Leon and Thetrous and Nei were old guard as they called them in the White Shields. They were veterans. They had been around for a longer time. Two humans and a half-human/half-dwarf. They had seen one another around, for all the White Shields knew each other. But they had never been together on the same mission before. In the White Shields groups are made and dissolved regularly depending on how well they worked together and tasks that needed to be done. In this case the higher ups decided that these three were needed to lead some new recruits. In this case those said recruits were mainly human. 

Alberyn, the great country of the Dwarves, had more dwarves than the neighboring country Lunae. So why would a band of the White Shields be made up of humans? At first this had bugged Leon a little bit. He was used to being one of the few humans around in the White Shields. Now, he was being told to help lead a band of humans and half-humans. The older man sighed as he remembered the day that this human central group came together. He had been sitting on a fence, dangling his legs, waiting bored. Laid out before him was a training field for the White Shields. That day they had gotten two fresh newbies and two reassigned from other Bands. The newbies were definitely new. He remembered being exasperated at the youngest man, Caden, for his pride and arrogance. Though Thetrous didn't seem to mind, and joined in occasionally with his own boasts of his prowess. 

However, that had been days ago. Now they were a days ride from Baron Laflur's castle, near the southern edge of Elensa. When Leon had found out their destination he had realized why the abundance of humans in their band. Elensa was swarming with racists. Men and women who hated anyone who wasn't human. Their elitist attitude helped them justify why the routinely ignored the ruling Council of Ceris. However they had been told that Baron Laflur was different. Sure he was still a racist and a human elitist, but the Baron also wanted to open boarders more and encourage trade. Because of this, some of the other Barons didn't like him very much. In fact his neighboring Baron, Baron Devon, was attacking poor Baron Laflur because of his progressive ideas. Thus, it was their job to secure Castle Laflur and enable this Baron to keep pushing his own agenda.