Ever since they arrived with the wildmen, Brandt all but disappeared. Anh only met him in passing when the hoomin either returned or was about to go to do something in the woods. Apart from that, he would only sleep, eat, and converse with Strettar. Whenever the tanai inquired what precisely was being done, Nord would utter a few inconsequential words and leave, preoccupied with, well with all the things he was doing. From these brief run-ins, Tanai understood that they found the ‘dlooa nanoforge’, and the complex was about two candles on foot away and overrun by Ordos.
This realization caused a stir and a heated back and forth under his skull. Birdekk was staunchly against going anywhere near the ‘Dlooa’ as long as it remained occupied by the templar. Tow, to the contrary, wanted to at least take a peek at whatever was there to witness. So did Thernohh. Anh, however, was more inclined to the opinion of the eldest of kin.
After a prolonged and fruitless debate, the dominant decided to do what Greoo championed all this time. Which was to spend time with wildmen, keep an eye on the wounded, and wait until things progressed in some yet unknown direction.
On the first night, he caused a little commotion. Understandably, none Hanne’s band ever met a tanai, thus neither expect that Anh would not go to sleep, instead preferring to float with his eyes half shut, cross-legged, before the fire. Camp guards were throwing the tanai curious looks, unsure what to do with the big-headed figure, only to accept it after about a quanter. The spectacle repeated with every guard rotation and after a third Anh ignored it.
The camp was slowly being brought to life at dusk. Once Bivos shone through the leaves, the guards would go towards one of the huts and wake a few others up. Who in turn would form two smaller groups and disperse into the forest. The only words they exchanged were, very likely, lighthearted comments about how the tanai was spying on them.
Anh took it upon himself to ‘study’ anything happening around him. That required finding oneself close to the camp’s logistics and stalking people after whatever they were doing. All of kin took so much interest in this activity that Greeo needed to rudely stop them from following one of the men into the woods. Except for her, it didn’t occur to any of the cranial conclave, that hoomin wouldn’t take lightly to being observed while discharging bodily waste material, and this camp was not an anthill to poke and observe the scrambling insects. Thernohh protested such a ludicrous notion but fell in line when the elder kin agreed with Greoo.
Despite these difficulties, all agreed that the camp was operating much like an anthill, at least until very late in the afternoon. Two candles after bivset, just about everyone, except two older men, left the camp and didn’t return candles after. This included Brandt. Of course.
In the morning Anh counted seventeen people in the camp, yet only three seemed to be tasked with procuring food. This included meat and fish, as the group had a dedicated fisherman, who, somewhat in the afternoon, brought in a net of dozens of orange-tinted fishes of the size of cod but otherwise unknown genus.
Anh spent most of the first day with Gustaf, a haunched, greying, bald man with a tattered beard. He was the scarred man Anh noticed when he first approached the campfire an evening prior. He was about fifty, maybe a little more. Left half of his face, all over the back of the skull, was a sprawling surface of burned scar tissue. Even lighter than his already pretty pale skin. Understandably, he was missing the left eye and ear and had a deformed, bulbous nose. His apparent occupation was best described as being the camp’s cook, although that also extended to skinning and partitioning the prey brought in by hunters.
Gustaf was a friendly, jovial, and accommodating fellow. They got to know each other, in the broken mess of Wild and Maaren, which turned into a game in which the cook would show whatever item he was using and then call it in their tongue. Each time Anh tried to pronounce the word or match it with whatever little he knew of Maaren. Both languages were, in fact, quite similar. Having a philosophical conversation about 12th-century Sorresian politics was not happening, but Anh learned that ‘mes’ is a knife, ‘iten’ meant food, good was ‘goed’, and bad was ‘min’, among other things. The best tanai had gotten from this was the sage advice about the various herbs and plants he gathered a few days prior.
With glee, he learned that he was right. The herbs he found were usable as spices, thus the dinner for the next few days would be much less bland for everyone. Whether it was indeed saffron and basil was unsubstantial.
On the second day, Anh attempted to befriend the other daytime resident of the camp. He was middle-aged, fair-skinned, and with a cap of short, curly, black hair. In truth, he seemed a scrawnier and lighter version of Brandt, and among other men, he seemed a little out of place. Anh wanted to investigate, but Kare, as tanai later got to know, was either too preoccupied or too standoffish to give Anh any attention. From what he noticed, Kare’s job was about fixing things that needed repair or sharpening things that needed to be sharpened. Overall, maintenance of the camp.
The wounded were improving. Somewhat. They spent most of the time sleeping and it seemed like a healthy sleep, as much as Anh could tell. By the same metric, it seemed Fritjof was getting better, while Magni… wasn’t. Then again, one of them was more seriously wounded than the other, so it was expected.
Brandt approached Anh on the evening of the second day, just after the tanai checked upon his patients.
-* Well, well. It seems our employer slash benefactor has returned* - scoffed Greoo
-* Are you dismayed or excited?* - joked Thernohh
-* A little bit of both. Mostly curious though, I wonder what he wants.*
-” Mr Trawins, do you have a moment?” – Nord said, but in a manner conveying the question being just a courtesy. He didn’t wait for an answer or acknowledgment before continuing - “We will be raiding the nanoforge compound tomorrow, after bivset.”
-” We?” - sarcastically snickered Anh while wiggling an eyebrow nervously expecting an answer he didn’t like -” I certainly hope it is your newly found sense of grandeur speaking. You don’t include me in the process, do you?”
-” I do. In a way.”
