The feast.

To say it was shoddy would be an insult to the people who made it.

There was a bit of everything from fish and meats for the griffons, salads, breads, fruits and vegetables for the ponies and bits of everything in between for the diamond dog and minotaur. The townspeople were throwing us a celebration for creating them a means to survive in this part of the world and with the amount of surplus supplies of wood and stone, these people will also be able to restore parts of their town as the tools we have brought with us will be donated as well per the king's orders.

While I would have enjoyed this more if my friends were here I guess the construction crew will have to do as suitable replacements to spend some time with cause after all it doesn't hurt to make a few friends at the workplace.

Socializing with the work crew and some of the townspeople wasn't that hard to do since they all saw me as someone that they can depend upon to lead them and help them, a natural leader in their eyes. To the work crew I am a capable foreman that kept them ahead of schedule and made sure that none of them didn't work too hard or get dehydrated from working in the sun for too long. And as for the civilian population, they saw me as a natural leader because I was taking steps to improve the town and make it a better place, far more than their noble lord has ever done for them in the past thirty-six years that he has been reigning for.

Many members from the construction crew and the town had questions for me, most were simple questions of where I am from, if I am a noble from my homeland, how did I get the idea to create such things, if it is true that I am the one responsible for retrieving the Idol of Boreas from the abyss, so many questions regarding their home and if it is my ideas and projects that will be the one to restore the nation to its former glory.

While I couldn't tell them for sure that if my projects will save their nation or not because even I didn't know if it was going to work in the long run, but I sure as shit couldn't tell them that and make them feel like that my assistance is just a bandage on a wound far too large for it to fix. While I would love to hope and believe that my work will help resurrect the griffon empire of old and restore it back to its full former glory, but even I know that to put all of ones eggs into a single basket is almost always asking for failure to drop upon their head for simply thinking that nothing can go wrong cause after all there is that one famous saying.

'What can go wrong, will go wrong.'

So that is why I am laying down the groundworks for numerous projects, spreading my ideas to those that I trust and know that even if the project ends in failure the blowback from it won't be too large to truly set us back and prevent any future steps forward upon the path of modernization and innovation.

It was during the feast did I start to look at the people who I have helped through this project, griffonian citizens who try to make an honest living even during these turbulent times, hired contractors who live by the honor of doing hard work for good pay, never skimping out on quality just to quickly get the job done, citizens whose gods actually play a part in their lives even if they think that they were just cursed with bad luck, these people I am helping are worth the struggles and ass beating that I have received over the past few months. Every single one of these people all have their own hopes and dreams, these dreams are being propped up by their king and by those that they put their trust in and it took me a while to figure this one out but I am now one of those people that is being looked up to, someone to look up to as an example, someone to go to for assistance, someone they aspire to become.

To these people, they are starting to see me as someone to follow, their savior in their time of crisis that they thought that it wouldn't end, a hero to follow and praise for saving them.

But I know that I am no hero, not in the traditional sense at least as I don't rush into burning buildings to save people or climb trees to rescue kittens. No, I am a planner and a schemer, its just that my plans and schemes also end up helping people make their lives easier all the while advancing my own plans to ensure my own survival and to pave the road for my own ambitions.

While everyone and myself was busy eating, drinking, talking and challenging each other to contests of strength and who can drink who under the table, I was busy keeping myself sober as to not be caught off-guard by an assassin or someone that would like to 'acquire' my knowledge for their own people.

But it was during this feast with everyone's guard being lowered and nobody on watch to make sure that nothing sneaks up on them, that in the middle of the night far past the walls keeping the town of Talon's End safe did several approaching figures from the north, staggering, wounded, and far from home.

By the time most of the townsfolk and construction crew were deep into their well deserved revelry, I was busy watching everyone enjoy themselves until I started to hear shouting and simply thought it was some griffons and ponies getting rowdy because of the alcohol flowing between tables but as I strained my hearing to try and pinpoint the general direction of the shouting did it hit me that it wasn't coming from the tables around me but to the north.

Putting down my mug of ale and excusing myself from the partygoers I headed towards the northern gate where the shouting only grew louder until I finally got to the wooden gate and the hollering and shouting was at its loudest. Once I arrived at the gate I didn't even have to wonder if they were friend or foe as I was told that to our north was the minotaur lands and that bugbears don't knock cause if they wanted to come in they would either fly over the wall or break it down with their overweight bulk, so that only left the only option if it being the minotaurs.

