-A Few hours later-
Location: Hidden pen
In the depths of night, I walk out to Glórmthai's hiding place, and as I do I hear the sounds of a few men drinking inside the tavern. Looking through an opening in the horse, I see inside where my dad is comforting Andrew and others who have their property destroyed.
“What a softy,” I say with a smile.
Walking over to Glórmthai, I hug him and I think back to the events that played out this morning and all I can feel in response to them all is anger, so fierce and so intense that I feel like screaming.
“Glory, did Dad really do the right thing because right now more than ever I want to just go out there and crush all of those bastards with my fists.
Glory simply neighs in response then licks my head, and I say, “I guess this is your way of telling me to calm down.”
Looking at Glory, I say, “You usually don’t like to sit down, but you're doing so right now. What is going on?”
Looking past Glory's head, and flowing hair I see one of the two boys from earlier lying on Glory's back. Enraged, I shouted, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!”
But he doesn’t even react and just scratches his head. Standing up, I walk over to the front of his body and say, “You think you can just walk in here, and start doing whatever you want. This is why I hate all you rich and entitled bastards that come around here.”
Cracking my knuckles, I say, “But it is great that I do not have an excuse to relieve some stress.” With a big step forward, I swing my fist directly at his head, but before it lands a hand stops me from hitting it.
“If you attack my benefactor, you’re the one who will be taking damage so I would opt against that.”
Looking to my right, I see the other boy still covered in robes holding my arm. Angered, I say, “What do you mean by that?”
He then points to his cheek, and I notice from my cheek there is a medium-sized cut that is bleeding. Shocked, I say, “What happened?”
“This one here is selective with those he allows to interact with him, so you should be careful in the future.” As he says this he rips off a piece of his cloth and uses it to cover my wound.
Feeling fear from these two, I try my best to hide it and say, “I see, but he is making Glory here feel uncomfortable so he has to be moved one way or another, so how am I going to go about it?”
“Don’t worry I can happen it.”
With his right fist, he backhands the boy right off of Glory and onto the floor, and says, “It is as simple as that.”
Slight worried, I say, “Are you allowed to do that to him, considering he is your benefactor?”
“Oh yes I am perfectly allowed to stop him from committing disruptive behaviour, also if you catch him doing something idiotic like this again just report him to me, I am always looking for excuses to hit him,” he says with a very cheery expression.
“I see.” I have a feeling that asking questions about this will lead to nothing good, so I will just move on.
Moving over to Glory, I stand her up and say, “Are you a good girl?”
“This is a rather rare wonderbeast to have, are you sure it is okay to let outsiders like us see it?”
Angered, I say, “That’s why it was hidden, but then two idiots decided to sneak into our hideout!”
“I see, I am sorry?”
“Whatever, I can’t do anything about it now, and so far you haven’t given me a reason to be too suspicious of you yet.”
“Really, that makes me rather happy.”
“Don’t let it make you too happy, I still don’t trust someone whose face, and name I don’t know.”
“How disappointing, but depending on whether my theory is correct, or not you might learn those two things rather soon.”
“What are you talking about?”
Petting Glory, he says, “I have already answered one of your questions today, so it would be nice if you were to answer one of mine.”
“You really are annoying.”
As he touches Glory, he says, “It is strange for a fir bolg decedents like this village to own such a wonderbeast.”
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I click my tongue and say, “Spoken like a member of a warrior family. I knew from those robes that you were one of them.”
Looking up to the sky, he says, “Warrior families, those who fought against the humans to save our people, and fir bolg families, those who were turned into slaves and made into laughing stocks.”
Angered, I say, “So what, are you forgetting that you are staying in one of those fir bolg families homes? Or do you think it is your right to do whatever you want with us, just like the rest of the fir bolg families?”
Still petting Glory, he says, “The Fir Bolg families, during their time under oppression learned many of the skills and techniques of the humans that enslaved them.
Since countless different groups of humans joined that disgusting empire in its hay day, they were able to gather a lot within themselves. And it is only thanks to those skills and techniques that we Tuatha Dé Dannan were able to build ourselves up so quickly. The fir bolg truly are the backbone of our great empire.”
Full of pride, I say, “OF COURSE WE ARE!”
“Yet it is still the warrior families that allow us to enjoy our prosperity and expand our empire.”
Feeling down, I say, “So you're trying to say they are better than us.”
“Well, I happen to be from a fir bolg family myself.”
Annoyed, I say, “Stop messing with my emotions and just say what your point is!”
“Fir bolg families have to struggle immensely to grow and my constantly refine themselves to survive and prosper, whereas warrior families can just go kill a couple of thousand humans and they get large amounts of land and capital from the High king. So the fact that a fir bolg village like you can grow this large is utterly amazing to me!”
