Chương 95: Squirt's Puddle

Puds kept silent the whole way through the tunnel, Pakos guarding their back. Though thinking about it, Squirt was certain that Zhadin was there and available, a thought that made her scowl. Nope.

Not acknowledging that the crazy powerful lesser royal shadowfell was likely stalking her every waking moment, just like she was ignoring the fact that Lord Everwinter would know both pixies were using the tunnels, Cirn helped her saddle her horse, and one extremely charismatic demigod was possibly arriving tomorrow to court her. Gods damn it all. She had been aiming for the forest to run from all of this. Nothing made any fucking sense anymore.

Coming out into the quartermaster's back room, she was greeted by Quint herself, who opened the hatch for both pixies with a gruff looking frown. Squirt let out a sigh of relief that the woman was so prickly and dour as to not have left her post to join the festivities. Giving her a nod in gratitude, Squirt finally turned to take in the wide, terrified eyes of Puds. Puds, meanwhile, kept her eyes as firmly glued to the ground as her hand was to Squirt's. Squirt huffed and turned to the quartermaster first.

"You don't like bullies, right?" Quint nodded, serious as ever. Squirt gave her a wary look. It was one thing to have had the shifter come to mind in the heat of the moment, but now that she was here, she was finding it more difficult than she thought it'd be to trust her. Her eyes flickered back to Puds, her expression darkening a little. Puds had always been pretty. Her skin was a light brown, her hair and eyes green with just a touch of blue mixed in, a lighter color than Squirt's own.

Her features were as delicate as her personality was demure. She was the shy kind of fey that people often mistook Squirt for. Now, though… it was clear much had changed in the last sixty years. Her hair was as long and pretty as always, braided back away from her face, silky smooth and perfectly tamed, but there was a gauntness to her cheeks of hunger, a shadow over her eyes of hopelessness.

The bright, bubbly, shy fey Squirt had known was gone, and in her place was a woman just trying to get by as invisibly as possible. It irritated Squirt, and she turned her irritation on Quint as she practically growled out, "Some idiot in the Capital sent a bunch of fucking greenlings here. This one was cornered when trying to find food for the rest." Fury darkened Quint's already dark eyes.

"Unacceptable." Puds flinched, attempting to drop into a kneel before Squirt pulled her back up.

"Can you feed them?" The quartermaster nodded.

"Winter will be tight for us all, but no fey will go hungrier than any other. How many?" Fury lit up Squirt's veins as she bit out, "A hundred." Quint merely nodded tightly, turning and shuffling through the shelves, gathering supplies. Squirt huffed.

"If you've got a large enough pot, I can add meat to it." She had good hunting in Gloomwood, and her pouches had time properties, meaning the meat was still fresh. She had been intending to salt it to make sure she had meat through the winter, but the thinness of Puds was concerning enough to warrant the sacrifice. Quint grunted.

"Several pots it will be."

"Fine," Squirt bit out. Puds risked looking up, taking half a step closer to Squirt before whispering in greenling, "We can't pay." Squirt snorted and answered back in greenling, "You won't." Puds stared at her with a look of awe and wonder just behind her veneer of despair.

"You… really are Athereon." Squirt muttered, "The rumors were blown out of proportion."

"I thought… we thought… you were dead. Some twenty years back."

"Obviously not. Now how the fuck did Dusty convince you all to leave the Capital?" Her expression fell, her eyes dropping, the despair taking over again.

"… things have changed, since you left. The elders, they started demanding tributes be paid to them instead of the mutual fund. Started showing favoritism to the most pious amongst us and withholding supplies from the rest. And…" She gritted her teeth, her shoulders tense.

"… greenlings started disappearing." Squirt froze. Puds didn't notice as she continued, "They… they arranged for them to be taken in by high level fey, so at first, we were happy, but…" Her eyes, watering with pain and despair, lifted to Squirt's as she said, "After watching you… I didn't want that. And they didn't like my no." Squirt went numb with rage and horror.

"… they tried to take you?" Puds nodded, her eyes dropping again.

