Harwin's party had almost reached their destination. The road to the city had endless fields of golden wheat surrounding it — shimmering in the sun, and waving gently. It was as if a golden path.

  A great number of tall wind-mills lied in the outskirts. Carts, pulled by creatures similar to oxen, were going in and out of it, as if they were in an endless loop.

  Then the city finally came in-view — walls neither tall nor grand, but sturdy, showing clearly that they had been standing for a thousand year. Guards stood at the gates — their armors appeared to be expensive, and beamed in the rays of the sun. Behind the walls, chimneys stood — taller than walls themselves, smoke curling up from them.

  The caravan had finally reached their destination, but they were in no condition to sell the goods in the marketplace yet. They had traveled a long distance, and unlike the mercenary group led by Yhorm, these men in comparison were not seasoned travelers. They were powerful warriors, yes, but to be able to traverse great distances was a world whole lot different than swinging swords.

  They encamped outside the town for the entire evening and night.

  Harwin, and Efrion were the only ones who went to the marketplace to buy something fresh to eat.

  They had only ate stored food for the whole journey such as dried meat, and some greens that were delicacy of the great forest that even if left outside without any proper covering would not rot for a whole month, but the taste was terrible. It was was not in-edible, but was simply sour enough to not be liked by many, none the less, the green delicacy was eaten in difficult situations such as famines, or long journey.

  The party had also hunted whatever they could find, but there were not many preys in the open plains.

  Harwin upon entering the city observed that even during the late hours of the evening, it felt alive — Bakers, and Vendors were shouting from their stalls, the aroma of fresh bread filled the entire city.

  The city was bustling with people, children were playing in the streets without a care. From time to time they saw soldiers patrolling the city. Overall, the towns-folk all appeared to be content, this showed that the head of the state were not greedy, and cared for his people.

  Efrion and Harwin bought few loafs of bread, spices and some fresh meat. They did not purchase anything extravagant as these were the funds that had been entrusted to them by the whole village.

  Upon returning, the two of them found out that almost everyone was already asleep. Well, all except for Farelen and a few men who were keeping guard.

  They prepared a curry with all the fresh ingredients that they could get hold of. It was the late evening so most shops were preparing to close down, which was a great opportunity to buy items at a cheaper price — it proved to be a bliss in disguise for the poor wood-elves.

  Upon smelling the delicious curry almost all the caravan members woke up. They were sleep deprived, but also famished so all of them gathered all the campfire.

  Farelen took the first bowl before anyone else, and brought it to lady Alisa who was still resting in the carriage. He was not doing it because of any ulterior motive, but was simply the most loyal man of Graftel, and any order given by him became his reason of living. Of-course, this loyalty did not came in cheap, and was result of a great favor owed to the sword-saint.

  Harwin, however, grew a little annoyed every time Farelen got closer to Alisa. He could, of-course, not do anything. The man was far too powerful, and short-tempered for someone like Harwin to handle so the poor lad simply ignored it to his best ability.

  Landel was also the one who remained awake the whole time. He was not a careless man when it really mattered, especially since he felt he had to protect everyone in the caravan as if they were his personal responsibly. On the road, he ate after everyone else were finished, but this time Harwin brought him a bowl after having served a few younglings. If it was up-to the caravan-master alone, he would have served his friends first, but even the slightest bit of favoritism could result in envy and anger so he tried his best to avoid such actions.

  "There was no need to trouble yourself," Landel said while grabbing the bowl.

  "Of-course not, you are not only a dear friend of mine, but also my mentor."

  Harwin's response brought a slight smile on his face.

  All of them ate to their heart’s content, and then slept with a full stomach which was nothing less than a blessing for these wary travelers. The captains were not so careless, and remained vigilant — they guarded in turns the whole night allowing all the other younglings to sleep. However, Harwin and Landel volunteered as well and were resilient enough to finally pursue their counterparts to heed to their requests.

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  The night went without a hitch. At day-break, everyone was full of energy. The ones who had guarded in shifts were also handling themselves quite fine as they were accustomed to such condition, well except for Landel who was still knocked out — he now felt at ease knowing that they were close to a city.

  The younglings prepared the food this time. It was now their turn to serve their captains as to return the favor of last night.

  Alisa was up as well, and was getting herself freshened up. She was excited, as today was the day they would be visiting the famous marketplace of Neilwisk — for someone who had never seen the world before, this was a very important moment.

  After they had taken breakfast, it was now time to assign duties.

