Astrid and Viele arrive at the back of Blackclaw’s stall, going between the two crates that serves as an entrance she sees Blackclaw and Shortclaw talking. She waits at the entrance till Blackclaw notices her.

“Oh if it isn’t the little lass! Welcome back!” A smile on his face.

Shortclaw then turns. “Astrid! You are back, sorry I didn’t see you there.” He then walks up and gives her a big hug. “Are you done shopping? Did you get yourself a new minion?”

“Yes, and sort of.” Astrid says grinning. “I also got a gift for you that you will hopefully like.”

“You shouldn’t have spent your money on me.” Shortclaw says, frowning, happy that she got him a gift, but even unhappier that she spent the silver when she has so little of it.

“Well I did, now, please close your eyes.”

Shortclaw lets out a sigh and closes his eyes. He can hear Astrid calling in Viele, and then there is a loud THUNK as something hits the ground in front of him.

“Ohhoho.” Blackclaw noticed the mace and what it is made from, he is wondering if he should stop this, especially knowing how angry his brother would be if anything remotely like this happens and he finds out.

Shortclaw opens his eyes and sees a mace made from a very dark metal. He has seen this kind of metal before but doesn’t remember where from. “How much was this?” Shortclaw asks as he lifts the mace.

“Four silver.” Astrid says proudly.

“Four silver? What stall would sell this high of quality of weapon for four silver?”

“I will tell you, but only if you accept the gift and don’t try to return it and give me my money back!” Astrid says defiantly.

“Wai…” Blackclaw tries to say but he isn’t fast enough.

Shortclaw lets out a sigh. “Okay I agree, I will accept your gift, it’s the best quality mace I have seen in, well since I can remember.”

A look of horror appears on Blackclaw’s face.

Astrid grins again. “Well I bought it from this beastwoman, her name was something like Snow…. Err… Snowtail! That was her name. She had white fur and she was really pretty.”

Upon hearing the name Blackclaw drops the shoulder guards he had in his hands. “Did you say Snowtail? Well that explains it all!”

“What do you mean?” Both Astrid and Shortclaw ask.

“Well, Shortclaw, you remember a few years back when you had that playmate Greytail?”

“Yeah, how does she have anything to do with this?”

“Well.” Blackclaw pauses for a moment trying to figure out a way to phrase what he is about to say. “Well Greytail is the daughter of Snowtail, and well Snowtail really wanted to create an arranged marriage between you and her daughter. But, your father refused, saying that he wanted you to have the strongest mate to make sure that the family line stays the strongest. My guess is that she got a little angry because she just tried to get her revenge.” Blackclaw chuckles eyeing Shortclaw as he plays around with his new mace.

“What do you mean she tried to get her revenge?” Shortclaw asks.

“Yeah how?” Astrid asks as her eyes grow wide.

Blackclaw lets out a chuckle again due to their innocence. “Well, in the beastkin clans, we have a thing called a marriage vow ritual. It’s a lot like the thing humans call proposals. The difference is once the marriage vow is made, by the laws of the beastkin, it is permanent and neither party can back out of it or be permanently banishment due to issues in the past. Well, actually there is a way out of it, but it involves one of the other parties dying.”

“And what does this have to do with Snowtail and her revenge?” Astrid asks.

“Well there are three ways to initiate a marriage vow.” Blackclaw says as he puts a paw on the table, tapping his claws. “One is an arranged marriage vow, where two clans get together and make a vow that their children will get married and they swap family heirlooms made of shadowsteel to show the merger of the two clans. The second way is if a male gives a gift of shadowsteel, usually enchanted armor, to the female he wishes to become mates with, and if she wants to accept she just accepts the gift. The third way is if a female gives a shadowsteel weapon to a male and he accepts. For it to be official though you need at least one credible witness so usually beastkin like to host a large party and do it during the party so that everyone knows.”

“Wait…” Shortclaw says as he looks down at the mace. “This mace is shadowsteel?” His eyes grow wide. “Oh no.”

“Don’t worry Shortclaw, you can go ahead and back out of it, remember it’s only you two and me here and if none of us mentions it, it’s like it never happened. You can then just say that you bought the mace for yourself not knowing it was shadowsteel, you would look silly but not bound to the marriage vow.”

