“You’re all useless! Why did you let them escape so easily! All you had to do was block them for a short time,” shouted lord Madham his face a rosy red from anger.
“I am truly sorry sir but they were not normal people! Their power was too demonic!” said the captain of the town guards.
With the injuries, he had received from the battle he was forced to use a pair of crutches to keep standing while the lord was present. You couldn’t really call it standing since it looked like he was just hanging on them.
“Hurry up and send a hunting team after them! We can’t lose them since they are worth more than this town can make in even 6 or 7 years!” shouted Madham.
“Yes sir, we will send a group out immediately,” said the captain.
Although he said this he didn’t know if they even had enough people to form a group that would be able to survive out in the dangerous swamps.
Madham stormed away from the front gates and headed back to his mansion with the mercenary’s making sure to properly protect him.
In his office, he started to furiously write a letter to the lord Brutus who had issued the old wanted paper.
After sealing the letter he walked to the building where the messenger birds lived. He placed the folded letter inside a small leather tube and attached it to a carrier pigeon that was linked to the kingdom of Beorin.
“Hurry and fly without stopping!” said Madham tossing the messenger bird out of the window.
“If I can’t capture him, I hope I’ll still be able to get a reward for reporting where he is.”
Lord Madham watched until the bird became a small dot and disappeared into the distance.
***
Akira and the rest of the group spent the better part of two weeks running and hiding from any pursuers that may have been trying to track them down.
They took the most random route traveling through the dangerous swamps that surrounded the area to try and cover their tracks and make it harder for anyone to find them or know which direction they went.
“Do you think we lost them?” asked Mileena.
“I hope so. Otherwise, the last two weeks of traveling through the swamps would be pointless,” said Akira.
“We should still be on guard for a few more days just in case,” said Varbu.
“I agree with you that we should be on guard of anyone following us. To prevent any more mishaps we should avoid any human cities from now on. This will only be until we can reach the safety of the werewolf clans and meet back up with Grand. Then we won’t have to worry about them trying to cause trouble.”
They continued traveling south while keeping an eye open for any sign of someone following them.
In the area they were currently traveling through everywhere they looked dry land was sparse. The majority of it was a soggy mess that made odd squelching sounds as you walked. In some areas, the ground was hidden under a thin layer of swamp water.
Swarms of bugs of all types lived in the swamps and they all wanted to take a bite out of the groups exposed skin if they were able to get close enough.
The ones that were suffering the most were Akira and Varbu since the nyantail sisters were able to use their tails to effortlessly continue to swat away any annoying bugs that got close.
In his anger, Varbu shot a few fireballs at the swarms and burned the large group of them. Varbu’s fire must have scared the insects because after that the insects that came near them was far less than before.
At night in order to sleep safely, they were forced to climb up the tall swamp trees. They needed to stay high above the ground during the night because of the numerous night swamp monsters that came out to play at night.
They were lucky to have the trees to hide in otherwise their time in the swamp would truly be an exhausting and hellish experience, where they would have to constantly fight all day and night.
***
“Stop!” ordered Akira holding up his hand.
Not too far ahead of them was a large group of animals that had been well camouflaged as they lazily bathed in the shallow swamp waters trying to keep cool in the humid heat of the swamp.
[Wild Lizarsaurus lvl 42].
The Lizarsaurus looked somewhat like a supersized alligator that was almost as big as a horse.
“Looks like we have to take a detour, those things don’t look like they would let us pass without a fight,” said Akira looking around the swamp for a different path.
They continued with their wide detour jumping from one soggy piece of land to another and splashing through the areas where there was no dry land.
Akira jumped from a soggy patch of land and landed on something near a tree which caused him to lose his balance and fall on his butt making a loud squelch. He now had a super wet butt.
“Ow! Hich-nolik, why do you have to be so rude and step on my tail!” asked a slurred voice.
The voice of an unknown person stopped the other three from laughing at Akira’s misfortune and turned to where the voice had come from.
Akira looked down under his foot and saw a light gray and green-scaled lizard tail that had escaped his eyes before due to it blending in with the surrounding swampy green.
He quickly removed his foot from the tail and got back onto his feet before stepping back his sword and shield ready for a fight with this unknown person.
From behind the nearby trees, a humanoid lizard stood up and walked out to confront the person that had stepped on his tail.
His mouth protruded out like an alligator’s there was no hair anywhere on his body. On the top of his head was a cluster of four or five small feathers that sprouted out from above his forehead and curved back.
“Really… Hich-nolik are you still angr…?”
His voice stopped as he saw that the people standing in front of him was not who he was expecting. It was someone from a different race!
His yellow reptile eyes blinked a few times trying to piece together understand what was going on.
“Hu..hu…Human!” the lizardman cried out in fright after looking at Akira. He swiftly jumped back behind the tree to hide from Akira.
“G..g..go away humans. I…I’m a nobody and you wouldn’t want to capture me,” he shouted from behind the trees.
The group looked at each other in puzzlement unsure what to do since they did not want to anger the other person and start a fight.
Before they could whisper a word to quietly discuss the matter, the lizard man spoke again.
“I lie! I am somebody. But trust me you wouldn’t want to capture me I don’t taste good.”
“What?” asked Varbu.
