Chapter 37

Welcome

Breaking down our campsite goes smoothly. Ayre has no problem taking down her own tent, though she compliments the ease with which my knots come undone without sacrificing their strength, and I promise to teach her how to tie a trucker's knot for herself some other time.

I get her attention just before I give the central pole of my lean-to a tug, then relish in the dirty look she gives me as it all neatly collapses.

By the time we've got all of our stuff together and I've extinguished and collapsed the fire pit into a low mound of wet, runny ash and mud, morning light well illuminates the glade.

Ayre's gaze passes over it all as we give it one last once-over to make sure we're not missing anything. "It seems a waste to go to so much work making all of that with your own hands, and then just collapsing and removing it all. Wouldn't it be better to leave it for someone else?"

"That would actually be rude to the next person," I counter. "What if they came all the way out here to enjoy the beauty of nature, and found a dirty, old campsite marring it, instead? No, respecting the wilderness means leaving it the way you found it, as near as possible."

I take a few steps away, peering into the trees and then up at the direction of the sun to make sure I know which direction will take us to the road. "Besides, no telling how long it'll be before someone makes camp here again. What if they used what we left, but it's decayed enough that it collapses on them?"

She goes silent at that, considering the idea, and I'm about to start the two-hour trek still ahead of us back to Dabun Village.

"KYUU!"

A battle cry erupts from the underbrush an instant before a gray blur the size of a small dog crashes into the side of my head and smashes me into the forest floor.

Before I can even re-register which direction is up, a heavy weight lands on my back, knocking the air right back out of me again.

"It's a rabbit!" Ayre squeals in shock, and I'm pretty sure the sounds I'm hearing are her scrabbling for her unstrung bow. "Is it corrupted, too?!"

"That depends," I grunt into the dirt. "Is it glaring at me?"

The scrabbling pauses. "... Um ... Yes? Maybe? Are rabbits capable of glaring?"

I just groan. "That rabbit's not corrupted, it's Kyuuga." I get my arms under me and shove. "Giddoff, you long-eared rat!"

Again, before I can get a proper shove off, he uses me for a spring board and pushes me into the dirt. By the time I get myself sitting upright again and turning after him, I expect to see his chicken tail disappearing into the underbrush.

Instead, I'm surprised to see him sticking his head out from behind Ayre's legs.

And I don't care what anybody says about bunny face muscles, that overgrown throw rug is glaring at me.

I chance a glance at my health and freeze. Nevermind ten, he took out thirty-seven hit points with that one attack! How did his power jump so freaking much?!

The number taps something in my head and I furrow my brow as I run it down. Wait, did he do a sixth of my total again?! Is he doing it with that much accuracy deliberately, or is it some sort of set damage skill?

I'm not actually sure which is more horrifying, the idea that this rabbit might have the precision of a mathematical surgeon, or that he's got a skill for kicking the crap out of people without killing them and clearly knows it.

I shove that ball of knots off to the side to focus on my anger. "What's the big idea?! I thought you wanted me gone! Here I am out of town for one day, and--"

He interrupts me with a rapid-fire thumping so fierce that Ayre has to step away to avoid the thrown soil getting kicked up into the air.

"Oh," I blink, my voice dropping back to calm more from surprise than anything else. "That's what you're upset about."

"Heroes can even communicate with monsters?!" Ayre asks in surprise, and I give her another hand wiggle.

"Kyuuga's a lot smarter than the average rabbit," I admit, "and even then, it's not so much communication as it is getting gists and impressions."

"Is he some sort of rare subspecies?"

"Same species," I correct, "I Identified him, myself. But rare? I haven't seen any other horned rabbits with a class, so I'd say that probably qualifies."

"He WHAT?!"

Any response to Ayre's disbelieving freak-out is cut short by another indignant stomp from Kyuuga, who clearly does not give a damn about the elf's existential crisis, and I turn my attention back to him.

"I don't have the stuff out here," I tell him. "It may not mean much to you, but we're two hours out from town, and I am not hauling around my entire kitchen for one spoiled rabbit!"

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He starts to raise his foot again and I hold my hand out for him to pause - a little surprisingly, he does so.

"We were out here on important business in the protection of Dabun Village, and it won't be the last time." I cup my chin in consideration. "You like Yorin. If you're so insistent on a daily tribute whether I'm available or not, I can teach her how to make it."

That sets off another patter of thumps, a hop, and a couple more punctuated thumps.

"Sure, I can make you some when we get back. After we report to Yorin, you know that comes first." He hops a step away when I kneel down to him, but I ignore it and slip my bag off of my shoulder. "In fact, I was going to tell you when we got back to town, but since you're here ..."

I reach into the backpack as I speak. "There was a rat nest that got turned to an undead infestation further in. We destroyed them all, it's clean and safe now, but ..."

I pull the horn of the undead rabbit out and hold it toward him. "I'm afraid they got one of yours before we ever got there."

He understands me, I know, or at least what the horn means, because his whole demeanor changes. The upright and aggressively alert ears slump, followed by his whole posture. He takes a tentative hop toward me, then another until he's within reach of the horn, then with a quick motion, he gets it in his mouth and pulls it out of my hand.

I can't shake the feeling he has a decent idea which rabbit it's from. Maybe he'd even known one of the wild ones had gone missing?

