Chapter 40: The Line Is Strong (Flynn)
Rushing in with all haste. The wind against them and yet their bodies break through with a determination equal to the task at hand. This is the setting as the party of Flynn and others race towards Valor, the home of their house, Valtrex in order to rescue their head, Lord Fulcrum from the sneak attack of Varus.
The General had played his card well and created the gap that he needed in order to lay a fair assault on the city. Breaking upon the walls with his men who were fresh from not having to combat the armies of Flynn, Meagan, and Keith. Rams smashed upon the gates and quickly tore them asunder. While the city had a descent city wall and guard core of archers that defended the wall the large force of Varus came in with authority and all speed, decimated the wall at a single point, and broke the height advantage by scaling the wall quickly with ladders and ropes. Sending the archers into disarray and forcing their leader Erin under the sword in a meek showing that can only be described as lachrymose.
The Bruin sigil glittered in the sky as they stormed the city, but avoided all contact with the citizens. The men were disciplined and made no attempt to challenge, attack, or engage with force the people of the city, much to all's surprise. As they passed by the huts and buildings of the people who cowered down with their doors barred family after family found themselves amazed at the fact that they were completely left alone and not harassed by the wave of gold that entered the city. The men of the Bruin were focused on a goal, a goal that was clearly conveyed well before they had ever reached the gates of the city, one that Varus himself had put in place. A gambit that would risk everything to seize the opportunity for a certain victory. Storming the keep with their force in full discipline.
"The throne or nothing!" This simple command and statement rang out on the tongues of the men as they approached the keep by way of the courtyard. The sound of their boots' thunder echoed inside the castle as Fulcrum and his remaining guards positioned themselves as best they could. Though severely outnumbered and with most men being of little experience with actual military measures. Varus smiled as the castle gates proved useless to the precision of their onslaught. He took to the helm, the hero general of the Bruin forces. Drawing sword from sheath and raising his buckler shield high the man clad in strong armor at the breast with a golden cloak that flowed without effort walked deeper into the halls of the grandest keep in the North East. The men collided on all sides but seemed to part for him as butter upon a touch of a red hot knife. Bangs and bashes prove no obstacle from the hero of Bruin as he ascends the steps that lead to the upper level where the throne of Valor sits, and so is the lord of Valtrex.
A knight rushes to the ready, poise to hold back and block the path of the enemy hero. Varus is amused as he never breaks his steady stride. A swoosh and twist of the sword disarms the knight standing in opposition to his purpose. The knight braces himself behind his shield, failing to see the difference in their skill or perhaps, not even caring and desiring only to move with full purpose, ready to give his very life in defense of his lord. Varus accepts the charge and slams his feet hard into the stone of the castle, assuming a sturdy position that will not budge from the shove used by the knight. Varus tenses his body as he holds fast with effort to not allow the man the chance to gain advantage upon him. "You will not prevail against my lord with your golden cloaks not bearing crimson of your own breast." The knight rallies himself and shoves harder against the superior foe. The seasoned hero will not in any way acquiesce though to this lesser man. Varus knocks the man back with a kick to the center of the shield and then slams the butt of his sword into the side of the knight's head. The knight flounders in his resolve and patters his feet backward a few steps as the blow shakes the vision of his eyes and makes the entire scene before him muddled and confusing. Varus smiles as he leans his sword forward with practiced swiftness of hand as he shoves the sword clean through the opposing man's throat. The knight's hands flail in disarray for a moment until the truth of the wound reaches the mind and ends all resistance to death. Varus sees the man to his back and then rips the sword clear from the knight's body. He then proceeds onward to the top of the stairs, a landing that leads directly into the audience chamber of Valtrex.
Two more guards stand ready at the doors, long pikes dropped forward and ready for action. A few pages join Varus on the landing, but all know that this fight is purely for their general, a hero of combat in the city rumors of Dol. "Stand down guards. You know we have the numbers and the grounds, would you willingly forfeit your future for a shrivel of honor?" Varus asks as he continues his steady pace. He moves in relaxed steps that show no tension or trouble, caution or fear. The sight scares the men holding the last doorway before the lord is reached as men young and old all around the castle, both Bruin and Valtrex cry out as the wounds accumulate and pile on the death toll for the day.
