The Concern - Part 1

"What is this place? It looks like it's manned by an army."

Meryl stared out the window of the carriage, staring at the same thing that Stefan spoke of, the sight of which shocked her and pretty much everyone in the carriage.

They were nearing their destination, the village that was under a chief Teagan. But as they drew closer to it, it looked more like an encampment readying itself for war.

All along the walls there were men and women holding bows and arrows. That was common place for something like a town, but for a small village like this it looked threatening.

If that wasn't enough, at the gates they could see several men armed with swords standing guard as people were inspected and let in.

It really did seem like a military encampment, and they were sure that inside the village there were even more guards and soldiers walking around.

One thought was running through everyone's head, they needed to do nothing to upset anyone in this village. If they did, there was no way they could get out of this place. They would probably go down before they could even draw their weapons.

Helena at one point scoffed, stating it was just for show and that none of them knew how to properly wield a bow or sword properly, but as they drew closer, signs of what looked like a battle could be seen all along a few of the fields. There was also a barn that was riddled with arrows and holes. If they had to guess, there was probably some last stand within that barn that probably ended badly for whoever took this village on.

After seeing all that, Helena quickly took back what she said.

…

On their trip there, Meryl and the rest of the team had listened to what Stefan had learned.

Apparently, one of the prisoners in that jail, a beast-kin, had been present when Lord Abern's son's friends were captured. They had spoken about the gall the beast-kin had to capture them for no reason and ransom them back to their families, vowing vengeance against them.

What they had also spoke of was how they got captured.

It turns out, only one Orc, a female, had been responsible for their capture and Lord Abern's son's death. They spoke about winding down after a successful hunt when they all of a sudden fell asleep. The only explanation they had was that someone, in this case the Orc, had added some sort of sleeping draught into their alcohol.

This again worried the group, showcasing the intelligence that this and possibly the other Orcs that were with her, had.

Once the men woke up from their slumber, they found themselves tied up, and Lord Abern's son dead. The Orc had vanished and the next thing they knew, beast-kin arrived to take them to their jail.

But what was even more surprising was that the Orc the men spoke of was seen by the beast-kin prisoner as well.

Seen in their village.

Stefan started to rant a little about how brazen they were to have just lied to their faces about being around such a dangerous creature. The annoyance he felt was clear to everyone, and everyone felt the same thing. Well, all except Meryl who still wasn't too sure about this.

'If it was as dangerous as we believe, the villagers would have said something. They wouldn't want a dangerous Orc around them or roaming about.'

A while later, he got back into what happened. The Orc had apparently showed up, with a prisoner in tow asking for supplies, saying that it would leave once it got more food.

As you would expect, the villagers were weary, but with its kind words and intelligence, they were fooled into thinking it wasn't like other Orcs and let it trade with them. The woman that was its prisoner had also stated she was travelling with the Orc of her own free will. The prisoner however was sure that the Orc had forced her to say that.

He then went on to talk about how the prisoner had attempted to kill the Orc to ensure the safety of the village, winding up with him finding the Orc forcing itself on the woman. The Orc had taken him down, and the village chief, who had a vendetta against him, had imprisoned him.

The team were in complete shock over this tale. It just didn't seem real.

But, it being an account from a witness, that included information that they knew from another source, corroborating the story in place, they couldn't just say it was false.

Helena had ended up with a look of disgust on her face when Stefan spoke of what the Orc had done to the woman she was travelling with. It was however mixed in with some confusion, given that both the Orc and the person she was travelling with were female. But Stefan cleared that up when he explained what the prisoner had said about its gender.

That had a bit of an adverse effect where the men in their team ended up with confused and odd looks on their faces.

That detail, however, was ultimately unimportant. The main taking from the story was that only one Orc was their focus. They still didn't know if there were others, but it was sounding a lot like it was on its lonesome. Which meant it should be much easier to take down.

They also now knew that it did have a prisoner. This meant caution would be needed, to ensure the Orc died, but the prisoner was left unharmed. As Stefan said, it wasn't hard to imagine the Orc would use its prisoner as a human shield or a distraction to save its own skin, especially with the intelligence it exhibited.

And so with a resounding set of nods of agreement, they all reaffirmed their need to take this beast down before it caused any more harm.

