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Dylan continued to look after the vixen. Sitting on the bed next to her, he situates her against him to she won't be hurt by her wounds and can still shift some. Softly caressing her hair, Dylan comforts her. His calm demeanor hides his anxiety and stress to everyone but her.

His hands shakes as his fingers softly run through her hair. His breath is shallow and not paced. His heart races through his entire body, as it is fast and the blood pumps just as rapidly.

"My name is Vil, isn't short for anything, the origin of my species is to have short and catchy names like that with one or two syllables," the redheaded girl introduced herself. So she was a shapeshifter, huh? Randle wondered which forms she could take on, but since she transformed into a believable Sage Dire earlier that day - or night? - by only looking at one, he was convinced she was quite a talented one too. "And wow. I never imagined that about her. Honestly, I thought she was nice, although, I have never met her before."
They never talked after she gave him a slap. Queen Haelga had returned to her royal quarters and her brother, Prince Hartlock, took her place and gave the sleuth all the intel he required. Only a week later, he returned to the castle with a bummed party animal at his side. And the Queen never even considered thanking him for it.

"Although, I can understand it. She was scared and couldn't hold her fear and anger in, so she let it out on the nearest thing or person. My dad did it all of the time, he hit my mother once, but it never happened again. He didn't show back up for a week, and when he did, he was very cautious around her..." Vil's fair eyes turned gray like heavy clouds on a rainy day. Her stance and expression radiated sorrow. Something terrible had happened.
"I'm so sorry," he muttered, ".. about whatever happened to them." Whether she decided to tell him about them or not he left to her, after all, they needed keep their spirits up if they wanted to confront those Dires. And the Queen..

After a little stroll down the market, they arrived at a crowded liquor-store, just a stone's throw away from the bustling market. A teeny young faun with blonde corkscrew curls poked his head of his window and cocked it a little.
"Heads up, Fjoldr, you've got yourself a patient," Randle told him, shaking his bony hand as he came closer. He turned to Vil for a moment. "Fjoldr here's mute, but as an retired army doctor, he definitely knows what he's doing." The Husk often wondered if the scrawny goatman set up a store like this on purpose, so he would never run out of alcohol again. Curiously, Fjoldr wasn't much of a drinker himself, so why he sold merchandise unknown to him was a mystery of its own.

I nod, it smelled sweet, but at the same time, of alcohol. I held my arm a little, but had to stop because of the pain. I followed them into a room that had many things in it. There were little nick-nacks and some bottles that have odd things in them. Some just had liquid, there were different colors of the liquid that ranged a monochromatic theme of red. I sat in a chair and very gently put my arm upon a table. I looked around and observed the room I am in. It was half empty, half full. There was enough space to move around, but not enough for more than two or three.
I had never seen a faun before, my mom told me stories about them and their nature, but some of it was false rumors spread by sell-swords, or story tellers. I read about them now and then, but very few books were written about them. There were more about the more iconic things like elves, dragons, and war between elves and men. The only time I had met a human was when I was still a teen. He had threatened to kill the entire village I lived in if we didn't give him what he wanted, but of course, one of our warriors killed him and a couple of his men. Enough to scare the rest away. I didn't like the humans, and if I had to choose between them and Vampire Eels, the slithery bastards would win in an instant.

Lyra had followed them to the store. "Interesting," she commented on the man. The crowded store was making her uneasy, but she tried to hide it. "How long has he been mute?" She remembered that she forgot to introduce herself. "My name is Lyra, by the way."

While she was waiting, Lyra decided to take a look around. There were all sorts of people milling about the store. She bumped into what seemed to be an elf with a long tail. "Sorry," she muttered, and glanced back at Vil. The wound on her arm looked moderately painful, and Lyra winced, imagining if she had had that same wound. There were a couple of humans in a corner, talking amongst themselves in quiet voices. Lyra shuddered, remembering long, white hallways and doctors and nurses yelling at her to hurry up. Her gaze went blank as she fought against the urge to run outside, away from it all. In the forest, there were no evil queens, and no injured foxes. But she had decided to help, and she couldn't back out now. She planted her feet firmly in the ground. "You okay?" she asked Vil.

