“No, I didn’t find him in the forest. This is the leader of the group who saved me. Chen…Chen is likely dead…”
The joy of Chao’s return was quite literally sucked out of the group as the weight of his words sunk in. I watched on as shoulder’s dropped, and a few pairs of eyes appeared on the brink of tears. Chao himself seemed like he was ready to break down again, but he managed to hold on. I’m sure he would much rather retreat to somewhere quiet and private to mourn properly.
Though this Tutorial is not making this like that easy.
The sadness in the air was left to permeate for a few moments before someone new finally spoke up. It was a man. He was around 5’10, dark skin, and typical brush cut. He appeared to be in his 30s but who’s to say. A sword hung at his hip as he made himself known at the front of the crowd.
“I’m sorry about your loss Chao, Chen was a good guy. Are you able to tell us what happened ? And give a proper introduction to your friend here?”
He seemed genuine enough, and apart from a few wary glances in my direction neither him nor anyone else has approached or said anything to me directly. I wonder why.
“I’m fine Nate, I’m fine. Let’s find somewhere else to talk.”
And with that the crown slowly began dispersing and Chao gestured me to follow as they moved towards the clearing where the lone campfire in the camp was built. It was a short walk, but instead of sitting by the campfire like I assumed, I was led inside one of the nearby tents.
It was surprisingly spacious on the inside. It was enough for 3 grown men to be seated fairly comfortably. Not that we could get up and move around freely, but just enough room to set down on the ground and not push our elbows into whoever was next to us.
The man I didn’t know started talking first.
“So, I didn’t catch your name.”
“Raizen.”
“Rai what?”
“Raizen.”
“Raizen…got it. I’m Nate, nice to meet you Raizen.”
He stuck out his hand for a handshake and I simply returned it. He tried to exert a little force in the handshake. It wasn’t enough to hurt someone weaker than him, but it would’ve been to display a small bit of superiority in the meeting. This was fairly normal. A man’s handshake should be firm. Or at least that’s what my dad used to say.
Anyway, I was bit firmer. Again, not enough to hurt him or cause any discomfort, but enough to show I was likely stronger.
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He didn’t show any reaction to it.
We pulled back and he continued, only this time he was looking at Chao.
“So, what exactly happened out there?”
Chao then explained the everything that I’d already heard up until the point where he was rescued by Sean. He then looked to me after that, it took me an awkward second to realize he was asking if it was alright to talk about what came next. Or maybe he was just asking me to take over in explaining? I don’t know, but I decided to just take over anyway before the awkwardness continued.
“From there, one of our people found him unconscious and heavily wounded. He patched him as best as he could with what he had, and then dragged him back to our Outpost.”
“Outpost? You mean your camp?”
“Let me finish first, there’s a lot to say.”
He nodded to show he understood.
From there I went on to explain everything that transpired after that. From paying the entry fee, to taking care of Chao, to the defense of the Outpost. I also went on and just talked about a few features of the Outpost for good measure. Like the shop, the alchemist, and the blacksmith.
He asked many questions.
From our defenses, to the beacon, to sleeping arrangements, to aliens, to space, to who was in the charge and a few other things. I answered all of them to the best of my ability. The question about being in charge was a bit weird for me. I kind of considered myself a leading figure in the Outpost but it has never ever actually been stated or agreed upon that I was in charge of anything. So, I simply told him I was the strongest in the Outpost.
Eventually all of those questions boiled down to one all important question.
“I apologize for doing this when we literally just met, but would it be possible for my group to move there as well? Based on what you’ve described, these houses don’t have enough space for all of us, but we will be fine just being able to move our tents inside the Outpost. My brothers and I will defer to you, so you won’t have to worry about that, we aren’t leaders by trade. We just adapted faster and then people started depending on us and things just worked out that way.
“So please, even if its just women and children, please allow some of them to go back with you.”
I was a little moved by his speech. I didn’t have the heart to interrupt him as he spoke since I was going to offer to have them move into the Outpost anyway. The only reason I wouldn’t have invited them is if they seemed like bad people, but everything seemed mostly fine for now, and this Nate fellow had a good head on his shoulders.
And I kind of figured it out earlier, but this was one of the brothers that Chao said was in charge of the Outpost. I just hope the other brothers are as reasonable. No that I doubted that, but hey being brothers didn’t mean being exactly one another.
Anyway…
“Of course you all could move to the Outpost. We can work out sleeping arrangements and all of that later, but the key is to get to the Outpost. Though I won’t be able to take anyone back with me today. I have to get back before the morning. The current stage ends in a couple of days, and on that last day the forest should be safe. I will come back for you all at that time. Be prepared.”
Nate was a little disappointed that no one would be able to travel with me to the Outpost but didn’t dwell on it too much. He accepted and digested everything I said and assured me that they’d be ready at the appointed time.
We didn’t have much to discuss after that.
I shook his hands again, and did the same with Chao, and then they walked with me to the edge of the camp. I wasn’t one for long goodbyes, so I simply left after that.
I didn’t have to mind my speed, and I remembered the way back to the Outpost, so I could run a lot faster on my way back.
Needless to say, it only took a couple hours for me to cover the entire journey back to the Outpost.
I made my way to bed thinking it was going to be an interesting couple of days.