The roots are for ‘hospitality’’? Rough gift for guests… but they aren’t exactly ‘rich’. Sharing the roots is probably all they can do. I should be grateful they at least shared some of their food with me.
The dull taste of the root had still not gone away, even after several minutes of waiting for the girl to finish her own root. He had sat there after he’d finished, and the girl had spent the time asking him questions about his non-existent tribe.
Her sister on the other hand had long since laid down in her bed and closed her eyes. At first he thought she was going to go to sleep, he wouldn’t have blamed her either, but after several minutes it had become clear she was faking. Credit where it’s due, she’s half decent at faking being asleep, but her heartbeat and breathing were obviously… restrained instead of actually resting.
He wasn’t confused by that at all, she didn’t trust him anymore than he trusted her. For all she knew he was some raider-sadist from another tribe looking to move in and take over the area, and she’d just brought him to her home. He wouldn’t trust him either, let alone with a family member far weaker than her that she would have to protect if he went ballistic.
Which brought him back to the present situation; him talking to the younger sister while the older one tried her best to appear asleep, so she could possibly ambush him if he tried anything.
He wasn’t planning on doing anything to either of them, besides getting as much information from them as they were willing to give, but it was odd knowing that someone was one hostile comment or aggressive body movement away from attempting to murder him.
So once he’d dodged or told half-truths about his ‘tribe’ for a good ten minutes he’d spent most of the time talking with her about beasts. After they’d gone through most of the ‘harmless’ ones he’d come across she finally began talking about the ‘loud ones’, a topic he was actually knowledgeable in.
“Yes, loud ones are deceitful beasts. They look safe, weak, then yell. Yell can kill if close. Yell dangerous!”
She wore a rather excited yet haunted look, like she was retelling a war story, as she talked about the first time her and her sister had come across some of the baby Rox.
“We go, we see small beasts - furry - soft! But when close? Yell! So loud! Deaf for half-week!”
Yeah the little bastards got me in the exact same way, like a venomous frog they lure you in by looking cute then *BAM!* dead on the spot.
“Did you get attacked by their mother afterwards? I met some of the babies and when they yelled their mother rushed me almost immediately.”
The girl paled for a moment before shaking her head ‘no’.
“We run, far and fast, we run long until we are tired and in city. Beasts no go in city.”
Beasts never go in the city? Why the hell not, it’s usually prime real estate for them.
“Do you know why they don’t go near the city? I have been to other cities and I have never seen beasts so eager to… avoid human camps. Even smaller ruined towns get swarmed by them, let alone such a massive city.”
Once again she shook her head no.
“City… protected from beasts. Safe from beasts, but bad people hunt there.”
He had been relatively creeped out by how empty the city was. And he already knew the reasons why it would remain that empty even after all this time. It wasn’t radiated, he already knew that the first time he’d gotten to the edge of the city, it wasn’t ‘veiled’ by magic or anything, and that basically only left a final possibility - there was something bigger and badder around that scared everything off.
He’d walked through the city, he’d responded to a scream that spread several blocks around that he heard very clearly, and at no point did he ever see, hear, or sense anything dangerous enough to clear this much land, except for Juli.
Maybe it was possible that the tribes around, such as the cannibals or the ‘pale skins’ or whatever had left some kind of magical-beast-deterrent or that the Altered around here were strong enough that the beasts could sense and fear it, but even that made little to no sense. Cities were attacked all the time, sure it generally isn't labeled an ‘attack’ but there are constant issues with beasts getting too close to the walls or attempting to ambush people on the outside of them. Hell one of the best jobs an uneducated or untrained Altered could get was working as security for farmland outside the city, especially cattle farms.
If it is a big enough issue that they’d actually pay some moron from the slums good - clean - cash to stand around and beat the crap out of mutated rats and foxes, why the hell was there none of that out here.
Now, little known fact, cities are densely populated, and have thousands if not more Altered. A good portion of them were just morons who could flip a coin with their minds, or a truck with their hands, but there were also many who were powerful enough that he’d hesitate to say that he was stronger than them, that opinion was only recently cemented by his brief exchange with Juli.
So if these Altered were scaring the beasts away from this city, why was his city still getting ambushed all the time?
“Do you know why the beasts stay away from the city? My tribe lives near an old one and we still have to deal with beasts constantly.”
Her eyes widened when he mentioned ‘his’ city, before she shook her head again.
“No, we… we no know why beasts avoid city. Beasts scared of city. All we know, sorry.”
Figured she wouldn’t know.
There was always the chance she was lying, but it was hard to tell when someone was lying when they were struggling just to understand and communicate with you. Normally if someone paused to answer something or shifted their eyes like she did constantly he’d think they were either exceedingly anxious or lying to his face. He wasn’t some expert that was capable of telling when someone was manipulating him by observing their facial twitches or heartbeat, but he had experience with idiots trying to play him for some extra cash. However all of that was muddied by the fact that she was speaking in a language she hardly understood. She was nervous about him, that much was obvious, but he couldn’t tell if she was lying or simply having a hard time putting her words together while dealing with that nervousness.
