A Guide to Kingdom Building

"How are they?" The beastman asked Tristam.

"They…" the young knight parted the flap on the tent while thinking of a way to explain the current situation. "…haven't awakened yet."

The beastman paused and set his gaze on the Tristam. "W-what do you mean by that? W-what do you mean by…haven't awakened yet." His voice trembled as news unraveled.

He clenched his fist in frustration. He failed to protect them. He failed again the way he did that night.

"Beastman," Tristam placed his hand over his shoulder. "They should be alright." He faintly smiled.

The beastman glared at him, "Al-right? Fine? Y-you…" He walked hastily away from the knight.

As he took a step outside the tent, his body began to ache in protest. The jolting pain caused him to stagger and fall on the dusty graveled ground.

"Ser beast—" The young knight quickly tried to make him stand but he refused and shoved him away.

"I-I can do this m-myself!" He stood up, knees wobbling but was able to manage otherwise.

He looked around and saw the difference in the scenery. It wasn't the mines he was accustomed to. The tall trees covered most of the tall wooden gate on the entrance. There were outposts on each side of the gate and from the way that it was set-up, he thought the same outposts could be located at every corner too.

The knights that stayed there were all clad in armor with red undergarments on top of their shiny plate mails. They had worn a different helmet compared to the guards from the slave barracks. The headwear covered most of the wearer's face, only exposing a small portion of the eyes, nose, and mouth and had eagle wings on each sides of the helmet.

The beastman glanced back at Tristam. He had the same type of armor like the rest of them, but a bit more different. The blue undergarments contrasted to the silver shine of his intricately ornated armor. His chest piece had an embroidered symbol of a wyvern spreading its wings.

The beastman turned around at the sound of clanging metal. Right at the far-right corner about 200 paces away was a forge. He saw brawny men pounding hot metal over an anvil. Adjacent to that were men dragging huge pieces of lumber into an open space where 3 people were building something big. It didn't look like a house, it looked like something else—a weapon bigger than that of a house.

"Ser," Tristam approached the beastman, "You are no longer in the mines."

The beastman nodded as he looked at the clear blue skies. The big red trees surrounding them almost touched the skies. "A-are w-we outside of Crescent Isle?"

"No, good Ser," the knight shook his head. "This is still within the Isle. This is the Hillsprung encampment."

Tristam patted the beastman's shoulder and pointed at the overlooking castle of Arenfall at the southernmost part of the forest.

"Why are we here?" The beastman asked. "And where are they? My comrades?"

"Walk with me. I'll explain that to you." Tristam reached out his hand.

The beastman followed Tristam in the winding path of the tree-filled camp. The huge trunks of the majestic redwoods were a natural fortification itself. He limped alongside the knight as he was trying to explain the entire situation to him.

"D-Dhamphiirs?!" The beastman exclaimed. "T-that's impossible!"

Dhamphiirs to the beastman were known as Griigsodor or tentacle mouth in the human language. These creatures were a bedtime story told to them as a young pup. The blood-sucking monsters that walked the darkest of nights where no moonlight is on sight.

"Y-you're telling me Dhampiirs went along the camp killing the xedecimas there?" The beastman paused and held himself up along a trunk of a tree. "W-where you there when this happened?"

The beastman feared the dark-loving creatures. In fact, as a child, he would stave away from the dark forest at night even if it was during his test of courage. It took a beating from his father to make him walk the dreaded darkness into the spring at the foot of the hill for the ritual.

He hated the dark and he always had, until now. He hated the monsters that lurked in it. As his nan would often tell him about the Obscuros that rule the darkness, no man must trifle going to the forest when the moon doesn't emerge from the sky.

"I…I wasn't there…" The knight answered. "I was—"

"Then where have you heard this from?! Hearsays? You said everyone got devoured—" The stark realization that his friends might've been dead already and the knight was just guiding him to their gravestones.

The beastman dropped on the cold ground, gnashing his teeth, weeping for his fallen friends. He thought he have failed again. He failed defending his friends. His new family stripped away from him again.

He was angry. He loathed himself for being the irresponsible friend that he was. His cowardice had costed him their lives. He loathed his weakness. He wasn't there to defend the camp. He imagined going down fighting alongside of them, but he didn't this time. Never and always.

"AHHHHHHH!" The beastman quickly rose up from the ground and punched the tree in frustration.

The tree shook as he relentlessly punched it over and over again. Although stunned at the beastman's action, Tristam tried his best to calm him down.

"Ser…" He tried to approach him but the beastman proved to be too feral for him to subdue. Before they could attract some unwanted attention from the rest of the camp, Tristam shackled him using his wind binding magic.

"Please, good ser! Take it easy on yourself!" He bound the beastman tightly to avoid himself from hurting himself even more.

"Y-you don't understand!" The beastman forced his way out of the binding spell. "I-I left them for dead! I-I..did…nothing for them! It should've been me!" He clawed his way out of it but it was still fruitless.

The knight was confused, "What do you mean by that? You carried them all to the camp! You saved them."

"W-what…did you mean by that? They're all alive?!" He said. "I-I carried them here?"

"You made it out there along with the dwarf and the elf. We are currently nursing them back to health right now." Tristam answered.

"But I was…" The beastman tried to recall how he did it but no matter how much he tried to remember it, he was unable to. "Where's the human? You said I only brought the dwarf and the elf. Where's the human?"

Tristam stared at him, without answering his question.