Shiv was kind of afraid of the insane noble, which was very unusual for him. He had only been a little nervous when meeting the royal princess of an entire kingdom who had also tried to murder his closest ally. But this noble had him completely on edge.
"Yes, as well! Since we're both working toward the same goal, we simply must work together." His cheerful persona switched to one of dreadful seriousness. "There is, however, one thing I must ask you both before we can hope to cooperate in anything."
Shiv glanced at Briggs, who had glanced back at him, then they both turned back to the noble. "What is it?" Shiv asked.
"Why, your names, of course! I, Duncan, can't go into battle without knowing the names of my comrades, now can I?" He made a grand gesture and pointed self-deprecatingly at himself when he said 'Duncan'.
'But I've done that several times now.' Shiv decided to leave his thoughts unvoiced, and instead gave both his and Briggs' names to the eccentric young man.
"You both have very interesting names, I must say."
'Must you?'
"Very well, gentlemen. What information have you managed to gather? My men are about to begin the assault, so anything you have that would be useful should be mentioned right quick."
Briggs hissed. "They're assaulting tonight?"
"Of course." Duncan replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"My men aren't ready. Shiv, stay here and give him the information we've gathered." With that, Briggs threw himself off the fence and stealthily, but very quickly, moved toward the nearest wall so as to get to Farhad.
"This is going to be interesting." Duncan had a delighted smile. "So what is this information your short friend mentioned?"
Shiv desperately searched his mind for something that might be useful. He had been too distracted with keeping his stomach quiet, -it rumbled loudly just as he had that thought- to worry about all the stuff he figured Briggs was taking care of. "He was the scout, and I was the bodyguard." Shiv finally said.
"Hah! You have a sneaky friend. Now… are you hungry? Your tummy is making absolutely atrocious noises." The noble had an awkward expression.
Shiv did feel a dull ache beginning to make itself known in his stomach, but had absolutely no appetite. It was quite the quandary, to be starving and not hungry at all, simultaneously.
He was prevented from answering by the sound of footsteps approaching. Shiv heard them and turned around on the fence, gripping it with his hands and lowering himself into the area in which the animals were staying, leaving only his fingers visible to anyone walking by. And those were wreathed in the shadow of a large and ancient tree growing nearby, so he was confident that he would remain unseen.
Duncan, however… didn't make a single move to hide himself. Instead, he strained to look over his shoulder with a scowl. "When will you sods learn how to be quiet? This is a stealth mission, for heaven's sake!"
His angry reprimand was met with a group of mumbled apologies uttered by a pair of abnormally large men in the same uniforms as all of the other guards in this place, though they didn't even pretend to fit them.
"Is everything in order?" Duncan had become serious again. "Excellent. We're about to have company in the form of… uh, what kind of company are we about to have?" He turned to Shiv with an apologetic expression.
"What, who is Briggs bringing? His mercenary group called Revenge." Shiv grunted and pulled himself back into his previous position on the fence.
"Oh really? I've heard of them. They're an intimidating and successful group, even with such a short leader." He turned back to the large pair of poorly disguised men. "Alrighty, let's get this show started." The two men turned and didn't even pretend to sneak as they headed off to deliver his order.
Duncan had a blinding smile and he was practically bouncing with excitement. "I only recently became the leader of my family, so this is only the twenty second military operation I have personally led."
Shiv opened his mouth, and closed it. He had no idea how to respond to that.
BOOM!
The explosion came from far away behind them, and they both threw themselves off of the fence when the flash from the explosion illuminated their position. Shiv threw himself forward and rolled to his feet, and Duncan threw himself backward out of sight of Shiv.
There was a moment in which there couldn't be heard even a single sound that was quickly broken by Duncan, who groaned. "I guess they went to plan L. They had better have a good reason for that." The second part came out as a growl.
Shiv relaxed, but only a bit. As he stood up from his crouch, he was assaulted by crippling, cramping pain in his stomach. He fell to the ground with THUMP. Though he felt only a slight bit of pain from the impact.
"Friend Shiv? Did a hippostripohorpotamus get you? I hate those things, so I would prefer you tell me if one of them is over there before I decide to hop over and help you."
Shiv groaned and rolled over, his stomach growling non stop at this point. 'There aren't any, but go away anyway!'
"Well, if you say so." There was the sound of climbing, then a pair of very nice boots silently landed on the ground next to Shiv's face.
'I didn't say anything!' Shiv curled into a ball when the pain abruptly doubled.
"Aha, no hippostripohorpotamuses! Now, what seems to be the problem?" The noble crouched and looked at Shiv with a politely curious expression. "Your very disgusting stomach is being very rude, so please tell it to be quiet if you want my help." Another explosion was heard in the distance, this one on the opposite side of the farm.
Shiv was losing the ability to think, because his pain was becoming too much. He suddenly jerked forward and coughed blood on Duncan's boots before mustering all of his strength to mutter, "food."
"Ahhh and now you've done it. This grass does not appreciate you coughing blood all over it. I'll give you food the moment you apologize." The noble stood straight and crossed his arms, but Shiv wasn't paying attention anymore. He couldn't. The pain was too overwhelming.
A long moment of silence passed, followed by a dramatic sigh and another distant explosion from a new direction. "Fine, fine. You can apologize after I give you food."
Shiv was starting to black out from the pain when Duncan knelt beside him and forcefully held his mouth open and started pouring a strange liquid into it.
Shiv immediately sat up, coughing and sputtering. He rolled onto his knees and forcefully threw up everything in his stomach. He sat back and fell all the way back again, panting. "Ugh."
"Yes, 'ugh' indeed. I don't think the grass will ever forgive you. You've gone too far, my friend." Duncan tutted and offered a hand.
Shiv took several more deep breaths, then accepted the help and pulled himself to his feet. "Hey, you're shorter than Briggs is." He laughed with a pained expression.
The noble scoffed. "Stop worrying about my height. You should be worried about the grass retaliating against you."
Shiv had no idea what the short noble was talking about, and didn't much care either way. He was too distracted with pulling food out of his inventory and forcing it down his throat. 'That jerk of a suit deity said I'd be five times hungrier… guess I need to eat five times as much as I normally would.'
He was interrupted from his thoughts by the sound of approaching footsteps. These footsteps were not human, however, and the frightened squeal from his noble companion confirmed his suspicion.
"Aaaah! A hippostripohorpotamus!" The sound was promptly followed by Duncan jumping over the fence in a single leap.
Shiv followed the noble. He ran to the fence and climbed quickly without looking back. He threw himself over and landed on the other side with a loud crunch. Looking up, he found they were in the company of five more men in guard's uniforms. Shiv gave them a quick look, then dismissed them and went back to shoving his face.
"Uh, Shiv, my friend… I have bad news." Duncan said with a wary expression.
"Hm?"
"Yes, well, you see… these kind looking gentlemen are not in my employ."
'Crap.' Shiv threw his bowl of porridge into the face of the nearest one and summoned a spike from the ground to pierce another before they could get over their shock.
His stomach cramped again at the use of his power, so he simply threw himself at the one with the porridge on his face and slammed his fist into the bowl. It shattered, and the man's face was crushed. 'I am… very strong. Maybe there's an upside to this constant insatiable hunger.'