Slowly, gingerly, Liam raised his hands in surrender to the Borumas that now surrounded him. Their spears were aimed for his neck. Looking at the Borumas around him, he noticed the stripes of red and green paint across their skin. Liam looked to Andreaka. Large feathers sat in her hair, making her look to be the leader of this group.
Moving forward, Andreaka’s hands probed Liam’s body. Her hands stopped as she found the knife on his belt. Taking the knife from him, she turned him to face away from her. Grabbing his hands, she placed them behind his back. Another Boruma passed her some vine which she used to bind his hands behind him. She struggled for a few minutes. Feeling a little pity for the Boruma as they tried to figure out how to bind his hands, Liam turned around.
Snatching the vine from Andreaka, he showed her how to bind his hands. Borumas gathered around as they all intensely watched him show them how to bind him. Turning back around, he willingly placed his hands behind his back again. Still struggling, it took Andreaka a little too long again to finally bind his hands. Despite the best efforts of the Boruma, he had to grip the vine to prevent it from slipping off his wrists.
Placing a hand on his shoulder, Andreaka turned him again to face her. Smiling up at him, she dragged him down until he was at eye level with her. Gently, she placed a kiss onto his lips before wrapping a long piece of vine around his neck. Again, Liam felt tempted to show them that the vine around his neck was still very loose and he could easily slip out of it, but he decided it was best to save them from the embarrassment.
“First time kidnapping someone?” He joked to himself as they began to walk down the dirt track.
From looking at the Boruma, it didn’t seem like they were in heat despite it being the mating season. But then again Andreaka wouldn’t usually be so bold as to kiss him like that out of the blue. Maybe since the Boruma weren’t full Amazons biologically, they only had a very watered-down version of the mating instinct.
Was that why they were capturing him? it was just instinct? Sighing, Liam decided to just go with it. First a weird dream with some weird bloke in it, then captured by Boruma. It was far too early in the morning to try and question his new life. The girls escorted him for a while longer until they reached the main village. Their guard seemed to be raised as they glared at the seemingly desolate village.
Something was off. Before he thought it was just the Boruma being Boruma and doing weird shit but seeing the village so empty made him cringe. Moving slowly forward, the Boruma kept their defensive positions as they scanned the village. Hurriedly, they scampered through the village. As they moved through the streets, there wasn’t an Amazon insight.
Eventually, they arrived back at the house of Yantraki. A much-welcomed sight to Liam. Glancing over his shoulder, he still couldn’t even see a glimpse of an Amazon in the village. His mind went to start theorising what had happened, but the Boruma had already dragged him into the house before he could think of anything rational.
Once inside the house, the warriors secured the door shut with some wooden beams. This sight of security was a little off-putting to Liam, but again his thoughts were distracted by the Boruma dragging him up the stairs. The wooden beams still worried Liam though, as he didn’t know if they were to keep him in or something out.
An Amazon could easily break through the beams, so with that information, he assumed the beams were meant to keep him in.
Once at the top of the stairs, the Borumas threw him onto the bed. Looking around, Liam realised quickly how the bed was covered with his clothes and bedsheets. The Borumas had built some kind of nest in the time he was gone. Like very, very unexperienced mother birds, the Borumas tucked Liam into the nest.
Piling large amounts of his clothes onto him. To continue with their act the Borumas surrounded him. Like territorial birds they sat with their weapons, scanning their surroundings for any possible threats. Looking to the balcony, he could see several Borumas glancing down to the garden.
After about ten minutes of the Borumas securing their surroundings like some poorly trained special forces, they finally took the bindings of Liam and allowed him to move around. The Borumas retreated, allowing him to move. After a few looks of confidence given to the Borumas, they eventually allowed Liam to stand and move from the nest they had formed.
Wanting to distance himself from the weapon-wielding Borumas, he moved to the balcony that overlooked the garden. At the balcony, he looked down into the garden. For a minute he stood confused as he tried to piece together the awkward and mangled design of a small wooden wall the Borumas had to build around the garden and surrounding bushier.
Pieces of wood jolted out in all directions, some folded, some simply snapped or broken. To say the least, the wall was inefficient. From looking at the amount of Borumas who lazily lounged around the garden, he guessed there to be at least two hundred or so of them. Seeing they mostly just chatted or did nothing, he came up with a plan.
If he could convince the Borumas to help him build the bathhouse, he could probably get it done far quicker due to how many of them were helping him. Perfect, a labour force that would probably be more than willing to help. Turning from the balcony, he went to try and get to the door. But the small hand of Andreaka planted itself onto his chest, stopping him in his tracks.
Her fierce little eyes glared at him. Without realising it, Liam automatically smiled in response at her. He couldn’t help but find it adorable how she looked so angry. Placing a hand onto the top of her head, he knew of a trick that would probably work on the naïve Boruma girl. Flicking aside her hair, he placed a soft kiss onto her forehead. Andreaka blushed heavily.
