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Chapter 2: My Dear Friend

When the next morning came, the sunlight touched the face of Leofwine with quite a stinging intensity. He would have loved to sleep a while longer after he was woken up so roughly last night, but he had to get up eventually if they were to return to his village. With a grumbling noise, he rose up and looked around for the others. He could see Vidar and Aldric were still sleeping, but someone was missing. "Khaba, are you somewhere?" he called out for the fruit bat.

"Over here, Leofwine," a gentle voice called out from behind him and as the otter turned around he saw that Khaba was leading a large animal with a carriage to them. The creature was a hornflincher, a mammal with a wooly pelt, tusks, a horn on top of its snout, and even-toad feet, which possessed a very broad build and strong legs. "I had to search for this old guy all night, because he was going somewhere on his own. But we now got a lot of supplies and even a tent."

"All night? It was raining and you haven't slept at all. Are you okay?" Leofwine asked worried about the fruit bat's physical condition.

Khaba however was a bit annoyed by the otter and simply ignored the question. Instead he took out a small date from one of the boxes and ate it slowly with a wide smile.

"Okay, I take that as a yes," Leofwine replied quite confused about the fruit bat's strange way to reply. However, he didn't know much about Khaba or how he grew up, so he didn't gave it another thought.

Meanwhile Vidar stood up from the ground and shook the dirt from his fur while he yawned loud enough to intimidate the hornflincher a little bit. He looked around and smiled quite satisfied as he saw that Khaba got a carriage. "I fear our hornflinchers ran away, so it's good you found one at the very least."

"Would be kind of bothersome for me to travel so far. I may take a rest while we head for Bijulac," the fruit bat replied and laid down on the ground of the carriage to nap a little while the others would take over.

Now Leofwine was looking at Aldric, who was still sleeping rather peacefully despite all the noises going on around them. "Isn't Aldric a little bit strange in the way he is sleeping so deeply? Do you think that he requires a bit more sleep because of all the magic he is using?"

"Probably, but he needs to wake up now or else it will take too long," Vidar stated as he took a bucket and filled it with water from the nearby river. The wolverine grinned mischievously as he splashed the bucket's content on the badger to wake him up completely.

Aldric jumped up from the cold and wet sensation he was feeling and grabbed his staff ready for combat. His expression eased up quickly as he saw that Vidar was laughing at him with a bucket in his hands. "You think this is funny? Well, then I hope you like my humor just as much," the badger said as he swung his staff and hit the ground with its tip.

A gush of dirt flew from that point towards the wolverine and hit him powerfully enough to knock him over. With a lot of earth in his mouth and eyes Vidar stood up with a pretty painful expression on his face. He spit out some of the dirt and rushed towards Aldric and pulled him into the river with him. "You are already wet, so why not take a bath then?"

The badger was exposing his teeth and made a grumbling noise about the wolverine's sense of humor and would have pushed him head first down into the water, if he was physically capable of doing so. However instead he was just going with the idea and dived into the river to look for a more private spot.

Meanwhile Khaba was resting in a pile of soft, clean clothes that would now have been otherwise unused as the ones who would have worn them were killed by Vidar. The small fruit bat had usually little comfort for his sleeping place, so he took the chance for something cozy for once.

Leofwine however was not really feeling comfortable with the situation. Aldric was actually pretty nice, even though he did force him to join into all this in the first place. Khaba had a calm voice and now that he was no longer bound to his masters eager to join in for an adventure. But the image of Vidar killing two people was still fresh in his mind and it made him feel sick again. Trying to keep his mind off all this he leaned into the pile of clothing and tried to doze a little like Khaba did.

The fruit bat however was taken out of his slumber and buried himself deeper inside the pile. "You already got your sleep, it's my turn now," he said with a tired, grumpy voice.

"Alright, as you wish," the otter replied as he stood up and jumped from the carriage. He looked over at the spot where Vidar was cleaning his fur from Aldric's spell and decided to just dive into the river as well.

When the group later on was ready and began its journey towards Bijulac, Vidar took over the carriage while Aldric examined the cyan-colored gem the squad of Vidar found earlier. Leofwine and Khaba meanwhile were sleeping soundly despite the road conditions.

"You know, this thing is strange in some regard. It doesn't feel like a type of stone to me, and I do know what I am talking about," Aldric let Vidar know and stashed the gem into a bag that was close by. "So, how are you feeling?"

Knowing what the badger was referring to, Vidar's voice began shaking a little as the events of yesterday came back to his mind, "I think I may need a while till I am completely over it all. They try to teach us how to deal with death, but it's not really working all that well for me."

"Dying can be painful in many ways. For the living especially I feel," the shaman stated calmly about the entire situation. He had to deal with the grief of people on a daily basis and give them closure for their losses. "The dead are usually at a happier state, safe for unfinished business."

"I don't really need that assurance right now. Only information of why this all happened and a name to inscribe into an axe," the wolverine said as he gave the hornflincher a kick to make it hurry up.