Both Shortclaw and Astrid sigh in relief. “So you are telling me I nearly got us married?” Astrid asks, relief in her voice. “I mean we just became a couple last ni…” Astrid tried to catch herself but she already said too much.

Blackclaw suddenly appears in front of Astrid. “So little lass, you really are dating my nephew now huh? I have been joking this entire time. When were you going to tell your future uncle? You know it’s no longer going to be fun to poke fun of you two since you two are actually dating now.”

Astrid and Shortclaw just look at each other and smile nervously. “Well… we like each other but we just started dating… there is no way we could just get married just like that!” They both explain.

“Well too bad, you two lovekittens are stuck together.” An eerily familiar feminine voice comes from the entrance.

Everyone looks towards the entrance to see a large beastwoman with white fur.

“What are you doing here? Blackclaw growls.

“Oh nothing really, just took a break from my stall to come over here and visit my good friends, the claw clan, and I seemed to of stepped right into the middle of an old-fashioned marriage vow ritual, and thankfully for you all I am a great witness!”

Astrid can only stand there, dazed after hearing the words come out of Snowtail’s mouth. She cannot hear a word the two beastmen and the one beastwoman are saying after that, the only thing going through her mind is. “How did this happen.”

“How can you do this to these children, I beg you to reconsider this Snowtail.” Blackclaw begs.

Snowtail just laughs at Blackclaw pleading. “You know I cannot do that!”

“You know if you go through with this he will just make his other cub the future leader. And you know that he won’t arrange anything with your daughter because he wants the strongest mate for the future leader of the claw clan.”

Snowtail just smiles. “Well, I guess you haven’t heard then.”

“Huh?”

“Oh after Wraithclaw decided to sully my family name by refusing my daughter, he offered, to arrange a marriage with another… His other son to be exact. Sure it wasn’t perfect, since the oldest was going to be the future chief, but I thought that it may lead to something, and behold! The elf suddenly appears at my stall and she had the answer to my problem.”

“So you went and possibly ruined these two pup’s lives? Dragging them into beastkin politics just for some petty revenge?”

“Oh how did I ruin these two pup’s lives? You seen it too or you would of stopped them to begin with. They both have feelings for each other.”

“That…” Shortclaw tries to talk but is interrupted by Blackclaw.

“I didn’t know all this was going to transpire! I just wanted to tease them a little bit! Not causing events that will anger many people in my clan!”

“Will you both just shut up!” Shortclaw yells, startling both of Snowtail and Blackclaw, something seeming to snap in his mind, flipping a mental switch. Shortclaw slams the mace down on the stone paving, causing the paving to crack from the hit.

“Now you will both shut up. Uncle, I will take responsibility for this mistake, if Astrid is fine with it. I am not the kind of man to force her to go along with this… charade if she doesn’t wish to.”

“Shortclaw you will be exiled if you two try to break it off!” Blackclaw yells.

“Well it’s too late now, even if Snowtail decides not to keep quiet half the beastkin here have more than likely heard this argument going on, we are in the middle of a festival not in a back room somewhere!” Shortclaw yells back.

Snowtail chuckles. “Looks like you have lost this one Blackclaw.”

“And you!” Shortclaw lifts the mace up, pointing it at Snowtail threateningly. “Father will hear about your deception; I doubt he can do anything immediately but I will make sure he finds a way to punish you. Now leave!”

Snowtail lets out a loud chuckle. “So I see you are your father’s pup, many were worried that you would never grow your fangs. I truly wished that it was my daughter marrying you instead of this elf but we are way past that point now. Well I am done with my fun here so I will take your advice and leave, enjoy yourself there pup.” She turns around and grins as she sees Astrid, still standing there in shock. “Enjoy your future mate little elf.” She walks out of the stall, laughing the entire time.

Blackclaw turns and looks at Shortclaw. “I am sorry that all this happened, I let my teasing come before protecting you.”

“It’s fine uncle.” Shortclaw shakes his head and looks over at Astrid. “Viele, is she okay?”

