Walking to the fallen tree, he found it pointed in a single direction, east. Examining it, the stump had clearly been broken from the west, as if lightning had hit it from the side, then drag marks on the ground proved someone moved it eastwards in the opposite direction to where it was pointed. Either the local faun's were very meticulous in their planning or this was a sign from god. Lod knew it to be the latter.
No faun could push this tree so quickly, the not yet muddy soil told him as much. Lod felt happy to be given such a large hint by his god, and he was about to pray to them before he remembered a prayer cost blood, he vowed then to get them the blood necessary. He took one last look at the tree. It really did look like lightning had struck it, if a monster did strike it, what kind of beast would do this?
Lod didn't believe it, he shook his head. The will of god had to be carried out.
Stalking the tree foliage, the journey east in the forest was filled with lots of hills, and low valleys. He had once or twice run into gigantic packs of faun's or one or two fauns. Each time, he hugged a tree, large rock, or threw himself into the mud until they passed him by. He was sure of god's might, but unnecessary conflict didn't bode well for hunting. He could lose the trail given to him.
And he knew he was on the right track, he saw more fauns, and the trees had feral marking carved into their bark. Lod rubbed the bark, and felt the grooves of them, they were deep and heavy, but at the same time expressive. There was a precession to its strike that meant a language based around these marks. At times like these he wished he had Trel to remark about what it meant, or Loide to tell him if the mark was demonic or not.
Then he awkwardly felt information pour into his head. As if his analyzed each and every crevice marking the tree. "Big Horn." He recognized. The information coming from seemingly nowhere at all. Lod shook his head, and rubbed his eyes, the system was truly a blessing in disguise. The ability to transform nonsense into proper speech was useful in many ways. He also realized that this must've been why he was able to understand the minotaur and fauns.
He followed the marked trees deeper into the forest. There was an ordained quality to these woods, they were ancient but perfect without a blemish to them, with many stakes stabbed into the ground resembling horns, on the trees were crows that croaked with superstitious unease. Lod felt as if he was being watched by the looping pathway the forest gave him, the crows didn't help in that. He couldn't help but feel as if they were more humane than normal crows, unbothered by the horrible storm.
Lod didn't believe it, just as the crow croaked at him, swooping down, with an invisible shield, hanging over its head, shielding it from the rain, to perch on a low hanging branch to look him straight in the eye. It didn't take him a moment to think, he swung his sword, hacking at the branch.
The bird flew away, impishly crowing away as the branch it sat on fell to the ground. Lod felt the corners of his cheek turn red, the creature was toying with him. How he wished he could throw things better.
Lod hoped that the crow wasn't sentient enough to bargain a deal with the Big Horn tribe. Hoping he hadn't stumbled upon their sentinel, but when he saw the crow laugh at him once, and then return to its perch, without any commotion he felt a little bit of his worry ease. But that didn't erase it. He eased his figure deeper into the forest, hoping his black cloak and the rain could mask him.
Further into the forest was more faun, he felt as if the deeper he went the more faun he could find. He didn't experience this with the other territory he went through, maybe this place was special. The faun's were different from the hunters. Instead of two curled horns tucked behind their large ears was a rather formidable singular horn behind one ear, the other horn was shaven down and cut. Only a few Faun's had these single horns, and they were the most formidable; they looked and acted like beasts. Each time he saw one of these single horned Faun they had a spear in their grasp, and when they turned around, the entire group stopped and waited for them, until, he either continued, or made a grunt.
Lod could barely believe them to be faun, however, their faces, mockery of humanity, made him believe that fact. It was like they were still human but their clothes, the way they walked, and the way they communicated was similar to a beasts. Sometimes, even with perfect understanding of their language they would make a series of indecipherable grunts, and they were just that, indecipherable grunts, that everyone else understood.
These fauns were more laid back, they tracked with a lazy purpose, and only a few of them looked around in fear. They were the smallest of the groups.
Lod with some difficulty finally gazed upon the periphery of the palisades made of wood with steel forced into place in the middle and bottom. It looked unstable but the faun's somehow made this fortification work. Faun's walked on the outside of the palisades, the majority of them single horned, more bestial than their fellows. A few of them looked to be complete beasts. Almost reaching the status of a Minotaur. But they weren't true minotaurs, they were true goats, with a single long defined horn pulled into a spiral behind their head.
