Who are you? What are you doing here in this late hour?“ Nogryl asked in confusion.

  "Could ask you the same question...“ A serious female falsetto voice could be heard coming from the darkness across the field.

  "What are you looking for?“ The man asked, and the silhouette in a dark blue hooded cloak approached and said,

  "I am looking for someone to spar with“. And as she approached, Nogryl realized that the mysterious figure is a short-statured, slender young woman.

  "I have no time for this, introduce yourself.“ He was clearly not in a mood for dealing with uninvited mysterious guests.

  "I am Nymra!“ The girl yelled as she unsheathed her sword and pointed its tip towards Nogryl. A very youthful face could be seen underneath her hood, and its upper half was covered with an elegant white mask, beneath a couple of strands of long dark hair that reflected the blue moonlight.

  "The cloaked vigilante of the Grand City of Ventrius, the phantom of the streets!“ She added and pointed her sword towards the moon.

  "And I ask you for a fair fight, unless you are afraid?“

  "Bagh...“ The man groaned as he covered his face with his palm.

  "Are you like fourteen?“

  "No halfwit! I am not a child; I am seventeen years old!“ Now the furious girl replied.

  "Look, kid, I mean, Nymra... I am not going to spar with a restless youth; just go home" the man replied.

  "Such arrogance! Fool! You shall face my steel!“ She yelled with anger in her voice and lunged with her sword at Nogryl, but the man quickly parried, and the shining spark flew from the blades.

  "I am quite surprised it's actually made of iron.“ The man commented, but the enraged girl swung another swing at him. Her moves were fast and elegant, and her sword was clearly too sharp and pointy for Nogryl to simply ignore it, and as she swung, Nogryl deflected her swings, but he never returned a blow, not wishing to hurt a young lady that stood two heads shorter than him, her pointy hood barely reaching the height of his upper chest.

  "Damn it, sooner or later she'll do something stupid, unless she gets tired and leaves." He thought as Nymra walked around him and lunged in an attempt to stab him in the chest, but Nogry parried most of the blows, and the ones that he did not parry just glanced off his armor, barely leaving a scratch.

  For less armored opponents, such thrusts would prove lethal, luckily, Nogryl's armor was hard to strike through even for the strongest and most experienced warriors with heavy weapons, let alone a young lady with a rapier.

  As the clashing of steel against steel rang through the training ground, the guards observed the fight.

  "Hey! Is this some late-night practice?“ A confused guard asked as the girl dashed and swung at Nogryl while he warded off and dodged her swings and thrusts.

  "No! We have an intruder, but I'll take care of her; do not awake the garrison!“

  "Whatever...“ The guard thought and slowly returned to his position.

  "Fight back, knight!“ the girl yelled, and a cut of her blade landed against Nogryl's hip, not even coming close to piercing his armor, but it was enough to cut off a small linen sack off his waist, and Nymra quickly picked it up from the sand.

  "What do we have here? Knight, you lost your sack!“ She said as she plunged her sword in the ground and poured the contents of the linen purse on her hand that was covered with black fingerless leather gloves that matched the color of her long black nails and hair.

  "A bit of some herbs, and what's this? A necklace?“ She said as she rummaged through the dried root. It was clearly the necklace that Lynda gave Nogryl before his journey, and he forgot to give it back to her.

  As soon as Nymra took the necklace, Nogryl yelled,

  "Hey! Don't touch that! Give it back!“.

  "Why? Your sweetheart gave you this?“ the girl asked.

  "No! Just give it back. The knight replied.

  "Okay, in that case...“ The girl said and ran off to the wall, quickly climbing the large stone blocks to the top of the barracks.

  "Perhaps you don't need it!“ She teased as she quickly spun the necklace that reflected the blue moonlight, as if she was about to throw it in the distance.

  "Stop! Don't throw it!“ Norgyl screamed as he rushed towards her.

  "Oh look, so you value it indeed, then catch me, if you can." The girl said maliciously and ran off while the knight scaled the wall.

  "Ugh... it's so tiring to climb in all this steel.“ The man thought as he leaned his hands against his knees to catch his breath on top of the barracks.

