Legacy of the Overlord Chapter 5: The Empire Returns, an overlord fanfic

I have gone back over the last four chapters and checked spelling and plot sections so hopefully I won't have to go back to them. I haven't checked this chapter yet because it will allow me to make room for any plot mistakes I've made and correct them accordingly. Don't worry I'll inform you when I do.

I own nothing to do with the Overlord games, I only made Briar and the brays and if Code Masters or Triumph Studios want to use them, they can

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Legacy of the Overlord

Chapter Five: The Empire Returns

Nordberg was a large town very similar to Crosskeys (which had not done Briar's confidence any good) but unlike Crosskeys it was mostly home to hunters, since there was little opportunity for growing crops in this mainly freezing land; that part of a Nordbergians' diet was filled mostly with wild growing cold-climate berries and other such plants. They were always looking for a new way to expand their diet... and that's where Briar and her bray herd could help.

It had turned out Kelda's father was the Chieftain of Nordberg Town and as thanks for saving his daughter he agreed for Briar to become a resident of the town immediately, the fact that she could raise goats for meat and milk had sweetened the deal for the Chief, especially when Briar had explained that it could also be traded for quite a price with other settlements.

After three weeks of becoming an official resident of the town and gaining a whole new wardrobe to cope with the chill, the Nordbergians still thought the brays as goats; considering how they had treated her when she told them the sap story about being skewered by a unicorn and then getting persecuted by the Glorious Empire, she thought it better not to tell them a story to cover for the brays. Everyone, everyone, had insisted on buying her a drink in the pub... she couldn't remember much after her fifth milk stout, which they said wasn't very strong and while it was the weakest drink in Nordberg it turned out to be stronger than the stout Old Archie served at the Happy Mule. Kelda said she had passed out and after Briar woke up thinking she was back at the flogging in Crosskeys she had vowed never to touch an alcoholic drink again. The less she thought about the hospitality of the Empire, the better.

Briar had taken temporary residence with Kelda and her family (her mother and father) while her herd and dogs had been given a large pen and an old barn nearby and were proving to be a hit with the townsfolk; they all thought Briar had somehow tamed wolves and the brays ( still disguised as goats wearing the old clothes to fend off the cold) were something new that the children could pet. Word of Briar's magic soon found its way across the town but most people remained civil towards her once they heard the unicorn story, as well as how she saved Kelda from the walrus.

The people were so different from the villagers of Spree, or the townsfolk from Crosskeys, and Briar found it differcult to stop looking over her shoulder as she walked around the town in case a lynch mob was following her. And wherever she went Kelda went with her; since Briar had started living with her family the young red head had barely left Briar's side. It was the same in the early mornings when Briar got ready to take the herd around the pathways leading to and from the town so the herd could eat.

The sun could only be seen as a small cut of brightening sky at the horizon as Briar and Kelda walked through the fresh snow covering the streets and alleys through Nordberg Town to reach the pen and stable that the brays were at. Grimjaw met them half-way and accompanied them for the remainder of the walk. Rustlers didn't seem to exist in Nordberg, Briar had put that down to the fact that there weren't many livestock herds to rustle from, the main annoyance Nordberg had were Unpermitted hunters. Unpermitted hunters were basically poachers and they were rife in this frozen land, but even in this aspect of Nordbergian life Briar had found some support because every night she gave three of her dogs to Nordberg Town's anti-poaching squad and the few days that had seen the dogs go on these little trips with the twelve strong men, had seen them catch more than ten unpermitted hunters. Several times Briar had gone with them to keep her skills sharp and shown the men of Nordberg herself how true Kelda's tales of her deadly moves were.

Last night she had given the anti-poacher squad Dark Lace, Jagger and Bubbles, who the squad normally didn't like to take because she had a tendency to bite the throats of the poachers, they preferred to bring them back alive to be tried at court. That left Fang, Grimjaw and Rip Tooth to guard the brays in case anyone did decide to take up rustling, as well as to alert the brays if anyone was coming so they could disguise themselves properly. "Yeti's are getting rarer around these parts, you know." Kelda said as she explained everything there was to know on the wildlife around the town and the frozen coast. "Father says it has something to do with the poachers. Although the yetis are very tough they don't really like fighting, you see, so they just move on to other areas if humans begin to attack them. But wendigos!" Kelda made a huffing noise which Briar took to be a sign that meant these wendigos were something to be avoided. "Wendigos are a whole other game, they come from the same family as the yetis but will always fight back if humans attack them. Well, that's what Father and the other hunters say. They have long shaggy fur which the veteran hunters say makes them blind and long ram-like horns, their arms are like tree trunks and they make even a yeti look like a wimp. You know that fur pelt hanging on the wall behind Father's Chieftain chair in the town hall? And that big horned skull on the Elder's table?"

