"A light reflected off of Tiral's ice will do nicely," Fanilly responded. With that in order, the remaining knights split themselves among the two teams, and it was time to move in. The short blonde knight took a deep breath as she carefully made her way down the side of the hill, after having made her way a less steep area to the east. The foliage helped to mask their approach from the orc guards, and it seemed as if the brutes had failed to even scent them. The fairies had elected not to come any closer, likely due to the heavy magic in the air making them nervous. Even Fanilly, with no sensitivity to magic, could feel something of a weight in the air. It was almost like it was exceptionally humid. There was no doubt that the enemy was an extremely powerful mage, perhaps performing some sort of magic as they made there way to their positions.

At the east entrance, there were three large orcs, each with that crude black armor and their thick, jagged swords. Orcish smithing was not exactly elegant, but it could be deadly. Fanilly took a deep breath. From what she could see, there were only orcs guarding the ruins. No matter how much self-doubt she may have felt, she felt confident in her ability to lead the knights in battle in order destroy an orcish defense force like this, especially when Tiral was going to coat the ground in ice to make it so their enemies would be unable to stand and fight properly.

Slowly, carefully, Fanilly drew her sword.

"On my mark, Sir Tiral," she began, blue eyes glancing back towards the mage, "Freeze the earth, and then we'll begin our charge. One..."

"Two..."

"Three..."

"Now!"

[hr]

The gaggle of children was a chorus of nods and declarations that they'd be the best knights ever. It seemed, at least for the moment, Liliana's bid for a moral lesson worked perfectly. For now. Children were easily swayed by whatever caught their attention for the moment, but it was likely that the sight of such strong, impressive knights would remain in their thoughts for a long time to come. Who knows? Perhaps a few of them would indeed grow up to become proud defenders of the realm and join the Iron Rose Knights. It wasn't as if it hadn't happened before, after all.

The little girl seemed to droop, slightly, in disappointment, when Fleuri told her he couldn't help, but she managed to regain her composure quickly enough.

"Mae is in the town center, near, um..." she trailed off for a moment, "Beldrigan's Barrel!"

It was the name of the town's rather large, impressive inn. Positioned right near the center of Brennan, it was an easy location to remember.

When Klaus offered to help, the little girl brightened even more.

"Really?!" she exclaimed, "Mae was really sad, so I wanted to find her puppy as soon as possible! Her name is Ennifer, like from the stories!"

Ennifer was the name of one of the heroes who had assisted in the defeat of the Witch-Queen of Orodagor, seven hundred years ago. It was a little bit of a grand name for a puppy, but at the same time, Ennifer herself would likely have approved. She loved dogs, after all.

[@TheFake][@PKMNB0Y][@Raineh Daze][@Noodles][@Crimson Paladin]