“It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

Adler, Locust and Karl were walking through the crowded streets of Noonvale, making their way to the Mercenary Guild’s headquarters. Adler fed them information about the city and regaled them with tales of his own experiences as a mercenary. At least Karl now had some kind of distraction from the plight of the Naga girl, which had been weighing heavily on his mind.

After nearly an hour of walking, the group arrived at the building. Adler had told them that he and Locust could sleep in the barracks, but since Sunny was not included in the agreement with Adler, they sent her out to book a room for herself.

The building looked like a somewhat larger version of the other houses in the street. It had the same primitive construction and decrepit appearance. The inside however turned out to be quite a surprise.

The reception looked comparable to that of a five-star hotel. A young female Gryphon was sitting behind a desk and looked up as Adler walked in. The two obviously knew each other seeing as her expression instantly turned from neutral to happy.

“Adler! How long have you been back? And I see you brought some… friends.” She finished with a slightly worried tone.

“Sorry I haven’t come to visit you yet Astrid, but I’ve had a lot of stuff to deal with lately. I’m trying to re-assemble a crew for the Ironhoof route.”

As he said this a look of worry came on the face of Astrid, but she quickly regained her composure to a more neutral look.

“So I assume that these two gents are now part of your new crew?”

“Yes, but they’re new to the guild. They agree to help this one time in exchange for passage to Ironhoof and a fair cut of the money, so temporary passes should be good for them.”

Astrid nodded and went to search the right papers.

“You know each other?” Locust asked, stating the obvious.

“Oh, yeah. Astrid and I know each other from when we were young hatchlings in the Gryphon capital. Lovely little place called Gryphus. Ever hear of it? No? Well, I’m getting off track here. We moved here during the Great Collapse in the hopes of a better life.”

“’Great Collapse?’” asked Karl.

“Yeah. No-one’s really sure why it happened, but it had something to do with certain people lending and spending money they didn’t really have. Whatever happened, everything in the Gryphon Kingdom headed on a downturn. Money, quality of life, jobs; everything went to shit.”

“And how did the move work out for you?”

“We weren’t welcomes at all. Astrid and I were bullied out of Canterlot by the nobles and aristocrats. Even the ordinary citizens got their tails in a twist, saying things about how we didn’t belong there. That went on for about a year and a half until we came here. I just couldn’t deal with all their racist bullshit.”

“I take it if they went at your lady friend here, they’d be pretty fucked.” Karl finished as he got an affirmative nod from Adler.

“Back then there were no pirates so there was no place for mercenaries, so I was still in the position of finding a job. It wasn’t as bad as Canterlot, but a lot of businessfolk around here still discriminated. Other races had to cling together if they wanted any sort of welcome. Gangs and mobs sprang up over time, and I got into them pretty fast. I was able to support both myself and Astrid on the money I raked in.

“A few years went by like this, then the pirates started showing up. Those sorry excuses for soldiers couldn’t do shit about it. Trade went down when the merchants stopped trusting the guards with their wares and their clients started seeing doing business with Noonvale as more of a money pit. In their desperation they turned to criminal organizations like mine to provide worthwhile escort services. We were hesitant at first though, because there were still a lot of grudges to be held.

“We were eventually given permission to start a guild of our own, and the rest is history. Astrid became a secretary for the Guild, a damn fine one at that, and I was assigned the rank of Captain.” Adler finished his tale.

“Wow. You two are lucky to have each other.” Locust replied.

Adler looked a bit uncomfortable. “We aren’t in a relationship.” This earned him looks from both the former human and the Changeling. “I am thinking of asking her after this job, but I don’t want to bother her with it as long as I am in the Mercenary business. Things might end up bad if we get too close. For the time being we’re just, shall we say, friends with benefits.”

Karl and Locust both nodded that they understood.

After a couple of minutes Astrid reappeared.

“My apologies, but I had some trouble finding these documents. .”