The faun flashed a shy smile before taking Vil and the rest into the medic's room; just as stuffed as his store, but still spacious enough to fit two other people in it. Randle decided to wait at the door, since he was considerably larger than most. The young changeling sat down in one of the wooden seats scattered across the room, and put her broken arm on the table. Fjoldr glanced at it and nodded thoughtfully. Randle was convinced the guy had to set quite some fractures back in the army, as those were common ailments on the battlefield.
He leaned against the low wall and tried not the bump his head against the ceiling. Ah, the classical plebs house. Not made to house larger creatures like beastborns, centaurs or dragons.
"Interesting," a sudden voice said. Randle turned towards the sound and discovered that the lupine gal had followed them all the way here. "How long has he been mute?" Hm, some question that was. A question he didn't have a confirmed answer to, but his explanations seemed logical in his eyes.
"Fauns communicate through high-pitched whistles, usually made on those iconic pan flutes. Before they mingled with humans, there was no need for them to learn Common Speech, so I guess they're either really stubborn or just anatomically incapable of speaking," he shrugged, still keeping an eye on Fjoldr, who was gathering some bandages and tools.

"My name is Lyra, by the way." Hm, a common name in some regions, but this Lyra wasn't an ordinary wolf-girl by the looks of it. Even though she claimed she was not much of a fighter, Randle sensed she did have potential.
"Randle Pentecost. Pleasure to meet ya, Lyra," Randle nodded, extending his hand. But their little encounter was interrupted by a loud cracking noise in the operating room.
The Husk poked his head around the corner and saw that Fjoldr had dropped one of his valuable tonics. But the Faun shrugged it off and after kicking the shards into a corner, he went back to patching up Vil.
He put his hairy hands on the changelings arm and made a short, reassuring hum. Then, with some force and bone-cracking, he pushed her bones back into place, then assuring the stayed that way by wrapping her arm into some embalmed bandages. The ointment was to lessen the pain and speed up the recovery, and Fjoldr pressing his soft nose against it was genuine faun superstition. Honorable but odd creatures indeed.
"You okay?" Lyra had returned, while Randle had walked up to the faun to thank him. He tried to hand him a little pouch of gold to thank him for his services, but the overly polite creature shoved it back into his hands and gave him a few soft pats against his cheek by way of saying goodbye.
Alright, off to see Queen Haelga then...

She stayed just in front of the doorway of the small room, not wanting to get to close. Lyra shook the giant cat's hand. "Nice to meet you, too," She jumped at a crash behind the wall, and her heart began to beat faster. But nothing else happened, so she began to calm down. She watched Fjoldr pat Randle on the cheeks. Is that how they say goodbye around here? With Vil's arm patched up, they should continue to the queen next. She wondered how the vixen was doing. Did they ever bandage her wound? I hope she's going to be okay.

As my arm snapped back in place, the faun did some weird thing with his nose. My face went from in pain to confused. "W-w-wha-" I mumbled aloud. It was indeed weird, but it ended fast. I took my arm, which was straight again, "Thanks you for fixing my arm." I tell the faun. I get up and walk with the other two, I feel my arm which was in less pain than before. As we were beginning to leave, the faun, Fjoldr, patted Randle on the cheeks. I walked with them out, on our way to Queen Haelga. As we reached the gates to the castle, there were guards posted out, keeping people from getting in. I looked at Randle and asked, "Since you have a history with Haelga, do you think we can still get in?".