Aldric knew that the wolverine was trying to avoid talking too much about the deaths of his comrades. "Well, I do have a few clues from the documents the horse had with him. The script is written in Urbulchem's primary language, but it switches to Helan on occasion." He took one of the letters out of the bag Leofwine got the day before and read the contents out loud. "Incitatus, calmly as the wind and fierce as the flame, you are someone I can entrust with this mission. In the barbaric lands of the North barren from wisdom and eloquence there are treasures of our ancestors hidden, stolen from them by the thievish men of Aurapiastoma. In hope you succeed and come back unharmed, your friend Seleukos."

"I guess I destroyed the hopes of someone, who talks funny. What does 'Aurapiastoma' refer to actually?" Vidar asked as he never came across that name before.

Aldric chuckled a little bit into himself before he replied, "It's the Helan name for Kärmave. I read a lot of documents from Urbulchem and Hela, which both sometimes refer to us as inferior beings."

"Sounds like an arrogant bunch of bastards to me," the wolverine grumbled as he peeked over his shoulder to look at Aldric's expression while the badger went through the document. "So, Seleukos is the target then?"

"Which one, though. There are enough people with that name, so are you going to snap the neck of everyone, till you get the right one?" Aldric questioned rather as a joke than a serious question, though he was a bit worried the answer would be an honest "yes" considering what Vidar went through.

"First interrogating then snapping. Though, I am not going to make it easy for him. I will rip off his testicles, make him swallow them, then repeat it with any body part that I can push down a throat," the warrior replied as he kicked the hornflincher again, this time a bit harder than he had to.

Picturing that image in his head Aldric just starred at the wolverine with a blank expression, and then back on the document, and then back at Vidar. "You could make a perfect story teller for children, you know."

"Some mead and I tell that to adults and later to whoever I got in for the night. Got to say that never becomes boring," Vidar was now looking a bit more uplifted and laughed as he realized what he just said. He would be feeling better for the remainder of the trip.

The entire day went by on the carriage, Khaba and Leofwine rested the entire way as they all entered Bijulac and went further to a small settlement.

Aldric now stood up and stretched his stiff body to make himself ready for the arrival. He then shook the fruit bat and otter on the clothing pile gently. "Good evening, you two. We are there!"

"Already? Did I sleep till evening?" Khaba replied with a yawn that was adorably exposing his tiny mouth from the clothes. He crawled out of the pile and took a peek around as he saw two otters with spears approaching their carriage.

Vidar stopped the hornflincher and got down from his seat to talk with the two guards. "Evening, fellows. We aren't planning to cause trouble, we are just bringing a friend home," he explained with a friendly smile on his muzzle.

One of the guards lowered his spear and replied with an equally friendly expression, "You are from Kärmave, correct? Is this friend from here?"

"Um, could be," he said as he turned around to Leofwine. "Hey, what was your place again?"

The young otter jumped from the carriage and went to the side of the wolverine to take over. "This place is my home, Topaz Lake. Good evening Pharamond and Yannic."

Now the guards threw their spears to the side as they saw their brethren and embraced him into a powerful group hug, like friends that haven't seen each other for months. "Good to have you back. We were already worried about you after a day. So, have you found something?" Pharamond asked him.

"Well, we did. And we may need to ask Gaius about it now," Leofwine explained to his fellow otters.

"Alright, then we will secure your carriage while you go to his hut. Hopefully your new friends will like their stay here," Yannic replied as he and Pharamond took over the carriage to bring it to the stalls.

Leofwine then gestured the others to follow him through the village. It wasn't very active, probably as most of the inhabitants were at the nearby lake or in their huts to escape the summer's heat. Here and there a few polecats, otters, and ermines were having conversations or played with each other, but otherwise it was a quiet walk to a rather new-looking hut. "This is the place. Mind your manners," the otter said to his companions before he knocked at the door.

Not even two seconds later the door was pulled open and a gray wolf pulled in Leofwine into the hut with a rather enthusiastic hug. "Welcome back, lion."

"You have a pause between the second and third letter, so that pun is kind of dumb," Aldric stated as he went into the hut and looked around. He immediately noted a lack of order with the documents and items around the place and wondered if the siblings of Leofwine were responsible for it or if Gaius was just untidy.

Gaius now let loose of Leofwine and embraced Aldric in a similarly stormy hug, squeezing the air out of the badger. "Good to see that Leofwine made some new friends. I am Gaius and happy to meet you!"

"Alright, my name is Aldric and you are currently blocking my lungs," the shaman replied before he was released and gasped for oxygen like someone that almost drowned.

Khaba hesitated with his steps inside as he wasn't really eager to participate in all the hugging that was going on. It was futile as he was spotted by Gaius, who immediately grabbed the poor fruit bat and caught him in a tight embrace.

"Oh my, this one is so adorable. The fruit bats of Altradia are so cute!" he exclaimed with an annoyingly happy tone as he proceeded in almost killing Khaba accidentally by suffocation.

When the fruit bat escaped this tormenting prison, he dropped to the ground and couldn't really think straight anymore as the entire place around him began spinning and turning.