Viele shrugs. “Massster seems normal to me…. But… I am not… an elf…”

“Astrid?” Shortclaw pokes Astrid’s arm. He then jumps back as she suddenly jolts out of her daze.

“Wait… what do you mean married!” The only words able to come out of Astrid’s mouth at that moment.

“No no no we aren’t married, well… we are kind of bound by law to get married when we reach full maturity, which for beastkin it’s at the age of twenty years. But if you don’t want to, I will talk to my father and tell him I refuse to go through with the marriage vow.” Shortclaw says as he smiles at Astrid.

“But… wasn’t there something about a punishment if you do that?” Astrid asks worriedly.

“Yes… banishment…” Blackfang says as he moves beside the other two.

“What? Like you aren’t allowed into your territory anymore?” Astrid asks.

“Sort of.” Blackfang says as he looks Astrid in her eyes. “But with beastkin, banishment is the worst possible thing, and is only used for extreme cases of misconduct. It involves cutting off offending beastkin’s dominant arm and not allowing them to be involved with any other beastkin except other banished, if any beastkin are found associating with a banished one they will be subject to banishment too.”

“Why would beastkin have laws like this?”

“Because us beastkin have a lot of honor, especially when it comes to our clans, and due to that honor two of the largest clans of beastkin at the time wiped each other out. It all started due to a pre-arranged marriage many generations back. The two were pre-arranged when they were young, and when they grew old enough to officially marry the male suddenly called off the marriage, he said he couldn’t marry the female. Now back in those days no one ever thought that anyone would ever back out of a pre-arranged marriage, and this enraged the clan of the female. When neither side could come to an agreement their pride took over, both feeling the other one wronged the other. Then… a great war happened between the two clans, in the end both clans destroyed each other. After that to prevent anything like that from happening again the clans made the law that breaking off a marriage vow is punishable by banishment.”

“I can’t let that happen to Shortclaw! Is there any way to keep him from getting banished?” Astrid asks nearly crying.

“Easy lass, please don’t cry, nothing will happen to Shortclaw, if you two go through with the marriage vow and get married when you both reach the age of twenty.” Blackclaw says as he shoos off a worker that came in to ask a question.

“Astrid you don’t have to…” Shortclaw gets interrupted by Astrid covering his mouth.

“No, this is my fault, I don’t want you to get hurt, I like you way too much for that, and we have four years to figure something out, so I accept the marriage vow. And wait…” Astrid’s eyes light up as she remembered something. “Your dad is a beastkin chieftain? I thought you said your family served in the local military when we met?”

Shortclaw freezes for a moment, he then gathers himself. “Well… yeah usually our family serves a few years in the military and I may or may not have left out the detail that I come from a family of beastkin chieftains. But that doesn’t matter anymore, neither my father or my council will allow me to become the next chieftain of the claw clan after word gets to them. So my father will just make my younger brother the next chieftain.”

“Because I am an elf?” Astrid asks, biting her bottom lip hard. “Wait what if I am the one who calls off the marriage vow? I am not a beastwoman so they can’t banish me!” A tinge of excitement coming from the elf’s voice, thinking she found a loophole.

Shortclaw just shakes his head. “Father would probably be more offended that an elf called off a marriage vow. That and many wouldn’t believe an elf would call it off so they will demand I get banished anyways. And well, it could be worse.”

“How can this get any worse?” Astrid asks, exhausted from what all just transpired.

Shortclaw grins. “I could be stuck in a marriage vow with someone that wasn’t you.”

Astrid blushes and turns around, hiding her face.

“What did you do with my Shortclaw, there is no way the Shortclaw that I know would say something as beastmanly as that.” Blackclaw says, wrapping an arm around his nephew. “And I will send a letter to your father, hopefully the letter gets to him before word of this event does so we can at least misdirect some of his impending anger. What he does after that we can’t be sure till he actually does it.”

Astrid turns back around staring at Blackclaw and Shortclaw. “What should we do from here?”

Blackclaw shrugs. “Knowing the politics of my clan, and my brother, more than likely when he finds out he will be angry, especially since the son that was supposed to be the next chieftain is now going to be marrying an elf. More than likely he will come here and raise a fuss, then after seeing that there is nothing he can do due to the laws of the clans he will go back, make some sort of excuse up and name his younger son as the next chieftain.”