While on their way out, Randle secretly crammed his pouch of coins between to massive bottles of alto wine, for Fjoldr to find. It was the least he could do, as the Husk was well aware that renting a house so close to the square had its price. He opened the door and walked into the soft drizzle, listening to the tinkling of the silver bells hanging from the ceiling.
It was semi-cold outside, but still pleasant nonetheless. Randle pulled his trench coat closer to his chest and swerved to avoid a pool of mud and rain, but almost slipped. He surely hoped that the gals had missed his clumsy footwork. The three of them walked all the way from the central market square to the castle, which was built on a hill. After climbing some steps and approaching the guards at the gate, Vil suddenly said: "Since you have a history with Haelga, do you think we can still get in?"
The guards didn't seem to mind. Their bored eyes merely glanced at them, as if they were the dullest people in the whole Kingdom. Randle straitened his belt and tucked his dagger a little deeper.
"Well, I'm not a foe of the royal family, so we should be allowed to-.." The massive doors swung open. Right. So they were expecting them. Randle was well aware that the vassal had some mild clairvoyance, but he didn't trust the man. Not for one bit. There was more to the jittery, twitchy avian than one would think.

On the way to the castle, a stick caught Lyra's eye. She muttered to the others to not wait for her, and walked toward the small shop that stood on the end of the street. On closer inspection, it was not a stick, but a beautifully crafted staff. It was rounded toward the bottom, with vines tangling with each other until it reached the top, where there was a loop and hook. Lyra picked it up, and as she did, it began to buzz. She stared at it for a few seconds. "You interested in that?" A gruff voice made her look up. A burly man was staring down at her and the staff. "Um, yeah. How much is it?" She dug around in her pack for a few coins, and handed it to the man, then sprinted outside. She could just see Randle and Vil approaching the gates of the castle, and she sprinted to catch up.

The giant doors swung open, and Lyra stepped back. It opened into a long, stone hallway. "So this is where the queen is, huh? It's huge," she said, staring at the ornate walls.

The gates opened before Randle could finish his sentence, it was loud and the guards just sloped a bit. 'She needs better guards...' I wondered to myself. Lyra had slipped away and came back with a staff, I looked at it, but snapped back when she said, "So this is where the Queen is, huh? It's huge," I looked at the castle and observed the marble and ivory pillars and the malachite detailing. "And beautiful..." I say while my eyes are stuck on the building. There was a fountain on the left with hedges shaped to be dragons and deer. By the fountain was a hound with long, curled white fur and red eyes. It looked up at us and followed us in, "She's got nice dogs though.." I smile and we walk into the castle through beautiful, quarts and emerald doors and it reveals a very beautiful garden with Venus Fly-Traps of the walls, large wild flowers thriving form jade pots, and many other plants coming from the walls, other rooms and ceiling. I admire the place and inhale the sweet smell of nectar and honey. I looked up, snapping out of my trance, and noticed an empty throne. "Huh?" I mumble and a man walks towards us, his apparel was very much like a butler, but red. His hair was black and slicked back and his eyes glowed an icy blue. "The Queen is attending an important matter, if you could please wait." When he spoke, it revealed sharp teeth and a light accent(British) that had a hiss to it. His skin was pale and had some spots that looked to be burned. 'Wraith?' I thought to myself, they were very dangerous and had a way with words, but what would bring them here and why would they be working for a Queen? A powerful one at that! I squinted my eyes a bit, in confusion, but a bird had caught my eye and distracted me for a moment. He left into another room and nodded to three guards. They looked up and held their swords like we were wanted criminals. "Well damn..." I whisper.

Lyra didn't know what was happening. All of a sudden, the guards with their shiny armor and swords were closing in on them. "Wait! What did we do? We just want to talk to the Queen!" Lyra backed up, and in doing so, lifted her staff off the ground a few inches. The guards stumbled, and some of them fell. Lyra stared at her staff, which was now buzzing like it was in the shop. "Did you see that?" she said to Vil. She stared at her staff. She had never been one to use magic, but this looked like it had some. The guards came closer and closer, and their swords reflected the light, almost blinding Lyra.