Now Vidar took initiative and hugged Gaius. While he was around the same size, he was still stronger and now the wolf was the one struggling for air. "I am Vidar, nice to meet you Gaius," he said before he let go of the wolf and laughed at his expression that was akin to Aldric's and Khaba's. "Got to say, this town has a lot of hugging for such a small settlement."

"Mainly because the inhabitants are very open to each other," Gaius replied as he got up from the ground and helped Khaba up. "So, what are the circumstances for you bringing back such a colorful group, Leofwine?"

The otter hesitated a little bit as he remembered the events of yesterday with an odd feeling in his stomach. "You see, there has been some complication regarding the sightings in Argentflux. Some people were eager to get their hand on this treasure and were willing to kill for it. It's a cyan gem stone, see," he was pulling out the jewel they looted from Incitatus the day before and gave it to Gaius, whose face looked puzzled at it. "So, anything you know about it?"

"I must say that it's looking exactly like the jewel in my amulet, just in cyan. My father gave it to me before I left Urbulchem," the wolf stated as he went to a shelf and opened a sealed box to pull out a necklace that was holding a ruby-red stone in its center. "All I know is that it has its origin in Rayot. A city that fell a long time ago to the warriors of Hela."

"Hmm, that makes sense however. We could find out that a man named Seleukos was giving orders to two men from Urbulchem," Aldric commented as he showed Gaius the letter he was reading before. "It appears to me that some of those gems exist and are rather wide-spread."

"Most likely, but to find them all you would have to know exactly where they are. Not really easy to do," Gaius said as he put the necklace back into the box and closed it again. "The stones emit a radiant light on occasion, but it's hard to say why. Perhaps those whom you took it from knew more about it."

"Well, not that their souls would tell me anything or that we could beat the answers out of those," Aldric said from the side as he peeked into some of the documents that were lying over the whole place. "But whatever there is, we could get the information from the source."

"Alright, from what this looks like the man you are looking for is, wait," Gaius stopped and looked closer at the signature and hand-writing. "I do have seen this signature. But it belongs to another person than a Seleukos. Markus Avitus Vinicius, someone who died seven years ago in battle," Gaius blinked a few times before he continued, "You should be careful about this, you may are about to fight some dark magic with this Seleukos."

"Well, knowing that is certainly going to help splitting his body in two with an axe up his ass. How about we try to bait him out with the gems?" Vidar suggested with a wide grin on his muzzle.

That statement made the fruit bat laugh a little as he was certainly agreeing to this idea. "Would be a pleasure for me. An adventure after all that time is just something I want to do. Free from duty and an abusive master."

"I may contact the Great Shaman through the spirits first, but you may require my assistance," Aldric replied as he examined some of the objects on a table that were most likely from Urbulchem.

Leofwine was however hesitating a little. "I may have to look out for my siblings, so I need to stay here. I am sorry guys."

"No need to be sorry about anything," it was Khaba who replied to the otter's statement. "You have your life here and your responsibilities towards your siblings. I assume they are somewhere around and would like to see you again."

"Probably," the otter said somewhat distant. "They may be somewhere at the lake, I would assume."

Leofwine and Khaba went outside to look for the two smaller otters, while Aldric and Vidar stayed with Gaius to further discuss their plans to deal with Seleukos.

Being rather upbeat, Khaba was moving his head around and watched the place around them with childish curiosity while he tried to keep up with the otter.

On the contrary Leofwine was looking around nervously around the settlement to look out for something or someone. "I hope the place around you isn't too boring in comparison to Urbulchem."

"Why should it? Urbulchem is a city full of people, who all think of themselves as better than anyone else. Including me, since I was a slave if you remember," the fruit bat said while resting his head on his right shoulder. "Or did that wolf tell you stories about it being paradise."

"Um, well he described it pretty nicely, but never outright glorified it as better or something," Leofwine replied in a bit of distress about the fruit bat's reply. "Like how the houses are really big, the gardens vivid and ordered, and the beautiful markets that have all sorts of food."

"If you have the status that is. As a foreigner from outside the territory, you are looked down upon, no matter what you do," Khaba stated with cold honesty. "It is a folly to lonely listen to a member of the nobilis. Urbulchem is full of corruption and oppression."

"It is not all that different here, if I have to be honest. Not that we have slaves, but we have something else," Leofwine replied as he took his courage together to tell what was going on for him. "Durandt, the son of the current chief, is making my life and that of my siblings quite miserable. He pushes everyone around who is weaker than him and nobody dares to intervene because of the authority his father has."

Khaba was pleased about the otter's honesty, but he didn't exactly share his view about the situation. "If your chief and his son are like that, you really should find a replacement."

A sigh came from Leofwine as he shook his head to disagree. "Traditionally nobody really can disagree with the chief, because of his authority. That's why I am sick of this place and plan to live far away from it."

"Alright, it's probably not going to work, if you would be the only one fighting his authority. At least you could tell this Durandt that he is a," Khaba was suddenly interrupted as someone was grabbing him from behind.

An otter that was taller and broader than Leofwine was holding the defenseless fruit bat in front of him and smiled wickedly. "What should the coward tell me? Or rather, will you tell it to me?" he mocked the two.

