It was a nice and sunny day as Emerald Edge pulled to a stop beside Sir Morn and his horse, Windspeed. Below her, Foxtrot snorted a few times and then stomped a hoof on the grassy ground.
“Yes, yes, I shall give you one, no, three carrots when we return to Canterlot, how does that sound?” Emerald rubbed his neck.
Her horse neighed in agreement.
“It will be a long ride back, my lady,” Sir Morn said and surveyed the plains they were in. “And there is much to search out here.”
“Moon Tide warned us of manticores out here, so if we find nothing, we should move as quickly as we can.” Emerald remembered the poison sting of a manticore. It wasn’t something she wanted to experience again anytime soon.
“Fair enough. Perhaps we should search the north then.” Sir Morn pointed towards a cluster of mountains in the distance. “Over there where the mountains divide us from other lands, there was an earthquake just recently. Perhaps it might have uncovered something? If not, there is a small village close by, we could ask them if we find nothing. Perhaps we may even find the Grail there if we look hard enough.”
“You really want to find the Grail, don’t you?” Emerald smirked at him playfully.
“Tis my life’s goal to find the Grail,” Morn said, taking up a heroic pose atop his horse. “I know it is out there, just waiting for someone to find it. And that someone shall be I.”
He sounded so sure of himself and Emerald couldn’t help but admire his devotion.
You should be the same way, she thought. I will get the artifacts and purge Sombra from the Crystal Empire.
They rode on in relative silence as the mountains grew closer and larger. Their peaks were capped with white, and clouds swirled near the top.
It was nightfall by the time they reached the mountain pass. Emerald hadn’t thought it would take them so long to reach the mountains. The plains were a lot wider than she had thought, with strong winds whipping the tall grass this way and that.
“Tis late. We might not be able to see so well and tis dangerous to search around the shattered ground in the dark.” Sir Morn stopped Windspeed by a few boulders. “We should stop here for the night.”
“Stop? Already?” Emerald complained. She didn’t want to waste any time and it wasn’t like she was tired yet. “I am sure we can go on. All we need is a torch.”
“Tis still too dangerous.” Sir Morn shrugged. “I insist, Lady Emerald. I do not want you to get hurt.”
“I… I…” Emerald sighed. “As you wish, Sir Morn. Where do you think we should set up camp?”
Morn Dread looked around, squinting in the dark. “How about over there?” He pointed at a small grove of trees that were growing near a rocky incline. “Our horses can eat the grass and we can rest. I shall take the first watch.”
“Very well.” Emerald walked Foxtrot over and tied his reins to one of the trees before giving his muzzle and neck a few gentle rubs. “You rest well, okay boy? We’ll see about getting you some proper food tomorrow.”
The horse nickered gently and bent down to start on the grass.
Meanwhile, Sir Morn had begun clearing some dead wood into a pile for the campfire. Emerald helped him unpack the saddlebags, taking out some of the rations they had brought with them from Canterlot. Sir Morn had some dried meats and bread, while Emerald stuck mostly to bread and fruit. Most vegetables didn’t keep so well on long horseback journeys.
Taking out a small glass vial of red liquid, Sir Morn sprinkled some over the pile of wood before taking out his tinderbox and flint. Striking a few sparks from the stones, the knight soon had a small but merry blaze going in the clearing.
“Thank goodness mother made us bring some salamander potion,” Sir Morn said, stowing away his kit. “With this wind, it might have been difficult to get a fire going otherwise.”
“Now if only we had something to roast…” Emerald said, unpacking her sleeping roll and sitting on it.
The other knight grinned and pointed above Emerald’s head.
“Apples! Good eye, Sir Morn.”
Emerald jumped to her feet and picked a few of the red fruits from the tree. Using sticks, she skewered the apples and set them to roast over the fire. Picking two up, she went around to where their horses were and fed them the fruit.
By the time she got back to the fire, Sir Morn had already plucked the two sticks of roasted apples off, the fragrant smell of the fruit wafting up through Emerald’s nostrils, making her let out a sigh of anticipation.
“Tasty…” she said, before even taking a bite. When she did take a bite, the spymaster closed her eyes in satisfaction as the rich apple taste flooded her mouth, hot and melting on her tongue. “Mmm… that’s great.”
