"Vadei, I'm sure you understand our situation," Vapooliar remarks disapprovingly at me. Exhaustion in her eyes, her chin moves ahead and rests on the pommel of her sword. One hand keeps the blade upright whilst the other goes through her embarrassingly short hair. It roughly comes out, scraping along her cheek and flicking away almost like a slap.
I bare my teeth and bring my ears up, "No... I don't understand at all."
"Vadei..." Vapooliar firmly goes at my sarcasm. Oh, I hope she makes it clearer that I am testing her patience. I would love the lesson.
"Don't you 'Vadei' me as if you're a scolding mother." I bark with a twitching nose.
"We need to be able to work as a team. For a few nights at the very least, so we can try to figure something out." she sighs.
"How about, no? Why would I help any of them, hm? My life is only in danger because of them!" I nearly scream as the hwardgon tenderly passes her little paw over her gun. Growling at the pair of slavers, I return my sneer to Vapooliar. At least looking at her, I can restrain the urge to claw their eyes out and blindly send them to the hive!
"All of our lives are in danger, Vadei." she says.
"I don't care! I don't care! My life is only in danger because of them! And I don't even know if my family is okay, once again, because of these vile, enslaving monsters! THEY DO NOT DESERVE MY HELP! NOT HER! NOT THAT INJURED BASTARD OR THAT PATHETIC HUMAN!" I vent out with a raised razor digit.
"None of that m-"
"Don't you dare say such a thing, of course, it matters! Why would or should I help these three!? Two of them enslaved me to the city where that human is from!" I interrupt, throwing my hands about.
"Let me finish speaking!" she tries to assert, and a bark is already out of me, a claw-tipped finger pointing right at her. If I could blast her with magic like she is so blessed with, then I would!
"No! No! You listen here, Human! I will... *Not!* Help them!"
"You cannot make it through the hive on your own." she rightly points out and still I find a lack of self-awareness about her!
"Neither can you, apparently. No, you lose your armour and everything useful. So, might as well try going on my own anyway. All of you are helpless!" I point out to which she flinches.
She looks away and starts to hide behind her sword.
"Oh...? You don't have a response, do you!?" I question, moving a couple steps closer.
She looks down further.
I snort, "Typical... You talk about working together, and you think you can just ignore problems. Well, here's a bit of clarification if you don't quite get it, Human... I will not work with someone- WHO SOLD ME, MY FAMILY, MY ENTIRE VILLAGE INTO SLAVERY! I WILL NOT WORK WITH THE PEOPLE WHO PADDED THEIR POCKETS AT MY EXPENSE! I CAN NEVER SEE MY FAMILY OR HOME AGAIN! DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW THAT FEELS, HUMAN!? DO YOU!?"
She goes down even further, her eyes completely out of view.
Growling and heaving, I watch as she increasingly trembles behind her sword. Hearing the sounds of tears, I catch glimpses of them as they reflect the campfire's light. Honestly, I took her for someone with thicker skin. Walking in with some shattered armour and a sword...
"I-I... Understand t-hat feeli-ing more than you could pos-possibly know... Know..." she cries pathetically, curling in on herself. Her sword wobbles but maintains its facing. It is all she has to hide her shame. Snorting, I look away and cross my arms as an uncomfortable near-silence takes over.
In the middle of the camp, the fire continues to roar obliviously. Vapooliar is crying and failing to hold in her immense magical power. In another part of the camp, the slavers move about and the daughter tends to her father. A bit away from them, that contraption the daughter made putters and chokes as it barely holds together.
The injured slaver rises with pained groans before his daughter stops him, disrupting the silence. Forcing him down, she dotes on him further and handles his wounds some more. He tries to force her away, but she isn't having any of it. The daughter takes care of the father...
A family being there for each other.
I do not know if there are supposed to be more of them, but seeing this makes me bitter... Why do... Why does she get to have her father with her? Why does she get to have a parent here while I am on my own...!?
"Stop it," he goes as the young slaver keeps it up. My eye twitches, and I flex my fingers through an invisible whetstone. Though not there, I can already feel the forest burning with the sparks I've shed.
Snorting one more time, I turn around and leave the miserable campsite. It can be someone else's problem for all I care. Grabbing the cleanest piece of cloth I have on my person, I approach the edge of the barrier. Taking in a deep breath, I put it over my mouth and nose and step into the smoke. Letting that breath of stale air out, I gag and shiver as smoke-spiced air burns my insides.
Sneaking through the greenery, I keep an ear out for any bugs. Heiya went outside the camp to investigate that noise in the air. That booming pop from earlier. There is no way we were the only ones who heard it. The bugs are surely out there, beyond the smoke and foliage...
I didn't spend all that time hiding after the crash just to walk into the clutches of the osibindah!
Reaching the edge of the smoke cloud's barely held together core, I move my ears about. Hearing no chitters even in the distance, I make my way out into the lighter smoke cover on all fours. Reaching a pocket of clean air, I gladly breathe it in. It is just a shame the sharp sting refuses to leave my nostrils.
I hate smells that linger like this... Blegh... Eugh!
Thankfully, the smoke's diluting the further I go, getting visibly thinner too. Somewhat fresh air is reaching my nose, as well as the smells of the confined woods. Noting some more smoke, I sneak past the still-burning wreckage. The young slaver's machine might be dying, but at least there is smoke elsewhere in this place.