"They… they wanted to gift me to a high fey in exchange for something, I don't know what. I wasn't going to get a choice at all, and the one… gods, he was awful, Squirt. He had killed his last greenling, and… then Councilman Branch demanded I swear myself to him, and when I didn't, they…" Her voice dropped to a broken whisper, "… they had me culled." Squirt's blood went cold. Puds, sweet Puds, was one of the caretakers of the littles. To have her culled?

To put out a hit on her for saying no, something that was her gods given right? And Squirt had just tried to walk away from it. She swallowed, guilt overtaking the rage and leaving her to drown in the horror of it all. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Quint placed two large pots bigger than both pixies put together and filled to the brim with supplies down in front of Squirt and Puds. Puds flinched and dropped to the ground.

This time, Squirt let her as her mind swirled. To be culled in greenling was to be ostracized from the collective. The rest of the entire society would get a boon from the elders if they turned in the culled greenling's dead body. No longer would the greenling be able to rely on the code to save them, nor rely on the elders for a greenling death. Culling was meant as a last resort, something she had only witnessed once in her life for a greenling that had attempted to kill their fey. Squirt deserved to be culled.

Puds didn't. In a ghostly whisper, she asked, "All of you… you were all culled?" Puds shook her head into the dirt where she had pressed her face.

"Only a few of us. The rest were only shunned," she whispered back. Shunned. Rejected from the collective. Unable to seek shelter or supplies until forgiven, but able to be forgiven. Were the elders mad? Shunning nigh a third of their entire population? It just didn't make any sense. And for those hundred to give up on being accepted back, to make the journey to the fucking Outskirts, the lands thought to be a last resort for the desperate? It really hit her, truly, how desperate they must have been.

How desperate Puds must have been. Squirt's eyes fluttered shut. This was too much. Too big for her. She was just one fey. One greenling. And yet, she was the only one that knew why the elders were able to use greenlings as bargaining chips for negotiations with bigger fey. Who knew the actual value of greenlings. The danger they were in. What a bitter fruit this day had turned out to be. Turning, Squirt eyed Pakos with a petulant glare.

"No comment? No sass?" He flicked his twin tails once as he sat just behind her, close enough that she could lean on him. His voice was soft. Almost sympathetic in her mind. There are limits to what I can provide. This is an answer that requires your free will to make a choice. Despair crept into her own heart. Her shoulders slumped with a weight she was not prepared to bear.

"Why me?" she whispered. That is not something I can answer.

"Fucker," she muttered. He sent back reassurances. She would have preferred the sass. Wiping her hands down her face, she focused back on the present. The now. Her last hope of running had burned out, and her resolve solidified. The horror and guilt threatening to suffocate her was shoved aside as Squirt grasped for rage. She needed to move. Scowling, she lifted her eyes to Quint's, assessing the quartermaster.

The woman was clearly waiting, a curious glint in her dark eyes, an appraisal, even though she hadn't understood anything about the conversation between Puds and Squirt.

"Zhadin, you're here, aren't you?" A tendril curled out from the shadow to touch her cheek, causing the quartermaster to flinch in fear, her eyes wide and tan skin pale. Squirt glared at the woman before slapping the tendril.

"Knock it the fuck off. Do you know where the rest of the greenlings are?" Their head shifted out from the shadows in the wall. Quint made the sign against evil while they answered, "I can find them, should you wish."

"Good. Find them. Then tell Dusty to do his gods damn duty and feed his fucking people before more of them get fucking cornered." She paused, growling to herself and muttering about too much fucking trouble. A tendril brushed her cheek before they said, "Stay?"

"Fuck off." They chuckled as they faded back into shadow. Squirt turned her ire on the quartermaster next.

"And stop that. They're not evil just because they're weird." Creepy, yes, but the same fears she had already faced that Quint now showed were annoying the fuck out of her. Shifting awkwardly after having just snapped at her, Squirt asked, "Can you give Puds here a job? Where she's safe." Puds' eyes snapped up to Squirt, wide and filled with apprehension, while Quint merely nodded, shifting uncomfortably still over Zhadin's appearance and abrupt disappearance.

"I can."

"Good." Reaching down, she lifted Puds up, brushing off her clothes before gesturing.