Briar nodded. As a friend to the Chieftain family of Nordberg she was a frequent visitor to the town hall and had seen the great fur pelt and the large skull displaying Nordberg's heraldry.

"Well they're trophies from an alpha male wendigo."

Briar tried to imagine how many men must have died to get that pelt. The young shepherdess was glad that she hadn't run into a wendigo while trying to find Nordberg Town when she left the Netherworld. The grey pelt that was hung up behind the Chieftain's chair must have come from a creature at least fifteen feet tall, she found it hard thinking of the strength a creature like that must of had. And the horns and teeth on that skull looked very savage.

"Are... are there any wendigos around here?" Briar asked as she and Kelda reached the goat pen and stables, Briar dusting off snow from her new furs.

"There have been sightings but they tend to stay much further North where humans aren't likely to travel and no hunter has reported tracking one for many years." Kelda said open the stable door with Briar. "Well... unless the wendigo found them and they weren't quick enough to escape."

"Hopefully, that's one less thing to worry about." Briar found herself thinking along with a big exhale of relieved breath.

Many of the brays were still asleep but a few had woken up and were eating some hay given to Briar by the Chief as another thanks for saving his only child. Brum was off to the side, still sleeping on his feet. Briar was quickly finding it very rewarding to be the hero even though Kelda seemed to be making it a personal mission to make Briar a social animal after the magic user's exile for much of her life.

It was a lot to deal with; going from social outcast that everyone was begging to have slaughtered to a hero that saved the life of the Chief's daughter. Briar wasn't finding it hard adjusting to life in Nordberg, she was very good at adjusting thanks to being alone, but it didn't feel right that Kelda was always shadowing her. Briar was a private creature by her very nature, even her mother and aunt had known that, they had said her father had been the same. Kelda was a young girl always looking to get into a conversation while Briar was more of a one to just walk on by and the magic user was confused as why Kelda had taken such an interest in her well being. Okay, so it probably had a lot to do with saving her from that walrus creature but still, their personalities were like chalk and cheese and Briar was starting to tire with having Kelda follow her around. She knew it was completely unreasonable, she saw Kelda as a little sister, but she was quickly finding her annoying most days when she just wanted to sit with her herd and dogs, company that wouldn't talk to her (or at least not unless she talked to them first). But it wasn't all bad, Kelda was quite eager to help her savior with caring for her herd and the red head had turned out to be somewhat of a natural at milking brays.

Since she had no idea about how you were actually meant to milk a goat Briar was able to say you had to milk them with them sitting between your legs, it really was much more comfortable than trying to milk them as normal and the young huntress was able to show Briar a much more easier and quicker way to skin and carve the meat and preserve the hide and bones.

Briar knew she was being unreasonable when she didn't want Kelda around, but she had been alone for far too long.

It was a while into milking when Kelda asked her next question. "What's flogging?" Briar had known this question would come up eventually. "You mentioned it a couple of times before." Briar wondered if she should tell Kelda the truth. Although there was only a year between them Briar knew she was much more mature, mentally at least, than Kelda. She considered lying, but realized Kelda would know she was lying so that left only one option. She took a deep breath.

"Flogging is a punishment using a whip. They tie you to something, often a stack or something similar... they tied me to a pillar in a town square, and depending on the crime you committed, give you anything from three to forty lashes; sometimes more." Kelda's expression was a mix of horror and utter bewilderment, it was obvious that Nordbergians didn't have any punishment similar to flogging. Briar found herself very grateful for that.

"What was... your crime?" Kelda asked as she picked up a new pail.

"Being magical."

"Being magical?" Briar nodded "What sort of whip do they use?"

"Well, it's no cattle whip. Executioner whips are made to cause a lot more... damage. With the most amount of pain."

"Executioner?" Briar wondered if she should have waited before telling Kelda. The red-head was clutching the pail to her chest in a death grip.

