Zenora, The Dragon's Fury
14. Groyhull

Brock’s point of view:

We were with twenty-four people, off to the first city that was closest to the castle. I had been furious after hearing what has been going on in the villages and cities in Terralon. Of course terrible things happen every day, but the use of very young children as slaves, used for sexual intentions and torture, is something that strikes a bad nerve with me now. Especially since I’m a father of little children myself.

Sure we had servants, and before Emily got in the castle we treated them not specifically kind, but never was it an option to hurt them physically. They were still humans, and hurting any citizen of Terralon will get you punished.

Emily was acting much more infuriated than me though. She has been brought up on Earth, and there were no servants at all. Slavery had been abolished a long time ago there, and she couldn’t fathom the idea of children and women being used as vermin.

She wanted to come and see for herself how the people were treated in other cities. So far, she only has been through the city around the castle, and she has come to know a lot of the humans living there. All the citizens in the city love her, and are living and working in a happy environment.

In other cities however, people are not always being treated nicely, or have jobs to take care of their families.

We reached the outskirts of the first city.

“Go down there, Nightwing.” I said and all of the others followed me. We landed on the ground in front of the gates that were surrounding this city. The city called Groyhull.

Emily stepped off from Bastet, she looked amazing now that her red leather gear matches her gryphons fur. Bastet’s fur had turned red after shedding, so I didn’t need to get Emily a second set of gear, to match the ‘old’ Bastet, as she was purple before.

Upon landing we immediately put on brown cloaks to cover our gear, not letting anyone know that we came here on an aggressive mission. Then we send Bastet and Nightwing off, as they have rare coloured fur, and could tip off anyone that knew of them, alerting them that the Princess and General were in their city.

The gates opened when I had talked to the guard, telling him we were only passing through. However, we decided not to let anyone know that the Princess was in our midst. She would walk in the middle of our group, blending in with the others, unless it was really necessary for her to use her powers.

Upon arriving at a bar, we ordered beer, water and food and sat ourselves in one of the corners, around a long table.

People were looking towards us, from time to time, and I clearly heard whispers spread through the bar.

“The King’s army has grown soft, they even enlist females now.”

“I’ve heard that the servants are treated as equals, so I guess the King himself has grown soft!”

“They say the Princess is strong though, but if the King is growing soft, then I suppose anyone could be stronger than him!”

The whispers continued, and the men who spoke these words only kept laughing louder at each other, evoking a growl from Emily, who sat across the table. I shook my head almost unnoticeably and she continued to eat her chicken.

I was furious as well, but this wasn’t the time to let anyone know how strong we are. Soon, after rescuing the slaves in this city, word would travel to other cities quickly and then they could hide their slaves. So, we need the element of surprise right now, and then quickly travel over to the next city.

William had given us loads of information about six of the closest cities. After lunch we would be setting off towards the mansion on the hill, the Mayor’s office and the brothel.

A brothel was something that existed in every big city, and there were always females that willingly sold their bodies for money. Brothels are legitimate businesses, unless they go rogue using children. So, all we were going to do there, was taking away the children that resided there, and the women who were forced to do this job. Their masters would be punished accordingly as well.

At the other two locations, lived a bunch of slaves, so we would be eradicating their ‘owners’.

“You can’t take away those women! They are my biggest income!” The male owner of the ‘Prancing Horse’ brothel yelled.

“I can and I will. These woman claimed that they weren’t doing this on their own free will, which is against the law. You will be punished accordingly.” I said calmly and told my warrior to cut off his right hand.

The man screamed and begged for his hand not to be cut off, but before he knew, he was forced to lay down on a table and his hand dropped on the floor.

“You should be grateful that I’m only taking one of your hands, instead of all four of your limbs, as you have four women forced to do your biddings.” I said with a firm tone.

Nicolai put his hand on my shoulder and nudged in the direction of a closet. One of my warriors opened it, but there was nothing inside. I told the same warrior to toss the closet to the ground, and with ease he pulled it downwards, revealing a hidden door behind it.

Upon opening we found six young girls, hiding, holding each other in terror. Immediately Emily ran over to them and started soothing them, noting for them to know that we meant no harm. After they left the secret hide-out I could tell they were underfed and tortured.

The man with one hand less, is going to lose something else as well. His head.

I made the universal sign towards one of my warriors, of slitting his throat and turned around to gather all the women and children. Behind me I heard the man scream, until his gurgling throat gave up to let through any other sound. A thump could be heard from his body falling on the ground.

Location one, complete.

When we arrived at the Mayor’s office, we found out that there was a party going on in the mansion on the hill, and that the Mayor himself was attending there. So, as easy as this was, we cleared out the office and found two women who were wearing iron collars around their necks, which we took off of them. Pretty much the rest of the office was empty, so we took the women with us and left off towards the mansion on the hill.

Two of my warriors were attending to all the women and children that we gathered so far, as we would have to replace them a place to live their lives without being enslaved again.

Location two, complete.

It was evening now, and on our way to the mansion the streets were quiet. Too quiet. There was no one outside, lights in the houses were off and windows had closed curtains. There was something off, it felt like we were walking into a trap.

We threw off our brown cloaks and grabbed hold of our weapons. I looked behind me to see that Emily was standing in the middle of our group, with Nicolai close to her, ready to defend her at all costs.

Suddenly she drew her bow and shot a person down who stood on the roof. Then, loud screams were heard and the rooftops that surrounded us were filled with hunters, aiming their bows towards us.

“You think, that I wouldn’t know what happens in my city?” A loud male voice was heard from one of the rooftops.

“Come down and show yourself then, if you feel so confident in surrounding us!” I yelled back at the voice.

Too bad we couldn’t bring along the pets of Emily and the Rangers, they would have been of great use now, as some of them could fly and attack the enemy from above. But we chose not to take them with us, as they would have been too easy to notice and then we would have lost the element of surprise immediately. But right now, we were technically at the worst spot, as they have the advantage of higher ground.

Location three? On hold.