“Tis rather delicious, yes.” Sir Morn took another bite of his apple. “I suppose apples must be your favorite fruit, my lady?”
“You suppose correctly, Sir Morn, although I am partial to the crystal berries that grow in the empire.” Emerald scooted herself closer to the knight so she could lean against him. “In Equestria, we have apples everywhere. It is not difficult to acquire.”
“Ah, tis a little different here,” Sir Morn laughed. “Our apples are mostly brought in from Avalon. I am sure your apple trading friends have told you this.”
Emerald nodded. “If I ever have a week off or so, I’d like to visit Avalon. The apples the merchants bring from there are nice, but nothing compares to the taste of one freshly picked off the tree.”
The conversation petered out slowly as the moon rose. Eventually, Emerald yawned.
“It is time for you to turn in, my lady,” Sir Morn said, throwing another dead branch on the fire. “Fear not, I will wake you when it is time for your watch.”
“Thank you, Sir Morn…” Emerald said tiredly, flopping down on her sleeping roll. Within minutes, she was fast asleep.
Emerald Edge had dreamed of cows that night, watching them roam around in a large green field as she floated under a tree, munching on a pile of apples. Light Speckle had sat beside her, reading a spell book, and Emerald had been about to ask her what she was reading when she woke from her sleep, first realizing that she was lying on her sleeping roll, with a pink flower moving in the wind close to her head.
“Hmm…? It’s morning?” Emerald sat up, rubbing at her eyes as she searched for Sir Morn.
And then she found him, walking back to the campsite from around a boulder, chewing on an apple.
“Ah, you are awake, Lady Emerald. Good morning,” he said through his chewing.
“Sir Morn, you did not wake me for my shift?” Emerald asked, surprised.
“Aye, that was because I felt not the necessity for sleep. I still have plenty of energy to go on.” Morn Dread finished his apple and tossed the core down onto the grassy floor. “You look like you needed the sleep, so I let you have more of it.”
“That’s very… thoughtful of you,” Emerald said, still feeling a little guilty for having snoozed her way through the night and letting the other knight stay up the whole time. “Are you sure you don’t need to rest?”
“I shall be fine. I have had to live on very little sleep before. Now, have your breakfast, and we can get on with our quest.”
Pulling half a loaf of bread from her pack, Emerald quickly devoured her morning meal and in no time at all, the two knights were back on their horses and galloping toward their destination. It was a cool day, with the sun partially hidden by some fluffy white clouds. Emerald privately wondered how they managed to stay in formation like that without a pegasus team to guide them. There was still so much she didn’t know about this world.
It was just getting to noon when Emerald and Morn saw the village. Perhaps village was not the right term. This was more like a military encampment. Two of them, built about a kilometer away from each other with a grassy no-man’s-land between them.
“Is… Is this it?” Emerald turned to Sir Morn for explanation. This was the most odd looking town she had seen since coming here.
“It certainly appears to be. Shall we investigate?”
“Mhm.” Emerald motioned Foxtrot to approach the settlement.
“Which side do we visit first?” Sir Morn asked, looking at the two encampments. There looked to be a couple dozen humans moving around in each. Some of them had caught sight of the two knights and were peering at them curiously. Emerald noticed one side of the settlement, the one further away, had humans in different looking armor, with most of their bodies not even covered in armor. At the nearer settlement, the one with the humans looking at them, each one of them wore a set of armor, looking just like the regular knights of Canterlot.
“Knights?” Emerald asked Sir Morn. “Have they come here from Canterlot? Did King Dawn Saber send them?”
“I do not recognize their banner,” Sir Morn frowned. “It is impossible to know for certain until we ask, but I think these knights are from one of the fiefdoms that the king has conquered, but allowed the ruler to stay on the throne as long as they pay their taxes.”
“That does not make it sound like they will happy to see us.”
“No, perhaps not…” Sir Morn rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Perhaps we had best see to the other side first.”
Taking a wider arc around the group of knights, Emerald and Morn headed over to the second encampment, which housed the half-armored men and women, who were all clearly more muscular than the knights, now that they were closer.