Blushing, I say, “Thank you.”
Then I say, “Glory here was a wonderbeast that the founder of this village rode to escape from the humans who kept us as slaves. It is with this same stead that he escaped and contacted the Tuatha Dé Dannan who escaped
“Well it shouldn’t be that unexpected considering how tight nit all of you are,” he says as he looks back towards our house.
“I see, so that’s what woke you up. I keep telling Dad he shouldn’t be allowing all of these late-night visitors.”
“But they do seem to be having a merry time, drinking like that.”
“Sorry, but on days when that bastards mess things up my father makes sure to help those, who received harm calm down and still find some happiness.”
“What a big heart he has.”
Smiling I say, “It is as big as his arms.”
“But then why do you guys let you’re people be stamped down and crushed like that?”
Looking at him, my mood sours, and I say, “You saw?”
“Well we have been in this area since the morning so we got an eyeful of the pathetic state of your village.”
“None of this is your business.”
“You are right about that, but I simply can’t understand why people who love their home so much would allow others to just step on it and crush it.”
Angered I say, “You don’t know anything, if we were to stand up, if we were to fight back we would be destroyed and crushed into the ground like dirt.”
“This is a merchant village, yet due to these intruders, people have all but stopped coming towards here and are impacting your livelihoods. So are you okay with your people's current situation.”
“No of course not, but what are we going to do, we have no power.”
Suddenly the boy who lays on the ground says, “Coward,” While still in the same position.
The other boy stands up, and says, “Sorry about him, he likes to talk in his sleep.”
Picking the boy up, he says, “You say you have no choice, but do you believe if you guys continue to lay down and show them your belly, they will eventually just get bored and leave? Restraint isn’t natural, so whatever one allows will increase, and I wonder how long will you allow this all to increase.”
With that, he walks away, but as he does I grit my fist, and unbeknownst to Laeg at that time, Ibar was listening in from a distance.
-The next day-
Hearing a large ruckus outside, I get up from my bed and head outside. Where I see a group of my people standing around, and in front of them is Hubert and all of his men, and on the floor is Andrew whose shop they destroyed yesterday.
Noticing that everyone is scared to speak to him due to fear of retribution, I run up and say, “What are you doing Hubert!?”
“Oh Laeg, just in time.” Stepping on Andrew, he says, “This bastard tried to sneak into our hut to attack us last night, so we happened to be fucking pissed.”
“Andrew you idiot, what would possess you to do such a thing.”
Andrew opens his mouth to try and speak but as he does I see his teeth are broken. “Hubert what did you do!”
“It is a rather like punishment for what was trying to kill me, and in all honesty, I think I have the right to demean competence for the terror this man put me through, in blood.”
His men pull out their weapons and the crowd backs away, as they fear for their lives.
Hubert kicks Andrew towards me and then steps on his head in front of me. “You see I should crush this and everyone right now, but you see I have a counteroffer.”
Feeling nervous, I say, “You really that pent up, that you would go this far just for me.”
Grabbing my face, he says, “Don’t flatter yourself, I have no intention of talking a newly born cub such as yourself for me, what I want is for you and your brother to become my charioteers.”
Sweating, I say, “What do you mean? I have never ridden a horse much less a chariot.”
“Your lies are cute, but that is merely all they are you mistwalker.” Feeling nervous at that name, he smiles at me and then says, “Did you really think I spent time in this backwater village for my own pleasure? Now give me what I want or I might get a little ruff.”
He starts to step down on Andrew's head even harder, which causes him to scream, but then I hear, “GET OFF THEM.”
Then I hear a stabbing sound.
Looking I see Ibar has stabbed Hubert in the side, in response to this Hubert backs off, and says with a pained expression, “Do you know what you have done?”
Ibar says, “No way will I ever allow you to step on a single member of our village again.” Turning to Andrew, he says, “Make sure to make me a bigger bed after this ok?”
Andrew in a rather weak state nods his head with tears.
“COME AT ME!” My brother screams, but mere seconds after this he is kicked in the gut by Hubert.
“Don’t think for a second we are equals. Yet I still need you, so for every second until my wounds close I am going to rip a fingernail off of you, and when I finish I will move on to your skin.”
As his men move closer to my brother to attack him, members of our village move closer to my brother and stand in front of him. Then one says, “We have been letting these kids deal with you due to your fondness for them.”
“But we won’t allow you to touch a head on their heads just to protect ourselves.”
“So come at us!”
With that, they charge at us and try to attack, but in that moment my father with his hefty body hits them with a fist to the face and with the angry expression of a beast on his face.