We reached the hilltop a few moments later. There was a meadow with scattered rocks about five meters below us and on the far side was a log cabin burning. Screams of agony came from the hut. While ten men with spears and cloth armor were chasing a boy across the meadow, trying to surround him, there were two men poking their spears at the entrance of the hut. A few meters apart from them was a knight in magic plate armor, bearing the Dragon Order coat of arms, sitting on a sturdy horse. One of the men of the meadow jabbed his spear at the boy, who managed to dodge with more luck than anything else.

“They’re going to kill him!” Milly looked down at the meadow.

“Let’s throw a wrench in their plan. Loraline, keep the men by the hut busy.” I dropped my backpack and ran down the steep slope down to the meadow.

A few moments later I reached the first of the men chasing the boy. As he hadn’t reacted to my presence, I unsheathed my claws, pulled him back while stabbing my claws right into his face. He went down with a ear piercing scream.

Two of the men were near the boy in the center of the formation, while the rest tried to herd him towards the two. I continued towards the pair, sneaking a peek over my shoulder. Milly and Tilly came down the slope towards the goon to my left, while Caroline was heading to the right. Alenae was heading to the dead soldier behind me. I hoped she wouldn’t getting herself killed, but she was old enough to make her own choices.

While I crossed the distance to the pair next to the boy they turned to me, lifting their spears. An arrow whistled over my head and I saw the horsed going down with its rider. It wasn’t in full barding, fortunately. The other two had turned towards me as well and I could see movement in the doorway behind them.

“Keep your eyes on the hut you brainless sons of a bitch!” The rider was trying to free himself, but it looked like that one leg was stuck under the horse for a moment.

Carefully I approached the two spearmen as I came in their reach. Two more of them started to approach, while the three to my left approached Milly and Tilly. The two to my right were approaching Caroline. Another arrow whistled over my head, and homed into the back of the knee of one of the men by the hut. He went down with a scream.

The boy approached the spearmen in front of me from behind. Their comrades warned them, and one whirled around, while the other was momentarily distracted. I heard a scream of agony from my left, but none of ours.

I ran forward, brushing away the spear. The man scrambled backwards while his comrade tried his luck with the boy. I let my target go and stabbed him in the kidneys from behind, pushing him towards the other before he fell down. My claws easily went through his armor, nice. The boy looked a me with wide eyes.

“Take a spear and retreat!” I dodged the spear of the surviving spear man.

The boy took the spear and planted himself to my left, jabbing at the man with the spear. Another arrow whistled over my head, and I heard scream from the direction of the hut. Unfortunately the other two spearmen closed in and joined the fray. Another spear started to disturb my enemies to the right. Alenae came to support me.

I would have preferred to retreat with the boy, but this won’t end well with those courageous twits without real combat experience. I had to play for time for now and wait for one of the other groups.

“Keep their spears busy!” I tried to catch a spear going for the boy, but the wielder was keeping attention and pulled back.

Caroline was keeping her enemies at bay mostly with her shield, but was unable to close in. Then an arrow came from behind me and got stuck in one man’s upper arm. Caroline used the opening to advance.

On the other side Milly and Tilly were busy with their two enemies. The knight had pulled himself free just as a silhouette appeared in the doorway. He drew his sword and drove them back into the hut. Shit.

The men in front of me started to get more aggressive as they realized that Alenae wasn’t that trained with the spear. They had ignored the boy first, but he poked one of them in the arm, but lacking the strength and technique it was soaked up by the armor.

“Kill them, you motherfuckers! Do have to everything by myself! They are women for crying out loud!” The knight growled as he watched the door.

I brushed away a few attempts to stab the two beside me. I heared a scream of agony from the right. Then an arrow stuck in the eye of one of the spearmen in front of me and he went down with a bloodcurdling scream! Staying at a distance gives openings to good archers in the vicinity.

Then a spear stabbed my right shoulder as I tried to dodge a combined attack of the two remaining spearmen. Alenae stepped forward to stab the shoulder of the one that had missed me. A bone crushing sound from the right was probably the end of Caroline’s last enemy. An arrow whistled over my head, but was deflected by the heavy armor of the knight.

