Chapters No more than two days ago three griffons claiming to be survivors of an attack on a coastal trading village in the north of the griffon empire had appeared in the Capitol. The first survivor was a hardy male who's left arm had been cut off, he was still in recovery. The second was a female, overweight and still hysterical, she wouldn't be reliable if they questioned her. Lastly there was a young girl who seemed the most level headed of them all. The empire concerned about this incident sent a captain to investigate and question the girl so they could know more about what exactly happened.
Captain Ray was a respected soldier known for getting the job done, his feathers were black and he had a long scar across his face. When he was tasked with this assignment he couldn't of been more pleased, for him it was another chance to further his career. He was to question the girl in a castle on the outskirts of the Capitol itself.
Right now he stood in a stone room in front of the disheveled girl that could of been no more than ten. At the moment he looked upon the young griffoness with disbelief," You're saying, a group of twenty or more creatures killed and looted you're entire village?" So far the story he could piece together was that a group of twenty of these things attacked in broad daylight killed all the guards ransacked the village and all the merchant ships.
She looked up at him with tears in her eyes," Yes, t-they killed my father right in front of me." She shook slightly holding back the sobs that came with that memory.
Ray didn't want to hurt her anymore than she already was but he had to know," Why are you still alive then, if they killed him in front of you why didn't they kill you too?"
"I-I don't know I j-just ran," she broke down sobbing as she remembered the events of that night, Ray saw that she was still terrified of the raiders had ransacked her village.
Squatting down Ray's Golden armor clinked as he reached out and touched his claws comfortingly to her face," I'm sorry I have to ask these questions but I have to know something before we send out soldiers to deal with this." His stern face softened as he looked her in the eyes.
She wiped her tears and nodded as his hand pulled back," W-What do you need to know?"
"Well..." He paused deciding where to start," What's you're name?"
"Relia."
"Okay then Relia what did these raiders look like?"
"They were really tall, I've seen minotaurs before on trading ships and not even they could be as tall as these Northmen," Ray held up a claw to stop her.
"Northmen?" He asked
She nodded," I've named them that."
"Because they came from the North?" He guessed.
"Yeah do you like it?" She smiled slightly enjoying this small distraction.
"Of course I do but of you could please continue describing these "Northmen" to me."
"Well they wore animal skins over their armor and had metal caps, nothing fancy like those pony soldiers have on their armor."
"Alright what kind of weapons did they use?"
"They had big battle axes and others had spears, a few had swords and shields." She explained her demeanor drooping all of a sudden," The one who killed my father had a sword and shield."
He reached out and grabbed her shoulder, "Don't worry about that we'll make them pay for what they've done Relia." He assured her,"Now is there anything else you noticed about them?"
"The ones that didn't have as much armor they didn't have feathers or fur or scales, whatever it was it looked like the color of a peach." She grimaced at the thought,"It was really gross."
"I agree," Ray nodded the thought of these things disgusted him.
"Yeah and from the few that weren't wearing helmets I could see they had manes like ponies but they grew them really long and had beards," her eyes narrowed in concentration, "A lot of them had brides in there hair too, not like those prench braids ponies put in there hair but these seemed more like they meant something."
He nodded,"Anything else?"
"They were organized." She stated solemnly.
"Huh?" He cocked an eyebrow at her.
"I've seen soldiers train before, the guards in my village, the guards of merchant ships, I know what it looks like to be organized and these Northmen were organized." She looked up into Ray's eyes," Don't let them fool you I saw them take down fifty guards and there were only twenty of them."
Ray was taken back by her sudden seriousness," Twenty of them took down fifty guards?!" His jaw hit the ground as he ran that over in his head, they must be dangerous and theres no telling how many more there are out there he thought to himself," Okay uh one last question then you can go, how did you meet up with the others?"
"After I started running I eventually found myself in the road just outside of my village and the other two were already there." She clasped her claws together," The guy said we'd head for the Capitol and we walked for a while before we came across a caravan and now I'm here."
"Alright Relia thank you for your cooperation." he stood up and walked to the wooden door, tapping on it the guard outside opened up.
