Chapter 30
Annoyed as I was, the so-called 'duel' between me and the native Merco went on, and eventually, I just decided to go along with it.
What's the worst that could happen?
It lasted longer than I had expected, though, to be honest, the rules still evaded me. I just kept following Merco's lead, and each time I threw the rock, regardless of where it landed, it was always met with a round of applause by the natives. I started to wonder if it was even possible to make a bad throw in this game.
Halfway through the game, we had both taken a dozen turns each, and every single throw had been followed by strange commentary from the onlookers. There was a general astonishment amongst everyone regarding my 'impeccable skills.'
"This outsider is amazing; He seems to understand the true meaning of the game!"
"He must surely have studied the great masters of stone-throwing!" the natives would say each time I made a throw.
Meanwhile, I had just been throwing rocks at random, hoping not to miss, though I had no idea what I was aiming for.
I was apparently playing so well that Merco had started to sweat and was clearly getting nervous.
Laine pointed out my opponent's uneasiness as he snuck up behind me just as I was about to make another throw.
"Hey!" He yelled loudly, disorienting me as the stone left my hand and landed by sheer chance in the middle of the innermost circle on the board.
"THAT WAS HIS BEST THROW YET!" A native cried as they all started to applaud.
"You never told me you were so good at throwing stones! A skill like that comes in handy." Laine declared.
I would have if I had known, I thought to myself.
"You're doing well…for an outsider. But your luck won't last long," Merco said, trying to intimidate me, which was ironic, considering his smug expression had been replaced by one of distinct worry.
"I don't even know what I'm doing," I confessed as I threw another rock, which landed straight in the middle of the dirt board, on top of my last one. It bounced off and landed near the very edge of the board, further away from the inner circle.
Oh, come on! I sighed, thinking that being further away from the inner circle meant that my throw was terrible. But the only thing I knew about this game was that I knew nothing.
Because the natives, once again, started murmuring, completely losing their minds at the sheer skill with which I had thrown the rock.
Wait…what?
"What a risky play. This outsider has guts." A native enthusiastically yelled, and Merco turned to give him a death glare, clearly not pleased with how his people had started to support me.
Merco turned to face me, clearly enraged, and said, "You're underestimating me, outsider. I am no fool for you to try and pull off a Kinesian Gamble on me!"
Whatever I had done had made him angry. He managed to chuck another stone, and it landed in the middle again, right next to my own.
Okay…that has to be good! I thought, but I couldn't have been more wrong.
Merco's last throw had been something of a blunder, apparently, as the natives kept speaking in hushed tones.
"By the gods, what has gotten into him, he attempted the Didalian throw? Now?" One voice said,
"He has clearly lost his touch." Said another.
As I turned to look at the crowd, I saw Sutu, the same annoying youth who had started all of this, discussing the game with one of the other natives. They were pointing at the board, using weird terms I didn't understand.
"The outsider will manage to pull off his Kinesian gamble at this rate, he must have known, that's why he will end this with a Locustian strategy." The outsider said to a rather worried Sutu.
"I never expected the outsider to be this brilliant. It should have been clear when he opened with such a good move!" he squealed.
I had no idea how to explain that I had genuinely no idea what was going on, so I just sighed and kept playing.
As the game went on, Merco started losing his complexion and composure. I threw another rock, and it landed right on top of one of his stones instead of bouncing away.
That was the last nail in the coffin, as Merco fell to his knees.
"I forfeit! The outsider has bested me. I shall lose in two moves, no matter what I do!" He was almost in tears as he looked at the ground in shame.
There was a moment of shock by the natives, but it was immediately followed by polite applause from all of them, who had clearly accepted my victory with grace-unlike me.
How did that even happen?
Sutu walked up to me and extended his hand, offering what I assumed was friendship. "Forgive me Outsider. I underestimated you. You and your servants deserve to enter our village as honored guests."
"Wait…Servants?" Laine asked indignantly.
I ignored him, shaking Sutu's hand. "I'm Sam." I told him, "Take me to your priest. It's important that I meet with him immediately."
He nodded curtly and started leading us into the mountains. Me, Sutu, the lizard, Laine, Maxian, and Ravi followed him, while Merco and the other natives stayed behind.
"They must stand guard," Sutu explained, "The wild beast attacks have become far too recurrent for us to even be afforded a simple moment of peace."
We soon entered a mountain pass. I saw the houses of the natives, built from both stone and wood, almost carved into the cliffs, with ropes and ladders leading down. Some of the houses had been destroyed, torn apart as if by animals. There were pools of dried blood here and there- clear signs of attacks against the village. The fact that the wild beasts had come his far into the mountains was concerning.
On the balconies of the houses, I saw adults. Men and women, all holding weapons, seemingly ready for a battle. They eyed us with strange suspicion, clearly not used to seeing outsiders in the heart of their village. Or maybe it was the giant lizard following us that freaked them out, either way, their gaze made me feel utterly unwelcome.
There were also children running around. One of them came up to us and excitedly pointed at the lizard. "What's his name?" the child asked.
"Scaly." Laine replied, smiling at the child.
As I looked back, I noticed the Lizard eye Laine as if it had been offended by the unoriginal name it had been given.
The little girl smiled and said she liked the name.
"Can I pet Scaly?" she innocently asked. I knew Laine would have let her, but Sutu told her to run away, almost making the girl cry.
"I just miss my own lizard, Nushu. He was small, and silly, but I had to let him go after it started to attack me. Please let me pet Scaly." The girl pleaded, but that only made Sutu angrier.