“Greetings!” Sir Morn said, slowing Windspeed to a trot. “We have traveled a long way to be here.”
“Oh yes?” one of the men said, his head adorned with a round helmet with two horns protruding from the top. “Who sent you?”
“King Dawn Saber of Canterlot,” Morn said for both of them. “We have been sent to this area to acquire special artifacts if they are indeed here somewhere. We think the recent earthquake might have uncovered some. We have been traveling here when we spotted your encampment.”
“There be no artifacts here, tin man,” the man with the horned helmet said. “Judging by yer looks, you’re probably with them other knights. So why don’t you turn around before things get ugly, eh?”
“What matter do you have with those knights from across of you?” Morn looked back at the other camp and then back at the man in front of him. “Knights fight with and for honor.”
The man with the horned helmet scoffed. “What honor? They have plundered two sacks of what little grain we have left. If that counts as honor to you knights, then yer a load of dungpies. Now get going before you find a sword through yer chest.”
“They have done such a thing?” Sir Morn looked incredibly appalled. Then he put a hand on Clarent’s pommel and looked to the other camp. “Perhaps I shall have a word with them.”
“Aye, and make sure you don’t come back.” The man raised his broadsword. “We vikings will have no more parley with you lying knights.”
Emerald and Sir Morn turned their horses around and slowly approached the other side of the pass.
“So, vikings,” Emerald mused. “I’ve only seen that one from the tournament.”
“Oh, Stronghorn, eh?” Sir Morn pointed back at the other vikings. “He is a regular contender for the championships, but he has never won. I must say, he is friendlier than these folk here. I wonder what the knights over there have done for us to deserve such ire. I am sure stealing grain is but the top of this.”
“Well, as long as they don’t attack us, it should be fine,” Emerald said, loosening Amore in its sheath. “I’m interested in learning why both sides seem to dislike one another so.”
“Thievery is a strong reason, Lady Emerald. I would like to know why these knights, these honorable people, have resorted to stealing. If tis a bad reason…” he growled and grasped Clarent more tightly.
It didn’t take long for the knights to see them coming. Five men in dull metal armor walked out to meet them, hands on their swords and spears. They too, didn’t look too happy to see them.
What are we even doing here? Emerald wondered to herself. They should be out there, looking for any artifacts among the ruins the earthquake had created.
“Halt! One step closer, and you will find a spear through your throat,” one of the knights barked at them.
“Sounds familiar.” Emerald looked back to the viking camp.
“Lower your arms.” Sir Morn raised his hands and showed his palms to them, the universal gesture for ‘Look, I’m not carrying a big murderous weapon’.
“Look, he’s not carrying a big murderous weapon!” one of the knights blurted out.
“Yes, I can see that,” another of the knights said snidely. “Who are you two? You are not flying our banner, so you are clearly not one of us.”
“Sir Morn Dread and Lady Emerald Edge, Knights of the Round Table of Canterlot,” the blue haired knight introduced. “We have come in search of artifacts when we noticed your encampment and the viking’s.”
“You went and talked with those scoundrels?” The knight said, flipping up his visor. Underneath was a bony peach face with an impressive purple moustache. “I bet they told you that we’re the ones at fault.”
“Something along those lines, yes,” Emerald admitted. “They said you stole some grain from them. Is that true?”
“Yea, that we did.” The knight in front thrust his spear forward to emphasize his words. “But did they say they first took our pots for cooking?”
“They did?” Sir Morn looked unimpressed. “And you weren’t guarding your pots because…?”
“Well, how were we to know they’d steal them?” the moustached knight said, exasperated. “I mean, who takes the cookware instead of the gold? It just boggles the mind!”
“Yes, I’m sure it does…” Sir Morn said to himself.
“The vikings didn’t say anything about pots,” Emerald said.
“Well of course they wouldn’t!” The knight exclaimed. “They are but a bunch of lying thieves, that’s why. The point is, we found this village first, not them. We have hungry mouths to feed after that earthquake destroyed our old village.”
“Is that so?” Sir Morn sighed. “Where was your old village anyway? I do not recognize your coat of arms.”
“Northwest,” the knight replied. “A province called Blackwood. Our leigelord, the esteemed Lord Blackwood, was killed when his castle collapsed on him. We have been without leadership since.”
