“Going that way, you’ll face the sword!” Cormag shouted as he chased after Morana.

“Surely there is another way,” Chauncey pleaded, not fully aware of what danger they faced, but knew they faced something. “let us first make our way to town, from there, you can…do whatever it is you came here to do.”

“I have an archer and a knight in my employ, we should be fine.” Morana replied flippantly as she skipped ahead.

 Cormag reached out to grab her, but she bounced away, just out of reach. “You’re crazy!”

 “Yeah, I’m not really the fighting hordes of trained mercenaries’ type.”

 “oh, don’t look at me like that.” Morana abruptly stopped and spun to face her protectors. “The sooner I get what I need, the sooner we can get out of here.”

 Cormag doubled over to catch his breath. “You’re crazy.”

Morana wordlessly surmounts a small rise.

“Shit.” Cormag reluctantly chases after her.

“What the hell have I gotten myself into?” sighed Chauncy as he reluctantly took chase once more.

“I did not expect to find what I needed so soon,” Morana slowed just enough for Cormag to catch up to her, “and I will not let the opportunity go to waste.”

Cormag brusquely grabs her arm and pulls her back.

“Let go of me! I need to get there before they are completely immolated!”

Morana snatches her arm back and continues towards the smoke. Cormag spots three men mount a small rise in the near distance, and throws Morana onto the ground, shielding her with his body. She squirms and tries to protest the treatment, but he covers her mouth with his hand.

 “Whomever killed your ‘ingredients’ is on their way here. We need to go back.”

Cormag directs Morana to a small gulley, and they crawl over as the three approaching soldiers turns to five. The lead man wore the uniform of a Rhodarcian Officer, his dark blue overcoat fluttering in the wind. Beside him was what could be assumed was a subordinate officer. The other three had no sense of uniformity at all, wearing mismatched light armor, cheaply made, and falling apart.

Cormag figured he could take them in a pinch, only if Chauncey was any good with the bow he wore. Or if Morana could use magic for something other than desecrating the dead.

“We can take the grunts, but we might have to tag team the one in blue.” Morana gestured towards the commander. “I’m not liking that staff of his.”

That ‘staff’ was a ranseur, a polearm designed specifically to counter swords.

 Cormag grunted in agreement. “Hey, Chauncey, think you can hit them from here?”

“I…no, not with this wind.”

The three soldiers in cheap armor drew their blades.

Morana counterintuitively raised her head to get a better glimpse. “Did they see us?”

Cormag brusquely pushed her back down, hoping she had not blown what little cover they had. “I don’t think so…”

The Leader spun his weapon and thrusts it into the gut of the nearest grunt, removes the blade and cracks another across the temple with the butt in one swift motion. The third attempts to rush him from behind, but the Rhodarcian officer’s subordinate deftly disarms and decapitates the man.

 “Damn it…”

Cormag was confident in his ability, arrogant even, but he knew when he was matched. In a one-on-one duel, he might be able to best the leader in a battle of attrition, but not against the both of them. Certainly not if he had to worry about protecting the mage and the archer boy.

 Morana pokes her head up again, as if to stand. “oh…those are fresh.”

Cormag grabs Morana’s head and shoves her back down.

 “Would you knock it off?”

The commander turns in their direction and plants the butt of his weapon into the soil.

“The three of you can come out now.”

Cormag grudgingly puts his hand to his sword. “Aw hell…”

“Unless you are bandits or have a price upon your heads, you’ve nothing to fear. Come out. Now.”

Cormag looks the two men over and swears under his breath. “Do as he say…”

 “What?” Chauncey fumbled to unsling his bow. “I’m not just going to give up!”

 “Or would you rather die lying face down in a ditch?”

Chauncey stops at nocking an arrow, looking first to the Cormag then the Rhodarcians. “I’d rather not die at all….”

Cormag stood and helped Morana to her feet.

 “A Thiudorican?”

The sword wielding lieutenant raised his weapon. “And a mage!”

 “At ease Leander.”

 “But general!”

“I said at ease.” He did not raise his voice, though his authority was clear in his tone and delivery.

 “Yes sir.”

The general stepped forward to meet them. “Well met, I am Rötger, commander of a band of mercenaries patrolling this region. This is my second in command, Leander. I would ask who you are, and why you find yourselves in this lawless expanse.”

Cormag cautiously made his way forward, motioning for Chauncey to follow. “I was hired by these two, one seeks to find his sister, the other…she seeks information on her family.”

Rötger nodded. “Noble indeed, but why only the three of you?”

 The general crudely gestured at the tattered tabard with a barely concealed sneer. “No doubt you served in Sarevon, surely you would not be so foolish as to wander back into this land wearing those colors.”

Cormag casually glanced down at the dirty remnants of his knightly service hanging from beneath his overcoat and shrugs. “My reasons and fashion choices are my own.”