“And why would he name his younger son the new chieftain instead of Shortclaw?”

“Well, that is because most beastkin live to further their clan in anyways possible, each beastkin goes about it their own special way, but one thing almost all beastkin strive for is the strongest offspring possible. That is why there are so many arranged marriages, they don’t want to have weak children that will only die off before they can reproduce and have their family lineage disappear forever.”

“And what does this have to do with anything?”

“Because, even though elves, humans, beastmen, dwarves, and a multitude of other races can breed between each other… their children usually end up weak and die while they are babies.” Blackclaw says as he looks down at the elf.

Astrid just stares as she tries to process the words that she just heard. “I… I understand…” Her shoulders and ears slump down in an admittance of defeat.

Shortclaw walks up behind Astrid and wraps his arms around her. “Do you want to go and eat and maybe talk a little about this between ourselves?” Shortclaw looks up at his uncle. “Uncle may I take a break and talk to Astrid a little?”

Blackclaw nods and waves a paw, shooing them away. “Just take the rest of the day off, most of the crowds have been taken care of, we should be able to handle the rest.”

Shortclaw and Astrid both walk out together, after going and grabbing some ruby rabbit kabobs they walk till they finally find a secluded area to talk. Both Astrid and Shortclaw sit there, staring at their kabobs, the one to break the silence is Shortclaw.

“I… I just want to say that from the moment I first seen you, I liked you… a lot… and even if I would of known the importance of the gift I would of ended up accepting it anyways.”

Astrid leans on Shortclaw’s shoulder, letting out a sigh. “It makes me happy to hear you say that… but… I feel like I may of ruined your life, you were supposed to be a chieftain to your clan, and now all this happened due to me.”

Shortclaw snorts then chuckles. “That just makes everything even better, I never wanted to be the chieftain anyways. All I ever seen father do all day was sit around listening to everyone complain, then he would just complain that he missed the military.” Shortclaw stretches out and wraps an arm around Astrid, pulling her close.

“Want to know something funny?” Astrid asks as she looks up at Shortclaw. “This morning when I woke up, I was so embarrassed about last night, getting asked out and all that. I wonder what I would of thought if I would have known that a few hours later I would accidently get myself in this… predicament.” Astrid pauses again for a second, staring at Viele as he pokes a nearby tree. “So… what do we do from here?”

Shortclaw shrugs. “Ehhh, like uncle said, father will probably show up and growl some. Then I guess in four more years we will get married.”

Astrid can only blush again when she hears the word married. They then sit there for a few hours not talking, only staring out in the distance and randomly glancing at Viele as he chased random rodents, causing them to laugh.

When it finally starts to get dark Shortclaw gets up, helping Astrid up he smiles at her. “Sooo would my future mate like to join me in the nighttime part of the festival?”

Astrid just looks at him questioningly.

“Oh, umm… there are going to be a few bands and other entertainment till late tonight. I always hear it’s the best part of the festival.” A smiling Shortclaw says.

“I… guess it won’t hurt…” Astrid stretches her legs and brushes her hair back, smiling as she does. “I have never heard a band before, my parents used to talk about some when I was younger though.”

“Then you are in for a treat!” Shortclaw laughs and lifts Astrid, throwing her on his shoulder. Astrid giggles and struggles playfully.

“Heyyyyyy!” Astrid play protests then sighs. “Viele we are going.”

Viele just nods and follows behind them as Shortclaw carries Astrid going back to where the crowd of people were gathered. When they arrive where the bands are supposed to be they see a large wooden stage with several people standing on top, they seem to be preparing various wooden instruments with strings attached. A large crowd of people standing around the stage talking loudly. There also seems to be several large wooden objects with people sitting on them scattered about, the people on these wooden objects all seem to be people of high class due to the type of clothes they were wearing, and the amount of guards surrounding each of the objects.

“They seem to be still preparing so we made it just in time.” Shortclaw says with a smile as he puts Astrid down. “Want to get closer? There are going to be a lot of people, but it sounds a lot better up close.”