"It's excruciating, most people bleed to death after twenty or thirty lashes and I only survived because of the magic in my blood."

"No. They couldn't do that to you!" Kelda didn't seem to want to believe it however, for some reason she didn't like the idea of Briar getting hurt. Again, something Briar found hard to accept, no one had not wanted to see her hurt since her mother. "No human could do that to you, magic or not."

"They did." Briar turned back to milking the bray, she didn't want anyone caring for her... she didn't want to care for anyone.

"You're wrong, no one can be that cruel! Not to you." Light exploded from Briar's eyes and she turned her back to Kelda so fast it spooked the bray she had been milking and the young huntress. She pulled up the back of her shirt, revealing her back.

She heard Kelda gasp or something that sounded like a suppressed scream, the milk pail Kelda had been holding clattered to the ground.

"Don't you ever tell me I am wrong! Don't you dare!" Briar's patience had finally snapped. The brays hunkered down into the straw which made up their bedding and the three dogs whined and whimpered as they shied away, tails between their legs. "No one, not even you, tells me I'm wrong when I know I'm right! No one, Kelda! I don't care if you are the spoiled brat of a chief!" Briar's eyes were overpowering the light from the two lanterns they had brought with them to see their way through the dark streets and the blue light was casting eerie shadows. "You don't know what it's like! You were never pelted with rocks or had to scrape a living from a bunch of arseholes that called you insults under their breath. You didn't have to watch your aunt leave to try and find another place to call home because raiders attacked daily. You never had to watch your mother die because no one gave a damn about the mother of a magical user and you weren't the one that Empire guards beat senseless, than tied to a pillar and had to listen to every cheer and feel every whipping as they delivered their so-called justice! I did nothing wrong to those bastards! I was the one that repelled the bandit attacks! And they were cheering!" She was shaking from fury and she was beginning to get cold, but she couldn't get control of her fingers in her rage to let the back of her shirt drop. "You were not the one they nearly pulled apart with horses! Don't you ever tell me I am wrong! Not when I am right!"

Briar had said her piece and for many, many long seconds everything went quiet and Briar began to wonder if Kelda had left, there were two entrances into the barn, both of them behind her. She just sat there, unable to move or let go of her shirt, she didn't care about the cold now, for the first time she just couldn't care about what happened now. She jumped when she felt small fingers tentatively touch the healed skin on her back and trace the scars left by the whip. Briar didn't stop Kelda when the young huntress wrapped her arms around her chest, covering her cold, scarred back with her body. Briar could hear Kelda's soft sniffs and tears, together with her own.

Eight years of carefully concealed emotions felt wonderful after being smashed into the cold Nordberg ground and left to freeze in its icy winds.

Briar and Kelda would be inseparable and Briar would once again smile daily, only this time for Kelda instead of her mother. She told the huntress everything. The truth about the brays, about her magic, the minions, the Burrows, the Empire, Mellow Hills and the Kingdom of Belmna. And for the first time in many years she had could finally say the names of her much beloved mother and her aunt.

Rose, her mother, and Velvet, her much loved aunt.

------ LoO ------

A year and a bit later

Midwinter's Eve was perhaps the best festival Briar knew but it was also the only festival that Briar had any fond memories of since she had arrived at the town just in time to see last years festival and fireworks, now it had come around once again much to her delight, and the delight of everyone else especially under the age of seventeen. Briar was fifteen and Kelda fourteen, so they were still well within the age capacity of getting fairly excited about tonight's festival. Kelda was just much more confident and capable on expressing her excitement than Briar was. It was getting late; the festival would be starting soon and she and Kelda had been tasked with collecting up the children to bring them to the festival in the town square where the decorated Midwinter's Tree was lit and where everyone would be watching the fireworks later.

The two girls and Grimjaw were walking to the town outskirts to gather up the Bowtee twins, Lucy and Chris, the Lefad brothers, Hans and Kyle and the Smithie girl, Sophie. They were having a snowball fight with some other children which made the two girls sent to collect them happy, it meant they could get back to the square quicker... well that's what they thought. The children had other ideas.

"Kelda! Briar! Play with us! Play with us!" the Bowtee twins cried rushing the two teens. Briar sighed and rolled her eyes under her hood, even though she had no reason to hide her eyes anymore it was a habit she was finding hard to break, besides it helped keep her warm in the cold weather.

