"So you are telling me that your pet can not only turn into a giant but also change specie? I miss the time when you just carried armored lizards all around now. Though I must say Fenrir is better behaved than those reptiles."

Lein and Veria spent the last three hours, completely ignoring the mute and immobile Askan in the back of the carriage. They kept theorizing the source of my perticularities, going on and on about curses, mutations and monsters. Their lack of knowledge, even for the monster-loving freak my master is, prevented them from finding a satisfactory explanation.

As she was talking, the maid was trying to drive the cart, which was pretty useless as I don't need someone to guide me. There is only one road in the pine forest we are travelling, large ferns covering the edges of the road. We came to a turn next to two fallen trees. The tree are not rotting yet.

Then Veria suddenly stopped and, in one quick motion, throw the reins and grabbed a dagger hidden in the back of her belt.

"Who is here? Show yourself!"

My actual horse form lowered my perception's efficiency but I still felt a displeasing stare on my back. Three men with two spears and a axe came from behind the trees, blocking the road. At the same moment about ten archers came out on top of the tree and pointed arrows at us. The bandits are the common kind, missmatched worn leather armors, poorly maintained weapons and messy beards.

"Drop the reins and your weapons and we won't hurt you."

Lein can't cast a spell before the archers fire and Veria, as much as she could dodge the shots, can't protect her. They both dropped their daggers on the carriage and veria tied the reins. She gave me a meaningful look that I wish I could reciprocate.

The man who spoke, some sort of leader with an iron woodcutter axe, walked toward us with a subtle grin and a far less subtle glare at vein's chest.

When he jumped on the driver's seat, I fired up gallop and ran as fast as I could, knocking all the peoples on the carriage to the ground and throwing off balance and into the mud the two spear wielding goons. My mad dash surprised the archers and some of them fired, thankfully they were so bad at hitting the moving carriage I started to think they would have missed even if I didn't move.

The chief tried to grab the seat in front of him and get up but Veria had enough time to pull another blade, out of her boot this time, and stabbed him in the throat. The mand fell on the ground, deperately trying to gasp. Veria grabbed her knife and pulled it out of the man's neck while kicking him off the carriage.

At this point, my mad dash had sent us out of view of the bandits and Lein finally managed to get a hold and sit on the driver's seat. Veria already starting to wash the bloodstains the unwanted visitor had left behind. She gave me a quick glance and, as the corner of her lips was slightly bending upwards.

"Quite the usefull pet indeed."

With less subtelty, Lein shouted: "That's my Fenrir!"

After the altercation, we had a five hour long undisturbed trip through a forest, the bushes under the north's pines getting bigger and bigger. At one point we reached a crossroad, Veria turned left to a place called Yrsheim.

Lein sleeped through the whole journey and Askan was still as talkative as an zombie. Veria on the other seemed to enjoy the sounds of nature around her and had that mature, cool beauty looks that made me remeber she was a woman. Not that I can really love her but I can still appreciate beauty.

When we exited the forest, our destination became clear. A large castle on top of a snow covered mountain. The place was obviously designed with efficiency in mind, the walls thick, hundreds of archer's post and canons on every tower. I can't see them from here but I'm pretty sure there are protection runes on the walls. The stone used to craft this gigantic bastion is dark grey in color and the roof tiles on the tallest towers are made of slate.

The forest we exited and the mountain on which the castle was built were the last landmarks before an endless desert of ice. The great north, a boundless ice sheet covering more than twenty times the surface average countries have. All white, covered with iceborn monsters. You can see the occasional island with a few tree, some sort of oasis in the boreal desert.

Even I know the name of this place. Commonly known as the frosen hell, Ysrevir is mostly uncharted lands and ice abominations. If a powerful monster exists you can bet there is an ice variant in Ysrevir.

If my limited knowledge of history is still up to date, this bastion is used as a line of defense against legions of monsters from the north. Most of the beasts don't bother with humans but you have the ocasional draugr legion iceborn goblin clan or frost drake that tries to hide in the woods and harass nearby towns.

Right after we started going up on the mountain, a group of guards came. All clad from hed to toe in heavy steel plated armor lined with fur, wearing long winter cloaks. Most of them have spear and shields, though there is the occasional bow. All have at least a sword at their belt. The one wearing some sort of elaborated helmet with a horn in the middle of the forehead spoke up.

"Halt! You are on military territory, state your buisness."

"We are here to report movement from the cult of Araneir."

"So we'll have work for the next week"

"Month, they raided a town."

The guard were clearly displeased by the news, one even voiced his complaints: "Oh come on! We already had the elder ice drake this year!"