"Hey," I say to him with some forced good mood in my tone as I shoulder my bag again. "You wanna ride back to town? I'm sure you could make it faster than us two-legs, but nothing's saying you can't take it easy!"

He genuinely looks like he's thinking it over, little nose twitching. But then he shifts and he starts looking between me and the elf.

"Ah, Ayre, watch-- !" I start when I see him start butt-scooting.

"Ack!" I'm too late and she lets out a cry of surprise as the rabbit clears her entire height in one jump, lands half of his feet on one of her shoulders, and then flips about to land atop her bag before she can topple.

Kyuuga looks at me from his chosen roost with a mocking gaze, but I just chuckle.

"Have it your way, Kyuuga. I'm certainly not going to criticize you for it."

* * *

The village gates are closed when we reach Dabun, and Ayre, Kyuuga and I all pause at the sight, looking between each other for an explanation. I obviously can't say for certain that they've not been closed while I was up in the woods, but I doubt it. I've certainly never seen them shut.

We crane our heads around, searching for any signs of a guard, and even try shouting, but there's no response.

"Well, there's no signs of attack from this side," I note, "and I don't smell any fires. No more smoke than normal, either. They could be sheltering for some reason and the cause just hasn't arrived yet."

I recall the mayor mentioning bandits and giants in years past attacking from the forest on the opposite side of the village, but I can't really picture them being the cause. Not only were both of those wiped out by Xuhitana personally, I can't see the village deliberately blocking their one escape route in the other direction.

"... Do we try to open them, ourselves?" Ayre ventures tentatively.

I remember the gates being jointed outward, the better to resist being pushed inward, and their arcs of movement are cleared and cobbled to ensure their ease of opening from the inside.

"We can try," I say, and start forward.

There's nowhere to get a grip, so I just grab a log near the seam between the two doors as tightly as I can and pull. When that doesn't make any progress, Ayre moves to help, but I wave her off.

"Don't bother," I tell her. "It's barred, figured as much."

"Then how do we get in?"

"Well," I reason, "we could walk around and come in from the estate." That's no small walk, though, and they've surely barricaded that, as well. I block the sun from my eyes with my hand as I look up at the top of the palisade, eyeballing its height. "How are you at climbing?"

Both the elf and the rabbit look at me like I'm talking crazy. "Up a solid vertical wall?!"

"Alright," I answer, removing my backpack again, "you two stay here until I get the gates open."

I ignore their stares as I pull out and uncoil my rope, then pull out my hatchet and tie the rope around the middle so they connect in a T junction.

Another mental note, buy a proper grappling hook.

I stand and give the rope a few experimental swings to test the weight, then step toward the wall, eyeing its pointed peak. I begin spinning the rope faster and faster, building up the momentum while trying to keep it from getting so high it might fly away from me entirely.

I release it, and the hatchet sails over the wall. I promptly clamp down on the rope sliding away between my hands and tug to kill its momentum, then begin retracting it until I feel the hatchet catch between the spikes. I give another tug and feel the hatchet turn, likely going flush against the spikes instead of catching on the back.

Good, that'll help keep it from slipping.

I step up to the wall and wrap the rope around the outside of my body so it doesn't get tangled up in anything, place one boot against the wall, and start scaling.

As I go, I twist the rope around my forearms so that, should I slip, I can only go so far. It's not necessary, though, as I make the climb without difficulty, and soon pull myself atop the wall.

The main street of Dabun is completely empty. As high up as I am, I can't see a single soul.

I consider jumping down, since I really don't want to leave my hatchet up here, but a moment of looking shows a guard's stand not far to my side. Walking on top of these spikes is absolutely out of the question, but I toss the hatchet down to the inside of the wall, then drop myself while gripping the spaces between the spikes so that I'm hugging up against the top of the interior wall.

I probably look ridiculous as I shimmy my way over until I can get a foot onto the stand, but climbing down the ladder is far easier than jumping would have been.

I recoil my rope and untie the hatchet to stick it in my belt for now while the rope goes diagonally over my shoulder, and head over to the bar.

The gates' locking mechanism is a massive wooden beam, easily two Remmi's long as it stretches nearly the width of both gates. It's got a few grab bars bolted onto its square body, intended to allow for two to three soldiers to easily and quickly lift it into place.

Despite my raised strength, I'm a far cry from two to three soldiers, even if they didn't also possess enhanced physiques. Leuke could probably flip the thing out of there with one hand. Heck, he could probably just shatter the whole freaking assembly with that ridiculously massive sword of his. But I'm not Leuke, either.

Standing next to it, I immediately feel regret for not making Ayre follow me over, but I get under it and start shoving, anyway. With a lot of grunting and groaning, I get one end clear and manage to walk it enough so its own weight takes it off the other side.

I know it's stored on a mount under a one-walled shelter off to one side, but that's not happening under my own power. Instead, I let it drop off of my back and start pushing the gates open.

"Wow, you actually did it," Ayre cheers with a little hop as I come over and pick my backpack up again. "And you made it look so easy!"

"Then I'm glad you couldn't see me struggling with the bar," I only half-joke, and she gives it a wide-eyed stare as we step over it. "And it would've been a lot harder if there were any guards there to shoot at me or throw my rope off."

I'm actually considering if we should shut and bolt it again, as we step into the actual city, but before I can come to a decision, every door around us is thrown open and a wave of villagers come pouring out, making such a ruckus that not one of us can make sense of what's happening.