Logan accepted a clay cup of water and gulped it down in one go. Another followed. The remaining people of the settlement were tripping over themselves to make Logan comfortable.

Logan was used to being serviced of course, but right here right now it just felt out of place. He wanted to tell the people to go mourn their dead and to go fix up their home and everything except to focus on him. But here he was, sitting in his armor like a warrior-chieftain from legends in the middle of a circle of people. They brought him food and eagerly waited for him to speak.

Logan did not need to give a pained smile when accepting food. As much as he didn’t care for being revered as some battle-god coming to save the day, he sure as hell could appreciate the food after eating nothing but squid-sushi for the last 2 days. He even wolfed down the mushrooms they put in front of him. They were boiled and rubbery and tasted like… Well mushrooms, unfortunately.

The warmth from his belly was spreading to his limbs and Logan felt relaxed and tired. It was evening and he’d like to sleep, but these people were clearly expecting him to dole out divine wisdom or something.

“I see you’ve had dealings with the Dorves.”

The group nodded. The lanky woman who was standing crossed his arms.

“You don’t approve?”

“When did you get your first stuff from them?”

“Four days ago,” Scilla said.

“Notice anything different?”

Scilla narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean?”

“Any more of these monster bastards suddenly around?”

A murmur passed through the group and plenty people gasped and started talking. Scilla stared at Logan with her mouth open.

“Didn’t any of the Faelves contact you?”

“They did,” Scilla said. “Two of my people. Fortunately my people were wise enough not to be lured into the swamps where they trap people.”

Logan sighed and moved a hand to rub his face. Tumor made the black armor recede. “Let me explain a few things to you.”

It was an eventful fifteen minutes. These people were definitely not happy about being tricked by the Dorves. In fact, they were livid. There was an animated discussion between them, during which Logan helped himself with some more of the mushrooms and what he suspected was monkey meat. It was pretty stringy, but getting meat was a luxury. They had even warmed it up for Logan in one of the Dorven-made ovens.

From the look of it, that was the last time that oven was used. These people are NOT happy.

There was some blame cast on Scilla, but Logan came to her help to quell the anger. She gave him an appreciative nod. Most of the anger was diverted towards the Dorves. When Logan told them about his capture and imprisonment, it was a done deal. Scilla and her people were ready to tear down the Dorven technology.

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Logan told them further of his adventures in the ruins and of his experiences with the Faelves. Between yawns he promised to take someone from their settlement tomorrow to the porcelain folk. He was barraged with attention, questions and more food than he could handle, until Scilla grabbed him and took him to one of the mud huts, wherein Logan immediately fell asleep.

*

Logan woke up refreshed. That was so novel to him that he had to double check with Tumor if the AI had somehow fiddled with his brain chemistry. Tumor protested that it wouldn’t take such liberties without a prompt. They went back and forth on the benefits of Tumor messing around with Logan’s body, but at Tumor’s insistence, they decided against it, because it could have less than savory long term effects.

The mud hut was blessedly cool and Logan stretched lazily like a satisfied cat. The Armor was great to sleep in, thanks to Tumor being able to alter its properties. Someone had left a clay jug of water on the ground next to him. Logan chugged it down.

When he got out, a surprising sight greeted him. The whole settlement of people were arranged in two rows with all of their meager belongings beside them. By the side was Scilla, who was smiling broadly, hands on hips.

“What’s this?” Logan asked, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

“You were snoring so loudly, we got started already,” Scilla said. “You must have really needed the sleep.”

“Won’t deny that,” Logan said. “What are you doing?”

“Coming with you of course!” a young girl from the crowd said.

Logan just stared at the girl. Then he turned to stare at Scilla. She let out an apologetic laugh

“I hope it’s fine,” she said. “We decided we’ll leave all the Dorven tech here with a note that we don’t want to deal with them and hope they’re alright with that.”

“We’ll see about that…” Logan muttered. “They aren’t brutal violent murderers, but they sure got a nasty streak.”

“All the more reason to come with you and huddle up together,” Scilla said. “We don’t have much else except for a few huts and a table here. It’s not like we’re leaving our homes behind.”

“You’ll take us, won’t you?” A mousey man from the crowd asked timidly, wringing his hands. “We don’t have many fighters… But we can be useful.”

“Yeah,” the young girl from before said. “What Morris said.”

The timid man smiled at the girl and went back to looking at Logan hopefully.

“You guys, I’m not much of a leader or anything,” Logan started and rubbed the back of his neck. But then that echo of his father’s voice sounded in his mind again

IRRESPONSIBLE.

When it had before made Logan flinch, now he just smiled grimly at the tick.

“I can’t make any promises. But I’ll do my best to take care of you guys. But you gotta pull your weight.”

That goes without saying,” a muscular and tired looking man with a scraggly beard said from the front row.

“Why are you trusting me so blindly?” Logan asked.

There were some humorless chuckles from the crowd. The young girl spoke again. “You seem to know what you’re doing more than any of us.”

“What she said,” Scilla said. “You don’t seem like an asshole and you can take care of things. Right now that’s as good as any of us can hope.”

“Fair enough,” Logan said. “Looks like you guys are ready to leave.”

“We are,” Scilla said. “Do you know the way.

Logan smirked.

Tumor? You got an idea of where the camp is?

[I assume you mean the one by the pond that you were supposed to settle. I do not have a complete lay of the land, but I have a model that is 78.08% accurate. You should be slightly less than 12 miles away.]

“It’s going to be a bit of a hike,” Logan said, turning to Scilla. “Make sure everyone’s fed and watered. Let’s go over all of the equipment you guys are planning to leave behind and make sure there isn’t anything we should take with us.”

Scilla seemingly relaxed and there was a spark of genuine joy and relief in her eyes. “Aye-aye, chief.”

Logan laughed. “Just Logan is fine.”