Reaching closer, barely recognizing scraps of massive buildings in the distance. The trees were the clouds, and he could make out through the rain small spikes peak above them, and through the foliage was a bit more thatch house work. Lod recognized that he was on a particular high patch in the rolling valley, giving him vantage to see slightly over the village. The village was clearly deep in the valley at its depths. The palisades were high raised, and their protectors had raised dirt around them to make the village resemble a village atop of a hill. Lod wished he could see the inside of the village.
Finding its entrance was hard but he found it and his suspicions were confirmed, dirt climbed the palisades and a deep, tall gate was built. Inscriptions scratched onto it, it was the only thing fully made of steel, with many spikes donning it. What he believed to be their symbol was etched at the top of the metallic gate, a horn dominated the center and behind it was two spears overlapping one another. It was perfect for them.
They were in many ways hunters, and the spear suited them. He spotted many guards patrolling the front gates. They looked to be on high alert, the rain didn't help them, it aided their hidden enemies. Lod could hear them cursing the blasphemous rain for its existence. He thanked it and them for being blind as he journeyed closer around the perimeter of the village.
He caught glimpses of the village on the inside, through rain, and the palisade, a thriving village laid on the other side. It was a horrid mockery of the safe sanctuary that mankind had developed over the years. Thatch houses, spirals mimicking wizard towers, wood and steel jabbed at each other to accumulate a single massive building he believed where their ruling caste lived. Lod ruffled his nose at it, it was like watching animals build kingdoms. It was terrifying and also intriguing. He had never seen this side of the beastmen, he always saw their traps well before he saw them, and when he did see them he saw their blades, their raised huffed maw, and the blood that they spilled.
Reining them any closer to humans was a mistake in his mind. So he steeled his mind, he couldn't have his feelings irritated with his mission. What was needed was a clear mind, so he pulled himself deeper into the woods. His plans would begin in a fortnight. Once, he had fully understood the beastmen. They were too bestial to understand properly. Their fighting style messed with him, he could only hold his own against a faun two blows before he was slammed into a tree. Granted he was outnumbered but without the help of god, he would've been bested thousands of times over.
There was also, he thought, a purpose to this. If he would interpret God's will. That's why God gave him the mission, to interpret his will, there was no set reward, just 'destroy the big horn tribe', to 'sow the seeds of destruction' if god wanted their destruction, he must do so in the most horrible way possible.
Lod thought about getting shelter for now, but he realized he didn't feel tired. Even after scouring in the woods for hours on end. His eyes did not hang low with the weariness that normal people would've felt. He felt as if his body had improved and so he didn't need to sleep so he thought of a way to scope the landscape and practice…
When dawn broke and the rain had passed. Lod had climbed a tree and watched from high the functions of the village. When he watched enough. He'd climb down the tree and hunt. In the first hours he watched they were on high alert, but the next few were filled with only tension. The number of patrols decreased. Decreasing the amount of times he had to run for cover, allowing for more recon.
…
It was getting hard not to look at the body placed in the middle of the room. Baun had eventually fallen to Koat's lack of empathy, the buck falling asleep and telling him everything would be fine if he ate heiti and he wouldn't get mad in the slightest bit. That's what made it even worse, his mind filled with preservation fell to his empathy, and now he was hungry, thinking of every possible way to avoid eating the dead corpse in front of him.
What if the minotaur came back and got angry at him? What if the minotaur killed them because he didn't eat the corpse? He had to endure, his self preservation was both a blessing and a sin, he would be better off if he ate the corpse. But he would've been a monster if he fell to temptation, and he had to admit this god forsaken room the minotaur had stuffed them in also jostled with his mind. The dark archaic ruins on the side of the walls, he swore, and he wished koat was awake to confirm this, but he swore that they were speaking to him.
The coldness didn't bother him as much as it did in the first initial hours, and his shivering had slimmed down to only slight twitches as his sanity degraded.
"Koat…" He whispered. Not able to take the silence of his thoughts anymore.
Surprisingly they answered quickly. "Yes."
"Do you hear that?"
"I hear the same as you." Koat didn't have a satisfactory answer.
Baun refused to believe he was making a big deal of nothing. "You're not bothered at all?"
"If i was bothered by air, I would've taken my life as a baby. Go to sleep, it'll be better if we don't know when that thing comes back." Koat suddenly stifled a laugh. "I hope it kills us silently like it did Heiti."
"That's not what I'm talking about!" Baun urged. "The whispers."