"All done here sir?" He asked
"Yes private now could you please escort the young miss to her quarters at once."
He saluted slamming a fist to his armored chest," At once sir." Walking through the door he left the private and the girl behind and made his way through the dark stone hallway, reaching a wooden door he pushed it open and stepped outside into the castles courtyard , the sky was overcast and it smelled as though it might rain soon. Ceasing his observation Ray made his way to the main hall, pushing the big double doors open he saw the off duty soldiers playing cards and waiting for there shift.
Turing to a sergeant a the table nearest to him he called out," Sergeant do you know where general Unlan is?"
The soldier stood up to attention as fast as he," Yes sir he's in the war room sir!"
"Thank you soldier," he walked to the left end of the hall and opened the door, making his way through a series of corridors lite only by torchlight he came upon an oak door. Pushing on it he stepped inside to find a table with a map of the empire and Unlan standing over it.
Looking up the generals eye scrutinized Ray," Well what do you want?"
"I wish to report my findings on the destroyed village sir."
"Alright then on with it."
He explained what had happened and told the general what the girl had told him about the Northmen, he'd also made sure to mention the girl was very cooperative as well as intelligent.
"Northmen bah!" The general yelled in digust," they are nothing more than savage barbarians."
"But sir they killed fift-"
"I know that's what the little girl said and I don't believe it, I'll give you a battalion of one hundred men and that's it." He pointed a claw to the northernmost village on the map," You will camp there and wait for an attack, if these barbarians are to attack another village than this one will be it."
"Sir I must request more me-"
"No means no you dumbass now you have a job to do so do it!"
Ray couldn't help but feel as though something bad was going to happen.
Ray's first impression of the village was that it was totally undefendable, no walls, no towers and the guards looked as though they'd had no training, not to mention it's always cloudy. The layout didn't help either, the town was a row of docks beside them a row of merchant buildings then the living spaces the only thing it had going for it was that it was built on the empires northernmost fields which meant you could see an enemy coming for miles. Unlan may be arrogant but he was right, this was exactly what a raider would want and it could be made defendable.
Ray knew though this village was the exact opposite of the other village the Northman had destroyed with ease and that had all the right defenses. The first order of business was to build walls, they were wood so obviously not siege worthy walls but enough to defend from twenty or thirty enemies.The second was to replace the guards with his own men, next he had a curfew set for the town so that he could keep a panic from happening in case of an attack at night.
The villagers were fine with all of this in fact they welcomed the protection, the only thing the didn't let Ray do was put their sea trade on hold till the raiders had been stopped. Ray against his instinct let them continue their trading, now all that was left was to wait for an attack.
Standing on a roof that was tall enough to look over the makeshift walls he scanned the outlying fields. He had his men focus their attention to the fields, he didn't expect an attack by sea all he knew at the moment was that the raiders attacked coastal villages not that they came from the sea. In fact he was under the impression that creatures which resorted to raiding villages probably didn't even know how to handle a boat.
He looked back towards the sea and couldn't help but feel maybe they could come from there but he quickly quelled the idea and returned his attention to the land. Before to long he felt the need to eat and decided to go get something to eat, signaling for someone to take his place he waited for his replacement to get there.
Up the ladder came a bulky looking griffon, making eye contact Ray nodded and patted his shoulder,"Keep an eye out soldier."
"Yes sir." The griffon saluted and Ray made his way down the ladder satisfied with his replacements ability to keep an eye out. Making his way through the village he reached the town center where they'd set up a makeshift mess hall, it was a long tent with a couple of long tables underneath it. Walking to the table where they kept the food he grabbed a bowl, poured himself some beef stew and took a piece of smoked salmon.
He sat down at a table a couple of off duty soldiers sat and ate at as well. Ever since he'd joins the Empire's army hed learned to enjoy the few quiet moments you got and this was one of them, the soldiers weren't taking and the only sounds were that of the wind and clanking of spoons.
Grabbing his salmon he took a bite and mid chew one of the soldiers at the table turned to him,"Is it true?"
