Chronicles of Lyandar Chapter 1: Beginings
I grunted as I pulled my bastard sword from the orc's carcass. As turned and surveyed the carnage behind me from the marauder attack, I saw there were several small fires from the attacks of mages, bodies of both friend and foe alike strew throughout the field and road, and part of the caravan was wrecked. I sighed as I wiped my sword on his tattered clothes and went to help supervise the clean up. I am the captain of the guards for what the humans call a "fur caravan" because it consists of only anthropomorphic animals and creatures like Draconians, like me. My scales are a dark green, darker than pine needles, with a trim of a burnished copper. I stand taller than most humans and even most anthros at seven feet ten inches. Thinking about what the caravan master, Laurez, would say when she got to me; I didn't notice one of my lieutenants, Saum, come up to me.
"Sir I have the damage and casualty report if you would like to read them." She said snapping me out of my thoughts. I looked down at her and examined on how she had faired during the fight. The short dog had a few scratches and her splint mail was dented, but nothing serious. I knew she was okay because her big bushy tail was still wagging from the adrenaline.
"Go ahead, and come with me," I replied as I started to walk off towards the main wagon.
"Ten men are unaccounted for, poor bastards. Johnfry lost his hand. We also lost three horses, two wagons, and five crates of out trade goods were smashed not including what was on the wagons."
"Laurez is gonna kick my ass"
"That she will sir," she chuckled, "But they did out number us ten to one, and they had those hell hounds."
"She won't give a damn I'm sure. Now go off get Nemin then go help with the salvage efforts. Ork weapons might be crude, but we can still sell them for some money." Saum scampered up ahead towards the navigator's wagon. Nemin was a small, old gray mouse. She wears a flowing robe, usually blue or purple, and large circular glasses that make her look almost like an owl. Some say she is wiser (and older) than a few dragons. She is bent with age and is only around four and a half feet tall. Almost everyone in the caravan has adopted Nemin as their long lost grandmother, no matter how different in species they are.
I smiled as I saw Nemin moving skillfully through the wreckage, poking and prodding things out of the way with her staff. I hurried up my pace to get up next to her, and bent down to gently hug her. She gently returned the hug with surprising strength in those gnarled, old hands.
"What is it you wished to ask me Ariedren?" She said this I barely more than a whisper, but the power in her voice made it able to be clearly heard.
"I wished to ask you about the town we will be stopping at. We are ahead of schedule, so Laurez promised everyone some leave time. I will be doing some mercenary work of course, and I was wondering if you had any useful information."
"Yes I know about the city of Lyandar. An average city with a nice library. It has several nice inns and a few problems. They tend to have a problem with summoned creatures, undead and subterranean creatures. Good trade district and OK housing."
"You mention the library as the main fact. What makes it the main attraction of the city?"
"It isn't your average library, boy. This library covers an area the same size of a palace. It goes very deep underground. A dragon was once the librarian, but he disappeared. Spell casters that wish to get books from the library usually have to hire a party of mercenaries to retrieve the book. Because of this, there are several inns around the library dedicated to housing clients."
"Well that sounds interesting. I'll have to check it out whe..."Stopping abruptly as I heard Laurez yelling at me."Shit!" I knew this was coming, but I had hoped it would come a little later than this.
"You bastard! I'm gonna make you pay for damage you allowed to happen to my caravan! You won't get an ounce of leave until you pay me for all the damages!" The tigress' normal orange had turned to red with her fury. Her temper wasn't the only thing that made me fear her; she was actually able to get up in my face because she was level with my shoulders!
"Easy," I said calmly, "I was planning on doing some mercenary work in the library when we got into the city, now if you would be kind enough to get the caravan moving again, we might get there by nightfall." I had seen Saum jogging up behind her so I knew the salvaging was done, and that she would probably like to hear the argument that would never happen.
"Didn't you hear...W-wait, what? W-well I'm coming with you and there isn't a thing you can say that will s-stop me," she spluttered still slightly confused from my response. "after all I have to make sure you don't cheat me."
"Well there is a book I've been looking for, so I'll come too," Nemin stated.
"Where are you going?" Saum asked completely lost.
"A monster infested library." I replied. This seemed like it might turn into a full blown expedition.
"Great! Count me in for the fun."