"I'm not dying with my back to a wall as though hunted by a wolf pack." One of the guards says as he lunges forward toward the hero. Varus knows exactly how to handle such a fundamental move. As the guard braces his left leg to then pivot forward with power to piece and skewer the leader of the Bruin. Varus leans forward and lowers himself to cut into the leg on the path of the pivot. The guard's own motion does the damage needed as his own force severs the leg from the body at the knee joint. The guard falls down as he winces, unsure of what has just transpired in the prior seconds. Though the shock reaches him as pain rushes up the highway of nerves inside him. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" he wails as the loss of the limb becomes a known fact to him. He flails about a moment more as the hero then stomps on his face several times, silencing the man from his own misery. Whether he was dead or not, the others did not yet know, but they knew he was silent.
A sound of metal and wood dropping to the floor is heard closer to the doorway. Varus looks back to the threshold and sees the remaining guard has dropped his weapon and raised his hands in surrender. The guard then moves himself out of the doorway to create a clear path for the leader of the invasive force to go to claim his prize. "Please I don't wish to die here." The man quivers, barely able to make the words fall from his lips as the general returns once again to his leisurely pace of steps. The man's eyes don't escape the general's body as he approaches the man in the coming seconds.
"Thank you," Varus says. The comment allows the guard to drop his hands and let out a sigh of relief as he is confident his life is saved from the end that seemed only a moment prior to be destined to experience.
"SHINNNK!" a couple of breaths later a head drops to the ground, followed soon by a body. Guard was not spared after all. Varus hated cowards worse than unworthy opponents. Sure the hero had a reputation of picking his opponents well and how to go about fighting them, but nonetheless he was a stalwart in his abilities as a swordsman. The hero returns his sword to its sheathe and his buckler to once more adorn his back as he pushes his hands on the double doors of the audience chamber. The door parts, it offers no conflict with the hero. He doesn't require the aid of his pages to push the doors open. Clearly, it was not barred or in any form restrained to bide time for those inside the hall.
"Varus of Dol, the hero general I presume?" The voice is loud and yet calm, not a voice of anger or a voice of judgment, simply a voice that commands respect yet demands none by force. The hall is small, and adorned with carpets and tapestries that bear the red and the jackal as the House that resides in these halls is known for wearing. At the end of the hall stands, not sits a man in his early fifties with a gray beard and a body armored for combat. His long axe at his side, though the axe is a common weapon for his family, his is more ornate and long, offering greater reach, and is shaped to behave almost as a heavy sword.
"Lord Fulcrum Valtrex, I have met you before in a tournament a long time ago well before our hair began to change to winter and our spawn began to battle." Varus though he is nearly ten years younger than Fulcrum, sees himself as a peer of the liege lord of the North East. The head of Valtrex does not see this as an insult that perhaps others in his family would take it as. This is perhaps what made him a great leader, his level head. Something that Meagan nor Peter had, but he hoped Flynn did inherit from him.
Varus approaches as his attendants flood into the chamber behind him. "They aren't to be needed are they Varus?"
"No, they won't." Varus smiles. Fulcrum smiles in return as a measure of respect shared between the two titans as Varus begins his strut again, and this time with a hint of defense in his steps, a smidgeon of caution in his body language as he approaches and returns both shield and sword to a point of purpose.
"I heard you were one of the best there is under the command of Lord Chile Bruin, is this truth."
"It is." Varus continues his steps as Fulcrum proceeds to distance himself from the throne itself, not to approach Varus but to ensure that the chair cannot interfere with the fight to be had by the men.
"How did my boys do against your army? Have they earned such respect from you good hero?" Fulcrum asks as he readies his shield. Varus and he now stand perpendicular to the chair and the entry to the room.
"They decimated the Naudiz I brought, so much so that I had to sacrifice the remainder of them and any diplomacy I had with that race just to force them into a defensive position. So yes Fulcrum I think they have my respect, a fine pair of warriors have sprung forth from your cock."
"Few compliments in these lands offer deeper satisfaction. I thank you." Both smile one final time as the formalities end. Fulcrum nods to the hero, signaling he is ready for their fight.
"TINNNNG! TONNG!"
……….
