“She did WHAT!” The scream of rage shocked you and your mates out of their reverie. Something was up and that usually meant trouble for the soldiers on the frontline.

Malcianus came boing out of the cart, his face flushed red with rage. “Change of orders Soldier, get this cart under some cover then we march back to the gathering grove double time!”

Along with the rest of the 20 man squad you jumped to it. In a few minutes  the cart containing the tent and gear was concealed under some cut branches and brushwood. All the while Malcianus stood apart muttering under his breath. You’d like to think he was intoning some kind of spell but it looked for all like he was just cussin’ a blue streak. Eventually you all finished and lined up before the Apprentice Mage.

“Alright men here’s the situation” he began, apparently back in control of himself “I have had a magical message from our Master, a warband of Orcs has ambushed the Prince’s entourage as they headed to the fair. They managed to escape back to the fortress but the Warband has followed them and is laying siege to it.” He paused as an involuntary ripple of alarm passed through the Mercenary band ” Settle down, that’s not our immediate concern, apparently the Orcs sent a portion of their forces to raid the Gathering. They have no warriors to speak of back there as you know. As the only trained troops in the area its up to us to stop them or at least rescue whomever we can. Yes what is it?”

One of the other troops had nervously raised a hand, more like a schoolboy than a soldier you thought wryly.

“er Sir how many Orcs are heading to the gathering?”

“I wish I knew the message was as you can imagined ‘terse’. But dont worry I am not going in blind, no, we will go back to the Fair slowly and cautiously – just in case. As I said if there are too many then I am not throwing away our lives in what’s already a Balls up of the first order. Way I see it if there is any chance of taking them down then we will, but if not, we might be able to make enough of a distraction to let some folks get away. We won’t know till we get there. So unless there are any more questions stow your gear and get ready to roll?!”

Nobody said a thing so with a knot in your stomachs you headed back the way you had come…