"We haven't got time, we'll be late if you play for too long." Briar said as she took hold of Lucy's hand, Kelda went to gather up the other children who were building snowmen.

"Oh, but Briar, we haven't finished our snowball fight."

"You can start again tomorrow, it's not like you'll run out of snow." Kelda came back to and the two teens watched the younger children carry on with their game. They both had grins as they watched the kids. Kelda took hold of Briar's arm and rested her head on the taller girl shoulder.

"Briar?" Kelda said, sounding strangely hesitant.

Briar hummed in response to show she was listening.

"I've been meaning to tell you something for some time. But its a bit difficult to say."

"Just say it." It the only advice Briar could give her until she knew more.

"You think it's that easy?"

"I promise I won't shout, if it makes you feel better."

"Okay." Kelda said, she had not let go of her arm or removed her head from Briar's shoulder. "I... I think I like you." That was something Briar had not been expecting and it took her a few seconds to process its meaning. She turned to look at the top of Kelda's red hair. She looked around to see if the children were listening, then seeing that they weren't (they were too busy starting up another snowball fight) she whispered into young huntresses ear.

"We'll talk later, okay. After the festival in the bray's stable." Kelda nodded, but couldn't bring herself to speak.

Briar was then distracted by the tingling behind her eyes which signaled her eyes were staring to glow dimly and a second later she knew why. A snowball hit her on her shoulder as she went to help Lenin button up his coat, turning to look the shepherdess saw Hans and Kyle giggling with Kelda as Hans, the younger of the two brothers, made a new snowball. "Right, we'll fight to the fort; than we go to the festival." Briar said making her own snowball. An outbreak of laughter and suddenly everyone was rushing to make new snowballs and begin a new war as Briar and Kelda came under attack from the collection of kids. Grimjaw, realizing this was all just fun and games began to intercept some of the snowballs being aimed at his master, the big hybrid's tail wagging.

Halfway along the route when the fight began attracting more children Briar took a quick head-count. She didn't remember there being this many children in Nordberg, the child population seemed to have doubled overnight... and some of the new kids seemed to have very strange ways of getting dressed. But she was broken from her thoughts when another snowball hit her and she and Kelda began a hard push to get the children to move on, their plan worked and the children moved on to the snow wall they had made to guard the fort she, Kelda and the Nordbergian children had made at the top of a small hill overlooking a large pond and the town. Some of the new children had taken her and Kelda's side and with their help the two teens and Grim were able to get past the wall causing the children to take guard in the fort, specially decorated for Midwinter.

"Surrender! Or face the frozen hand of the Yeti Lords!" Kelda warned playfully, laughter dancing in her green eyes the entire time. Briar watched as Grim began licking the face of one of the children who had taken their side and went wide eyed in surprise when she saw several pairs of glowing amber eyes looking at her. Looking closely she saw it was her five minions. The rest of the children she then realized were her brays, she saw a bit of Ramrod's robe peeking out from under his child's coat. She grabbed the nearest minion and pulled him away from Kelda and the others.

"Mistress!" The minion said happily.

"Torn?" Briar realized, she couldn't help a small smile spread across her lips.

"Yay, Mistress remembered."

"What are you doing here, have you found your Overlord or something?"

"We find Overlord, yes. Come to take you away now. Back to Minion Burrows." She knew the minions would've come back for her but she had not expected them to be so quick and of course, it had to be tonight. This wasn't what she needed, at least not at the minute, not with Kelda.

"I can't, not until after the festival and once I've talked with Kelda. Stay close by okay."

"Okay, Master."

"Master? Since when did they start calling me Master?" The minion ran back to the snowball fight just as the fort children gave up; they had run out of snowballs and Grimjaw had worked his way inside, thereby meaning Briar's side had won. Briar and Kelda were now able to round up the children (Kelda thinking that the new children were regular children). They returned back to the path leading to Nordberg town singing 'Ring Around Roses' as they went, good spirits were high but Briar was torn between returning to the Browns and staying with Kelda; she'd have to explain to her... truthfully, she didn't really know what Kelda was to her. She cared for her, she cared deeply for her. Once again she had got in too deep. They had to stop at the gate and wait as Nev tried to remember how to open it, at least the cider seemed to be flowing freely... Briar hoped they had non-alcoholic drinks as well. Most of the children ran off to find their parents, some followed Kelda and Briar to the tree in the town square and stayed around the tree. Briar and Kelda looked around the stalls that were selling festival food and drinks. From the alcoholic drinks table it already sounded like the minions and brays were enjoying themselves, drawing a few looks from many adults near the table as well, and when a voice called out to Briar and Kelda they waved at the Chief as he gave them a smile and wave from where the pyrotechnic experts were tending to the rockets for the fireworks display.

