“Let me out,” Liam asked, standing with his hands on his hips. Sneering slightly, he stared down at the Borumas.

Their spears were poised towards his neck, daring him to try and fight back.

“Look, I need to try and make ink, and I was thinking of trying to use some of your paints,” Liam said, staring at the serious scowls of the Borumas. Andreaka barked at him in her native tongue. Thrusting her spear, she warned him to get back onto the bed.

“Please,” Liam said, trying his best to look at sorrow to try and win a few points with them. Muttering a little to one another, but still aiming their spears, the Borumas didn’t move. Seeing that his tactic didn’t work, he changed his methods.

Gesturing for the Borumas to follow him inside, he moved to the balcony. At the balcony, he pointed down to the Borumas below. Now having their attention, the Borumas followed him inside and over to the balcony. Staring down at the crowd, Liam gestured for them to look to the large, red paint that they used to cover themselves in their war patterns.

“Do you mind bringing this up to me? And some of the brushes as well?” Liam asked, gesturing to the brushes as well. After a few more times of repeating these actions, the confused Borumas sent down a few of their kin to go to the paints.

At the paints, they pointed and yelled up to him. Most likely questioned what he wanted them to do with the paint. Smiling, he gestured for them to bring the paint and brushes up to him. For the time being, he didn’t have a pen or good ink, but the waterproof paint and fine-tipped brushes were the best he had for the time being.

Not knowing why, he wanted the paints, but also not wanting to have him leave the room in the situation he was captured by the Amazons, they took the paint up to his room. Placing the bowls of paint down onto the floor, they handed him the brushes. From the doorway, they watched curiously as Liam moved the paints and brushes carefully to a small table. Using the large leaves as a form of paper, he began to paint and draw out from memory the basic ideas on making a bolt action rifle.

If his theory on magic was correct, and also what he remembered learning before about magic was correct, he didn’t need to make good bullets. From memory, he remembered that Kukuna metal was made from priestesses putting large amounts of magic into stones or metals. They needed to do It as having too much magic or having the magic unevenly distributed meant that the material would explode.

The idea was to place enough magic at the back of the shell that when hit it fired forward. The tip of the bullet would then have far more magic, meaning that hypothetically when it hit its target, it would explode and ultimately destroy whatever unfortunate thing the bullet hits. Making the bullets was most likely going to be the easiest thing, the hard part was going to be making the guns.

He knew what parts went into it, how to craft it, it’s just that he wasn’t sure how to make any of them using the technology the tribe had. Turning his head, he looked to the Borumas. Each held spears, axes, knives, and all other kinds of weapons. Taking a closer look at the weapons, he realised none were amazon made. Looking at this, he assumed that they most likely made these.

Impressive, as he knew he wouldn’t be able to make anything like that, but still it wasn’t what he needed. Running his fingers through his hair, he placed his head onto the table. There was so much that needed to be done, but so few resources to do it. Standing, he began to wander around the room, the Borumas all watching quietly as he did so.

Stopping, a sudden thought hit Liam. Often, the Amazons took spoils of war, so would that include weapons? If he could get his hands on a gun, he could probably reverse engineer its parts and have the Borumas help him re-create the parts needed to make more rifles. Taking in a few deep breaths, Liam came to the conclusion he was going to have to break into the houses of the Amazons to search for the rifles.

Glancing over his shoulder, he saw the small group of Borumas still standing by the door. Would they let him leave? No, of course, they wouldn’t. Liam shuddered. He couldn’t, could he? He couldn’t have them do the dirty deeds for him.

“I am so sorry, but this is to help your people,” Liam said, quickly drawing out a few new guns. Just in case, he drew a few plasma rifles, bullet shooting rifles, and some other imperial weapons.

Going to the door, he handed the papers to Andreaka. With a few awkward hand gestures, Andreaka seemed to get the idea that he wanted her to bring him guns.

“Please don’t get yourself killed,” Liam said, ruffling her hair before sending her off with her posse to find the guns. Watching them wander down the stairs, happily chatting as they looked through the documents, a tight feeling gripped his chest.

Was it his cough? Liam turned from his Boruma guards and shoved a hand over his mouth. No, he didn’t cough. Anxiety? No, why would he feel anxious? Leaning around the doorway, he watched as the Borumas left the house. The tightness only increased as they left.

“Idiots,” he said, trying to push the thought out of his mind. Despite their best efforts to help him, they were just hindering his efforts to make himself stronger. How? He wasn’t sure himself. But he could tell he was getting more attached to them. If he was to make a difference, he knew he couldn’t be so easily emotionally swayed.

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

Sitting on the bed, Liam threw himself onto the sheets. What was he to do now? The Borumas insisted on doing any work for him, and they forbid him from exiting the room, leaving surprisingly little for him to do. Rubbing the bridge of his nose, Liam knew he was overworking himself. Logically he should just take this time to relax.

From the doorway, the Borumas stared at him. Their gazes following him prevented him from sleeping, so that was out of the option. Sitting up, Liam looked at the paper on the table. Standing, he moved to the table. Separating the blank pages from the ones drawn on, he began to count how many pages he had left. Thirty in total. That was surprising to him, but luckily it was enough. Setting aside two pages, he got some paint and a few brushes.

