As she lay on top of the catkin bundled in her now ruined tent, Olivia wondered where to go from here. Now that she had determined the catkin wasn't as bad as she thought she could have been, there was the chance for them to actually get along with each other. But first, they would need to get to a point where they were talking face to face, rather than face to fabric.
"Ok, I believe you. Now as you can probably tell, I'm no ordinary…monster, if that's what you want to call me. So, I am going to let you go, and then we can have a calm talk in front of each other, where I can answer your questions. If you try anything, I will fight back. Is that clear?"
Silence permeated from under the tent as the person just listened to Olivia speak, realising their life was in her hands, but this was soon followed by an agreement of what she had said.
"Yes. On my honour, I promise I will not attack you."
Olivia slowly moved off the bundle and helped to unwrap her assailant. As she got near to the end, she moved backwards allowing the girl to finish freeing herself.
As the girl pulled the last of the fabric from the tent, now completely unusable due to the damage, Olivia was able to get a good look at them.
Sort of.
It is still obviously pitch black, but her eyes had adjusted somewhat to the darkness. While she couldn't see much in the way of colours or fine details, she could see a few things. The girl was quite slim, not athlete-looking, but slim nonetheless. Her hair was of a medium length, only coming to her shoulders, and peeking above it all were two furry ears. Lastly, her clothes were damaged, torn and ripped in places. She would need to wait till morning to get a better look at her, assuming she stuck around till then.
Now free of the fabric, the girl looked around and spotted Olivia, shuffling back once she did. Olivia sighed at this but honestly expected it.
The girl sat there just staring at Olivia. Every now and then she quickly looked around as if expecting to see something or someone.
The silence just dragged on and Olivia had to break it lest it go on all night, and really not get any sleep.
"Are you hungry?" Olivia asked as she went into her bag and sifted out one of the last two fruits she had left.
The girl quickly perked up after seeing the food. She was still very cautious of Olivia, but her hunger won out, if the rumble from her stomach was anything to go by. Not wanting to cause her any more distress by getting the girl to take it from her, Olivia chucked the fruit over to the catkin, which once she caught she quickly devoured with a gleeful look on her face.
"When was the last time you ate?"
"Three days ago." She replied during mouthfuls. "Haven't had time to hunt for food." Once she scoffed it down, she gave a reply of "Thank you".
"No problem. I'm Olivia by the way."
"Lyrika."
It didn't take to long to finish the fruit, and once done she leant back in bliss.
"What are you?" Lyrika asked as she turned to look at Olivia.
Olivia was a little taken back by the bluntness of the question, but she replied all the same, explaining who and what she was like she did with Ameril. Like with Ameril, she went through the same things, about how she was likely part orc part goblin, and only woke up several days ago with 'amnesia', all of which managed to placate Lyrika's curiosity.
She stayed away from explaining how she was transmigrated to this world, as even she wasn't sure how all that went down.
"So that's why you look the way you do. Well, you look much better than other goblins and orcs I've seen."
"…Thanks."
Olivia wasn't sure how to take that. It sounded like it could be a compliment, one that she would've probably ended up blushing from, but the tone just made it sound like just a fact more than anything else.
Lyrika asked a few other things about her, one of which was where her tribe was. It made sense to Olivia why she would ask this given how Goblins and Orcs normally worked, but all she say was that had been solo all this time. It would also seem that was the reason why Lyrika had been looking after every now and then, looking out for other Orcs or Goblins. As well as wild animals and monsters of course.
She even very bluntly asked why Olivia hadn't attacked her yet, which really threw Olivia for a loop. It would seem though that the short explanation of how she wasn't like other orcs or goblins, being smarter than them, not having an urge to do so was enough to just make Lyrika answer with a short, 'Huh, Interesting', as if it hardly mattered.
Moving on, Olivia decided to bring up a question of her own.
"So, why are you out here, robbing people in the middle of the night?"
Lyrika looked a bit apprehensive after hearing the question but gave a reply anyway, "Some things happened in my village and I was exiled."
Exiled! Olivia wondered if she had been conversing with a criminal. A criminal with crimes worse than robbing strangers that is, but thankfully, she was proven wrong as Lyrika continued her story.
"I am the daughter of the Chief in my village and my life was good. We hardly had any problems, aside from the occasional monster attack. But one day the chief of another beastkin village came to us, along with his tribe, mainly made up of warriors. He told us how he was going to bring together all of the beast kin villages together, strengthening us against whoever would oppose us, not that anyone had for quite some time. While we have not had the best relationship with humans they mostly leave us be now, aside from a few that think it's fine to make slaves of us. For many it sounded good at the time, improving the ties between the villages, and bringing us together, so many people agreed. But as the days went by I learnt how wrong we were. He said that for it to work, a form of unity was needed to show we were with him and that unity would be through marriage. My father was still all for the idea and was fine with marrying off his daughter in order to bring all of the beast kin together, but I soon learnt of what happened at the other villages."
Olivia was on the edge of her seat. While this was shaping to be a tragic story, it was a thoroughly engrossing tale.
"On one eve, I happened upon one of the tents the new chief had set up near our village. As I walked past I heard sobbing and crying. When I entered I found several women of various beastkin all tied up, bruises on different parts of their bodies. I went to help but they told me no, fearful of the punishment that would come from the chief should he find out. They told me that they were the women who had married into this alliance. They were all either the daughters of their own chiefs, and in some cases, if they had no daughter the current wife of the chief went with him. Some went into this voluntarily, others the new chief forced their hand. For some he killed the current chief and for others he threatened their children and the lives of the tribe. Since they joined he had beaten them daily and used them as he pleased. They told me to leave before he learnt I was there, so I ran back to my father, to tell him what I had learnt. He was horrified about what I told him and in order to save me, came up with a solution. He exiled me, saying I had committed some crime and that once my sentence was up I could rejoin the village. The new chief was angry at first, but but none the wiser that I had found his secret. He eventually accepted it as well, saying that punishment was necessary to keep people inline, and that when I return, they would continue the marriage."
Tears fell from both Lyrika's and Olivia's eyes as she finished her tale. Swept up in the moment, Olivia moved over to her and pulled her into a hug, where she continued to cry.
Both tensed up at this, given they hardly knew each other, attacked each other, and that Olivia was a 'monster'. But with all of the emotions from her story, Lyrika just didn't have the energy to just pull away, taking the contact for the comfort she needed.
"I do not know what to do. The new chief has moved onto another village, but he left some of his men to 'help' the village. I still have two months left on my exile and the new chief said he would return then to claim me."
Olivia stroked the girl's back and could help but decide that she had to help this girl. How, she did not know yet, but she had some time to think.
Still stroking the girl's back, she all of a sudden stopped crying. Looking down, she found that she had fallen asleep in her arms.
"Adorable," she thought to herself as she looked at the sleeping girl's face. She quickly wiped away the tears, and slowly moved to lay her down on the ground.
Once done, she moved away and decided to give the girl some space. While it wasn't much, Olivia took the remains of the tent and the bedding, pulling them over to her to use as a cover for her. Tearing it up, was able to use some for herself and so made her way a short distance from the girl and laid down.
'Huh, looks like I will get to sleep after all.'
They then slept soundly through the night.