“Blackwood… That rings a bell,” Emerald said, harkening back to her days as a pony. “A small province to the southeast of the Crystal Empire, famed for the quality of its lumber.”
“The what?” The knight peered at Emerald. “What empire?”
“Never mind,” Morn said quickly. “Who is your, ah, temporary leader?”
The knight scratched his head. Or rather he tried to, but his helmet was in the way.
“We don’t have one, not really. Things have been very mixed up since our exodus here.”
“Yes, I can see that.”
The moustached knight squinted at Sir Morn, as if he was unsure if he was being mocked or not.
“Well, whatever the case, we intend to get out cookery back from those wretched vikings. Death or glory!” The knight thrust his sword into the air, and the rest of his compatriots also did so, roaring out battle-cries.
“Death or glory for… pots...” Emerald said to Sir Morn while the knights were still cheering. “Sounds like it is a bit too much to me.”
“These men can only be called knights in the loosest sense of the word,” Sir Morn replied, shaking his head. “Undisciplined and motley lot they are. They didn’t even choose a proper temporary leader. No sense of honor.”
“And no sign of any artifacts either.”
Once the yelling had died down, Sir Morn looked down at them with a shrewd look on his face. “I will return to the vikings and ask about your pots. Emerald, you stay here and help these… men choose a temporary leader. I will be back shortly.”
Turning Windspeed around, Sir Morn galloped on back to the vikings’ camp.
“So…” Emerald said from atop Foxtrot. “Who wants to be the leader?”
As it turned out, finding a leader was not a straightforward task. It wasn’t that there were too many contenders; rather, it was because nobody knew what to do.
These men clearly relied far too much on their late Lord Blackwood, Emerald thought to herself with a huff. The head has been chopped from the snake, as Sir Agramane would put it. Then she shivered as she thought about heads being cut off.
“Lord Blackwood knew how to run things,” one of the knights bemoaned dramatically. “Without his guidance, we are lost!”
“Difficult to argue with that,” Emerald muttered. She was getting frustrated. These knights were nothing like the ones back in Canterlot, who would have been able to organize themselves without so much as a hiccup. These men were… just a bunch of loafers in armor who knew how to use a sword or spear. No sense of ceremony or organization at all.
While talking and listening to the group of knights, Emerald soon learnt that both the vikings and their own group had lost their homes to the recent quake, and they had both come to this piece of land to start over. Unfortunately, they didn’t seem to want to share it.
The former pegasus was relieved when she saw Sir Morn galloping back, with the late afternoon sun shining behind him.
“Oh, thank Celestia, you’re back,” Emerald said to Sir Morn as he hopped down from his horse’s back. “I’ve been trying to organize these knights, but they are all woefully incompetent. No one knows how to do anything.”
“I’ve spoken to the vikings,” Morn sighed. “And their leader, Stormcrown, wants to meet with the leader of the knights. He also says we have until morning tomorrow, in which case if they have not come to an agreement, they will attack at dawn.”
“Ooh. That’s unfortunate.”
“Yes, it is,” Sir Morn said grimly. “We have only the rest of the afternoon and tonight to help these… knights, choose a leader and parley for peace. Else there will be a bloodbath tomorrow.”
“But nobody wants to be the leader!” Emerald stressed. “What are we going to do?”
Sir Morn thought for a moment, putting his armored fist to his chin.
“We delegate,” he said at last. “You!” he said, pointing to a passing knight.
“Me?” the knight asked, pointing to himself.
“Yes, you. You are the leader now, you hear me?”
“What? I-I-I cannot be the leader!”
“Well, tis too late. You are. Now get your kit together and get your smartest friends. You and the vikings are going to negotiate.”
The knight stood there stammering for a few more seconds, then rushed off to fulfill Sir Morn’s orders.
“That wasn’t so hard,” Sir Morn said, trying very hard not to look proud.
“I hope you’re right…” Emerald said slowly.
About an hour later, the newly appointed leader of the knights and five of his friends had gathered near the edge of the camp. They were heavily armed, with swords, spears, daggers, and even a battleaxe.
“Is that really necessary?” Emerald deadpanned, looking at the knights.