Astrid eyes the stage. “I’m okay with getting a little closer…” She says reluctantly.

Shortclaw grabs Astrid’s hand and walks closer to the stage, as they pass one of the wooden objects they hear a familiar voice.

“Daddy! That’s the one right down there, the one with that beastman! She is the one that attacked me and nearly killed me!”

Both Astrid and Shortclaw freeze, both knowing the voice must be talking about Astrid. Astrid then looks up at the people on the wooden object. She instantly recognizes several of the people on it. The human girl pointing at her, Elizabeth Stockings, the heavyset human that accosted her at the gate, Joseph Stockings, and the man who walked away with Joseph, Cliff Brown. All three of them climb down off of the wooden object and walk towards Astrid and Shortclaw, what seems like an entire platoon of guards follow behind them.

“You, elf girl!” Joseph gets close to Astrid. “Oh my it is the rude one I met when coming into town, no wonder!” His face starting to turn red in anger. “I heard that you attacked and tried to gravely injure my precious Elizabeth recently!”

“No… we we…” Astrid starts to say but is cut off by Joseph.

“I don’t want to hear your lies; I have already heard everything from my daughter!” He yells angrily.

Both Viele and Shortclaw quickly move in front of Astrid protectively. “No one treats my mate like this!” Shortclaw says, his fur standing on end, his eyes full of hate for the man who dared to insult Astrid.

Hearing those words Joseph’s mouth opens in disbelief, when he gets himself together he grins. “So not only is she a primitive, she is also an animal fucker.”

Both Shortclaw and Viele get enraged, Shortclaw reaches for his mace but Viele is faster, he grabs the front of Joseph’s shirt, lifting him up.

SWISH! The sound of a sword swinging through the air at high speed. Joseph drops back on the ground and steps back, a smile on his face, beside him now is Siegfried. “Hmmmm, I felt no resistance from the ent.” Siegfried mutters to himself. He looks down to see where the arms of the ent landed, they changed to the form of snakes and slithered back to the ent, crawling up its’ body and suddenly the ent’s arms grow back. After getting over the surprise of what just happened Siegfried points his sword at the ent, then at Shortclaw as he pulls his mace out. “Attacking Sir Stockings is punishable by death, elf girl I warned you already.”

Joseph looks over at his friend Cliff Brown. “By city state law I am defending myself here, they physically attacked me first.”

Cliff just shrugs. “They are students here so you are not allowed to kill them, not even I can protect you from punishment from that crazy dwarf. But not even the dwarf can do anything by law if you just rough them up due to protecting yourself.”

“Good!” Joseph smiles. “You children are about to learn your place in this world. Go ahead Siegfried, rough them up and make sure they never forget this.”

Siegfried frowns, then closes his eyes momentarily as he takes a low stance. “I am sorry about this, children.” Siegfried then falls forward and suddenly disappears into a blur.

As Siegfried disappears, Shortclaw’s eyes open wide, he knew he was in trouble when the man disappeared from his vision.

CLANK! Shortclaw suddenly jumps back, even more surprised by what just happened. Instead of him getting pummeled by Siegfried he sees a large back covered in black fur just appear in front of him.

When the sound of metal hitting metal rings out through the crowd everyone turns, no longer looking at the band getting ready they see two large men facing each other, one a human wearing a large set of shining silver armor and a large sword with blue glowing lettering on the side, the other a large black furred beastman wearing metal gauntlets with blades coming out of the knuckles, the gauntlets seem to be pitch black, so black that they seem to absorb all light that hits the deadly weapons.

The crowd starts shouting. “Big fight between a beastman and what looks like a knight!” and “Yes more entertainment!”

Siegfried jumps back and assumes a low position again, eyeing the beastman who blocked his attack.

“Who would dare interrupt these criminal’s punishment?” Joseph screams.

Blackclaw puts a gauntleted paw over his heart and bows slightly. “Just a lowly beastman shopkeeper, good nobleman.” Blackclaw says sarcastically.

Hearing the sarcasm in Blackclaw’s voice just enrages Joseph even more. “And why did you defend them?”

Blackclaw stands up and just grins. “I am just a foolish uncle defending his precious nephew and his future mate.”

