Chapter 164

"Humans?" Neia guessed.

Olasird'arc let out a low growl, "Yes."

"It's not time for my relief yet, that's for sure. But then again… I, or rather 'we' have been very successful… they could be coming to investigate." Neia frowned very deeply, "Victims of success, how ironic. I'd better go meet them." She put her bow over her back and then a hand over Olasird'arc's scales.

"You're not ready to fight yet, I'll go out, confirm that I'm fine, just really lucky, and send them off for the next few months. If they see you…" Neia let that statement hang.

"I'm sure I can handle a few paladins." Olasird'arc laughed a little at the idea of it being difficult at all.

"No, if this is a team coming out into the wilderness… gods above, I can't lie to you." Neia rolled her eyes, "Listen to me, I told you months ago, me coming here was a suicide mission. I'm still alive, and I'm sure they know of it, nobody else would come out this way except in force, that means higher than average paladins. And those will kill you on sight, most might not be strong enough to do that individually even if you're weakened, but as a group? Ants can kill a lion if the lion can't properly fight back."

"It's fine." Olasird'arc replied, "Just go get rid of them."

"I'll try." Neia said emphatically, "But if they come closer than your breath's greatest distance, fly away out of sight."

Olasird'arc hesitated.

"I spent too much time taking care of your scaly ass to see you die, alright." Neia said with a half bitter laugh, "I haven't had even one real friend in my entire life, and you're the first one I'd have the arrogance to apply that title to. I'd rather not be responsible for getting you killed." Neia patted the scales again, her narrow eyes transfixed up at the face of the frost dragon.

Olasird'arc was quiet still, unsure of what to say, think, or do, he gave his head a slow and steady nod. "I can fly well enough to escape them, I'm sure."

"Good. Then I'll go out. See you soon, Olasird'arc." Neia winked up at him, gave a fragile smile, and ventured out of their clearing and into the woods again. She began at a slow walk, then a jog, and then a dead sprint, disappearing almost soundlessly into the shadows and quickly moving out of sight, sound, and before long, her smell was gone.

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Neia rolled her eyes as she jumped, snagged the tree limb with both hands and pulled herself up to the top. 'Dad was right, I should have become a ranger.' She laughed to herself and jumped from limb to limb, seeing the Paladins in the distance, she almost had to laugh at them. 'Clumsy idiots, all that heavy armor in the wilderness, sure you can stop bowshot, but you might as well shout 'here I am'.' The archer took a slow and steady breath, catching them off guard was dangerous, but also for the best.

The more they believed she could do this on her own, the less likely they were to investigate.

So she made her way around them, their stupid swords were out and hacking their way through to make paths that would lead people right to them. Just 'why' this was considered a suicide mission began to make perfect sense to her. 'They're treating it like fighting in the open, any half decent demihuman scouting party could follow their trails and finish them off.'

She drew her bow when she caught sight of their backs, nocked an arrow, and putting power into her shot, she loosed and let it strike the ground in front of them, the ground erupted in a hail of dust, clods of earth, and rocks that peppered the party of paladins. There were two dozen of them, and even at a glance most of them would have been easy prey.

"Stop right there and identify yourselves!" Neia barked authoritatively from her position in the distant tree. "I am Neia Baraja, huntress and scout for this region! Nobody is supposed to be here for months! Explain yourselves!"

The Paladins were waving their hands coughing and hacking up the dust, wiping the dirt off, a few had scratches on exposed faces from the flying rocks, but the more combat ready among them quickly whirled on their feet, among them a voice identified herself.

"I am Remedios Custodio, head of the order, and you will present yourself squire!" Remedios shouted in outrage, wiping dirt from her face.

Neia felt her blood run cold and hot at the same time, 'Remedios?! I know that name!'

She had to doubt it.

"Remedios Custodio?!" She shouted well out of view, "Why would she be here over one little squire, and with this many paladins?! Let alone inept ones!"

That got them mad. "Inept?! How dare you, squire?! Don't you see our uniforms?!"

"Uniforms can be faked, for all I know you took them off paladins you killed, and nobody has given the passphrase yet! The next one to speak without giving me that, gets an arrow in the throat!" Neia shouted back.

Remedios blustered, her face turned red, 'How dare this little…' She was about to start screaming in outrage before a hand came to her shoulder.

"Ma'am, she's right." He whispered.

"Three seconds, and then I start picking you off, and I know these woods better than you!" Neia shouted.

"Dawn's Hope!" Gustavo shouted into the woods.

Neia was silent. 'Okay, they're legitimate.' She admitted and put away her arrow.

"Alright, I'm coming out!" She shouted and hopped down from a different direction than they were facing a few seconds later.