I grab a knife from under my shoes and hold it to their throats. They dropped their swords and fumbled away, "What the hell? Why did they start attacking us?" I looked around and more guards came in through the door. I was ready to start attacking, but then a woman came form an isle in the corner. "Lower your swords! We have guests, must you make me look like a fool?!" Said the woman, my jaw dropped, it was the queen herself! The men put away their swords and I backed away and kneeled(It won't tell me the proper spelling, sorry if it is spelled wrong... ). She walked to us and simply raised her hand, "I am Queen Haelga, queen of the Kingdom of Wood, please, no need of a kneel, I know why you're here." I looked up and she motioned the guards to leave. "Wha- How?" I said, she stops me and smiled, her dress was not 'poofy', or had many jewels, it was green, simple and had a golden belt at the waist. Her hair was red and her skin pale, her eyes were green and shined like emeralds in the light. "Please, I know about everything going on in this city. I know about the wolves, the strangers coming into the Tavern and the fact that I must clear the city before anyone gets hurt, or worse." I stood in awe, how did she know all of this? Oh wait... The people in the tavern... Damn. I it slip out and the next thing I know, four kingdoms know. I look up at Lyra, then at Randle, then back at Haelga. I was scared that she was going to deny the request we had, but if she did, that would make her look like a bad queen. I mean, who just sits and sips tea while her kingdom is being destroyed by a whole pack of Wolven Beasts and bandits? "Sadly, I can't evacuate the kingdom." I shot up and looked confused, "My alliance with the King of Ember... Has died. A couple days ago, his men were attacked by some hunters of another kingdom and it was on my land. He blamed me for their deaths and announced that if I were to step foot in his land again, there would be a war." I put away my knife when I realized that the people had nowhere to go. "What are we to do now?" I ask, she shakes her head and puts her hand to her chin.

The queen didn't look anything like Lyra thought she would. She didn't act like it, either. "Of course, there is another option," Lyra said, looking at the queen. "We could just attack them. How strong are your men?" she asked Queen Haelga. She thought for a moment. "The wolves are very strong. We might not be able to just overpower them. Is there anywhere else the people could go?" she asked the queen. "Or any way we can convince the King of Ember to let us evacuate on his land?" She looked around at the gray walls, feeling defeated. Come on. All your ideas are trash.

"I had a feeling you would say that..." I whispered to myself. "Have you seen the people here? Even the guards, none of them would have the strength to kill at least one of those Wolven Beasts! And training them won't do either, we are at a time limit." I tell Lyra, then I look at the queen and realize I had just insulted her people AND guards. "I-I mean-" I start to apologize, but she interrupts, "No, you're right. My people have never had the proper training for this kind of stuff, and lately my guards have gotten lazy, but that idea of yours, the second one, that one could work. Although, I can't step foot on his land, war is the last thing I need right now... but you, you could! You look like the type of people who can get their hands dirty and not complain, I like that. Do me a favor, please tell the King of Ember, King Xeilius, that I need to move to his kingdom for a couple of days, and tell him why. I hope he understands, and if he doesn't, then do whatever it takes to get him to let us in. His kingdom is east of here, not too far away. It would take a couple hours to get there and maybe more if there is trouble on the way." As she was explaining the deeds of this journey, I started thinking the worst. 'What if we don't make it?', 'What happens when the Wolven Beasts do arrive? Do we have the strength?' I knew we did, but there were too many 'What if's'...

Lyra glanced around, nervous. She hadn't expected that they were going to actually do it. She saw visions of herself and the group getting viciously slaughtered by the soldiers. But the kingdom was in danger, and she might be able to settle down here, once the tension resolved. She swallowed, and looked first at Queen Haelga, then at her companions. "Okay. We'll do it," she said, trying to suppress her fear. "Um, we should probably ask Dylan to come. He looks to be a good fighter."