I stumbled back a step from the hit at the shoulder, but managed to catch the spear of the attacker with my other claw. The boy took advantage of the missing spear and started to stab the man, but without much success. At least he was too busy to retrieve his spear.

Alenae went down with a stab to her hip and as the screams in the hut stopped the knight turned and started to run in my direction! Milly and Tilly seemed to have gotten the most competent of the spearmen.

Then Caroline came swooping in from the right mauling the spearman trying to skewer Alenae right on the helmet with her mace. The helmet held but covered the eyes of the man as he fell over.

I latched my other hand on the spear, my shoulder was burning, and started a tug of war with the man.

“Alenae and you, go and help Milly and Tilly. We’re going to need them.” I glared at the boy.

The spearman let got of his spear and drew a dagger, turning to Caroline. Alenae headed towards the other fight, and the boy followed after a few moments. I waved at Loraline and pointed to over to Milly and Tilly. The Knight was approaching fast, while I managed to get in the back of our last spearman. He noticed me and while he turned Caroline smashed him into the ground.

“Fall back!” I moved towards Milly and Tilly.

Caroline followed without hesitating. Alenae and the boy were still on their way, while the knight kept advancing to me and Caroline. An arrow nearly missed one of the spearmen, which gave Milly an opening. She closed in on the two spearmen, forcing them to pull back their weapons, while she cut one of them across the arm, adding a shallow cut to a spot that had been already hit a few times. Then Tilly’s spear went right through his eye.

“Caroline. Head on, I try to get in his back. The others will be here soon.” I turned towards the knight.

Caroline stopped a few paces to my left, readying her mace. I should have picked up one of those spears. Too late. As the knight went after me, I fell back a few steps. He turned to Caroline, who had closed in from the right. These full metal armors are kind of annoying. I circled to the right to draw the focus of the Knight from the rest of us. Caroline came around a bit as well, as they traded the first blows. Fortunately maces were quite a nuisance for people in heavy armor. He would focus on Caroline, who was pressed into defense, but kept her footing. She had plenty of experience in such situations.

Milly and Tilly had brought down the last spearman quickly with the advantage of numbers and headed in our direction. Alenae and the boy had stopped in their tracks, busy deciding what to do next. While it wasn’t generally the best to do in such a situation, it would keep them out of trouble for a while. Loraline was kneeling on the hilltop, keeping an eye on the surroundings. The knight refused to let me in his back for now, and kept cutting at Caroline with his long sword, who was busy keeping him away with her shield, and trying to get in a blow with her mace once on a while.

Unfortunately no one left the hut, which meant whoever was in the hut was probably dead now. Oh boy. I tried to distract the knight, but his sword was a problem, and I hadn’t been able to reinforce my scales. My armor took several cut but held for now.

Then Milly and Tilly arrived. Tilly started to try to trip the knight, while Milly went in to support Caroline. Together they finally got a few hits in. Alenae and the boy went for the hut, good. Or not. At least they would stay away from this fight. Finally the knight was too occupied to keep track of me. I went in from behind, pushing him forward a few steps, planting my feet firmly into the ground. He was too heavy for inertia to be useful at all.

Milly caught his sword with her blade and Caroline smashed her mace on his right shoulder. He stumbled as Tilly connected the butt of her spear with his left knee. I followed up with a kick to his hip, which sent him falling forward. While he passed Caroline another smash from her mace hit him at the back of his head. His sword jabbed into the ground, bent and then splintered as as he lost balance to fall forward. Milly stabbed him in the back of his knee, while Tilly readied her spear for another jab.

While he rolled himself on the back I advanced, keeping just out of the reach of his feet. While he brushed away Tilly’s spear jabbing at his head he tried to kick me. I followed his feet as he pulled back and got on his right side, catching his injured leg and pulling it up. He cried out in pain as I straightened is injured knee. Then I let go of the leg and while Caroline came down with another swing on his head I sled on his belly, trying to control his arms. He pushed up his hips and sent me flying forward. I landed with a forward roll, ending on my feet looking in his direction. He took another hit on his right shoulder from Caroline as he tried to sit up keeping Milly’s sword at bay with his armored arms.