"The city is in view! Keep running with purpose!" Flynn calls out to the group as he increases his pace to something destined to reduce his fighting prowess in the near term from exhaustion, and yet he is without caution as the small band from the field of Lake Ike has finally caught up with the army of Varus. Though he runs hard and starts to break from the rank with the others in the party, he is soon surpassed at the lead by both Meagan and Brail as the wolf has transformed to keep his pace and lead with ferocious intent, and the war queen herself, seeing the smoke and hearing the cries of men from the castle batter on the winds rushing into the party found her blood quickened and her heartbeat racing at a pace foreign to all in the party. She sprinted with her massive axe seeming to not have any weight at all upon her as the pace continued to go faster and faster. Her body became red as the blood inside moved with further rapidity and effort. Her body temperature rose to the point that sweat started to steam as it exited her skin.
"Shit, I better catch up quickly or everyone is in trouble," Portnoy calls as he tries to run faster but knows with a heavy drum on his chest he is only able to move barely faster than he was already running. Flynn noticed the comment by the drummer and only slightly understood what was at stake in the coming moments. Suddenly, Portnoy not able to watch his footing caught a rock with his toe and fell to the ground, exhausted from the long march without true rest and even more from the fatigue of the day and the damage of the fall.
"Come on buddy!" Peter extends a hand as the others keep moving as they are about to enter through the gate the Bruin forces smashed through only earlier that very day. Portnoy signals them onward.
"I am already worn out, I will only slow you down. Just please for your sake, don't stand too close to Meagan until her skin stops looking reddish-purple." Peter and the others heard these words as the drummer tried to hobble to his feet, knowing though that his paced march for the day was at an end as his ankle had quickly swollen up and his knee bled hard from the fall.
Flynn and Peter entered the opening left by the invading army and stayed focused on the task of rescuing their father, even while in view of the chaos and stream of bodies at the gate grounds, but how the city itself seemed clear of any violence and bloodshed other than a few bodies that seemed to have tried to fight in defense of their city. A few vendor stalls and the like were knocked over in the main city as well but for the most part, the men as they sprinted toward the castle could see that their city was for the most part currently untouched by rough hands that are so common the practice during both siege and invasion. Flynn takes notice as he enters the courtyard and beholds the chaos in front of him. The castle itself seemed a different world. Even more so as up ahead Meagan with her body pulsing in a way that seemed a volcano with her skin colored in the dark hue of red that Portnoy had warned of was cleaving men of Bruin in two right and left with axe strikes that would make the legends of old smile. Brail made work of some also but somehow by instinct kept himself from getting too close to the war queen in her fury.
Flynn knew the halls ahead and could hear that the wails of combat from inside were in their dying embers meaning that one side had near total control. He did not wish for his party to be overcrowded in the corridors of his ancestral home and thus negated from their most effective combat. "Peter, Olec, Malachi, we will go inside with Meagan and Brail. The rest of you," Which were the four Naudiz of various feral lines and the three soldiers of Valtrex "Stand here and make sure that any who dare flee or attempt to enter are felled. If they are of our army then allow them to rally here alongside you. Otherwise, hold this position." The seven nodded in agreement as Flynn readied his lance and entered in after Meagan and the wolf.
As his eyes adjust to the halls. He sees the rooms redder than normal as blood adorns the floor and wall with bodies strewn about, both of gold and red armor. Meagan stands to the right of the main group of the other six, heavy breaths in her lungs and the body itself red from the pace at which the blood is being pumped. The group readies themselves as the army of Varus which at the beginning of the assault numbered 500 strong and while now had been dealt good losses throughout their move in and through the city and castle, still had a psychotic numerical advantage over the seven as they quickly positioned themselves to handle the new threats at their rear.
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"THUD! THUD THUD THUD!" A pulsing sound started humming throughout the halls and the building itself found a small rumble in its belly as the incoming moments marched forward in time. At first, the halted band standing at the entry to the castle thought the sound was from the men of the bruin realigning themselves to the fight. But even after they had halted their movements the sounds and the vibrations still were present.
"What is that rumbling?" Peter asked as the very walls seemed to groan alongside the pulsing sound. Malachi was the first to look to his right and take notice.
"My lords, this noise is from your stepmother, the war queen, it seems her rage is louder than perhaps we have ever noticed." The druid's eyes widen as he examines the form of the warrior of the north tense and her pulse faster and faster with rage filling her heart. She then leans back and calls to Bardaga for continued blessing of might.
"Is that Spirit actually real Malachi? Olec asked the druid.
