Birds were chirping and cawing through the early morning forest where the green trees and their juicy red fruits gleamed with orange light.

A camp was set up on the opposite edge of the woods to a Duke's castle which was settled inside of the capital city, Knotula. The capital is of the province New Xanion.

A woman at the camp in brown and tattered overwear with a green cloak and leather bag was leaving. "Spirit!" shouted her enthusiastic, high-pitched voice, "We're going!"

 

She traveled to the edge of the forest, through the dewy flora and low branches, where the land plateaued and the city stood high.

The walls surrounding the city were about 45ft (13.7m) high and painted with a bright white. Although experts had said the design had little defense potential, and the styles of build clashed everywhere, the nobles who were to settle there wanted a design that would fit their tastes. Big, round towers with roofs that pointed towards the furthest reaches of the galaxy were spread out in all corners of the walls, with battlements that were a little too far from each other, and were a little too short. Arrowslits were practically nonexistent in this design, with big windows showing off the extravagant interiors. The main point of defense was the gatehouse, which had some arrowslits but still had some of the same design flaws with the battlements. In the end, a lot of nobles were too afraid to move in, as the province was located on the edge of the kingdom. But some came, and for some unknown reason, the city has now grown to become more occupied than ever expected.

But now, the new military presence at the city ruined this exterior. Despite already having little practical use, it was now becoming useless in terms of appearance too. Palisades and military camps were constantly being set up outside the walls, and the Duke had requested from the King to make an outer wall which was more capable of defense. 

 

The pair settled at a small hill, which was right before where the land plateaued, and crouched, peaking over the bright grass.

“Their forces are leaving the city again. That’s the fourth time now, what do you think is going on?”  She asked, now hooded with her cape and masked with black cloth, to her familiar.

 

A young fork-marked lemur poked its head around her as it hung from the tree. "Hmmh. Probably another confrontation with that lion bunch. Don't lose anymore sleep on it, please. I still need to eat."

"We're surrounded by food, and there’s usually moths everywhere, Spirit. You eat those, remember?"

"Hey, you’re the one at a loss if I leave."

"Come on, let's go." She slung her leather bag over her shoulder and slid down the hill. 

"Go where, exactly? You practically have a-" He stopped, noticing he was being ignored. "Alright, yeesh." Spirit hopped and ran down, climbing onto her shoulder.

Once she reached the bottom of the hill, and crouched through some of the empty field, she slumped behind a rock which was just outside the palisades alongside the entrance gate for the city.

 

Now in a hushed tone, she talked with Spirit. "Let's hope that they bring out some more carriages. We'll get on the bottom and find out what's going on."

"It's not our problem, and it’s dangerous."

"Aren't you at least a bit curious?"

"If you want to, I'll do it. But you got to give me something, Missy."

Missy took out a lifeless moth from her bag and handed it to her lemur friend. 

Spirit snatched it in the blink of an eye, immediately consuming it. "You had this the entire time?"

"Well I knew it'd come to this, plus it was annoying me while I tried to sleep. Come on, listen up. I think I hear something."

 

There were two guards conversing with about a dozen masked figures, the masks were all the same, from the front they're just plain white with no visible features but a blue cross on the forehead and blue tear below a hole where their right eye is, the eyehole had two downward spikes at the top. All the figures also wore hoods and varying ragged and brown or black robes, riding horses with polished, yellow gold and dark purple armor. Although, there was one person in particular with a monocle over the right of the mask. He was the only one to speak from the bunch.

 

His gruff voice began; “We have been requested by the Duke to provide backup for your troops.”

“Do you have written permission to leave the castle?”

“Yes.” The speaker handed a scroll to the guard.

“Hmm, alright.” The guard responded a minute later. He sounded skeptical, his face looked worried. He sighed as he gave back the scroll and signaled for them to head off. They were followed by another carriage of troops. 

 

"Spirit! This is our chance!" Whispered Missy excitedly. She got up with the lemur on her shoulder and slid along the dirt and under the carriage, clinging face-up to one of the bottom wood planks that held the bottom of the carriage.

"This is a bad idea. They probably have Magics!" Said Spirit, alert but quiet, now resting with his tail around one of the planks.

"Shh, they could hear us!"

"They're not gonna hear us you dummy!" Spirit groaned.

“Well, Ruck never mentioned those horse guys, hope it’s not that Weeping bunch.”

“I’m betting it is. Their masks give it away. Although I’m really hoping it’s not.”

“Well, we’re talking a lot. They’ll hear us, let's just stay quiet for now.”

“Ugh, fine.”

They stayed silent the rest of the way, mud splashed Spirit’s fur and Missy’s cloak. Along the way, they spotted some signs, seemed like they were headed for ‘Reothif’.

The carriage came to a halt after about an hour or two of riding. The hooded figures went ahead and gave the clear, to which the soldiers began to unload. They nervously shuffled off the carriage, their familiars followed suit, all sounding quite worried or distraught. 

 

“That was a bumpy ride. My arms are more tired than Konestri’s elves.”

"This doesn't sound good, Missy."

"I know, bud. You catch anything they're saying?"

"They're all just trying to plead with their humans not to go. It sounds bad, real bad. You?"

"Nothing. They're not saying anything." Missy was getting a really bad feeling, not just for the soldiers but also a feeling of regret. Maybe she should've stayed home. Agh, it was too late now. Even if she wanted to turn back she couldn't. 

 

The monocle man stepped off his horse and walked in front of the soldiers.

"Do you all have your familiars?"

There were a few awkward grunts of "yes", but two soldiers stepped forward.

"And where are your familiars?" Said monocle man, quite harshly. 

The soldier to the man's left started, "I never had one, sir."

He let out a growl of disgust, almost shivering from hearing it. He turned to the man on the right, "What about you?"

The man cleared his throat awkwardly, "He- He uhmm- ran off. About ten minutes ago. Sorry, Polar. I- I didn’t know what to do. He just said that-"

Without letting even a second to pass, the monocle man, or “Polar”, lifted up the soldier. "Find your familiar, and if you're not back with him in an hour, I'll rip off your fingers and throw you into the front lines." He slammed the soldier into the ground and straightened himself up. "And call me sir." The soldier stumbled up and frantically ran back the way the carriage came, not even looking back.

“Scum.” Spat Polar.

He then continued to talk regularly "Let's set up here. The town is about ten minutes east. There's two more camps set up northeast from here, and one more southeast. But we are your advantage, remember that. Don't rely on each other.”

 

Missy dropped to the ground from the carriage, got to her feet and tried to scurry to different cover on the other side of the road from the camp, but a sudden, sharp pain in her back caused her to fall over.

"You thought you could get past me, young one?" Said the same, gruff voice.

Missy tried to crawl to the cover but she was getting weaker by the second, must've been poisoned. She looked over and saw Spirit's worried face looking back at her, his eyes looked strange. Then, darkness.