“So that is the plan?” Ases said, her eyes lost in thought as they stared downwards, while her hand tapped her arm nervously.
“It is difficult, but if I am there on the front lines, I think I will be of help,” Charlie said, as the room tensed at his decision to again leave the tribe.
“No! We have had far too many risks, you should stay here,” Klipesia said, but Etasose raised a hand and she fell silent.
“Trust me, if I am with two to three hundred of our people, I am sure I will be fine. After all, this team will be made of members from all four clans. Don’t tell me you do not trust your people?” Charlie said, and no one in the room responded.
Just outside the room, Ourupadia sat and listened. She was never good at understanding his language, but from what she did hear, she knew what he was trying to do. Standing, she turned and entered the hut. Upon entrance, all eyes turned to her. Charlie’s gaze was warm, which was in contrast to the cold glares of the women whom she had just interrupted.
“I do not trust them,” Ourupadia stated, getting a few murmurs from the clan heirs to their respected clan leaders. Even the four wives of the Chiefess muttered among each other. Xasuyle and Felkouyope moved to stand and remove the intruder, but Charlie made a small sidestep. Which only just blocked Ourupadia from their sight, but made it clear he wanted to hear her out.
“Go on,” Charlie said.
“So far, you have been guarded by the Huntresses and Warriors, yet they almost got killed by the Goblins. Then it was the turn of the Vultures and Forgers, yet they almost got massacred by the mercenaries of the town of Labtraon. So far, all four clans have failed you,” Cluupyte growled, the hairs on her tail sticking up as she glared at Ourupadia.
“What is your point to this girl? To mock the dead?” Cluupyte made a move to stand before Pycleia placed a hand on her and pushed her back down.
“Listen to her,” Pycleia said in a harsh whisper. Cluupyte locked eyes with the girl, before giving a growl and returning to sitting.
“What do you propose then? That I stay here, and the team goes in blind?” Charlie said, wanting to get to the point as he did not know how much longer Cluupyte could keep herself calm. She was a noble person, but her honour gave her ego. So, it was best to prevent Ourupadia from accidentally insulting her further.
“I propose a royal guard, created from the best of each clan. Head Warrior Cluupyte will train them in melee combat, then the Lead Huntress Pycleia will teach them archery. We then have their equipment made by the Forgers, and enchanted by the Vultures,” Ourupadia’s proposal brought the room to silence.
Some clan leaders glared, obviously not liking the fact a roamer (a person who bounces from clan to clan whenever it suits them) was saying something they agreed with. While Nolkonoe and Pycleia seemed more hesitant as they shuffled in place, and the ends of their tails curled.
“I…I am not sure of this,” Nolkonoe said, crossing her arms as her gaze fell downwards, “I am the only Vulture who knows even the slightest about enchantments. I also know that it is one of the secret skills of my clan, so I don’t plan on sharing it with the other clans,”
Nolkonoe raised the stump where her right hand once was, “Taking this into an account, I am not sure I will be able to. It also takes years to learn it, so I am not sure what I can do.” Again, there was silence, before Charlie this time spoke.
“Maybe we can ask Wrench,”
“Who is Wrench?” Ases said, naturally interested in an unknown figure.
“Bastard mask man,” The Chiefess interjected. All nodded, it seemed the Chiefess had already spread her impressions of Wrench around the clan leaders.
“When he saved me, I remember him using a Wrench to almost fry a man’s head. From the look of it, it looks magic. His cloche was also bulletproof. Taking a close look at the cloth, it looked to just be regular cloth, so I am thinking maybe that was also magic. Since he didn’t cast any spells, I think it might have been an enchantment,” Charlie said, making a few clan leaders and their heirs chat among each other.
Phukomeia and Xasuyle chatted while Klipesia and Felkouyope held their silence.
“Do we have time for such ventures?” the heir of the warriors said, sitting forward slightly.
“I agree with her,” Felkouyope said, getting a few nods from the others.
“If he is getting five hundred soldiers each day, how long will it be before he has an army that he is confident to use to attack our village?” Xasuyle added, again getting murmurs of approval.
“If we follow my plan, and you allow me to use the Desert Claimers as well as borrow some of your people, I may be able to buy us some time,” Charlie said, taking his hands from his pockets as he then folded his arms at his front.
“But this brings us back to the first problem! We can’t allow you out there on your own!” Klipesia said, but Phukomeia quickly shot her a glare that managed to silence her. With a little growl and wag of her tail, she sat back.