Shaking from his fear, Khaba tried to focus himself for a spell to free himself, but before he could do so he was thrown to the ground by Durandt and the pain made him unable to remain concentrated as his fragile wings felt as if they were sprained.

"Never mind, I am curious if Leofwine could tell me something by himself," the brute said as he stepped to his smaller brethren with his fists already cracking for the purpose of intimidation.

With an increasing heart rate Leofwine run over to the fruit bat and grabbed him before Durandt could catch them. Thankfully it didn't seem that he was following them. Rushing through the rather quiet village he didn't take too long to reach Gaius' hut and barge in with his shoulder hitting the door rather painfully for him.

"What in the name of," Aldric immediately went to the otter and fruit bat to see what was going on and he looked at the hurt fruit bat. "Alright, I understand. Just let me fix him up and he is good as new," the badger replied as he took the fruit bat out of the otter's arms and put him on the bed of Gaius.

Meanwhile Vidar helped Leofwine up and his face was changing into the same cold stare he had yesterday before he viciously killed Incitatus and Asterion. He has caught the scent of the last person that came in contact with his two friends and now went outside with a terrifying look on his face.

Aldric didn't really care much about it as he was giving Khaba a sleeping potion before he applied some medical treatments for the wings. He had his priorities in helping out the little bat.

"Shouldn't someone go after Vidar? He seemed a bit angry right now," Leofwine said with his legs jumping around left and right as he feared the wolverine would cause severe trouble.

Gaius and Aldric looked at each other and nodded to each other. The badger turned to Leofwine and replied, "We may have to help Khaba first. You may have to go and I am trying to get to you as soon as I can."

That didn't really make Leofwine feel better as he remembered what Vidar did last time when he was looking like this, but even though he hated Durandt, he couldn't let Vidar do something stupid. He run outside towards the place where he just fled and saw Vidar in the distance, holding someone up in the air.

Durandt was struggling to get free, but the strength of Vidar was overpowering to a degree that made him helpless and unable to do more than shouting, "Let off of me you fat stinker!"

Vidar did only stare at him before his fist hit the otter in the face and broke off a tooth from the front. Another punch broke the nose and Vidar then threw the otter to the ground, proceeding to kick Durandt on the belly and chest areas with enough force to make his victim scream out in pain.

"Vidar, stop! You are going to kill him at this rate!" Leofwine yelled as he ran to the much larger wolverine and tried to pull him away from Durandt. "Please, stop this now before you do something you will regret."

It clicked in Vidar's head as he heard Leofwine and he let go of Durandt after kicking him in a rather painful spot between the legs. "You may be right, he isn't worth any blood money to pay for. At least I got the right guy and got him good."

"Alright, let us just go before," Leofwine went back a little as some other members of the village were coming to them as they heard how Vidar was beating up Durandt. "Oh crap, that's not good."

An older, yet still strong-looking otter was now coming to the scene and helping up Durandt from the ground before he turned towards Vidar. "What are you trying to do here, stranger. Why are you attacking my son?"

"You sucked with raising him, is that enough for you," the wolverine said not without exposing his fangs clearly for the old man to see. "This piece of shit would deserve getting his ass ripped apart," he spit out and ignored Leofwine, who gestured him to stop already.

The old otter was still looking fiendish at Vidar and ordering a few guards to him. "You come here, take our hospitality, and repay us with violence. Guards, restrain him!"

A few of the guards now held their weapons towards the wolverine to keep him from doing anything hasty, while two others were taking some rope and tried to bind the much bigger wolverine.

But instead of letting himself be bound without resistance, Vidar started panicking and shaking. "Keep those away from me!" he yelled as his fists came down on the two guards who were immediately knocked out.

Now the other guards were panicking and one of them, an ermine, took his club and aimed at Vidar's head to stop him from attacking another one of his comrades.

"Vidar look out!" Leofwine yelled as he jumped in between the wolverine and the attacking guard, getting the full blow on his head. As he was lying on the ground his vision faded quickly as he slipped into unconsciousness.

In all this chaos, the guards were not knowing what to do and some were now preparing to attack the wolverine together, but a shock wave went through the ground and knocked everyone to the ground. Aldric has joined the scene and his eyes were glowing in a powerful green light. "Cerdic, you are stretching what you think to have as authority. Vidar is son of King Bjartr. Unless you want your head send to his father you should leave him alone."

"He attacked my so..." he was immediately cut off as Aldric's aura pushed him back into some people. "My son was hurt by him, he has to pay somehow."

The badger rammed his staff into the ground and looked at Durandt, who got up in all the tumult caused at the moment. "Your son started all this. And you try to abuse your power to get him out of trouble he rightfully deserves. A disgusting act. Unfit for a leader."

"Fine then. Go your way, but don't dare doing anything like that during your stay," Cerdic demanded, but he couldn't hide that he was scared by the shaman and his display of power.

When all the guards and people went back to whatever they were doing previously, Vidar rushed to the unconscious body of Leofwine. He couldn't hear the breath and heartbeat of the otter over his own and he was worried that Leofwine might not wake up anymore. "I am so sorry, Leofwine. I'm so sorry."