Turning to the soldier he cocked an eyebrow and gulped his food,"What?"
"The Raiders, I heard they killed all the soldiers up at that village near hear, you know uh I think its called... Battram." He snapped his claw as he remembered the name of the village.
Sighing Ray looked away,"Yes it's true they did," he looked back to the soldier with a stern face,"But there were only fifty of us then, now there's a hundred, so don't worry." He reassured the soldier.
The soldier looked down seemingly reassuring himself as well,"Alright if... If you say so Captain."
"Hey." He reached out and patted the soldier's back,"Don't worry I won't let anything happen to us."
The soldier nodded and smiled slightly. They both returned to their meals readying themselves for their next shifts, after finishing Ray stood up and made his way out to of the tent. He suddenly had a feeling that he should go check on the docks, walking slowly he eventually reached the docks, looking over the horizon he watched for any movement. Nothing. He chalked it off as stress and decided he would join his men watching the southern fields.
Walking eastward he reached a house on the border of the town and climbed up it, there was already a soldier up here. In fact there was a soldier on every house bordering the town and all of them had their eyes over the wall, he smiled looking over the wall himself. No one was going to sneak up on them.
(A Few Hours Later)
There'd been no signs of any activity all day, the only change was that the clouds had gotten seemingly darker, Ray couldn't tell what time it was but his best guess was late afternoon. That's when he heard it a yell then multiple yells then screams, shooting up Ray's wings lifted up and he took to the sky looking at the ground below he saw what was going on. He'd made a terrible mistake, boats the likes of which he'd never seen before and from them come the tallest creatures he'd ever seen.
Just like the girl Relia had said they wore armor covered in animal skins and had steel caps. Ray had seen yaks before and thought they were tall but these, these were taller and stronger than any yak could hope to be. Ray then noticed how many there were, at least a hundred maybe more.
His mind immediately went into action he saw most of his troops were already turned around and engaged in combat, flying down he landed in the midst of the battle. Already fires had claimed half of the merchant buildings, he knew if he wanted any chance to win this battle he'd have to get organized and quickly.
"Fall back then regroup at the front gates!" He yelled over the sound of swords clashing as he turned he saw one of his men have a spear thrust through his gut, the creature that had done it ripped the spear out with ease and turned his attention to Ray. It had long blond hair and a beard that ended in two rough braids, pulling out his sword he readied himself for the creatures onslaught. Running at him the Northman thrust forward.
Ray threw himself to the right and barely dodged the hulking creature, he brought his sword around and tried to slash his opponent. The Northman with surprising agility threw himself back and brought his spear around, the loud clash of their weapons almost stunned Ray and he looked up at his opponent trying to see what the creature would do next. To his surprise the creature smiled and yelled,"Nakkvarr grimmr einn!"
The warrior kicked at Ray's legs but Ray was quick and he moved in time for the kick to miss, taking advantage of the Northman's bad composure he slide his sword down the side of the spear till he hit the Warriors hand and severed all his fingers from his hand. The man howled in pain and dropped his spear to grab at his hand, this was his mistake for as soon as he did this Ray shoved his sword through the Warriors chest.
Looking down in disbelief the Northman gasped, then looked up to Ray and he smiled!
"At Valholl!" He shouted blood pouring out of his mouth, and then he fell dead in front of Ray.
Ray panted catching his breath, then remembered "I need to regroup with my men!" Bolting up he turned around only for the sudden burst of energy to leave him. All around him were Northmen warriors, his men were no where in sight every building in the village was on fire. He sighed and looked down for a moment then raised his sword and readied himself for whatever was going to happen next.
The Warriors didn't charge, they didn't yell, hell they sheathed their weapons. Confused Ray looked around at the men his brow raised, then a gap appeared in the line surrounding him and the tallest warrior yet stepped through. He had long unbraided red hair and a rough red beard, while he was the tallest he was also kind of skinny. His weapons consisted of a bloody sword and a round shield with a dragon painted on it.
