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After checking on them all, Ethandril returned on the horse he had borrowed, handing it back to the men and informing them of what Lord Abern had said. He had practically raced back down the road, which was how he had gotten there and back so fast.

Lord Abern didn\'t take the news well obviously, knowing that the, now believed to be a group of Orcs, had attacked more people. He did say however that he would send a group of soldiers from the town down the road to meet the injured guards and assist them either taking them to his town of Caldaria or Cassus where they had come from.

With the guards sorted for the time being, the mercenaries headed off to continue their journey and pursuit of this band of Orcs.

…

The journey was quiet, as they all came to terms with what had happened. To think that their mission to go after a single Orc that killed Lord Aberns son would turn into a mission where a noble lady had now been kidnapped, that it was a group of Orcs involved as well and that their intelligence exceeded that of what you would normally associate to monsters like Orcs.

It was quite a startling revelation, and all of the Mercenaries knew they needed to take it into consideration in order to stay alive and bring these Orcs down.

While this had them all coming up with battle plans, figuring out the best way to tackle these smart monsters, Stefan spoke up. n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"I know how we might be able to get the people in the village talking."

…

After a short while they came across the small road that headed towards the village. It then didn\'t take too long to reach it, but what they saw was quite a shock.

"What happened here?" A couple of the group asked as they came up to what almost looked like an abandoned village.

It had rudimentary barricades around it, but it looked almost in disrepair. There were also only half the number of guards that there should be present given the number of walls and guard towers. It was like people had started to desert the area.

"Halt. What are you doing in our village." One of the few guards at the barricade said as he pointed his spear at Ethandril. The rest of the guards on the walls all had bows and arrows pointed at the carriage as well.

None of them were shocked by this. Given that they had unjustly sold a bunch of people, they had to be fearing some sort of retribution from whomever they sold them to, or from the ones they sold themselves.

22:02

"We are a group of Mercenaries in search of a very dangerous bunch of Orcs. They recently attacked a carriage and kidnapped a noble lady that was on her way to her marriage ceremony. We were hoping that the good people of this village may have seen these Orcs given the proximity to the road where it happened." Stefan said by shouting out of the window in the carriage.

At that, the guard blinked a few times, not sure what to do. That is until another guard came and whispered in his ear, before heading towards the town.

"We shall check with the village chief if you are allowed to enter."

This had been Stefan\'s plan. Rather than just bring up the bounty on Orcs and mention being after one, they figured they could use the incident with the Lady\'s kidnap to their advantage. Given the scarcity of Orcs and how both the murder and kidnapping had happened so close to each other, the one that killed Lord Aberns son, was more than likely a member of the group of Orcs that had kidnapped the Lady.

So, asking for help about a group of Orcs that kidnapped a noble lady, would surely get these beast-kin talking more than asking about one Orc. Especially since it was a single Orc that had been involved with them before.

Before long the beast-kin guard returned stating that they were allowed in, but that they had to leave their weapons behind.

This was pretty standard. It didn\'t mean the village was planning to attack them and wanted them disarmed before doing so. It was more that they were afraid of this new group of strangers attacking someone in their village.

So, complying with the guard\'s words, they hopped out of the carriage and left with weapons inside. There was no way they would hand their weapons over to the beast-kin, so this was a compromise. They didn\'t however go in unarmed, all of them keeping a few concealed weapons on their persons, just to be sure.

And so now only lightly armed, they headed into the village and saw the state it was in.

…

"What happened here? Where is everyone?" Meryl couldn\'t help but ask.

"Who knows? Could have been fights with other beast-kin villages or maybe even monsters and animals in the surrounding lands that caused this. That may be why they got so bold as to imprison and sell those men. Desperation."

Stefan\'s explanation was as good as any, and it almost made sense. None of them knew if there were any fights between beast-kin, and they had hardly travelled these lands to gauge the wildlife present, but they couldn\'t think what else could have caused the damage in the village and the drop in population.

Well, everyone except Meryl.

After some thought, she realised that the problems this village was facing had to in some way be related to Lord Abern\'s son and his hunting party. She just couldn\'t quite see how or why they would be involved.

Then there was the question of the Orc, which only added to the confusing situation.

Ethandril remained with the carriage, keeping watch over their weapons and goods. The rest of the group headed towards the chief\'s home, which had been directed to them by one of the guards that were walking with them.

The beast-kin wandering around the area all looked at them with surprise, suspicion, and a little bit of fear. More so when they spotted the humans amongst the group, not that any of them realised this.

Again, all but Meryl thought this fear was due to the possibility of being caught. Meryl was just not sure that was the case.

Before long, they entered the Chief\'s house and were brought to a meeting room. It paled in comparison to the room that they spoke to Lord Abern in, easily showing the difference in status between the two. Not that it mattered though, as for Beast-kin, no thoughts were put into showing off all your coin to intimidate the people you meet.

"My name is Yoban. I hear you are looking for a group of Orcs. I\'m sorry to say that we have not seen a group such as this since…well forever, so I don\'t believe we will able to assist you much in your search."

The chief of the village sat in his chair, flanked by a few guards on either side as he spoke. He was concise, deliberate and fast. It was clear he was trying to get rid of them.

One thing that Meryl, noticed, was that now that they could get a better look at the guards that were with Yoban, it was clear to see that they had very little experience. If anything, they looked like they had never stood guard before. They held their weapons at different angles to each other. There was no organisation between them.

Putting that aside, she looked over at Stefan and she was sure he realised the same thing. Not that this would help them of course, as someone untrained with a sword could be as deadly as someone who is. Luck and being unable to predict movements could cause them to very easily injure their opponent. Fighting them was not something they wanted to get into.