Sir Morn shrugged, his armored shoulders moving up and down with a clank. “Well, nothing we can do about it now. We should move while there is still daylight. I shall ride ahead and notify Stormcrown that the knights are willing to talk. We will meet in the middle.”
“Alright then,” Emerald said hesitantly. “Come on, men. Time to meet with the vikings.”
The knights grumbled and groaned, but obediently followed Emerald’s horse. In the distance, a small crowd of people with horned helmets was approaching.
I hope this goes well… Emerald thought. We’re not even supposed to be doing this. We’re here to look for artifacts.
All too soon, the walk was over. A tall stone stood roughly in between the camps, so Emerald and the knights stopped there and waited.
They had barely begun to settle down when a loud horn rang forth, signalling the arrival of Sir Morn and the vikings.
The knights shifted restlessly, some of them putting a hand on a weapon. Emerald rolled her eyes and ate a stick of celery from her pack.
Sir Morn and Windspeed trotted up closer. The vikings had brought five men, one of which was their leader, Stormcrown. Emerald guessed him to be the viking at the front. Tall and muscular, with a network of spikes coming from his conical helmet. He had a long light blue beard running down from his face all the way to his belly. In both his hands, he held a large hammer, its head much bigger than Emerald’s own head.
Well, here goes nothing…
“Hail, Emerald!” Sir Morn rode up to her and dismounted. “Stormcrown and his… shield brothers are here to parley. Isn’t that right, Stormcrown?”
“Pah, yes,” Stormcrown growled. His voice sounded like he had been eating gravel. “But there’s nothing to parley about. Give us back our grain, and we won’t wash this valley with yer cowardly blood,” he said loudly.
The knight leader, who had been so afraid to take charge earlier, suddenly brandished a sword and pointed it forward, much to Emerald’s despair. “First, give us our pots and leave this land. Then we shall deliver your grain back to you!”
“Stop!” Sir Morn raised his palm towards the knights. “We are not here to start a fight! We are all here to make peace!”
“Can you two people just learn to live together?” Emerald tried to help ease the tension.
“Nay, these brutes have been in our land long enough.” The knight shook his covered head. “They should return to where they belong in the Frozen North.”
“And you knights should return to what you do best!” Another viking pointed at them with a meaty finger. “Minding yer own business! We were here first!”
“And can you prove that you were here first? It does not matter anyway. There is not even any snow here for you to make houses from. Why are you even here?”
Emerald looked at Sir Morn, who shook his head slowly. This was not going the way they had hoped.
“At least our houses have snow!” Stormcrown tried to push past Sir Morn, who had to hold him back. “You should use less dung to make your houses! Maybe that way you will at least smell better.”
Maybe we should leave…Emerald considered idly. Come back a week later and see who’s still alive.
“Now, hold your horses, good Stormcrown,” Sir Morn tried to reason with the viking leader. “We have no need for insults. We can yet work this out.”
“The only work I want to do is to put my hammer into their bones! We were-”
Suddenly, from not too far in the distance, there was a roar. It reminded Emerald of a lion, only this roar was much louder and deeper.
“What was that?” she asked, her question directed to Sir Morn.
The blue haired knight looked around, even sniffing the air a few times, but soon, shook his head. “Tis nothing, it seems. Just a distant animal.”
The vikings looked unfazed and glared back at the group of knights. “And if yer weren’t clanking around in yer armor so much, you might actually-”
The roar sounded again, this time much closer.
Sir Morn sniffed again, this time, removing his hands from the viking leader and turning to face the sound.
“I don’t like the sound of that…” Emerald said, her hand going to Amore’s hilt.
“Me neither,” Sir Morn said quietly. “By its call, I would guess that its owner is a rather large creature. And the only animal in these parts that would dare to come so close to a human settlement would be a-”
“Manticore!” one of the vikings shouted as a huge shadow bore down on the group.
“This is going to be unpleasant,” Sir Morn had time to say before Clarent cleared its sheath.
Stormcrown turned around and motioned with a hand to a group of vikings at the back who were holding on to bows and arrows. “Archers! What do you see?”
Does he need to ask? Emerald looked with him at bewilderment before drawing Amore.
