A Hero may hire others to aid them, but will bear the sole responsibility to pay all such debts

-Hero’s Guild Book of Rules

Rule 27

   Skemm sat on her bedroll, deep in thought. They’d returned to camp shortly after they rescued Princess Yaria but had yet to discuss what they were going to do now that they had her. At first Skemm was worried that Feral would try and foist the Princess on her but he had apparently taken on the task of seeing to her every need. It was somewhat comical, watching Feral rush about as he worked to do whatever it was the Princess had instructed him to do. Currently he was frying her some eggs. Where exactly he had found eggs suitable for frying was beyond Skemm, but at least the Princess was content.

   What bothered Skemm was the increasing complexity and accumulating complications for their task of returning the herds to Will’s town. This whole time she had been hoping they could sneak in at night, deal with whatever guards there were quietly, and lead the cattle away before the main army was aware of what was going on. It would be too much of a risk on their part to send too much of their army after them since the presence of their invasion force was certainly known by now and the King’s armies couldn’t be very far away now.

   At last Skemm got up and walked over to the fire where Feral was still cooking eggs.

   “May I have a word?” Skemm asked.

   Feral looked up at her and nodded, handing the frying pan to Riven before getting to his feet.

   “What can I do for you, Skemm?” Feral asked once they were away from the fire and unlikely to be overhead by the Princess.

   “We’re less than a day’s journey from the Western Realm’s armies,” Skemm began, “we’ve just ambushed a caravan of their soldiers who were transporting the captured Princess, and now you’re cooking her eggs.”

   “Was there a question in there?” Feral asked with a half smile.

   “What’s going to happen when their scouts see the smoke?” Skemm demanded and pointed to the thin pillar of smoke rising steadily over their camp.

   “We’re pretty secluded here,” Feral assured her, “and the trees are tall. Riven says the air should remain heavy through the night and so keep the smoke from rising too high. As for their scouts, as I said earlier they don’t have any reason to suspect an attack from this direction so they’ll probably never think to send any back this way.”

   Skemm looked back up and could just make out the thin halo of smoke that was forming near the tops of the trees. Feral was probably right about the smoke but assuming the Western Realm wouldn’t send scouts to watch their rear was foolish.

   “I have Will keeping a lookout right now,” Feral said, apparently guessing Skemm’s continued doubts. “He and Riven are taking it in turns to make sure we’re not surprised by any unwanted visitors.”

   “So then what’s the plan with the Princess?” Skemm asked. “I doubt we can just take her along when we go to get the cattle.”

   Feral chuckled slightly and shook his head. “No,” he conceded, “that would be asking a bit much of Her Highness.”

   “So what then? Leave her hear? Have one of us try and escort her back?”

   Feral glanced back at Princess Yaria and scowled as though deep in thought but did not answer her.

   “Well?” Skemm prodded him. She hated having to take direction from Feral but she had agreed from the outset that he would be the one in charge and she was loath to break her word.

   “I have an idea,” Feral said at last. “Let me walk you through it and see what you think.”

   “What?” Skemm asked. “Why do you suddenly care what I think?”

   Feral sighed and rubbed his neck. “We don’t generally get along, you and I,” he said slowly, as though picking his words carefully. “But we don’t have time for arguing or upsetting one another. As you’ve pointed out we are very close to the Western Realm and the last thing we need is to be wasting energy fighting each other so,” Feral held his hands up to stay Skemm who did not particularly feel like Feral was attempting to not upset her, “I am trying to be more open and collaborate with you to avoid any additional arguments.”

   “You’re only now going to treat me with respect since you’re worried I might get angry and mess up your plans?” Skemm couldn’t believe Feral’s nerve.

   Feral opened and closed his mouth several times, anger and frustration playing clearly on his face but he never quite allowed himself to say whatever it was he wanted to say.

   “Go on,” Skemm said, goading him on, “say what it is you want to say.”

   He huffed and turned as though he was going to storm off but then abruptly spun back around and jabbed a finger at Skemm’s face.

   “We saved your life!” Feral hissed, just barely controlling his voice enough to prevent the Princess from overhearing. “We would have untied you then and there, set you on your way, been cordial and everything, even though our experiences with Heroes in the past hasn’t been exactly pleasant, but we try to be optimistic and give everyone a chance, and yet from the very beginning you spat it all in our faces and treated us like we were nothing. So that’s how we’ve treated you back. That’s why we dragged you through the forest. Why I initially wanted to let you go off on this fools errand alone. And it’s why, up until now, I haven’t asked for your input!”

   “Oh, I get it,” Skemm glared at Feral, “I wasn’t grateful enough to you and so that gave you permission to be a jerk!”

   “No, no, gratitude has nothing to do with it! See her?” Feral pointed over to the Princess who was now happily eating her eggs and laughing with Riven. “I honestly don’t remember if she’s said thank you or not for being rescued. But do you know what I have noticed?”

   Feral paused and waited. Skemm had no way of guessing what Feral could possibly be getting at and so she just shrugged and shook her head.

   “She’s never once treated any of us as though we were less than what we are,” Feral stated and there was more emotion in his voice than Skemm had expected. “She’s the Princess, only daughter of  King Yarin, and surrounded by all that power and wealth. And yet has she once complained that her seat isn’t soft enough? Or that we aren’t doing enough for her? Has she demanded we parade around her or treat her like her servants would?”