------ LoO ------

It was about eleven o'clock when things began to go wrong. Briar's eyes had dimmed out by the time she had realized some of the children at the snowball fight were browns, but this time the tingle was so strong it was hurting her eyes and the glow was so fierce it drew the attention of several stall holders.

"Briar, what's wrong?" Kelda asked worryingly, trying to pry Briar's hands from her face and eyes.

"You okay, Love?" a nearby stall holder asked as several other villagers approached her. Grimjaw growled and snarled, hackles raised when a strange whistling began to sound in the air. A sickening feeling came to Briar's stomach and a horrible chill ran laps up and down her spine. The bell at the top of the Town Hall began to toll, warning of impending danger.

"Everyone get down!" Briar shouted, just as a huge boulder went crashing into the roof of a nearby house, scattering rubble and raining debris down onto the square. People began screaming and running for cover as yet another boulder came whistling through the air to strike another house. Briar dragged Kelda to the cover offered by some rubble with the terrified girl clinging to her arm.

"What is this?" Kelda asked pressing against Briar as yet another boulder smashed into the stone slabs of the town square. Briar felt around her belt and remembered she had left her sword back in the bray stable. If this wasn't an act of nature, and therefore not an act of any god or deity, than that left only one possible event. An attack. Another boulder came crashing only feet away from their hiding place and this time it was Kelda who began to drag Briar to the front wall of the town.

"Kelda! What are you doing? Get somewhere safe!"

"Seeing what's going on." Kelda had always been rather fearless and the past year had seen Briar help the huntress through several injuries because of her curious nature and it took all of Briar's strength to stop the girl getting to the very front of the crowd of adults that had gathered on the wall. Grimjaw's snarls and growls took on a deeper more menacing form and this time Briar joined him in his snarling. She knew those helmets and the style of the armour. The Glorious Empire had come to Nordberg.

"Surrender your magic users Nordberg, so they may be cleansed! In the name of the Glorious Empire and your new Governor Borius!" shouted a somewhat stout soldier in golden armour and red feathers, a general maybe, at the head of a small army surrounding the city. Borius must have been the small, rotund man who stood beside him, a rather ugly looking fellow with an untrustworthy face and slightly crooked teeth. Kelda's father rushed to the front of the crowd and pushed the two girls to the safety behind the adults gathering of adults.

"We have no magic users. We're all just simple hunters, craftsmen!"

"Do not lie! The Sentinels have spoken." the general ordered sharply, bringing attention to two hooded figures, dressed finely and carrying ornate staffs. "Surrender your magic users or watch your town burn and your people die!" Once again the Glorious Empire was taking another home from her, her eyes were still glowing, but she had been hidden from the general by the wall of adults. From a gap between two men she saw the Chief's shoulders slump and he turned to where she was as Briar parted the two men to let her through. The Chief, Kelda's father, was a tall man with red hair that his daughter had inherited, his eyes were dark brown and he wore clothes made from high quality pelts as well as cloth like cotton and wool. He was a good man who had the weight of a town on his shoulders who had made the mistake of growing to love Briar like a second daughter... they never had bothered to find Briar a house of her own.

"Briar, I'm so sorry." It was the first time she had seen the Chief so torn in making a decision. Briar felt selfish, once again she had let herself get too close.

"No! No Father don't. They'll kill her!" Kelda tried to get to Briar but she was restrained by the other adults. Briar didn't have time to react when she felt several pairs of hands grab her and lift her into the air. Grimjaw started biting the legs of one of the men who had taken hold of his master.

"Hey! Put her down! She deserves to meet them at the front gate!" the Chief's order fell on ears deafened by fear, however, and Briar was thrown from the top of Nordberg's defensive walls to land in the snow which was thankfully deep enough to cushion her fall. A thud next to her meant Grimjaw had leapt from the wall to be with his master. She could hear the Chief arguing with the men who had thrown her in their fear. She could hear the army of soldiers march forwards as she stood and dusted herself from the snow. And for a second she wondered if the Empire would flog her again and try to pull her apart with horses, and she wondered if the pain was exactly the way she remembered from her trial in Crosskeys.

