The king and the Royal Guard arrived at the tavern and the king burst through the doors. He retrieved a piece of paper from his pocket and shoved it in the face of the bartender. “I have a warrant to search your cellar.”

The bartender protested, “On what grounds?” 

“There have been several reports of Gruhath being harbored below. I must seek them out and eradicate them.” Dagonet explained.

The bartender dropped the mug he had been drying. “Y-you can look.” 

Dagonet nodded. He turned to one of his men, “Watch the bartender. Make sure he doesn’t leave.”

Eldora followed the king down into the cellar, their feet thudding against the wooden steps. At the bottom of the stairs, Eldora was greeted to the sight of dozens of creatures. Some were humanoid and looked like elves, dwarves, gnomes, and other fantasy creatures, and others walked on four-legs, were covered with hair, or looked bug-like like she did. 

Eldora watched as the king shouted at them so quickly and so harshly that she could no longer comprehend the language. She and Celina backed away into a corner of the cellar as the king unsheathed his blade and approached the Gruhath. The Gruhath cowered as the king continued to bark at them. One of the Gruhath–a scaled creature who walked on two legs–approached the king and barked back at him. Red power sparked across the Gruhath’s scales and formed a floating ball of magic in his hand. Celina and Eldora huddled together, terrified of what might happen. Suddenly a blast of what looked like red magic erupted from the Gruhath’s hand and sped towards the king. Dagonet raised his shining sword and his body moved as if he were possessed by something Eldora could not see with her eyes–as if he were a puppet on strings–and he absorbed the dark magic into his shining blade. The next thing Eldora saw was the whole room turning a dark, bloody red as all of the Gruhath began launching magic at Dagonet and his men. 

Eldora clapped her hands over her eyes as screams filled her ears. She felt feathered hands on top of hers when the screams finally died out. Pilinka had uncovered them and spoke slowly and calmly enough to her and Celina that they could both understand what she was saying. “Stand up. The king needs you.”

Eldora saw that most of the Gruhath had been killed, but that many of the king’s men had been wounded as well. Eldora scrambled to her feet and followed the Pilinka. When she arrived at a wounded soldier’s side, the heron said, “First, we must cleanse the evil Gruhath Legantz from the wound. If we can’t, we will have to kill this man out of necessity.”

“What? Why?” Eldora said in english, but by her tone and expression, the heron was able to guess what she had said.

“We must kill him, because once the Gruhath gets into the system, their body becomes corrupted, and eventually their souls and actions do, too.” Pilinka explained.