Egosum and his companions watched the beastmen disperse back into the village and get right back to work like they hadn’t just threatened their lives. He looked back to his friends and then to the village before hopping along to investigate.
He balked at something every few paces they traveled.
The kids had a variety of poorly made and cobbled-together toys that they played with like they were the most fun things they had ever seen. Dolls missing arms, sticks with strings tied to them, and cooking instruments made up the majority of their fun.
It was depressing compared to where he grew up. He had the best of the best. The best education, the best food, and the best protection that a literal act of a god was required had to breach.
These kids had nothing, yet they enjoyed themselves. It almost made him regret not having an actual tadpole-hood where he got to swim around in fear for his life.
‘Ooh, the horrors of a wild birth would have been exhilarating.’
He shook himself out of his musings and looked around the clearing for anything else of interest. The leather tents were rickety and tattered while the paths they traveled were obviously poorly cared for due to more pressing concerns.
The picture painted itself before them.
This village lived in the most intense poverty he had ever seen. The longer he looked, the more depressing the sights became. The children were just barely above the point of showing ribs while the adults were in various stages of starvation.
The natural-born hunters that beastmen were purported to be, killing human livestock and running wild in the forests were far from what they saw before them right now.
It was blatantly obvious the village was barely subsisting as is.
“What do you think about helping these people out?” He turned his head slightly to look at Cinera.
“I am along for the ride. If that is what you want to do, I'm cool with it.” Her nonchalant answer threw him for a look. Had she not seen the poor state everyone was in? Sure, they hid it well, but fur could only hide so many bones.
He turned to the other side and saw Coyotl looking straight at him with the same look he had given him when he was weighing whether he should help the elves or not.
“If you can understand this complex issue, you are definitely capable of talking. You don’t need to hide it.” He tried to pry some words from his silent friend only for the frog’s eyes to glaze over.
“I just can’t with you. Whatever. It is decided. We will help out the beastmen.” The dramatic and intense statement landed flat as his friends just looked around the village and the beastmen continued their activities.
“May the goddesses quell my frustration.”
-
The trio made their way to the matriarch's tent with the help of a few villagers who pointed it out. It was no better looking than the rest of the tents. It might have been even smaller than a few of the others.
Egosum approached the flap and called out to the occupant.
“Hello, it is Egosum. I would like to speak about something pertaining to the village if you don’t mind.”
The old woman's head stuck out of the tent and looked down at the large toad.
“Great, a toad that is gonna tell us how to live.” Her deadpan speech floored him as he thought of what to say in retort.
“Come on in.” She pulled the flap back and allowed them entry despite the harsh welcome.
The tent was filled with a variety of strange and surprising items. Stacks of scrolls yellowed by time, various repair tools, woodworking implements, and children's toys in disrepair littered the ground in disarray.
Thunkar, the boy who had so kindly led them to the village sat in a corner fiddling with some small object, turned to them as they were led inside.
“Oh! Hi Egosum and friends.” His dopey and chipper mood broke the toad free from the uneasy tone Morgal had set.
“My name is Cinera and he is Coyotl. You should try to remember all of our names.” Her preachy tone earned her a derisive look as he turned back to the things he was messing with.
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“He is obviously the leader. It is just proper etiquette to greet him with the most importance.” His voice a quiet grumble in the corner.
Morgal clapped her hands together to attract their attention back to her and sat cross-legged on the ground a little deeper in the tent. The trio advanced and made themselves comfortable for the talk.
“So you've seen the squaller we live in. What did you want to lecture me about?” She started off the talks with a sour tone and stared them down as she waited for an answer.
“Um, we just wanted to know if there was some way we could help out while we are here.” He spoke up after realizing Cinera refused the opportunity.
The old woman took on a confused look as he presented his offer.
“Why?”
“Well, my friend Coyotl felt like it would be a good deed to help you guys out.” He turned his head to the side where his silent friend sat.
“What do you get out of it other than some nebulous and useless good deed?” She appeared as skeptical as a person could be.
“Ah yes. You see, we really don’t have anything to do right now so I have decided to go with the flow of fate recently given my current predicament. Your grandson just so happened to lead us here so I feel like there would be some mutual benefits to be gained if we stay around for a bit if you didn’t mind.”
