“So if I’m followin’ this right,” the stone-faced mercenary guarding the compound’s entrance growled, his voice distinctly reminding one of sandpaper, “Th’ job you wan’ all us backin’ you up on is walkin’ half a world away ‘cross the uncharted outside the colony, so we can be your safety net agains’ sky-knows how many o’ them giant lady-freaks case your negotiations go south.”

The man didn’t look keen on taking the job, or even reporting it back to his comrades. Glenn could feel his limited confidence in this idea dissipating already.

“Well… that’s the basic idea.” he said with a half-hearted shrug. “I know trying to fight the Oeza sounds like a suicide mission, but-…”

Truthfully, if it could be helped, he didn’t want his quest to involve much fighting against the reclusive tribe at all.

The mercenary scoffed.

“I’ll give ya a little advice free o’ charge, son, and this ain’t jus’ comin’ from the Ever Blades, it’s comin’ from me; seems t’ me you’re an honest kid, wantin’ right in the world. I ain’t gonna tell ya you’re wrong t’ want answers, but tryin’ to stroll on up to the Oeza in their territory an’ just make em’ give it to ya is only gonna end with your sad corpse lyin’ in a field to be picked apart by whatever else is roamin’ the wilds. You stay well clear o’ the Oeza, and I’d bet ya live to be a hundred withou’ one o’ them ever botherin’ ya again.”

Glenn was silent for a few seconds. He was staring at the ground when the mercenary spoke up again.

“… I’m guessin’ you came from that old village, right?”

“I did.” Glenn replied in a quiet voice, turning away slightly.

The mercenary paused before solemnly adding, “I’m sorry for what happened to that place. Folk there didn’t deserve it.”

Glenn sighed. “… Thank you.”

---

Glenn Avelly appeared quite unremarkable at a glance, easily mistaken for any other young man living in the colony. Those more familiar with him could easily pick out his bright, optimistic face, striking amber eyes, unkempt brown hair, and near-universal colour preference for pale blue and grey in his clothing.

It took a more personal relationship, however, for one to know what motivated him to come to the home compound of the Ever Blades. The mercenary group operated primarily from the large compound Glenn was now leaving, taking jobs from travelers, business owners, and any other viable clients to come their way. The Blades were generally a dependable organization, but even they had their limits, and as Glenn had feared, what he came to ask of them proved to be too much of a risk to convince them to lend their aid.

Glenn was nineteen years old. Nearly twenty, he would usually tell anyone who asked. Until twelve years prior to his visit to the Ever Blades’ compound, he had been a well-mannered child living with his parents and friends in the village of his birth. The village, Ashoh, had been a relatively ideal place for a child, with little danger posed by any neighbouring wildlife or hazardous terrain, and until Glenn was seven years old, it had remained that way.

Today, however, all that remained of Ashoh was a collection of scattered ruins in a devastated stretch of mountainside.

---

Moments after exiting the compound, Glenn could practically hear Aine rolling her eyes as she walked up to him, matching his pace.

“I could’ve told you before you left that the Blades would turn you down.” she remarked. “Might have at least saved us the walk here and back.”

“And I’m sure you would’ve loved to.” Glenn replied without looking at her. “It doesn’t matter, Aine – we can handle this ourselves. We’ve got enough people.”

“We have four.” Aine said, with the air of a correction. “Three and a half, really, counting you.”

Aine was a clever, level-headed woman. Not many people in this area of the colony had the dedication to study magic on the level that she did, and even fewer could put it to practical use, but with her orderly mind so deeply set on the comprehension and use of the art, she was the perfect exception. With wavy, brown hair, grey eyes with a piercing glare, and practical, heavy clothing with all the necessary protections for one performing magic as potentially hazardous as that which she preferred, Aine stood out very clearly in any crowd of the colony’s people.

“Listen, Glenn.” she went on, when he didn’t initially respond to her jibe. “This isn’t something you’ll want to hear right now, but the Oeza – they aren’t like a raider gang, or some pack of beasts. In a fight, if just one of them got the drop on us, we’d probably all be dead before we knew what was happening.”