“Ok, then let's just do a rough idea of the plan, to begin with until we have a royal guard sorted out,” Charlie said, shuddering slightly as he came to the realisation, that he was now technically royalty.
Pycleia stood, her arms crossed. “I will take all one hundred of my huntresses and if the Chiefess allows us to take two Desert Claimers, I will fulfil the plan,”
“Don’t you only have ninety?” Cluupyte said, knowing that she had about 140 warriors in her clan.
“Thanks to Charlie’s documents, we have more of an accurate idea of how many there are in our clan. It turns out you only have 130, and we have 170,” Pycleia said smugly, not wanting to mention that the Vultures had two hundred and fifty and the Forgers had three hundred and fifty. Or at least that was what the women rounded the numbers to in a way to make their clans look bigger.
“So, I have an idea,” Charlie began.
An idea was formed.
First group: they would send one Desert Claimer, the lead Forger, Charlie, and some Vultures to the town. Considering how few guards they were, Charlie had a hunch Wrench might have had something to do with it. With this in mind, he thought they may have some form of protection. But just in case, he had some Vultures armed with the guns he had brought oh so long ago from the Head Merchant.
Second group: the huntresses will use the Desert Claimers to fulfil Charlie’s plan.
Third group: the warriors and remaining Forgers will begin to set up an arena to start the selection process for the royal guard. The event to do so would be held once the groups come back and are ready for the process. With this in place, the groups dispersed to go and get ready for the days to come. But we will start with Cluupyte and her team.
One day later
Buried in the sand, Pycleia stared out towards a long stone road. Just in the distance, at the end of the road, sat a small village. Her ears pricked up as she turned to her side. Felkouyope stood next to her, her body nude, only covered by the clan paint of the Chiefess.
“So, did you, do it?” Pycleia said, and Felkouyope raised a crystal in her hand.
“I Planted the crystal that will link to us, and I have the one here that will send the message to Mr Green Water,” Felkouyope said, as two huntresses came over and handed her clothes.
Dressing, she handed the crystal over to Xasuyle. Looking over the crystal, she then walked over to a table with several scrolls on it as well as quills and ink. There were two small metal boxes with an open lid. Placing a piece of paper into each box, she then placed the crystal that linked to the Region Lord in one box, while placing the crystal that linked to the town in the other.
“Ok, this is good. The communication team is set up. All we need to do now is wait,” Xasuyle said, standing back from the two boxes.
“Should we then start our role?” Pycleia said.
Standing and looking at the two Desert Claimers and their war team. Each was dressed in white and red clothes with large red spears painted onto their chests. The clothes were baggy, and this hid the identity of their sex. Combined with the magic to hide their Wolfen features, they seemed almost unrecognisable as members of the tribe.
Each was armed with lever action rifles and pouches of ammunition. In total there were one hundred of them, fifty on each creature. Pycleia was dressed the same, and Felkouyope was only just applying the last of the magic to hide her tail.
“Who is a gorilla?” Klipesia said, looking over a piece of paper with their instruction written onto it by Nolkonoe.
“It is the human description for our fighting tactics,” Pycleia explained to her daughter, all while the new clan heir stood awkwardly near her.
Being near someone who she was a replacement for made her feel quite… odd. As if standing next to someone who they still believed was of a higher status than them. Still, though, she stood strong as the former huntress tried her best to figure out how to understand the weird messages left by Nolkonoe.
All leapt back as a roar of blue light flooded in a beam through the air, then down into the first of the two boxes. Running over, Xasuyle looked inside the box. Removing the crystal, she looked at the paper.
“Prepare to relay message!” she yelled over to another Forger who instantly began to take the paper from the other box and begin to write onto it.
“They are saying that there are another five hundred soldiers ready, and if they should send them. Response to the Region lord, you should write that there is a storm predicted so they can’t send the soldiers. We will send a similar message back to the town, saying the Region doesn’t want reinforcements since there might be a storm,” The messages were written, and once the message to the region Lord was done, the other Forger placed it into a box, placed the crystal onto it, before then standing back.
A beam of blue light exploded into the air from the box before then flying towards the base of the Region Lord. For about an hour they waited in silence, watching the sky for any sign of the message returning. As soon as the message returned, Xasuyle placed her newly written message into the box, and placed the crystal onto it, before then sending the next message back to the town.
The counter communication post was now in place.