Tilly tried to stab at his face with her spear, but it was difficult to hit the narrow slits of the full helmet. I stepped up and tried top pull him on his back again as he tried to get up. As fought with his balance Milly got another hit at the back of his knee. With a scream he went down on his knees. I let got and stepped back which gave Caroline another clean hit to his head. The mace was the best of our weapons in this fight. It would have been great to have a working halberd now. He started to sway for a few moments. I stepped back and pushed my clawed fingers into his exposed armpits, going inwards towards the neck. He reined in his arms, only to push my claws deeper in.

The man fell over and dragged me on his back. It took some time to retrieve my fingers out of the heavily bleeding wounds. As he pressed his harms tightly I removed the helmet. It was a man in his forties maybe, who glared daggers at me. We were all breathing heavily.

“Abomination!” The man roared while glaring daggers at me.

“Retarded twit.” I sneered at the knight.

“You’re all Abominations and we will take care of all of you!” He tried to sit but fell back.

“Well. You won’t.” I looked down at him, retracting my claws.

“No one will escape the Order of the Dragons!” He spat between his teeth.

“Mum and Dad! They’re dead!” The boy fell to his knees, bawling.

“It was you who had to hide brat!” He glared at the boy.

Tilly knelt down beside the boy and laid an arm around him.

“You killed his parents because he was hiding? What do you even want from him.” Milly pointed her sword at the man.

“He’s an abomination. He has to be put down, bitch, for the best of all humnity!!” He glared at Milly.

“You wanted to kill him, because he was born different? You’re a fucking deteriorated slimy piece of shit!” Milly put her sword at his neck.

“Bah! You won’t dare to kill me anyway, girl.” He spat at Milly.

“You’re a monster! A murderer!” Milly glared daggers at the knight.

“I’m just saving humankind as I was ordered, filthy bitch!” He groaned in pain for a few moments.

“You’re insane.” I shook my head.

Caroline and Alenae left to go up to Loraline.

“I’m just doing what’s right, and abominations like you have to be cleansed from the face of the world.” He looked at me in disgust.

“What should we do with this insane piece of shit? We can’t bring his case to court with any chance of success.” Tilly frowned.

“I’m an Knight of the Dragon Order! You can’t do anything to me!” He sneered at Tilly.

“He killed my mum and my dad!” The boy glared at the knight drowned in tears.

“They’re just peasaaaaaahhh!” He groaned as he shrug.

“He would kill again without remorse.” I looked at Milly, who was fuming, fighting to stay in control at least.

“As it is my holy duty. Abominations have to be taken care of one way or the other.” He glared at me.

I glared back until he averted his eyes.

Loraline, Alenae and Caroline came over with our backpacks.

“No one in sight at the moment.” Loraline looked at me with barely held back scorn.

“What’s your name?” I looked at the boy.

“Atan.” He looked at me with teary eyes

“We’ve got two things to decide now.” I looked at the others.

I noticed one of the soldiers a few meters away stirring for a moment, but he stayed down. I looked at the others. At least Caroline at noticed it as well and shot me a questioning look. I shook my head slightly. As long as he played dead I could feed him some nice misinformation. Alenae and Loraline were looking in the wrong direction. Milly and Tilly were still too distracted.

“We should stay here too long. This smoke will attract more people soon.” Caroline looked at me solemnly.

“We have to decide what we want to do with this almighty protector of all humankind for one. Then we have to take care of Atan. The only thing that makes sense to me is to take him with us.” I crossed my arms below my chest.

“Isn’t that too dangerous?” Milly came out of her rage, at least for a moment.

“Leaving him somewhere here in the empire would mean that scum like this will come after him sooner or later. He was was lucky that we happened to come by in the nick of time to safe him.” I nodded at Atan.

“I I I. There’s only my uncle the next village.” He gulped.

“We are going to get you anyways.” The knight sneered.

“Don’t use we. I don’t think we could let him walk away from this. It won’t help others, as there are plenty of these zealots all over that shit hole empire, but letting him go would mean the most he would suffer is some time to recover from his wounds. He killed two innocent people.” I looked at Milly.

“I’m no judge.” Milly frowned.

“Atan, what do you want to do now? We are traveling trough the Claws, which would be dangerous and you may even die at some point.” I pointed east.

