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"God Damn them" He muttered

"Fifty-eight"

"What?"

"You've told god to damn them 58 times since we fled the other night"

"Have I? Well I guess it's because I'm angry! And why am I angry?" he stated with a cool anger

"Because the Dutch captured your fathers' city" I stated having said it several times before.

"Because the Dutch captured my city"

I tuned out the rest; I'd heard that rant many times before. My Lord Steb is the 3rd prince of England and ranting about the attack last night. He's a black dragon with a slate grey underbelly and red eyes that glow when he experiences intense emotion and strawberry blond hair. I myself am a simple gray wolf; I have a grey back with a white underbelly, brown eyes and a mess of brown head fur. We're walking on a small dirt path through a forest. We've been walking for two days and still have three more days before we reach Caen - the next citadel, unless...

'What was that?'

"And what about our spies?"

"Shh, I think I hear something"

Steb stops ranting and listens, straining to hear what I heard.

"I think I hear it" he exclaims "that sounds like ..."

"Get off the road!"

I pull Steb into the bushes by the side of the road. I realised what we heard, horses. After a few minutes hiding in the bushes with the rumbling of the approaching horses getting louder we see them. A group of ten enemy scouts, riding hard and fast. The scouts had no visible armour or weapons, the only identifying piece of equipment on them are the Danish tunics they were wearing. They pass us without incident. However just a few seconds after they pass us we hear screams. Steb and I exchange glances and burst from the bushes, draw our swords and race down the road. The sounds of battle grow louder as we sprint down the road until we turn a corner. The battle is even 5 of the original 10 scouts are alive, the first 5 were taken out by arrows, and the remaining 5 are engaged with another group of 5. The attackers, an otter, a red panda, a lioness, a gryphon and a Corgi, somehow managed to get the scouts off their horses and look to be wearing them down. The scouts are armed with daggers that we didn't get a chance to see when they rode past us and the attackers have a standard arming sword and buckler each. The otter and panda have a bow slung across their backs as well. All are wearing simple clothes and a cuirass each.

We shout our battle cries and charge. The first two scouts die before the others realise what's happening. The lioness decapitates her target. Now that last two scouts realise they're out numbered 3 to 1 they flee. The otter and the panda drop their swords and grab their bows, draw an arrow and take aim at the scouts.

"AIM FOR THEIR LEGS!" the lioness shouts. The two bowmen fire, the panda hits her target in the calf, the otter gets his in the butt. "Nice shot Ollie" the lioness groaned. The bowmen run over to tend to the pin cushions, the lioness and the gryphon begin to search the corpses, the Corgi is staring at Steb.

"Do you think they're bandits?" Steb whispers to me.

"We're not bandits" the Corgi stated in a perfect London accent. Steb looks stunned and examines the Corgi closely.

"You wouldn't happen to be ex-palace guard would you?"

"Yes I am" he extends his paw "The names William, but everyone calls me Bill, have I seen you before? You look familiar"

Steb takes his paw and shakes "I'm Steb, you may have seen me around the palace every now and then"

The Corgi's eyes widen upon hearing this and he drops to one knee "My lord, forgive us, we didn't know"

Steb just laughs and says "Its alright I bet I don't look like much of a prince". We both are wearing a pair of woollen pants. The lioness sees Bill kneeling and comes over.

"What are you doing?" she demands

Bill gets up and spins around "Show some respect!" he shouts "this is the prince of England" at that the others stopped what they were doing and started moving closer.

"Is this true?" the lioness asks Steb

He puffs out his chest "It most certainly is!" he exclaims "I am Steb, 3rd prince of England" Almost everyone dropped to a kneel almost immediately, muttering. Everyone but the lioness.

"Prove it" the lioness demands, folding her arms. Steb makes a fist and shoves it in her face, showing her his signet ring. "How do I know its not a fake?"

"Miu, take my word" Bill interjected "This is Steb"

"Fine" she turns to me "and who are you?"

"My name's Bris and I'm the princes bodyguard"

"Ok. Let me introduce you to my soldiers; you've met Bill, that's Oliver, the otter, Acanda, the gryphon and Mei-Xui, the Red Panda and I'm Miu" she says pointing to each member of her band in turn.

"So if your not bandits what are you? Mercenaries? And why did you want them alive?" I ask Miu

"Yeah we're mercenaries and I didn't want them alive Bill did, he wants to hand any Dutch over to the garrison at Caen and I figure we might be able to make a profit from them" she explains

"So you're headed to Caen? Do you have any horses?" just as I ask this a nondescript weasel turns the corner we came from wearing a skirt and a long sleeved shirt, behind her are several horses

"We do now" Miu walks over to the weasel "Anne your way with animals surprises me every time" She turns to her mercenaries "Everyone mount up. Ol, Mei the prisoners ride with you" she turns back to us "you two can ride with us if you want"

"We need to get to Caen as soon as we can to warn them about the Dutch" Steb informs her

"They already know, a messenger passed us two nights ago"

"Alright then" Steb says as we climb onto a horse each "We may as well travel with you"

We set off at a trot. The prisoners change horses every few hours. We ride till mid-afternoon.