"Briar!" the shepherdess looked up to see the face of none other than Kelda looking down at her with her green doe eyes. She must have used the commotion between the men and her father as a distraction so she could peer over the edge. Tears were already freezing to her cheeks.

Briar's eyes were still glowing with intensity and suddenly, those thoughts of excepting another whip fled her mind. They were replaced with something else. The minions had found their Overlord, she could return to the minion burrows and she would help in whatever way was needed to take the lands from the Glorious Empire, force their armies back to their home territories than wipe their civilization from existence. Determination was back with her, she wasn't trapped in by the town walls anymore, if she was out in the world she could always escape. The army marched nearer and boulders were still being catapulted into the town but Briar kept her eyes on Kelda until her father eventually tried to take her from the wall. "No, Briar! You promised we would talk after the festival!"

"We will! It will just be a little bit longer than I thought." It took a few seconds for Kelda to understand what she was saying, but a large grin began to tug at the corners of the lips. Out of the corner of her eyes Briar saw Gloob and the others break cover to join her, free from children's clothes and they were still wearing the pelts she had made them. "Now go and get somewhere safe! I'll be back soon enough!" Kelda watched as her savior fled from the Empire soldiers, stealing a sword from one of them and whistling loudly to the night air, Grimjaw giving a howl. The long since familiar howling of Briar's dog pack answered and somewhere in the town the bray herd smashed out from their barn and charged to their Master's call.

------ LoO ------

The makeshift camp at the top of the path looked like it was used mainly as a place for soldiers to regroup and it had been built in a hurry, they had not thought about the positions of the tents though they had made sure to station a squad of archers on top of a high plateau overlooking the small camp. When Briar and the minions had charged in they had been quick to engage them, the troops not really of much concern to Briar since the minion horde that was now following her was enough to overpower them. The archers, however, were more of a threat and they had already picked off a few minions with their arrows. "Gash! Take some minions and get the archers! Rasp get some others to make sure their no soldiers hiding in the tents!" Briar shouted as she delivered a killing blow to another soldiers, staining the sleeves of her fur coat with the swordsman's blood.

"Come maggots! Master orders!" Gash called and he and a group of minions rushed up to the plateau the archers were on and the minions cheered and raised their clubs and stolen swords and spears. The sound of snapping wood meant Rasp was following his orders too. It was at this time that the bray herd and the rest of the dog pack caught up with them, charging through the small camp and knocking down the remaining soldiers. Briar could see flashes of coloured lights as the bray shaman began to cast their enchantments on the minions and curses on the surviving soldiers. The arrows stopped suddenly and the archers' screams joined with those of the soldiers. With most of the camp soldiers now dead or being battered to death most of the minions now turned to the remaining tents with Rasp taking weapons and armour as they found them, her five minions were reunited with the dogs and took to their backs again (Bubbles was most pleased to have Gash back judging by the amount of slobber on his face) taking the weapons and armour and handing any gold or silver coins the soldiers had with them to Briar who stuffed the coins into her pockets before rounding up the minions and brays and marching on, following the directions the minions gave to the Netherworld.

They crossed a high pass that overlooked an area near the frozen bay where Briar could see the Empire had moored their ships; so that was how the Empire had reached the frozen north. A battalion of Empire soldiers were desperately trying to fight off the biggest wolves she had ever seen, they were not a large a Grim and her other dogs but they were much larger than the wolves found in Evernight Forest near Mellow Hills.

"Look! Wolvies bashin' Shinnies." One of the minions said sticking his head through the gap of the wooden guard fence.

"Yay, go wolvies!" the minions shouted down. To Briar's surprise the wolves did seem to hear the minions and renewed their savage attack on the battalion of soldiers.

"Mistress we should keep moving," Briar heard Ramrod say beside her "The Empire will most likely be following you." He was right and so the young shepherdess roughly pulled the minion back from the fence and ordered them to move on. Her five minions and their mounts in the lead with her. The minions took her further from Nordberg Town and deeper into the wilds, following a path to the frozen coast, but taking a sudden left turn they were forced to halt their progress as the path they should have taken was blocked with boulders and snow. Briar doubted this was the work of the Empire, it looked more like a small landslide.

