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Chapter 249
🕑 Added 2024-10-31 20:56:15 +0000 UTCEarly today. Why? Can't be bothered to schedule it. If it matters to you, you can check it out in eight hours instead?
The swarm erupted with noise, chittering and screeching, beginning to rally for battle as I stepped forward with both my hands up after I buried my spear point first in the earth to my side. The surrounding swarm fell silent as I responded to the huge beast, “Hello. I am Ashlani, the Alpha of this swarm. You are?”
With one earth-shaking step the creature revealed its entire body. It stood tall, the crown of its head towering at least four feet above my own, making it at least 11 feet tall. Seeing my own obvious approach and putting down my weapon, it let its maul slip down from its four thick fingers with a heavy thud. The head of the massive sledgehammer seemed to be of solid stone, while the leather-wrapped haft was wholly hidden by the wrapping. The haft of the huge weapon was at least six inches wide, and, with the head resting on the ground, the entire maul stood as tall as me. When the leathery beast settled the weapon on the ground, I could feel the earth shake under its weight. The creature itself was covered in wrinkly gray skin and dressed with heavier leathers wrapped around its forearms, shoulders, legs, and waist. The creature lifted its trunk and seemed to struggle over the words it wanted to speak.
“I am Bekizo. Indlovu warrior of Enkulu tribe.” He introduced himself with a surprisingly beautiful sonorous tenor voice. “We hear one of us here. Not see them. You see them?”
I frowned briefly then looked at Took, Sybil, Foire, and Shemira. All clacked their fangs together back at me. “I’m sorry, we haven’t.” I answered. “We haven’t heard anyone other than ourselves. How did you know there was one of your people here?”
“We not talk like this. With… you call it magic. Our person talking to those.” He gestured at the wolfstags and I cocked my head, confused. I opened my mouth, not quite sure what to say when Sybil stepped close to me before whispering, “Let me try something.” She then stepped back and looked at the “indlovu” while standing still. Immediately, Bekizo perked up, his ears flapping excitedly as he strode forward and sent another shudder through the earth underfoot. His eyes roved briefly over the swarm while his trunk reached out to Sybil. Meanwhile, I noted rustling within the grasses surrounding the swarm and nervously reached for my spear.
“I am sorry for misleading your people.” Sybil’s voice cut through the growing tension while gesturing for me not to try anything. “I never could have known that my magic would confuse you. That is simply how I communicate with our wolfstag companions. Never would I have deliberately drawn your tribe into a dangerous situation deliberately.” She punctuated her words with more of what I could only assume was her utilizing her emotional influencing magic.
Bekizo laconically raised his trunk to Sybil and, completely calm and nonchalant, tried to rub her head. She froze, her frills twitching in confusion and indecision. I reached my own hand out, and, as gently as I could, stopped the approaching trunk in the air. “What’re you doing?” I asked.
He started, then, apparently embarrassed, withdrew his trunk while squinting at Sybil and evidently saying something to her with his magic. All that I could feel was a gentle presence and a sense of admonishment. After a brief moment’s hesitation to gather her thoughts, Sybil turned to me, “It would appear that his people the indlovu are a physically affectionate group. It was just a typical greeting.” With that, she stepped forward and awkwardly embraced his trunk, which summarily coiled around her torso while the indlovu’s eyes twinkled and he nodded, nearly lifting Sybil from her feet. Not for the first time, I was struck by the indlovu’s strength, given the facility with which he hauled the several hundred pound Sybil from her feet.
Around the swarm, more indlovu appeared, each one carrying a maul as impressive as Bekizo’s own. The smallest among them was well over nine feet tall, towering over even Took. Every one of the warriors began to move subtly but non threateningly forward and the closest ones began to reach out their trunks to Sybil before she raised a hand and they paused as she shuddered.
“I am glad you appreciate my talent, but I would prefer that my people understand our conversation. You are strangers and I know nothing of you.” Sybil’s eloquence in the common tongue took me by surprise as she stood her ground and firmly pushed against the trunk still wrapped around her.
Bekizo nodded as his trunk slowly wound off of Sybil. “Apologies. The newness of you was interesting, and we not think of your comfort. We…” he obviously struggled over his words, then, with a sigh and a slump, he looked pleadingly at Sybil before obviously finishing his thought through magic.
In keelish, Sybil translated for the swarm’s benefit, “He wanted to know why we are here, why we went into the sandlake, and what our relation to the keelish ahead of us is.” I felt over 700 eyes on me as wolfstags, keelish, and indlovu alike watched me for my answer. As best as I could, I hid my reaction to the revelation of keelish possibly being nearby. My audience’s expectations piqued, I began to form my response while the indlovu all stood stock still. Every one of the gargantuan warriors had laid their mauls’ heads on the ground, but I didn’t miss the reality that the two dozen warriors were still very much armed with deadly force still surrounding us. Even the apparently gentle and affectionate Bekizo’s posture slowly but deliberately transitioned from an excited hugger to a battle-ready stance from which he could easily heft his maul and begin laying waste to anyone nearby.
I nodded at Sybil to translate for the benefit of the swarm as I began my response in the common tongue. “We are traveling east to Nievtra, we didn’t know what a sandlake was until we were in the middle of it, and the keelish in front of us are ones we know nothing about. We would be happy to gather them and bring them out of your land, if you’d like.” I was sure that Bekizo was relaying my statement to the rest of the indlovu that might not have spoken the common tongue, since after about a second of my expressing our stance, there were scattered reactions through the warrior cadre..
“You not stay here?” Bekizo’s voice had become hard, unforgiving instead of the previous gentle and almost childlike tones. He shook his head, his massive ears clapping loudly against his neck in a way that was only barely not aggressive.
“No, we plan on continuing onward. We have a destination far from here, and are gathering any keelish we come across en route.”
“Good. If you stay, we will have problem.”
I squared my shoulders and craned my neck up to look him in the eye. “What do you mean to say by that?”
“You eat too much.” Bekizo looked to Sybil, then, with a low trumpet from his trunk, began to retreat while the rest of his fellows followed suit.
“What did he mean by that?” I looked at Sybil from the corner of my eye, keeping my body squared on the indlovu.
She held up a hand, then after a moment she nodded and turned to me, speaking in keelish once again for the benefit of the swarm. “I am sorry for shushing you Alpha, they were all speaking at once, giving advice, warnings, and threats. In essence, we are many predators,” a hushed murmur of pride pulsed through the swarm, excited to be a threatening body. Sybil hissed at the interruption and the swarm went silent in respect. “We are many, and if we stay, we will overhunt the area. The Enkulu tribe is nomadic, they never come this far west so they don’t care too much about what we do here, but the further east we go, the more likely we will come across other tribes. If we overhunt traditional sites, we will unwittingly enter or create a ‘storehouse war’, and there will be a slaughter on both sides until the tribes have been thinned enough that the meat from both sides will feed the victors for one year.”
A strange code of honor, but not the strangest, I supposed.
“They said I should try to keep using my magic as much as possible, since we’ll be seen as closer to people to the indlovu that way, and that was all.” Sybil nodded and stepped back to allow me to speak up if I wanted.
I slowly flared my frills, then addressed the swarm, “Should we go fishing before we go?”
Raucous cheers filled the air as any sign of the indlovu disappeared into the horizon.