He looked down on his feet.

“You could try to find a hiding spot somewhere, but as far as I know this scum is looking out for our kind all over the empire.” I glared at the knight.

“There’s nothing left for me here, and I don’t want to life with my uncle either.” He started to cry again.

“So you want to come with us?” I looked at Atan.

He nodded at me. Milly looked at me and shook her head.

“We’re taking you with us. At least until we find a place which is safe for you to stay.” I looked back at Milly.

Milly sighted and after a few moments she nodded back at me.

“What are we going to do with that arrogant prick now? Ideas?” I looked at the others

“I’m all in for killing this piece of shit.” Tilly poked the knight with the butt of her spear.

“I still don’t want to kill someone in cold blood.” Milly crossed her arms under her chest.

“As mentioned before no mortal court will probably convict him.” Alenae looked at me with a shrug.

“I want him to be punished for what he did!” Atan glared daggers at the knight.

“I’m would kill him. He will return for revenge at some point. It won’t make us popular with nobility though.” Caroline put her hand on her mace.

“I don’t know. Killing isn’t right, but letting him get away without some form of punishment would rub me the wrong way as well.” Loraline sighed.

“Is there a way to appeal for a judgment by the gods?” I looked at the others.

“Sometimes the gods listen to such imbecile pledges, but the gods are on my side as well!” The knight laughed.

“Do you have something you want to take with you?” I looked at Atan.

“There’s a small cave a few minutes away where we stash some stuff we don’t want to be found. It’s too much for me to carry everything. And it takes some time to clear the entrance.” He hesitated for a few moments.

How convenient.

“Caroline, keep an eye on our stuff. We’ll be back as soon as we can.” I looked at the boy.

He led us around a rocky outcropping behind the hut and soon we arrived at small crack that was filled with larger rocks. The boy started to roll them to the side.

“One of these soldiers is conscious at least. Mind what you say in front of the hut.” I started to throw rocks to the side as well.

“You already mentioned that we are going east.” Tilly tilted her head.

“I did. We’re heading east for a day or two only though. I want to cross the mountains to get to the northern side. There isn’t much civilization anymore and following us in larger numbers will add some supply challenges. We’ve got enough food for now and will stretch it with anything we find as we go. Staying in the south for much longer is going to bite us, especially after today.” I grinned at Tilly.

“Okay. Then we ignore him as long as he stays down in the hope that it keeps our pursuers busy. What is with that idea of calling out for the gods. You are definitely not the religious type.” Milly frowned at me.

“I was thinking to pledge to our personal patron. Killing the man in cold blood isn’t something I want to do. I won’t care if he dies from his wounds, we don’t have the resources to take care of that.” I winked at Milly.

“Who is that patron of yours?” Atan took a short break.

“Solana.” Tilly took his place.

“Solana?!” Alenae looked at me with wide eyes.

Atan gulped.

“She’s not on the side of these Dragon Knights, so much I think I know. And she has a reputation to mess with arrogant pricks like him.” I shrugged.

“It’s a risk to get her involved, but if you sure you want to take it.” Loraline shrugged.

“Well. It’s certainly nothing he’s expecting, and he deserves punishment. I’m in.” Milly grinned evilly.

“And what do we do if nothing happens?” Tilly frowned.

“Then we have to keep our hands from him, unless we want to insult the mentioned goddess.” Loraline looked at Tilly.

“What do you think?” I stepped back and looked at Atan.

“If it works, it’s harder for him than just being killed. Leaving him behind will probably kill him anyways. There are no powerful healers living in the area. I wouldn’t dare to call out for her though.” He looked down on his feet.

“Then this is settled.” I looked at the gorge.

There was already the first signs of a cave entrance.

“Loraline? Would you climb up and have a look at the surroundings? You could have an eye on Caroline as well. We don’t need everyone here for now.” I pointed up the outcropping.

She nodded and climbed up. The rock was rough and easy to climb.

Soon the entrance was large enough, and we could add some more food to our stocks. There was even a backpack inside, so we had one of Atan as well.

We returned to the still burning hut and soon we were ready to go. Only one thing had to be done. I wondered how this would turn out.