CHAPTER 33: THAT’S WHY WE GOTTA STICK TOGETHER

There’s a pretty massive flaw in my plan. Like the idiot I am, I send the one of us who can’t communicate, to go investigate possible allies. Me that is, I send me. I’m the idiot, and I’m the one that can’t communicate. Ugh.

I don’t want to give away my inventory magic right away if I’m spotted, so I shove everything back into my inventory. Well, everything other than the danger wraps, which I disguise with some of the rope bindings. I’ve got the tattoos, and the wraps. I might be able to make some bolas or nets, or some other non-lethal weapon. I don’t think in my wildest dreams I’d ever have imagined it would be harder to not kill a bunch of people than to do so.

If anyone ever reads this log, and knows how we get out of this mess. Could you do me a great big favor of somehow sending the ending back in time to right now? Just so I know what to do, I’d really appreciate it, thanks.

Anyone? No? Yeah I kinda figured.

Exploring, I try to follow the right hand wall rule. I make sure that I’m touching the same wall continuously, leaving marks along it to indicate where I’ve been. This place is labyrinthine to say the least. I’m afraid at any moment I might find multi level water passageways that would make it hard to determine what the right hand wall is.

I should probably be focusing more on hostiles than on navigating at the moment, because I just entered a room with three beaverfolk. They actually look pretty beefy, it might be hard to subdue them without killing them. Hopefully they’re strong enough to take a few seconds of my tattoo tendrils.

The beavers stand, and grab anything nearby that they can use as weaponry, including actual weaponry. I sigh and extend my tendrils, which has a very odd effect. They exchange a glance, and start bowing and chanting. I try to make out the chant by just listening to it, or squinting at the text boxes that always seem to face away whenever it’s a non party member that’s speaking, but I can only ever understand when I’m using Lil’s senses.

Or Luni’s. I sigh and rub my itchy eyes as I think how Luni and I also share such a tight bond, and we haven’t been able to reach her. I start to feel anger welling up within me again, and I have targets here I could take that anger out on. But no, she wouldn’t want that. She’s so kind, Luni and Teuila both. Though I think Teuila is barely on the edge of remaining merciful right now. Speaking of my angelic warrior, we should really have switched tasks. How is she going to get into the pyramid? I might be able to slowly claim pieces of it to my inventory until I find a hollow space to enter. Is she just going to hack away at it? Dig in from underneath with her spear?

Ugh, why am I such an idiot!? Why are these fools still bowing and chanting? I lash out with my tendrils and slap the wall in frustration. The beaverfolk jump, a bit startled. Since I’m worried they’ll either follow me, alert others, or go attack my family, I have to do something about them, but I don’t feel like I have a lot of good options.

Stepping outside the room, I bend around the corner, and try to look like I’m dragging a bunch of rope along as I pull vines and bindings out of my inventory. Sighing, I haul enough material into the room to bind these beavers. I whip my tendrils once to get their attention, then make a motion of putting my wrists together. They seem to understand, even if they don’t like it. At least they comply.

After I’ve bound the beavers, I leave the room, sighing, shaking my head with my eyes closed. What am I even doing? I hope Teuila is faring better than I am. I hope Luni is somehow okay, wherever she is. If my life were a movie, it would cut away to one of them or both of them right now.

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Regardless, exploring gets to be extremely tedious, I have to start skipping rooms. I can’t just waste time with every pair or trio of beavers, spooking them and tying them up. Plus I’ve gotten lucky that they’ve all submitted so far. If any of them actually fight back, or I run into the one that has Gae Buidhe, this will get much more challenging. I spend hours trying to find my way to the great hall. I wonder if Teuila has even made it outside yet, or if her Valkyrie form is as good at swimming as she usually is.

Up ahead the hallway seems to open up into a wider room, one filled with beaverfolk milling about. I’m fairly certain that’s the great hall. Based on my orientation, if we entered the room from the south, and the sane beavers were on the west side, we’re on the east side, well, I’m on the east side right now. Approaching the creatures that are essentially blocking my way, even if only inadvertently, I decide I’ll have to make a spectacle out of myself to be able to get through this.

I haven’t really practiced this before, I hope it works. I’ve used Newton’s third law a few times with inventory shenanigans, but I’ve never tried it with my tendrils. I face my back to the room, so that I’m nearly back to back with several beavers. I then exhale slowly, trying to remain calm as I flick the tendrils hard, down and away, shunting myself upwards and rearwards, tumbling into a backflip as I sail into the room.

All hell breaks loose as I land. How did Teuila get past all these without them taking up arms and scouring all the corridors? I know she’s fast, but that’s ridiculous. There’s one beaver poking their snout timidly out from the western corridor. I’m pretty sure I need to get to them. As I’m trying to plan my way out of this mess, my danger wraps warn me of slingstones and spears sailing my way. It’s easy enough to deflect them with the tattoo tendrils.

Once the beavers realize they aren’t going to knock me out from range, we enter a standoff. I feel a fury building, I could hurt them or kill some of them to intimidate the others, that would be easy. Taking a life shouldn’t be easy. What am I doing? Why do I think it’s even an issue that I have to address? I just now remembered something I have access to. I start walking westward, throwing any beaver to the side that tries to approach me. I think I’m using Judo, without actually knowing Judo.

Once I arrive in the western tunnel, the main population of beavers seem infuriated. They appear to be preparing to charge in after me, while the timid one scurries away. That’s fine. This is fine. I let the mass of bodies and weapons approach, nearly closing in on the tunnel, then I place my hands on the ground. As they prepare to strike me down in my supplicated position, I rise, throwing my hands to the air. During this motion I summon a mass of clay and fired clay from my inventory, walling off the tunnel. Hopefully it appeared like terrakinesis, or geomancy. Even if they figured out that it’s inventory magic though, I guess it doesn’t matter right now.

Turning westward, I follow the spooked beaver. These tunnels are all lined with lumber, but where do they even get logs this thin? I hadn’t really gotten a chance to ponder the makeup of this complex before now. Every tree that I’ve seen has a massive girth, and are mostly redwood or similar. These however appear to be mostly birch, and pine. There has to have been an entire forest that these beavers have taken down to line the miles of tunnel with wood. Is it necessary to support the weight of the tunnels, or is it just decoration for them?

I make certain my tendrils are stowed, and that I appear as if I have no weapons. I want to look as non-threatening as possible. My apparent guide ignores several offshoots in the tunnel, until suddenly taking us down a branching hall. As we approach what must be the end of this tunnel, finally, I’m met with a sight that’s definitely good news and bad news.

The good news is that there are a lot more beavers in the sane faction than I thought. The bad news is, it doesn’t matter how many there are, I still won’t be able to communicate with any of them. Maybe one of them knows where Luni went. Hm, speaking of Luni, did we come up with her name based on the word lunar, or something else? I think it was something else. Rivers in June come to mind, though I’ve no idea why.

I really wish we had stuck together right now, I’m going to need a translator.