"If it isn't I am not going to be the one to tell her." He laughs a little as Meagan then lets loose a scream that all in the building near and far heard as though they were only inches from her body. She then lunged forward into the horde inside her halls. She smacks with both sides of the axe, doing equal damage with the blunted side as with the sharp edges. Flynn and Peter yell next and move in to cover her sides though she shows no need as her pace is nearly perfect and her attacks brutal in nature. Malachi began channeling dark blasts upon the men creating openings to allow further advance. Brail ran forward as the dire wolf still standing taller than most of the men even while on all four legs moved about with power and anger in his chest. With each claw rend and each bite he is reminded that this lot of men stood still and allowed his comrades of the Naudiz race to be massacred by arrow fire in the second to last battle on the lake. The dire wolf attacks with a passion only matched by the war queen as the men of the Bruin prove a moot force in the wake of these elites of combat and prowess. Even Olec the least experienced of the lot still seemed a titan in comparison to the lackluster efforts put forward by the Bruin soldiers. Perhaps this was just the difference in skill between the party and the soldiers, or maybe this was due to the injuries and tired bones of the Bruin men from having just sacked the castle and battled through all of Fulcrum's guards only to now fight something far fewer in number but far grander in power.
Down the halls and throughout the main corridors and up the staircase to the top landing with all the effort of any clad in gold that stands they are challenged and yet unchallenged as they proceed forward. Until the seven with a stabbing lance thrust by Flynn find themselves after a long effort outside the very audience chamber that they knew their patriarch would be at.
"Damn, I did not expect your party to have doubled back and gotten here before I could properly turn south and aid Conner Bolden in Jule," Varus calls as he sits on the throne. There are a series of cuts on his face and swelling around his eye. He is nursing a small wound at his side as his few pages in the room with him are bandaging and tending to him even as the seven of prowess enter Fulcrum's throne.
"Where is my husband?" In a powerful voice, the spirit of the war queen is calming and the red of her skin lessens as if the need for blood has been pacified with the march down the castle corridors. Varus offers no verbal reply as he grunts with pain but then points to the corner of the room, where an armored body lies on the ground.
"FATHER!" Peter and Flynn both forget themselves and rush over to their lord and sire and turn over his body. He is still breathing but barely as life is fading. "WAKE UP, WAKE UP!" They call as they try and summon him back from death's door. He shuffles his eyes a little showing there is still fight in his spirit. Meagan notices this. She then turns her attention back to the hero staining her husband's throne with his shade of red, an unwelcome shade even if entered into the world by the efforts of her husband.
"It was a fair fight. If you can't tell." Varus groans as he sees the war queen stepping toward his position. The hero pushes the page off of serving him and he uses his sword to regain his footing.
"I don't care. Nor do I care who or why you did this. I just know that you have harmed my husband. You die here, and will enter the next realm without any of your parts attached." Varus groans as he tries to steady himself. Yes, he has heard something of Meagan but thought it was mostly myth and folklore. He lunges with all the effort he has and from over his head he turns his blade downward onto the head of the woman.
She reaches up and grabs the sword, and clenches it tight, so tight that it cuts her hand as she holds it steady. Meagan then drops her axe and with her free hand, she forces her hand into the mouth of Varus who is trying to bite down hard only to further enrage the woman, who then rips his jaw off his face clean. Varus's grip on the sword harming Meagan's hand looses as Varus' eyes roll unto the back of his head as he blacks out from the pain.
"OH HELL NO! YOU DON'T GET OFF THAT EASY!" Meagan is not satisfied to have his torment on this side of eternity end so suddenly. She shoves her hands into his ribs and breaks three. The jolt of the pain hurdles the man back to the conscious world of the living as the pages in the room are dispatched by Olec and Brail with equal cruelty. He cries as best a man with half of his face missing can. This once handsome and mature hero of Dol who had performed perhaps the most eloquent and masterful battle tactics in this world war to date was now defenseless and unable to even emote properly as Meagan then set him down and one by one separated by way of axe cut his libs from his body. She spared zero appendage from her brute retribution. Cut after cut is made until the muffled and strange cries of the hero stop and the body lies in nearly 100 pieces on the chamber floor. The room enters a cathartic silence and somber mood as Meagan then drops her axe and falls to her knees as she begins to weep for her beloved. Tears fall from her cheeks, something the men in the room were unsure she was even able to accomplish. She perhaps in spite of her godlike prowess, was human after all.