"Brother!" a girl shouted from the trees and two otters, a male and a female, ran towards Vidar and Leofwine. "What just happened here? And who are you guys?"

"Probably friends of Leofwine," the boy stated as he took a closer look on Aldric and Vidar. "Excuse us, but we are Crawford and Lucille, his relatives. And like my sister I would like to know who you are."

Aldric laughed loudly as he saw the two young otters, barely a few years younger than himself. "I actually imagined little children, but you two seem to be close to become adults yourselves. Anyway, my name is Aldric and this is Vidar."

Lucille was putting a hand on her forehead as she imagined the images that the badger probably had about them. "I often have the feeling that Leofwine will never stop seeing us as children he has to be taking care off."

"Anyway, please follow us. We can treat him in our hut," Crawford added to make sure they were not wasting any more time.

An hour later in Leofwine's hut, Crawford was brewing a mixture of herbs in a cauldron and added several pieces of fish, fruits, carrots, and savoy. "Alright, we may be able to eat a bit in half an hour," he said and turned to the bed on which his older brother was still resting while Vidar was sitting next to it. "I do hope you aren't blaming yourself too much. In my opinion Durandt deserved to be beaten up by someone much stronger than himself."

"Your brother could have died from that hit. We are lucky that bastard from the guards didn't put too much force into it," Vidar said in a distant and guilty tone.

Lucille, who was sitting in a chair and just dozing off from boredom, sighed as she found that Vidar should just shut up. "Since he didn't die, I think that it's not really necessary to feel as if he did."

"I have to agree, you shouldn't worry too much about what could have been. Leofwine will be up in no time," Crawford reassured as he took a look out of the window. "Hmm, Aldric is coming back. And who is that?"

A few moments later Aldric went inside, this time with Khaba on his back. "Sorry to bring in so many visitors. Khaba just woke up and used his magic to fix his injuries, so I brought him here to help Leofwine."

The fruit bat jumped down from the badger's back and went to Leofwine, who was still sleeping soundly. "Alright, he does look like he was hit by a blunt weapon. But the swing wasn't strong enough to kill him, which is fortunate. I couldn't help him if he was dead," he said and covered the otter's head and upper body with his right wing. The energy of his own magic went over to Leofwine and a few more moments later the bulge on his head disappeared. Khaba then turned to Crawford and Lucille. "You must be his brother and sister. Nice to meet the two of you. I wish it had been under different circumstances, but your chief's son is a real pain in the butt."

"No argument there. We suspect he got a problem with something I rather not name," Lucille replied with some interest in the rather exotic bat. "I am Lucille, and you are Khaba as I understood. What kind of bat are you, if you don't mind the question?"

"It's not surprising you haven't seen one like me, yet. There are no fruit bats on this part of the continent. I am from Altradia and there are quite a lot of my kind," Khaba told Lucille as he sat down on the chair next to her. "But for now we probably should tell the story how we all came together. Aldric, you want to start?"

The badger nodded and leaned against his staff to rest himself on it a little while he started to tell what happened so far, "Yesterday your brother and I discovered that a squad of soldiers from Kärmave was wiped out by a horse named Incitatus. Vidar was part of said squad and they had found something that this Incitatus and his companion wanted to take from them. They almost managed to do so, but I and Leofwine could take them out with a bit of cleverness," Aldric now looked at Vidar and gestured him to take over for him.

"I then killed both of them and Aldric helped me bury my comrades, while Leofwine searched for a sleeping place for the night. Which is when Khaba, a slave in service of that bastard Incitatus, joined him," he told the two siblings and took a deep breath as he continued. "The objects seem to be gems with a certain glow to them. Obviously magical, but we have no idea what magic it is."

"May I take a look at it?" Crawford asked as he was curious about whatever it may be what they had found.

Aldric happily obliged as he took the cyan gem out of the bag next to Leofwine's bed and gave it to Crawford. "I personally have not yet seen something like it, but perhaps you discover something I overlooked."

Crawford took the gem and sat down on the table next to Lucille and Khaba for all three of them to examine it closely. "Another of those gems from Rayot? I guess that would make the mystery actually easier."

Now Lucille continued, "If you try to use it by itself it has no reaction, but it does react with other spells. We both tried it with the one of Gaius when he was sleeping. Would you demonstrate that, Craw?"

Crawford gave her a nod and held the gem above his head. As he focused the shine of the gem grew stronger and would have blinded everyone, if the young otter didn't stop and put the gem down on the table. "I was trying to cast a water spell, but the gem did take that magic and used it for enhancing its own shine."

"That would explain the sighting, but it also means that it was somehow activated," Aldric concluded as he thought about who could have used the gem and left it in the woods. "Maybe there is something we don't know about."

"Whatever it is, we should first gather more information," Khaba said as he put his head on the table and closed his eyes. "Also, I am not in the mood of reciting all this for Leofwine once he wakes up. Also, I hear footsteps outside, so we may have another guy joining us."