"I see. If I may, could we have a look around your village? It is possible someone may have seen them and didn\'t think it was worth bringing to your attention. It is also possible they may have travelled through here in the dead of night. I feel it is my duty to make sure these Orcs do not remain a threat to any of the races in Khallasia."

Meryl just looked at the chief and she could see him just stare at Stefan after he finished his monologue. His eye twitched a little, and he began to speak, only to stop himself. It took a while, but he eventually gave a response.

"I see no issue with that. I would ask that our guards travel with you. We have had some…incidents with humans before, and I would prefer that the members of my village remain at ease while you are talking to them."

"I understand," Stefan said as he stood from where he had been sitting, before heading out of the door without so much as another word to the village chief.

While Meryl had hardly interacted with nobles and did not know their customs, even she could see that he was being deliberately disrespectful to the man. Sure, there was the imprisoning people and selling them, but still. To just stand before the noble and not even thank him for agreeing to meet with them and let them wander his village, was the height of disrespect.

The rest of the group quickly followed him, and so too did the guards. But before she left, Meryl turned back, spooking the other guard in the room and spoke to Yoban.

"What happened to your village?"

It was a simple question and should have been answered with a simple answer. But Yoban just scrunched up his face as if he was struggling to figure out what to say.

He did however stare deep into her eyes. Almost as if he was looked right through her.

It creeped her out a little.

But, after a few moments of that, he nodded and then spoke.

"Like I said we have had a few incidents with humans before. Now, apologies but I must head back to my study. I have some paperwork to deal with."

At that Yoban headed past her and out of the room, leaving her standing their perplexed with a guard who was waiting for her to move.

"Ah, one more thing. It may be that you think you are after a monster, but I believe you should look a little more closely before you judge her."

At that he left.

\'Is he saying that humans did this to their village? And what was that about thinking we are after a monster? And did he just say \'her\'?\'

With more questions than answers, she slowly walked out of the room to catch up with Stefan and the group.

…

"Well, this was pointless."

Helena\'s words could not be more true as everyone just ended up exhausted after scouring the village and asking everyone that they could find if they had seen a group of Orcs, where the results of this search were bleak.

They found no traces of any Orcs having stepped foot in the village. It had been a while since the imprisonment incident, but they had hoped that they may have come back at some point or even left something behind.

Then there was the questioning of the villagers, where they all just ended up saying the same thing. They knew nothing about a group of Orcs.

They wouldn\'t even go into any more detail, or say anything else helpful. It was clear they all had their stories straight and did not want to help them. Why though none of the group could understand. They had thought that if they knew of a Noble lady being kidnapped by them, they would have some sympathy and help out in some way. But, no such luck.

If they hadn\'t already had a bad opinion of the Beast-kin, this did not help improve it.

"So what now?" one of the group asked, speaking out loud.

They had expected a response from Stefan, but all they got was silence. Looking over at him, they saw what had caught his interest.

It was a door to the chief\'s house, but this one had a guard on either side of it.

It didn\'t take long for them to realise that this door led not to his house, but to a prison. A prison that hopefully had once held Lord Abern\'s son\'s friends.

It was the only place that they had not been to yet, and so it was the final hope they had of getting any information about where the Orcs were.

…

Several minutes were spent formulating a plan, but it mainly boiled down to most of the group being a distraction, while Stefan headed inside.

Within this plan, Meryl was selected as the lookout.

Putting it into action, it went ahead without incident. They were close enough to the guards that when they caused their distraction, which in this case was a drunken brawl between themselves about something stupid, the guards headed over to try and stop them. This left the door open for Stefan to head inside and Meryl stand nearby.

"What are you doing?"

That was until she heard a voice right behind her.

Turning around, she came face to face with a female beast-kin. She looked to be around twenty years of age, give or take, and she was just staring at her, waiting for a response.

"Err…I\'m, waiting for my…friends. Yeah. What are…what are you doing here?"

"I\'m here to tell you, that what your friend down in the prison will find out, is true. But that your assumptions about the \'Orcs\'" she did air quotes as she said that, "Are wrong. I can\'t imagine any of your group will listen or believe you if you said that, but I think you understand what I\'m saying, or are a least starting to. It\'s clear to see you have some, let\'s say doubts about all this. And I assure you, you are right to have them."

…

22:03

Heading away from Meryl, she had to run to catch up with Stefan as he headed towards the rest of his team who were still causing the distraction.

Meryl, was just frozen in place not sure how to react as this girl just stared at her, rattling off everything she had been worried about.

"I can\'t stop your group. I could give it a try, but your friend worries me a little. So the only thing I can do to help her is tell you this. When you do find her, think and talk before you rush to violence. Now I must be off. Your friend will be back soon, and I would prefer he not attack me thinking I\'m a witness to his crime…just like all the others."

That part stuck with Meryl. She went to talk in order to get the girl to explain what she meant by that, but before she could, she heard footsteps coming from the door she was supposed to be watching.

Looking over she saw Stefan, and while she then went to check on the girl, she found she had disappeared.

"I got it. I know where we need to go." Stefan said with a smirk on his face.

…

Heading away from Meryl, she had to run to catch up with Stefan as he headed towards the rest of his team who were still causing the distraction.

With a fake apology, he was able to gather them up, and headed back to the carriage, before setting off again up towards the main road between the two towns.

With everyone together again and away from prying eyes and the beast-kin improved hearing, he finally told them what he had found out in the prison.

"We need to head to the village northeast of here. It\'s where I was told the Orc that killed Lord Aberns son would have been heading. A village under a chief Teagan."

Hi All, I hope you liked the next interlude. Things are heating up as the group are now on Olivia\'s tail, heading to the village she is currently in. We just have to hope that she and the girls can find a way out of this in the coming chapters.

Please let me know your thoughts on the chapter.

Braderzsz