The two Tuskir made their way with Michael to what they called the Sun's Path River. The travel was a good thirty minutes of walking through the woods to what Gharna and Azhul told Michael was a nice grove on one side of the river.
'I wonder why they call it, Sun's Path? Maybe a miss translation?' He said looking down at the medallion from his neck, which also made the corner of his eye notice the scar left on his right shouldee, in the shape of teeth marks dragging or as if he had some huge stitches applied to that area.
Michael's mind wandered back to immediately after the fight, Urla, along with Spek and Rok, took Runhar away to take care of him, then someone tended to his own shoulder. Who was it? Oinna? The human sucked on his lower lip slightly frustrated. 'I need to thank her too.' He mused in his head.
"We're here!" Gharna said as she huffed and stretched.
"And... no animals grazing. A pity." Azhul said as she tapped her halberd on the ground with a slight annoyance.
Michael looked up from the dirt trail, as he has been making sure to not trip and he was left speechless. Green as emeralds grass shining in the sun, lightly splattered with multicolored flowers all over. A crystal clear lazy river, with thick tufts of plants like cat tails, water lettuce, frogbits and more hanging about the shore in places.
Due to it being early morning, the sun rising up in the east, far on the horizon beyond the river, it shined brightly across the crystal clear water, forming the illusion of a pure white bridge, with specks of color appearing and dissapearing. It was real... right there, across the water's surface.
"W-wow... I have seen some sights back in the mountains of my homeland, but I never thought I would ever get to see this..." Michael said with wonder.
"A grove?" Azhul asked confused what the excitement was about.
"Or do you mean a river bank?" Gharna asked confused. The human shook his head. "N-no. Neither. Untouched, unspoiled wilderness."
"Uhm... but we come here often to hunt or bathe or fish." Azhul added confused as Gharna nodded in agreement.
"Where I am from it is different. Small villages like yours exist, but we have many towns built with stone, wood and metal. Massive ones that took many resources to make. People do different things to survive and eat. Many of us get to travel our country to view it. To see the nature, but there's less and less of it. Almost everywhere you go in my country, nature has felt their touch. Cabins built. Benches or tables made and left in disrepair, left over food and other residues nature can't turn back into dirt are found all over. Animals are scarcer and scarcer. Besides the one we domesticated, I have never truly seen any wild ones, except small birds or rodents..." Michael said his head turning towards the two, their expressions clearly changed to being uncomfortable, at which point Michael realized what kind of picture he was painting to their imaginations.
"I-... I will not lie... my people are a conquering kin. We are the dominant race where I am from and... there is no other there that matches us in intelligence. Still, don't take this as me boasting, for as smart as we are... we make some foolish choices. Still... the betters of us learn and look to repair some of our mistakes."
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"W-well... your people can't be as bad as you say. I mean... you are... strong and can be wrathful, but... you don't seem to use your strength to impose yourself. H-how bad could others of your kind be?"
"Yeah! You also said, some of them are stronger than you, but plenty are also less strong than you! So I bet we could hold our own in a fight or hunting competition! How many of you are there anyways?"
"Billions..." Michael said as he sucked on his teeth as if he stubbed his toes.
"What number is that?" Gharna asked with wide eyes and an inquisitive oink.
"Uhm... you remember how we could see this whole valley from the stone stairs leading up to the cavern?"
"Yes? What of it?" Azhul asked as she leaned herself against a tree.
Michael hesitated. He felt his stomach churn at one thought that came to his mind, as he spoke. 'What would happen if people found out how to get here?' He asked himself as he felt a void form in the back of his stomach.
"All of my kind wouldn't fit in this whole valley and the resources they would deem necessary to take... would leave it more like a barren desert, little by little. A-and we tend to indulge so much in killing certain types of animals, that along our history w-we... hunted several species into extinction..."
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The two sows froze as they listened to the bare chested human, Azhul was looking at him with an expression which at first was curious and excited and then turned to simple dread and Gharna was not too far off, either.
"S-still... you said there were those of you that knew better! T-that did good things! That repaired your kin's mistakes." Gharna said trying to keep hopeful.
"Very few and far inbetween... Six types of animals at least we ate into nonexistence and in our expansion and conquest we destroyed more than two thirds of our world's various species of animals. Two or three hundred years ago maybe all of my people could have fit in between these mountains and we only lived back then for thirty to fourty years, but... We began learning. W-we... found remedies for ailments and how to take care of our bodies and the elderly so well that now a single human, one of my kind, can live for up to 70 years if not even 80 or some lucky few 90 or a century even. I can't say more on that... my knowledge is limited."
Michael then kept silent as he walked towards the grove's edge and picked up a blade of grass. The tuskir were silent, they didn't know what to say. How could they. When someone tells you their world is consumed by their own kin, it almost sounds like this collective is just one singular hungering beast. At least that is what Gharna imagined.
"Do you intend to do that... here?" Azhul asked sincerely, honest and direct, simply and serious.
Gharna's eyes widened towards her den sister as if she just poked a beast in the mouth.
"No. I hate how my people do things in a broad term. We have made many good and wondrous things that helped us live and advance and that made it easier to survive. I appreciate that and I would lie if I said, I didn't love certain parts of my kin. But... there is one thing I always despised. Our greed. Because it took from me the one thing, I could never truly see back there, except in books, art and stories of old... True, unspoiled and untouched nature." Michael said simply letting go of the blade of grass for the wind to carry.
Gharna and Azhul looked at Michael a bit differently, as he seemed to simply stare forward at the river and grove, he bared his teeth, but his eyes shined such a serene and peaceful light, it was hard to feel any danger from him at this moment, where before there was always an unease emanating over him to everyone else around.
"Even if I knew how to return, I would have them lock me up, rather than tell them how to find this world, because then... I would never be able to see such beauty even here... in this place so far away from my own world and reality." The human simply stated as he looked back at Gharna and Azhul.