   “Feral, you basically became her servant the moment we found her! I mean, you’re bending over backwards for the girl. You even fried her eggs on nothing but her idle whim.”

   Feral looked as though she’d slapped him and his expression was suddenly hard and furious.

   “Didn’t you notice how weak and hungry she looked? She’d been held in that cage for over a week. They must have only been feeding her the bare minimum and so when I asked her if she would like something to eat, I offered her the mountain hen eggs Riven had found earlier this morning while she was out scouting. Riven was originally going to give them to you as a peace offering now that we’re getting so near to the Western Realm but we both agreed that Her Highness’s need was greater.”

   Skemm looked back over to the Princess and finally took note of her. She did indeed look like she’d had a rough time at the hands of the Western Realm.

   “As for my bending over backward for her every whim,” Feral went on, “She has demanded nothing of me, or of any of us. The closest thing to an order she’s given was when she reminded us that we were suppose to bow when meeting her. I’m just trying to help a little girl forget some of the terror and discomfort of the past few days and if that means going a little out of my way then so be it.”

   Skemm felt some stabs of guilt at this but wasn’t yet convinced Feral had been concealing this altruistic nature from her the whole time.

   “What about Will, then?” She asked Feral. He’d never treated the boy well and for all of Feral’s talk about treating others how they treated him, Will had been nothing if not reverent and in awe of Feral this whole time and yet Feral had all but ignored Will until he took him for training. Even then, from what Skemm had seen Feral had been tough and uncaring towards Will.

   “What about Will?” Feral repeated back to her as though checking to make sure he’d heard her correctly. “What about Will?! Why do you think I ever agreed to come out here on this mad cow chase?  Why do you think I agreed to train Will? I’m out here to keep him safe!”

   “Okay, you two,” Riven said suddenly, having approached them without either of them noticing. “I think Her Highness would like to take a nap, but before she does I think you might want to hear some of what she’s been telling me.”

   Skemm and Feral were both still bristling but before Skemm could say anything, Feral had sighed and wiped all signs of his anger from his face and turned, smiling, towards the Princess.

   As he walked away from them and back towards the campfire and Princess Yaria, Riven held out her arm and stopped Skemm from immediately following.

   “What you see there,” Riven said, nodding towards Feral and the Princess, “That’s much closer to the real Feral than anything you’ve seen before. I’m not saying you need to forgive him, or me for that matter, for the way that you’ve been treated. Just understand that he usually reserves all the heavy sarcasm and disdain for people he thinks are wrongfully taking advantage of others, like bandits, self-important nobles, and…

   “Heroes?” Skemm finished for her.

   Riven let go of Skemm with a shrug and joined Feral by the fire. Skemm knew better than to try and continue her argument with either of them, especially with the Princess right there, and so she let it go for now and composed herself before joining them.

   “Daddy always comes late when he goes to war,” Princess Yaria was saying. “’Twice as large and half as fast’, he always says. He said it tires them out for his army.”

   “Do you know when the King’s army left to come here?” Feral asked her.

   Princess Yaria nodded. “He left the day before I was taken,” she said with a pout.

   “We’ll need to scout ahead and see if the first army has arrived yet,” Skemm said and both Feral and Riven nodded their agreement.

   “We’d know if the fighting had begun already,” Feral said, “but the fact that they were moving Your Highness out of the area meant they at least knew of an approaching army.”

   “They said the army would be here tomorrow,” Princess Yaria said, “and they would attack at once so they couldn’t rest.”

   “You know quite a lot about their plans,” Skemm observed.

   “The soldiers talked a lot and they stopped at the army camp yesterday,” Princess Yaria said. “I think they wanted to keep me there but General Jernagin said to take me back to the Western Realm while he dealt with the army.”

   Skemm was surprised to see the expressions of anger of concern on Feral’s face when she looked back to him and Riven.

   “What’s wrong?” she asked but Feral waved her question off and his expression cleared.

   “Feral and the General have some history together,” Riven whispered and Feral shot a brief scowl at her.

   “He was suppose to be dead,” Feral muttered but left it at that when he saw the confused look on Princess Yaria’s face. “Sorry, Your Highness,” he said at once, “thank you for this information. You may take your nap now if you wish.”

   The Princess nodded and Riven led her over to her own bedroll where the Princess lay down at once and fell asleep.

   “I expect General Jernagin’s plan is to wipe out the initial army before the King’s army can arrive,” Feral said. “News of his daughter’s kidnapping may have delayed him even further so if the Western Realm can deal with the first army quickly enough then they’ll have a day or so more to rest and prepare for the King’s arrival.”

   “Spoiling the King’s plan to catch them while they’re still weary,” Skemm added and Feral nodded.

   “We’ll need to delay the Western Realm’s armies from attacking,” Feral said. “If we can delay them long enough then the King’s army should be able to arrive and deal with them as planned.”

   “Then we can get the cattle,” Riven said as she rejoined the group, “and be on our way.”

   “Right,” Skemm agreed, “but how do we delay the Western Realm?”

   Much to Skemm’s frustration, Feral and Riven shared a smile.