The night was uneventful, over the next few days. They taught some of the minotaurs how to sing the song of truth and asked them to sing it every couple of days. With this they sang the song of truth as they left and the village. As when they came in all the towns minotaurs were watching and cheering. The group left slowly and when the song ended the Orcs told how they enjoyed teaching minotaurs the song, Gallow Said too bad they didn't have any who wanted to train as sword mages, they would be strong allies.
As the sword mages bantered in a palace the shadow king was getting a report. Your highness the entire shadow possessed that we sent has been wiped out. The king asks what happened, the soldiers report was "we think a dragon came across them because none of the shadows survived and where the battle took place everything is burned". The king shouts "A dragon is alive and helping them". The solder says "As far as we can tell it had to be a dragon. A wyvern fire does not kill us shadows. Only a dragon's fire or a phoenix's fire can kill us once we have possessed a body. And we have lost them, we think they are being chased by orcs as well we just haven't found the orc bodies yet we have our feelers out". The king "says keep me informed of the findings and if it is known orcs have killed them all will be well, but we can start a rumor that they killed the orcs that were chasing them. We will get the demi races to chase them then we can have them tell us where they are and control this like we did back then".
The Sword mages were traveling along in the forest and encountered a man who said "I heard there were some strange people traveling in my forest". Orion ask this is your forest are you an elf"? The man said not an elf, nor a dryad but this is my forest none the less. Orion looks at Sherly and she sings the song of truth. The man looks at them "so the truth is, you really have come sword mages! And there are seven of you. This changes so much we only heard there were 3 of you where did the other four come from". Orion Says it seems you are very knowledgeable about us but don't you think you should at least tell us who you are". "Oh, me I am Rufus, you should be aware that there are many of my brethren around you right now. As a mater of fact there is a nasty rumor saying you are killing those that look to aid you. The numbers don't match that though. And the sent doesn't match it either. It was said that you killed orcs and shadows alike, but for some reason I think instead of killing the orcs you trained them. If you can train them surly you can train more. There are those in our ranks who want that level of power and respect". Orion ask "and whose ranks are we talking about for as friendly as you seem it seems more like you are testing us and if I have to, I will do what is necessary to make sure you are not a shadow gathering intelligence". Rufus says "worry not we are the rats" and then you could see them thousands of pairs of eyes, all over the place and they were in all directions. Slowly one by one they came out of the forest rats. Some as big as a pony. Then they shifted, they turned human. Thousands of rats that became humans of all sizes. Then suddenly Orion and the others all sung the song of truth. The were rats all bowed when the song was done Orion said "I was looking for the were folk and I believed it was a village I was looking for but you are far more and beyond anything I could ever expect". Rufus laughed and said "that this is not the were village this is the forest of the Rats. Here we are both free and not seen. Here we can live and hide anywhere. We are not under anyone's control. We are a force to be reckoned with we have enough people we can take over cities and towns and they would know only that the Rats got them. Orion says "so with your numbers why haven't you taken over the shadow lands and the shadows"? Rufus says because we need a leader to fight this battle and the training to do so". Orion says we need several singers and all the sword mages we can get but I don't have enough mithril, dragon cores or ink to cover all of you to get living swords. How I wish I had and we would have to have a dwarf that can make all of them". Rufus states "Oh is that all that you need well you see we have been collecting all the dragon cores that the Shadows left behind and we have the magic ink made from their blood as well". With this Orion's eyes light up as he asks "How"? well rats are everywhere and we decided to talk to the dragons when they were being hunted and well, they agreed on several things one the cores would be needed if the order ever started again and second that we would keep their eggs in a stasis till they can grow properly again. Orion says "that's great what about dwarven smiths to forge so many blades"? Rufus says "yes we have tunnel rats"! Orion says with so many we would need a field to train all of you and it will take all seven of us to walk through and fix the bad stances and forms. The field would have to be large enough to give everyone three square feet all around. And someplace where I can setup my cottage". Rufus says I have just the spot and takes them to the place it's an open field and then says set up the cottage over there.