Taking in a deep breath, Liam looked out of the window and down to the Borumas. Dipping one of the fine brushes into the paint, he began to paint. Quietly he painted, the careful eyes of the Borumas watching him as he did so. Around the corner of the door popped the head of the Blue Haired girl. Seeing Liam focused on his painting, she looked back to see her group of giggling friends.

Grinning, she stalked into the room. Stopping, she stared at Liam. He still had yet to see her. Perfect, she thought as she continued to stalk towards him on all fours like a cat. Moving up behind him, she got ready to pounce but stopped as she looked down at the paper. He had painted the sky. The Blue-haired girl looked on with amazement as he had used the different shades of blue provided to him by the Borumas.

Keeping quiet, she continued to watch him as he placed all focus on his work. Next, he drew the trees, then the Sleeping Borumas as they were the easiest due to not sprinting around like the others. With each figure drawn, the Blue-Haired girl became more and more amazed with his work. Seeing that the leader of their ambush was now stunned, the others approached. Soon twenty stood around him, staring down at the paper. Each was equally as amazed as they stared at the painting.

Feeling the warm breath flowing down his neck from the group that had accumulated, Liam jumped, almost head butting the blue-haired girl in the chin. Turning, he looked at the group, then back to his painting. Were they watching him? Leaning back slightly, he allowed the women to come forward and see his work. Smiling, they watched as he continued.

If they were dogs, he knew their tails would be wagging. Laughing slightly, Liam thought of the Borumas with tails and tall wolf ears. Again, he laughed at how dog-like the Borumas were. Stuttering his laughter, he noticed the Borumas looking awkwardly at him.

“Sorry,” he said, returning to his painting. For hours they sat in silence and watched him, each completely focused on his work. Another few hours later, he finished. Carefully, he placed the painting onto a small stand made from his books and presented it proudly to the girls.

Oohing and awing, they admired the work. After some muttering and speaking, the blue-haired girl picked up one of the pieces of paper. Leaping to his side, she pointed to him, then to the paper, then to herself. Still seeing he wasn’t understanding, she picked up one of the brushes and did the entire act of pointing to herself, the brush and paints, then to him.

Getting a rough idea that she wanted him to paint her, he nodded and took the paints. After a few quick bickers and mutters, two women grabbed his hands while the others sprinted out of the room. Leaping onto the bed, the Blue-haired girl sat along the edge of the bed. More women returned with paints and feathers. Some even came with new brushes and pots of the purple liquid that removed the native paints.

“Thank you,” Liam said, despite the women still holding his hands tightly.

Dragging his desk, they moved it so that he sat facing the bed with the blue-haired girl on it. With the feathers and flowers, they brought, they began to decorate her. Once she was dressed, in what looked to Liam to be the finest clothes the Borumas had (or even could have at their low status), the women gave him the order to paint.

For a moment Liam did nothing as he simply examined the fine feathers and clothes of the blue-haired girl. To think, such an amazingly beautiful person was simply going to become a pleasure toy for some cannibals before eventually being eaten. Smiling widely, Liam was happy to think that at least he had done something good.

With the brushes and newly acquired paints, he began on the second piece of paper. Smiling, Liam happily drew and painted out the Boruma as she modelled on the bed. Blushing, the blue-haired turned away from Liam as she noticed his intense gaze. Liam didn’t notice though as he continued his work.

Now and then the Borumas would leap into the frame to make adjustments to her outfit. In turn, this would make the blue-haired girl giggle and jump. Sighing, Liam stood up. All the movement placed her off her original position, making it far harder to paint her. Wandering around the room, Liam eventually found a long stick. Why was it in Yantraki’s room? Well, he didn’t want to find out.

Going back to his seat, he prodded and poked the blue-haired girl back into her original position. When any Borumas tried to move towards their friends, he would quickly hit their ankles or prod them, sending them away. Annoyed, but understanding he probably did this for a reason, the Borumas retreated.

Hours passed, and eventually, he placed his brushes down. It was dark, but not dark enough that he couldn’t see. Also, the Borumas bringing him small wooden torches to light the background probably contributed to his work. Hours more passed, and eventually he placed down his brush. Rubbing his knuckles, he felt the strain in his wrist. Today had been the first time in a long time he had done this much drawing.

Ignoring his pain, he turned to show them the image.

“Any good?” he asked. Yelping and smiling, the girls took the image and carefully showed it to each other. Upon seeing the painting, the blue-haired girl leapt across the bed, wrapping her arms around Liam.

Placing kisses onto his face, she threw her head back and beamed a smile at him. Liam awkwardly smiled. If Yantraki was here right now he was sure this girl would already be half skinned and made into a new skirt for her.

“Thank you,” he said, blushing as she cuddled him further. Leaping away, she looked back down to his painting of her.

Pointing and prodding her, he knew that they probably were saying how like her it looked. Smiling, Liam sat back in his chair, content with his work. The sounds of sprinting came up the stairs. Sitting up, he looked to see Andreaka standing in the doorway, a plasma rifle in hand.