Lifting up and removing the heavy wooden block on the gate I didn't get the chance to open the gate as it was pushed in as several minotaurs in varying states of injury rushed and closed the gate behind them and as soon as they got to safety they all collapsed from exhaustion and from their wounds. Rushing over to the least injured of the minotaurs I saw that his wounded consisted of a few arrows protruding from his unarmored left arm, my guess is that he held it up to protect his head from becoming a pincushion.

"What happened to you?" I asked as I tried to asses the situation, I have seven injured minotaurs, one of them with minor puncture wounds while the rest appear to be more serious and quite possibly grievous.

"We were out hunting a bugbear that has been terrorizing one of our towns, but when we stopped to rest after finding it dead we were ambushed...we couldn't see who are attackers were, but they knew how to attack us, they waited till most of us were asleep, than they came out of nowhere and started pelting us with arrows...we lost five of our friends before we had a chance to know what was going on and we ran as fast as we could here. I fear our attackers are still on our trail and that they may be heading this way right now." the minotaur said as he started to yank out the arrows from his arm but after smacking him on the bicep he stopped and looked at me as if I was some kind of stupid.

"Unless you are a trained medic or know how to take care of your injuries, preemptively removing the arrowhead without any antiseptics and bandages is ill-advised. If you keep tugging and pulling on the arrow like that you will simply make the injury worse, especially if it struck near an artery or if it punctured bone." I said as I turned my back to the minotaur and put two fingers to my mouth before letting out a sharp and shrill whistle, hoping to get the attention of some of the partygoers to assist me attend to the injured.

I didn't have to wait long as several tipsy griffons and ponies came out way, many of who was wondering who in the seven hells was the one responsible for that shrill sound but when they saw the injured minotaur and me standing beside them did they partially sober up and rushed towards us.

One of the griffons that came to the sound of the whistle was none other than the head foreman of the construction crew and this guy smells like he just puked not even a few seconds ago cause my god his breath reeks to high heaven.

"Whad'ja doin' all da' ways ou' her' for? An' da' fook ish that?" the blatantly drunk griffon foreman said as he stumbled his way over to me, breathing that foul stench all over me as I had to grab his beak and pointed it away from my head so I could breath mostly clean air.

"These are injured minotaurs you daft fool, very obviously injured and from what their group leader said, they were ambushed before they could pack it in for the night." I said before turning my attention to the others who are helping the minotaurs stand up.

"Take it easy with them, do not agitate their injuries, if the town surgeon or medic is asleep then wake them the fuck up and tell them to get ready cause a whole lot of injured is heading their way."

With the townsfolk and construction crew that showed up started to help move the injured and quite possibly dying minotaur group to wherever this town's medic lives and works, I helped up the lead minotaur and started to escort him after everyone else all the talking to him to try and get some information out of him.

"So, if you don't mind me asking, what brings a bunch of you minotaurs all the way down south from your homelands to the empire?" I asked as the minotaur let out a grunt of pain as I 'accidentally' nudged an arrow lodged in his left arm.

The minotaur that is using me as a crutch let out a pained snort before gazing me over, seemingly wondering how something smaller than himself is for the most part managing to shoulder some of his weight.

"For something so small, you are far stronger than you look." the minotaur said as I repositioned him a bit, my grip was slipping and I didn't want to accidentally drop a several hundred pound bull and accidentally make the arrows lodged in his arm go deeper or snap in half.

"I'll take that as a compliment, but that still doesn't answer my question of what you lot is doing all the way down here."

"We...we were hunting a bugbear that came too close to one of the villages belonging to Clan Irons, we thought the thirteen of us could easily handle such a monster on our own. We tracked it down for six days and on the seventh we found it, but it was already dead, pelted with enough arrows to make us almost mistake it for a very large porcupine. When we found out it was dead we cut off its head to bring back as proof of its death although we won't get much from the bounty for not being the ones to kill it, but it was when we camped by its corpse for the night to rest after traveling so far for so many days, we were unprepared when the bugbear's slayers came back to collect its corpse."

"They left its body behind after killing it only to come back to it however many hours later? That seems very wasteful to me, they should have skinned it and took whatever meat it had before leaving the body, not leaving it behind to rot first." I said as we saw the rest of the minotaurs get placed gently on the ground in front of a building, my guess its the town's medic.

"Yeah, it made no sense to me at the time, but when they came back and saw what we did, they must have taken offense and they started shooting at us, Rayne and Aria were the first to fall in the opening salvo...none of us had our armor on and our weapons weren't close enough to help block some of the arrows. When we got up to grab our shields and our swords they came from the bushes and rushed us, we didn't know what was going on as our fire was snuffed out immediately, we couldn't even tell what was trying to kill us, so I made the call to retreat. Our attackers must have planned for that as our way back was cut off...Tayev and Jadzia were cut down by a swarm of those bastards and we knew we couldn't save them as their cries were cut short before we could even get to 'em."

