Chương 14: Speechless

"Captain we have news from the village." Holding his saluted fist over his chest, the scout bows slightly.

"This better be good news, I'm not sure if we will survive the return trip with our current situation when the lord hears of this. Slaughtering an unattached tribe of innocents because we couldn't keep our men in check is bad look."

"Well sir, I don't know if this is good or bad but it seems something entered the village and began helping the injured." Lifting his head out of his hands on the table Rictor makes eye contact with the scout in front of him.

"What do you mean something?" With a confused look the scout continues, "None of the scouts have heard of something like it. We asked everyone to be sure this was new. Some of our scouts even attended the academy and don't think it's from our world. Apparently it's a human shaped bear of some sort. Grey fur, round head, round ears on top, clawed hands with one less finger than us. Sir, you should know it's using man's to heal the injured.

It's not better than our healers by any means, but that means it's not some animal. It has a core, probably mist stage, and can push enough mana to close most minor injuries. Intelligently deciding who it can and can't help. Sir….. this is new. No records indicate any other human like intelligence anywhere on the planet." Lieutenant Jones turns from the scout to Captain Rictor with wide eyes and jaw wide open.

"Sir do you realize… if we can figure out where this creature came from we may have a successful mission just with that information alone. The implications… another world? The resources…" Captain Rictor stiffens and creases his brow in the most serious face ever.

"Gather the troops. We are going back into the village and capturing this creature. We will find out where it comes from. And if we have to bring it back without answers we will. If the village tries to stop us we can report that back and hopefully our mistake with the conscripts will go unnoticed."

Terran was disturbed from his cooking by the sound of people running outside his tent. Having mostly fed everyone he was focused on preparing for the morning meal before heading to a potentially restless sleep. Stopping someone rushing past.

"Hey what's going on?" Spinning on a heel while jogging backwards the young soldier replies, "New orders to gather everyone and enter the village center, force is not the goal but allowed if they try and stop us. Other than that I don't know. Seems like the top is itching for a fight to me." Terran was NOT about to participate in some slaughter of innocents. He may be a thief, but he has a line and this is crossing it. Desertion means execution tho.

Struggling with himself over what to do with such a small amount of control over the situation, he begins putting his armor back on. Having a last minute thought, he tosses his hands in the air because he left his damned sword in the village to carry Chris to safety.

"CHRIS!" That's the solution. I can bring more food to the healers tent and use that as an excuse not to participate. Nobody will know I lost my sword, nobody can claim I'm deserting, and nobody can really stop me because it's inside my job duties. With a morbid smile knowing he was avoiding what could end up being a slaughter, he snaps the last few clasps of his leg bracers and gathers some bowls.

Every soul in the village had come to the central hut where the injured were gathered to see the sleeping forest spirit. Having no context for what this kind creature was they didn't know what to do about it. So they waited and watched while taking care of the last injured hunters. The spirit hadn't made a huge impact on total injuries, but it was a good distraction for most in this time of trauma.

Talking to the elder healer and the elder without a hand, Nasha explained how she met "Blick" over a week ago and gave a quick recap of events. While she was describing her ideas about where he came from, two of the hunters guarding the front burst in calling for the elders. As they left the tent Nasha walked over to sit beside blick again while he slept and she noticed her little brother with his head on one of the fur covered grey legs like a pillow.

Deciding to leave them be, she turns back to go spy on the elders and this new development. Before she even looks out of the hut she can hear the elders bristling words. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Haven't you and your men done enough? Now you're telling us you have demands?!? What gives you the authority to make demands after attacking us?" The elderly woman was clearly irate and swiping the air with her walking stick. Nashas eyes track to the larger armored man with the black cape draped over he's right side.

"While we do apologize and did not intend to start conflict with your village we have no good way to make repairs at this time. When we return to the capital I shall send some laborers and materials back to assist. Those who began this conflict will be dealt with harshly. That aside our issue now is with the creature inside. Where does it come from? Are there more like it? We have questions and we demand answers. You ask what right? We have the armor, weapons, and numbers. By that right we make demands."