Sucking in her bottom lip, looked down at his chest in annoyance. Not knowing how to react to the sudden show of kindness, she allowed Liam to pass. But wanting to try and get another show of attention from Liam, she quickly hopped after him. Along the way, she gathered several of her inner circle of friends. Wanting them to also join in on her crusade for affection from Liam.
Soon, Liam had the intended effect as all Borumas of the house got word of him kissing her and quickly followed, all wanting to try and get the same amount of affection. Why would they want it? Simply there was nothing better to do. And if their close friend and somewhat leader liked it, surely, they would as well.
Now having the small army following him, Liam happily moved through the front of the house, through the front door, then outside. Finally, outside, he had the small army escort him through the deserted village. They had three stops. First was the sight of construction, then it was the woods where he needed to collect sticks to make a skeleton for the building, lastly, there was the lake where the battle had taken place.
At that lake, he remembered there being large deposits of clay. If he was corrected, he wanted to try and make a mixture out of the clay, some stone, and some sand to try and make a sturdy building material that could be used to make the walls and base of the bathhouse. On his own, this could have taken months, but with the arms, he guessed it could be far quicker.
But then again, the speed did depend on the effectiveness of the Borumas and their building skill. When though given the right motivation, he presumed that they could become very effective. Much like during the battle where they had the motivation to keep their homes safe. If he had to describe the Borumas, he saw them as stupid but smart.
Stupid when left to their own devices. Stupid when they were given the chance to be. Stupid the vast majority of the time. But when given motivation, they could become a very effective fighting force. Hopefully, this theorem worked with the creating of the materials and the wall. As they walked through the village, they started to pick up small pockets of Borumas who had been hiding in their houses.
Without hesitation, words, or persuasion, the girls quickly joined the group. Finally, with their new group, they reached the open area where he had originally planned to build the bathhouse. Moving to the forest, he started to collect large, sturdy sticks. As he did this, the Borumas started to do the same. Each girl looked at the sticks he had, then went off to collect similar ones.
Once each girl had a pile of sticks, he carried them back to the area. Wanting praise, the Borumas of cause did the same. He then returned to the jungle, this time collecting vine to bind the sticks together. Again, he returned with the construction site. As before, the Borumas copied him. Seeing he had them copying his actions, he made sure the Borumas got a good idea of what to do as he started to use the sticks and vines to create the skeleton for the building.
After an hour or so the skeleton was built. It stood about nine feet tall and thirty feet long. Only a small place, be enough for the time being. The Borumas had made a somewhat decent job of copying Liam in his building. Luckily, he only needed to make a few adjustments to their design. Happy with the work of the group, he led the horde off to go and find the lake.
First, though he made sure to gather some pots and bowls from the village. After about an hour of arming the Borumas with these bowls did he return to the gathering of material. It took a little longer than expected as several Borumas tried to have either him or another Boruma carry their equipment. Eventually, though he managed to get the Borumas somewhat stable.
He knew roughly where it was, but still, he had his doubts. He didn’t know the area well, but he had been to the lake before to clean as well as for the battle, so again, he had a rough idea. Along the way, he had hoped the Borumas would steer him in the right direction as they figured out where he was going.
As expected, as he walked deeper and deeper into the jungle most Borumas got distracted by birds or each other. But it was Andreaka who realised his intended direction and slowly steered him down the right path. Before long the group reached the lake. After doing a few good checks to make sure no Borumas had gotten lost or died, he moved down to the lake to find some clay.
Moving to the bank of the river, it wasn’t long before he found large deposits of a deep, brownish-red clay. Liam slowly showed the Borumas how to gather the clay and put it into the bowls. The charge to start collection was led by Andreaka and Icaria while Liam observed the group to make sure they were doing it correctly.
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While observing them, he had to prevent some Borumas from eating the clay. Smart at times or not, they were still Borumas at the end of the day. Clay eating Borumas. This wasn’t a problem that he thought he would have to be dealing with today. Waiting for the Borumas to finish gathering their clay, Liam felt like a teacher at a primary school as he made sure the girls didn’t get into fights over who had the most clay. Children, bloody children.
Once each of the two hundred Borumas had the clay, he led them back to the building site. Having the Borumas place down the clay in a safe area, he then moved on to the next task. After a while, they returned to the lake. Here he had the Borumas gather bowls of sand, this being much easier than the clay as the Borumas…. He wasn’t sure why the Borumas didn’t try to eat the sand. But then again, he didn’t know why the Borumas tried to eat the clay.
Again, gathering the second part of the material mix, he escorted the group back to the building site. More Borumas had gathered and were watching curiously as the Borumas put down the bowls of sand and clay. He was thinking of getting some stone to mix with the clay and sand but seeing the Borumas try to eat the clay made him now place much faith in what they would do with getting another set of materials.