A brute of orange and red fur barrelled into the vikings and the knights, scattering them like skittles. It was an impressive beast, Emerald thought. It was almost half as big as her house in Canterlot and was packing a glittering set of teeth and a poisonous stinger tail that was glistening with venom. Suddenly her sword felt very small.
The manticore in this world didn’t look much different from the ones back in Equestria, except it was leaner and probably much faster.
The manticore roared again and eyed one of the knights trying to make a run for it. With almost lightning speed, its tail lashed out, spearing the knight in the back, right through his armor, if the stab didn’t already kill him, the poison made quick work of it. The knight fell to his face, unmoving.
Unable to use the same tactics she would use to fight a manticore, which involved much flying, Emerald charged for the beast, swinging her sword at its right hind leg, trying to wound it enough to get it to fall. Unfortunately, after the first swing, the manticore jumped back into her, knocking the spymaster to the ground and stepping over her before slashing at her with its front claws. Emerald Edge lifted Amore and blocked the blow before rolling to the side to avoid more, hopping to her feet to get a good distance between them.
“Archers!” Stormcrown yelled and pointed at the manticore. “Fire!”
Three of the vikings let fly an arrow each, two of them missing but one of them nailing the beast in the leg. Unfortunately, that just seemed to make it angrier.
“By Celestia’s mane,” Emerald grumbled as she kept Amore in between herself and the monster. “Why is all the wildlife in this world so hostile?”
The manticore leapt atop Stormcrown, pinning him to the ground, when suddenly one of the knights let out a battlecry and threw his spear at the beast. The projectile stabbed deep into the manticore’s side, and it leapt back off of Stormcrown.
“Ha! How do you like that, creature?”
The knight only had enough time to unsheathe his sword when the manticore swiped him away with its front paw.
Sharing a look with Sir Morn, both Emerald and he charged the beast from two directions, with Emerald aiming for its tail and Morn its face.
Before Emerald could swing at its tail, another viking leapt up into the air and brought his axe crashing down on the appendage. The axe bit deep and left a sizeable gash in the manticore’s tail, but didn’t cut it off.
Meanwhile, Sir Morn ran at the manticore, and while it was distracted by its wounded tail, the Knight of the Round Table jumped atop one of the knights’ shield, and using it as a springboard, leapt up and slashed the manticore across the face. Sizzling hot drops of blood rained down on everyone as the monster flailed around in pain. It spun around and thrust its tail tip into Sir Morn’s arm, spearing right through his armor and spraying blood across the grass.
“Sir Morn!” Emerald dashed past the vikings and knights, slashing away at the manticore’s rear legs.
Suddenly from her right, a group of knights joined in, doing what they could against the manticore’s right side, while Stormcrown and a second viking leapt atop the creature, attacking its large bat-like wings.
The manticore turned and swung the vikings off, growling at Emerald, but as it lunged for her, it suddenly stopped, falling to its face. From behind, Sir Morn, pulling the stinger from his arm, seemed to lift the manticore by its tail, and somehow, almost like he had been imbued with the strength of a hundred men, swung the manticore up and around, throwing it a good distance away. There was a snap as the beast flew, impacting the ground a few meters away, its face dragging along the grass and unearthing the dirt.
“Rally men! We have it by the tail!” Then Sir Morn looked at the severed tail in his hand and threw it to the ground.
The vikings nodded and ran to stand alongside him, their weapons ready, while the knights still looked hesitant.
“Well, go on!” Emerald barked at them. “Do as he says. We can win this!”
Drawing a sword, the knight leader raised it high and ran forward. “Chaaaaaaaarge!”
The rest of the knights did the same, following after their leader, weapons drawn and ready. They rushed past Sir Morn and the vikings, immediately swinging their weapons at the manticore. Unfortunately, they missed ever attack, with the manticore leaping back and then charging forward, knocking them all up into the air.
“Aaaagh!” Most of them cried out as they flew in all directions as the manticore charged Sir Morn and the vikings.
Emerald was about to run in and help out, but almost like a stroke of luck, the knight leader somehow managed to maneuver in the air, landing atop the manticore’s back as it spread its wings to blast itself at the viking group. Lifting his sword, the knight cut down on the wing flaps, shredding holes along the manticore’s left wing. The beast roared and with wind running through one wing, it lost its momentum and flight, tumbling back to the dirt group and shearing a good portion of grass off of the terrain as it slid.
