There was only a gentle breeze that was audible despite the over one hundred people gathered in this part of the Grasslands. A group of just under thirty warriors of varying kinds and their support units standing in formation behind a towering human woman. Across from them on the Grassland were at least the same number of beings with weapons and armour ready. The tall woman walked out from her people to the rough middle ground between the two groups and called out. “Join us! With our combined forces we can carve a path of war across these lands and take what we want from those that try and stand before us! If you chose to reject my offer then you will not see the sunrise tomorrow morning!” She let that hang in the air.

Sure enough that threat was enough to draw out their leader. A bull of a man who stood just as tall as the woman did. He didn’t wear a lot of armour, only what was really needed, a berserker she assumed, two short axes at his sides. She sized him up as he walked over to meet her, trying to be intimidating. “Woman, my men would rather die than follow you into battle. How you managed to get them to follow you I do understand. We are the bravest mercenary company in the lands, we have seen more battles than you can count. What reason would we have to join you?” He asked coming right up to her.

She only stared back at him with a blank expression. “Because under my command we can take what we want, kill who we want, plunder what we want and just do what we want. Strength in numbers, yes?” She offered calmly.

The big man laughed loudly. “What’s to say we don’t kill you lot now and take what you have on you?”

She thought for a moment and then glanced at the people behind him and looked back to him again. “Your people, why do they follow you?”

“I am the strongest and greatest among them.”

“I see. So, if someone were to kill you in single combat would they then have authority over them? They would follow the winner instead without question?”

The big man’s eyes widened a bit as he understood what she was getting at. “Aye, that’s how it works out here in the Grasslands, woman. Do you have a champion then to take me on?” He chuckled coldly.

The woman nodded and turned and took a few steps away before turning back again to face him. “I am their leader, so that champion will be me.” She watched the look on his face change. “Are you afraid then to face a woman?” She challenged and calmly settled into a ready position, half crouched with her hand on the hilt of the katana at her hip.

The big man laughed and took the axes off of his hips before charging at her with a bellow of rage. Yes, he was a berserker as she assumed, she had his kind before and knew what to expect. He drew close and she took one calm breath before making a move as his axes came swinging powerfully, but somewhat wildly, in her direction. Instead of backing away she stepped into his range even more, behind his axes as she drew her blade.

The special blade and scabbard generated extra power into the blade on the initial draw of the sword. That extra strength and sharpness, though brief, allowed her to cut cleanly through his crudely made metal and leather armour. But showing her deftness with the blade she didn’t actually cut his flesh, instead what armour he did have fell away after she had cut the bindings cleanly. She ducked past him and turned and brought the scabbard up in time to block one of his axes as he turned to swing at her. Deftly she slipped aside from the axe and brought her sword in an up swing slicing cleanly through his left arm at the elbow. He bellowed in pain, but only for a few moments. Flicking her scabbard, she pulled the axe out of his remaining hand and sheathed her blade. As he settled back into her ready stance again, she showed her true speed as stepped forward, drew her blade and made an arching vertical slash.

As the resulting mess slopped to the ground the area was deathly silent save for the still blowing breeze that was making the woman’s hair flutter in the wind. She let the silence and the result of the fight sink in for a few long moments before standing up right again and turning to the man’s allies who were watching closely. Bloody blade in hand she called out to them again. “My name is Cassandra, I am now your commander!” Her voice was loud and easy to hear. “If you are willing to follow me, without question, then take ten paces back!”

She waited and of the thirty or so people all but six stepped back, the rest were either unwilling to follow a woman or still too loyal to their now dead commander. She nodded and spoke again, voice hard. “As for you six that have chosen not to follow me, remember, you made this choice.” She looked past them to their once fellows. “Kill them!” She commanded and only after a very brief moment of hesitation on some of their parts they moved.

As the cries of the newly dead filled the air Cassandra used part of the clothing from the dead commander to clean her katana off. With that she went back to her own people and found one of her lieutenants. “Check their gear and supplies and make sure they are watched for a few days to make sure there aren’t any traitors among them. We move out again in an hour to find a place to make camp for the night.”

The man saluted her quickly. “Yes, commander.” He turned to follow her orders.

Cassandra turned and watched everything as it happened, taking it all in, simply watching for anything out of place.