"Right this is far enough" Miu calls out "We'll make camp here and continue tomorrow"

We all dismount, except for the prisoners. Steb walks over to Miu "Why are we stopping now? We could still ride for a few more hours"

"We stop here because the best place for camp is near here, the next one is more than a few hours down the road"

"What do you mean? This place looks like the rest of the road"

"Just shut up and follow" Miu turns her back on Steb and walks into the forest, her mercenaries following. Steb turns to me and I just shrug and follow them, Steb starts walking behind me. After forcing our way through trees we enter a large clearing.

A few hundred men could easily fit in here I think, surveying the clearing. The clearing is almost flat and appears to be roughly oval in shape, there are rings of small stones scattered around the place denoting camp-fires, and larger stones scattered around to be used as seats. The others have tied their horses to trees at the edge of the clearing and are claiming bits of ground to set up small one person tents. Me and Steb tie our horses to a pair of trees and go to ask Miu if there is anything we can do. She apparently read our minds.

"If you want to help go get some firewood" So we head back into the forest to find some firewood. When we get back, our arms laden with wood, the others have finished pitching their tents and have broken off into pairs, attending different tasks. Mie-Xiu and Oliver are standing around a pot of simmering stew, Acanda and Miu are sitting on a rock each, sharpening their swords, Anne and Bill are tending to the horses and the prisoners are bound back to back in the middle of the clearing.

"Is it just me or do you feel out of place?" I whisper to Steb as we walk over to the pot.

"How much longer before it's ready?" we overhear Mei asking

"Not for a while at least" Oliver replies, a weariness in his voice indicating he'd said it many times before. When he sees us approaching he straightens and holds out his Paw and with no trace of humour on his face he shouts "HALT! AND RELEASE YOUR LOAD UNTO THE GROUND AT YOUR FEET!" We drop our wood and Oliver lowers his paw and he cracks a smile "good, now bugger off the stew won't be ready for a while yet" Mei hits him playfully

"Don't be rude, Ollie" she turns to us "we weren't properly introduced before, I'm Mei-Xiu, just call me Mei and this is Oliver, people generally call him Ollie or Ol ... among other things" Oliver giggles and smiles playfully "Hi I'm the groups cook, archer and mischief maker"

"One of the archers, I'm the other" Mei interjects

"That accent ... where are you from Mei?" Steb asks

"The far east" is all she would say on the subject "Miu wants to speak to you" we walk over to Miu and Acanda.

"Mei said you wanted to talk?" Steb asks Miu

She stops sharpening her sword "Yes, I was wondering what you were going to do when you reach Caen?"

"First I want to know where you're from"

"Egypt, now what will you do when you reach Caen?"

"I'll take command of the army there and lead a counter-attack against the Dutch" Miu and Steb then begin to discuss battle tactics and plans, I turn to Acanda

"We've never formally met I'm Bris" I offer my paw to him

He stops sharpening his sword and accepts my paw and we shake "I'm Acanda"

"Where are you from? Not as far east as Mei, but further than Turkish lands judging by your accent"

He chuckles at that "I'm from somewhere in the middle"

"Heh, so how'd you come to join Miu's merry band?

"Its a long story for another time but in short; I found Mei and we decided to head west and in the middle of Turkish lands we met Miu"

"You'll have to tell me the story in detail sometime, I'm going to speak with the others"

Acanda goes back to sharpening his sword and I leave Steb discussing tactics with Miu. I walk over to Bill and Anne examining the horses and talking.

"And then Ol got you right between the eyes" Anne says, then they both burst out laughing.

"Oh yeah I forgot about that"

"I doubt that, you spent hours plotting your revenge" she sees me coming closer "Oh hi, you're the princes body guard right?"

"Yeah, that's me, my name's Bris"

"I'm Anne, you've met Bill"

"How'd you end up with Miu?"

"Well someone has to tend to the animals" she says innocently, smiling

"And what if you're attacked and the others are busy?"

"What you don't think I can protect myself?"

"er ... heh honestly no" I chuckle nervously and rub the back of my neck. Suddenly I feel something behind my ankle and then the world is flying up to meet me. "Wha-?" I stop talking when I realise I'm on my back, pinned beneath Anne, a blade to my throat and all trace of emotion is gone from her eyes.

"Still think I can't take care of myself?"

"ermm... no?"

"hmph, good enough" she stands up, the blade disappearing seemingly into mid air. She reaches out a paw to me. I take it and she helps me up.

"STEW'S READY!!!" Ollie calls out. We all go over to the stew pot and get a bowl each. During the meal we chat amongst each other. After the meal decide who takes what watch. It has to be 2 at a time, one to watch the road, another to watch the prisoners. Steb and I take first watch. When our time is up we wake Ollie and Bill. I borrow Ollie's tent and Steb borrows Bills. The rest of the night passes without incidence.