Ok, now all there was to mix the sand and clay in one of the large pots made by the blacksmiths. That way he would have a rough mixture to use to start creating bricks for the walls and base of the building. Not long after reaching the beach, Liam took no time in having the Borumas help him take one of the three pots back to the building site. After setting the pot down, throwing in some materials and having the Borumas use large wooden paddles to mix the material, he decided to sit back and allow them to have their fun. They were very easily entertained by seeing all the mixtures going together.
The first batch was bound to be bad, but the Borumas did have a habit of surprising him. Smiling, Liam watched the odd enjoyment they had from watching the sand blend into the clay as the mixture stirred. It was hard to believe that these creatures were a mix of both humans and Amazon. An hour or so past and the first batch was ready.
At this time Liam had used a Kukuna knife to cut out a stone block he found laying around one of the Amazonian building sites in the village. Using the mixing spoon from the pot (which was about the size of him) he took a small amount of the mixture and poured it into the brick cast. Using the knife to cut off any extra material, the first brick was made.
Taking the brick over the wooden skeleton, he placed the still-wet clay brick onto the wooden beams. Quickly, the Borumas got the idea of what to do as they made a cast of their own to create bricks.
Hours past and the walls and floor were finished, far quicker than it would have taken Liam alone. From the speed at which they had made the four walls and floor, he joked to himself that if given the right tools they could probably build a city within a day. Seeing though that the Borumas were only now after a good nine hours were starting to get annoyed, he decided it was best to give them a rest for the day and get them something to eat.
Taking the small army of Borumas, he awkwardly led them back to the house. Again, he was off-put by there not being a sign of a soul (except the Borumas) in the village but being tiered and so happy with the progress made by the Borumas, he pushed the thought aside. Like herding sheep, he moved all two hundred or so Borumas into the house and migrated them into the garden.
The Borumas who had chosen not to come with them had already prepared a large fire pit and had some meat cooking. Wanting nothing more than to relax, Liam found a pile made from his clothes and slumped himself into the pile. Not even a few seconds after placing his head down he was, swarmed by a horde of Borumas. Each eyed him angrily as they surrounded him. Oh yeah, he forgot, the reason they decided to help him.
Sitting up, he placed a welcoming hand onto his lap.
“Go ahead you fuckwits. You deserve it,” the Borumas didn’t understand his words, but Andreaka very quickly understood his action. Placing his hand onto her head, he began to gently scratch and stroke at the hair of the young woman.
Once she was fast asleep, he moved on to the next, and then on to the next. Like cats, they took their turn getting their heads and foreheads rubbed. The action itself wasn't that enjoyable, but the combined fatigue and exhaustion of the day was enough to make this small gesture have far more of an impact as it quickly had all the Borumas who had helped him that day into a deep sleep.
Almost like a proud father, he looked over the Borumas. Andreaka, Icaria and the Blue-haired girl were the ones he took the most pride in. Today they had led their pack of friends and also probably the reason that the building was done so quickly and so efficiently. Another smile came to his face as he realised that if they would go at this pace and unite with the daughters of Kenyanire at this pace as well, then he would probably have the entire island untied in a year.
A small sound of chuckling came from above him. Looking upwards, Liam’s eyes roll into a man in a Red Hat and equally as a blood-red mask. With a chuckle, the man walked over and stood in front of Liam.
“Afternoon,” the man began his hands shut in his pockets. Glancing behind the man he could see some of the Borumas hard at work. None of them were bothered by the appearance of the creature as none of them reacted to its presence. Almost as if his presence was reserved for Liam alone.
“I have to admit, I am amazed none of those Borumas got themselves killed through eating clay today,” the man continued as he moved over Liam him crouched down in front of him.
“What do you want?” Liam said, wasting no time going on the offensive. The man put out a hand, probably signed to show he had no hostile intentions.
“Just here to talk,” the man said as he took off his hat, revealing his pitch-black hair.
“Liam, right? Sorry I wasn't able to have as much of a come meeting last time we met. It's just that I was in a rush and did not want to wake you, so I decided it was probably best to go into your dreams to try and convey my message. But in hindsight, it was quite hostile or terrifying as you may have seen it move in hindsight,” The man said as he placed a hand on the head of one of the sleeping Borumas.
“My name is Red. I'm from a little organisation that goes around recruiting and bringing people who we see have potential into our ranks. I am an inquisitor, my job is to find a human, like yourself, and have them bind a contract with me,” Red reached into his jacket and pulled out a paper contract.
“What are you?” Liam questioned, not in the slightest trusting the creature that had invaded his mind before.