No sooner than the bat said that someone was knocking at the door and as Aldric opened it Pharamond and Yannic went in with a familiar looking ermine behind them. Yannic looked over to the bed where Leofwine was lying and then turned to the ermine, "Jocelyn, you have something to say to Crawford, Lucille, and everyone here."

Now the ermine stepped a bit more into the room seemingly nervous about what he wanted to say. "I, I am really sorry for what happened. In my panic I almost did something unforgivable."

"Almost?" Vidar exclaimed as he got up from the ground and went towards the now paralyzed ermine. "You almost murdered him you piece of shit! And now you crawl back to apologize!?"

Pharamond quickly stepped in between the wolverine and the ermine to calm down the situation. "Prince Vidar, I know he did someth...," before he could even start to reason with the burly warrior he was pushed aside and caught by Aldric.

Yannic now tried a more active approach as he grabbed the wolverine's wrist to force him to listen, but he was pushed away just as easily and hit the ground.

Now Vidar grabbed Jocelyn at his throat with his fangs ready to unleash his fury upon his prey. But then his eyes turned normal again and he released his grip on the ermine. "And what am I doing? Almost doing the same thing intentionally. If anyone should be blamed it's me, I am sorry."

Lucille and Crawford rolled their eyes in synchrony as they found it very annoying that the strong, but guilt-driven warrior went back to square one with his attitude. "If anyone is to blame, it's that son of a whore, which is meant literally by the way, Durandt," Lucille exclaimed.

"I must agree to someone, who is about six years younger than you," Aldric said as he helped up Yannic and walked over to Vidar. "After what I could see, I do think you have a lot of troubles after what happened yesterday. Understandable, but you may have to clear your mind from it."

"W-we also want to tell you that the chief and his son may plan their revenge for what happened today, so please be careful," Jocelyn said before he carefully stepped outside, followed by Pharamond and Yannic.

"Alright, did somebody else notice that they called Vidar a prince?" Khaba asked as he opened one of his eyes and looked at the wolverine. "You could have told us, if everyone else already knew about it."

"Didn't seem important to me," Vidar stated bluntly as he tried to make this discussion as short as possible. "It's not like it has any advantages for me. Only duties, duties, and duties."

"Well, okay I go with that. I am too tired anyway," the fruit bat replied as he closed his eye again and dozed off.

Lucille made a skeptical expression as she processed the idea of someone like Vidar being a prince. "Let's be honest, Aldric looks more like a prince than Vidar. He got turquoise at the very least."

Crawford meanwhile had an amused smile forming on his muzzle. "You should at least give him credit for having given Durandt a royal beat up."

"Good to see that I am least working as a jester for you," Vidar replied and looked down on his feet. But before he could continue to mope around he suddenly got hit by a gush of water and turned around to see Aldric holding an empty bucket with a bit of the clear liquid dripping from it. His look became angry for a moment, but he then started laughing loud enough for causing a movement in the bed behind him.

Leofwine was slowly opening his eyes and got up with some difficulties to keep himself upright. "What is going on? Weren't we at the..." he looked around and saw that everyone was looking at him. "I should not ask," he said as he dropped down back on his bed.

"It is good to see that you are okay," Vidar said without hiding how uncomfortable he felt about the situation. "I am sorry for the blow to your head."

"You would have been the one to receive it and I jumped in to take it by own choice, so don't worry about it," Leofwine replied as he massaged his forehead to work against the headache.

"Well, so far everyone told you to not worry about it, so don't worry about it," Aldric said as he put the bucket back to where he took it.

"Yeah, you guys are probably right. How about we just eat and then go to rest?" Vidar suggested and he could see that Leofwine's siblings and Khaba were sharing looks with each other and nodding.

Crawford put out the flames heating the cauldron with a water spell, while Lucille took some dishes from a shelf, and Khaba got himself some uncooked fruits. A few more minutes, after everyone had taken from the stew and eaten from it, they all went on to set up for the night.

Later that night Vidar was turning in his sleep as he had another nightmare of rocks surrounding him like a grave. He woke up gasping for air and felt more exhausted than he did before going to sleep. Looking around in the hut of Leofwine he found that it was rather nice. Lucille and Crawford both had their own rooms added to the place, since they preferred privacy, so there was quite a bit of space for Aldric, Khaba, and himself in the main room. However, there was something that seemed off: Leofwine wasn't lying in his bed. Vidar could sense a fresh scent outside and he decided to take a look as he went out and through the village towards where the scent was going. It took him more than half an hour to actually reach the place to where the otter's scent was leading him.

Leofwine was swimming in the lake by himself. The moon was shining down and illuminating the clear water well enough to see the otter's rather playful movements. It was more like a dance underwater than actual swimming, and it appeared that Leofwine was much more carefree and relaxed now where he was alone with nobody seeing him.

Vidar found it rather awkward to stand so openly visible at the lake and quickly hid behind a tree to look from a safe cover at the scene presented to him.

The otter was not aware that he was being watched at all and he was rather energetic with his speed and movements as he showed off movements that were even impressive for an otter. In the moments where he came back to the surface the moonlight presented him smiling.