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-* Which makes me worried* - commented Birdekk
-* You always worry.*- shrugged Tow -* He certainly doesn’t expect us to participate in combat. Ask him what he means.*
-” How?” - Anh relayed Tow’s query
-” I assume there are going to be both wounded and dead. I want you to be near us and once we’re done, help whoever needs it. Myself included.”
-” I can’t raise the dead.” - defensively said Anh -” I’m not suggesting you’ll do the dying thing, of course.”- he added quickly.
-* I think he knows, on both accounts.*- sighed Greoo
-” But you can at least patch the wounded.” - Brandt mused – “These two in there seem to be doing fine?”
-” Excuse my lack of understanding of battle tactics.” - Anh titled his head - ”But you want to surprise them. Right?”
-” Yes. Obviously.”
-” So why do you assume such a grim outcome?”
-* We’re not going to weasel ourselves out of it, Anh *- Tow stated casually
-* He needs to!*- sternly announced Birdekk -*I don’t want us to be anywhere near violence.*
-” Because what I have here are thirteen warriors, barely armored and armed no better than the common crime element. We are going against seasoned church special forces and, possibly, a battle hexergist. Surprise or not, this is going to be tough.”
-* He does have a point *- said Tow.
-* The more the reason to not get involved. *- affirmed Birdekk, although a little less surely than before.
-* The more the reason he will insist *- countered Tow
-* If there is no getting out of this *- sighed Birdekk -*We must ensure there being an escape route. If things go to the Rockies.*-
-” Do you think it ethical to let these men against these templars? You just made it sound like a suicide mission.”
-” My opinion doesn’t matter” - replied Brandt, but there was a smidgen of worry in his voice - “They would have attacked anyway. We two are their best chance of getting it through with minimal losses.”
-” Now you make it sound even more like a suicide mission.”
Brandt sighed a little.
-” Alternatively, you are attempting to elicit some sort of sympathy for these people. Which, honestly, after the recent weeks, I’m in a short supply.”
-” You helped one of them…”
-” That was a different circumstance!” - Anh’s earlobes shook violently, although his voice didn’t convey a matching concern – “Here they, and you with them, are prancing into the maw of the beast of their volition.”
* I think he noticed you being insincere.* - stated Greoo. Almost in the same moment, Brandt sighed silently in resignation.
-” Listen, if these were just your regular lowlanders, I would agree…” - Nord hung his voice for a moment -”...probably. These men are anything but regular. Do you know where Strettar’s last name comes from?”
-” No, obviously not.”
-” He was born into slavery and all his life he was just ‘number four’ for his owners. From what he told me, he went against his masters to rescue a group of wildmen from an exemplary execution. Escaped with them, saved over fifty people, and was accepted into their tribe.”- Brandt paused for a drip to collect his thoughts - ” Regardless, he was a scribe in a major actosia of the Order. Copyist, like you. He self-taught himself to read at his work.”
-” Impressive” - Abh blinked - ”I don’t see the relevance.”
-” Ever since he escaped, he organizes raiding parties like this one. Out of pure vengeance. He teaches them Maargardian tactics. This camp...” - hoomin made a sweeping move with his head - “...is run exactly like the Order runs its war camp. Everyone has a role, everyone has a schedule. You might not have noticed, but these men … are armed well, with steel swords of a recent issue, steel arrowheads, or axes. Armor is lacking, but neither Ordos are armored. All the equipment is stolen or fought for over the Maargard’s western reaches. Each piece comes from some Church or Order’s armory. Judging from what Strettar has told me, they are also trained by the same book as our opposition is. These men are as elite as wildmen could ever be. ”
-” Didn’t you, a few moments ago, said they are armed no better than common criminals” – tanai bit sourly.
A flash of unease showed briefly on Brandt’s face.
-” Sheridawn’s criminal element is very well armed, in all honesty. But I downplayed them a little, admittedly, to evoke a little sympathy.”
-” But now it is all honesty?” - Anh continued in the same vein as previously - “fingers crossed and the other nonsense you, hoomin, do?”
-” Yes.” - Brandt rubbed his brow, troubled – “ My intention, and I’m being absolutely honest, is to get access to the compound. For both of us.”
-” So, are you saying, in this roundabout way, that they, we are not at a disadvantage?”
-* Well, he’s not succeeding...*- murmured Birdekk
-” No, we aren’t. Not at face value.” - Brandt said after a moment - “ But make no mistake, It is going to be a tough fight. But I would not drag you, or me, for that matter, into a hopeless one.”
-* See. Nothing to worry about.*- Thernohh jeered
-* And what was that supposed to mean?*- Greoo shot back
-* It means that we are getting drafted into a war*- the answer came almost instantly
-* We kind of drafted ourselves*- casually added Tow -*a few weeks ago, really*
-* So we did. It hasn’t become a wise idea since then.*- the youngest continued -*Arguably, it became much more dangerous. No. Indubitably so.*
-* I am aware. We are all aware. I’ll ask for details.*- said Anh assuredly
-* So you made up your mind?*- Birdekk didn’t hide his disappointment -*You can always decline!*
-* …and lose the access to the nanoforge… place?*
None of the kin wanted to comment any further.
-” Mr Zerster. What precisely do you want from me?” - finally said Anh.
-” As I said.”- Brandt scratched his nose -” You will stay behind, and aid the wounded once we’re done. Speaking of which, Strettar asked me to see how your patients are doing.”
Anh tilted his head a little, then stretched his hand to invite the hoomin to the hut he just left. Brandt entered, and the tanai followed right behind.