That's all Nasha needed to hear. There were too many people out there in armor and they would come take Blick. Running through the small gathering at the hut's entrance she crashed into the sleeping Blick with all the urgency a 6 year old little girl could muster.

Jostled awake by a small body crashing into mine, I open my eyes to a crying wide eyed Nasha.

"Wake up, you have to leave, they are coming for you, run!!" WOW she speaks fast when she wants to. Without a grasp of the language I can't know what she's saying but it's urgent and she doesn't look injured. I lift her into my arms as I move Nel off me as he is coming to, I guess he laid with me. The thought makes me smile. I look around to figure out what is happening and see a crowd gathering near the hide covered entrance to the hut we are standing in.

There is another entrance at the other end but almost nobody is over there. Deciding to find out what has Nasha upset I walk to the crowded side and as I come up behind people they move aside with fearful eyes. They don't seem afraid of me though. Maybe whatever is going on out here has them afraid. Pushing past the last of the crowd in my way I exit the hut to find a tense stand off.

I never figured out why these two groups fought, but I'm not in the mood to see more injuries after I just spent so much energy fixing some of them. Walking slowly up to the old one with the stick and braid I touch her shoulder as she's yelling across the gap between the groups. She freezes and turns to look me in the eye. Still just a little shorter than her I tilt my head slightly up to meet her eyes. She's afraid and angry. I tilt my head as the area immediately quiets.

I decide these people should just leave each other be if they can't get along. Lifting Nasha and handing her to one of the people not currently holding a sharp stick, I place an arm on each of the old persons shoulders turning her around and pushing her towards the hut with a point. She looks back and forth from me to the others across the gap several times.

"Are you sure spirit?" She whispers with pity in her eyes. I dont recognize the words but I can see the amount of sadness she holds and I nod and gently push her. While she backs away toward the hut every other hide wearing tan person follows slowly and with various looks back and forth. They don't understand and neither do I. And that's ok. I don't need to understand their words to know they don't want more fighting. With a nod I turn back to look at the line of armor wearing people.

I tilt my head and shrug before walking off towards the jungle where I came from.

"Hey wait, we have things to discuss!" Stopping midstep I pivot the top half of my body to the side and see the largest one with a dark cover over his shoulder looking right at me. He seems determined. Not afraid. Not sad like the rest. I don't like that. With all these injuries from his people shouldn't he feel some kind of sadness? After making eye contact with the big man and not really understanding what he wanted I turned and continued walking.

"Is it mocking me lieutenant?"

"Sir I don't think it understands. It didn't say anything to the villagers."

"Alright give me a team to stall the damn thing. If it can't understand we will make it." Stopping when I noticed a line of armored people rushing my way I held my clawed hands out and slowly closed them into fists… maybe I should have grabbed a stick? Why would they want to fight me tho? I wait as the people circle around me and stop. Not really sure what they want and knowing I don't want to get sliced open I don't seem to have much choice but wait and see.

"If it doesn't understand our words then how the hell are we going to get answers?" Captain Rictor was on his last nerve with the failings of this mission. Nothing seems to be going right. And now they have a key to a potential treasure trove and no way to get the map.

"Sir we can at the very least bring it back with us and have the academy attempt communication. We could try showing it a map, but without a way to explain what we need I'm not sure how we could know what it points us to. And that's assuming the thing with no language can understand a map." Shaking his head in frustration the captain orders the men to heard the creature back into their camp.

"I'll deal with this later, it's far too late for all this. Have the troops bunk down and leave a guard rotation. The perimeter AND the creature get dedicated guard rotations."

"Will do sir, and the villagers?"

"Give them some of our food stores, the beans and rice that will not perish quickly, maybe a couple shields and arrows. They will have to accept what they get until another mission is sent to help them further. If we play this correctly it will seem like a misunderstanding over the creature and not a battle caused by our conscripts."