On the day that marked Daylor's third month as captain they got a terrible omen of what was to come, an alarm was raised through the town at the dead of night. Daylor, followed by Bray, Aife, Ulric and John who had all been off their watch quickly armoured up and grabbed their weapons as they dashed towards the river gate.
Ulric grabbed the spear militia and joined them at the spear wall behind the gate, while Bray directed the archers onto the wall, each of which propped up their quiver against the wall and strung their bows, prepping an arrow to be knocked on command. Daylor joined Flair on the wall above the gate as the rest of the party positioned themselves near the gate, John shortly joined them after ensuring everyone was in position.
"How are the troops looking, First Lieutenant?" Daylor asked, when no one replied to him he looked at John pointedly.
"Sir?" John asked, confused, as the Dìonadair was a fifth of the size of what it was meant to be to even qualify as a Dìonadair no one had any titles, other than the captain himself.
"In a time of need or uncerity a captain can promote his own without having to apply for approval from higher ups, I've not had much to do other than drills, so I have made sure to learn each rule and to learn any tactics I can, I have spent that much time reading, and re reading over the last few months that I've increased my intelligence stat by five. Now First Lieutenant, how are the troops?" Daylor responded, adding emphasis to the last part.
"T-thank you sir" John said shaikly, the promotion he suddenly received barely having time to sink in as he answered his captain. "Well sir if I am to be candid, our trained soldiers are ready, but including you and I that's only ten. The militia is nowhere near ready and may break if things look bad, some of them look ready to flee."
"Flair, what are we looking at?" Daylor said after nodding to John's report, his eyes more attuned to the darkness could make out a large moving mass coming towards them, But without any data points he could not cast spells to increase the range of his sight.
"I cannot tell sir, they have a spell around us to stop scrying attempts. For all I could tell you it could be a trading caravan or an invasion force marching in single file so we cannot tell their numbers." Flair responded in a cold voice lacking any emotion.
Daylor sighed as he whistled, a dulled sense of annoyance and anger hit him as a few seconds later a gust of wind gave away the lizard that had come up to him, groggy from having been just woken up. In the few months it had grown from the size of his palm to the size of a red kite bird. It perched on the arm he held out for it, the creature ate more than Umla had, and feeding that half orc had cost the group a fair bit of money.
With a slight movement of his arm the winged lizard flew off towards the moving mass in the distance. Daylor closed his eyes and his senses blended with that of Sgàil's as he saw through her eyes, which were better than that of an eagle. Within a few seconds he was able to see that the mass was full of refugees, and escorting them was a group of soldiers. After a few minutes of counting he counted forty troops, ten of which seemed to barely be on their horses or slumped in carriages, showing that they were wounded. The dragon's eyes focused on the flag of the marching company, the flag was cut up and covered in dried blood but he could still make out the picture of a gryphon in flight. Each soldier in the army's uniform wore only the standard armour of basic soldiers.
"Its refugees, and a third of the gryphon company, some of which are injured and none of which are of a high rank." Daylor told the two soldiers beside him, his eyes focused on a large beast at the back of the company. It was a carnotaurus in gryphon barding, with something slumped along his back, before he could change the focus so that he was pulled out of the trance by John.
"What do we do sir?" John asked with a look of concern.
"What's our fastest horse? Or the town folks fastest?" Daylor asked without responding to him.
"Your war charger." Flair responded with the same chilling tone as she always had.
"Well at least the crowns stablemaster will be pleased" Daylor said with a sigh, he ignored the confused look from John and Flair as he gave his next order "Get a volunteer to be ready to deliver a letter to the king, one who can ride swiftly, and fetch me a quill, parchment and my stamp!"
"Sir yes sir!" Flair responded, even making the yelled acknowledgment sound emotionless as she ran off to follow his orders. Both John and Daylor watched the approaching force with a look of detachment.
"What does this mean sir?" John asked, barely hiding the worry in his voice.
"If we are lucky? It's a force escorting the civilians and wounded from the front lines to the safety of the kingdom as the rest of the armies fight the forces from the mountains." Daylor stated.
"And if we are not lucky sir?" John pressed
"Then that is all that remains of at least one of the companies, those refugees are running, with a force chasing them and we have to hold this small town; with barely any defences and even less soldiers until the realm can amass an army to deal with the issue." Daylor replied bluntly.