All except Meryl who had a feeling that the story Stefan had told them was not the same as the one he had heard from the prisoner. Things just didn't add up for her given what she heard in Yoban's village and from Lord Abern's wife.

…

"Halt, who are you and why have you come to this village?"

Rolling up to the village entrance, they experience pretty much the same things as when they arrived at Yoban's village. This time however, there were many more people at the ready to shoot or fight them should they do anything they shouldn't.

"We are in search of a dangerous monster, an Orc, which we were told was heading this way. We would like to speak with your Chief to see if he has any information to help up in our hunt of this creature."

Stefan, like before, spoke with the upmost civility, ensuring that he didn't say anything disrespectful.

The guard stood there for a few moments, just staring at Stefan once he had finished speaking. A few guards nearby started to circle the carriage, checking for anything out of the ordinary.

Once they were done, they gave a quick nod to the one in charge.

"It is three silver for a permit, and each member of your party must have a permit."

Meryl watched as Stefan handed over the coins necessary for entry. He also needed to open the doors for the carriage, so that the guards could count how many people were with him to be sure he gave the right amount.

What Stefan didn't notice as he made the transaction, but she did, was that one woman by the entrance who had to buy a permit only paid one silver for hers.

'Cheeky.'

A few moments later, one of the guards came over with their permits and they were allowed entry.

What did surprise them however was that they were allowed to carry their weapons inside. But, with a quick gaze around the village, they understood why.

If all the people manning the walls wasn't bad enough, like they had thought on the way to this village, they saw a large number of guards travelling through the village. This told them that any altercation would not end well for them.

On top of that, with the keen eye of a mercenary, they were able to that all of the villagers had some sort of concealed weapon as well. If this village was doing things right, they were probably all trained on how to use them as well.

Scary.

…

They were quickly directed to the chiefs abode, and ended up having to sit in what looked like a waiting room. All of them sighed once they saw the dozen or some people that were ahead of them in the queue.

Rather than all of them end up bored, Stefan and Helena decided to stay in the waiting room and told the rest they should wander around. They would have to stay nearby so that they would see the front of the building, so that when it was their time, Helena would step out to show that they were ready for their meeting.

This meant Meryl now had what was probably an hour or so to check things out in this village.

Although, while Stefan had spoken about seeing the sights, what he really meant was for them to investigate for any signs that the Orc was here, rather than go on a shopping spree.

…

Meryl started to head down the street, leaving the rest of their group to their own devices. Staying together just meant they would cover less ground.

She saw all of the people walking by, all busy with something. They were heading in and out of houses and shops alike, all getting on with their day. She received a few stares here and there, some of them not having seen a dark elf before, but she thankfully received no hostility.

She also didn't receive any sort of appreciation or greeting either, which is why when she finally did, she had to blink a few times, to be sure what she was seeing was real.

By a building that looked like stables, she saw a woman standing there, staring in her direction…waving at her.

She turned to be sure that this woman wasn't waving at someone behind her, but all she saw was people walking by. No one was returning the greeting.

Looking back, she found that the woman she saw had vanished.

She rubbed her eyes a few times.

'Did I really see her?'

She couldn't help but wonder if maybe the stress of their mission and her worrying over what actually happened was causing her to see things. With all that had happened, and what she learnt in Yoban's village, it was all becoming a bit too much for her.

So, rather than head around and do some shopping, she headed for the nearest bench, sat down, and just looked up to the sky.

Hopefully just resting her eyes for a few moments would help relax her and she could get back to learning the truth behind this whole fiasco.

…

"-ryl."

'Huh'

"Meryl!"

Awaking with a start, she looked around wondering who had called her name.

Her vision soon caught the house that the chief was in and she saw a very grumpy Helena standing at the door.

Standing up, she rubbed the sleep from her eyes and headed over. As she did, she saw the rest of her team head over as well.

'At least I'm not late.' Which is something she was thankful for.

Helena however didn't see it that way, berating her once she was close enough about not doing her job.

She did feel a little guilty about that, but the rest she got, really did feel like it did some good for her.

So, as Helena finished her rant, they all headed back into the building, past the waiting room that had since been filled with even more people and walked towards chief Teagan's office.