Enna is a Land God: Book 3

Men and Monsters

Braid's first thought, when he saw the fire lit arrows plunged into the thick hide of the dire bears, was that it had to of been Sora. But that thought was banished quickly when a most terrifying sight met his eyes: Men- no, not men, but monsters- riding on the backs of other monsters. These monsters, about half a dozen mounted pairs, stormed into their broken down camp, and surround both the bears and his party.

Three of the mounted monsters took up a triangle formation around he and the others, while the other two confronted the dire bears, their beastly mounts snorting and growling. Sword at the ready, Braid eyed the nearest of the monster. It could only be a foxie! But they were incredibly rare, highly evolved, monsters. Yet, as his eyes passed over the other threats, he saw that four of them were foxie, the other two-looking nearly identical to beastmen to untrained eyes- must have been Foxmen...

"Sir?" He heard Arthas hiss at his side while they both, and Sora, surrounded Porsha. He did not see Reinga, but knew she was some place near, waiting for the opportune moment to strike.

"Hold your blade." Braid growled to the prince, needing to evaluate the situation.

Another barrage of arrows rained down on the dire bears, making them even more agitated. One rose up on its hind legs, but instead of being intimidated, a blood red foxie urged his mount forward, lowered his bow, and stretched out his empty hand- paw?- and in an instant the bear was engulphed in a roaring fox fire that killed the bear but touched nothing else.

The third bear then attempted to flee, letting out a finale roar. But the foxmen mounted on the monsters Braid thought was called a rohgek- a robust mix of what appeared to be a wolf and a boar- dashed forward, stowing away his bow and withdrawing a thin bladed sword. It took him but a second to dispatch the last of the dire bears.

Now all six monsters formed a circle around their group. Braid could see the tension in his people, especially Porsha who was basically a non-combatant.

"Come out of the trees, beastwoman." Growled the red foxie, not taking his eyes off Braid, but clearly addressing the hidden Reinga. When she did not respond, Arthas suddenly found a thin blade at his throat, causing the prince's eyes to widen. Neither of them had even seen the foxie draw the blade, so swift and smooth had the movement been.

Braid heard and aggravated 'tch!' and watched as the wolf assassin dropped from a tree, her dagger in hand and still smeared in bear blood. The foxes seemed to pay it little heed as she slowly made her way back to the rest of them, walking cautiously between two mounted rohgek that growled, but other wise ignored her too.

"Good." Said the foxie that Braid decided had to be the leader of this band of monsters. Then, to his surprise, the fox sheathed his sword. The others still had bows drawn on them, but the red fox got off his mount. "Why are you in this forest, human?"

If Braid had not been worried for the safety of his people he may have aloud himself to be shocked that a monster wanted to have a conversation with him. But he did not have such luxury.

"A Job for the adventurer's guild..." Stated Braid, not untruthfully.

"Brillum, what should we do with them?" One of the other foxes spoke up. He sounded nervous, which could be good for Braid and the others.

"Kill them?" Asked a foxmen with brown hair and fur to the left of the one that had been addressed as Brillum. Braid did not even think monsters named each other... Sure, the more powerful beast had names. But Braid had assumed that they were given by humans once they became famous. True, these monsters were rare and impressive, but not on the level of -say- a dragon.

"Don't be stupid, Rozzen..." Sighed the fox faced boy closest to braid after the one named Brillum. He looked like a boy, at least. He was a little shorter than the others and his orange and white face screamed youth.

The brown foxmen growled- literally growled- but Brillum cut him of with a red and black arm, silencing any retort. "Ozzie..." He rumbled, causing the younger boy to look away, annoyed but mollified as a teenager might.

"Well, human, what business does the human's adventurers guild have here?" Brillum continued to question. "Is this place not off limits to your kind?"

"I apologized," Braid said, carful to keep his sword lowered and his voice polite. Maybe they could reason their way out of this after all. "But I can not share that information with you."

Brillum sighed, his large eyes roving over their group. "I suppose you are unable to tell me if there are others of your 'adventurers' roaming about?"

"I'm afraid not." Braid said, wanting them to believe that back up could be coming at any time.

"Brillum, they are too close to the estate." Hiss another monster, this one on the other side of braid, facing down Sora and, now, Reinga. "What if they were sent to assassinate the Lady?"

At that, Braid had the odd experience of watching a man sized creature with the face of an animal roll its eyes. Brillum took his eyes off Braid for the first time to stare past him, to the fox that had spoken. "Real brilliant assassin then, the kind that make glaringly obvious camp sites next to their targets home?"

"This one is stealthy." The other one said indignantly, no doubt indicating Reinga.

"Indeed. But what assassination mission has the assassin traveling with a cumbersome warrior and knight? I am fairly certain, that we can rule out that, at least."

"More like they came to check the place out." Stated the younger one, hitting the nail on the head. "Remember, Lady Enna thought they might?"

Braid had no clue what form of monster this Lady Enna was, but it was clear that she held some higher authority over these monsters. Perhaps the chief of their band?

"Either case, she will not be happy if we kill them, unprovoked..." This sentence, spoken by the red Brillum, was very pointed and Braid got the meaning no problem: Keep civil and we won't attack. "I am sorry for the inconvenience, but we will be escorting you to another location. Feel free to refuse, but it means that we may have to act accordingly."

Accordingly, hu? Sounded more like, 'we will have to kill you.' to Braid... He and his group were no slouches. As A-Ranked adventurers, they could very well take out these foxes. But they were surrounded, and Porsha would be a liability. She may get killed in the attempt, and Pern could not afford to loose her.

Mind made up, Braid sighed and sheathed his sword. "I understand-"

"Sir!" Growled Arthas. No doubt the prince knew it was often ill advised to follow a threat to an unknown location. But Braid was the leader at them moment, and Arthas was not with the knights. He shot the younger man an aggravated glare. The man had vast talent, but he was still a young and spoiled prince at heart. At least he had the sense to look chastised and step back.

"I understand, please lead the way." Braid finished with a slight bow of his head. the monsters were being civil- shockingly- and he would do the same. At least until civility need to make way for barbarism.

"Seems like human have just as much trouble with their young one..." Braid hear the one called Brillum sigh, shaking its head, large ears flapping slightly with the movement. 

With out another word, he remounted his Rohgek and indicated the others keep formation and escorts the prisoners. Not that he used that word, but Braid had no doubt that that was exactly what they were. He only hoped that this 'Lady Enna' was reasonable, and he could negotiate their release. 

Braid gritted his teeth and cursed inwardly. Bears or no bears, he should have been more alert to these foxes. Would they still be able to make their report to the guild-master?