He could tell they didn’t fully trust him, her sister faking being asleep was a very clear example of this, but they trusted him enough to bring him to their home when they wouldn’t have been blamed for simply leaving him in the city and running away from him. It wasn’t like he would have chased them down either, he was fairly certain he wouldn’t be able to beat Juli in a fight, let alone chase her down through a forest she was far more comfortable in and catch her.
She had more practice fighting as an Altered and far more practice surviving out in the wilderness, meanwhile he’d only recently learned how to move at a half decent pace through the forest’s terrain.
The only real questions I have left at this point are… What the hell was she doing alone out there, and what is her name? I still haven’t asked her that and it’s honestly starting to get awkward.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Glancing between Juli and her sister he settled back onto the younger woman as he finished the last of her root.
“I know this might seem a bit rude but uh… what is your name? I know your sister’s name is Juli from when you stopped her from… stabbing me , but I never got yours.”
She seemed surprised for a moment, before quietly laughing into her hand.
“I forget! I no tell you name!” She placed a hand on her chest before slightly bowing her head towards him, doing her best to suppress her laughter during and after. “I am Chloe, name belongs mothers-mother.”
Mothers-mother?
“By mother’s-mother do you mean grandmother? As in the mother of your mother?”
She nodded towards him, her small smile becoming a large one as her rather clean teeth were flashed towards him.
Do they have dentists out here?
“Chloe was grandmother’s name, kind, but sick. Go while sleep.”
Her grandmother was sick all the time and died in her sleep. Sad, but there are certainly worse ways to go, especially out here. It sounds horrible but it’s wild to hear of someone dying of ‘sickness’ nowadays, hell unless it’s something fast acting or some rare mutated strain of illness most sickness can get cured over the counter nowadays… Pretty sure the woman who invented the hangover pill is a multi-billionaire nowadays.
He’d forgotten about sickness. In the city the most common forms of death usually involve things involving other humans, or old age, not illness. A lot of Altered who had the ability to heal were capable of removing life ending diseases or cancers in less than a day of treatment, and medicine had advanced far enough that the stuff that couldn’t be cured by a Altered could be cured in less than a week almost universally, from the common cold to cancer.
Of course, this only applied to mortal illnesses. Anything affected by magic was rather volatile and generally ended up killing, if not disabling whoever was infected by it. The most recent advances in magic had done their jobs though, more and more of the most common or dangerous magically induced diseases or afflictions had begun to be dealt with, touching a magi-engine with your bare hands was no longer a death sentence, but it was still dangerous if left to its own devices.
However, the biggest and greatest part of the whole deal was that medicine for practically everything mortal and mundane, and even a good portion of the magical shit, was cheaper than a can of soda per pill. Long gone were the days when it cost an arm and a leg just to get a bone fixed.
Turns out the price gouging on medicine flips upside down when some random homeless dude can touch you and cure your cancer, supply and demand and all that.
It does feel weird to be out here, almost an entirely new world, and still meet people who are so… normal. Sure they shit in the woods, but they have normal names and speak my language… mostly.
“Ah Chloe… nice uh, name. There are plenty of people where I live that have it as well.”
‘Nice name’ what, were you born yesterday?
It was genuinely difficult to keep a pleasant conversation with Chloe going, not because she was awkward or difficult to be around, but because he didn’t know what to talk about. Anyone else he’d talk about the city, incidents that had happened recently, even the weather if it was a dry enough conversation, but he had nothing for her. Luckily for him however it seemed Chloe was just happy to have someone to talk to, there was a very real possibility he was the first friendly face she’d seen other than Juli in quite some time.
This was made even more likely when Chloe beamed another smile at him, seemingly overjoyed that he had complimented her name.
“Chloe been second child name for five lifetimes! Many use it, including mother.”
Did I just hit on her on accident? Or is complimenting family names something important out here? Maybe she really is just happy to have someone else to talk to. I hate it when I have to keep up a dead conversation, I never know how to end it!
“Uh… yeah… it’s a good name, I’m not surprised it gets used so often.” Nodding his head towards Juli he continued “Is Juli’s name also heredi- passed down by your family?”
“Yes! Juli, first daughter, named Juli. Five lifetimes, like Chloe.”
Life times, mother’s-mother. At least she can talk to me and hold a conversation but honestly, I think she needs a tutor or something. Honestly, I don’t even know how much she understands from what I say to her, hell I have been avoiding using words bigger than what a toddler would understand and I don’t know if she understands half of them, let alone all of them.