"My war…queen." A small but still strong voice calls to her from across the room. With his eyes still mostly closed the dying head of the house recognizes his bride's voice and beckons her to come to his side one last time. She hears him and with tears falling strong enough to clear the dried blood of others from her face she crawls with haste to his side. She positions herself just over Flynn's shoulder who holds him off the ground with tender care and devotion.
"Husband." She says with a voice more tender than ever heard from her.
"Malachi, can you heal my father?" Flynn calls. The druid had run up also to examine the lord. He shakes his head in sadness.
"I could ease his pain but not halt his passing, I am a master of both dark and healing arts but I do not know a spell that halts one already inside the halls of death."
"Its…okay Flynn….I got him good….anyway." Fulcrum smiles with much effort. He tries to let all know it is okay and gives his final thoughts. "My wife. I am….happy that you show me love…in this moment….I was never sure if you actually loved me….or just enjoyed my table of food."
"My husband I killed your wife because I knew you were worthy of better! Forgive me if in my desire for combat that I was not the partner needed." Fulcrum smiled as with Flynn's help he brushed her cheek free of tears with his hand.
"Peter, you must learn self-control or it will get you killed." Peter nodded, though he knew that was easier said than done for the young warrior who craved battle with a more eager and joyful spirit even after all the chaos of the war on Lake Ike had shown him how mortal he truly was as a man. Peter did try though and heed his father in the moment who also asked him to settle down with a woman, any woman so long as she was a woman of peace.
"Malachi, serve my boys and my wife well…..as you have me." The druid offered no reply but merely bowed in deference. Some people in days past had doubted his intentions but the man was a servant of the house through and through and believed Flynn a worthy man to be the heir of the clan.
"Flynn. I love you, my firstborn son. You are betrothed. Please before you avenge me fully….marry her and put your seed in her belly…..the line is strong through you and Valtrex must endure to the next generation regardless of this…..war's….outcome." The energy he had retained to hold on to life was fleeting quickly. The power of the axe general of Valtrex, the liege Lord of the North-East, had allowed him to hold on for so long. But now it was his time. Flynn kissed his father's forehead as he faded from this world and turned from cold to ice in his son's arms.
The family mourned in the next moments in varying ways. All different yet all equal in their hearts regardless of external displays. Brail who had shifted back found himself honored to be in the presence of such love and such a family moment. He took a knee in the hall as the four remaining members of the Valtrex family present offered up their grief alongside their court druid Malachi.
The battle was over quickly after as Varus in his tactic to keep all the men to task did not have his forces spread about and during the assault back to the throne led by Meagan under the influence of blood rage, had slaughtered most of the healthy men with others being finished off by the remnant of the castle guard and the soldiers left at the entrance by Flynn for as the tide turned they all became emboldened to take the offensive stratagem. None were sparred in the colors of gold.
A day later a mass funeral was held just outside the walls of the city. The Bruin men were burned with faces into the fire showing them dishonor in death while the men of Valtrex were all given proper goodbyes in a procession that took the entirety of the day with the flames of the memorial burning strongly into the next afternoon with all in attendance giving the fallen of the city proper honor and respect.
During the procession word had been sent to Brush, one of the townships under Valtrex rule these days for Danielle Roan, the daughter of the lord of the house that previously held sway over that town prior to Valtrex annexation. Back when they acquired full fealty over the town Flynn in order to appease all had promised to marry a daughter of the Roan family. However, due to the constant expansion of the Valtrex lands and the migration and military training needs over the past several years this promise had been postponed. Though Flynn understood exactly what his father had meant in his passing moments. That the family needed to be avenged but that future needed to be secure. He was to have the wedding the next day and have the next week to consummate and be with his new wife, before marching to Dol with only a few of his best and most able at his side.
Danielle was nothing amazing to behold, though not in any way unsightly, she was from a common house that by most people of the upper gentry would not even be viewed as an established house, and certainly one that outside of the North would not even be listed under their records. But her father was pleased and so was she for even though she had never spoken much to Flynn in the past, she knew of his honor, fairness, and good looks. All things she admired as they wed. It wasn't love for either, and Flynn apologized as they married and shared their first evening together with a promise to grow love in his heart for her as she gave him children. Something the new member of the Valtrex House happily consented to.