"Stop complaining, we had far worse. What town are you talking about ma'am?"

"Terrnit."

"The town with the church of order? Did they manage to fight against all the priest and crusaders?"

"Yes they had an army of low rank cultists, priest and some mercenaries."

"Now this is really bad. I ask that you follow me to the keep and immediately report to the general."

"Will do."

Veria's tone was cold and calm, which makes me think that she probably wasn't always a maid and that what she did before was either in the military or a high class mercenary guild.

We soon reached the portcullis that quickly rose up after a few words from the the guard's chief. The inside wasn't as threatening than the outside, a lot of the soldiers playing cards, drinking or playing stupid games. The only exception was a rather young looking readhead who was taking care of the horses. He or she was too far and facing the wrong way so I'm not sure of the gender.

Lein woke up as another guard was taking me to the stables.

"You don't need to do that!"

"But the horse need to ..."

"siaf ej euq ec sap sias ej."

She pointed some sort of silentcast illusion magic toward me. I played along and turned into a cat. The guard was dumbfounded but didn't object as I followed my master toward the largest tower in the fort.

Our escort explained the reason of our presence to the guards in front of it and guided us toward a large room with a map covered table in the middle. The three men around it looked up to us when we entered. One was a brown haired scout with lighter leather armor and a hood. The other two seemed to be the ones in charge, a young man with a large build and short black hair wearing a heavy plate armor mad in a steel-mithril alloy considering the greenish hue, the other a grizzled old man with scars all over his face. The old one reajusted his armor, the same as everyone except for a helmet with three large horns probably a tradition for higher ups.

"We are currently busy Oswell, I hope you have a good reason to bring stranger in this room."

"Yes sir, we.."

Veria cut him off.

"Terrnit was raided by Araneir cultists, the town was destroyed."

The old man's eyes went wide in surprise but he didn't talk. He lowered his gaze.

"I wish we had a better reunion Veria, not one where we talk about death and destruction for once."

"You know I wouldn't come here without a reason Reus, expecially not with the miss."

"If he is not with you, can I assume he's missing?"

"Gone."

"Well the news keep pilling up."

"That's two for now."

"Nope, three, we have an incoming threat. Who's the girl and why is a cat in her arms?"

Lein who was absentmindedly stroking my fur looked at him with a fake smile.

"Lein Ardegarde is the name, I guess you knew my father."

"Sure do. Now tell me everything please."

Lein opened her mouth but, before she could say anything, Veria explained everything from the start with a perfect mix of precision and efficiency. The man listened to her report and nodded. He then turned to the young one.

"Arius, you will take a team of recruits and go check if the cultist are all dead. Also do try to find where they came from."

"But sir I'm the strongest soldier here after you, I need to be here for the goblins!"

"Sorry kid but the moment this woman came in you lost that title, plus the cultists are strong, I can't send only recruits without supervision."

The young man became visibly angry at that.

"She's just a civilian, there is no way …"

"I will not tolerate insubordination!"

He stared at Veria, then Reus and finally walked away, still visibly angry.

"Don't resent him he's a newcomer from the capital, pridful but strong enough to back it most of the time. He'll learn with time."

Veria answered with a slight grin.

"I know he kinda looks like a kid I had to train in my time."

Reus also smiled at that.

"Now to come back to our problems, Arius is right on one thing, I'll need as much manpower as I can for the goblins. Can I count on you?"

"Do you really need help to kill some goblins?" Lein interupted. Veria turned to her and answered in a much sweeter tone than the military one she used before:"Yes, he is talking about iceborn goblins, taller, stronger and blue. Also if they are coming here it must be a horde with hobgoblins and maybe even beast riders, siege weapons, dark priest or a goblin king. They'll at least have a chieftain and some shamans which is already a hassle."

"I already killed some goblins! And more than once."

"Green goblins are easier to deal with, plus it wasn't a horde. Your adventuring skills are good but not perfect."

Wait she knew?

Reus coughed loudly.

"As I was trying to say, we have an incoming horde and scout report snow wolves, a battering ram and at least five shamans. No sights of the leader. Would you help me make a battle plan Veria?"

"Sure just get the miss a room, she needs it."

"Stop calling me miss!"

Reus gestured to the guard named Oswell that stood right next to the door during the whole conversastion. The man asked Lein to follow him and brought us in another part of the tower where officer rooms were. Lein dropped her bag in an empty one and sat on the bed. The guard quickly excused himself to return to his duty.

Lein stood there, lost in thought. She was still dealing with the death of her father. I didn't want to bother her so I crept out to look around.