  Farelen gave his full confidence to the caravan-master's judgement so everyone was looking towards him for the instructions. Without any hesitation or nervousness Harwin stated:

  “Commander Farelen, Landel, Lady Alisa, Randolph (a master craftsman), Sphenyl (apprentice of Randolph), and finally myself will be going to the marketplace. In my own and battle-commander’s absence, captain Efrion will be in-charge of the entire caravan, and all of you must heed to his command. The carriages will remain here and we will only take a few goods with us for appraisal. We will be back before evening. Until then, it will be better if none of you leave your station until instructed otherwise or out of absolute necessity. Am I clear?”

  Harwin tried to present himself as powerful as he could, but he still could not command respect or obedience.

  “ARE WE CLEAR MEN? DO NOT LET CARAVAN-MASTER GOR REPEAT HIMSELF!” Farelen shouted at them which even shuddered the soul of Harwin.

  The younglings, now terrified, in unison assented to the authority of the caravan-master.

  To be a commander, a leader or someone authoritative in the world meant to be someone who had charm or wits to make others bend to their words. Of-course, the best way was to be incredibly powerful, but for now, Harwin was none in the eyes of the younglings — most did not know his strengths, wisdom, or skills so it was only natural for them to not show respect. It discouraged him a little, but he quickly recoiled his feelings l, as there was not much time to waste.

  It was before noon that the party of six made their way towards the market-place. They brought a small sack with them as well which contained different goods in it — one piece of each that they intended to have appraised.

  In addition to it, there was a large sack carried by Farelen who was unbothered by the weight. Its contents were unknown by everyone except for Harwin and the carrier himself, but it had a strange stench coming from it which made the other four suspicious. None the less, they simply followed their leaders.

  They first stop was at the guard-station which was surprising halt to the four members. It was a large structure which was housing guards and captains that had been given authority and power to exercise for the safety of the city by the head of the state himself.

  It was also in there that some local prisoners were kept who had committed petty crimes. The ones that committed more serious crimes were sent to the continent’s largest prison which was at the edge of the lands — it was gloomy place, built on the end of a cliff. There were rocky plains on one-side, and sea on the other so it was almost inescapable. There was no official name but it was commonly known as ‘The land of no return’.

  As they made their way in the guard-station, they were stopped by one of the residents who raised a question:

  “Who are you, and what is your business?” The captains asked with a stern expression.

  “We are here to verify, and collect the bounties of some bandits that we have slain as a result of defending ourselves.” Farelen answered.

  “Very well, follow me.”

  He took them to a room that was the furthest from the rest, it had the same stench surrounding it as the sack that Farelen had been carrying.

  Alisa, Landel and the two craftsman had been told to wait near the reception. Landel especially had been ordered by Farelen to keep an eye on his surroundings.

  A middle-aged human was the one who was sitting in the room, otherwise, it was completely empty of life. The person who had led them there whispered something to the man whilst he constantly stared at the sudden visitors. His eyes were as dead as someone who had seen death many times.

  “Bring out the goods,” the man ordered in a coarse voice.

  Farelen simply emptied it on the table. The man was not appalled by the huge presence of Farelen, or at the heads falling on the table even, though the captain was clearly a bit uncomfortable.

  “Why don’t you stand outside Talith,” The man advised his underling who left immediately.

  He then picked up the severed heads that had been placed at the table, and began inspecting them

  These were heads of all the captains or leaders of the bandits that had been slain during the battle of the authority. It was the idea of Graftel to take the heads with them to the city in-case there was bounty. It was a grotesque idea as was stated by Harwin — he was not in favour of it at all. He had claimed: living men who have committed crimes should be punished, but to mutilate their dead bodies was criminal in a sense as well, but his opposition was supported by none.

  The man took out posters one by one while inspecting each of the severed head. These had been preserved by the help of Iquaral so these were still perfectly identifiable. It took a while before the man was finally done.

  “You have ran into quite the gold mine here. These men are not ordinary criminals, but are leaders of the bunch. They had been sought by lords, kings of many countries, and killing even one of them would have required significant man power so the question arises.....how did you slay almost all of them?” the man asked with a suspicious expression.

  "Under the leadership of the sword-saint Graftel. He slayed almost all of them by himself.” Farelen answered honestly with a proud face.

  Harwin looked in shock as the giant had revealed their origin without any delay. For the last few months that he had spent in the village, he had always just heard that the humans despised the wood-elves passionately. To reveal to a human, who appeared to have a great position and man-power, was nothing short of foolishness.

  The man stood up at this revelation. Harwin just readied himself — for he knew that an attack could come at any moment......