable, but there were a lot of costs that came to mind about taking care of an animal. In the end, Eric left without a fragile shell in hand.

On the third day into their journey, Eric, Lucia, Lilly, and Draco were almost at the supposed encampment of the approaching army. Eric's smithing skill had gotten him a crude dagger and bow, but he was casually resmithing metals repeatedly so as to level up his smithing skill artificially. The group came out into a grassy field where smoke billowed up from firey encampments, tents were set up with the colors of red, and banners of war hung from huge flagpoles. Eric and his group approached from the south where a large field had them seen from a mile out. As they neared the camp, an ensemble of burly men and women wearing heavy winter gear underneath massive armor plating rushed to greet them.

One of the lead men snarled and grunted at him, then spit on the ground and demanded, "Who be ye?" Eric and his group were still far enough away that they couldn't properly size up the group, getting incorrect assumptions about them.

"I am just someone who wants to talk with you," said Eric loudly, bridging the gap between them with his booming baritone voice.

"And what say ye expects to speak about?" demanded a woman with braided pigtails.

"I just wanted to ask what you were doing in this country," Eric said simply.

"Ah, you must be one of the king's men," said the lead man once again. "You're a loony if ya think we'll let ye sabatoge our escape! We know ya tricky deeds that gave ya the run of da place, but your mind must be tiny if ya think we'll let ya do it again!" Eric's eyes went wild, and he marched up to these people who almost laughed at how angry this little Lorain wuss was getting. But as Eric got closer, he got bigger, until his 8'6" built body was looking down at these 7'7" stocky Midrardians. His presence was like a furnace burning with rage as he loomed over the armored travelers.

"Don't you EVER associate me with that coward of a king," threatened Eric right out. "I will have nothing to do with him or his dirty daughter." These people all looked at one another slowly, then they started laughing boisterously.

"Even the most unloyal king's man wouldn't threaten his name!" cried the nearly delirious leader happily. "You've got me wetting me'self!" These people laughed at Eric's hatred of the king, making Eric a little disillusioned that they were in the same boat. The lead man wiped a tear from his eye, wiped it off on his dirty clothes, then extended his hand for Eric to take.

"The name's Baldur," said the lead man, "and I was the jarl of Midrard just a few days ago." Eric only figured from context what that meant.

"Eric Bane," said Eric, grasping Baldur's thick hand with his own as if they were arm wrestling. They held it there, then let go much to Baldur's amusement. "So, what do you say? Will you tell me what you're doing here?"

"Aye, we're fleeing," said Baldur, his smile disappearing from his shaggy face. "A demon's taken up residence in the mountains, and it's been destroyin our villages an killing our people. Even me own son..." Baldur looked hurt, but he pressed on, "went after it with a company of his best mates.... They never came back."

"What does this demon look like?" Eric asked curiously.

"Nobody's seen it," said Baldur. "It hides in a snowstorm like a predator, 'en it freezes people solid the instant it touches them. It's a demon of ice, come through tha portals to plague ar' land!"

"I see," said Eric, looking closely at the bearded man. "That is a big problem, but it's one I can do something about. You see," Eric summoned his chains, "I'm one of the heroes."

"Hah," laughed Baldur, "then it must be fate that brought you to us!"

'It was a kill order,' Eric thought, but he didn't say that.

"Tell me, Hero of the... chains," said Baldur uneasily, "what makes ya think this ice demon is gonna be such a pushova'?" In response, Eric summoned his hammer as well, and Baldur smiled with a missing tooth. "That's a good answer."

"Just tell me where I can find it," said Eric, "then we'll go and do the rest."

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