Far from this outpost, Charlie rode upon the back of a Desert Claimer. The Chiefess had been forced to stay behind to start creating a process to pick out their best of the best to protect him. Despite all that had happened to him so far when he had left the village, with Ourupadia by his side he felt far more protected.
Placing a hand to his side, she continued to scan the area. If all had gone well with the communication post, then hopefully the huntresses would be ready for their part. Making a small moan, Ourupadia moved closer, resting herself against his back.
“Tiered,” she muttered, gently pulling him closer. Subtly, she positioned herself so that she acted like a shield for him. Glancing back, Charlie looked at the bound Florentine struggling on the back of the Desert Claimer. She whipped around, yelling curses and curses through her gag.
“So, she was drugged by goblins, we saved her, and we think she needs medical help. That is the story, right?” Phukomeia said, glancing back as well to stare at the woman.
“Yeah, do you think it will work?” Charlie said, trying to push one of Ourupadia’s breasts off his head.
“Sure,” Phukomeia said, staring at the brazen actions of Ourupadia as she somehow managed to drag him even closer to her body, even though the wife of the Chiefess sat so close to her. Chuckling, Phukomeia shook her head. She didn’t mind her acting like this, but she just wished she would have been a little more subtle in her advances.
“Um, Mrs,” A Vulture said, drawing the attention of the others with her shaking voice. The woman who had spoken stood on the back of the Desert Claimer. In her hands, she held a telescope that they had ‘liberated’ from Mr Green Water’s former outpost.
“What is it?” Phukomeia said, feeling a chill of dread come over. For a moment the woman was silent, her lips moving as if trying to speak but not being able to construct a sentence to relay what she saw.
“Goblins, and that man,” she said, looking upon the hundred or so raiders who surrounded the masked man. Wrench stood, bodies of dead goblins around him. His eyes scanned around, as he tightened his grip on his worker’s wrench. Lighting began to swirl around the tool, as a look of murder filled the red eyes of the mask.
Hey there, the little pole thing on the announcement ends tomorrow. So feel free to send me a DM here on scribble hub and I will send you a link to the server. Otherwise, I will try and place a link at either the end of the next announcement chapter (which will be tomorrow). If I can't do that, I will either place it in the comments of the chapter or into the blurb area of my story. If you want the link early, as I said, just message me and I will give you an invite.
“So that is the plan?” Ases said, her eyes lost in thought as they stared downwards, while her hand tapped her arm nervously.
“It is difficult, but if I am there on the front lines, I think I will be of help,” Charlie said, as the room tensed at his decision to again leave the tribe.
“No! We have had far too many risks, you should stay here,” Klipesia said, but Etasose raised a hand and she fell silent.
“Trust me, if I am with two to three hundred of our people, I am sure I will be fine. After all, this team will be made of members from all four clans. Don’t tell me you do not trust your people?” Charlie said, and no one in the room responded.
Just outside the room, Ourupadia sat and listened. She was never good at understanding his language, but from what she did hear, she knew what he was trying to do. Standing, she turned and entered the hut. Upon entrance, all eyes turned to her. Charlie’s gaze was warm, which was in contrast to the cold glares of the women whom she had just interrupted.
“I do not trust them,” Ourupadia stated, getting a few murmurs from the clan heirs to their respected clan leaders. Even the four wives of the Chiefess muttered among each other. Xasuyle and Felkouyope moved to stand and remove the intruder, but Charlie made a small sidestep. Which only just blocked Ourupadia from their sight, but made it clear he wanted to hear her out.
“Go on,” Charlie said.
“So far, you have been guarded by the Huntresses and Warriors, yet they almost got killed by the Goblins. Then it was the turn of the Vultures and Forgers, yet they almost got massacred by the mercenaries of the town of Labtraon. So far, all four clans have failed you,” Cluupyte growled, the hairs on her tail sticking up as she glared at Ourupadia.
“What is your point to this girl? To mock the dead?” Cluupyte made a move to stand before Pycleia placed a hand on her and pushed her back down.
“Listen to her,” Pycleia said in a harsh whisper. Cluupyte locked eyes with the girl, before giving a growl and returning to sitting.
“What do you propose then? That I stay here, and the team goes in blind?” Charlie said, wanting to get to the point as he did not know how much longer Cluupyte could keep herself calm. She was a noble person, but her honour gave her ego. So, it was best to prevent Ourupadia from accidentally insulting her further.