“I have another question, if you don’t mind. Why were you out there alone? I get that the area is safe from beasts, but from what you’ve told me of the other tribes, why would you go out there without Juli?”
He watched as Chloe’s face turned bright red, flushing her tanned face and chest enough that he could easily tell how flushed she was even with the low lighting and her body being rather tanned. For a moment he wondered whether or not she’d even answer him, as she looked towards him and back to her sister, before she finally leaned closer to him over the table and whispered to him.
“I want time, with her always, all time, you know?”
She seemed embarrassed by the statement, even if it left him trying to untangle it for a good ten seconds.
“I wanted time alone, I’m with her all the time, you know?”
He didn’t want to make assumptions of someone he’d just met, but it honestly made him feel like she was rather… sheltered. She had this weakness to her, like she wasn’t used to violence or danger. She knew of the dangers, but she didn’t seem accustomed to dealing with it, wandering out alone and getting ambushed was evidence of that. She knew of the Ginte tribe, yet she still went out alone for “alone time”.
“Yeah, yeah I get it. Having someone with you all the time can leave you feeling… suffocated- out of breath.”
She gave him another small nod, giving Juli another look before settling back onto him. He didn’t know if Juli understood English, but she hadn’t reacted to the whispering at all, and even if she had and she understood them there was a good chance she wouldn’t react while playing dead.
It was understandable to everyone, probably for Juli as well, sure she shouldn’t have wandered off alone, but sometimes you just needed time to yourself. And having a sister that most likely dictated their day to day activities as the older and stronger sibling probably left very little for Chloe to do on her own besides sleep or do certain chores.
Hell, Juli probably felt that way too in some ways, having to center her life around taking care of her little sister, spending every day wondering if something might happen to her, if Chloe will get sick or Juli will die to a beast, it probably wasn’t easy for either of them. He could at least say that he related on some level, he spent so long trying to work towards getting his mother cured, spending all that time and effort hoping - praying - that he’d be able to scrounge up enough cash, get it cleaned, then pay for the treatment, all the while working on a deadline and assuming they weren’t denied or were put so far down the queue that his mother passed anyway.
It was suffocating, knowing that someone you loved relied solely on you.
Hell, I nearly went off the rails the second or third month after I started fighting, I can’t imagine having to spend every waking moment in subtle fear of the unknown. I was also lucky enough to be in the city in some ways. There are thousands of ways to distract yourself from panic, fear, or anxiety through the usage of entertainment, hard work, training, ‘friends for hire’, or narcotics.
All they have is each other and the wilds.
It was a rough life given to the two of them, but at least they had each other. At the end of the day, that was a better outcome than a lot of people received - inside or outside of the city.
Looking between the two of them again his mind was brought back to the beasts he’d encountered so far. To say that most of them had been harmless would be a lie, as they were only harmless to him, but when he thought of the Rox he’d encountered and how close to death he’d been after finally putting the beast down he had to suppress a shiver.
If she had been found by the mother Rox or even her kids she wouldn’t have stood a chance. I get why she would want some time alone, but that just isn’t a luxury she has. Not out here.
He didn’t want to hurt the girls feelings, but on the other hand he also didn’t want to reinforce the idea that wandering the area alone was a good idea, especially after just recently being attacked. The last thing she needed was for her to start believing that she’d always be safe, and if not safe then saved from any danger that appeared to threaten her.
This was life, not a movie. There wouldn’t always be a knight in shining armor to save her.
Or in this case, some moron with more strength than common sense.
“Next time you head out, even to the city, you really should bring your sister. I get that you wanted some personal time to yourself, trust me I do get it, but there are too many things, too many people out here that will make you regret being alone very easily.”
It took her a moment to register his words, translating them in her head, before she tried to protest to him.
“No! Chloe, you could have been hurt, or worse. I have lived in some… rough places, in tribes so far gone from common decency that they make the Ginte tribe look kind, look merciful. It’s one thing to be eaten by a bunch of cannibals, but at the very least they’ll hopefully kill ya first, some of the worst people from where I live would make dying look kind.”
He really didn’t want to risk his stay here, quite frankly having someone to talk to was nice - her being rather pretty helped as well - but he had to make sure she understood how close she was to getting herself killed. He’d feel guilty at the very least if she died because she was stuck in this childlike mindset.
“People aren’t the same as beasts, they don’t hunt to kill all the time, many of them hunt for… other things. Many of them will lie, steal, kill just to put themselves a bit higher on the totem pole, many of them will do even worse because they like it.”
By now she wasn’t meeting his eyes, and her sister had tensed up. She most likely didn’t understand them, so him angrily speaking to Chloe had most likely put her on edge.
“You must always protect yourself, always. Your sister has the strength, the ability to fight anyone who attacks her, if not run away if she has to, you don’t have that luxury. At the end of the day, the only person you can rely on is yourself.”
The only person you can ever rely on is yourself.