He approached Ray and stopped only ten feet or so away from him,"Yovarr nakkvarr bitr vigamaor." The other Northmen nodded with him, Ray watched as what he assumed was their leader reached out with his hand. Seeing a way to survive this he reached out as well lowering his sword and grabbed the man's massive hand. Before Ray could tell what was going on the Northman's other hand shot forward and then everything went black.
Ray groaned into consciousness, a painful thumping in his head was the first feeling that came to him. Before his vision returned his hearing did, the first sounds that registered were that of waves lapping and the sound of men rowing. When his vision returned he almost had a panic attack all around him were Northmen rowing, he was in the middle of one of their longboats.
He sat up breathing heavily, this attracted the attention of some of the men but they quickly went back to rowing seemingly disinterested. Ray looked down at himself and the only part of him they had tied up were his wings, he couldn't understand it. Looking up he saw the sky was slightly over cast with the sun poking through in some places.
"Finally awake huh?" His head shot towards the bow of the ship where the accented voice came from and standing there was a Northman that seemed shorter than the others, he had curly blonde hair with two braids on his left side and a beard that was short compared to the other men.
"Did- did you just?"
"Yes I can speak your language bird." Ray was taken back by this.
"How?"
"Long story," he waved it off," Now what you really want to know is what's going on am I right?" The man grinned heartily when Ray nodded yes.
"Good, now move over," Ray scooted over and the man sat next to him,"For starters what's you name little bird?"
"Ray and yours?"
"Herger is mine now do you remember the battle in the village?"
"All the way until the tall red haired man knocked me out."
Herger laughed softly,"Sorry about that, he didn't want to go through the trouble of dragging you here against your will," he took a moment to crack his neck and continued,"When Shemuel, our leader offered you his hand he was giving you a choice, join us or die honorably, and you chose join us."
"But I didn't know that!" Ray yelled distressed, a couple of men looked his way but ultimately paid him no mind.
"Hey keep it down." Hedged said in annoyance,"Anyway thats why he knocked you out, you see he's smarter than he looks and he figured you might not understand what was going on if we were to drag you out here."
Sighing heavily Ray looked down at the wooden deck,"I... I understand."
"Good, now he also knew I could speak your language so he put you in the boat with me so I could explain this all."
"Okay but why did you attack us in the first place?" Ray asked looking up at Herger.
"Why did you attack us?" When Ray looked at him in confusion Herger began to explain,"The other village we destroyed wasn't for no reason in fact it was for good reason."
"What was that reason then?" Ray asked growing more confused by the moment.
Herger sighed and looked over the rail of the boat,"We didn't come here to raid, we came here to explore and trade with your people but when we docked in their village the first thing they did was attack us." Ray gulped as he started piecing it together himself,"They caught us off guard and many of our brothers died in the battle, so we vowed to avenge them by any means necessary."
Ray now understood why they had attacked,"Okay but what about my other men did you take them prisoner?"
Herger's demeanor grew serious,"I am very sorry to tell you that most of your soldiers dishonered you."
"What do you mean?"
"When they saw us they started running, they were cowards unlike you," Herger sighed,"There were a few others that stayed and fought, they died honorably and we burned them on pyres with their weapons." He nodded at Ray.
Ray saw this meant a lot to these people, what they'd done for his brave men was a show of respect,"You were the only one we could capture,"Herger continued," You also showed your bravery and prowess as a warrior,Shemual saw that so he took you in, it is a great show of honor to offer someone to join." Standing up Herger stretched his back,"Now you still have a choice, join us and map out the coast while raiding villages along the way, or don't and die, don't worry we'll bury you with honor but you'll still be dead." Herger laughed and looked down at Ray,"What'll it be?"
Ray ran it all over in his head. He could join them and see what happens or die,"Join you, fairly easy choice honestly." He gave a slight smile and stood up,"Of course you'll need to teach me your language
Herger smiled back,"Good choice now before I teach you anything Shemuel wanted to meet you once you woke up." Ray nodded," follow me he's on the other side of the ship." Ray couldn't help but get the feeling this was going to be an adventure he'd never forget.
