hello diary. it is grung.

grung is not in the city anymore. wow! big adventure. the nice men said he will find super action god spells if he does walking with the pri-zon girl and her friends. grung talked to an old man and he smelled funny. maybe he is nice but he did not seem it. jendy also smells funny but no one else has noticed so grung will not bring it up. mousey has stayed behind. he has other responsibillies and cannot go on an adventure.

now it is sunny, which makes grung feel very dry and sleepy. sometimes it is cloudy. there are thick clouds over there but derry says they are bad clouds so we will not go to see them. we are super spies and do not have the time for cloud watching. that is sad, but being a super spy is very important so it is also ok.

tomorrow we will reach a big wall and go through it. grung does not have any spells to break through walls so hopefully someone brought some. after that we will go to the god spells and grung will write them down in his book. kapow!

also, today grung found a rock that looks like jendy. jendy was excited by it and has put it in his pocket. he is not a happy camper, so grung will be his friend. maybe he wants more rocks. grung will find some.

the end.

* * *

The Barbarian's Barricade - An Balla Mòr - whatever you called it, it was bloody huge.

Lucilla's party reached the Barricade on the fifth day of their journey. Nearly a week of walking just to get to the start of their investigation! Already Lucilla could feel a well of defeatism in the shadowy recesses of her mind, those dusty corners where she dared not linger. Her task was just so ... so monumental. Actually being out here and experiencing the travel made it seem so much more real; something she'd have to genuinely accomplish, something more than the angry dreams of a girl clutching her brother's helmet and crying angry tears.

Five days...

After Grung's healing of Derwen's arm, the elf had been significantly chattier. He wouldn't stop nattering, probing, asking all sorts of questions about Lucilla, Jendar, the Valenian Empire, and more. Most of them were thinly veiled insults - like asking Lucilla if she'd ever wiped her arse with gold, if she'd ever drunk the blood of a peasant, if she'd had elven slaves dress her each morning. He'd earned a thump in the arm, and a warning that he was cruising for more if he kept it up. Although at least he picked herbs and flowers too, each of which Lucilla did not recognise and each of which Derwen claimed had bounteous uses.

Jendar was the most silent. In fact, he rarely spoke at all. She sensed a deep discomfort in him, but dared not ask what it was. She almost feared their brief conversation in the city prison, not wanting to push the big knight into talking about an existence that was clearly unnatural, clearly magical, and apparently quite painful. She was willing to just ... accept that he was a big man ensconced permanently in armour. There were stranger things in this world. He'd talk when he was ready. If that was ever the case.

Grung, meanwhile, chattered sporadically and always inanely. He seemed to like birds, but more so rocks. Some grasses and flowers, but not all flowers. He liked cloudy days rather than sunny, and needed water more than the average person. Well, that made sense. He was a frog, after all. Or was he? He looked like a frog. And he liked water.

And rocks.

The little wizard had taken quite a shining to Jendar, but no one knew why. Grung continued to hang around Jendar's legs most of their travels, leaving only to fetch new rocks to add to a growing collection - most of which he tried to give to Jendar.

"look, jendy!" he said at one point, padding back onto the cobbled road from a small quarry that they had been passing through at the time. "it's you!"

The rock was lumpy, grey, and did not look anything like Jendar.

He took it politely and thanked Grung.

Again.

At one point early on in their second day they had encountered a small gathering of assorted peasants (Lucilla hated the word 'peasant' but, well, that's what they looked like!) finishing off three graves just by the side of the road. Dwarves, they said. Three of 'em, killed by raiders. Northerners, most likely. Derwen made himself small behind Jendar, avoiding their gazes in case they knew said dwarves and carried a grudge. But Grung stole the attention, asking them if 'dwarfies' enjoyed sleeping underground. The men tried to explain to the wizard that the dwarves were dead and had been buried as a result. Grung asked why the humans had buried three dwarves in dirt instead of leaving them on a rock in the open, as was their custom (although Grung did not use the word 'custom'. The conversation had started with "why did you put the dwarfies under the dirt and not on a rock?", which sparked confusion, and it all spiralled from there).

No one here had known that custom.

No one expected Grung to know that custom.

Lucilla urged them all along before someone got frustrated.

And so they stood, now, four abreast, and stared up at the towering structure that was the Barricade.

Nearly five metres high, the Barricade had been erected rather than built. Over a period of about six years, a legion's worth of Valenian architecti had slowly but surely grown the wall out of the very earth. With a series of complex mathematical drawings, carefully planted magical stakes, and a lot of bickering, they were able to summon a large, thick slab from the bedrock that they could then carve stairs and gates into. Stone-brick towers, gatehouses, barracks and other infrastructure had since been built over the top of the base structure.

It must have cost a fortune.

No wonder the emperor was pissed.

"Alright, documents out, everybody," said Lucilla, stepping in front of her group and turning around. "Let's not give the gate guards anything to argue about."

Each of their team pulled out their travel documents and they advanced on the towering wooden gate keeping the barbarian hordes of Northerners out of the peaceful Southerlands. Or something like that.

