Goran

The young people looked up to me with an understandable mixture of curiosity, fear, and hostility, though those emotions were hardly evenly distributed. The most hostile of them was the second oldest female. A lithe body, lined with whipcord strong muscles, led up to sharp and well-defined facial features. With a strong chin, high cheekbones, and piercing silver eyes all framed by midnight-black hair, she was the type of women humans would call “handsome” and she glared daggers at me over a two-handed saber pointed right in my direction.

Next to her was a man who was obviously her brother. They could have easily been twins, though something about him spoke of a slightly more youthful and friendly attitude. He differed from his sister with an even taller and much wider frame. His handsome face was outlined with the beginnings of a beard and his substantial muscles were discernable, despite his multiple layers of clothing. He was clearly built from the outlines of a fighter, even considering the fact that he had some more room to grow, and his own silver eyes studied me with a strong combination of a warrior’s wariness and a youth’s curiosity.

Just behind him was another agile looking young woman, though she was shorter than either of her fighter compatriots. Fiery red hair and curious green eyes bedecked an unusually pretty face and stared at me with an understandable mixture of confusion, fear, and inquisitiveness. She, alongside her two compatriots, had been harvesting the nearby corpses of Lorai, presumably for their flammable neck glands and their meat. A wise decision, given that the Lorai were a rare delicacy among his people and the fluid within their glands made for a valuable fuel.

I swept my gaze over the rest of the party and took careful note of the others before I got any closer. There were two children, one an infant and one a half decade from coming of age. They gazed at him with naked fear, the infant snuggling in the arms of a woman while the little girl hid behind a man. The man was tall and thin, his wiry frame lacking the muscle of a true fighter but still giving off the impression of some training. He examined me with calm and curious emerald eyes peeking out from behind unruly brown hair and gaunt yet determined facial features. The woman holding the child was the picture of feminine beauty, a rival to the redhead though without the redhead’s athletic body. She was all soft curves, with a heart shaped face, pleasant chestnut colored hair, and sparkling blue eyes. Though when she looked at me her eyes mostly sparkled with trepidation and concern.

The final member of this strange party was a shorter man, even more so than the women, with a small round head and short cropped brown hair all over a lean body that was clearly trained for endurance rather than speed or strength. The only remarkable thing about him was his warm brown eyes that shone with both interest and mischief as they met my gaze.

I looked back at the fighters, who were clearly still apprehensive despite my intention to indicate harmlessness, and greeted them once more:

“Men of unknown origin, I offer you greetings. I assure you; I mean you no harm. Please refrain from unnecessary hostilities.”

To my relief, they began to lower their weapons. But the suspicion and hostility were harder to quell, which was still a little concerning. I didn’t want to hurt them, after all. They remained mute for a while longer, before I noticed the oldest male gather his courage and break the tension between us:

“Greetings, ah, Goran of the Maegar people. I believe that is what you said your name was, correct? My name is Victor, and this is my family. Hope, Lynn, Eithan, Alfred, Julia, Ann, and Stephen.”

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He indicated each individual as he said their names, and I felt my eyebrows raise a little. He bore some resemblance to Julia and Eithan but looked quite different from the others. Even if the older woman was his wife, the others likely weren’t related by blood. A close friend group, perhaps? Before I could ask, he continued:

“We are travelers who have been displaced from our home and search for a new one. Would you happen to know a land that we could live in? A place that would take us in? I can assure you; we would work to earn our keep.”

Now things were growing even more interesting. I looked to my right at the wall of thick fog in the distance, and back at the strange travelers, and raised my eyebrows even further. I knew it was rude to answer a question with a question, but…:

“Apologies, but where did you come from? The east, perhaps?”

He shook his head in the negative:

“We came from the south, mighty stranger. From within the Mist.”

Now that was truly bizarre. I had no concept of how that could possibly be true, but it would be rude to continue to interrogate them while ignoring their first question. I pondered it a bit, before answering that:

“To the west lies nothing but badlands and desert. To the east, you will find more mountains and badlands, though eventually you would come to the eastern steppes if you chose not to cross the mountains. That is a long journey, however, and full of peril. Crossing the mountains is probably the fastest route to a pleasant place for humans, given that the free northern kingdoms are surprisingly temperate. Especially once spring rolls around. But these mountains teem with Harai and other predators, so much so that braving a crossing as you are now would be suicide.”

I paused for a bit, to give them some time to digest that information, before continuing:

“If you had to choose, east would probably be your best opportunity currently, especially if you have plenty of food. But that is a difficult and long road to travel.”

I saw the silent debate that went on in their heads and waited patiently for them to respond. I was surprised, though, when the little one who had been hiding behind Victor came out from hiding and began to cautiously approach me. If I remembered her name correctly, it was Hope who slowly sidled up to me as her elders thought furiously about what I had told them. Stopping a fair distance away from me, she still needed to look up to look me in the eyes, which I was surprised she did. I was even more surprised when she finally spoke:

“Where do you live, mister?”

I smiled at her and knelt to get on her level. I noticed out of the corner of my eyes that several of the others blanched when they saw her approach me but none of them stopped her. The silver eyed lady, Ann, looked like she wanted to but was stopped by her brother. I responded:

“My people live deep within the mountains. We are well defended from our enemies and the hostilities of nature. Only our friends know exactly where, however.”

She looked at me, still slightly frightened though increasingly hopeful:

“Are we friends?”

I felt the others around her hold their breath in surprise at her question. I felt more than a little surprise myself. Perhaps the young lady didn’t fully know what she was asking for here. Admittedly, it would solve their problems. If I allowed them into my ancestral home, they would at least have a place to rest for a while. It could never be a second home, as they would forever be outsiders. But if they stayed for a while, and waited for spring, it would make crossing the mountains much easier. The Harai were not as active in springtime and the mountains were more hospitable.

But that was still a lot to ask. We Maegar had thrived in secrecy and the fewer that knew about the location of our home, the safer we would be. While these young folk seemed nice enough, you could never know for certain. I looked around at all of them. Most of them now just looked at me with curiosity and hope, fear and hostility forgotten. Ann still seemed a bit wary of me, but even she glanced at me with curious eyes now. I could tell that they had been through a lot, and I felt an old ache in my heart as certain memories surfaced.

It wasn’t wise. Even if I had the technical authority to make these decisions in emergency situations, the other Elders would be irritated at me for not consulting them first. Also, these could well be wolves in sheep’s clothing. I wouldn’t be able to really trust them until I got their story about how they got here. I studied them again and sighed before looking back at Hope:

“We can be, little one. We can be.”