I want to apologise for not uploading my recently, but I had something happening in my life so, sadly I was unable to write, but I should be back now, so thank you for sticking around.

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The Battered Flame: Report

Star POV

We stepped through the swirling red vortex, Me at the front, stepping straight back into the throne room, where my mother sat on her throne, still adorned in her armour, wearing a grim expression matched by the soldiers who went with her. Moon had headed straight to the capital of Swanen, with the hope of talking to the king and finding out what was going on while I went off to investigate the location of the battle. From the way she looked I hoped that our success in gathering information would help improve her mood.

As the first in to the room, I stood aside to allow the rest of my entourage to pass through the portal, the injured mercenary being helped in by the nurse attending him, something that made me a little mad as my position of princess would make me doing that seem inappropriate, and I really wanted to be in that medics position. And don't judge me, who wouldn't. I mean the Marco Diaz, everyone knew his name, he was famous everywhere, I owned books that talked about what he and his companions had done. Not to mention that he was topless, and all that mercenary work certainly payed off in more areas than just skill and, well, actual pay. I was actually quite proud of myself that I didn't just burst out screaming in excitement when I found out who he was. I need to tell Pony Head about this. And get him to sign some of my clothes. Maybe he would stay long enough to give me some training in fighting. I mean I did just save his life so he certainly owed me.

But first I had to give my report my mother. I gave her a courteous bow, the many joints in my plate armour thankfully allowing me to move freely.

"You summoned for my return mother, do you want to know what we have found?"

"Yes, Star, I pray you have had more luck than us, but you will be informed of that alongside the counsel later. I see you have someone with you, a survivor I assume?" Moon raised an eyebrow, and I nodded to confirm her belief. Waving Marco forward, him now only with a minor limp, but that nurse still clung irritatingly on to him, like she was the one who needed his presence. Quickly I looked back to my mother and wiped the disapproving frown off of my lips, hoping that she wouldn't notice.

"This here is the renowned mercenary, Marco Diaz, member of the Three Flames." Like on the battlefield, this brought more than a few gasps and murmurs, and even caused Moon to sit forward, inspecting Marco with interest. As he reached the front, Marco gave queen Moon an awkward bow, but with surprising ease from what I had seen of his injuries from just a short time ago. "We found him injured on the battlefield, the only survivor from what we could find, and he shall be able to give his account of what happened there."

"Well then," Moon said, "let us hear what you have to say."

"Of course your majesty," Marco began, with another slight tip of his head, "Well it began just a few days ago. Me and my comrades had just finished a few minor jobs here and there, and we were just passing through Swanen, well, passing through and partying that is, our usual way to spend a good chunk of newly earned money. One morning, while I was nursing a pretty bad hangover, we were approached by a man saying he represented the King of Swanen." Marco's remarks brought a few chuckles from the surrounding guards, all being guilty of spending much of there wages in a similar way. "I assume you've heard of the raids down there, as had we, but we thought little of them at the time, a little below our pay grade, you know. But this representative told us that a massive army of monsters had emerged from the forest, and that they wanted our services, and were willing to pay handsomely for it. Because of mine and Kalara's current… afflictions… as it were, Lachlan took him to a private room to get the details and all. So later Lachlan comes out to talk to us. Normally we wouldn't accept a job like this, not much knowledge about what we were facing, very little time to prepare, but when we heard the pay, there was no way we could turn it down. With it we would have been set for the rest of our lives. We would be getting gold, jewels, land and even a small keep with a choice of brides from the daughter of the nobility. And if you had seen any of those girls you would know that there inheritance was not the best part of that." This led to guffaws of laughter from people surrounding us, a disapproving look from my mother, and a slight frown from me. I wonder how I would compare to these noble daughters. If you give me a chance to dress up I bet I could beat any of them for looks, and if not I could just beat them in a fight anyway.

"Mr Diaz, could you please get on with the important details of the account" Moon stated in a sharp voice.

"Of course your majesty, sorry. So that morning we headed with him to the capital, where we met with a large army that Swanen had been gathering, around 10 thousand strong maybe, consisting of levied, state and mercenary troops, on top of this Spiderbite Kingdom was also sending 2 thousand of their heavy cavalry to meet us, though they hadn't arrived yet. It was a strong force compared to what we thought Swanen was capable of gathering, they must have almost bankrupted themselves just to form it.

"Just the next day we marched out, the king didn't want the monsters to pillage freely across the countryside so we headed out to force a battle, and to end the threat quickly. Soon the battle lines where drawn and we prepared to face off. It was going to be a difficult battle, the enemy numbering over 20 thousand monsters and mewmans who had been bribed or manipulated into joining them, along with many powerful beasts mixed in, but it wasn't insurmountable.

"The battle was going fairly well all things considered at first, with our help the front lines where holding well, and the monsters where not using overly complex tactics. But then we heard a horn in the back of our formation. Our cavalry had arrived, and now we could finally win it. Or so we thought, until the Spiderbite cavalry smashed into our rear and began slaughtering our men.

"At this point Lachlan decided it was time to hop, the battle was lost. He went on Deathclaw to pick up Kalara and the king. I was just about to summon Nachos from the Neverzone, when I was smashed by a giant and lost consciousness, and I only came about when I was found by your search party, so unless you have any questions for me, that is all the information I have to offer." Marco finished, people, including me, looked shocked at the size of the monster army. Surely that many couldn't have been organised into one force.

"No, that will be all Mr Diaz," my mother said, "Now medic, please see to it that he receives proper medical attention, everyone else is dismissed, my findings will be presented in 2 hours in front of the counsel. And I don't want any word of this outside this room, and guards found talking will soon find themselves in the stocks."

I watched as Marco was walked away to the hospital wing, and I ran up stairs to my room so I could finally drop my princess act.