She watched him speak before turning her vision down to the ground in thought. She looked like she wanted to speak several times before finally deciding on what to say.
“We don’t need the help. I don't care if you loiter around for a bit as long as you don’t do anything stupid, but we can make it on our own.” She shot them down and began to stand up to show them the way out when they were interrupted.
“Granny! You can’t let pride turn away a helpful hand. My dad said that all the time to me. Did you not teach him that very sentiment?” Thunkar stood up and approached his grandmother with strangely eloquent and impactful words, almost as if he had been practicing them for this very day.
She seemed taken aback by the kid before falling into deep thought. After a bit of time, she raised her hand up, causing the boy to flinch back slightly. She patted the kid's head gently as she sighed.
“You brat. Using my own words against me like that is unfair. Using your dad's memory to boot. You must get it from your mom. Fine, let me tell you a story of how we ended up in this shit hole of a village.” She sat back down and made herself comfortable.
“It wasn’t always like this. We have lived here for a few years after we were pushed out of our original ancestral hunting grounds. The twilight forest you see around you is only a glimmer of what it once was.”
“The trees were old and thick, blocking out the light from the forest floor with perfection. It was a nightmare for prey and a paradise for predators. The air we breathed gave us boundless strength as night and kept us invigorated during the day.”
“We numbered in the low hundreds. It was as it always should be. The hunters brought back food every day to the village and the wives and kids got to eat. My son and his wife led us well for years. He became the head hunter and she was the de facto matriarch of the village.”
“They were the golden years. This could only last so long. The forest maintains an ebb and flow as the predators fall and the prey surges. We were no exception. The hunters noticed one day that large stumps began to replace the trees that protected us. The smell of humans pervaded the air.”
“They came during the day when we rarely hunted and slowly hacked away at the lifeblood of the forest. Small clashes sent them packing only for them to return in force for the wood they held so dear.”
“Eventually, they had enough of the interruptions on their logging. They came with a literal army during the peak of the day. They chopped through the forest and torched the canopy, weakening all of the hunters that rushed the meet their provocations.”
“They got slaughtered each time they clashed. Ten human deaths to each of ours meant little to them when they had thousands. Over time, we had no other options but to let them chop away or lose all the hunters remaining.”
“A few more years of cutting and they finally let their greed spell our downfall. They were only a few miles away from the village and the prey had begun to dry up as hunting became harder and the forest was disappearing.”
“The army came back and launched a surprise attack on us from the air with strange flying machines to drop burning water on our heads and homes. We couldn't fight back. My son and daughter-in-law tried, and they paid the ultimate price for it.”
She shuttered as she retold the worst of her past memories.
“The survivors moved into the younger forest as far from the human kingdom as they could. The armies had bigger issues to deal with, so they left us alone, leaving us to deal with the armed loggers now.”
“The smaller numbers convinced the hunters that they could win, but they were mistaken. The young trees around us don’t offer the same strength they once did. Light seeps in, weakening us, yet they don't care. They just want revenge, even if it costs their families everything.”
“That leads us to now. The women, the children, and the maimed are all that are left in the village. Sometimes the hunters will come back and leave food, but that has become more and more rare as they become increasingly preoccupied by their revenge.”
“Now we are just stuck here without the skills to hunt for ourselves or the strength to even try. It is a vicious cycle with no way out for us. It’s going to be a slow and painful death for everyone you see.”
“We are tired and starving. All we are trying to do now is hold off for as long as possible and hopefully the hunters will see some reason and come back to help their families.”
“I don’t understand. Why are they so determined to fight the humans if you guys are stuck here starving?”
Thunkar growled at the question as Morgal patted his leg to calm him.
“It is Punishe. He was the second in command and often challenged my son for control. Now that his is gone, Punishe took over and is refusing to give up. The hunters are too connected by the pack dynamics to just leave him and return to their families.”
“It is torture for us and it is torturing those hunters under him.” She sighed deeper than before and looked down to the ground. “That is pretty much everything. We are just a bunch of pitiful dogs.”
The kid grabbed his grandmother's hand to console her as she leaked a tear.