“I know.” Glenn answered. “That’s why we’re not out to fight them.”

“You keep saying that, but your ‘plan’ is hinging on the idea what we manage to track down some of the Oeza, and just by sheer luck, the ones we meet just happen to know about Ashoh, and why it was wiped out, as well as absolutely none of them feeling confrontational enough to get violent. Any mature Oeza woman is over a hundred feet tall, and they’re stronger than any animal around. If you piss one of them off, you can throw your entire personal quest in the trash.”

Glenn slowed down. “We’re just trying to talk with them. Everyone’s always told me that the Oeza are peaceful, and keep to themselves, but twelve years ago, a whole group of them attacked Ashoh and completely wiped it out. There was nothing left.” he said.

“Yeah, and if they wanted to, they could take over the whole colony in a week or two, Glenn. Even if the Blades got every last man they have together to help us out, the Oeza would stomp them and anyone else fighting back out in a few days.” Aine circled to the space just in front of him on the footpath, walking backwards. “I don’t know why they attacked Ashoh. No one does. I’m just saying that by all appearances, it was one freak incident; totally isolated. A handful of Oeza did something horrible, you’re right, but we have no idea who it was out of their whole tribe, and even less idea of why. No one’s ever even heard of them attacking anyone else but overconfident raiders before. And while I’m on that point, you know the reason that we do know the Oeza have taken raiders out before? It’s because someone stumbles across what’s left of them lying in a mess of giant footprints and blood.”

“That’s why we’re not picking a fight with them, Aine.” Glenn repeated. “Maybe when I was ten I dreamed of raising an army to take them on, but I know that’s not the right decision. All I want is to know why the Ashoh attack happened.”

Aine groaned to herself.

“And that means I have to come along to make sure you don’t just end up with your oh-so-heroic head being kicked around like a ball by raiders after they cut it off. Got it.”

---

The laughter of the bar’s only two remaining occupants could be heard as Glenn and Aine approached. Glenn pushed the doors open, and the sound died down a bit.

“Glenn!” Heavy boots struck the wooden floor, and their owner crossed the room to greet him. “So? What’d the Blades say?”

“They said ‘no’, Aster.” Aine answered in his place, moving off to the side once she was inside the bar to sit down at a nearby table. “Like there was ever a chance of any other answer.”

“Void-bitten cowards.” a low, powerful voice sighed from the middle of the room. The barman, called Doane, a hulking figure with a shaved head and a trimmed, dark beard, rose to his feet as well, setting his drink aside. “So we’re on our own?”

Aster laughed. “You used to be an Ever Blade, isn’t that right, Doane?” Doane made a dismissive gesture.

Aster was a year older than Glenn, and somewhere near twice his size. She was tall, standing over all three of the others in the room, well-muscled, and proud of the numerous scars prominently visible on her body. She had jet-black hair tied into a voluminous ponytail, and wore battered clothing befitting a professional brawler like herself, padded to absorb impacts as she hurled herself at opponents to overwhelm them with sheer power.

She threw an arm around Glenn’s shoulders, forcefully dragging him to her side and ruffling his hair with her other hand.

“We’ll make it.” she said. “Nothing’s hurting Glenn without getting through me first, Oeza or not.”

A smile on his weathered face, Doane joined the group near his bar’s entrance.

“There’s not a raider out there that could take you down on their own, that’s certain.” he said, meeting Aster’s friendly eyes. “And the Oeza? I’d like to see them try.”

Aster gave another familiar laugh. “Glad you know it, old man.” She tilted her head to the side, looking over at Aine, who was seated with a tome open on the table in front of her. One of her hands was idly gesturing beside her, ghostly images of forgotten runes of old fading in and out of view around her wrist. “Aine? We can still count on you to patch Doane up when he trips over a rock, right?”

Aine lowered her hand, the runes vanishing into the air. “Someone needs to keep all of you safe from Glenn’s hero complex. I’ll be right behind you.”

“I’ll be watching for that magic of yours.” Doane said. “You’re better’n anyone I ever met in thirty years with the Blades.”