"Well then sir, let's all hope we have your luck this day." John replied solemnly.
A few minutes later Flair responded, holding the needed supplies and a teen girl of barely fifteen summers old, John raised an eyebrow at Flair.
"She is the mayor's daughter, he requested she be the one to deliver the note to the king," she replied before carrying on bluntly. "I believe he is using his position to get her out of harm's way."
"We don't have the time to argue the cause, or if it's right or wrong. If we are not lucky we need every second we can get." Daylor said as he leaned on the wall, hastily scribbling a note before melting the candle onto it. When he pressed his stamp onto the envelope his eyebrow rose, the stamp left an emblem of a face similar to Sgàil's. He handed the letter to the girl along with the deed to the royal warhorse, ensuring she would not be executed on a false charge of theft of one of the king's horses.
The large mass finally stopped at the other end of the bridge, and then after five minutes a soldier begrudgingly walked along the bridge by himself, his arm raised.
"That isn't a good sign." Daylor said with a sigh, when John gave him a confused look he carried on. "If they took time to argue which soldier is to talk to us it shows a few things, first no one in command is there, meaning they are all just basic soldiers. Second if you take in the fact that they argued while having wounded it means they are scared. That means they are most likely running and think the person who take the lead may be blamed for desertion and hanged"
John and Flair looked at him, with a look of both impression and worry. He ignored their look and rolled his eyes as Sgàil flew just over the soldiers head, terrifying the already scared man, however this made Flair let out an uncharastic chuckle.
"What is funny Flair?" Daylor asked with a slight tone of annoyance.
"Well sir, do you know how rare creatures like your's are? Now they are not only scared that they may be accused of desertion but they probably think a commander of high importance is stationed here." She responded with a laugh, spooking both John and Daylor who are not used to her showing a single shred of emotion, yet still neither were surprised by her obvious lack of sympathy.
"Ugh there's someone I think you would get along with too well for my liking." Daylor muttered under his breath as he thought of his armoured friend.
Daylor walked down the walls stairs and towards the gate, the terrified soldier riding his horse halfway across the bridge. As Daylor's hand grabbed for the door within the gate a voice that had gotten too used to ignoring some of his orders made him sigh once more.
"Wait captain!" Bray yelled as she ran down the stairs after him, grabbing something she had hidden behind the stairs without him noticing. It took him a moment to realise it was a banner, yet instead of the broken bottle that was this group's original banner it was instead a shadowy Sgàil going for a gryphon's throat. "The entire group agreed that we needed a new banner as we have a new captain, one that seems to care about his soldiers and job this time. And according to article fifteen sub rule three in a time of war a captain or general can make changes to his Dìonadair or Èigneachaidh and chain of command in the time of war or uncertainty."
Daylor couldn't help it, he laughed. He laughed so loudly the poor soldier on the bridge probably winced out of fear.
"What! What's so funny?!" Bray snapped with a pout.
"I just used that exact rule on poor John," he said still chuckling, wiping away a tear from the laughter before looking at the banner "But still a bit on the nose don't you think?"
"Well I never could stand Charles and how his Dìonadair looked down on us, especially after how you told me he had spoken to you captain" she replied, unable to look in his eyes. Daylor couldn't help but let out the third sigh in such a short amount of time, and she flinched slightly as his hand patted the top of her now bright red face.
"Well if you want to tourter the poor group you can fly the banner as we cross the bridge." he replied and tried to ignore the beaming smile she gave him. Again he went to reach for the door and again he was interrupted.
"Captain!" John yelled a sound of shock and annoyance in his tone.
"What now?!" Daylor shot back testily.
"Surely you are not going into an uncertain situation with only one person, where's the rest of your guards?" John said with a reprimanding tone.
"Sometimes I miss when they wanted me dead," Daylor muttered under his breath before responding clearly. "Fine: Aisling, Gurok, you two come along as well; even if it's just to stop John's incessant worrying."
"Thank you captain" John said ignoring the captain's remark before heading back up the wall, the two soldiers ready to guard their captain as they spoke of their acceptance of the command.
It took three attempts but Daylor was finally able to open the door, and the four of them stepped out onto the bridge.