In the following years, after I turned thirteen years old, a few things of note happened: Gauron settled in our home, in an unused room. At first he strongly insisted on paying us something as compensation, but in my father’s words:

“What I ask of you is service to this town, we don’t really get much trouble here but if we ever do, it will be quite reassuring to have someone like you on our side.”

Thus we got hold of an extremely powerful ally at the expense of three meals a day, a bed and some house space. Not too bad, I think.

Another thing that happened was that we had confirmation of a brother or sister. Congratulations mom, you really deserve it! Funnily enough, the night that we discovered that, my father went out to drink with Gauron and I stayed home taking care of my mother, who really wasn’t amused at all. She was happy, but she would get to feel sick while her husband strutted around telling every patron of the tavern about the news? She would constantly grumble about how she would eventually get even. I almost felt bad for my father, but hey, you reap what you sow, right?

My studies also advanced at quite a good pace. What I learned of that other world, “Earth”, really burst my bubble. Upon closer inspection, it was far from the paradise that I had first made it out to be, but even then, you know what? I didn’t care, it was still so much more entrancing than what I found in my own world. And so I plunged myself even deeper and drank of their font of knowledge, what a font it was.

These are the good things of that time, but anywhere, at any point in time, there aren’t only good things to be found, and sometimes the bad things are very, very bad.

How bad? One could ask. To that, I would answer, bad enough that it threatened the entire town. It wasn’t as bad as monsters coming out of the nearby dungeon, but it was quite bad. How should I call it? Locusts in the guise of men would be a very good way to describe our problem.

Shortly after we received news of the pregnancy, a letter came by way of an acquaintance of my grandfather’s, and it was quite worrying indeed. It carried some very dire news to my father.

Greetings Saul,

There are many things that I wish to tell and ask you, but as always, it will have to wait until we meet in person, since I do not send you this letter for frivolous reasons. As you may or may not have heard yet, Lord Ashram is deceased, from complications caused by a wound he sustained while hunting Wild Monsters for sport. Under normal circumstances, the death of a noble, even if friendly and helpful to your town, shouldn’t mean much trouble. However, Lord Ashram has left no sons, only a daughter, and it seems that the Lord Theres sees this as a good opportunity: He means to force the daughter to marry one of his sons very soon, and for that he has assembled a small army, well, I hesitate to even call it that, considering the Theres family's mediocre status ever since Teldarion, still, I cannot help but be unnerved. As you know very well, the best road between Theres’ and Ashram’s castles goes through your very own town, in which my daughter resides.

I fervently pray that nothing happens, but I cannot help but fear that they might try to strip you of most, if not all of your food as they march to steal away a good man’s legacy. I won’t even dare to ink my worst fears.

When they show up, please do not provoke them, but prepare as best as you can. The bandits you once defeated cannot be compared to these men, but I know that you are a capable man. Please, be capable enough to protect my daughter. I beg you.

Cato

Quite heavy stuff.

“Prepare we shall, even if I hope that it is not necessary.”

My father showed the letter to Gauron. His nostrils flared in such a way that it felt like fire should have come out of them.

“I need to prepare the appropriate response, nothing should disturb this town, and especially not when your child is to be born. Don’t worry.”

How to describe that last phrase? Reassuring, I guess? No, it was much more than that, they felt like they were quite heavy words, heavy enough to break someone’s spine. They had nothing of the lightheartedness with which he had tried to reassure my father before falling to the dungeon. Those words said that he would destroy anyone and anything that would make us worry.

The next time I went to see Chirene I decided to ask her about it.

“Isn’t there anything I can do about this?”

Ah, yes, I was at that age, when most kids like to play hero and wish that some of the power they have in their imagination could bleed into reality.

“I wouldn’t really worry about this. You haven’t even started to learn magic. There isn’t anything you can, should or need to do.”

She sounded quite bored by the whole thing, which really irritated me.

“What do you mean? From my grandfather’s letter there should be at least a hundred men heading this way! The whole town could be destroyed, or pillaged, and worse. How can you say that I don’t need to do anything, are you going to do something?”

She sighed deeply before assuming a tone that she had never used on me before. Something of a mix between irritated instructor and exasperated teacher with a stupid pupil.

“Look, first of all, I don’t need to do anything either, brat. Second, even if I did, it might just bring about more problems. Nobody wants a high succubus like me openly meddling in human land. As for the reason why none of us needs to lift a finger, is simple: Gauron won’t let a single attacker touch a single person in this town. Minotaurs are very protective of people hospitable to them.”

“Are you insane? He’s just one person, and not too long ago he was completely defeated!”

At that she let out a laugh.

“Eh hehe, hehehe, hahahahaha!... Look, let’s put aside the differences between the power and danger that the monsters and traps from the Steel Mountain presented compared to a random gathering of swordsmen, bowmen and the odd mage. That minotaur has a lot of magical items from the Bone Pit that are very good at helping you kill other people, but just aren’t very useful in a dungeon.”

She definitely knew something that I didn’t, and it kind of irked me. I was blushing from being treated like an idiot.

“That doesn’t really explain how he’s going to win a more than a hundred versus one battle.”

“Explaining wouldn’t really help it much, so… How about we make a bet then?”

“A bet?”

“Yes, if Gauron fails, I will head out there and stealthily charm them into killing each other, thereby saving the town. How does that sound?”

“You can do that?”

Her statements were really quite incredible.

“Oh, you think I can’t? I can charm any man to do my bidding, even you, if I want. That is even truer if they’re excited from a fight, the more a person is acting on instinct, the easier it is.”

She said that in a seductive voice that made me blush even more. Responding was quite difficult.

“I… I… Okay…”

“Now, if Gauron does manage to kill them all, or make them retreat…”

She put a finger tenderly on my nose and I jumped back startled.

“What? You want something if you’re right?”

At that moment, my heart was beating very fast.

“Of course! It wouldn’t be much of a bet otherwise.”

She was grinning in a way that I hadn’t seen in quite some time and her tail was moving excitedly.

“What, you want my first-born or something?”

I swear, to this day, and through all eternity, that at that moment I saw some drool escape her mouth, though it seemed to quickly disappear. Right then I panicked for a second, could all of those tales have been true and I was being manipulated? Was I going to be eaten or something?

“What? No, no, no, what do you take me for? Although I do intend to take your first, and possibly I could have your first-born.”

She mumbled the second part so I didn’t really hear it very clearly.

“You what?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Did I just say that out loud?”

“I didn’t quite get the second part.”

“Ah, it’s not very important anyway.”

“Come on, tell me!”

“No, no, no, it’s too soon for you, for now.”

“Don’t be like that!”

The conversation went like this for some time still. Eventually we settled back on studying and when we were done with it, she told me one last thing before I went home.

“If the army doesn’t agree to move around the village, when Gauron leaves to take care of them, come to me and I will show you something good.”