Off to either side of the road were two legionnaires, both with bored looks on their faces and the beginnings of sunburn. One fair folk, one human. Neither looked to be particularly elite, but you could never trust a legionnaire to be a pushover. Most of the soldiers up here on the wall had ... well - let's just say they'd had some experience by this point.

The human, who wore the helmet of a sergeant, scowled as the group approached. "You're not seriously plannin' on goin' through, are ye?"

Lucilla nodded firmly and presented her party's documents. "Yes, we are."

The two guards glanced at each other, disbelief apparent on their faces.

"Oi, where's the rest of ya?" asked the fair folk, a skinny little creature barely two feet tall. There weren't many of their kind in the legions, although they were fantastic little fighters when there were some ankles needing sliced. Oh, and they hated being called fairies.

"Excuse me?"

"The rest of ya. Shouldn't you 'ave a cohort or two with ya if yer goin' to face the barbarians?"

"We're just travellers," Lucilla replied a little impatiently. "We don't need soldiers."

The guards looked at each other again.

"Just travellers, they says," said the fair folk to the man.

"Odd looking bunch o' travellers if you arsk me."

"Not like any travellers I ever saw."

Lucilla frowned. "Will you open the gate, please?"

"Oooh, places to be, she's got," said the sergeant.

"Can't think where she'd wanna go out there," added the fair folk.

The sergeant cocked his head. "If you want my advice, turn back now, eh? Them barbarians've stepped up their attacks on travellers. 'Snot safe, not even a little bit."

"Ain't no protection beyond these gates," agreed his underling.

Lucilla bit her tongue, trying to hold back a few thoughts she had for the duo. She just wanted through the damn gate - didn't need the full speech. Somewhere beneath the surface her temper began to boil.

"I've brought my own protection," she said, beckoning to her group. You know, the unarmed elf, the giant thing in armour, and the little red frog. 'Protection'.

"we're powerful super spies!" said Grung, raising his little hands in the air.

Lucilla winced. "For the love of- No, Grung, we're not super spies." She shook her head at the guards. "We're not spies. Just folk. He gets carried away."

"nothing carrying grung away," the frog pouted. "grung is a powerful wizard. kapow! action spells."

The guards looked at each other again. She could only guess what they made of her companions.

"Issat some kinda demon?" the sergeant asked, referring to Grung.

"No, he's a frog."

"wizard!"

The guard twisted his face. She was giving him quite the mental challenge today.

"Well, sorry, lovie," he finally said. "I can't in good conscious let ya through. It'd ruin me, it would. I'd be up all night worryin' sick. Pretty young thing like you? Ye oughta be helpin' yer parents an' chasin' after boys, or girls or ... you know, love an' that."

"He means yer'll all die out there," noted the fair folk. "Them barbarians'll gut ya first chance they get."

Grung stared up at the two (well, up at one and across at the other). It wasn't clear if he knew what was going on. Lucilla also noted Derwen had made himself small again. Good. At least one of her party members knew when to hold their tongue. Bloody Grung.

"what about their second chance?" the wizard asked.

"Quiet, Grung. Look, guys," started Lucilla, really fighting her anger now, "we're going through that gate. End of story. We have the right documents, you have to let us through."

"Ye ain't gettin' passed us, lovie, not on my watch."

"Nice lass like you? We're doin' ya a favour. Go back home to yer mammy, alright? Give her a smooch. Tell her yer sorry for runnin' away with these miscreants."

"and a wizard!"

These bloody...

She clenched her fists and readied to step forwards, one hand snaking its way down to the hilt of the Sword of the Mountain. If they wouldn't let her through willingly, she'd blast them with fog and go through unwillingly. But either way, she was going through.

However, before Lucilla could do more, Jendar acted. He had thus far been hanging mostly in the background, but now he stomped right up next to Lucilla - fully emphasising both his height and bulk - apparently sensing the shift in tone of the conversation, and perhaps the shift in Lucilla's demeanour. She didn't know if he'd intended to, but he'd placed himself directly between the sun and the two idiot guards - his shadow falling right across their faces. He must have blotted out the sun from their perspective. Jendar's massive flanged mace alone was as big as the fair folk was tall.

You will let us through.

The sergeant cowered back slightly and swallowed, face losing some of its confidence. "L- look, mate, you'll die. You unnerstand? Dead!"

You will let us through.

The guards glanced at each other one more time.

"But-"

Now.

They stopped arguing and called for the gate to open.

Lucilla, Jendar, Derwen, and Grung were free to enter the Northerlands.

And so they did.

* * *

"nice men," muttered Grung as they left the Barricade behind.

"They weren't nice men," exclaimed Derwen, who'd found his voice again out of the shadow of the big rock. "They were bloody dick heads."

"oh. ok!" Grung furrowed his little hairless brow. "nice dicky-heads."

* * *

"They're gonners for sure."

"For sure."

"How long you give 'em afore they come crawlin' back?"

"Wi' that big knight? I reckon three days. Not more 'anna week."

"You see the elf? Not even armed. Two days. No more."

"You're on."