"I guess that settles the question of there being other people." I mutter, handing Heiya back her musket as we keep ourselves on our barren little hill. I mind the bug as he makes the final stretch of the journey up here and point out the facts.
"People." he goes, that insufferable noise of his chittering away. Actually, that might become a problem depending on what we're dealing with. A mountain resort like this surely has security specialised entirely about osibindah incursion, right? The bugs are always more of an issue underground than they are on the surface. They raid the latter, live in the former.
"Armed and armoured, too." I add on, what is just a shining glint at this distance proving itself to be far more under keen observation. I can't spot any guns of any sort, but that's not exactly a good thing. Many mercenaries and soldiers still favour the ancient means of killing. Magic favours greater size, after all. For all we know, these are spellsword witches.
Circumstances can go either way, we might be imprisoned or killed. Either way, I can't see much point in trying to run from it. We made the mistake of entering this resort, they probably know where we are, anyway. An assumption can make things much worse in the same way it can make things better.
"We keep to the road. Stick to the story that we got caught in the earthquake and mistook this for the surface." I tell the pair of them, though it only really matters to the larger one. Heiya nods either way, adjusting her weapon for a more lax carrying style. She's not in the right mind, but she understands what's at stake.
I give my friend's daughter a reaffirming pat and double-check the bug.
"What?" he goes and I look at his claws. Those damn things of his make it a pain to arm him and we didn't exactly find anything at the outpost before, either.
"I hope you have enough magic in you to at least fight." I say and he huffs quite proudly.
"I survived a shootout with machineguns and everything with barely a morsel of magic in me." he goes and I nod along, the circumstances of that fight a first-hand experience for me. I'll take his word on it, but, while I won't exactly take a bullet for him... I can't have him dying on me, either.
Heiya can only spend so long in this resort keeping her mind off of things. At some point, she needs to come to a final, absolute choice. We either head back to the surface and stay up there, or we go back underground. And we hunt down Gamtambo with all we have.
Nin's promise to Heiya aside, I don't want to spit on my old friend's grave like this. Getting her potentially killed. Undwote should be finding her dying in one of his care homes. Not bleeding out in some ditch because her anger blinded her common sense.
"Come on now, they'll be lenient if we make it clear we're not hiding anything." I say, guessing a little from past experiences when it comes to lying to these types of people. The less suspicious you look when the moment is appropriate, the less hang-ups there will be.
"I thought the idea was to run away from the guys with swords?" Nin asks, his facetious remark striking quite the blood-filled thunderbolt across my head.
"Let *me* do the talking, we only have one chance at this. I have the experience, you don't. Besides, you focus on keeping those damn mandibles of yours quiet. You hear?" I tell him, shaking my weapon as an added on threat, though, more so out of habit. He no doubt cocks a brow over my actions, but he does as demanded and gets real quiet. Nice and so.
We quickly approach the road again and I hop down ahead of the pair. Twisting around, I reach out to ease Heiya down the notable step and Nin drops. His weight certainly there and a reassuring little tremor it is. I smile slightly, knowing he at least has some magic in him.
I move ahead and pat him back, keeping him a reasonable distance away. They might try and surround us, but then I can just pull Nin in. Either way, keeping him buried under other noises should keep his bug habits out of the security forces' ears. Heiya, thankfully, doesn't need much encouragement either way and she sticks close.
We keep walking and walking, watching as the galloping group of men comes ever closer. The details are becoming clearer and it's a certainty that at this point they've seen us. The road and countryside are too open for this lot, now. Growing impatient, I gently take Heiya's musket back into my hands to look at what we're dealing with.
A dozen or so men, all fully armoured in steel plate, chain-mail and appropriately decorative cloth on top of it. Bright, thick yellows and blues of much the same. Patterned in squares, diamonds and a rather strange looking spear tip. No particular signs of the usual emerald shine and the greens that should come with it. Still, everyone knows the stories about a trained witch and their hidden power.
"Be ready to fire when needed." I warn Heiya, though I don't really need to. She takes back her weapon, flicking through a few mechanical options, and she's all set. A little bobble of the head making things clear.
"They don't look like any state-guard to me," Nin remarks and I nod in agreement. These are certainly not them in the slightest. Mountain-states of all kinds have long since moved to guns. The only places that don't use them are witches or freelance specialists. Two problems that have easy, dismissing answers right now... The lack of glow, and the uniforms. No mercenary unit is going to be rocking only swords and other one-handed weapons in moments like this.
"Remember, quiet. Unless spoken to." I remind him, tacking on the last bit as the cavalrymen come to a fair stop away from us. Their weapons not even close to being drawn, but their shields still presented.
I look the men over, keeping my grip cautiously on my handgun. Their animals snort and trot about, an odd, uncanny look to them. A juperse-like shape, but, rather than exposed insect meat, they're fluffy. The shell's still there, so I can only guess the true idea of what they are.
"Doth thine trio have the willingness to offer their names?" what seems to be the leader of the men asks and I blink at their haughty, almost exaggerated accents. The way they speak and more...
"I... Beg your pardon?" I go, missing the forest for the trees as I continue to mentally trip up on how they spoke rather than what they said.
