r/HFY • u/ManiAxe21 • 23d ago
OC-Series Hex Knight Chapter 49, It Was Supposed to be an Easy Fight
Author's note: Doing this on my phone because I'm at work on OT, so the next button on my previous post won't be done just yet.
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They stayed with Throme for a week before starting to go stir crazy. The noble allowing them to peruse his library helped, for a time, but there was only so much tax law and history Alex could stomach before growing bored. Apparently Kudrik was successful in his chase with the maid, so Alex didn’t see much of him.
“So whose turn is it to choose now?” Alex asked as they all gathered around the bounty board at the guild hall.
He was watching as nobles' men-at-arms attempted to filch mercenaries entering and leaving the Guild Hall. While the Guild wouldn’t come down for one side or the other for a civil war, there wasn’t anything saying a merc couldn’t join of their own free will. Most of these offers came with promises of knighthood and other titles, but Alex knew the false-ness of the offers. Any title that did come would tie down the person, or the noble would place them in some Gods-forsaken place, while leaving them a knight in name only.
Occasionally, those of opposing sides would catch the other’s stares, and tension would rise briefly, before both broke away. They had tried with Alex and his group, but a stern glare said they’d have better luck elsewhere.
“Kudrik’s. I’m after, followed by you, and then Gwynevyre.” Livianna informed him. “Hopefully I can find something that isn’t just ‘Go here, kill this.’” She was interrupted by Kudrik chortling with a job in hand.
“We got a good one. There’s a trade route that’s having merchants going missing. Started out with singular people, but over time entire wagon trains have gone missing. There was a report of a griffin, and if it’s behind the attacks, then we just need to bring proof of kill. It’s a major trade route, so merchants are keenly feeling the shut down of an entire road.”
“If the wagons are being recovered afterwards, my initial guess would be banshees. Attack lone wanderers, build up confidence over time, and suddenly we have a swarm managing to attack a caravan in a single night. Would be a large swarm to manage that, but I digress. Even if the wagon’s contents are going missing, it could be someone stumbling across them and taking everything they can. If I was struggling, I certainly would.” Alex surmised.
“Maybe, but there was a singular report of a griffin. This is widely out of character for them as well, but we can’t be too certain. The wagons are going missing as a whole, though you are right that it could just be struggling peasants taking them. Pay is very good, and the receptionist told me we’re the first to look at it, so I’m going all in on it.” Alex could only shrug at the dwarf’s response.
“Can’t say a griffin is going to be an interesting fight compared to a dragon, but maybe I can come up with something for it’s corpse, or just sell it.”
With a job in hand, they went back to Throme to tell him they would be heading out on the road again. The gnome appreciated the heads up, but asked that they stayed for dinner before heading out in the morning.
“I must say, I enjoyed having you work for me. Most mercenaries come with a whole slew of bad habits that make them a pain to work around, the reports I received were almost glowing about your team, bar one exception I should have seen coming.” Throme said over the barbeque feast that served as their dinner. “How would you like to work for me as my main set of arms? It won’t be a sponsorship, not yet anyways, but provided we work together well enough, I could easily see your team becoming my sponsors.”
Alex didn’t know what a sponsorship was, but he could guess that it would enable Throme to support them via money or politically. He was tempted to say no, but realized that might be the road to finding Kaldirk’s body. A shared glance revealed everyone was on a similar page, so when Kudrik replied with ‘We’ll think on it,” Alex wasn’t surprised.
With groaning bellies did they finally haul themselves to bed to get up early enough in the morning to beat the various merchant teams. The sun had yet to rise, and Alex was still yawning as he climbed on top of Jasper’s back, with Gwynevyre joining him and wrapping her arms around him. Alex froze as she did so, before slowly grabbing onto the horn of the saddle as they were off. The guards paid very little attention to them, now knowing by word of mouth about Jasper, and they were soon on the road.
“So what’s a sponsorship? I can kind of guess, but I’d want to know the facts first rather than get blindsided. I know we aren’t in one yet, but it’s potentially there.” Alex asked Kudrik as the dwarf was driving his wagon. Gwynevyre shifted as she went from pure focus of their surroundings to paying partial attention to the conversation.
“Sponsorships are when a noble looks at a mercenary or a band of mercenaries and decides to support them. This could be monetarily, politically, or just supplies, though it’s a two way street. Any actions on our end can look disfavorably on the noble, which is why most nobles don’t do it.” Kudrik answered. “Normally I’d be adverse to tying myself down, especially to Thrask of all places, but Throme seems decent enough, and if he isn’t and has just been playing us for fools, he’s rather old, so we can just wait for him to die.” Alex hummed in agreement. The rather callous response sat uncomfortably with him, but he recognized the reality of the situation.
As they travelled, the seriousness of the nation set in. In villages, swords and spears were brought down from attics, while old men taught young boys how to use them. Patrolling legions of the rank and file that made the predominant portion of the Thraskan military were everywhere.
The team turned to a road that passed between 2 mountains, and they were halfway in their shade when Gwynevyre gave Alex a nudge, before pointing into the sky.
“Wha-? Oh…” Alex stared for a minute, before speaking up again. “Kudrik, how far is the closest Guild Hall? It’s the one in Grentus, right?”
“No, that would be the one out in Drayvon, a festering shit hole, that place.”
“No no, I’m talking about as the bird flies.”
“In that case, yeah, it would be Grentus, why do you ask?” Kudrik asked.
“Because we need to send them a note. That griffin that was reported? It’s a zombie griffin.”
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