Pausing to look at sir Swiftbeak for a moment, Morr said "No, sir Swiftbeak, none of these horses shall serve as your sustenance. I made sure to order some meat prepared, salted and packed for later consume on your end, though I doubt it will hold for long if you eat continuousely, I thus suggest you primarily make your food source the local wild-life we will encounter. Besides that, I must ask you to scout ahead continuousely, if you are ready for that task. While I do not think that most of the journey will proceed with much event, the land between the temple and Pikewall is under close guard by the Hellguard, after all, caution is always advised."<br/><br/>Turning his helmeted gaze to sister Vanessa, Morr spoke "Worry not, sister Vanessa, if my predictions are right, you shall not even have need of one for the duration of the journey till we reach Pikewall at least, though I must yet insist that you have at least some measure of self-defence."<br/><br/>Throwing a glance at weibel Belatia, he called to her "Weibel Belatia, I must ask you to provide a dagger at least for sister Vanessa, if you would be so kind."<br/><br/>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br/><br/>Sergeant Belatia was a disciplined woman, full of belief, though certainly a rational amount of scepticism too, in her convictions in the years of service she had provided for her order. And though she was not easy to trust others, she yet treated them with the respect they deserved till proven otherwise. But now, this one before her, 'sister' Vanessa, she was someone she simply could not bring herself to regard without obvious suspicion.<br/><br/>After she had stumbled to this temple, obviousely on the run on something, she had been granted shelter with open arms, unlike what many others would have done. In return, she took the position as the cook and, while she fulfilled her job, always refused to expand upon the exact circumstances that had driven her here. Wolfram was even prompted to do an investigation behind the scenes, uncovering that most of her family had died quite recently under questionable occurrences.<br/>Yet, she was a disciplined person and would not undermine sir Morr's authority over this matter, as she handed Vanessa a small dagger which would get the job done if an emergency called, while vowing she would always, or at least have someone else, watch this one.<br/><br/>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br/><br/>After all was said and done, the expedition under Morr saddled up, the Hellguards forming a protective circle around the wagon, those considered non-combatants like Valetni, Vanessa and Elia held near the wagon itself, while Swiftbeak would soar over them, form held aloft by powerful wings.<br/><br/>As predicted, the journey was without much trouble, every second day they would reach one of the outposts and give forth weapons as well as basic medical and food supplies, the nights spent under the watchful protection of the Hellguards and Morr, the days scouted by Swiftbeak.<br/><br/>------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br/><br/>It was the seventh day of the journey, they had made good progress, though Belatia kept on saying that they would have been faster if not for the breaks, they were now en route to the last outpost before Pikewall.<br/><br/>Morr remembered having heard stories about this one in particular. A demon uprising had once occurred here, sweeping across the land to reach the temple and break from it its artifacts, at a time when most Hellguard forces had been sent off to fight such an incursion elsewhere. This outpost was the first to fall, of course, but not as many would have thought. The defenders, seeing the superior might of their enemies, while choosing some to hold the beasts off as long as they could, used the fortification's secret construction-tunnels to hide in, expanding the network as quickly and vastly as they could, even risking several cave-ins. Of course, the demons would follow them in their blind lust for slaughter, again and again smaller numbers of the Hellguard would split off from the main group to lead the beasts astray, trying to buy as much time as possible.<br/><br/>After an entire week of this ordeal, those remaining from the outpost's original garrison, had managed to create a vast network of tunnels, encompassing several miles even. Saying their last prayers, the remaining Hellguards spread out in a suicide-run, striking the brittle walls, causing almost all of the tunnels to collapse, resulting in that almost the entire region sank, killing an uncountable number of foes, weakening the demonic forces considerably, slowing them down even more so.<br/><br/>Quite the heroic tale. He had loved reading this when he was a mere twenty years of age.<br/><br/>And now, with their surroundings slowly changing from the golden brown of the plains behind them to a more grass-grown and rough area, with the sun burning down onto their backs, they expected to reach the rebuilt outpost by nightfall.