Both men took their respective papers and were guided by Astrid to a place where they could fill them in. However Karl found out he had a big problem: before his transformation, he had been right handed. The same hand which was now an unwieldy claw

“Adler? Could you lend me a hand here?”

“Can’t you write?” Adler asked confused.

“I can, but this claw would screw everything up. If it’s possible, could you fill in my paper while I dictate it?”

“Sure thing.”

“I can read, so no screwin’ around.”

“Aw, you’re no fun.”

Karl started dictating the information that was asked. One space asked for “Species Name”. After Adler reassured him that these papers would sooner be burned than fall into government hands, he told him that he was a mutated human. This earned a confused look from the Gryphon, who had, just like everyone else in this world (besides those two Alicorns), no idea of what a human was. He didn’t ask about it though, and just kept writing.

Karl made a mental note to try and learn writing with his left hand as soon as possible. He had a couple of reasons for doing so first of all being able to write was always useful and he would lie if he said asking for help with writing wasn’t a bit humiliating for him.

They gave the papers back to Astrid who, after checking them, handed each of the two a small card, which looked like a membership card.

“This is your membership card.” Astrid said.

‘Nailed it.’ Karl said inwardly.

“You can use it to get access to the guild’s training areas, barrack were you two will be staying as requested on the forms you just filled in.

“Good. Now that’s done, let’s get you guys to the training court so I can see how good you are with my own eyes.” Astrid rolled her eyes.

“Are you still doing it that way Adler? First making them join and then testing them.”

Adler leaned on Astrid’s desk, and with an innocent smile on his face said “You wound me, Astrid. After all these years of my intuition being right, you still don’t trust it.”

This caused her to roll her eyes at his childish answer, although she couldn’t prevent a small smile from appearing on her face.

“Just go and train them already Andy.” She smiled at his awkward expression at the mention of her nickname for him. Locust and Karl had trouble keeping their composure, but managed to do it anyway out of that ancient instinct not to laugh at one’s boss on day one.

“Come on lads. We’re going to see how much pain you can take and how much you can deal.”

****

BAM!!!

Another hit of Karl’s right claw against a wooden pillar was heard across the training court as he once again missed Adler.

“Come on Karl, hitting those wooden pillars isn’t going to do you much good.” Adler taunted.

The fight had been going on for ten minutes already. The objective, which sounded easy at first but, as an abundance of evidence was now showing, was not, was trying to hit Adler.

The Gryphon was being a complete pain in the ass and he hadn’t even attacked once. All he did was dodge and it was damned exhausting. A small comfort for Karl was that the actual test for joining the guild, which consisted of sparring against a couple of recruits, was already over and successfully passed.

“You know, if you want I can attack you so you get some more chances at hitting me instead of all the things you hit the last ten minutes.” Adler proposed slyly.

“You know I would be fucking insane to accept that offer…” Adler’s smile disappeared and a slightly disappointed look came on his features.

“However, I would be plain stupid if I believed that I am going to hit you in the next half hour at this rate. Bring it the hell on.” Adler got briefly a proud look on his face before he dove full force towards his new recruit to give him the famed first time beating.

****

“Okay, so where does it hurt mister?” asked the young (Karl assumed) nurse who looked like a humanoid Komodo dragon. She wore a standard white nurse uniform and some kind of medallion.

The infirmary he was moved to after getting his ass kicked up and down the training field was quite cozy for a sickroom. The inside looked a bit like a cottage, what with the wooden floorboards and the heavy wooden support beams on the ceiling. There were two beds near two windows, one of which he occupied and the other empty, an examination table, a medicine cabinet, a desk and the posters with medical information on the walls that every doctor’s office possessed.

“You would do better to ask where it doesn’t hurt.” Karl replied trying his best to smile, but his burn mark caused so much pain again. Luckily Adler had not assaulted that place on his face because even without getting a beating there, it hurt like hell.

The nurse threw him a small sympathetic smile. “I assume that the pain of your face wasn’t Adler’s fault.”

“Yeah. If I smile too widely, it burns like hell.”

“May I?” She asked as she gestured to his head.