“What is this weirdo talking about?” asked Maya.
“I lie! Although I never tasted myself I probably do taste good but please don’t eat me! I Don’t want to die!” said the lizard man.
“Friend, what are you talking about? No one here is a human,” said Akira.
“We don’t plan on eating you either. I don’t even know how you came up with such a dumb idea,” said Mileena.
The lizardman’s head popped out from behind the tree to look at them.
“You’re not a human here to hunt bad lizardmen like me and eat me for dinner?” asked the lizardman looking at Akira suspiciously.
“No, I’m a werewolf and as you can see the others are not humans either. Who told you that humans hunt lizardmen for food?” asked Akira really wanting to know the answer out of curiosity.
“Hah! Everyone knows that humans hunt down younglings and other lizardmen that have been bad and eat them for dinner. My mother told me so when I was a small hatchling.”
“I see,” said Akira trying not to laugh.
The truth behind his weird ideas was most likely from his mother trying to scare him into being good with the scary stories of humans that would capture and eat anyone that was bad.
“Ha! I knew it all along that you were not humans. I was just testing you! There was no way I was scared of you.”
“I’m sorry if…”
“I lie! I peed my pants. Haaa…I’m so relieved that I won’t be eaten by a human today.”
“Friend, may I ask what is your name? Mine is Akira.”
“My name? It’s Chack Nai-lie. What are you doing out here in Griiq territory if you’re not here to eat me?” asked Chack
“Griiq?”
“Griiq is the name of my race.”
“I see. We’re traveling south to find my clan that I was separated from. By any chance do you know where we might find the werewolf clans?”
“I do. I do. There is a trading post where the merchants of my village go to trade with the werewolves all the time. I have gone there many times…I lie! I only went there once,” said Chack excitedly.
“Do you remember the way there?” asked Akira.
“Yes, very much so, like the back of my hairy hand…I lie! I don’t have hair on my hand!” said Chack furiously nodding his head.
“Do you think you can take us there?”
“That…will be troublesome…I have to ask my father…but…”
“Don’t worry If you lead us to where you live, we can ask him for you,” said Akira.
“I can’t I’m doing something very important.”
“What is it? Maybe we can help.”
“I lie! I’m just hiding!” said Chack.
“From what?” asked Akira.
Just then a loud shout reverberated through the swamps.
“Chack I know you’re hiding here somewhere hurry up and come out so that we can take you back to the village. Stop wasting our time and face the judgment of the elders!”
“Save me!” Chack pleaded.
“From what?” asked Akira.
“Hich-nolik Cuhgar, the grand champion of the tribe.”
“What did you do to anger him? I’m not sure I can do anything to help.”
“Nothing much. Just when he asked me if I thought he was the most handsome and smart person in the tribe I may or may not have told him that he was an ugly and brainless meathead.”
“Why would you do something like that?” asked Varbu.
“I was just being honest! Don’t worry they won’t kill us,” said Chack.
“I’m relieved… Wait! Why would they want to kill us?” asked Akira.
“I lie! They do want to eat us!”
“Why would they eat us?” asked Maya.
“Isn’t that normal?” asked Chack.
“Your head is screwed on wrong if you think that’s normal!” shouted Mileena.
“Found you!” a booming voice was heard nearby.
Ten medium-sized lizarsaurus noisily splashed their way towards the soggy island that everyone was standing on.
The lizarsaurus were carrying large green wooden chariot sleds behind them.
In each of the war sleds, there were two to three Griiq warriors.
Chack hurriedly hid behind the Akira and the others before they could say another word.
“Human you dare help hide that Griiq from me! You are hindering us from doing our duty! We’ll have to take you all with us and have the elders decide what to do with you!” said the tallest and strongest looking Griiq who Akira guessed was Hich-nolik by the scared look on Chack’s face.
“I am not a human, and I…” Akira tried to explain.
“Silence human save your excuses for the elders!” said Hich-nolik.
“Don’t worry, my father is one of the elders of the tribe,” said Chack.
“Your father can’t help you this time,” said Hich-nolik.
“I lie! We should be very worried!” said Chack as he put his hands up in defeat.
Akira and the others did not want to fight and cause a rift between the Griiq and their demon races which could start a war. So they allowed the Griiq warriors to herd them onto the sleds at spear point.
“Back to the village!” ordered Hich-nolik.
The travel to the Griiq town lasted for several hours as they whizzed through the countless swamps and patches of soggy land.
As they neared the village, they started to see many other Griiq riding on top of smaller lizarsaurus.
The buildings of the Griiq village were all tall mud Ziggurats with numerous steps leading to the top of each one.
At the outskirts of the large village, several older looking Griiq stood waiting for the return of the warriors.
The sleds slid to a stop in front of them and the warriors hopped out of the sleds bringing their captured prey with them.
“Honored elders I have brought Chack back. He was hiding with these people,” said Hich-nolik pointing at Akira, “A human, Orc, and two Nyatails.”
“I’m a werewolf!” said Akira for the millionth time.
“Father nice to see…”
“Quite Chack. You have really blown it this time,” said his father.
“We elders have decided on the punishment for his repeated offenses.”
“His punishment will be to go to the Hall of heroic trials!”
