The Price of Aid Unsought | Tales of the Knights VI

  "What are they arguing about?"
  Robbest had moved to stand next to June in the gathered crowd, picking her out from the assembly of armoured figures by the star insignia etched into her shoulderpad. On the far side, a troop of the local guard were assmbled in neat ranks with their officers picked out by individual pieces of plate armour on top of the matching leather armour they unanimously wore. Robbest and June stood among the ranks of the knights across from them, in a loose formation as the spectacle between the two groups unfolded.
  The two figures upon whom their attention was centred were still debating back and forth in a steady crescendo. The guard captain jabbing with pointed fingers and pacing intermittedly while the acting-commander of the knights remained almost totally still but for the turn of his head, legs planted and arms folded as a statue unwilling to be swayed, but his voice carrying the weight of such stone.
  According to the briefing, this was supposed to be a joint operation prosecuted by the Nearthorne Guard and the assembled band of knights: theirs was the task of clearing the forests at the town's border and dealing of the scourge of beasts that had plagued the town for generations. The threat had never escalated enough to demand the full-scale involvement of the knight orders, so the actions of the guards had been limited to chasing the occasional stray monster back into the woods. However, the situation had changed one night when an over-zealous patrol had pursued one such creature into the woodlands, only to be confronted by a giant, leader-type beast that called upon a horde of lesser minions with its roar. The group was thankfully able to escape, carrying with them this new knowledge which could be the key to eliminating the threat for good.
  The plan to vanquish the leader beast eventually made its way to the ear of the Lord of Foyeshtatt, whose domain was adjacent to the same forest and included a number of towns, of a similar size to Nearthorne, that had suffered the same consequences over the years. He too was convinced that this plan could succeed, yet did not believe that the strength of those guards would be sufficient. With no time to waste, the lord had called upon those knights whose ancestry connected them to Foyeshtatt, and thus by his authority could be called upon as the situation demanded. Knight-Aspirant Robbest and Knight-Exemplar June of the Adamant Claws were among the fifteen knights whose presence could be spared by their respective orders to answer the summons; this was by no means a large force, but held great enough strength to tip the scales.

  June listened to the back-and-forth for a few moments longer, then inclined her helm towards Robbest to reply, speaking in a whisper despite the privacy of their comms channel.
  "They are determining who will deal the final blow. The Nearthorne representative claims it is their duty as the defenders of this land."
  "But surely we will be the ones to do it? Their equipment looks decent enough, but ours is bequeathed for this purpose specifically."
  "Under other circumstances that argument would be correct, but this is moreso a matter of prestige than capability."
  She paused to let him respond, but he continued to listen patiently.
  "The Rites of Hunting establish that any prizes taken from a slain beast belong to the one who felled the creature."