When the morning sun rose, Lucius felt a strange weight on his side. He looked over and wrapped around his arm was a girl, slightly shorter than him with beautiful crimson hair. He laughed to himself because when they traded off watch shifts, he simply laid his things next to where she left her things. He guessed she must have snuck into his bed while he was asleep.
He looked around stealthily to see if anyone was looking at them, thankfully no one else was awake other than Paul who must have taken last watch. He locked eyes with Lucius and gave him a knowing smile. In response, Lucius held up a finger to his lips that Paul just gave a nod in acknowledgement to.
This let him breathe a sigh of relief as he gently untangled his arm from between Rena's, but before he could pull it all the way free, the jostling roused her from her sleep. Her eyes blinked open slowly and glanced down at her hands that she tangled around his. Her gaze followed the hand up until she finally reached his face.
"Oh…good morning." She said quietly.
"Yeah…morning Rena. Did you sleep okay?" Lucius put on his best poker face and gave her his gentlest smile. He figured any other response might make her feel embarrassed. He was sure that she was just missing being home and she needed something familiar to cling on to.
"Y-y-yeah…I slept just fine…" she stuttered for a moment before coughing and quickly letting go of his hand. "I hope you were able to sleep okay too, considering yesterday's events. I trust you still plan on talking with me later?"
"Yes, when we settle for the night in the village. We will have time to talk without the need for staying on watch."
"Well, good."
The girl swiftly got up and moved to gather her own pack. At this point everyone started to move and wake from their own resting places. Thanks to his great hearing, he did not miss the fact that no one's breathing changed from sleep to waking, other than the small child and the infant who were actually asleep. This meant that basically everyone was awake before he was…great…this could reflect badly on Rena's reputation. He needed to be more careful in the future.
After getting everything together Lucius once again took the lead and stayed several hundred paces ahead of the group to ensure that nothing and no one would get the drop on them. The rest of the trip was rather uneventful until they were about thirty minutes out from the village.
That was when every hair on Lucius' body stood on end. He heard the milling about of dozens of monsters and beasts. The smell of wolves permeated the air, the scent as thick as soup.
He retreated back to the group, eyes clearly wide enough for everyone to notice his concern. "I smell and hear dozens of monsters ahead. I'm worried the village may have been overrun. The majority of them are wolf type monsters, any closer and they will smell us, unless they already have."
Rena's hands twitched as if she was about to cast a spell in response. Lethen and Paul's faces became clouded with concern and confusion. He couldn't blame them, the likelihood of a monster attack on a settlement that was this large was very rare.
When they began to start discussing the next steps, one of the women they had rescued interrupted them. "Um, actually those monsters you sense…they're friendly."
When the woman informed them of that, Jen's eyes widened. "Wait a minute…is this that village of tamers?"
"Yes, most of our people possess dark magic and specialize in taming monsters. We don't interact with others in the domain a lot because they look down on partnering with monsters, but its tradition."
"Why did you not have any with you on the trip?" Lucius asked.
"Like I said earlier, people do not really like that we tame monsters, so we do not bring them with us on trading runs to other towns and villages."
Lucius put his palm to his face. "Right, sorry."
With that brief moment of confusion out of the way, the party continued forward. This time the boy stayed with the party. He still stayed on alert, but even with his senses, so many monsters in the area threw them off a bit. His built in alarm bells were ringing nonstop, so the only real option was to tune everything other than his vision out.
Everyone approached the simple entrance to the village. It was less of a gate and more like an opening in the simple fencing that surrounded the village in its entirety. The guard seemed to recognize the women and saw what state they were in, so everyone was immediately guided to the village chief's residence.
Most of the homes were simple cabins, very reminiscent of the one that Lucius had spent his younger years in. The village chief's home however was much larger. It was two stories and could easily house four, maybe five families in it and still have room for the dining room, an office, and a kitchen.
Once they arrived, the guard knocked and announced his presence to the household. The door opened and everyone was brought inside by a butler. They were taken to a massive study that had a few luxurious couches and chairs. In one of them was a portly older man with balding hair and a wiry moustache.
The fireplace was lit and hanging over the mantle was a painting of a young, heroic looking man fighting off monsters with a twin-headed bear standing at his back. It looked like they were fighting together.
"Please, come in, sit. I'll have our villagers taken to their homes to rest and try to regain some normalcy in their lives. Please welcome." The man said as he rose from his seat. He gave the group a deep bow in gratitude.
Everyone moved to find a seat around the fireplace and began to share what they had happened upon in the forest. Other than the three women, the young child, and the infant, no one else survived. Even the oxen were not spared so the carts had to be abandoned.
Per custom, the bodies of the deceased villagers had been burned so as not to attract monsters or allow the bodies to become undead. Undead were very uncommon outside of extremely mana rich areas like the deepest depths of the forest outside Pelith or dungeons, but it was still possible for any old corpse to turn.
"That is awful news. We were relying on that set of wagons to provide us with some extra income to the village to support us till the main harvest in a few months…I will send some of our warriors with other carts and some of our beasts to gather what we can. Of course it is most likely all looted by now, but we might get lucky. Thank you all."
"Of course, village chief." Jen replied. "On to our real purpose though, we are adventurers from Pelith, and we have come to take care of your twin-headed bear problem."
"Ah yes! That, thank you. Thank you very much for responding to the request. As you know we have many different beasts and monsters in the village, in fact you may have seen some of our finer specimens…"
"Chief, the quest." Jen interrupted.
"Oh, right. This painting here…it is of our founder, my ancestor, it is said that he tamed a twin-headed bear as his mount and used that to carve a home for tamers here…my idiot son thought that he could do the same, and sought out one to tame.
"These monsters do not normally dwell near human populations since they do not like humans and tend to hunt other monsters, but my son went to this bear's lair and attempted to form a pact. After it failed, he figured he would have a better chance if it was at a disadvantage, and attempted to lure it into a trap outside of our village…" the chief explained.
"I take it he failed." Paul deduced.
"Quite badly. He lost his life and now the bear will not return home. It smells all the many monsters we tame here, as well as the abundant population of weaker beasts in the area…it seems to have made itself quite the home here…so please. Rid this beast for us will you?"