He nodded that it was fine. She carefully took his head in her claws and started examining the burn. She carefully caressed the borders of the burn mark with the tips of her claws. It actually felt kind of good.

“By some miracle, it isn’t infected, but it clearly hasn’t been treated well, and that, of course, makes it uglier than it could have been.” She stated as she finished her examination and carefully put his head back on the pillow.

“Jeez. Way to cheer a guy up.” Karl replied sarcastically.

“I can give you some medicines for the rest of your injuries, but I am afraid that at this point in time you need some intensive healing magic to repair the burns.” The nurse replied.

“No need to apologise. At least you politely state a fact… and thank you.”

“Don’t mention it. The whole reason I took this job was because I genuinely like helping people. You should really thank Adler. He seems to have gone a bit easier on you than he normally does for the so-called ‘first time beating’.”

“Oh? How nice of him. I’ll be sure to send him my regards when I heal the hell up. When do you think that’s going to be, anyway?”

A small smile adorned the nurse face.

“It’ll probably take about two days. Until then I would recommend keeping something or someone at claw’s length for support should the need arise.”

“I can’t imagine a beautiful woman like you would be interested in that job?” Karl slyly asked.

“What a polite flatterer. But I like that. It’s better than the normal gruffness or pervy crap that a lot of these mercenaries pull nowadays.”

“My parents taught me well.”

“Clearly.” She mused.

“Normally I don’t ask this, but why did you decide to get into the mercenary business? And why this end of the business? Even for those big macho guys, the Ironhoof route is one they’d rather pass by.” the nurse asked curiously as she sat down at the foot of the bed.

Karl gave her a weak smile. “I have some… personal business in Ironhoof. This is the fastest way to get there. The only other alternative is the sea, and isn’t exactly any safer.”

“Is it really important enough to risk loosing your life?” She asked with a small amount of concern audible in her voice.

He took her claw in his own and looked her straight in her eyes. “My life was already taken away from me once. I’ll be damned if it’s taken away again. I only live for retribution and I recognize the danger inherent in that.”

She nodded understandingly and put her other claw on top of his right claw. “Very well. I hope you find your purpose and that those that wronged you will meet justice.”

Karl raised his right eyebrow in confusion.

“Really? You’re not going to try and talk me out of it?”

She shook her head as she took her claw off of Karl’s claw whilst also slipping her other claw out of his claw.

“No. We Drakes have our own views on justice. If someone harms you, then it’s only natural for retribution to follow. If you seek vengeance for a just reason, there will be no true Drake that shall forbid you from trying to get it. Honour is an important thing in our society.”

“Say, you’re telling me a lot about your tribe and your people, but I am afraid I have never heard of them before, so not much of what you’re saying is making any sense. Would you mind telling me a bit about yourself and your people?”

“Very well. What do you want to know?”

“Anything you want to tell me. Let’s start with a better way to address you than ‘nurse’.”

“Well, my name is Froă, and we Drakes do not possess family names. In our tribe every male and female knows who you mean, but should the need arise for outside groups to find specific Drakes, our naming system gets more elaborate. For example, my full name is Froă Allarh Nareneþ. This basically says my first name, my job and my tribe: Froă is the name my parents gave me, Allarh means healer in our language and the Nareneþ is my tribe’s name.”

“Would it be possible to show me on a map of where you’re from?”

“Sure thing. Just a moment.”

Froă stood up and walked over to her desk where she shuffled through a few scrolls before coming back with one of them. Karl opted to sit upright with his back against the wall. She decided to sit down next to him and laid the map open on top of his lap. For the first time, Karl saw his new world, or at least the known part. He noted that, at the very edges, the words “Lost World” and “The Echo” were written. He quickly scanned the map trying to prevent himself from snorting at all of the puns in many of the city names.

“I was born here.” said Froă, gesturing to a small spot labelled “Dragmire Island”.

“This is about where we are now. Of course, it’s not marked because of how few live here.”