Joseph sneers. “Siegfried, make sure you punish this… shopkeeper… too.”

Siegfried can only let out an annoyed sigh. “Beastman… before I am forced to fight… may I ask your name?”

“My name is Blackclaw.” Blackclaw says, bowing one more time.

Siegfried’s eyes grow wide at hearing the name. “No wonder…” He mutters before he falls forward again, he disappears again. When Siegfried disappears this time Blackclaw jumps high into the air, where he was standing at moments ago suddenly erupts, a large gash appearing in the earth, rocks and dirt fly into the air forcing everyone to back away from the two combatants, the crowd bursting into cheers seeing the high level warrior skills, some of them even gathering together to make bets on the fight.

The two warriors move faster than many of the people there can keep track of, disappearing randomly only to reappear again when their weapons connect. Suddenly both of their weapons connect, the blow forcing them back, their feet digging into the dirt as they lean forward, trying not to fall backwards. Both the beastman and the human have huge smiles on their faces. Seeing this many people in the crowd start to shout. “These monsters are smiling!” and “This is scaring even me!” One even going. “Hey I recognize that beastman he sold me my armor this morning!”

Siegfried lets out a laugh. “I haven’t had this much fun since I fought my captain! You are actually going to make me get serious!” He then pulls out a smaller sword, almost the size of a dagger and holds it in his left hand and changes his stance.

“Ohhoho, it is an honor!” Blackclaw says as he stretches his arms. “It’s been a while since I have been able to play, when I try my daughter always yells at me.”

“I have been trying to yell at you but you aren’t listening!” A yell comes from the crowd. “You know you are too old to be doing this!”

Siegfried busts out laughing hearing this.

“Bah, ignore her, lets continue with our fun.” Blackclaw says as he takes a step forward, before he can do anything else his eyes grow wide.

Siegfried looks at him confused and attempts to take a step forward but can’t move either.

They both look down to see that they are covered in thin black tendrils.

“Boys and their toys, always causing problems.” A deeply sexual feminine voice can be heard from the edge of the crowd. Everyone looks over at the origin of the voice. Walking towards the two warriors is a human woman in a large robe, covering most of her body, behind her is a wraith and a human male in a similar robe. Astrid instantly recognizes the woman, it is Amy, but she seems different, instead of her normal self she seems to be surrounded by a domineering presence. The presence seems to invade her mind making her lose control. Amy looks around and notices that some in the crowd are resisting it but most are just frozen in place like her.

“Soooo, you two are here fighting and causing a disturbance?” Amy says as she gets between the two, first moving to Blackclaw, putting her hand on his cheek grinning at him as he tries to move. “Don’t worry little kitty, big bad Amy won’t hurt you.” Blackclaw continues to struggle till he feels more shadowy tendrils covering him, holding him in place, he then relaxes knowing there is no escape. “Good kitty.” Amy pats him on the head. The entire crowd’s mouth seems to drop open at the same time seeing this.

“Why did you stop the fight! They attacked me and deserved to be punished.” Joseph is able yell out.

Suddenly the wraith appears in front of Joseph and puts a finger on Joseph’s lips. The blood drains from Joseph’s face as he tries to get his guards to protect him but he sees they are all frozen in place, unable to move. The wraith then speaks to him.

“Master does not like to be interrupted, especially by pigs who pretend to be humans.” The wraith then floats away giving Joseph a wink as he does. Joseph being scared to the point that he soils himself.

“Now that the extra interruption is taken care of.” Amy then turns to look at Siegfried. “Ooooooo… not bad… not bad at all…” Amy’s demeaner changes again, this time she starts to take slow deliberate steps towards Siegfried, causing her large hips to sway to the point that it is even noticeable in her thick robe. “You are even cuter up close.” Amy says as leans her face closer to Siegfried’s, she starts to sniff his neck and nips it causing people in the crowd to randomly hoot and cheer. The wraith then goes into the crowd and quiets them in his own special way.

“So why is a cute little warrior like you over here disturbing me while I’m watching my favorite band, and even attempting to hurt some of my students while you are at it.” Amy says as she runs a finger down Siegfried’s chest piece. His eyes grow wide as he starts to feel a painful burning sensation in his chest.