To Vidar it was strange that now in a moment of solitude the otter was able to show a happier side of himself. But he thought about it a little bit more. Leofwine was a kind soul and not overly strong, thus a perfect victim for someone like Durandt. Without all this around him Leofwine could enjoy his life much more. "I should have ripped that guy's head off," he whispered to himself.

Leofwine meanwhile got out of the water and shook off a little to dry himself off, a trick Gaius showed him. Being a bit tired from the activity he laid down on the sandy ground and looked up at the moon. His sensitive nose however could sense that something was off. "Vidar? What are you doing here?"

The wolverine jumped a little in surprise as he heard his name. But he completely forgot that his own scent was rather strong, so hiding usually didn't work. As he was already discovered he just got up and laid down besides the otter. "You weren't in the hut and I wondered about it. I have to admit, your choreography while swimming was quite amazing."

"It's nothing special. Otters are good swimmers, so it's nothing special," Leofwine replied with embarrassment about the compliment of his friend. He wasn't really thinking that he was good at swimming in comparison to his brethren, thus he usually was going out at night to remain unseen.

"I am pretty sure that most of the other otters in your village would not show movements like that," Vidar tried to compliment Leofwine. "Be more faithful in yourself and don't let others put you down."

Shaking his head, Leofwine changed into a sitting position and looked down on his hands. "When I was ten years old the village was attacked by bandits when I was working with my mother on making clothing for the winter. She was," unable to hold back any longer he started crying and continued, "she was killed in front of my eyes, just like many other people. My father died fighting off the bandits and eventually killed their leader. All those memories, they haunt me. Four years later there was a single bandit, whom I caught off guard. I was ordered to kill him, but when I was raising my sword the images of all those dead people rushed through my head and I collapsed. After that I gave up being a warrior, like the coward I am."

"And Aldric thinks I need to cheer up," now Vidar got up and put a hand on the otter's shoulders to comfort him a little. "Just because you can't take violence doesn't mean you are a coward. When Khaba got injured you brought him out of danger directly to us and when I was nearly knocked down you took the hit for me."

"It's not exactly brave, just stupid and not thought through," Leofwine said, but he was sounding a bit better than before. It was feeling good to hear something positive for once. "Thank you, Vidar."

A chuckle came from the wolverine as he found it rather odd of himself to be giving life advice after having gotten it himself earlier. "Just saying what is going through my head. I think we should get back to the hut and get some sleep. It has been a long day."

"Very tiresome indeed," Leofwine said as he and Vidar got up to return to the village before any of the others would be wondering about their whereabouts.

But just as the two were about to go back something weird happened. A light impulse formed over the lake and a few moments later two people were dropping down into the water. Apparently one them had difficulties keeping himself up, but the other had no problem with dragging him to the river side, where the moon light could reveal a fox and a lioness, completely soaked in the water of the lake.

With a hardly suppressed laughter Vidar looked at the strange scene, but he stayed vigilant as he wasn't sure what to think of those strangers. "Okay, who are you guys and why did you just fall out of the sky."

The fox spit out some water as he was supported by the more physical fit lioness. "Is this Topaz Lake? Is there a Gaius around here?"

Vidar looked at the fox and the lioness a bit more carefully. He noticed that the feline was wearing a tunic that was looking as shabby as the cloth of Khaba and he came to his own conclusion. "Why should I tell you? I have seen people like you before and they were my enemies. Explain yourself!"

"I am Septimus, his step-brother, and this is my slave Ayontunde," the fox now turned to the lioness, "she is mute, so she can't answer for herself."

The lioness made a humble bow as she approached the wolverine. She was looking and smelling much friendlier than her master, which was unsurprising considering that the fox was looking arrogantly at everyone.

Having enough of it all however, Vidar gestured the fox to come over. "I am warning you, I am going to snap your neck, if you try anything."

Septimus looked enraged at those assumptions. "You stinking flea bag! How dare you talk to me like that!?" he yelled at the wolverine, only to be thrown straight into the lack by him.

Ayontunde gestured that she was amused by putting her right hand in front of her mount and imitating a chuckling. She then gave Vidar a short head-rub before she jumped back into the water to get her master.

Flaming heat warmed and enlightened Gaius' body while he was reading through several documents he brought with him to find clues about the gems that he and the others had now in their possession. Nothing however was pointing at their origin or even purpose at all, only that they were located all over the entire continent of Meresteria. Being frustrated about all of this he stashed the documents to the side and was about to go to bed. Before he could do so however someone was knocking at the door and he went over to see who it was. In surprise he stepped back and looked at the odd picture in front of him. "Septimus? I actually would never have thought to see you past the borders."

The fox didn't reply immediately but looked up and down at his brother with a disapproving expression. "Where is your tunic and toga, Gaius? Aren't you ashamed to wear the clothing of wild beasts!?"

"Not really. The pants you wear here in winter are pretty neat to be honest," the wolf replied with a mocking tone in his voice. "Also, you may want to consider your attitude, since I only got the regional fashion."

Septimus was now getting angrier at his step-brother and slightly exposing his teeth. "You don't expect me to wear something like that, do you?"