Aine gave a rare smile, closing her tome and standing back up. “I hope I don’t disappoint you, then.” she said. “Now, if you can all pipe down for the evening, I’d like to get some rest before we set out.”

“Aye.” Doane agreed. “Aster, Glenn? Care for another drink, or should I just leave things for Ida?”

Glenn ducked his way out of Aster’s grip on his shoulders, taking his travel gear off and dropping it on one of the bar’s tables. He slipped his dagger out of its sheath and checked it over for a moment before tucking it away again and making for the bar’s back staircase.

“I’m done for tonight, too.” he said. “See you all in the morning!”

“Night, Glenn!” Aster called out. She looked back at where she’d been sitting with Doane. “That bottle’s still looking pretty tempting, but I’m not walking into the uncharted with a hangover.”

Doane gave a low laugh. “I’ll lock up for Ida, then.”

---

Lying on the cot Doane had prepared for him, Glenn spent a few minutes looking over the supplies he and his three allies had prepared for their journey. Food, water, backup weapons, clothing – everything was well in place, and checked over by Aine. The disappointment of the Ever Blades’ refusal to join them was still stinging in his mind a bit, but he could manage. It didn’t take him long to fall asleep.

---

Another scream was horribly cut off by a crash, and an awful sound of booming laughter, like the giggle of some void demon.

“Glenn!!”

He had stopped in place, reacting to the sound, and felt a strong grip on his shoulder. He looked up to see his mother, her face still frantic. Beads of sweat ran down her cheeks as she hastened him back into motion.

They had left their home several minutes ago, just after the attack began. Briefly hiding out in a storage hut while two of the Oeza stomped their way past them, Glenn and his mother were now back out in the open, running for a nearby gorge in the mountainside flanking the village.

He felt like his lungs were burning. Tears were streaking down his face, and his throat was choked, the horrible cacophony of screams and destruction all around him impossible to shut out.

Ashoh was in ruins. The night had been peaceful up until a sudden rumbling marked the arrival of several Oeza women, their devastating footfalls bringing them closer until they entered the space of the village itself, and from there, everything Glenn’s young mind knew had begun to fall apart.

He hadn’t seen any sign of his father since leaving their house. Woken up and needing to flee in a hurry, Glenn had only vaguely registered what his father was saying as his mother rushed him out the house’s side door and they began to run for safety. His father had stayed behind.

They reached the gorge, and Glenn tripped. His knees began to hurt, scraped against the stone at his feet. His mother helped him back up, lifting him off the ground and continuing to move, manoeuvring through the rocky gorge in an effort to reach the forest. They would need to get there by crossing the river, and in the dark, that was a risky task.

Hiding his face, Glenn was shocked back to focusing on his mother’s path when she screamed, halting in place.

Before them, a foot large enough to crush a person had appeared, a terrifyingly large figure looming above their heads. Long, messy hair gave the Oeza standing over them a look as if she had been an extension of the forest itself.

And then she was crouching, a massive hand approaching them.

The next thing Glenn knew, he was falling before splashing into the river. The current immediately began to drag him away, and he splashed frantically, choking.

He knew how to swim. He was good at it, even, but in the dark, and unsure of where his mother was, he couldn’t hope to get a clear grip on where he needed to swim to.

“GLENN…!!”

---

Glenn lurched to his side, almost striking his forehead against a crate next to the cot.

He blinked in confusion, and Aster’s familiar face swam into view.

“Glenn.” she said, her face filled with concern. “You have a nightmare?”

He let out a breath.

“Y-yeah. Nightmare. Sorry… did I wake you up?”

Aster pushed backward, sliding across the floor to her own cot across the small room.

“It’s alright.” she said. “You were panicking. You still sure you’ll be alright to set out in the morning?”

His heart was still thundering wildly in his chest, and he sighed.

“I’ll manage. Thanks, Aster.”

She watched him for a second before her face split into a wide grin.

“Good to hear. What kind of best friend would I be if I didn’t make sure?”

Glenn smiled. “Even if you didn’t, I’d say you were still a pretty good one. G’night.”

“Night.”