-Break-
Location: Village of Lann Bhuan
Φ As we leave the sword in front of the family, I smile brightly behind my face coverings.
I am sure they will enjoy it. Just look at this large family all living in this house, they must really love each other.
The family of twenty stands on the other side of the table facing both me and Culainn, and the grandfather who sits in front of everyone, he says, "This could probably fetch us a fair price, thank you for this?"
Surprised, I say, "Wait, don't you want to keep it?"
"Why would I want to keep something from my failure of a son."
"Huh?"
Suddenly his wife says, "Uilliam died after his first battle, and cost us all of his equipment without ever paying things back. This is the least that coward could do for us."
"I am sure we will be able to eat well for the next few months with this."
The family in front of me starts to get cherry and giddy completely ignoring the very idea of thinking of their fallen family member.
This site makes me feel like I have magma within me that is ready to burst out, so I say, "Don't you think that is a horrible way to think about your family?"
The family in front focuses on me, and then I say, "Did he not go into battle for you all? Don't you at least want to be kind to him after his death as a way to honour the effort he put in for you all?"
One of the children moves forward and says, "That coward died to humans without accomplishing anything. People like him may be ashamed; he is lucky we have forgotten about him."
The child's mother rubs his head, and says, "Please take yourself and your Gorias nonsense, and leave our home. Take the half man with you."
Gripping my fists, I prepare to let out a large rant, but then I notice the eyes of the beastkin are all locked on me, and fear starts to fill my body stopping me from moving with intention leaving me shaking.
Culainn then grabs my arm and then, he says, "Thank you for your time we will be leaving."
With my hand in his own, he guides me and says, "It's alright, nothing bad will happen."
Behind me, I hear some of the beastkin snicker which makes me feel like I am going to fall to the ground in shame, but as I stare down at Culainn I compose myself and walk out with him.
As we leave the house and get a bit of distance from them, I say, "I am sorry for that. I know I shouldn't be engaging like that."
"You're forgiven, but please be careful while you are in Findias, they don't tolerate as much as others do and are far quicker to get into altercations."
"I know. But I didn't like how they insulted you and treated your gift like a bag of coins."
"We have met countless beastkin over our journey who have only given us thanks. So don't let this singular bad experience rotten your mood."
Gripping my fist again, I say, "But what they said about their family member is horrible. How could they do such a thing especially when so many would desperately want for their lost ones to return."
Culainn kicks me in the shin, and says, "After Conchobar took the throne, he has been working hard to get rid of the large amounts of hatred for humanity that had become engrained in us like it was almost a part of our culture.
This increases a lot especially when two of his friends become two of the four kings. These actions forced a lot of people who hated such things to leave Gorias, and Murias and gather in Findias which openly still despises humans.
Dying in battle to humans is seen as an insult to everyone within your bloodline in Findias. The hatred of humans here has become so intense, that they have started to act much more beastlike just to separate themselves from humans."
"But why would that be so intense here?"
"Because the first head of the house of Laoch's wife and children were fir bolg kidnapped by humans during the period they controlled this land. And we were too late to rescue them leading him to manifest an intense hatred that he had passed down throughout the land. We inherit many things from the past, many of which are good, and many of which are bad."
I look into the distance and prepare to say something, but I suddenly hear a large number of coughs that completely grab my attention, and I run over into a little forest to my right.
Culainn chasing behind me says, "Slow down you idiot."
"I think I just heard a child."
I move through the forest, and there I see a little boy with a spear in his hand and surrounding him are a group of squirrels.
As I get close the squirrels scatter, and I grab him then pick him up and say, "What's wrong."
The boy just coughs, and says, "I can do this," while wheezing.
Culainn says, "He has some kind of infection. Let's get him back to his home."
Looking at it, I ask, "Where do you live?"
Crying a little bit, he raises his hand and says, "By the edge of the village that's why."
I quickly carry him there with Culainn close behind me, and soon we reach a wooden object that I wouldn't even call a shack by the side of a river. The "Shack" is a bunch of cobbled-together sticks that look like they are about to keel over.
So, I ask, "Do you live here?"
He nods his head and points downwards.
My eyes move from the shack to the ground where I see a blanket and other utensils that one would use to live.