To say the two weren’t close together would be an understatement. The distance was gigantic.

“I must say, you were a brave woman to dare make such a journey. I know I wouldn’t have been able to do so.”

As he said this she looked sadder.

“I didn’t have a choice. It was made for me by slavers. One day, a group of them landed at Dragmire and took us all by surprise. My village was completely ransacked. Males, females, hatchlings; all were taken, and if the slavers couldn’t get them to move, they killed them. They set fire to our houses before sailing from the island.”

“Oh.” Karl awkwardly replied. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring that up.”

At the same time, he thought, ‘Jeez. What is it with these people and slavery?’

“Don’t be. You didn’t know.”

“Although, not to open up any more old wounds, why did they trash your homes? You’d think It’d be in their best interest to promote your population.”

“You would think that, but being the kind that wilfully abducts others for slave labour almost necessitates a certain indiscriminate dislike of other races. That became abundantly obvious to me in the months following: They locked me up with many others and sold us on the slave market in Nadira where I was brought by a rich Equestrian noble who lived in Camelu. I learned their language from them there. Granted, they probably did it only to order us around more efficiently, but at least it was useful. One day I hit my master as he tried to rape me after he had drunk too much at a party. Drinking alcohol is frowned upon in those areas, but the rich, as always, were often ‘overlooked’.

“It was stupid of me to hit him: slaves can be sentenced to death for something like that… but I guess he realized it was his fault and he decided to ‘only’ give me fifty blows with a whip on the back and sold me again on slave market. It terrified me so much that I begged him to not sell me. It might sound silly, but I would have rather stayed with him than risk getting sold to someone else. In that world, the chances of things getting worse were much higher than them getting better.

“So I was sold after a year of service and put on a big ship full of slaves, with even more slaves than the first ship. We sailed all across the shores of Cervidas and finally also arrived at smaller Equestrian ports. They have laws on the books there about slavery, but as long as the local governments get a cut of the profits from the slave traders, they’re virtually meaningless. How long I was on that ship I don’t know, but one night, a group of slaves somehow managed to escape their shackles and staged an uprising against the ship’s crew.

“We were victorious, but during the fighting the ship had gone off course and wrecked on a portion of shoreline not far from the Cáqash swamp. We decided to travel through there, seeing how it was so dense and offered a great deal of concealment. Many died in attacks by wild animals and from diseases. I believe that it took us a little over a week to reach Noonvale, where the mercenaries were only too happy to absorb us into their ranks. My natural skills as a healer earned me this position.”

Karl put his right claw on her left shoulder.

“Sorry to hear that someone as kind as you had to go through something like that.”

“Thanks, I am sorry to have bothered you with such a story, but I just want you to know what you could be walking into.” She said as she stood up and walked away again.

“No. If anything I am grateful for the story. Thanks for the warning.”

This earned him a small smile from Froă.

“I believe your Changeling friend will soon arrive. He mentioned something about showing up around this time and I should go and keep watch on this afternoon’s training should the need for some medical assistance be required.”

As if on cue, Locust entered the room.

“Am I interrupting something?” He carefully asked.

“Not at all.” replied Froă. “Like I said, I should get going. If you need anything, my assistant Myrna will be in the next room.”

“Ah yes. That lovely Changeling was kind enough to give me directions to the dining room.”

This earned him a confused look from Froă.

“Oh, don’t look so surprised. Everyone knows that we Changelings can tell each other at a glance, even if were in another form.”

“Of course.” Said Froă, slightly embarrassed at having forgotten such a basic fact. “Have fun boys… and don’t go breaking or stealing anything: I know about that kind of stuff.”

Somehow Karl didn’t doubt those words at all. Froă closed the door behind her leaving the two guys alone.

“So what have you been doing since I’ve been here?” Karl asked indignantly.

“Oh don’t give me that. If I knew that the nurse looked so good, I would have come here voluntarily.”

That brought a smile on Karl’s face.

“Oh I never said I didn’t like it here. Froă has proven to be quite the conversationalist.”

