When I woke up I heard a lot of people gathered at the village's center, so I got out to check what was going on.
Everybody seemed exited and for a good reason, I might add: they were even ordered in a line. Waiting for what? I could definitely see Freyr, who was talking to a man I did not recognize. Behind him were three animals, Hurders probably, that were tied to each other, forming a caravan. They appeared to be loaded full of goods.
I got closer, close enough to hear what he was saying:
"...t me see what you've got, Vard."
"Apparently the group was quite a big one. And it was going westward, so you should be thankful." the merchant, Vard, I assumed, starting to speak, but after he saw Freyr rise his eyebrow skeptically he stopped for a bit "Whatever. The point is that there were two musketeers... Gunpowder is a favourite weapon of yours, sorcerer. Or am I mistaken, sir?"
"And how much did Kutka decide to offer me?"
"A bit less than a kilogram. In two horns, sir." Vard said.
"That does sound nice, fellow." Freyr smiled and made his offer "Seeing your cargo is full, at least you did not trade without permission in my lands. Let's not forget taxes."
"Ah..." the merchant sighed "Your people are so... Whatever. Let's just... I'd initially want twenty kilograms of your mushrooms for that. Five and you'll make me one of your passes for the month."
"Deal." they shook hands "Do you keep your pass?"
"Yes, sir." Vard said and showed a triangle shaped piece of wood with something carved in it.
Freyr took it, closed his eyes and breathed in. He appeared to be weakened by whatever he had done, but as a result the carvings in the wood started to glow.
"Here. Now I'd like to see what else you've got..."
While this dialogue was taking place, I had entered the queue for the merchant. Exchanging food for human (I think) goods? That sounded really good. In every story I had heard about them they were described as supremely talented craftsmen and fearsome warriors; only big armies led by the best of the living would dare challenge them. While I do believe Freyr fell in the category of such men (I don't believe that even a madman is capable of denying that), we simply did not live near humans, so I was unlikely to ever interact with them. I don't even think that I'd like to. I also wondered where Vard was from. Maybe a southerner? No, I knew that their leader was a man named Hekar. The east? I didn't know much about the people there, so I assume it was possible he was from there...
"Hi!" somebody greeted me, suddenly cutting off my line of thought. "What is going on?"
It was Lorthax.
"Hmm, I am not certain." I said "Some merchant has come."
"You know, I'm not blind." my brother said.
"Oh, sorry. The merchant's name is Vard. Based on how I heard Freyr react, he's been here before. Do you know him?" I asked.
"So, this is Vard... He's from Ulumdor. I assume he's just come from there. He occasionally comes and trades in human goods for food. Poor people there can't even go hunting."
"Weird place must be that Ulumdor." I said.
"Believe me." Lorthax put his hand on my shoulder in a calming manner. "Every place that is not home is strange. Now think about the things we can haggle out of him. All we need to do is to bring him whatever promised in the evening."
"So, you're going to wait here, too?"
"Naturally." Lorthax smiled.
The queue soon started to move. Freyr had also taken a liking for some armour and after a bit he went away. It was almost my turn.
"Calm 'self..." I heard Lashi, who was two positions before me and was going to talk to the merchant, speak to herself. "Appea' good. Get what want. Sound good. Make yourself sound all proper and stuff."
"Come you four!" the merchant pointed at us.
"Thanks!" I came to look at his load.
There were quite a lot of notable things to see. Clothes (a bit oversized, but very well made and looking quite nice), bows, close combat weapons, arrows with tips of actual iron. Surprisingly I didn't see any spears at all. Could it be intentional?
I showed my interest in one bow.
"May I advise you to first try it out, sir?" the merchant said in his weirdly polite tone "I don't like giving things that end up useless."
"Okay." I tried drawing the bow.
It was quite a difficult task. Even using all my strength I could barely draw it to the maximum.
"Well, thank you for the advice. I won't be taking this." I said and then took out a padded shirt, it was white and red in colour and appeared to be quite thick "What about that?"
"A gambeson. It's pretty good at protecting against slashes and piercing attacks. Do you want it? You look like a new, but good hunter." he gave me a generic compliment "I'd give it for ten kilograms of meat. Good meat I talk about. Do we have a deal?"
"Do you happen to have some small, miscellaneous items to add?" I asked. To be honest, I was curious about humans.
"Well." he thought for a bit and grabbed something out of one bag. A handful of metal disks with things engraved in them. "What about these coins?"
"One of each type and we have a deal."
What could I say? They looked interesting and that was a good enough justification for me.
"Deal." the merchant smiled.
Meanwhile Lorthax had taken a liking for a chainmail (at least this is how I heard it being called) armour and Lashi liked a bow, presumably with arrows (I didn't pay much attention).
As I was going away, I passed by Ish, who was waiting for the chance to talk to the merchant.
"Hi!" I said "You too are here?"
"Of course. What is going on sounds like a good opportunity, doesn't it?"
"Yeah. I guess so." I stopped for a moment "I was going to go hunting, but... well, company doesn't hurt. Lorthax's going to be by himself, I'm likely only to trouble him, so I don't even bother call him."
Ish giggled: "Haha. It seems he makes the same impression on everybody. I left Lo after less than a month. And you want to go hunt with me?"
"Why not?" I said. "I will wait for you."
"Sounds good."
I waited a bit for Ish and then I asked her what she had ordered.
"Well, I was looking at the swords and chose one single-bladed short sword. Also remember the how I complained about the clothes not being comfortable?"
"Yes..?" I nodded.
"Well, it humans tend to wear several layers of clothing. I just purchased the lowest layer, for females. Vard reffered to it as "underwear". Before you laugh at how ridiculous this is he explained the merchant said that he brought nine pieces of that: it is light and Fleria had bought some before. Therefore it's justified!"