"Those of us that were still alive all ran south, hoping to get here before they could truly get us all but then we lost Livia, she fell into a pit and when we went back to get her she was already dead and was being dragged off to lords knows where. It was after her death that we arrived here as we currently are." The minotaur on my shoulder said as I helped him down to the bench to sit on and while it creaked under the immense weight of thick muscles and his bulk, the bench held together as a griffon wearing what looks like an apron with some blood on it steps out and looks at the two of us.

The griffon question was the town's medic and surgeon and he looks like he has seen better days, what with the slightly sunken eyes, scars that run on his head that look like it was from a close shave, and that his wings look like they were broken once and haven't properly healed. Turning his head to look at me for a moment I pointed a thumb to the big blue-grey minotaur beside me and he gave a nod before going back in.

"Don't worry big guy, the medic will take care of you and make sure you wounds are treated and disinfected. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go check and see if any uninvited hostile guests are heading our way." I said as I stood up to follow the griffon in but I was stopped by a fairly large, meaty blue and hairy-knuckled hand clamping down on my right shoulder.

"You...Thank you for helping us, I feared that with our approach and the banging on the palisade would make all within the town to think that we were invading, but you knew that we meant no harm and let us in...how?"

"Well seeing how I was told by the people living here that the only ones that show up at their doorstep are either the minotaurs to the north for their trade routes and the occasional ambassadorial visit, a random bugbear that buzzes around before getting shoo'd away with spears and swords, the rare diamond dog trade caravan that asks for tools in exchange for metal ores and gems, and lastly other griffons that come to do some trade. Seeing how I didn't hear any barking and howling coming through the cracks it sure wasn't the diamond dogs, I would have heard the buzzing of the wings before the palisade getting knocked down, and everyone was already inside so no griffons." I said as the griffon medic came back out and handed me several rolls of bandages, what looks like a bottle of some sort of liquid, and a pair of forceps and pliers.

I had to look at what was given to me for a few seconds before realizing that the griffon wanted me to tend to the minotaur beside me. Bandages to dress the wounds, forceps and pliers for the removal of the arrows, and a mystery bottle filled with an unknown liquid...nevermind, it says on the side of the glass bottle that it is a disinfectant.

While I may not be a fully certified nor fully trained medic, I still know the basics of medical treatment for injuries along with what was taught to me from my training from my instructor so I guess I can attend to the arrow wounds and let the medic do a better job when I am done.

Turning back to the minotaur I give him the sad news that the griffon medic was not going to be tending to his wounds, and instead of him, it will be me.

The minotaur gave me a quizzical look for a scant moment before recovering and immediately questioned me if I have any training or skill in tending to injuries and my response was a simple 'yes'.

"Well, you should probably bite down on this rag and refrain yourself from hitting me when it starts to hurt." I said as I sat beside the minotaur as he took the rag from me and chomped on it all the while giving me a look of unease.

Now, normally I'd be sweat bullets and praying to every single god out there to make sure I don't fuck this up but ever since I underwent training to become a knight all those weeks ago, my nerves are more calm and that I have gained some confidence to handle such situations. Another thing my training taught me aside from knowing what the ground tastes like, is knowing how to treat a variety of injuries that are common that griffons receive which just happen to be puncture and stab wounds of all shapes and sizes along with the occasional broken wing. So here I am, treating a minotaur for puncture wounds from multiple arrows to the shoulder, forearm and bicep with the possibility of infection.

The removal of the arrows was a long process, mostly because I am not used to tending to a minotaur as the few injuries I have worked on were all from griffons who somehow injured themselves either in their training sessions or from their sparring matches.

One by one I tested each arrow to see if they have struck bone and to my relief none of them did, although each slight twist of the arrow made the bull-man glare at me alongside with a snort of pain, next came the gentle removal as I slowly pulled them out one at a time as to not let the arrowhead get loose and fall off the shaft of the arrow as I didn't want to go spelunking for missing arrowheads inside a minotaur's arm and shoulder.

With the slow, methodical and careful removal of each individual arrow I applied the disinfectant at the site of the puncture wound before wrapping the bandage around the wound, tying it up just tight enough that it doesn't cut off blood circulation to the rest of the arm. Removing an arrow wasn't as easy as one would normally think as you can't just rip it out if its not all the way through, if its lodged in a bone, or if it hit something vital, but lucky for me the arrows only hit tightly corded muscle and arm meat.