“I’m sure she could be a lot more than a conversation partner...”

“I’d throw something at you, but I’m so stiff that I still have doubts nobody put some metal bars in my body, so you’re off the hook for now.”

“Yeah, yeah. I just wanted to tell you that you did an amazing job at training.”

“Amazing job? I got my ass kicked.”

“Yes, but at least you figured out the meaning behind the ‘first time beating’! I mean not many recruits get it: they don’t stand a chance, and even if they do, most rather chose to keep fighting until they’re exhausted rather than accepting the beating like you did.”
“So I was right after all.”

“Yep, and that impressed Adler, so he went a bit easier on you. The first time beating is just to show troublesome recruits who’s the veteran and who’s the greenhorn. It also allows the veterans to check up on some traits the recruit possesses. Even though you knew you were outclassed, you chose to accept the direct fight rather than keeping on fighting a battle you couldn’t win.

“You also didn’t surrender which shows you’re determined and trustworthy. It doesn’t measure up to a real battle of course, but a little bit of experience is better than nothing. It helps them give extra attention to the weakest guys in order to prevent them from destabilizing the entire group. Although keep in mind this is just training. It doesn’t mean that if you keep on fighting in training, you should keep on fighting in a real battle!”

“So it’s mostly to teach humility.”

“Yep. I don’t think you needed it, but Adler just wanted to be sure that beating those other recruits didn’t get you to the head.”

Karl didn’t really like to admit it, but unless it had a horn, he didn’t treat most attackers like real threats. Despite what Locust said, he really did need a good beat-down to bring him back down to earth. Granted, they were PONIES of all creatures, but any soldier or strategist knows that overconfidence is often lethal.

“Adler asked me to tell you that your training will begin when you can stand again.”

“Straight to the point. I appreciate that.”

“Well, you need to be prepared a lot sooner than the others to hold your own in a fight against the Skokak. I don’t think he counts on you getting the full training, just enough to be used as a reserve should the need arise. Most likely you’ll be the personal guard of a merchant or a transport and I’ll get scouting duty.”

“So basically, I only get to see any real action if shit gets really bad.”

“Pretty much. Also if an enemy sneaks past our defenses, it’s your job to make sure he doesn’t kill or steal anyling or anything. Most likely, they’ll also call for you if something needs to be built.”

“Built?”

“Yeah. You and some others will need to build roads or bridges should that be required. The pirates and Skokak sometimes destroy the roads to keep outsiders away from their land.”

“Splendid.” Karl said trying to hide the sarcasm in his voice. Repairing stuff other people destroyed was not something he looked forward to.

“So what have you been up to?” he asked Locust.

“Oh, nothing much. A bit of training, putting our stuff in our lockers and reserving a hammocks in the barracks.”

“Good boy! Here; have a snack!” Karl said as he tossed a small cookie in the air which Locust caught with his mouth and swallowed instantly.

It took a second for the light to go on in Locust’s head.

“Hey! That’s degrading!” Locust whined, annoyed at being tricked like that.

Meanwhile Karl was laughing and groaning at the same time as the throw had strained his already sore muscles.

‘Totally fucking worth it!’ He thought as he saw the expression Locust made while mumbling curses under his breath with his forelegs crossed.

Myrna was busy checking over some paperwork when she heard something that sounded like someone was trying to imitate the laughter of a hyena whilst groaning in pain. She decided to check on the patient and his friend whom she had directed to the dining room earlier today.

She opened the door slightly and saw that the patient called Karl was busy laughing while clearly in pain if his facial expressions were anything to go by, all the while his friend was lecturing him about respectful treatment.

She decided that since neither were in the immediate need of medical assistance she would just leave it be, and headed back to her desk where she resumed her paperwork.

“Just when you think things can’t get any stranger.” she mused before continuing her work like nothing had happened.

Author's Note

Hello everybody!

I hope you enjoyed the chapter and if you did please show some support for the story.

Author: TheShadowOfZama
Editor: Vlasislas32