~Chapter 34~
It was nearing nightfall by the time Mae and Baas arrived at the farming community of Desauhtung. There were fields of oshal stretched in every direction; the plant grown in paddy fields like rice, and the houses on raised plots of land, spread out amongst them, were made of mud and fern stalks with thatched roofs. The village proper rested at the foot of a loan hill, where the top soil was too shallow to dig out and grow on, surrounded by a wooden palisade.
The population appeared to be mostly Cynocephali, but at the gateway stood a true giant, the first Aucron, Mae had ever seen. Bright orange flesh and eyes like inkwells, he was a behemoth of muscle over eight feet tall with broad shoulders and a long bushy beard of grey and black. He was dressed in brown cloth, a tunic style shirt, loose-fitting pants, and a straw hat. He was a statue of intimidation, a living barricade more than twice Baas' size.
"Where is the town representative?" Baas asked the Aucron.
