Gregarius wasn't a man averse to risk, and still his heart hammered as he ran after the damned horsethief that had stolen Tumbly from him.
It wasn't as if the former Guard captain, and an adventurer first and foremost, was worried about actually recapturing Tumbly - once he would have sent out the word across the delivery system used by the Adventurer's Guild, Tumbly would be found - the horse was just that noticeable.
What worried him greatly was that the thief might realise they wouldn't be able to get much coin out of a retired warhorse, and attempt to sell it to the butchery - at least in Iv, everyone knew Tumbly, but the farther one went, the less a chance it was that a bystander could have interefered.
Finally, it was then that Iv had appeared, the sun already up for quite some time, since it was quite a while since Gregarius had this much cardio done with quite a few pints of beer in him.
Maybe Wham had it right, and Gregarius should have trusted his darling wife - alcohol only brought trouble.
More concerning was the rising smoke coming off of Iv - while Gregarious didn't know each and every festival day, since quite a few had variable celebration days, the fire was too large to be a controlled.
Surging forward even faster, with adrenaline pumping through his blood, Gregarius had soon reach the gate facing Ninaide, where already people were streaming out of Iv, panicked and terrified.
"What the heck has happened?" - asked Gregarius an old woman who wore the gatepost watcher uniform.
She must have been new, because Gregarius hadn't seen her before, and the only answer he got was a confused mumbling and rough gesticulations towards the town's centre, before with a surprising force the old woman broke off from Gregarius' grasp and starting running with the crowd of townsfolk.
The answer as to what had happened didn't have to make itself wait for it for too long - "It's an Uth-Uth, a ravenous Uth-Uth!" - cried out another gate watcher, an inexperienced lad whose legs seemed to have given out from fear.
"Organise the people - don't let a stampede begin!" - Gregarius threw towards the green guard, before the one-handed former adventurer began sprinting.
Inside of Iv, it was pure chaos - already fires have started from the panic, and some people were attempting to steal whatever wares that had been abandoned upon the street.
With a start however, Gregarius realised that a rider on horseback leading another horse by the reins had approached him, slowing from a gallop, and to the retired Guard captain's wonder, it was Tumbly!
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
"And here I wondered how your horse had gotten here - we need all the help we can get, you still got that Adventurer spirit in you?" - asked the tall, tanned and muscular man called Murk - the current head of Iv's Adventurer guild.
"Ain't like the old, but I still can buy a few seconds, I would wager" - said Gregarius, as he got upon Tumbly, rejoicing at being finally reunited with his horse, and accepting the propped-up shortsword.
As the adventurers navigated the streets of Iv, they saw the picture of the Monster that was unleashed right in the town square - a round thing, that had tentacles, eyes and mouths in all the weird places.
Already, two adventurer teams have been hemming it from two sides, so as not to let regular townsfolk come under harm.
"So, how did it even get here, Murk? The Uth-Uths are something that only the Capital uses, no way this wasn't planned" - said Gregarius, as he twirled his red moustache, entering the planning mode.
"No-one knows - but couple of people have seen Rotslaan folk roll in a carriage through the other gate and unleash the Uth-Uth, before dissapearing - I hope there is no need as to spell out the consequences of that were it to be true, old friend?" - Murk then took out his shortbow, and after a few moments of aiming, let lose an arrow that struck right into the multi-eyed's Monster weak spot.
Indeed, Gregarius knew.
Wham, his dear wife, was a Rotslaan, and some time before Barza and the girls were born, and the two of them were adventurers, anti-Rotslaan sentiments were running high.
It even got to the point that for the safety of their family, they had to abandon the lofty goals both set for themselves in regards to their adventuring aspirations, and had to retire to Wham's village, where her family held enough sway to protect them were things to come to blows.
One thing led to another, and a succusessful adventurer that Gregarius was got reduced to the head of the local Town Guard, having to quit that when Wham needed more time to spend rearing their children.
If it indeed had turned out that Wham's kind were responsible for this accident - and while thankfully there had been no outright fatalities, many were injured, and it was just a matter of time before one of the adventurers got unlucky, or panic made people run over other people.
"Well then, if I die here then, you go explain to my daughter why I couldn't attend her wedding day!" - shouting the last part, Gregarius prepared for a charge, Tumbly remembering the old days and reading on it's hind legs.
"Stop, don't do this, you old fool!" - however, Murk's warning fell on deaf ears, as moving into a straight gallop, wind blowing in his hair, Gregarius charged right ahead, an adventurer team jumping to the sides as he passed them, before with a mighty leap, the horse and the rider impacted right into a multitudionous Monster.
The impact was so great that Gregarius felt a few of his ribs crack, but more importantly, Tumbly was alright, the big warhorse standing up on four legs despite having a wobbly posture.
Turning back upon the Uth-Uth, who looked like something rode over it, the ball of teeth, eyes and weird, spindly arms began to approach the lone adventurer, that backed the Monster into a side of the building.
Adopting a fencing posture, memories of old, golden days suffused Gregarius' entire being, as he prepared to show to this ill-formed Monster why they called him Gregarius the Lucky, back at his heyday.
