© J.B. Norman — Published by Emona Literary Services™

“You know,” Matilda says thoughtfully. “I’ve never seen Pela like this before.”

The other members of the Lyte Brigade nod in agreement.

“You’d think it would be Matilda acting like that,” Nolan muses.

The other members of the Lyte Brigade nod in agreement.

“Hey!” Matilda cries.

She jabs Nolan in the ribs with her elbow.

“Ow!”

Perched on the tower shoulders of one of the Trolls the Lyte Brigade has been working with, a member of Trolls For Being Nice to Nature, Pela is brandishing her crossbow and taking potshots at the poachers the Lyte Brigade and the Trolls have been fending off from a particularly delicate area of the forest for the past few days.

Nolan wasn’t entirely sure how he was expecting the job to go. But it probably wasn’t this…

As usual, Nolan expected Falcata to be doing most of the fighting. But using of the Trolls as a sort of improvised siege tower, it’s like Pela has become an entirely new person. And the Lyte Brigade has been content to leave most of the actual dealing with the poachers to Pela and her crossbow.

For the most part, the rest of the Lyte Brigade is happy she’s happy. But they’re starting to get a little worried about just how happy she is.

Cackling like a some kind of master villain, Pela loads another bolt into her crossbow. She takes aim and shoots at the nearest unfortunate poacher.

“Do please remind me not to get on Miss Pela’s bad side,” Tancred says. “Well, at least when she’s got someone big to ride around on.”

Falcata nods gravely. “She has finally found her killer instinct,” the Amazon notes.

“Good for her?” Matilda replies.

“That’s right!” Pela calls down from the Trolls shoulders at the fleeing poachers. “The boot’s on the other glove! I’m tall now, suckers! Who wants some of this?”

“Should we be worried?” Nolan asks.

“She’ll be more amenable once the haze of battle-fury has passed,” Falcata assures him.

“Speaking from experience, Miss Falcata?” Amara asks.

The Amazon shakes her head.

“Oh no. Amazons are trained always to rein in their baser instincts, even in the heat of battle. Rather, I am making on observation based on my people’s experience fighting against less disciplined foes.”

For the most part, the other five members of the Lyte Brigade do little more than watch as Pela rains down bolts on the poachers who are soon breaking ranks and retreating.

“That was awesome!” Pela says, still perched on the Troll’s shoulders as he approaches the other members of the Lyte Brigade. “Like, I thought riding around on Falcata was the best. But my man here is even taller than she is! I’ve never felt this dangerous!”

“Congratulations?” Tancred offers.

“Alright,” Pela says, still flushed with the rush of battle. “Let’s go find some more butts to kick. Or maybe some tall shelves to reach things down from. I want to make the most of this.”

Matilda leans in close to Nolan.

“Should, uh, should we splash her with water, or something?”

---

And if you want more more Realmgard, please considering subscribing to me on my various platforms listed at the bottom of this page.

If you’ve enjoyed my content, please consider supporting me through Ko-fi or Patreon, or through Paypal by scanning the QR code below:

Follow Realmgard and other publications of Emona Literary Services™ below:

Subscribe to the Emona Literary Services™ Substack newsletter here.

---

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The author prohibits the use of content published on this website for the purposes of training Artificial Intelligence technologies, including but not limited to Large Language Models, without express written permission.

All stories published on this website are works of fiction. Characters are products of the author’s imagination and do not represent any individual, living or dead.

The realmgard.com Privacy Policy can be viewed here.

Realmgard is published by Emona Literary Services^TM