  "Over here, clumsy!“ The girl yelled from a nearby roof and disappeared in the distance. Without a moment to waste, Nogryl started chasing her as he took a long leap from the barracks to the house roof. Luckily, most of the roofs in the capital city were made of iron or copper, at first because of safety: to protect against the large stones from the trebuchet in case of a siege, but later just as a show of status. If it weren't such, Nogryl would simply fall through the roof, for he was a sturdy man in a thick and heavy steel armor.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Under the moonlit night, Nogryl could be seen chasing the mischievous girl, leaping from roof to roof in his attempts to catch her, like two dark figures dashing above the sleeping city. The girl ran, dashed, and flipped from one roof to another, while the man ran like a beast and swung his hands in the air after every leap. Even if Nymra was much lighter than Nogryl, his strides were longer, and what he lacked in agility and elegance while jumping from one roof to another, he more than compensated with his speed while running in a straight line down the beams of the roofs.

  "Damn it, he's closing in, the girl thought, and jumped down the roof in a dark alley, landing graciously, before running away, followed by the loud sound of Nogryl's armor clashing as he landed crudely on his feet.

  She continued running down the dark corridor and past the intoxicated man that found himself there before Nogryl clashed with him and sent him flying to the floor as he kept chasing the girl. The two ran through the pathway as chunky city rats squeaked and avoided their steps. After a long leap, now furious knight managed to catch the girl by her heel, and both of them fell on the stone brick road.

  "Give me the necklace!“ The man yelled and pulled her towards himself before grabbing her by the shoulder and standing up.

  "Alright! You got me! Here, take it!“ The girl said and handed him the necklace, but as Nogryl pulled it from her hand, she grasped it tight by the chain.

  "Stop, you'll tear it apart!“ The annoyed knight yelled.

  "I won't let it go unless you tell me why it is so important!“

  "I am not telling you anything; just give it to me so we can both go our own way."

  "No, I won't.“ The girl replied and looked away rebelliously.

  "You know that I can take it by force, right?“

  "You'd use force on a woman? Besides, if you attempt to, I'll make sure that the necklace breaks." Nymra stated in a proud voice, raising her nose and closing her eyes.

  "Ughh... alright.“ The man said as he exhaled loudly before he started explaining:

  "It matters to me because it used to belong to my friend that is now dead... Is that enough? Nogryl explained, and he wished to just be done with it and go, but the girl wouldn't allow it.

  "Did he die in a glorious battle with a sword in hand?“

  "Yes, um, no... She was killed in a siege of Lindenrow, the village where I come from."

  "Ah yes, like Nogryl!“ The girl replied excitedly, unaware that the man that she is talking to is Nogryl himself.

  "And now you want to take revenge on her by fighting the forces of evil?“

  "Uhm, sort of?“ The knight replied.

  "This is awesome!" Do you have a squire? Can I be your squire?“

  "His name is Alwin.“

  "Ugh... okay...“ The girl said and frowned, crossing her arms and leaving the necklace to Nogryl.

  "Okay, go home now; it's late." He responded before walking away and finding his way to the city barracks.

  "Goodbye, Sir Knight“ Nymra said silently and ran off in the other direction, before disappearing in the darkness.

  A couple of hours later, when Nogryl reached his bed in his chamber separate from the large room where the soldiers slept, he laid and rested as his armor stood next to the cold stone wall.

  "There's just a couple of hours until the morning", he thought, as he held the necklace hanging above his face, as it dangled and swung in the ray of moonlight that poured inside the room through a narrow window above his bed.

  A sound of heavy steps followed by the sound of knocking scattered away the silence in dead of the night.

  "Yes?“ The man asked, and Aryon entered his room.

  "So you got the necklace?“ the grand paladin questioned; he clearly observed when Nogryl trained, and he obviously knew about the girl.

  "I did.“ The knight responded.

  "Good, the army will mobilize in two days; the soldiers will get to know it this morning after a brief training.“

  "Mobilize? Where are we going?“

  "It is reported that the ur'gluns formed a horde, and a couple of smaller settlements were ransacked, and after the fall of Lindenrow, they took all of Oldwood, pillaging most of the human settlements there, as their howls along with the screams of the slaughtered slowly rewrite the name of the place: The Weeping Woods.“ The paladin explained;

  "Their numbers are growing each day as the clans slowly unite under one warchief. Our task is to put an end to it, to slay whoever is organizing them, to defeat their armies, and to drive off what remains.

  "Right...“ Noryl said, as he clenched the necklace in his hand. He did not want any more of the innocent to be killed like Lynda.

  "That girl fights well.“ The paladin added,

  "It's a shame that the army does not accept the women; too much wasted potential." Before he left the room.

  "So we are going in two days." Norgyl thought, before he tried to catch some rest, as much as he could in the little time that he had.