Chapter 18: The Calm... (1/2)

The office belonging to the guards wasn't that large, there were over a hundred guards in the settlement, but this building could contain a maximum of fifty people. They had structured the place to operate in batches. Switching between the night shift and day shift. The building contained a few offices for administrative purposes, several public bathrooms and a large lounge or the so called break room.

Albert sat behind his desk signing one stack of papers after another. For a small settlement such as this, they had a surprising amount of paperwork for him to do. Although it was mostly because of their terrible organizing skills, still, having been here all day, he was starting to get bored. Standing up from his seat, he left the office in other to take a walk using the excuse of patrolling the perimeters.

When he left the office, he had to walk by the lounge in other to exit the building, looking at some of the guards on duty, laze around doing nothing, he couldn't help but shake his head. It had been a lot peaceful lately, for almost a month now, there had been no monster attacks or siege. He walked by the break room with silent steps, non of the guard had even noticed him.

Exiting the office, he was greeted by the sight of the busy town as people move up and down the streets. it was late in the morning and the town was at his busiest, taking a step outside he heard a familiar voice scream his name. ”Albert, Albert, Albert, Albert,...” the voice kept muttering his name loudly as it got closer at a rapid pace.

Turning his head he saw a child Sprinting at him at a rapid pace, as he got closer he held the brakes, coming to a sliding halt as he kicked up dirt all over the place. *cough *cough the child was affected by the dust as he broke out in a coughing fit. ”Are you okay?” Albert asked worriedly, after waving his tiny arms around to get rid of the dust the child smiled and looked at him.

He was a young boy that looked like he would be around the age of 5 or 6, he had short blonde hair and a tanned skin, he had two dog ears and a short tail, he also carried a wooden sword around his waist. The child puffed out his chest and hit it ”Am a man, a little dust is no problem for me.”

”Oh I see, that's fine then.”

”Hey, hey, hey... I don't like the doubt in your face am serious.” Albert couldn't help but chuckle at that, the boy pouted a little and he parted his head, he wanted to protest but his wagging tail had betrayed him. ”So, young man, what brings you here?”

”Am running errands for my mom, she's been too busy lately so as the man of the house I decided to help.”

”well, that's certainly what a man should do.”

”See, see, I told you...” Little Timmy was quite pleased with the compliment and his short tail did nothing to hide this, his face was plastered with a beaming smile. He was Albert and Erin's next door neighbor and his father had died in battle more that five year ago so he had taken a liking to Albert who always took care of him.

”Hey you said you'll teach me how to fight, I'm 6 today so when are you going to teach me.” Albert nodded thoughtfully and smiled, ”Of course, but today's your birthday so we have to celebrate, today's also the day this town moved here so we'll be having a feast later, why don't we move your training to tommorow.”

The kid was very pleased when he heard that he hadn't thought his mom would have the time to celebrate his birthday so he was only looking forward to spending it with Albert. ”Okay, I should go now, my mom might be worried if I'm late.” Albert nodded and sent the kid off, he watched the scene for a while before heading off in the direction of the town wall.

He walked out to the wooden fence surrounding the town, it was made of sturdy Wood that had been layered several times, making it as thick as a brick wall, well it was practically the same since the thing was reinforced with magic.

The wall was over 10ft tall and had four lookout rowers in each end of the wall, Albert went to one of the towers and climbed up using the ladder. It was a tall tower and was made only of wood, after reaching the top he saw the two sentries station here sitting on the ground playing some sort of card game. There was nothing else here except a large ballista, a bell and what looked like a telescope.

They hadn't noticed him yet and he just walked next to one of them, ”You both seem relax.”, ”Fuck!” They both jumped out of their skin in fright. One of them was a two horned ogre while the other was a beastman, specifically a wolf man, he had shiny sliver wolf ears and tail.

”Oh Captain it's you... we almost killed you” Albert stared at the two clumsy idiots pointing the cards in their hands at him like a weapon.

They both followed his gaze and saw the 'weapon' in their hands, laughing awkwardly, they scratched their heads and straighten up, ”what brings you here sir?”

”Just Patrolling... noticed anything today?”

”No sir, it's been quiet today as well.”

”I see”

He then turned his gaze and looked out into the distance, in front of him, he saw rocky plains as far as the eyes could see with several small hills, there was no creature in sight, still being outside now and looking at this sight gave him a feeling he couldn't explain. It was quiet, too quiet, it made him remember the feeling he had before his region was invaded, it was like the calm before a storm.

After staring at the view for a long time, the other two were starting to look at him weirdly. ”Is something wrong?” the wolfman asked ”sigh... no, nothing, you guys get back to work.”, ”yes sire” they both answered in unison standing at attention, ”you don't have to be so formal all the time, just be more vigilant” ”ye... o-okay” they said.

Albert turned around and jumped down from the tower, he landed elegantly without even making a sound or getting dust on his armor. The other two looked at him with open jaws as they applauded. It wasn't that they were unable to make the jump, they could, quite easily in fact, it was just the fact that he had made no sound as he landed without the use of magic, such a thing was incredible.