Chapter 5: The Crusade Begins
After having met Jathi and Adilash, Alarik called together a meeting of the expedition to discuss ground rules. Hilda stood quietly fuming, thinking that had she been the leader of the group they would long have understood the rules before having left. Just as he had done before in Khorsul, Alarik was leading them all to their destruction. And here she was, helpless, unable to cry out and show Alarik to be the fraud she knew he was.
Hilda was frustrated to the point of being hardly able to listen to his little self-aggrandizing speech, knowing he was doing it only to secure his role as the leader. Pathetic.
She listened to the speech half-heartedly. “...to be wary of the animal life, as we are unsure of what lies in wait for us…” Oh, of course! The animal life. That was clearly the gravest concern, not the people lying in wait for their expedition with seemingly no explanation. “...stick together through the rainforest, as if we separate, the danger increases tenfold…” She heard the same axiom in Khorsul, shortly before her friends and fellow soldiers were cut down one by one as they retreated through the desert sands. She heard it again now, but this time she was not so foolish to believe it. Sticking together was just to provide for ‘our good captain’ to have a wall of flesh around him to protect himself, nothing more. Hilda became acutely aware of the emptiness in her mouth, and could do nothing but listen further. “...never leave sight without being within the presence of another…” Impossible. Impossible and wasteful! To bring two hunters and place them together to count as one. The navigator cannot move forward beyond the group to scout ahead.
She suddenly felt overly warm, and began breathing heavily. She couldn’t listen to him anymore. How a man who had gotten so many killed in Khorsul was allowed to lead a crusade such as this was beyond her understanding. Unwilling and unable to express why, she stormed off into the rainforest, through with this pointless messaging. It gave her the slightest bit of pride in hearing Alarik’s voice stop suddenly in confusion.
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“So keep your eyes peeled for danger, watch for each other, and-” Alarik saw Hilda already storming off into the unknown. “Hmpf. Well. Off we go, I suppose.” Without much of an option, and wanting to abide by the rules he had just set out himself, Alarik followed Hilda into the rainforest.
“Ma’am,” Farmund whispered to Edda as she, too, was following. “Before you enter. If I could have a word.”
“Of course,” she said with a smile beaming on her wide face, looking far too soft in comparison to the harsh reality of the rainforest behind her.
“I don’t know what lies ahead in that place. The tough looking one - the blind one - I request you stay at a distance from him. Any rainforest-dwelling denizens I recommend the same. Any beasts we may encounter, also, stay as far from them as you can. We don’t know of any poisons, traps, anything in this environment, and while I’ll be as vigilant as I can be, I-”
“Stop,” she said. He straightened his back and obeyed. Holding out an arm, she looked him in the eyes, pulling on his chest plate to meet her at her level. “I want you to touch my arm.”
“Ma’am?”
“Please.”
He did so. His large, gauntleted hand dwarfing her tiny wrist. “What is it made out of?”
“Flesh and bone, ma’am. Same as myself, of course.”
“Not glass?” she asked.
“No, ma’am.”
“Then please, my request for you is not to treat me as if it were.” Her words were not a reprimand. She had known Farmund for most of her life, and he had protected her through all of it. It was his life’s work, and a task he took with the utmost seriousness. She knew that his intentions were not to belittle her or to make her appear weak, but simply to assure her safety as best he could. However, as she reached adulthood, she wished that he would loosen some of his more extreme precautions.
“Very well, just… stay close. For my sake, if not your own.” He marched into the rainforest behind the others, a colossal sword on his hip, ready for all comers.
Even with the distrust of royalty from the rainforest’s inhabitants, the threat of beasts and poisons, and the knowledge that they likely didn’t know half of what lay in store for them, Edda felt safe and in control. However, she wanted to assure herself that it wasn’t only because of Farmund that she felt this way, but rather her own knowledge and ability. Her first step was to look less like a royal and more like a crusader. She glanced at Inaya, a walking picture of athleticism and a hunter’s confidence, but still feminine and beautiful. She smoothed out her curls as best she could, realising now how ridiculous it would look on a crusade such as this, and tied her hair behind her head in the same fashion. She would look the part before she’d act it.
Farmund, meanwhile, never let his gaze wander too far from the man they sent to tail the crusade. It takes a warrior to recognize a warrior, and Majad was certainly of the breed. How he moved through the rainforest as he did, his bare feet finding every log and rock without a momentary fear for his own balance, was an artform. How he did it blind was beyond the larger warrior’s understanding. Even encased in lightweight, shaman-forged armour from the finest metalworkers in all of the Vanderik empire, he was still wary of the slight, dangerous man. He found no soul in those white, empty eyes. He was the type that would slip through the shadows and slice the throat of each of their party before the light of dawn revealed his treachery. But Farmund was determined not to let that happen.
He wondered if Edda realised this. She had the most pure, honest heart and soul of any person he’d ever known, but the life of a noble had given her a fool’s trusting and naivety that bordered on recklessness. It was something he wished to temper with time, but he feared the only way to learn would be by seeing the damage her actions could cause firsthand. Farmund was never one to let that happen, and while her bright spirit never diminished he feared how the world could hurt her now that he had shielded her for so long. He hoped his armour was strong enough for them both.