"Whatever. I ordered coins, just because they had cool carvings."
"Huh. Let us not speak about purchases. Where will we go? I suggest checking my traps."
"So you did make them... Okay. That sounds the easiest."
"Ahem, they are only two." Ish noted.
"Still. That's not little work." I got reminded of yesterday "I am sorry for not helping."
"Don't care about that."
We checked both pits Ish had made. There was a quite big lizard that had broken its legs in the first one. Fortunately there was enough meat for both of us, which was especially nice since the second one was empty.
We returned to the village and got our stuff from Vard. I immediately tried the gambeson on. It was surprisingly comfortable. Good thing it is autumn. Based on what I hear I'd overheat if I tried to wear the thick gambeson then. I was sweating even now! And it was in the evening! By the way, if I was a bit more self absorbed I'd try making a white and red symbol for myself (inspired by the gambeson's colours). I wonder what they meant for the humans. The coins (five in total, all different) were pretty cool.
Ish was better off, though. She tried her clothes, too. Surprisingly they fit (I thought they'd be small), although the top part of one of the sets was indeed in for work on, a thing I promised to help her with. I also tried complimenting her for how she appeared. It seemed like a nice thing to do. And probably true.
The villages center, a small celebration was taking place. Freyr even gave mother some armour as a present. She kissed him and then turned to Lorthax and I.
"How do I look, boys?"
Her armour was bright white in colour, with some golden and red. It looked... formal.
"Very good." I said.
"As always, mother!" said Lorthax.
"Thanks. It seems like everybody was productive today." mother stated "I am glad for you..."
Everybody was here. Lorthax, Fleria, Freyr, they were right next to me. Ish and Krol, weren't too far either. Krol was just in front of his father, actually. Lashi wasn't too far away, either. Thiz. Omot and Gord. And many others. Really everybody. We were chatting. Vard, the merchant, was a certain of attention.
And then we heard a scream. Everybody got up.
"Omot, Gord!" Freyr shouted "We are going to check what is going on!"
"Understood!"
I drew my dagger and axe out (my scythe was back in my hut), ready to face whatever it was attacking the village. So did Ish with her new sword and Lorthax with his mountain of a sword. Unfortunately excluding small, secondary arms most people had no weapons (I fell in that category too).
An explosion! Things were going serious. It seems like Freyr was forced to use magic.
And then I recognized the silhouette of a familiar creature. Six thick legs, strong jaws, orange-ish chitin shell. A Legionary Ant! And if there was one, there's be more.
Lorthax stood up, charged at it and decapitated the animal with a single swing.
"Everybody ready to fight!" he screamed.
Meanwhile more insects were appearing. Two before Lorthax, who was now far away from the rest of the group, seven were coming from right in front of me. Who knows how many more!?
"The larvae" with these words Thiz rushed to protect the unborn ones.
Not great. Everybody was... not panicked. Worried, I'd say. We all knew that ants had a complex social structure. They were not stupid. A group more than a hundred, up to three hundred, maybe, was now surrounding us. And while you can take down one or two ants even bare-handed, what happens when they're twenty? Or fifty?
The ants were getting close to me. I wasn't going to wait for them to bite me. I jumped at the closest ant and stabbed its head with my dagger. I then swung my axe, cutting off the front leg of the ant to my right, and kicked another one. I continued to run, soon entering my hut. I was well enough, my arms were better a bit, but I was fine. The gambeson was only a bit torn apart. I could probably repair it later.
I picked up my scythe. Auch! My leg was bitten, it was bleeding. I turned backwards and hit the ant in the eye with the scythe's tip. I kicked it and hit again with my favourite weapon. There were two more ants at the entrance. I killed them swiftly and got out. Theorically I could stay here. Using the entrance as a choke point would give me good defence, but I felt like helping the others.
I got outside. Freyr was not too far away. I could seem him fight with Gord and Omot by him. While being more than capable to fight with his bare hands, his technique was unique. Based on what little I had heard, magic drained the soul. Mortals die easily from that. Thusly Freyr either used other beings for "fuel" or as it was in this situation do the least possible. A little spark could ignite some wooden scobs thrown in the air... And well, the result was a nice BOOM!
I decided not to follow them because I heard a scream. It was Krol, being overrun by seven ants. He had no weapon. I rushed to help him, cutting ant legs my scythe.
"Are you fine?" I asked.
"Thank. Am fine!" he said.
And another ant charged at me. Fortunately for me it never had the opportunity to ever reach me.
"Don't you dare touch him!" An armoured figure obliterated the creature with her warhammer.
Mother!
"What are we going to do?" I asked her.
"Lorthax is leading defenses at the village edge." she pointed at the opposite side of the village. "I was going for the larvae."
"Wasn't Thiz going there?"
"You believe she'd be enough?"
"Understood." I took my dagger out "Krol, use this. We're helping her."
"O-okay!"
At the larvae house Thiz was being overrun, even though an ant corpse was lying on the ground. She was covered in blood.
"No! Don't hurt them!" she was screaming her lungs out
One larva was even sliced open, showing the half formed embryo. Two ants were atop Thiz, trying to kill her. Fleria quickly attacked them and I finished them off.
"Are you fine?" Fleria asked.
"Th-th. Took Azx. Mjek dead." she cried.
"Shh." Fleria tried calming Thiz down. "Are you hurt? Let me see."
Her right hand was bitten off.
"Down worry. You'll survive." said Fleria.
For the rest of the attack we were protecting the place. Eventually Freyr reached us, telling us that we had won. Only one men and two larvae had died.
If I try looking at this positively I could say that I managed to exchange some of the ant meat for some weird curved sword. Most people got some extra deal out of the merchant too. As if that is a compensation.