The sound of a trumpet awoke the men in the morning as the soldiers aligned on the training ground and trained, and after a brief training, a speech could be heard as the knight spectated from his window:

  "The army will mobilize in two days! We trained hard for the last week, and every single one of you is ready! Take your time to rest and gather your strength, recover from the training, say goodbye to your beloved ones, and when the time is ripe, be ready to move!“ The old sergeant yelled, and the murmur of voices filled the air, and not long after, the man proclaimed,

  "For now, you are free to go! Return to the barracks before the church bell rings ten o'clock in the night!“ And as he spoke, a river of men poured out of the training ground and towards the street as they discussed their mobilization.

  "No worries. It will most likely be some minor errands, like always." One of the armored infantrymen in the crowd said,

  "We should talk to the refugees from Lindenrow; they must know a lot about the ur'gluns, eh?“ The other one responded, and both started laughing. The outer reaches of the kingdom where Lindenrow used to be often had problems with such creatures, but since the capital city was deep in the heartland, the only mischievous creatures that they had to care about were brownies and boggarts, evil fairies, and the naxxil, with the occasional witch here and there, along with the peasant uprisings that would often be extinguished before they became relevant.

  The Great City of Ventrius was far from the barbarian raids in the north, the rivaling Kingdom of Vikeron in the south, the ur'gluns from Nal'gorah in the west, and its eastern flank was facing the endless ocean. Its position, along with the walls, made it one of the safest places to be in, in the entirety of Elemorion.

  Norgyl stood up and went to the "Wandering Knight“ Inn to meet Henry and Alwin, and as he entered the inn, he realized that the place was filled with the troops, and everyone greeted him. They came there to meet with their friends and families that they will shortly leave behind. Henry sat next to a large wooden table together with Alwin, who talked to two local girls that looked at each other with a grudge. He blankly stared at his ale, since there was no one that wanted to say goodbye to him, as he simply didn't have anyone that he knew in the capital of the kingdom. But not much later, both of the girls slapped Alwin and left, which made both of the men now on equal ground.

  "So what now?“ Norgyl asked after joining the men and ordering some ale.

  "Well, I don't know; our grand hero Nogryl will save the day!“ Alwin stated ironically.

  "No fool, I am talking about the mobilization.“ The knight replied, but all three of the men turned around as they heard a young female voice ask,

  "Alwin? Where's Alwin? Alwin the squire?“

  "Who's this one, Alwin?“ Henry asked, as he looked at the dark-haired young girl with a slender body and shorter stature. She was wearing an elegant blue dress made of silk, and she was clearly from a noble family, or at the very least, the lesser nobility, like Nogryl.

  "It's clearly Nymra,“ he thought; he even recognized her voice.

  "Hey! It's me, Alwin, Alwin the squire!“ Alwin yelled through the crowd with a large smile on his face and waved his hand.

  "Come sit!“ He said, after which the young woman walked towards the group.

  "Do you even know her? Henry silently asked.

  "No, I don't, but never mind!“ Alwin whispered back and asked;"Since when am I your squire Nogryl?"

  "Since now, shut up" The tall man responded before she arrived, and as she sat beside the man, Nogryl furiously asked,

  "What are you doing here, girl?“

  "Do I know you, knight?“ She replied in an innocent voice and added,

  "Let me introduce myself; my name is Eleanor, but you can call me Nellie!“

  "Well, that's not how you introduced yourself last time, and I'm having none of this!“ The furious knight replied and slammed his fist on the table, as both of the men looked at him with confusion.

  "You know her?“ Henry asked.

  "Yes! ...I mean no... But I saw her before; it's a long story!“ He shouted. Not knowing who she is, both of the men were confused.

  "Drink some ale, Nogryl; I think you are going insane.“ Alwin commented. As soon as he said Nogry, Eleanor happily asked,

  "This man is Nogryl?“ her eyes filling with a spark of excitement.

  "Ah, there it goes; you lost your opportunity, Alwin!“ Henry commented.

  "Guys, she is seventeen!“ The knight groaned as the embarrassment slowly consumed him.

  "No, I'm not?"

  "So, young lady, please remind me, when was the last time we met?“ Alwin asked, diverting her attention to himself.

  "So you forgot me?“ Nellie replied, and her face turned into a frown.

  "Yes... I mean no! Of course I remember you!“ He lied as Nogryl drowned in embarrassment.