”It is strange, how not too long ago we were at war with this place. The insects that took so much lives cause of the primordial powers granted by the sapling. Now though here we are at a peace. Strange, yet the better course for all of us.” The god said from horseback, his hand covering the leather patch that now covered his left eye. A scar, a reminder of how close the gods of Canelux could’ve been wiped out if the Voice didn’t find the sapling that powered this land. He had to admit, he was afraid he was gonna die during that fight and the pain of the small traces of venom that lingered was another reminder.

The god though was in Onnen, to observe and to see how the people of the land behaved compared to that of Canelux. He wanted to see if there was worth to this peace, or if most the peoples of the land were like the tribe of insects that dared try to invade Canelux. His travels throughout had brought him to the Sandawe Grasslands, which reminded him greatly of his home of Bohar. It was a smart idea for him to bring his riding horse along with him as the grasslands were vast. Yet there was something that was familiar that he could smell in the air, blood.

”A fight among tribes? Or was this something else entirely…well only one way to find out.” Zanar inquired to himself and rode towards the scent in the air.

As he approached the source of the smell, he could see some figures laying down in the dried out grass, casualties the god though and stopped his horse when they got close enough. ”Rest for now my friend, the dry season of this land can take its toll” He told the steed, placing a hand on its neck. Zanar then went to investigate the corpse on the ground. Few of them looked like they were slain without hesitation…yet there was one corpse of a man missing an arm. ”A fight amongst chiefs perhaps? The other ones looked like they were slain to make a point,” He questioned. It would not surprise him if this was the case, it happened quite frequently amongst the nomads of the Boharian plains as well.

His thoughts were interrupted by his horse neighing and the sounds of footsteps rushing at him through the brush. A scout? A leader who knew their stuff. A blade swung down behind Zanar which he managed to roll out of the way off. Zanar quickly drew a throwing knife from his coat as the man was recovering from the swing, and lodged the knife into the man’s knee. A cry of pain bellowed out from the man and dropped his blade to try and remove the knife, yet as he was trying Zanar walked up and kicked him in the face with the sole of his boot knocking him flat to the ground.

He brought his foot down upon the man’s throat and looked at him in the eye. ”Now, now that is no way to treat a visitor, but seeing as we are past friendly introductions I must ask, which way did your leader go?,” the god did not need to know from the man, he already saw which way the tracks were going. Zanar tightened the pressure to the man’s throat as he continued to struggle without an answer. ”Loyal to the end are we, they must be strong. Though this was already obvious to me as they took down that brute over there. I am interested some more now,” Zanar stepped off the man’s throat and walked back to his horse not before ripping the blade from the man’s knee. Another cry of pain came from the man.

”Now now, if your boss trusted you to guard these bodies you really need to work on that pain tolerance. I’m sure you can fix yourself up,” He said to the man before galloping off towards the way that the rest of the group went. Zanar knew the man wasn’t going to die but knew he wasn’t going to be walking anytime soon as well. Yet the god was impressed that he had managed to sneak up on him as he did. His powers were definitely weaker here than in Canelux.

It did not take him long, only a few moments to catch up. He had to be careful, for they far outnumbered him if they decided to attack. While he may be immortal he would prefer not to be a torture plaything again, he already had enough of that for a lifetime.

The cries of pain from the scout hadn’t gone unnoticed and by the time the stranger was drawing closer to where the army was they were reacting. A few more scouts were dispatched to find where the noise had come from, spread out to come in from different angles. Cassandra was informed of the possible issue, her people knew how to react without her all the time, react to the problem now and inform her at the same time. It was how she wanted them to work; think for themselves but obey her orders when she spoke them.

Cass turned and headed in the direction she had been told the scream had come from, someone had recognized the voice and it sounded like one of her scouts. When the stranger tailing them was spotted again the scouts now made their presence known but stayed back for now, watching. It wasn’t too long until Cassandra, standing tall with her hand on the hilt of her katana stepped into view, eyes narrowing at the stranger. “Who are you?” She questioned simply.

As she spoke from behind the stranger a scout came out with the wounded scout slung over one shoulder for support as he limped back to a healer. Cass watched them go past and then looked back to the stranger again. “Why did you attack my scout? What happened?”