"GO AWAY!" he yelled at the girl, and she did exactly that, crying as she went.
We kept walking for a while and reached a sort of valley, where the houses were tightly packed together with a stream passing through the path.
This must be the center of their village. I thought.
As we were walking, a man came up to Sutu, and they discussed something, as we stood on the sidelines before continuing to walk towards the center. It was here that we came across the opening to a giant ornate wooden hall. We stood there for a second, when an old man walked out, carrying a large staff with the skull of some strange horned creature set on top of it.
"Who are these strange people you have brought to my house, Sutu?" the old man asked.
"Priest Kan. These are the outsiders who brought my sister home. They claim they have come to stop the illness that affects the wild beasts." Sutu explained cautiously, trying to make us look less threatening.
"And you believed them?" asked the old man, with the same condescending tone that Sutu had used with Ravi.
Oh, so all of these people were rude.
Sutu simply pointed at me. "This one defeated Merco at rock throwing, and I believe he has earned the right to be here, Sir."
The priest thoughtfully stroked his gray beard. He clearly wasn't sure if he wanted to let us in but was contemplating whether or not to trust…my rock-throwing credentials.
After a while he just nodded, "Fine. They have earned the right for me to hear them out at least. But only one of them may follow me in. The rest must wait out here. I don't want a lizard in my hall." he said, pointing at Scaly.
The old man turned and went into his hall with me tailing him. The doors closed behind me as if pulled by some unseen force.
Some kind of magic? I asked myself.
The hall inside was dark and windowless, lit only by a few spread out torches. In the center of the hall was a circle of chairs. The priest sat down on one of these chairs, a particularly ornate one. He gestured at me to sit opposite him, on the ground. I could barely even make out his face in the darkness but I could tell that it was full of disdain. I was unwanted, and it was easy enough to tell.
"Speak. Then we shall see if you can be of any use to me," he said, in a smug tone.
What is it with these people and that tone, I thought. I didn't like the way the old man treated me as an inferior. It felt like he was expecting things from me like he did from the rest of the natives. It reminded me of General Ravon, the Cult of the Eye, and the Council of the Veil, all those who wanted to control me.
I lost my composure. I leaped at the old man and grabbed him by the collar, which wiped the smugness right off his face. The annoying, authoritative look was now replaced by utter fear.
"Look here priest. I'm tired of old men trying to tell me what to do, acting like they're better than me." I spat.
"Wha.." he tried to say.
"I don't need this bullshit. Stop with this holier-than-thou attitude and we can both start helping each other. You understand?" I offered, making it sound like more of an order.
When he refused to reply, I shook him by the collar again and screamed, "YOU UNDERSTAND?"
"Yes! Yes! I understand I am sorry," he begged.
I let go, and he fell back into his chair, shivering and scared half to death. I sat down on the chair opposite him as if nothing had happened.
Then I started speaking again. "My name is Sam, and I've been sent here to deal with your wild beast problem by a man named General Ravon. I was told that these beasts have been leaving the forest and attacking…outsiders." I explained, leaving out the part about being coerced into doing it.
Then I told him about how I had dealt with the lizard and controlled its mind to follow me, just to let him know what I was capable of.
"I saved Ravi, and she guided me here, saying you could tell me where to go. So…can you help me, or not?" I asked simply.
The priest looked at me, still uncomfortable with the way I had equalized us. I could tell the thought of being on the back foot did not sit well with him. Then he coughed uncomfortably and began speaking.
"What do you want to know?" he asked.
"From the start."
"This village was founded some three centuries ago when-"
"Not that far back you idiot."
The priest explained to me that the issue had first been noticed a few months back when some of the hunters had told him about strange blue-eyed beasts in the forest. A week after that, there had been attack on the village by a Wildecore. The way he said Wildecore, make it feel like an important creature, so I pretended to know what it was.
"We knew that there was something wrong with them, because the beasts had never attacked the mountain before. It is considered Lord Sarmos' territory." He explained.
"Sarmos?" I asked.
"The dragon we worship and pray to for protection. She keeps us safe, and we give her animals as offerings. Without her, our way of life would not be possible."
I remembered the dragon that had attacked me when I had met Donald. The same one that had made Laine and Maxian panic and jump into the bushes.
Was that her? I wondered to myself.
"Go on, tell me more."
"The attacks keep getting worse, and so far, we have managed to fend them off. But we have no idea how long this will go on. The worst of it was the night our own pets attacked us, as their eyes turned blue."
I nodded slowly, remembering what the little girl had said about her lizard attacking her.
"Any clues how this started?" I asked the priest.
"The sightings of the blue-eyed beasts started near the Red Lake. I sent some of my best hunters to investigate after the Wildecore attack, but none returned." He explained, with grief in voice, he then went on. "My guess is that a very powerful magician is controlling these beasts and making them run wild. Though I could not fathom why."
I nodded, trying to understand. The thought of it being a magician and not a disease was comforting because the latter would've been harder to deal with.
If it was a magician, I could just beat the shit out of them, and hopefully, it would put an end to this episode.
"Alright. Arrange for a place for us to sleep tonight. Tomorrow I'll go take care of it." I said, in an almost a commanding way. I knew for a fact that he did not like that.
Before the priest could reply, the doors of the hall flew open and Sutu ran in, panicking and yelling.
"PRIEST KAN! WE'RE UNDER ATTACK AGAIN. THE BEASTS! WHAT SHOULD WE DO?"
I sighed, "Oh come on."
There goes my hope for a good night's sleep.