"I didn't know meals offered themselves up nowadays! Which one do ye want, lads? I call dibs on the pretty boys!" A guttural and throaty voice opined loud and clear, the words in question originating from a burly female cyclops. The statement spurred on the already amused cyclopses, tickling their funny bone even further. The resounding laughter smacked right into the gheckla, pushing a lot of them back.
"Are ye sure those teeny weeny short-stacks even count as an appetizer?" The surly cyclopses were all chortling at this point, sound a cacophony of assorted hoots and hollers, their voices dripping with disdain. Alban patiently waited until the cyclops ran out of material. They didn't seem very smart, so he figured their browbeating wouldn't last much longer.
Five minutes hadn't even passed before the cyclopses were recycling their belittlements. Deciding that the hazing was now officially over, Alban quickly formed a fireball before condensing it into a fine blaze. He aimed at the nearest cyclops and shot the blazing bullet straight into it's eye. The cyclops's whole head was soon on fire as his screams of agony stopped the taunts that littered the air in entirety.
The eyes of the now silent cyclopses were all focused on Alban, whose fingers were still slightly burning as his loyal flames danced along his hand. It was suddenly imperative to the towering monsters that hearing out the savage looking youth that could calmly dispatch one of their own without much difficulty, lest he point his palm in their direction quicker than they could even blink. It appeared that the cyclops who had cried for a day straight about being carbonated wasn't lying at all, and all the cyclopses present regretted not listening to her.
"Are you done laughing, now? You can laugh a bit more if you can think of anything I'd actually find funny. I just want your undivided attention before you all get carried away, that's all." Alban's previously bored expression had morphed into a pleasant smile that greatly juxtaposed the actions he had taken to acquire said attention. His friendly countenance inspired fear to all that witnessed it, as they all shivered in unison, a visceral chill creeping along their spines. Alban just beamed away, not paying attention to any of their reactions. Now that he had attained the regard of the cyclopses, he made his intent known, his words smoothly flowing from his mind to the tip of his tongue."
"I want to have a nice little discussion with your leader. Might I suggest you bring him here? Or else I will have to enter myself." Alban idly stated his demands, taking his time with the process of conveying his message. In a way, the pure and unadulterated dread he could feel from the cyclopses was almost as rewarding as fighting an arduous battle. Unbeknownst to him, the stirring that indicated his gradual transformation into a monster sped up a bit, his very soul quivering with pleasure at the sensation.
The cyclopses exchanged glances amongst themselves, their singular eye revealing a deep and ever increasing panic. The apprehensive giants stayed silent for what felt to them to be a bit too long for their aggressor to accept, their blue foreheads breaking into a sweat colder than the very snow surrounding them.
"Strong one." A big gulp was heard by all as the female cyclops that spoke up first courageously opened her mouth, unable to bear the anxiety any longer. "I can lead ye to Blackbeard. I wouldn't want to force ye to enter, but our chief refuses to leave his home." The suddenly verbose cyclops had changed her tune drastically, no longer mocking or jeering at Alban and the group of gheckla behind him. Alban noted this while staring directly at her, his right foot outstretched towards the direction of the gate. Before he neared close enough to enter the town of Hettur, he stood at the precipice of the massive entryway.
"What's your name?" Alban had asked this out of both convenience and interest in the cyclops that carried herself with much more decorum than her peers. The difference between the raucous cyclops he had first encountered and her current demeanor were way too contradicting, the gap spanning as far as the space from the earth to the sky.
A prolonged pause was the only feedback he had received, his question momentarily left unanswered. Before the awkward air between he and the female cyclops could settle into a permanent stillness, the masculine woman's voice sought for his still attentive ears.
"It's Surja." Surja's concise response carried all of the knowledge Alban needed to know before he started moving anew, his bare feet traipsing past the gate that couldn't obstruct him any longer. He and his straggle of followers proceeded into the town of cyclopses.
It didn't take very long for the stoic Surja to start talking again. "Blackbeard has been reduced to a spineless coward. He spoke of our people conquering this continent, not knowing he was a frog in a well. We all are."
Alban made no attempt to reply, silently listening to the cyclops as they progressed closer and closer to their destination. Surja told him all about how Blackbeard had driven the tribe into the ground out of both desperation and avarice. As he listened to Surja's harrowing narrations, he felt as if he could somewhat sympathize with their plight. Still, he could not do anything about it. He was no expert in diplomacy and judging by the fact that Chiyo and Lark kept him away from Nimrod, he probably had just as much of a foot to stand on as the cyclopses themselves.
The substantial door that marked the only access to Blackbeard's home soon loomed in front of Alban and the gheckla. Surja stood off to the side, no longer directly in front of him. Alban spotted a familiar looking head, as his eyes were met with another female cyclops that screamed and ran away from him. Guess that was the one he torched.
Escaping his solemn mood and slipping into a more natural demeanor, he shouted louder than he ever had before. Had to make sure the yells reached the other side of the door, after all.
"Blackbeard! Get out here, I have a proposition for you."
"Whatcha gonna ask him, Alban?" Lat's inquisitive utterance followed Alban's lackluster yell. He was pretty curious why Alban had brought his people all the way here, not really thinking about why he willingly followed. Now that his people were freed he was equally as free to do whatever he liked, and what he planned to do was follow Alban around and get as strong as possible.
"I want him to take your people in, or at least take them back to Gehara. They're not fit for this climate and I'm not going to stick around them for very long. I don't like crowds." Before Alban could continue listing the reasons he needed the cyclops to provide a means of transportation for the gheckla, the door careened open.
"What do you want, small fry." Blackbeard put on a valiant front, but the observational Alban could see right through him. Just as he was about to voice his requests to the cyclops's chief, he was interrupted once again.
"Chief! There's an army approaching our gates for real this time!"