“What…are…you!” Siegfried spits out.

“Oh me?” Amy giggles. “I am just a teacher concerned about some big bad men causing some ruckus and trying to hurt my students.”

Amy then leans forward, kissing Siegfried, his eyes grow wide as he feels Amy’s tongue penetrate his mouth. At first he tries to fight back but his body refuses to listen, their tongues intertwine as he returns the kiss. Siegfried’s brain is screaming for his body to stop but it won’t listen as he feels all his energy being drained.

Amy suddenly freezes and pulls back from the kiss, Siegfried nearly to the point of collapse. A scowl on her face as she turns around. “Damn it he actually left his office.” She then tries to run but suddenly freezes in place and slowly turns her head to look behind her.

Amy’s face is covered in fear as her wraith floats over to her. “What is wrong wit…” The wraith looks where Amy is currently looking. Seeing a smiling dwarf with a long red beard and golden armor the wraith also freezes then suddenly disappears. “I’m not involved!” The only words he says as he disappears.

“Fucking coward.” Amy mutters at her wraith as the dwarf walks up to her.

As the crowd watches the dwarf walk towards Amy they are all suddenly able to move properly again, the presence from earlier is totally erased. Even Blackclaw and Siegfried can move again, but all Siegfried can do is fall to his knees, his body entirely drained, his sword seems to slice into the ground all on its’ own as he drops it.

“So Ms. White…” The dwarf says as he looking into her eyes. “I see that you were causing problems on campus again.”

“I… I was just stopping a fight…” Amy says, her eyes full of fear as her body starts to shake.

A heavyset man runs up beside the dwarf. “Sir Earthfist!” Joseph says, his breathing heavy.

Blaze Earthfist looks over at Joseph. “Yes, Mr. Stockings?”

“I was assaulted by two of your students! And one even attacked my daughter several days ago and she would have died were not for Siegfried! I demand that you remove them both immediately!” Joseph huffs, he starts breathing heavier as he points at Astrid and Shortclaw.

Blaze narrows his eyes and looks over to where Joseph is pointing.

“If you try to run your punishment will be worse.” Blaze warns Amy as he walks over to Astrid and Shortclaw. Amy just flops down and hits the ground with her fists in a tantrum, the entire crowd wide eyed as they watch this woman who had full control just minutes ago break down like a child.

Astrid hides behind Viele and Shortclaw as they stand defiantly, the dwarf slowly walking towards them, never letting his smile disappear.

“Hello there younglings.” The dwarf says cheerfully as he steps in front of Viele and Shortclaw, both starting to shake where they stand. Several snakes that makeup Viele try to escape the main body but can’t. “Don’t be afraid, I’m only here to ask what happened to cause everything to escalate to the point that I had to leave my office?”

The one to speak was Shortclaw. “The humans over there, they have a vendetta against my future mate, and they insulted both of us. That was the start of it all, it then slowly got to where we are now.”

Blaze pauses for a moment, registering everything in his head before he lets out a thunderous laugh. “My my, I always forget about the pride of beastmen, always gets them in the most peculiar predicaments. Now please step aside, I would like to see this elf I have been hearing rumors about.”

Shortclaw grips his mace tighter when Blaze says this.

Seeing Shortclaw grip the mace tighter he just sighs. “Don’t worry, Mr. Shortclaw was it? I won’t be hurting your future mate. I just want to see the lovely creature that ensnared the son of Wraithclaw.”

“How?” Shortclaw mutters as he is slowly pushed to the side by Blaze.

“Hello there, Ms. Talon was it?” Blaze asks with a smile.

“It’s Astrid Thorn, kind dwarf.” Astrid says meekly as she gives a bow to Blaze.

“Ohhohoho!” Blaze’s eyes light up in delight and turns around to look at Joseph. “Why what do we have here? What was it you called her again? A primitive? Yet here she is being the most respectful person here! Even you yourself joseph went and disrespected me!” Blaze turns to Astrid, the smile returning to his face. “Well, Ms. Thorn, my name is Blaze Earthfist and welcome to Flemmington academy!”