"This is Quint, the quartermaster. She's gruff but fair and hates bullies as much as I do. You stay here. You work for her. Stay behind the counter and no one will be able to touch you." Puds eyes were wide with a bit of fear and the barest bit of trust as she nodded, though she was clearly still nervous. Squirt nodded.

"Good." Then turned to the quartermaster.

"This is Puddle. Everyone calls her Puds." Turning an eye back on her long-time friend trying to shrink behind Squirt's smaller frame, Squirt's brow twitched.

"I'm going to guess you're as good with a knife as always?" Pale though she was, Puds nodded. Squirt huffed and gestured to the kneeling Puds.

"She's useless in a fight, shy, sweet, all of that." Quint nodded slowly, her gaze shifting around the shelves. Now that Squirt had a moment, she followed the woman's gaze. The area behind the quartermaster's counter had always been filled with things, but now things were cluttered. Jumbled. Rather than perfectly organized neat rows that would make a diamond crane preen with joy, there were piles of disparate supplies, boxes left unopened, others left opened and partially gone through.

Turning her attention back on Quint, she noted the dark bags under the woman's eyes. Squirt huffed.

"… there are a hundred others. How many can you employ here and keep safe under your watch?" Quint grunted, crossing her arms, looking rather put-out about the question. Then her eyes fell on the meek Puds, and her expression softened just a fraction. She sighed.

"… no more than five. And I'll take no slackers, none of those that skim from the top, just good workers who don't complain about the tasks granted to them." Squirt's expression flattened.

"They're greenlings. To complain is to earn lashings." Quint's eyes hardened, Puds shrinking back in fear at the expression. Squirt snapped at Puds, "Stop that. Do you honestly think I'd leave you here if I wasn't damn sure you'd be safe?" She ignored the fact that she had been questioning that decision herself not five minutes ago. Puds eyes were wide on the furious, angry face of Squirt, flinching a little at the sharp tone. She shook her head partially in fear of the woman's anger. Squirt growled out, "Good.

Pick your coworkers from the rest. Ones you'll work well with that are as shit as you are with a blade and nigh defenseless." Puds blinked a few times, still shrinking back, searching Squirt's eyes before slowly relaxing. She took a step back and really, truly, took in Squirt's appearance for the first time, scanning over her visible scars at the nap of her neck, the belt pouch, the ordinary but well-made clothes. Her eyes traced back up to Squirt's face, now full of sympathy as she said, "You're…

not just angry with me?" The question was asked in Common instead of greenling, and Squirt caught the softening of Quint's expression. Squirt huffed and said, "A lot can change in sixty years. I'm angry at everything and everyone. Don't take it personal." Puds nodded, relaxing minutely while giving Squirt a sad look.

"What?" Squirt snapped. She dropped her eyes, fidgeting. Then, she threw her arms around Squirt's shoulders, making Squirt freeze in place. Her quiet voice was filled with emotion as she said, "I'm so glad you're alive." Wooden as a board, Squirt's own eyes widened before her expression softened. She didn't smile, but she did relax slightly as she awkwardly patted the other pixie's back.

"… I lived. I changed." Puds pulled back, shaking her head with a smile and wiping a bit of moisture from her eyes.

"No, you haven't. You're still here, still jumping in to take care of the rest of us, just like always." Squirt muttered, "It's either me or Dusty, and that guy's an idiot multiple times over." Puds blinked.

"He is?" Squirt huffed. A tendril reached out to touch her ankle, letting her know Zhadin had returned.

"Never mind. What names?" Puds gave her the name of four others. Squirt nodded, then turned to Quint.

"Your living quarters are here, right? Got a cooking fire?" Quint nodded, disgruntled but accepting.

"Good. I'll take the food to the rest of them. Let Puds cook and you'll be grateful you did." Puds blushed, smiling softly. Squirt glared at the pixie.

"… I'll be back. Zhadin—" Tendrils reached out to grab her and pull her through the shadows. Puds' eyes went wide with panic, so Squirt did the only thing she had the time for to reassure her that she was fine. She smiled. The panic was soon replaced with confused curiosity as Squirt was pulled into the darkness.