Reaching the edge of our enclosure, I start to wonder if I should risk the climb down on my own. The lowest point to start might be an inwards-going drop. But it is still safer than those tunnels. The only bugs I would find would all be patrols that I can easily avoid. In the hive, I won't have that chance and they will catch me...
Looking around this place, though, I can't help but find a cruel irony in it. When I was little, Mom and Dad always told me about how places like these are perfect. They're hidden out of the way, but not so small as to feel crowded or like a barless cage. It would be just us and the little forest would be ours and ours alone...
High above the wars of the wind-people, yet not so far up that a dragon or their mongrel spawn would roost there. Unfortunately, this place is not one of those places Mom and Dad told me about when I was younger. This is the private hunting ground for one of the most dangerous creatures out there. Everywhere I look reminds me of that fact.
I want to laugh miserably, really, because the world is so beautiful at times but also so cruel. People can argue for days as to what the most dangerous creature out there truly is. Hwardgons might say the cabboth of the deep tunnels with its acidic hide. Wind-People like Vapooliar will probably cite dragons and their greed for magic-rich areas.
I don't feel that way. It's these bugs that scare me the most because they are everywhere... Dragons and wyverns stay up in the mountains or where the winds blow strongest. Cabboths are always deep underground to the point they are just stories to people like me. Not osibindah. These bugs go anywhere so long as there are people to hurt and to hunt!
If the wind-people weren't wasting time fighting their stupid wars, they could have wiped out these monsters. Many have tried to, despite the wars and other problems, but it's never enough. It never is. The bugs outlive it all... And now here I am, stuck in one of their nests...
"So what's your excuse, anyway, Vapooliar?" I spit back the way I came. She is clearly one of the wind-people, humans blessed with great power by that mountain of mountains. So, what is her excuse? Why haven't they just gone and wiped these creatures out? She's not even just some simple wind-blessed human, she's a fighting-type!
If she did get rid of these creatures, then this would all have just been some nightmare Mom or Dad could've soothed out of me...
Reaching my destination as the frustration gets to me, I snort and push the thoughts away. I slip in and go through the hole, the one I found the slavers hiding beyond a few nights ago. Gods and goddesses, I should've speared them off with a stick. Yet, I... I somehow made the right choice in not doing that.
I brush the stone clear of dust and other things. Sitting down, I shift uncomfortably about before mentally setting on a position. My tail comes around and I hug it tight. Huddling my knees against my chest as another snort bursts out.
Looking out at the world that I can not reach, my eyes follow the mountains as they spread out. They are everywhere. All of them have stretches of safer forest on them and some even have lines of white snow if they are tall enough... Down below, while I can't see it as well in the dark of night, I know it is more perceptibly detailed. Come halolight, anyway.
If I can just find the courage to go down the mountain and get there. But the drop and the slope make it all too easy to turn my escape attempt into a suicide attempt...
Finding myself motionless, I become bitter and hide more behind my tail. I'm scared... Both ways down the mountain could kill me. Both ways down, I will die on my own...
Trying to find a distraction, I look up at the night sky and frown as the clouds move out of the way. A strange, pale diamond shines down on me and I think of the wind-people once more. The so-called Deliverer of Kings... So much blood for a rock in the night sky...
"Jhrarda the Mighty, ever the bold one." I quietly mutter as the beautiful thing keeps me in the light, spiting the darkness all around. Most prominently, behind me.
Sighing to myself, I take the obvious hint the moon being out gives. I start to get ready for bed. Leaning down onto my side, I catch a glint of great moonlight down below. Moving back up slightly, I stretch to the edge and stare longingly at the highlighted edges. A box of weapons...
Weapons we can use to cut down the bugs in their tunnels!
The sight makes my body fill with energy once again, even if it leaves just as quickly as it comes. We aren't at risk when we retrieve them because the smoke hides the way here. Vapooliar surely has the magic strength to just go and grab them for us. It makes me smile. The box is so close and it has everything we need to get out of here!
Frowning, I back away and think about the display I put on earlier. I will need to swallow my pride to go back to them with this knowledge. I want to turn my nose up at the idea, as suffering here is the least three of them deserve. But, I just end up lowering my head in shame instead.
I would be no better than them if I leave them here to die. It doesn't matter if they are slavers who stole me from my home or if they are part of the people who bought me... I am not justified in abandoning them now that I know of something that can help them. They might be scourges that deserve death, but I can't live with this idea.
Dad may be far, far away in another land right now. Far beyond even the Redstone Canyon. But, even then, his voice echoes in my head and words he once told me linger up there. Even if the whole village cheers for me, it does not mean it is necessarily the right thing to do. Sometimes the right thing to do is to be brave and oppose every neighbour you have.
He's right... Even if he probably never considered the idea that this is where my life would take me. I mean, how could he ever think about a situation like this? Who even wants to think about times like these!?
I sigh again.
I will be no better than the slavers if I just leave them to die horrible deaths knowing I could have maybe prevented it... Besides, it will be better to kill them myself...
Going onto my side, I grumble and curl into a ball and hug my tail once it goes through my legs. There aren't many things up here I can call comfortable, but even after the neglect, my tail remains soft. The reddish-brown colour of the fur is still vibrant, and the filth does little to ruin it. Even if I am sleeping on rocks tonight, it doesn't matter, so long as I have my tail to cuddle at night. My warm, soft tail, given to me by Mom and Dad.
Taking one final, awkward glance at the box of weapons, my grip tightens, "I'll bring it up with them tomorrow... Maybe then I can be useful for once around here."