Chương 44: Cultural differences

Blick spent the next half hour studying the map. There was so many places it was overwhelming. To think that man had visited them all and built two gates on each one. How old was he? That would take forever. It was as he was rolling the map up and deciding how to store it in his person, that problems began.

"Alright creature, hand it over. Our kingdom has the greater need of that map." From behind Blick came a snarky order.

Captain Carl had remained nearby and observed. When he realized what was being so freely given away he knew it was too important to miss. While he was deciding how to handle the sensitive situation, the shiny powerful man just disappeared. With a pop he had vanished. Carl even stood were he was for a long while waiting to see if the man would return. When it was clearly safe he decided to just use his authority over the camp to take the map for his leadership.

Something that valuable would all but place him as high as a member of the court back home. He approached confidently and waved over some soldiers to follow him before making his demands of the grey creature.

Blick tucked the map into his bed roll and strapped it on his back before standing and turning to face the man demanding his stuff.

"This is mine, you have no claim to it." The pompous man nearly choked at the audacity of some furball telling him no, before replying.

"By order of the captain of this expedition you WILL give me that map. It is for the good of the kingdom."

"Thief" was all Blick said before turning to walk away.

"How DARE you. I am a respected captain of the Versale kingdom. You will come back here and hand that map over or I will order you executed." The man said before placing his closed fists on either hip. This wild grey man would have to listen then. He had an army. Blick stopped at the threat to his life. He had never hesitated to defend himself before. But as he looked around he could see a dozen soldiers slowly gathering their weapons. Over half looked extremely unsure of their actions.

Blick could see how they were stuck between knowing he wasn't a real enemy and disobeying the next order that everyone knew would come.

"You will order me killed if I don't give you this map?" He clarified. With a smirk the captain nodded and said.

"That's right, I have the authority to make such a demand and you do not hold the power to stand against my kingdom. Now what will it be? Your life or the map?" Blick paused for just a moment before he turned back to the man and walked closer.

There was a cultural difference that Captain Carl had never bothered to explore. His people held honor and respect for leadership in high regard. It wasn't at all odd to see someone make a demand and watch it be followed by their underlings without question. His culture did not question authority. He had made a mistake in assuming Blick, the grey furred creature from another world, would react predictably. He was entirely at ease when the beast man turned and walked slowly back to him.

He was completely unaware of the danger he was in. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Blick stopped in front of the well dressed man and looked around at the nervous soldiers. He didn't want to fight them. This man was his only threat. And the gate was right behind him. Blick reinforced his legs and right arm with a burst of energy. He kept forward with his hand out, fingers extended and together. He speared the cocky captain in the throat and held on as the body fell over backwards. Blick tucked into a roll off the fallen man and sprinted with full reinforcement towards the gate.

The soldiers hadn't expected it. The man lying in the ground gurgling up his own blood hadn't seen it coming. Nobody reacted in time to save the captain nor stop the young Grok from escaping through the gate.

Blick burst through the gate into the clearing on the other side. In front of him was a line of wooden fence manned by several armed guards. He sprinted towards a side with fewer people as they began shouting demands for him to stop. The soldiers on this side of the gate had no idea what had just happened and weren't sure if he was free to enter camp or if they should detain him. The confusion allowed him to break past two guards who gave a half hearted attempt to box him in.

Not halfway through the camp he heard the shouting to capture the grey beast. The chase was on and he didn't have a good lead. With a reinforcement backed by a four drop core he sped past most soldiers. Several arrows dropped around him as he tried to run in some kind of random pattern to dodge. One arrow pierced his bed roll on his back and sent him into a forward roll. He climbed quickly back to his feet and ran with all he had.

He vaulted the low wall that established the camps boarder and caught another arrow in the back of his upper leg on the way over. He landed hard. The fall wasn't from very high, but not having a leg to land on was brutal in his balance. Blick remembered these woods. The river was his most familiar area. He made a break straight for it knowing it was more than two miles away. It would be a struggle. A handful of the scouts had some drops in their core and could keep up mostly.

They just couldn't catch him nor could they stop to shoot an arrow accurately at this speed. They tried boxing him in yelling ahead to other scouts in the area. Blick reached down and yanked the arrow from his thigh with a scream.

"AHH, let me go, I don't want to fight you!" He yelled out in warning. He would not be stopped long enough for the forces behind him to catch up. One unfortunate soul dropped from a tree above with a sword already drawn. Blick kicked to the side just in time for the sword to stab into his shoulder joint instead of his head. The scout tumbled along with him as they became a pile of limbs. The soldier had no other weapons. Blick had claws and teeth.

With a snarl he bit down into the humans neck and stabbed his uninjured arm out to throw the man off him. With a gurgling scream the man flailed about in the ground as Blick stood and kept running. His feet began to grow heavy as the pain and blood loss caught up to him. He heard plenty of shouting and people rushing through the wood behind him. When he reached the river he did not slow. He dove in and began swinging down stream.

The combination of the fast moving water and his one armed paddling sent him speeding down river. Soon after he could no longer hear the shouts. He rolled himself onto his back and floated down river.

"Ouch." Was all he said as he floated for the next several minutes. Gathering miles of distance between him and the camp he had barely escaped from. Then he laughed. A deep growly chuckle "hehe he hehe" escaped his lips. As he laughed a blue and yellow feathered bird landed on his chest and looked down at him. He laughed even louder as the little pest poked around looking for some damned blueberries.