The next day was actually uneventful, as all they did was walk and had no more encounters with the fun wildlife. Olivia was now able to walk on her own, albeit at a slower pace, and eventually they could see the village they had been heading to.
"Finally. Civilisation."
"You say that like we've only ever lived in caves. We just came from a village." Lyrika curtly added.
"I know, its just… forget about it," Olivia responded with a sigh.
Moving past the moment, they started to head towards the village and ran through the plan for contact. With the hustle and bustle, they could see from their vantage point, it looked like the village was running how it should, which mean they shouldn't need to deal with bandits or the like to speak to the Teagan, the village chief. But this did mean that Olivia would likely need to stay out of sight until Lyrika could talk to the man and explain the situation.
The hope was that Yoban had explained things in the letter he gave them. They couldn't check to be sure, as that would require them to break the wax seal, which would only cause problems when they gave it to the chief.
As they got nearer, they saw several fields that were surrounding the village, all being worked in by beast-kin from the village. As she got a better look, at the farmers nearest to them, she realised that Yoban's statement of 'being a suborn bull', may have been an actual description rather than just a metaphor. As far as she could see, all of the people working had bull horns on their heads.
They could have been demon horns or horns of some other animal, but upon discussing it with Lyrika, she was sure they were bull horns. Some were shorter than others and bent in slightly different directions, but the fact was that everyone she could see so far had them, meaning there were…bull-kin. Possibly.
Anyway, she could ponder on that later, but for now, given their proximity to the village, this was as far as Olivia could go.
"Right, I'll stay here and you head into the village and ask to see Teagan saying you have a message from Yoban. Someone will surely point you in the right direction. Just, be careful. Ok." Olivia said to Lyrika as she placed her hand on her shoulder.
"I'll-I'll be fine," she said flushing a little at the gesture. "All of the beast-kin villages get travellers from others. A cat-kin turning up should just be normal for them. Anyway, if anyone needs to be careful, it's you."
"Oh please. I'll be fine."
Olivia did still have injuries, so taking it easy was in her best interest. She was well out of sight of the people on the farms, hidden within a small cluster of trees, so she should be fine. But, that doesn't mean another wild animal like the beasts that had attacked them before won't just show up and attack her.
After saying a quick 'see you soon' to each other, followed by a short hug that Lyrika had initiated, Olivia took a seat and relaxed after all the walking. She also had in her hand her torn shirt and the baby creature inside it. On the way there, they had provided it with some more meat, and right now it was taking a nap, so all was quiet with it. But this meant, that Olivia really had nothing to do.
…
Boredom struck Olivia hard as she really had nothing to do. To pass the time she plucked blades of grass, before trying and failing to tie them into knots, her larger fingers making it impossible. She surveyed the area every now and then, making sure there were no animals about. But when you look around for the seventh time and see the same scenery, it really just adds to the lacklustre feeling.
It had been about twenty minutes and the baby was still asleep. She was tempted to wake it, just so she had something to do, but she was sure she had read something once about never waking a sleeping baby. That probably went doubly so when the baby was from a species of predators that seemed to be built for killing.
As time seemed to drain on, she did start to worry. But with every worry, she had to remember that it was quite the walk to the village from where they had parted. Then Lyrika probably had to ask around to find the leader, get to where he was staying and talk to him. Olivia had no idea what village chiefs did on a day-to-day basis, but she had to imagine they were busy most of the time. It may take some time to actually get a meeting with him. A letter from a chief in another village being delivered by a random girl might not be high on the priority list of things to do.
"Mon-"
Olivia all but froze as she heard someone speak. Looking up, she scanned the area and found two people in the direction she and Lyrika had originally come. Both were a good distance away, but she could see that they had bull horns on their head and carried swords at their sides. And worse of all was that both were staring right at her.
"Mon-"
One of them rose their hand up and pointed at her.
Olivia was no idiot and knew what was going to happen. So, with the slight pain still wracking her body, she slowly moved to stand up before she heard him finish his word.
"Monster!"
The man had yelled this out, but thankfully, only the guy next to him would actually be able to hear it. Olivia thought she may be safe given that the people on the farms were too far to hear since none made any movements after he said it. But that was before she saw the other pull something from his hip.
It was an odd shape, slightly curved with a conical shape, pointed at the end. She almost slapped herself when she didn't recognise it instantly, given all the ones she had seen on the villager's heads.
A horn.
The man holding this horn in his hand raised it to his lips and blew, sending a thunderous sound out to his surroundings.
Olivia may have been right that the word the other guy shouted was heard by no one. But the horn was a different story. Turning to the fields, she saw all the farmers in the area drop their tools and head towards the village shouting out as they did. People on the wall of the village, started to arm themselves up, taking their arrows out of their quivers and nocking them on their bows.
Turning back to the two men, she saw both unsheathe their swords and she knew she had to run.
With both of them stopping her from running back to the forest area, she only had a few options. Heading towards the village was obviously not an option she was going to take, as all those guards with their bows were sure to gun her down if she got close. That meant the only options were to run to the side, parallel to the farms and hope she can head back into the forest at some point.
Taking off, she ran as far as she could in her slightly slow and damaged state. A quick look to the side and she saw them both still heading towards her with their swords out. Looking to her other side, she saw the entrance to the village, which was now closed, very likely to keep everyone inside safe and her out.
Moving as far as she could, she headed through a good deal of uneven terrain, making sure to keep the baby firmly secure in her arms. This though, meant she was unable to use her hands, something she needed given that the next step she took, she tripped over a rock in the ground and toppled to the floor.
She only had a split second to think but managed to roll to her back as she fell, keeping the baby on her front and safe. Her back however did hit the floor hard, a few rocks digging into it as she did.
Groans of pain rose from Olivia's throat as she forced herself to stand up, needing to get away from these people chasing her. Once she had managed it, she realised the sound of shouting was much closer than before, and upon looking in its direction, found that the two men had split up and were heading towards her at different angles from the forest.
The slip had cost her. They had managed to get into a position that now forced her to run towards the town, coming at her in different diagonals. With this movement, it meant that should she run into the forest or even to either side now, they would have a much easier time catching her.
One thing that was odd was why they were sending her towards the town. Surely, they would be fearful that she would injure some civilians if she headed that way.
She couldn't ponder this for long as with them coming, she had to act fast. The only thing she could do though was fall into their trap. So, turning away from them, she fled, straight into the fields and towards the village.