Of the five arrows that have penetrated his person, I noticed that three of the arrows are of griffon-make as I recognized them as the ones that the royal guards use when they are at the training grounds for target practice or on their perimeter patrols, due to the leaf-shaped arrowhead it has. The other two arrows on the other hand are different, I don't know if they are from the ponies or from the minotaur but they are both of the armor piercing variety, one looks like a thin needle meant to penetrate through chainmail armor since the thin metal only simply needs to bypass a single ring to inflict damage to the wearer while the second arrow is more stubby and is four faced like a square which means it was meant to penetrate plate armor, the same armor that the royal guards wear back at the palace.

Whoever supplied the minotaur's attacks seemed to be giving them a variety of arrows to use but haven't taught them the correct types to use for either attacking predators or killing people.

"Hmm...griffon arrows and two unknown manufactured arrowheads...I wonder who made these two." I said as I examined the five arrows I pulled from the minotaur, wiping the blood from the arrowheads to get a better look as the minotaur does as well, it would seem that he is interested what his attackers used as well.

"Armor killers? Why would our attackers use armor killer arrows when we weren't even wearing metal armor?"

"No idea, maybe whoever your attackers are weren't taught on what different arrowheads can do to certain targets, they just grabbed as many arrows as they can carry and used whatever they picked." I said as I finished wrapping the bandages, taking care not to agitate the injuries before tying it off and standing back to examine my handiwork.

In all its not the best nor neatly done medical aid that I have ever done for someone else but its a start to say the least.

"There we go, that should hold you over until you get a proper medic or doctor to look at your injuries when you return home. Now, I have to make sure that whatever that attacked you didn't follow you here, if they can easily cripple a fighting force meant to hunt a bugbear down then they can probably take over and wipe out an entire town that isn't fully equipped to fight back." and cause honestly, these are minotaurs, in every single game that I played that had them they were always either a miniboss or an elite mook, and if an ambush with a large amount of attackers can cripple a squad of thirteen of them with relative ease, then I fear what they will do to this town if they manage to follow the trail here.

Leaving the minotaur to rest on the bench I went back to the wooden palisade as I inspected where they fell over once they got inside and I noticed that aside from the small blotches of blood they left in the dirt and the hoofprints, the paw and hoofprints from the townsfolk of Talon's End also litter the area, but there wasn't a single dropped weapon or piece of armor for me to 'collect'.

With the gatehouse clear of anything to investigate and collect I climbed up the wooden ladder to the top for a better vantage point to survey the surrounding area and try to find anything that may serve as a sign that either the minotaur's ambushers are coming or for any sign of life that may have been attracted to the scent of the minotaur's blood.

Scanning the horizon and the nearby tree line for anything out of the ordinary resulted in nothing being seen or out of place for the most part.

That is until I heard the sound of an animal howling into the night sky which I thought it was just a timberwolf calling out to its pack, but when I heard what felt like a hundred more howls all at varying distances apart from one another, coming from all directions and that they are growing louder.

There was only one race of people that I know of that howls like that and in such numbers.

Before I could reach for the alarm bell that built into the upper part of the gatehouse along the palisade, something whistling came at me and when I turned to face the direction it came from I felt something whizz by my face and slice across my cheek before I heard it embed itself within the wooden railing behind me. For a moment I did nothing before moving a hand to my cheek to see what touched it, but when my hand met cheek I felt a sting of pain as I recoiled back only to see a blood smear on my fingers as I turned to where the object that sliced me landed and I saw that it was an arrow. The arrow itself was only partially embedded in the wood but I can see the shape of the arrowhead and it made me wince even more when I began to think of what it could have done to me if it struck something more center mass.

"A barbed arrow...well fuck me." I said before grabbing the rope attached to the alarm bell and started to ring the shit out of it with everything I got just as another arrow whizzed by and planted itself into the floor next to the my right foot.

"Everyone wake the fuck up! We are under attack! Diamond dogs have surrounded the town!" I shouted from the upper floor of the gatehouse as a few more arrows came my way, embedding themselves into the railing in front of me or into the roof, one arrow in particular nicked me in the leg as it went between the railings and landed in the dirt floor far behind me.

Another arrow flew at me, this time it pierced the bell I was ringing and broke when the clapper swung back and shattered the shaft into pieces.

"To arms everyone! To arms!"

Next Chapter: The Night Raid Estimated time remaining: 8 Hours, 16 Minutes