“Calm yourself boy, I can't interact much with the physical world in this state. So in other words there's no need to worry about me committing genocide on your little friends here, I leave that privilege for those who I think might make a good fight,” the man said casually as if the thought of genocide was just a simple footnote in his mind.
“And I also thought I told you what I am. I'm an inquisitor, here to offer you a contract that will greatly increase your chances of uniting this island and potentially more if given the chance by you. That's then again, I do think there is another name for me humans give as considering my job is to make the lives of those goddesses are living hell, I guess you could call me a demon. And that brings me nicely to your contract,” Red pushed the contact across the grass to Liam.
“Number 1 I shall provide you with any power I have myself. And that’s about it.” Red said as he again pushed the contract closer to Liam.
“And what exactly do you want in exchange for giving me this? and second of all why should I trust you, you come out of nowhere, invade my dream, blabber on some random shit about a cycle or something, and now you want me to sign a contract after calling yourself a demon? that doesn't exactly sound secure to me,” Liam said as he watched the hand of the man carefully.
“Simple, what I want you to do is make the lives of those goddesses as miserable as possible. That's all no catches no selling your soul,” Red said.
“No,” Liam said, without a moment’s hesitation.
“I’m not here for this whole God versus Goddess hassle or demon shit. I'm just here to do a little job of uniting the islands, then relaxing for the rest of eternity,” Liam said, his eyes fixed onto Red’s hand as he moved it down to the neck of the Boruma girl next to him. His other hand then moved to the neck of the sleeping Icaria.
“Are you sure about that? Because there is going to be a lot of hard times coming your way, and having a demon that grants you powers by your side would probably increase your survivability. So, I will ask you again, will you take the contract? or do I need to do a little convincing,” he continued as he tightened his grip ever so slightly around the necks of the girls. Liam didn't dare speak nor move in case of angering this demon.
“I won't bow my head to something like you. I don't care about being the strongest or the smartest, as that isn't something the Amazons need. They are very smart, and they are very strong, but the problem here is that they think very conservatively. They don't think outside of the box so to speak. They are very set in their ways and all I need to do is give them ideas now help further their civilization. Think of it like this, people like myself would think differently other ones who create businesses, and those who think conservatively like the amazons are the ones who keep those businesses running. Now just replace the word business with country and you have the same situation I am in right now. So no, I don't want to take your offer. And if you dare to home any of these people, I'll be coming for you next,” Liam said, his eyes narrowing upon Red as his hand subtly moved for a knife.
“Really? Are you sure about that? You know it would be a shame if your little Amazon friends were to find out about how you are directly responsible for the death of two of your closest friends, and all because it benefited you,” Red said, his lips under his mask curling into a grin as he saw the look of anger rising Liam’s eyes. He was taken aback for a moment those Liam grinned at him.
“You think they will care? Yantraki had nine sisters, one of which she ate leaving only eight of them left. The second she tried to kill in a battle, the third she tried to kill again, and from what I can gas she most likely is going to try and kill the 3rd. And this isn't an uncommon thing amongst the amazons as they often kill and eats their kin just for the hell of it. So go ahead, tell them. They would probably like me more for it,” Liam said a wicked smile on his face.
Chuckling, Red nodded. He already knew the Amazons probably wouldn’t think differently of him, and as Liam said would probably like him more for it. But still, he wanted to try and see how trusting Liam was of his comrades to stay by his side, and he also wanted to see whether or not he could play on any of his fears or social anxieties.
“Alright, fair enough. Most don’t accept the contract at first. But trust me humans, when pushed to the brink you will make many decisions you would never have dreamt of making before. So, when that time comes, I'll offer you this deal again, and I can show you that you will make a different decision. But until then I think we have had a nice little conversation and I should probably leave you to start preparing for the coming storm.” With only those few words he got up and began to walk away before stopping again and turning to face Liam.
“Oh, and when you are on the brink of death, I expect for you to beg me to offer you this contact again.” With only a few blinks of an eye, the creature was gone.
“Wait, one question,” Liam said, just before the last of the figure vanished. Red stopped and turned to him.
There was a moment of silence as Liam contemplated what he was going to say next.
“The organisation you work for? What is it?” Liam said, not knowing whether or not that was a question he wanted to have answered by this demon.
“From the ashes of empires, we have a rise, and on the base of chaos, we have found our covenant. That all?” He said as he reached into his jacket. Pulling out a small wooden box he walked over to Liam.
“Just because I and my organisation do bad things, doesn’t always make us the bad guys. Take your Amazons for example. They are literal monsters, yet you see the good in them. Just think of us as the same. You want some?” Red said as he slid the box’s lid off and offered a chocolate stick to Liam. Not sure whether or not this was some way of him tricking him into signing some kind of contract, Liam ignored him and simply nodded but didn't dare to take one of the chocolate sticks. Red sighed, slightly annoyed he didn’t end the deal here, but understanding his fear, he left without another word.