"Path blocked."

"No worries. Master will find way to break it!" She heard Pummel say. She still wanted to know why they had started calling her Master, but she heard another whistling sound as yet another boulder was aimed at Nordberg. Somewhere to the North of where they were. She thought of Kelda being crushed by the huge stone but chased the image from her mind as a plan formed.

"Get to the catapult! Kill every Shiny you see!" Briar ordered as she began a charge up the path towards where the Empire had placed their siege engine. The minions roaring behind her and the chiming sounds as the brays began to enchant the brown fighters and their stolen weapons.

When Briar and the horde reached the battalions guarding the catapult the shock on the men's faces was clearly evident as the minions slammed into their rear, catching them completely by surprise. As more and more soldiers fell to their numbers some of the minions went to ransack the supply crates and nearby tents, again searching for better weapons and armour, even passing some daggers and staffs to the brays (checking first to make sure they weren't better than their own weapon, of course). Finally all the soldiers were dead and Briar began to climb the catapult to figure out how it worked, the horde followed and several browns descended into the siege engine to take control of it.

Briar could see several battalions marching up the hill she and her minions had just come and ordered the minions to move the catapult to the left, and seeing an opportunity waited for the catapult to gain tension and fired the boulder.

She had always had a good aim, and the boulder struck true, flattening most of the soldiers in one hit and seriously wounding many of the survivors.

With those battalions out of the battle Briar ordered the minions to move the catapult again this time aiming for the landslide blocking her path to the safety of the Netherworld. She let lose another boulder (which the minions had replaced from the large amount the Empire had prepared right next to the siege engine) and was rewarded as the rocks and snow were blasted out of her way, only for Empire soldiers to come charging up the path towards her and the horde. Quickly calling the minions from the catapult she met the soldiers in battle again, taking the head off of one soldier as a bray cursed his legs to lock together, preventing him from moving, he was dead before his body hit the snow. A cry from the back of the attacking battalion shifted her attention and Briar was awed when she saw the wolves dragging some soldiers to the knees and therefore in easy killing reach for the minions.

"Yeah, get 'dem Shinnies wolvies!"

"Minions ride wolvies!" As she and other minions killed the few remaining soldiers more than half of the browns were able to mount onto the wolves and fall back into form behind her as she and her five minions rushed back to the cleared road block and soon came to a large area set just before the coast where the Empire army had moored it ships, a separate area had been set aside by the Empire which seemed to be used to store cages for animals. It was well guarded, with archers stationed up high and two battalions of soldiers. Briar stopped to take a look round; thankfully, none of the battalions had seen her and the shepherdess was able to dispose of the archer squads without drawing the attention of the two battalions.

Once the wolf mounted browns returned to her she sent the horde to engage the battalions, losing several non-mounted minions and a bray who had been fool hardy enough to charge in with his horns. Briar had no time to care about him and had to push the horde on.

The entrance to the coast was blocked, this time purposely by the Empire, it was obvious they had placed the stones in such a way to hold off any attack made by an enemy against their base camp. She had to find another way through, the Empire had probably reclaimed the catapult and it wouldn't have been able to throw rocks this far anyway. They rushed into the camp where the cages were stored and were engaged by another battalion left to guard one particular cage which was larger than any of the others. As Briar and the horde began to push the battalion against the cage she noticed that the soldiers were desperate not be backed against the large cage which Briar thought just held a lump of snow.

But when the lump of snow moved she realized it was some sort of creature and as the backs of the soldiers began to sidle up to the cold metal bars this creature got to its feet and used huge hands to grab some of the soldiers and pull them through the bars where it tore the soldiers apart and began to eat the chunks.

"Smash yeti cage! Yeti smash shinnies!" That wasn't a yeti, yetis were vegetarians, and yetis were never that hairy. This creature's long fur covered its eyes and all that could be seen of its face was a pink, pig-like nose, two long tusks pointing upwards from its large mouth and two long curving horns growing from behind the creatures small ears. When the minions and brays had destroyed the door to its large cage it was able to stand to its full thirteen feet of height and stable itself on its tree trunk sized arms. Briar could just see that no fur grew on its chest or abdomen which showed off the muscles in this creatures torso. This was no yeti, this was a wendigo.