"I'm Nin, this is Heiya. And grumpy here is Hrurim." Nin answers and I nod, despite his blatant defiance of my prior word.
"Yes, those are our names. We're travellers, the earthquake just now cut us off from our group. We thought this was free ground to travel?" I explain, choosing my words carefully as another detail kicks in about this mess. They speak so strangely and yet, we understand them. A magic thing, or are they really just determined to speak a butchered surface tongue?
I'll pick over the details during dinner if we survive to reach that point...
"Good tidings, we haveth come this path for the very purpose of the dastardly shakes! Though, I must be quite sorrowful with you. I've not a slight idea about this 'surface' you speak about. You are people, peasants of the earth! Not worms!" their leader goes and I blink very carefully.
"R-Right, of course." I go, losing track as to how well we are doing at this. The man's voice seems chip and cheerful, but it's hard to say. What a strange land we've stumbled into right now...
"Can you perhaps elucidate us on your past travels? We seek to learn about the Crack in the Sky on behalf of our Lady-King." another one of these soldiers goes, riding ahead slightly, though, not through personal want it seems.
"We... We uh, came through the 'Crack in the Sky,' it leads to a dark world beyond...?" I say, not sure if that was at all the right thing to say.
"From beyond it!?" one of the men goes, his tone almost cracking with the amount of shock it just endured.
"We best take them to the garrison. Brother Deazoulou may scratch a fine story onto the paper!" another one goes.
"The road is safe, we have yet to ride across any beasts of blood-taking power. We can ride ahead quite calmly." a rather buff man says, his choice of words quite contradictory to how animatedly he moves.
"These guys do know 'king' is a man's title, right?" Nin whispers to me and Heiya, leaning forward.
"Shut it!" I snap back at him, causing the riders to ruffle about. Some sweat forces its way onto my skin and I look back their way. Thankfully, I find no weapons drawn.
"Have no fear, peasants! We shall have our catching-up squires accompany you back to the village! We must ride now, without delay!" the leader of the lot goes and they head off, one of them headed right the other way.
"I guess that's our messenger." I mutter to the pair of them as the rest of the riders continue to thunder away. Banner held high, all the sparkly bits keeping them in view long after they turn the corner.
"Well, that worked out." Nin goes, stepping out from his spot to get moving.
"Not so fast!" I snap at him, not fast enough to get anywhere near his cloak. He turns my way and throws his arms up, shrugging without a care.
"Best we do as the knights say." Heiya chips in, her voice quiet, borderline muted.
"What made you so knowledgeable all of a sudden?" I ask her, and she gives me a slight shrug, her mind clearly going elsewhere.
"They just remind me of all the divine orders. You know, like the Whistling Knights and the like..." she explains, her circumstances making it all too easy to recall the God of Death's chosen warriors.
"I guess they do. I guess they do." I say, patting her along so we can make the best of our circumstances. Maybe they'll give us a free pass towards this so-called Lady-King of theirs. Whoever they are, though, I have to wonder how they can be so lax. Our guns are on open display and they paid them no mind at all.
"They didn't try to disarm us, you know?" Nin says, his words almost scary in how timed they are with my thoughts.
"Yeah, I can see. And feel." I remark, patting my weapon as I feel gladdened by the fact my weight hasn't changed at all. I've not had a need to carry fresh bullets and I have not lost any either.
"They didn't seem to care all that much for us, either... Even with this whole Crack in the Sky business." Nin points out, turning around and walking backwards. He comes to a stop, the road trembling with the weight of more riders than there were headed that way before.
"Back here, now." I tell him and he does just that as the one knight who went off rides on by, not a care at all. The rest of the riders, however, it feels almost insulting to see them.
"Is that a bunch of kelbalids carrying boys?" Nin asks and I nod along, just as surprised as he is.
"Greetings, weary travellers! Our lords and masters speak of you requiring our escort this bright day? Well, come along now, pass your belongings onto us as you see fit. We're here to take you to the garrison safely." their leader explains, his kelbalid in particular quite the finely looked after colt.
"Ar'right yous lot, whose going to take what?" the lead kelbalid asks, his voice not far off from the accent I'm used to hearing from their kind. I guess this strange speaking nonsense is so far a human-only thing. Though, I guess that's a good thing, actually. With how strange things here are, it's good to know at least other races are here. I can't imagine Heiya's particularly eager to be hounded over her fur and nose.
Speaking of, actually...
"No, no! It's alright, it's alright..." I assure Heiya as she gets overly defensive over one of the kelbalids coming too close.
"I'ma sorry- I though' she needed help." he goes, not quite sure what he did wrong.
"It's fine, she just lost her father. She's on-edge." I say, putting it out there as that is one universal thing, no matter the strange ways people speak. Losing family is a painful thing.
Heiya sniffles, nodding slowly, and I guide her around me, offering some of my baggage in exchange. The kelbalid eagerly takes the load, and these so-called squires form up around us. Protecting us as much as they are imprisoning us to their orders. Still, it's better than being run through by two different loads of soldiers.
"Come on now, it's fine, Heiya." I assure her, helping her a bit with her load. As much as she is willing to let me help, anyhow.