  Eleanor seemed to get along with both of Nogryl's companions pretty well, as they exchanged stories and got to know each other. She was clearly plotting something, but Nogryl couldn't do anything about it, because if he told the story about who she is, everyone would think that he's insane, and she would just deny it, and as the time passed, both of the young men were getting more and more drunk, and Eleanor asked,

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  "I heard you'll be mobilized in two days; where are you going?“ But before Nogryl could comment, Alwin explained,

  "We are yet to know, but most likely towards the ruins of Lindenrow, or even deeper in the Oldwood, where the men are often slaughtered by the vile creatures of darkness such as ur'gluns!“ He clearly tried to make it sound scary, but Eleanor just replied,

  "That's awesome! Are the civilians allowed to join?“

  "No, Nogryl replied."

  "But aren't knights and squires in the Kingdom of Ventrius allowed to take a woman with them? Like the siege engineers?“

  "Well, yes, but that doesn't change the point that we are not taking you with us,“ Nogryl replied.

  "It completely depends on the occasion, miss. I will most likely take a girl with me, and considering the fact that two of my dearest mistresses just left me in the most crude way imaginable, I am yet to know who that lucky girl might be.“ Alwin proclaimed suggestively.

  "I guess we will find out soon!“ Nellie squeaked in excitement. She clearly wanted to fight the forces of darkness, but being a woman, she was never accepted by the military and never had her chance to prove herself, which may change very soon.

  All that she had to do was to woo an already intoxicated squire with fondness for female company and to fool him into taking her with himself.

  "So tell me, young squire, do you aspire to become a knight someday?“ The girl questioned as she leaned against Alwin's shoulder, and the two started talking for the rest of the time.

  Meanwhile, as the night slowly settled, Nogrly and Henry left the tavern and went towards the barracks, where they rested on a bench in front of the building and observed the returning soldiers, most of them drunk and with heavy hearts.

  "So you are really trying to convince me that you saw that girl last night and that she introduced herself as Nymra while pretending to be a masked crime fighter?“

  "Yes, that's exactly what I am telling you, Henry, and you better trust me,“ Nogryl replied.

  "Well, in that case she will probably use Alwin to get herself into the trouble; we must stop her before she puts herself in danger.“

  "She is good in fencing, I must admit, but still, a battlefield is not a place for a woman! Especially not that young!“ The man responded, and both of them went silent for a minute and seemingly counted the pebbles around the bench, and after a while, Henry broke the silence:

  "Nuula wiped the floor with you...“

  "Shut up! I'm not the only one here that she wiped the floor with! But she is something else, so what's your point?“

  "Never mind...“ The young soldier replied.

  "It's almost ten o'clock, and the night is already dark. I hope Alwin doesn't put himself in trouble.“ But as soon as Nogryl said that, Alwin appeared around the next corner, and after noticing the two men sitting on a wooden bench, he walked towards them, dragging his feet through the dry leaves, stumbling and almost falling as he was clearly intoxicated.

  "Oh, speak of the devil...“

  "Guys! This girl, she's completely unhinged!“ Alwin exclaimed, while his breath completely reeked of alcohol, before he fell across both men's laps, but instead of standing up and apologizing, he just placed his hands under his head and rested.

  "He's clearly hammered." Henry stated the obvious.

  "Don't worry, why do you think they tell us about the mobilization two days in advance? He'll sober up tomorrow.“

  "So after a couple of drinks, we went out to have a walk, and she always seemed to walk into the shady alleys. I thought she just wanted to kiss, so I followed her, but then I blinked, and she was already on a roof!“ The drunk man spoke and stood up before he kept explaining:

  "And then I don't know how, but I managed to climb too. It was crazy; like, we sat on a rooftop and watched the night skies, but when I tried to kiss her, she stopped me and told me that she wants our first kiss to be on a battlefield, with armies of dead enemies at our feet!“

  "Clearly an excuse, Henry replied, but Nogryl just exhaled loudly.

  "This confirms our fears; she will get herself in danger...“

  "Are you sick, Nogryl? Do you expect me not to take a woman like that with myself? You are just jealous!“

  "Okay, look, we'll talk tomorrow; as the old saying goes, morning is wiser than the evening!“ The knight replied, and the two men led Alwin to his bed before they both went outside.

  "What now? We must tell Aryon; he'll do something!“ Henry said.

  "I honestly doubt that; he's unhinged too. Our last chance is to convince Alwin against the idea tomorrow when he's sober, but that will be extremely hard to do. Let's have some rest now. The knight explained, and both of the men went inside to sleep.