"How, by the Goddess, did the Empire manage to catch that!" Briar wondered as the huge carnivore stepped towards her, Briar raised her sword and felt the burning sensation in her left hand as she called a fire ball.

"Thank you." She hadn't been expecting that from the mouth of a wendigo as the huge creature rushed to the cover of some nearby trees, leaving her and the horde to find another way to the coast.

They were forced back to the road block to try and find a weakness in it, there was no way from the cage camp. The minions tried moving rocks and the brays tried enchantments to make the stones lighter or the minions stronger, but the rocks had been bound together with a strong mortar and wasn't capable of being moved. Things were hopeless with this path, so close and now the minions would have to lead her another way; then the wendigo returned from the trees and walked up to Briar again. "Glow-eyed female helped Ox from cage. Ox help glow-eyed female from metal men." The wendigo said through all its fur and blood stained tusks. Briar and the minions watched as 'Ox' ran into the road block and the rocks and mortar cracked and shattered from the white wendigos sheer strength. Ox followed the horde to the ships and the battle against the many soldiers here was simple, most of the empire warriors were shocked when the horde came rushing through their road block, a wendigo charging behind them was enough to send most of the soldiers into a panic.

It took all of a couple of minutes to kill the battalions and archer squads and Ox was even able to throw a keg of explosive onto a ship where the sailors were throwing cannonballs down on them, the explosion could probably be seen from Nordberg and Briar knew the Empire would send reinforcement from another base camp somewhere in the wilderness. She was limping, an archer had scored a lucky shot to her right thigh and their progress was slow until Ox easily picked her up and placed her onto his huge shoulders. Briar reveled in how soft his fur was.

"Minion Burrows close." Gloob said.

"Yay, Minion Burrows! Brays are back!"

A resounding crack came to their ears and the ice they were marching on began to break up.

Ox was too heavy for the ice sheets and before either she or Ox were able to do anything they had both descended into the bays freezing depths.

------ LoO ------

He was back again, standing before her in his armour and great tri-pointed helmet, eyes glowing along with the gem on his left gauntlet. The great army of minions behind him now joined with the howling of wolves and the chiming of bray enchantments. Heavy footfalls and he was within touching distance of her. His right hand, still within its gauntlet reached up and caressed her face, taking gentle care with the claws built onto the fingers. They were cold, but she did not shiver, she could see the blue glow from her eyes shining against his armour. The Overlord removed her hood and titled her face to his amber eyes, he leant down and stopped inches away.

Briar could see some detail to his face behind the frightening helmet; deep brows and a straight, noble nose.

"So much like your mother." he said in rich voice. Briar couldn't talk, somehow, she had known all along. How else would her mother know all those stories about the old Overlord, if she had not been his mistress. How else would she know instinctively to cast a fireball spell if she was not his child.

"Mother said you died."

"She was right... in a way." Behind him the minions, brays and wolves began to march forwards, forming behind Briar as her vision began to fade. "Open your eyes, I will try to reach you when you a stronger." Briar was again taken by blackness and she began to feel cold.

She heard squeaking and opened her eyes again to see she was trapped in ice and the minions were wiping the outside of her frozen prison. Gnarl was watching and he seemed to be berating himself, Mortis was there too with a knowing look on his face. She wasn't able to hear Gnarl's rant until he came closer to her.

"... I can't believe this. You, the last hope for evil! You're bit more... feminine than I had expected Briar. The daughter of Mistress Rose, that would've made things so much more simpler, if we'd have known that." the grey minion sighed "Still, at least you're hear now and I say, what a way to make your presence known to the Glorious Empire." Briar watched as Quaver came up to the ice and pressed an eye against it. He was stuck to the ice now.

"You idiot" she thought, watching the black minion try and reclaim his eye.

"Flattened entire legions with boulders... grown men screaming... minion carnage... even gaining the loyalty of a wendigo. This is great news!" Gnarl said excitedly turning to some minions behind quickly. "Fire up the dragon..."

"... dragon?" What dragon?

"... that'll thaw her out."

Quaver was able to pull himself from the ice, leaving his eye behind, just in time as a wall of fire rushed towards her, the ice hissing as the flames met with the frozen water.

Well we now know who Briar's family are and she's back with the minions. What does the next chapter hold, you'll have to wait and see.

Remember, keep leaving plot ideas.