Serna was ever watchful as they moved forward down the road. She anticipated they might run into trouble before they reached their destination. So, the Shield Maiden readied her weapon just in case.

"Did you ever venture outside of Deeping Dale, Serna, before we met you?" Alyson asked quietly as they walked down the road.

"Only to visit my friend, The Widow Frieda," Serna replied with a wistful smile, "The Widow Frieda was a miller's wife who took over the mill after her husband got sick and died of a pox. She lived not more than a mile from Deeping Dale. Every once in a while, on my day off, I would venture out of town and walk to her place and sit and talk with her awhile. Sometimes, when the day was hot and the water was cool, we would go wading in a small pond near her mill. She was always kind to me and we always had a lot of fun together. I never went too far from Deeping Dale on my days off because I had to be back to work the next day. But when I did, I always went to The Widow Frieda's Mill."

"The old and the young always go well together when company is welcomed." Lazheros added.

"It's nice to know your childhood wasn't always one filled with work," Irzen concluded, "At least you found the time to have some fun."

Caliaphy buzzed forward down the road and could hear some noise. Curious she turned invisible to see what is was and gasped. The kurori flew back to the group as quickly as she could and reappeared in front of Serna, "Umm, there's lots of smelly frog men with spears and nets surrounding a bunch of gnomes. The small folk with BIG noses and ah...ah...they need our help."

"Then let's go!" Serna cried out, "Lead the way, Caliaphy!"

"How many are we facing?" Irzen asked the Fairy while they were on the run.

The kurori counted out loud, "One, two, three...um...oh yeah eight of those smelly froggies!"

"Eight, huh, I like our odds!" Irzen smiled with a vicious grin.

"Caliaphy, go invisible okay?" The Shield Maiden looked to her friend. "And get ready to zap those froggies when I tell you, okay?"

"Okay!" Caliaphy winked before she turned invisible.

Lazheros grumbled quietly but this was Serna's way of charging into a fight instead of sneaking, "So much for the quiet approach. At least you had enough sense not to charge into a fight, Alyson."

The elementalist shrugged, "Meh, I suppose my dysfunctional parents taught me how to look for traps and Seriah, she taught how to sneak better."

With Serna leading the way into the clearing, she could clearly see what Caliaphy just stated moments earlier. A group of forest gnomes huddled together with a bunch of bullywugs in red outfits croaking menacingly at the gnomes.

"Why you here, gnome? How you not at the mine, working! No one leaves the mine without the boss' say so! So move, or we feed you to the worm!"

The gnomes were clearly scared to move until the sounds of one very brave young girl with a shield came charging into the opening.

"Pick on someone your own size, Lizard Bait!" The Shield Maiden stepped out into view at the edge of the clearing. But before the others could catch up, Serna waved back to them to stop and hide themselves in the brush nearby.

"What?!" The leader looked over with a croak.

"More workers for the mine! The boss will reward us as bonus!" Another jeered.

"Get her!" The leader croaked towards the shield maiden standing in plain view. "Get weapon for master!"

Irzen picked up on her hand signals, did as he was instructed and whispered to the others, "Clever girl, she's drawing them away from the gnomes and over to us so we can ambush them. Wait for her signal to strike!"

Alyson was able to climb up into a tree with Lazheros's help just above everyone on the ground.

The bronze man waited silently in the brush waiting for his que to move.

"Come on and get me, Wart-Heads! I'll take you all on at the same time!" The Shield Maiden challenged them openly as she brandished her shield, "Bring it, you Toadies!"

"RIBBIT! RIBBIT! RIBBIT!" Serna hopped up and down like a frog to further insult the Bullywugs.