Gaining Access

The moon hung low in the sky while the pair squatted in the tree line, observing the entrance to the village. Despite only being built a few months prior, it already had an impressive wooden wall surrounding it, with two massive double doors serving as the only entrance. "Humans are like ants; once they settle, the swarm to build a proper home." Krashna had said, with a snort. As they watched, the huge doors were slowly pushed open to allow a carriage to be pulled in. They closed just as slowly as it opened. Osseus looked over to Krashna, who was studying the walls closely. "Are you ready?" He asked, hand on his sword. Krashna stared at him, not understanding, until he began to walk towards the wall. "Get back here!" She hissed, grabbing his arm and pulling him back. Her pull was to no avail, as Osseus stood stock steady. On her second tug, however, he allowed himself to be pulled back by the smaller creature. He stared at her, head cocked.

"You can't just march through the front door! You'll be swarmed!" She furiously whispered at him.

"I plan to draw them out after they spot a monster roaming, and slowly kill off the towns guards." He said in a flat tone, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"O-oh." She said, clearly surprised. There was a moment of silence between the two as she processed the plan.

Krashna broke the silence first; "...Well, if we are going to do that, we should unarmor you. A weak skeleton wouldn't be walking around in armor as nice as yours." She said with a slight smirk. With a quick nod, Osseus agreed, and began to pull off his armor. Osseus went without complaint, allowing the smaller figure to strip him of first his chainmail, than his leather armor underneath. In a moment, he was naked, all except for the sword in his hand and the egg sitting on his pelvic bone. With great care, he removed the egg, leaving it on its cushion and handing it to Krashna. As she took it, he stared harder at the egg, noticing that its brown freckles had turned a darker color, almost to black.

"Does the egg seem... Darker?" Osseus asked, head cocked to one side as he stared at the egg. Krashna studied the egg for a moment, before setting it down amongst Osseus's armor.

"I think that might be how it matures? I am… was just a scout, I was never allowed to see the Wyvern eggs." There was a bitter look on her face.

Satisfied with her explanation, Osseus cast one last look around at his companion and his armor, and strutted out into the open. He kept his arms loose at his side, but held a tight grip on his weapon. With his jumbling walk, which made his bones rattle and his teeth click, he appeared to all the world as a simple Skeleton Soldier that had somehow wandered near a town. He stayed at least 70 feet away from the wall, out of range from their heavier weapons. He walked back and forth, and sometimes in circles, making himself as obvious as he could.

Hemtel had been working his guard shift since early in the night, as the village was still small and those with combat training were small in number. With a bored yawn, he surveyed the open land in front of him, ending in a thick forest 100 feet away. All of a sudden, he could hear a hollow clinking sound, almost as if two thin rocks were banging together. He looked out, and at the edge of the forest, he could see a skeleton, walking in circles. His eyes snapped open.

'Finally, something to do!' He thought excitedly to himself.

"Oi, Arlen!" Hemtel called out to the other guard on shift, gesturing him over; "Look over there, there's a skeleton!" His fellow guard, an average man, walked over, and observed the skeleton with him.

"Yeah, it's a skeleton, so what?" The other man yawned as well; evidently, skeletons were not taken very seriously. "Just go down there are kill it." Arlen said in a bored voice

"Why don't we have a little competition instead?" Offered Hemtel, a sly smile on his face, "I bet you 20 copper maun (**) I could kill it with my crossbow before you can." All of a sudden Arlen's face perked up.

"You're on!" The two men both took out 20 copper maun and placed the small coins on the edge of the wall, and then drew their crossbows. Arlen began to count down;

"Three, two, one, GO!" With a shout, the two men began firing at the skeleton. While blunt weapons are a better choice against skeletons, a well placed arrow could take it down just as well. That being said, neither of these two men were not the best of shots, and the arrows whizzed by the skeleton, with a few feet to spare. They loaded, and fired again at the skeleton, which was standing oddly still. Once again, the arrows flew by, both missing by feet. This was repeated until finally an arrow nailing the skeleton in the skull, causing it to fall over, unmoving. With a triumphant shout, Hemtel grabbed the coins off the wall.

"Haha! Thanks for the free dinner Arlen! I'll buy you some liquor tomorrow, but YOU'LL be paying!" He laughed once again, and began making his way down from the wall to open the massive doors. Arlen frowned deeply, having lost a decent amount of his spending money, but followed his companion regardless. The two opened the doors, and walked out over to the skeletons remains.

"...All I'm saying is that we leave the bet, and go double or nothing the next time a monster shows up!" Arlen was still arguing, trying to get his money back.

"Ha, who knows when that will be! Besides, a deal's a deal buddy!" Hemtel gleefully exclaimed, rubbing his victory in his friends face. "Let's bring the skeleton back to the farm, see if we can't make it into some good fertilizer." With that, the two men reached the skeleton.

"Hm, that's strange. The arrow didn't go all the way through the skull." They both bent down to check, and it was true; the arrow head had barely pierced the skull, only leaving a small hole and bits of bone fragments. As they bent to look closer, Osseus raised his sword and stabbed Hemtel in the stomach. With a gasp of pain, he fell over holding his gut. Before Arlen could even shout out, Osseus was upon him. With a quick slash to the neck, the man's throat was cut, and he fell to the floor, dead. Osseus scrambled up, and finished off the other man on the ground. With a quick glance to the wall, Osseus began to drag the corpses into the forest, where the couldn't be seen. He and Krashna pulled the bodies a few hundred feet into the forest, then returned to the treeline and watched the wall. There they waited, alert to any movement on the walls. After waiting almost 30 minutes, there was no sign they were detected. They began to strip the bodies. Osseus took the crossbow and it's bolts, but the real treasure was a key taken off of the corpse of Hemtel.

As the sun rose onto the small village, J'Nao walked to the wall, ready to take over the guard's night shift.

"Oi Hemtel, Arlen, come on down!" He called out to the two night shift men. When he wasn't met with a reply, he sighed. "Those lazy bastards probably went home already, piss drunk and gambling." He muttered as he climbed the watch tower on the wall. The morning light made the entire dew on the grass sparkle, making it look peaceful. J'Naol sighed once more, but this time in relaxation as he began his shift. He remained alert, viewing the landscape with a keen eye. He had been a hunter in his time before a guard, and he still retained his senses. Once, he thought he saw a flash of white moving amongst the trees, but dismissed it, believing it to only be glare from the sun. After all, there were no creatures in this forest that were pure white like a sun bleached bone. Or so he thought. His day remained uneventful, and soon the sun began to set. He waited to be relieved of his duty by the pair of idiots Hemtel and Arlen, but they never arrived. Standing alone in the darkness, J'Nao suddenly humphed and turned to leave his post.

'If those assholes think it's fine to leave before a shift change, than so will I! How can you leave early from one shift and than be late to the next?!' J'Nao thought angrily to himself as he marched home. 'In the morning, I'll make sure to discuss this with the Village Chief about their behavior.' Unbeknownst to him, a hollow set of eyes watched him stomp off. If the face had skin, it would have been smiling as it watched him go. Osseus waited another hour, motionless, before slowly making his way to the large doors, the key in hand.