I slowly walk around with the boy in my arms, shocked by the state of his living arrangement. But as he coughs again, I quickly gather myself and then move towards the blanket and wrap him up.
Culainn behind me says, "I will start a fire and make some warm water."
"Alright. I will go back and grab one of the buckets from our carriage to use."
-Break-
As the kid lays in a bucket filled with warm water, he looks up into the distance, and then I ask, "Now that you're feeling better could you tell me what you were doing out there?"
"I just wanted to hunt one of those birds for my family."
"Are you guys in a dire situation?"
"Nothing like that, it is just that they won't let me return unless I do."
"Huh?"
Culainn says, "Do you have a weak constitution?"
The boy grits his teeth, then nods his head, and I Culainn then says, "You're unable to do physical activities as well as others, and to make your family less annoyed, you decided to come here and do some hunting if I got it right."
The boy nods his head, and I say, "What is wrong with those bastards?"
"There is nothing wrong with my family. I am the one who is a burden!"
Gripping his hands, " I can barely do anything without getting sick or injured, and just end up relying on all of them without contributing anything. I am a useless member of our group whose value would be less than that of a human."
I feel many things rush to my mind as he speaks, but I calm myself down, and then I say, "Stop being so dramatic."
The kids get a bit upset, and says, "This isn't being dramatic! This is my life, and it sucks!"
With a smile on my face, I stand up and say, "You're probably just hungry. You know you could have just asked for food instead of throwing a fit."
Looking over to the side, I see the emptied contents of the barrel a load of fish and walk over to it saying, "Good thing, I brought all of this along."
Culainn says, "I am surprised you could even carry it with all of that fish inside."
"Well, you're in for more, because you guys are going to watch me prepare them!"
The boy in the barrel says, "Please don't lie, you already don't know the importance of washing yourself, so I doubt you have any sense of flavour."
As my clothes radiate a sickening smell, I say, "Tsk, tsk, tsk. Little fool, just wait there and see!"
"Step one is to cut all of the fish into fun-sized chunks.
Then you put it into a large pot, and since I lack that I will use the munchnunchers mouth. Due to all of the materials it's supposed to eat, its mouth is like ma etal pot.
The beastkin has such a ridiculous amount of fruit and veggies growing everywhere, that I can find all my ingredients."
I quickly run around and grab a bunch of different things and as I do, I say, "It's weird though to find a couple of these different plants growing near eat other."
Culainn signals me, and then with an annoyed face he says, "Druids' abilities over plant life it is possible to force the growth of different plants all near each other."
Following along, I say, "Right how could I have forgotten!"
"Now I grind up the olives, and add in some tomatoes and onions. Use some of the wine me and Culainn were gifted for our work earlier today, bring the munchnunchers jaw under the fire, and then add the fish stock. Watch it all simmer and after no time at all we have some fish stew!"
"Serving some out it one of the bowls by his home, I give it to him and say eat up."
He sniffs it, and then he starts to devour the bowl until there is next to nothing left, and then he reaches out his arms for more, and I say, "It looks like someone was just hungry."
As he waits for his next portion, he says, "I am hungry but that doesn't change the fact I am a failure."
"If judging just from my muscle mass you never would have guessed that my people were hunters. We used to travel all around Terrafide."
"Hunting humans?" The child asks.
"Ye-yeah, hunting humans. Anyways, during our journeys many of us would be harmed by the large number of animals and wonderbeasts that roamed Terrafide, and some even lost their ability to fight.
But they still decided to find other ways to help. Training the youth, sharpening other skills, or even gathering with others, they never stopped looking for a way to help even without being on equal fitting with others.
The reason we all fight in all our different ways is to help each other in some way, and I can already tell from my life, and the life of the man over there, that without wielding a single blade you can help lots of people including yourself. You aren't a burden just a child who wants to someday figure out what he wants to do."
The boy cries a bit, and says, "But my family won't accept me."
"That sucks I am sure, but I can guarantee that there are people who you can have just as much fun with from around the world without you even sharing any blood with them. It will be fine. Besides don't you think it will be fun to become more successful than those assholes without even having all of their strength."
"I think it would."
The kid takes the bowl from my hand and eats as we all talk to each other, and from the distance, a beastkin dressed in robes made to blend into the trees stares directly at all of them.