After a long night, Samantha was the last one who was on watch and she had to wake everyone up soon to head out. It was early in the morning, but you know what they say. If you don't get up at 1 am then you wont have enough time to put on all your makeup for the day.
Or at least, that was what Samantha would usually do, but these days she didn't have any access to makeup so she had eventually just given up on the thought. Even so, she spent the majority of the watch time fixing up her hair and using some gathered buckets of water to wash up.
Of course, she had not actually been up since 1 am. It was now almost 7 am, and she had been awake for almost 2 hours.
She looked around at the other three, who were fast asleep. If she were her old self, she would have been disgusted to be seen in such a state, but she had grown somewhat accustomed to her new way of life- even if only a little.
Trevor suddenly opened his eyes as if he had already been awake previously, and got up looking about.
"No attacks I presume? Still... we must be careful... we are most vulnerable when we are asleep. Even those spiderlings could attack and potentially kill us if they got the drop on us..."
He said this, but he did not actually believe that Coran or Berith would betray them. He was much more wary of the goblins... even so, he could not ever rule out the possibility of being deceived by someone. Trevor had thrived in the business world with skillful backstabbing of others, and had been backstabbed himself in the end. However, it was his caution that allowed him to survive as long as he did.
Bonds of friendship and trust were only thin lines that were created in order to put on a farce. Even so, he felt that the conviction showed by the spiderlings was true. Coran had not only performed an attack on Fargar, but it was in order to help Garett at that time. There was no order for him to do so, and no drawback from letting Fargar attack, unless he had some sort of reason to keep the antiheroes alive and in the best shape possible. If Coran intended to betray the antiheroes, would he not have simply let Fargar weaken them, or perhaps even defeat them?
Trevor shook Garett up and Samantha poked at Ashley until she eventually was clobbered in the face.
"5 more minutess....."
"AGH! WHY YOU..."
Samantha then clobbered Ashley back.
"5 more minutes my ass.. I ain't no alarm clock you know!"
"Geh! What was that for!? Yeah, I agree. You completely fail as an alarm clock, just like in everything else."
Garett and Trevor seemed to be pretending not to notice as the two fought, but they eventually both got up and began dusting themselves off.
"Blue..", Trevor said in a serious tone.
"I have come up with a strategy regarding this upcoming meeting with the lizard and birdmen tribes. It revolves around me, you, and ghost girl here. Sorry red, but your skills don't really play a part in this- however worry not. You too play a crucial role in the overall scheme."
"Lets hear it"
"Well- I think that with our ghost girls new powers that we can now afford to expose our existence... no, actually, by now I think we've already been exposed. It is likely that word has already gotten out whether it was due to that lizardman or the Determined visiting their village. Even if it had not spread there, who knows whether others have been watching us or not. We should proceed under the assumption that our existence is no longer hidden."
Garett nodded, and Ashley seemed to agree. Samantha went along with them as well.
"With that being said, we should take this meeting as a chance to show the world that we are here. As far as I know, the birdmen and lizardmen are significantly strong tribes, and they are the ones that happen to be closest to our home base. If we are to expand our influence it would be logical to do so close to home."
"Yes, we already know this. What's your point?", Garett asked.
"I think blue should become our figurehead. A... mascot of sorts. Not only does she have an abnormally high charisma factor compared to the rest of us, but she also happens to be somewhat beautiful, even in that demonic form... no, one could even argue that it enhances her beauty. That being the case, she should be the one to take charge in the meetings and the discussions with people of importance."
Samantha was blushing somewhat from Trevor's praise, but she then realized that he had just thrown some responsibility onto her.
"Eh? Why me? You're the businessman here, shouldn't you have the most experience in negotiating?"
"Oh I will be doing the negotiating. I am simply saying that by having you act as our representative, perhaps we can appeal to the more reasonable species. Needless to say, you are something of the good cop. If the ones on the other side of the negotiation table are willing to listen to reason then you will be the one who can grease them up... however, I will know if they are lying or trying to deceive us. In that case, I will step in and take over the discussion."
"I see... that does seem like a good idea. If I'm the good cop, then you're the bad cop?"
"Oh... well, you could say that, but if I'm the bad cop, then Ashley is the gun."
Trevor smirked and Ashley and Garett seemed to be laughing to themselves as they imagined what were likely some disturbing scenarios.
"I see... well then, lets get going back to the village! We don't have all day!"
And with that, the antiheroes headed over to wake the goblins who were resting along with Coran and Berith.
"OIIII!!!! You slaves!!! Has anyone ever heard of a group of slaves sleeping while their masters were up and about!??? NO! Ya'll have 10 seconds to get up before we cut your rations for the rest of the day!"
Garett was shouting at the goblins, seeming to be delighted with the thought of seeing terror on their faces, however instead of producing terror, the goblins all immediately got up from where they were sleeping, and in less than 10 seconds looked ready to go.
They still looked tired and emotionless, but they seemed to be a little more energetic than the night before- and they were ready to work like robots droning about and doing their jobs without complaint.
Oraguth stood at the head and walked up to Garett.
"We are ready to leave, your excellency."
"That's more like it. Fine then. Since our healer's mana has been restored after a night's rest, AND since I am in a good mood today, I suppose I will allow her to heal the 5 most injured people here. Be grateful. It is unheard of for a slave master to give so much to their slaves."
Oraguth seemed to be very relieved as Garett said this, and bowed.
"Thank you, your excellency!"
'Whats this', Garett thought. 'Has this goblin undergone a personality change overnight?'
Garett smiled, but this time it was not a demonic hateful smile. It was simply a smile that showed happiness. Of course, to Oraguth, they all looked the same. He felt like the demon in front of him was mocking him, however that was not the case.
Oraguth had been drained of hope when Fargar began torturing everyone in front of him, and further so when this demon had come in only to further continue the torment. However, something very out of place had happened last night.
His people had been given food.
Not only this- but these demons had gone out of their way to give Oraguth and his people food.
Oraguth had originally thought it was some sort of cruel joke, like putting a carrot on a stick while coaxing the horse to move forward, even though the horse will never reach the goal.
However they really had gathered and served the food.
This reality shook the convictions that Oraguth had about these demons.
He hated the red demon- he hated him almost as much as he had hated his father, however...
Perhaps they were different.
What benefit did they gain from appeasing their slaves? None. Perhaps they could cease revolt, but this could just as easily be done through fear.
Had they done this out of kindness? Or perhaps they were simply trying to maximize the effectiveness of the work done by the goblins?
Even if that was the case, it was much better to work for someone who fed you so that you would work better than someone who enjoyed seeing faces of terror and could care less about the quality of work.
Oraguth grabbed tightly onto that thin string of hope, and tried to reel it in.
"You know what... that's a good look in your eyes boy. Blue! Make it 7 people!"
----