“I propose a royal guard, created from the best of each clan. Head Warrior Cluupyte will train them in melee combat, then the Lead Huntress Pycleia will teach them archery. We then have their equipment made by the Forgers, and enchanted by the Vultures,” Ourupadia’s proposal brought the room to silence.
Some clan leaders glared, obviously not liking the fact a roamer (a person who bounces from clan to clan whenever it suits them) was saying something they agreed with. While Nolkonoe and Pycleia seemed more hesitant as they shuffled in place, and the ends of their tails curled.
“I…I am not sure of this,” Nolkonoe said, crossing her arms as her gaze fell downwards, “I am the only Vulture who knows even the slightest about enchantments. I also know that it is one of the secret skills of my clan, so I don’t plan on sharing it with the other clans,”
Nolkonoe raised the stump where her right hand once was, “Taking this into an account, I am not sure I will be able to. It also takes years to learn it, so I am not sure what I can do.” Again, there was silence, before Charlie this time spoke.
“Maybe we can ask Wrench,”
“Who is Wrench?” Ases said, naturally interested in an unknown figure.
“Bastard mask man,” The Chiefess interjected. All nodded, it seemed the Chiefess had already spread her impressions of Wrench around the clan leaders.
“When he saved me, I remember him using a Wrench to almost fry a man’s head. From the look of it, it looks magic. His cloche was also bulletproof. Taking a close look at the cloth, it looked to just be regular cloth, so I am thinking maybe that was also magic. Since he didn’t cast any spells, I think it might have been an enchantment,” Charlie said, making a few clan leaders and their heirs chat among each other.
Phukomeia and Xasuyle chatted while Klipesia and Felkouyope held their silence.
“Do we have time for such ventures?” the heir of the warriors said, sitting forward slightly.
“I agree with her,” Felkouyope said, getting a few nods from the others.
“If he is getting five hundred soldiers each day, how long will it be before he has an army that he is confident to use to attack our village?” Xasuyle added, again getting murmurs of approval.
“If we follow my plan, and you allow me to use the Desert Claimers as well as borrow some of your people, I may be able to buy us some time,” Charlie said, taking his hands from his pockets as he then folded his arms at his front.
“But this brings us back to the first problem! We can’t allow you out there on your own!” Klipesia said, but Phukomeia quickly shot her a glare that managed to silence her. With a little growl and wag of her tail, she sat back.
“Ok, then let's just do a rough idea of the plan, to begin with until we have a royal guard sorted out,” Charlie said, shuddering slightly as he came to the realisation, that he was now technically royalty.
Pycleia stood, her arms crossed. “I will take all one hundred of my huntresses and if the Chiefess allows us to take two Desert Claimers, I will fulfil the plan,”
“Don’t you only have ninety?” Cluupyte said, knowing that she had about 140 warriors in her clan.
“Thanks to Charlie’s documents, we have more of an accurate idea of how many there are in our clan. It turns out you only have 130, and we have 170,” Pycleia said smugly, not wanting to mention that the Vultures had two hundred and fifty and the Forgers had three hundred and fifty. Or at least that was what the women rounded the numbers to in a way to make their clans look bigger.
“So, I have an idea,” Charlie began.
An idea was formed.
First group: they would send one Desert Claimer, the lead Forger, Charlie, and some Vultures to the town. Considering how few guards they were, Charlie had a hunch Wrench might have had something to do with it. With this in mind, he thought they may have some form of protection. But just in case, he had some Vultures armed with the guns he had brought oh so long ago from the Head Merchant.
Second group: the huntresses will use the Desert Claimers to fulfil Charlie’s plan.
Third group: the warriors and remaining Forgers will begin to set up an arena to start the selection process for the royal guard. The event to do so would be held once the groups come back and are ready for the process. With this in place, the groups dispersed to go and get ready for the days to come. But we will start with Cluupyte and her team.
One day later
Buried in the sand, Pycleia stared out towards a long stone road. Just in the distance, at the end of the road, sat a small village. Her ears pricked up as she turned to her side. Felkouyope stood next to her, her body nude, only covered by the clan paint of the Chiefess.
“So, did you, do it?” Pycleia said, and Felkouyope raised a crystal in her hand.
“I Planted the crystal that will link to us, and I have the one here that will send the message to Mr Green Water,” Felkouyope said, as two huntresses came over and handed her clothes.
Dressing, she handed the crystal over to Xasuyle. Looking over the crystal, she then walked over to a table with several scrolls on it as well as quills and ink. There were two small metal boxes with an open lid. Placing a piece of paper into each box, she then placed the crystal that linked to the Region Lord in one box, while placing the crystal that linked to the town in the other.
