"....." I wake up staring at my office ceiling.... I must have blacked out from all that drinking, It's probably nightime now, I can feel the coolness in the air, the calm, the quiet plus.... "It's dark outside...." I should get up now.... but I just lay there, on the hard wooden boards staring pointlessly at the ceiling.
"Mother....." the words escape my mouth... I shouldn't be thinking about her, not now, I have to go check out the city defenses again, Crow said he and his apprentice have tested our defenses, the mages assure me their wards are true yet....
"..." I take a deep sigh and stagger to my feet, I make for the window.... I'm in mood to take the long route, besides..... "I'm starving," I leap put the window, onto the roof of the nearest building, I stumble a bit as I land "Ugh!" my knees hurt, damn.... maybe I did drink too much.
I gather myself and keep running, hopping from roof to roof, I make my way to the east gate, it's the closest from here, along the way I pass several golems, the Stoney giants are hard to miss, the mages made them a literal part of the city walls, 400 of them in total spread across strategic areas in the city, places that would be a pain to defend.... luckily any fool brave enough to storm the city through these places would be swiftly dealt with! the smallest of this giants are 10m! crushing-
"Hey Barker!" a scrappy voice cried, it was Maxie,"Wait up! I'm heading to the east gate too! I'll come with you!" He said. In the blink of an eye a shadowy figure appeared in front of me, a dark mist enveloping it, the mist gave way to reveal a lanky fella with pure white hair and mismatched eyes, the gold and purple eyes regarded me before staring up into the pitch black sky, Blue spots and green stripes... of course, what did I expect.
"It's like walking in the moonlight brother, maybe that amputation was the best thing to happen to me, hah!" He laughed, I glance at his right leg.... or what's passing as it, the black hooked prosthetic was imbued with strong spells from our shadow stalkers and mages, it envelopes the user in a shadowy mist that amplified the user's physical attributes, Maxie often trains with it at night time.
".....I'm glad you're pleased with yourself, C'mon!"
"Wait!"
"What?"
"Don't you think this is rather.... boring?"
"....Boring?"
"Yes! I want us to race there!"
"..."
"Tomorrow is the wolf race and I want to train, who better than our fast-"
"Dancer is our fastest,"
"Dancer doesn't want to train with me! he said the outcome of today will ruin his appetite for tomorrow!"
"Maxie, I-"
"Please! C'mon, I know you're our 3rd fastest among us!"
"..."
"Please! I'll do anything!"
"Why do you even care about this race? you don't care about much at all,"
".....I'm just interested in it to pass time, besides that little shit Peters has been mighty full of himself lately, hasn't he?"
"..."
"So just take it as me teaching him a lesson, right?"
"Are you stupid or something?"
"C'mon just help me you're not doing much tonight anyways!"
"I haven't eaten anything, there's no way I'm doing any stupid competition with you!"
"Then it would even be sweeter right!? The food will taste even better with an-"
"Shut up! I'm going- wha!? Stop it! let go of me!"
He grabs my leg, begging and pleading for me to help him, I kick, punch and thrash about but the bastard still doesn't let go! Why wasn't he this serious about hunting or patrols? Why is it only-
"C'mon men, I'm begging here!"
"Fine! Fine! tch, I'll help you just get off!"
"You wi-"
"Shut up!"
Maxie makes a zipping motion with his mouth.
"...where do you want us to start?"
"..."
"For Fenrir's sake speak!"
"There!" he points to the temple opposite us, "That is where we will begin!"