"Not that nudity if frowned upon here, but I doubt you would like that option either," Gaius now joked as he pulled out two larger pieces of flax out of his drawer. "In any case, you should dry yourselves and then we see what I can give you."

Now Vidar was stepping inside as he was now more at ease to see that Septimus was at least not lying to him. "Okay it seems everything is okay. More or less at least."

"Less with your stench, so take your leave already!" Septimus snarled at Vidar with unreasonable hostility, even though he was physically far inferior to the wolverine.

"Second time I hear that today," Vidar said to himself and he was taking a deep breath. "You know what, fuck you," he then said and punched Septimus in the face with enough force to knock him out.

The lioness slave that was just standing at the side looked very happily at the sprawled body of her master and she gave Vidar a smile that made the warrior grin in satisfaction.

Gaius meanwhile dragged his step-brother next to the fire place to at least make sure he was drying up. "Sorry about that. He always was kind of a jerk to be honest."

"I hope he is the adopted one," Vidar said as he stormed out of the hut and back to Leofwine's place.

Sighing about the outcome of this scenario the otter bowed down to say his goodbyes and run to catch up with the wolverine. "I did picture his brother to be nicer than that. But it seems that they aren't really alike."

"Gaius is smart and a very kind man, but this Septimus is an arrogant piece of shit," Vidar grumbled as he opened the door and stepped inside with the otter behind him, carefully to not wake up Aldric or Khaba. "Today I really had to deal with way too many jerks," he whispered as he went to the hay bed he was sleeping on for the night. He felt very exhausted and fell asleep just shortly after he laid down on it.

Now as he was the only one awake, Leofwine sat down on his bed and looked at the ceiling. He could see that Khaba was not sleeping at all and looking down at him with his face being partially covered by his wings. But exhaustion made him unable to really care about it.

Khaba waited a little bit till he was sure the otter was asleep and flew to the door leading to Crawford's room. He had the most sensitive ears out of everyone and could hear that there was something going on. With a bit of care, he opened the door and peeked inside.

Crawford and Lucille were sitting together and assembling pieces of wood and metal together to different items, aided by a spell that lightened up the room for them to work in. The two siblings were sunken so deep into their work, they did only notice the fruit bat when he sat down next to them.

"It seems you two are tinkering instead of sleeping. Care if I join you?" Khaba asked with an honest interest in what the two otters were doing.

"Wouldn't mind it," Lucille replied as she put together different plates made out of brass and used a fire spell to put them together carefully. "If you are interested in what we are doing, it could be a bit of fun for all of us."

Khaba was giving her a gentle smile as he looked at the things the both were working on. "I see you are making a gastraphetes, Crawford. Only it appears to have some extras to it and it also looks much smaller."

"I am perhaps quite ahead of my time with it. It can hold five bolts at once, which reduces the time you need to reload quite a bit. Plus, it is easy to carry and fire," Crawford explained as he put together some wooden parts with the metal pieces.

Lucille meanwhile attached more metal pieces together and presented an odder item that looked like a halo-shaped blade with a hilt in the middle. Without waiting much longer, Lucille pulled the blade apart into two pieces and showed them individually to Khaba. "I took some of the images about weapons from the east of the continent and put together something based on it. Looks pretty nice, doesn't it?"

Khaba gave her a nod and then looked at the other materials. "You know, I think you could still make something from those left overs. How about we work a bit with those?" he suggested.

The two siblings certainly were interested at what Khaba had in mind and the three would spend the rest of the night working on assembling it partially.

King Bjartr was sitting in his house in Jokulldal. As ruler over the lands of Kärmave, he was known as a strong and wise leader, but his age was quite apparent. Patches of his fur were gray, which stood quite out on the wolverine, and his eyes looked tired and milky. In his youth, he was known as the Beheader and several skulls of his enemies were still presented on the walls of the throne rooms around his lands. But now as he was almost sixty years of age only his legacy was left.

"Your highness," a young lynx run into the throne room with an opened letter in his hand. "Prince Vidar, the squad he was assigned to," the messenger was having a hard time to keep himself speaking and took a break to catch his breath. "The squad was found in Argentflux, wiped out and buried under improvised graves. Villagers found the bodies and identified the armor. An armor was described that fits that of Vidar, with a burned hole in it, found at a nearby river."

Bjartr was unable to express himself about this revelation. He was waiting for the letter, but this was a severe shock for his weak, old heart. Within seconds that felt like hours he stood up from his throne and walked down to the lynx. "Inform the chieftains. If they killed Vidar and left him so little dignity as to take his armor and throw his body into the river, we need to settle who will follow me on the throne and also to make sure those bastards will be send here to face my judgment."

"I will send the message to them, farewell my lord," the lynx said as he hastily left the room to send the letters to the chieftains of Kärmave, leaving his king in the throne room that was otherwise only filled with guards.

While he showed no grief, the sadness in Bjartr's heart was unbearable. He went from the throne room to his chambers and closed the door tightly before he locked it. He dropped down to his knees and started to cry silently, but eventually he gave in and the two guards that stood at the door, both being beavers, looked uncomfortably at each other, feeling sorry for their king and sharing his grief.