Koat perked up. "They're nothing but drivel. Don't listen and it'll be fine."
"But they are the only thing to listen to!"
Koat shrugged. "You dig yourself a deeper hole. Cover your ears, and make sure that air doesn't kill you. If you're more faithful and more diligent anything can be surpassed. That's what the shaman had told me. So start praying and let the forest god's teachings fill your ears so you won't ever be alone, because even in this crisis the forest god probably mourns for us as we are filled with terror."
"You continue to hang on to the shaman's blessings?" Baun felt angry, how many times did he tell him the shaman was a crook, and how many times did his words go over their heads?
"It's the only thing to believe in right now."
"Is belief the only thing that keeps you going?"
"Yes. that's why I don't hear the whispers. It's because the faithful don't need to hear those whispers." Koat turned onto his side, trying to fall asleep. "The faithful can fear, and know that our god mourns for us. He sheds tears because of fear, and he knows, as well as anybody else that our souls shall be cycled into peaceful specimens. That's how the forest works. A constant circle. Nobody comes in and nobody comes out. Perhaps, in our next life we'll kill the minotaur and torture him thousands of ways without knowing it. That's a good thought right?"
Baun nodded, slowly coming to see his reason. No matter how flawed it was. If that was his belief, that they'd be cycled back into the soul of the forest. Then it makes sense to not be scared. But he didn't believe it, how could he believe it? It was so far away from him so removed that even as Koat spread his faith he could not feel the warmth that Koat felt from it.
The warmth that gave Koat the courage to sleep in this deadly situation.
Baun felt the whispers die down, and his demons were slowly being put to the rest. Then he saw its shape outlined in the darkness of the rain. It was coming to morning and the minotaur, its hand latching onto another buck's body, slowly drifted inside. He threw the body on the floors with a crass thud, and looked around, seeing heiti still there, and the two of them in the corner.
It approached Baun, its hooves making loud distinct clops as it came closer. He cowered into the corner. Baun closed his eyes waiting for the minotaur to strike him or kill him. "You look like shit." Its voice boomed, it was smooth, crass, and soft pulled into one, almost comforting.
Baun opened his eyes and saw the minotaur's eyes gaze into his. It had knelt over him. Its face, unable to reach his height even when kneeling down. "Are you mute? Did I pick the wrong species," It reached out. "I was so sure you could talk…"
Baun hurriedly spat. "Yes! I can speak!"
The minotaur's gum's were revealed as it gave a broad smile. "I was jesting." He poked his chest instead, and stood up tall. "You've adapted well with your environment."
Baun nodded his head rapidly. "Yes! Lord."
"You haven't eaten."
"Why… Yes…" Baun huddled himself into the corner.
"Why is that?" The Minotaur's head cocked to the side. "You're gonna starve to death at this rate."
Koat's rash voice spoke up loud and clear. "Because we don't eat our own."
The Minotaur wasn't offended like Baun thought. It laughed, with joy its booming laughter carrying throughout the entirety of the cave. "You can eat your own." It said almost as if it was a matter of fact. "You just refuse to eat."
"Do you eat your own?" Koat asked, thinking he had gotten the minotaur, only to realize, this minotaur didn't really fit the bill of what a normal minotaur looked like.
But even Baun was surprised when the minotaur took a moment and actually thought about the question asked of him. "Do I eat my own?" It mused. "Such a hard question." It stood up and walked over to Koat, looming over him just as he had done to Baun. "I don't know the answer. I might be able to. But I know for a fact that you faun can eat your own, because you were built to do so, and you are only making yourselves weaker for not doing it now. So eat. Unless you need live food to eat."
Baun shook his head. "No, Lord!"
The Minotaur laughed at him. "So scared, I expected you to eat first. But you didn't. So don't care about what your brother here says, and eat. You will need your strength for what comes next."
Koat sighed. "I don't restrict him from eating. We just both know what is right, unlike you, you damned monster." Koat seethed his vile hatred into the beast.
"Monster?" It cocked its head as if the concept was foreign to him. "Watch your words carefully."
"I won't watch my words with monsters. If you're going to kill me then do it, the forest god watches over me."
The Minotaur looked at him for a mysterious moment. "God indeed watches over you." Then it turned its head toward baun. "It sees potential in you the most. So eat, and grow strong. If you can't eat your own then eat this brat." It went toward the cave entrance where the ruins he had drawn had ended and began to write some more.