The same thought that ran through Flynn's mind ran through the mind of Brail and the tiger Naudiz still with them, whose name was Ryson. Brail took the she-wolf with him as a new wife immediately in the ceremony alongside the new Lord of Valor, and Ryson took the female cats, both of them as his own sister wives. It was not of lust or base pleasure, though certainly, such joys can arise, but of mindful duty that their race was in danger of slipping from the world. Flynn understood this and while some in the north were not welcoming to the Naudiz allies, Flynn cared not for their opinion and knew them as valiant warriors and honest men.
As a week drew to a close all three men newly married had used their time to ensure the advance of their lines and races, or at least had performed with enthusiasm to this cause. Flynn had also used this time to regain and learn what remained of the formal military of the worn-out lands under the Red Jackal. Wiley still had a garrison in Coastal Wharf, Dune in Brush with the Roan family serving as gubernatorial heads in the town. Malt in Karn, and Lurch with his ever-cruel and frustrating to all rule over Til. Port Blanc currently had no garrison and neither did Winter's Edge, and the capitol was only able to salvage and see mended about 20 of the men that stood in defense of the city during the onslaught by Varus. It was a meager sum in comparison to what only a year ago the Valtrex banner could boast. But this was the result and price of war. And their people and menfolk had paid the iron price.
For this reason and others, Flynn knew that he must march on Dol with only the smallest of a band, to not further risk the harm of his people. All the territory his father had annexed was also his responsibility and not just Valor proper as during his youth. He gathered up the fourteen that had made the march from Lake Ike to Valor in record time to save the city and smite the Bruin forces. He knew his crew would come from this brute rank and file.
"So we have had some time to sort affairs and while none of us men who have been busy with husbandly efforts will know if these have borne fruit or not yet, I know the fires of vengeance are too hot in our chest to try and corral any longer. It is time for us to have Chile Bruin's head on a spike."
"Agreed," Brail spoke. "Are we to march as we are the fourteen of us?" The dire wolf was ready to follow his friend in battle to whatever end but a certain concern in his eyes darted back to the three women of his race and their goals of renewing their lines for the future and not slipping into mere myth.
"No Brail. I do wish us all to move together toward Lake Ike. However, when we arrive there I will have the lady Naudiz and Ryson with you three regulars there to help them build shelters and societal structures." The tiger was upset at the news that he was to stay back with the women but also understood why. It was a mix of emotions inside Ryson as these words hit him. "I ask that your two tribes stay together there at the fertile grounds where so many of our races died together and establish a colony village to be the inheritance for the Wolf tribe and as the years progress and the cats progress in numbers, I will ask that you Ryson as head of that tribe will move to the northwest shores and establish a village of your own. Both are under my House liege status, but with both of you Brail, and Ryson as nobility of your own Houses. Which I will see fit to ensure that support for establishment is granted by a second sponsor house of repute."
"You can actually do that?" Brail spoke with tears in his eyes at the beauty of the words, he and the cats were going to be gifted lands for their race after all, and lands special now to their races at that, with access to fresh water as well.
"I can. But I would need another established and recognized house to sign an accord of establishing heritage in order for it to be seen as true by the realm. If I had the Roan family sign the accord because they are already under my banner it would not have universal sway."
"I understand," Brail responded. Ryson also nodded and both kneeled in worship and joy at the words of their friend and ally. "Though this has brought us from the exiles of the lands to the brink of doom, I cannot think of a more beautiful outcome Lord Flynn Valtrex of Valor." Flynn rested a hand on both the wolf and the tiger. He saw them as they were, a little different looking than the Gebo but human nonetheless, and worthy of such respect.
"Arise Brail of House Grey. Arise Ryson of House Stripe." Both arose in joy and confusion with their tales wagging in bliss. "It will not be ratified yet, but to any who speaks with you in my presence you are both lords of Wiera." The three embraced in thanksgiving.
"Congrats new lords of Wiera, Ryson and Brail," Meagan said with her stern and powerful voice as the three returned from the moment. "Are we ready to march out? My axe needs to feast on those who stole my husband." Brail growled in delight as he too was excited to return to combat in the coming weeks.
Flynn agreed and the party, the fourteen who had previously been to Lake Ike set out on that pathway once again, with a very different mission in hand. One of settlement and vengeance.