The lot of them whirled, startled and dismayed as the little blonde squire landed silently among the greenery. She rendered a sharp salute with her hand over her chest. "You're all here very early, and far more of you than there should be. Why?" She asked with dismay.

Remedios stalked over to Neia and looked down at her with vicious anger, "You insubordinate little bitch, do you have any idea what you just did?!"

Neia nodded and looked up at the woman, "I protected my assigned territory from interlopers, bandits exist and hide out here, and sometimes demihumans, I'm just following orders, ma'am. I'm sorry if I upset you, but I had no way to know it was you."

"And your 'inept' commentary, squire?" Remedios snarled down at her.

Neia pointed to the trail. "You led me right to you, an obvious trail, plus you're all in full armor, it's very noisy, and it stinks of oil and sweat. Plus your clothing is all bright steel and white." Neia touched her improvised material. "A blind orc could have known you were coming from ten bowshots away, and none of you are properly armed for fighting out here. A longsword in the woods is just asking to get it caught in a tree. No bows, no casters, forgive me, but 'unprepared' and 'inept' aren't that different. You die out here if you're not prepared."

Neia's face was placid, Remedios's face was turning an angry red when Gustavo approached beside the commander.

"Is that the reason for your success?" He asked, "Why you're still alive?"

"Aren't I supposed to be? You wanted this area secure, so I range all over these woods, hunt down the demihumans that try to make it through here, and keep the region as safe as I can. That's what I'm doing… Sir." Neia answered.

"Where's your proper uniform?" Remedios asked, "Have you no pride as a paladin?"

"I got rid of it, of course." Neia replied, "Colored my armor, got rid of the white tabard and everything else that helped me stand out, pride that gets me killed will get other people killed too."

Remedios saw red. "That is Her Majesty's insignia! The insignia of our nation! You… threw it away?!"

"It's just a thing, Ma'am. My obligation is to win, not to show off." Neia answered.

"And the rumors of a dragon's roar out here?" Gustavo asked.

Neia snorted. "Rumors abound everywhere, even when there are no people to spread them, go figure, Sir." She shrugged at the Vice Commander's words and he gave a dull nod.

But Remedios was still glaring at her. "Arrest her."

"Ma'am?!" Neia and Gustavo exclaimed at once.

"And go find me that dragon! Anyone who would casually cast off Her Majesty"s colors would ally themselves with any kind of twisted evil to save her own worthless skin! Arrest her! Arrest her and search these woods!" Remedios bellowed.

Neia's estimation of her one time idol was dropping like a stone.

Two paladins approached, and grabbed Neia's arms. She didn't resist, but she looked at the commander with disbelief. "I'm protecting my country! You can't do this!" Neia shouted and shook in their grip.

"If you were sent out here, you couldn't be trusted and we were better off without you, if you're still alive, you must be working with the demihumans, and if there's a dragon, I'll bet you're with that too. I know about you, squire, soft, soft on demi-trash, letting evil live, of course you'd strike a deal to save your own skin!" She hissed with contempt.

"I'm protecting my country! Aren't we safer?! How can you do this to me! I'm just doing my best!" Neia bellowed her outrage as paladin's took off deeper into the woods.

"Ma'am, there's no evidence she's done anything…" Gustavo gently pointed out, his rough face looked haggard, he had bags under his eyes and just appeared 'tired' while Remedios' smug look of angry self righteousness filled Neia with revulsion.

"Look at her." Remedios said point blank and grabbed Neia's chin hard enough to draw a cry of pain from her, she held the little squire still, "She has evil in her, even you can't help but see that. How can it not be obvious?! She wants to kill us."

"No!" Neia shouted as things went from bad to worse and two paladins forced her down to her knees. "I didn't do anything! I'm just doing what you said to do! Protect my country, protect this region… I'm loyal! You can't do this to me!" Neia howled, but her anger and frustration only made her look more terrifying, her narrow, vicious eyes glared about her as if promising a swift death if she was released.

"Must I shut her up myself?" Remedios snapped, and backhanded the squire with a mailed fist, knocking Neia clean out of the grip of the pair holding her down.

Neia began to lose consciousness, and in the distance, heard a dragon's roar, then out of the corner of her eye, she saw the beating wings of her friend in flight. "I told you!" Remedios shouted, and Neia grunted as she felt her hair yanked back she grimaced as the Commander crouched down, "You'll die painfully for this, traitor. You should have hanged for ever letting demihumans go. But working with a great predator of humanity like a dragon? We might just resurrect you just to hang you twice." Remedios hissed and smacked Neia's face again, sending the squire entirely into unconsciousness while Olasird'arc flew to safety.