The knight had thrown himself clear, and to Emerald’s surprise, it was Stormcrown who helped him back to his feet.
“Get up. This is not over yet!” the viking leader bellowed.
Rubbing its muzzle, the manticore got back to its four feet, rage in its eyes, eyeing the knight leader.
“Stand ready, knight!” Stormcrown picked up a second axe. “It comes for you. We shall finish this right now!”
“R-Right.” The knight leader gulped.
Emerald flourished her sword, using it to catch the attention of the manticore. The beast leapt at Emerald instead, but she ducked at the last moment the thrust Amore straight up into its barrel chest. The momentum tore the sword from her grasp, but she recovered well and activated her hidden blades.
At that moment, the knights and vikings attack again, both factions from one side each. While the manticore was assailed by them, Emerald took the chance to run back up to it, thrusting her hidden blades deep into the manticore’s chest, close to where her sword was still hanging.
The beast roared in pain and rose up on its hind legs, spreading its wings out and knocking the other humans away. Emerald hung on because of her hidden blades, sheathing one as she reached for Amore’s hilt.
Just then, Sir Morn was beside her, digging Clarent deep into the manticore’s belly, but unlike Emerald, he pulled down, sliding down the beast’s underside as his fine blade cut along the entire length of the manticore’s belly.
Innards began spilling out, coating Emerald’s face in red as she managed to dislodge Amore, jumping clear of the blood and gore before it could coat her entirely.
The manticore flailed and thrashed, roaring skyward. And then it collapsed to the ground with an earthshaking thud, the only thing still moving were its insides, spilling from its open wound.
Emerald and Sir Morn stood side by side, panting from the exertion. Then they glanced at one another.
“Well fought, Lady Emerald.”
“Likewise, Sir Morn.”
“You have blood on your face.” The male knight rubbed a armored finger across Emerald’s cheek.
“So do you.” Emerald gave him a light pat on the arm.
Sir Morn smiled and wiped at his face. “So I do, but not as much as you. Still, this fails to diminish your shining beauty, my lady.”
Emerald chuckled and wiped a hand across Sir Morn’s cheek. “You flatter me as always, Sir Morn.” Then, feeling incredibly daring, she kissed him on the cheek.
The knights and the vikings kept their eyes on the slain manticore, helping each other up as they gave the carcass a wide berth.
“We… we did it!” One of the knights cheered.
“Oh, won’t Lord Blackwood be pleased!”
The knight leader rubbed his shoulder. “If only he had not perished in the quake. What are the odds he could return?”
One of the vikings nearby scoffed. “What, come back to life? You know that is impossible.”
“I suppose so.”
Then Stormcrown came over and clapped the knight leader on the shoulder. “No worry, lad! You are leader now. And yer combat skills are quite impressive! Be the leader yer Lord Blackwood would like you to be.”
“Well, we’ll eat well tonight.” One of the knights prodded the dead manticore with his spear. “Anyone up for roast manticore?”
As the knights and vikings discussed their dinner, Sir Morn and Emerald exchanged looks.
“Now that looks like peace to me,” Morn said with a satisfied nod. “I think our work here is done.”
“So we can move on, then?” Emerald asked, eager to be one the road to look for artifacts again.
“Wait!” Stormcrown walked up to the Knights of the Round Table. “Please, for your role in helping us reach an understanding, won’t you stay and have dinner with us? There’s plenty of meat to go around.”
“Er…” Emerald said, not quite wanting to voice that she only ate plants.
Sir Morn winked at Emerald, then replied, “Only if you bring out the grain. My fellow knightess has an… aversion to meat. It’s a personal matter, really.”
“Bring out the grain?” a knight asked. “Already on it. And the vikings have agreed to bring out the pots to cook this beast with.”
“In that case…” Emerald said. “We’ll stay for a while. Here’s to friendship!”
“To friendship!” the warriors around her agreed, then started laughing.
The laugh was contagious, and soon Emerald and Morn found themselves grinning too. Their laughter joined in with the others, echoing out into the darkening sky.