Leon and Riya: How to Raise a Gnoll

Chapter 18

Oshka had been looking over the map of Deadfang's territory she had. She had circled Foxpine on the map. She had managed to finally perfect the rituals for the Shriekers and the Terrors and was ready to use them to get at the one that had taken everything from her.

Azur was in the middle of looking over various parchments and letters. For the past few weeks he has had a terrible sinking feeling but couldn't seem to put his finger on why though. The letters weren't helping any. They were detailing how they had noticed that some of the people in the other towns had gone missing and it has only been getting worse.

It was obvious that whoever was controlling that large group of Witherlings he had seen at Fort Stoneholde had to be behind it. For some reason he had a nagging feeling he should know who it is but couldn't put it into words. As he was thinking about this he heard a knock on the door to his office.

Azur: Enter!

In came Ushka, one of the Gnolls that Zenkoh had sent to help protect Foxpine.

Ushka: Azur, Witherlings have been spotted four days from Foxpine. What do you want to do?

Azur was quiet while he thought for a few moments.

Azur: Get all of the archers on the wall that can be managed. We need to be ready for when they try to attack.

Ushka gave a salute and left.

Azur could feel a migraine coming.

Zenkoh was in her office when Thorn had made his way inside.

Thorn: Witherlings were spotted making their way towards Foxpine, do you think what you sent is enough?

Zenkoh: It's going to have to be. We have nothing left to spare.

Thorn: It is also important to note that a black furred female Gnoll that we have never seen was among them.

Zenkoh: What?

She was silent for a moment.

Zenkoh: Could she be the one controlling all of them?

Thorn shook his head.

Thorn: I wouldn't know.

Zenkoh: We need to be ready, we may get attacked at the same time as Foxpine.

Thorn bowed before leaving.

Purth was following Rose and Leon around to make sure nothing happened, there was no way to know when the next time they might get attacked again.

Rose: Why do you keep looking at me like that?

Purth: Like what?

Leon: I think she is talking about how you keep looking at her like she has two heads.

Rose: Yeah, that!

Purth: I'm just confused, you don't treat him like most Gnolls would their fathers.

Rose: Because I actually care about my Dad! When I was told how other Gnolls treat males, even their fathers, it disgusted me.

Purth: It's simply how things are, it keeps everything running smoothly as far as any one is concerned.

Rose: What it is, is wrong!

Leon: Rose, you need to calm down.

Rose: But—

Leon: No, no buts. We don't need to be starting problems with everything that is already going on. Your mother and I raised you how we thought you should be raised, not everyone sees everything the same way.

Oshka had started marching her Witherlings towards Foxpine. It would take a few days but she would finally deal with the one that her mother needed help with but was denied that help and she died for it. She would deal with Foxpine, then the others would be next!

Leiko was being sent with a group of Witherlings to Fort Stoneholde. Morga was making her way to Gloomfang Citadel, This would prevent any reinforcements from being able to show up.

That blue Vulpine that murdered her mother was going to pay! Nothing was going to stop her.

As Azur was sifting through the parchments on his desk. As he was going through them he saw a letter from Sidra. After opening and reading it he sighed. The letter was Sidra asking if he remembered anything about the day she had been attacked by a Gnoll. Why she was asking about that was beyond him.

Azur remembered more than enough. She had been attacked by a Gnoll that was scouting the area, when he was spotted by Sidra instead of leaving he attacked her. The guards were able to put the Gnoll down as it was four to one. After that Azur had managed to track where the scout had come from, the Blightgaze Clan.

After that he waited for the clan's Matriarch to be alone, once she was he challenged her to a duel. She had been full of herself and hadn't even considered she could lose to a Vulpine. As he was dueling her, a large group of Ursine mercenaries had been paid to handle the rest of the clan; there were three Ursine for every Gnoll. As Azur had taken the upper hand and was getting ready to end her another Gnoll showed up, it was small enough that he could have believed it may have been her daughter.

She told the Gnoll to run before he ran her through, using the clawed dueling gauntlet to puncture her throat and then used his rapier to puncture her heart.

Shaking his head he then started to write up a letter to ask why she wanted to know if he remembered when that happened. He didn't see how it could be related to what was happening now.