“Ok, this is good. The communication team is set up. All we need to do now is wait,” Xasuyle said, standing back from the two boxes.
“Should we then start our role?” Pycleia said.
Standing and looking at the two Desert Claimers and their war team. Each was dressed in white and red clothes with large red spears painted onto their chests. The clothes were baggy, and this hid the identity of their sex. Combined with the magic to hide their Wolfen features, they seemed almost unrecognisable as members of the tribe.
Each was armed with lever action rifles and pouches of ammunition. In total there were one hundred of them, fifty on each creature. Pycleia was dressed the same, and Felkouyope was only just applying the last of the magic to hide her tail.
“Who is a gorilla?” Klipesia said, looking over a piece of paper with their instruction written onto it by Nolkonoe.
“It is the human description for our fighting tactics,” Pycleia explained to her daughter, all while the new clan heir stood awkwardly near her.
Being near someone who she was a replacement for made her feel quite… odd. As if standing next to someone who they still believed was of a higher status than them. Still, though, she stood strong as the former huntress tried her best to figure out how to understand the weird messages left by Nolkonoe.
All leapt back as a roar of blue light flooded in a beam through the air, then down into the first of the two boxes. Running over, Xasuyle looked inside the box. Removing the crystal, she looked at the paper.
“Prepare to relay message!” she yelled over to another Forger who instantly began to take the paper from the other box and begin to write onto it.
“They are saying that there are another five hundred soldiers ready, and if they should send them. Response to the Region lord, you should write that there is a storm predicted so they can’t send the soldiers. We will send a similar message back to the town, saying the Region doesn’t want reinforcements since there might be a storm,” The messages were written, and once the message to the region Lord was done, the other Forger placed it into a box, placed the crystal onto it, before then standing back.
A beam of blue light exploded into the air from the box before then flying towards the base of the Region Lord. For about an hour they waited in silence, watching the sky for any sign of the message returning. As soon as the message returned, Xasuyle placed her newly written message into the box, and placed the crystal onto it, before then sending the next message back to the town.
The counter communication post was now in place.
Far from this outpost, Charlie rode upon the back of a Desert Claimer. The Chiefess had been forced to stay behind to start creating a process to pick out their best of the best to protect him. Despite all that had happened to him so far when he had left the village, with Ourupadia by his side he felt far more protected.
Placing a hand to his side, she continued to scan the area. If all had gone well with the communication post, then hopefully the huntresses would be ready for their part. Making a small moan, Ourupadia moved closer, resting herself against his back.
“Tiered,” she muttered, gently pulling him closer. Subtly, she positioned herself so that she acted like a shield for him. Glancing back, Charlie looked at the bound Florentine struggling on the back of the Desert Claimer. She whipped around, yelling curses and curses through her gag.
“So, she was drugged by goblins, we saved her, and we think she needs medical help. That is the story, right?” Phukomeia said, glancing back as well to stare at the woman.
“Yeah, do you think it will work?” Charlie said, trying to push one of Ourupadia’s breasts off his head.
“Sure,” Phukomeia said, staring at the brazen actions of Ourupadia as she somehow managed to drag him even closer to her body, even though the wife of the Chiefess sat so close to her. Chuckling, Phukomeia shook her head. She didn’t mind her acting like this, but she just wished she would have been a little more subtle in her advances.
“Um, Mrs,” A Vulture said, drawing the attention of the others with her shaking voice. The woman who had spoken stood on the back of the Desert Claimer. In her hands, she held a telescope that they had ‘liberated’ from Mr Green Water’s former outpost.
“What is it?” Phukomeia said, feeling a chill of dread come over. For a moment the woman was silent, her lips moving as if trying to speak but not being able to construct a sentence to relay what she saw.
“Goblins, and that man,” she said, looking upon the hundred or so raiders who surrounded the masked man. Wrench stood, bodies of dead goblins around him. His eyes scanned around, as he tightened his grip on his worker’s wrench. Lighting began to swirl around the tool, as a look of murder filled the red eyes of the mask.
Hey there, the little pole thing on the announcement ends tomorrow. So feel free to send me a DM here on scribble hub and I will send you a link to the server. Otherwise, I will try and place a link at either the end of the next announcement chapter (which will be tomorrow). If I can't do that, I will either place it in the comments of the chapter or into the blurb area of my story. If you want the link early, as I said, just message me and I will give you an invite.
