Gargarz’s point of view
Blasted Kite making me teach! By gods it is too early for me to be awake. I spent most of last night finishing up the current book I was reading. It was an extremely good read but the ending felt out of place. It was very clear that the author didn’t have any plans to end the book and it sort of just slows down to a stop leaving many plot holes and unresolved story lines.
It was a work of fiction so it shouldn’t have been grounded in reality but for the main character to defeat the enemy in such a way… Just to be killed by an assassin who managed to bypass all of the guards and could kill an almost unkillable person while they slept… That was just too unbelievable for me. The story was so good until the ending… The story has me mad even a day after finishing it.
I walk into the adjacent building that was recently built for the sole purpose of teaching the older students. The students are already sitting and waiting for me. I’ve taught them a few days but I haven’t seen anything spectacular from them. I’m too upset to teach today.
“Class, today is a free day. Please self study or go play outside.”
I need to pallet cleanser after that disappointment. I crack open a new book. I truly like fiction stories the most but this one involves a real person’s adventures as a knight of the king. Swift said it was a good book but he also said the last book was one of his favorites… If this one turns out to be bad as well I’ll stop listening to his advise. Most of the students have left leaving only a few behind.
One is drawing while another was playing with blocks that he must have stolen from the play area outside. Aiko is also here reading a very thick book and one of the goblin girls is also reading. I haven’t really bothered to learn any of the children’s names yet besides hers. I normally call them by nicknames or just address them with eye contact when I’m talking to them. Kite told me to keep an eye on her so I she’s important enough for me to remember her name.
...I don’t like having to remember people’s names. Gnolls generally don’t address each other in that manner. I’ve really only bothered to learn the names of those I deem important enough to. Her quick wit and knowledge would have brought me to learn her name even without Kite’s heads up. She noticed that I was looking over at the students now and she keeps throwing glances like she wants to ask a question.
“What is it Aiko?”
“...Umm… So you knew Kite from when he was little right? What was he like back then?”
“Well… It’s really hard to say. The first time I met him I was truly terrified by his power. He killed the strongest gnoll with a single attack and started making demands. After that I was still very wary of him but I think all of us quickly came to trust him with our lives… Even if it cost some of our lives in the end… I doubt a single person regrets following him.”
I feel heavily indebted to Kite for how much he has pushed us forward. Gnolls never really stood a chance at building a civilization with our barbaric customs that kept us from growing as a race. I learned more in my first month living in this fortress than the previous twelve years of my life. I’m already an oddity to the gnolls. The average life expectancy for gnolls is seven years. That’s mostly because of how often we die fighting but it is still very rare to see any my age.
I met him just about three years ago. By all rights I should be dead but I’m not. Every day I live I feel stronger than the last and it is all because of Kite. You could say that Kite is the reason that I learned how to read and found my passion for books. With the group of gnolls under Kite I have no doubt that the life expectancy will only increase steadily as time goes on. Just by being around him it makes me want to strive to be the best version of myself I possibly can.
“He was very stubborn back then too… A very kind person… Almost too kind some would say… He helped those who hurt him and gained allies that others would look down on or outright kill. I think that is why he is the best person to lead this army. Some might be better at leading troops or just more charismatic but no one cares as much as he does. When his men die a piece of him dies as well. He puts the whole burden on himself and can’t do it any other way. He works himself to the bone to ensure the safety of everyone under him and a leader like that is worth dying for… At least that is how I see him. If you’d like to learn more about him I’d ask Leaf or Gobber. They’ve been with him longer than I have.”
Just talking about him makes me regret being so lazy. He gave me an easy task of teaching and I have already started slacking on it. I should care more about the future knowledge of this army, we need to start taking our lives into our own hands instead of always relying on him.
“Oi you! Go get the rest of the students, we’re going to have a lesson today.”
I pointed at the kid who was playing with the blocks and he runs off. I need to buckle down and teach these kids things they wont learn naturally. I start to think of what to teach them. After today I should write up a curriculum for them to follow. With how little effort I’ve put into this so far… It might be hard to convince some of the students that I’m actually worth listening to.
There are only three students in the room right now which brings me to the next problem. I look directly at Aiko and say.
“I hate for this to be so blunt but why are you even here? You’re clearly smart enough to not need to be here. Most of what I’m going to teach you probably already know. You could learn faster by reading for yourself or moving on to the next step. What do you want to do?”
“Well, I have been working on something.”
She reaches beside her and pulls something up. It’s a book without a cover, more of a bound number of pages than a book. She unlatches the metal clip on the book and hands me the first few pages. I read a few paragraphs and realize what the book is about, it is about Kite. She is writing a biography of Kite’s life. The first few pages seem to describe what little she knows of Kite’s childhood… Well, Kite is still a child to some but when he was much younger.
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Huge portions of information is missing. Almost everything written down so far is common knowledge of Kite. This is still amazing, she might be the very first author in the entire army… Besides Kite and myself but it is impressive none the less. I ask her.
“Have you talked with Kite about this?”
“N-not yet… I haven’t had the chance with how busy he is.”
“I doubt he will tell you to stop but you need to make sure he is okay with you writing about him before you continue… Actually knowing him, he will probably help you write it.”
Truthfully it is good to have another writer… Perhaps we can try to find a job for her to use that talent. I tell her to keep working on her book while she is here and to just listen for anything she doesn’t already know. Children trickle back into the building and most are back within a few minutes of me sending the student to get them. I’ll teach something relatively basic but the students will need this etiquette class to avoid miss-communication between the races later on.
“Okay class so today I’m going to go over the different races that comprise the forces here at the fortress.”
I pull out a piece of chalk and start writing on the board the names of each race that Kite gained as allies. I write the races human, goblin, gnoll, demon kin, kobold, lizardman, murine folk and bugbears.
“These are the main races that comprise our army so far. We have others such as a few dwarves and elves. There are also the elementalists but they are the offspring of humans that broke off from normal society and when they were found again they had gained a new class. The ones listed are the bulk of the army and the ones I’ll focus on today. We’ll be going over the cultural differences of each race.”
I stop to think for a few seconds. I really am under-prepared for this, I’ll have to prepare harder next time.
“The first race we’ll go over is human. It’s really hard to explain some characteristics of humans… We can’t go off of just Kite and the generals here or you'd assume all humans are monsterously powerful being that are good at everything... The few humans in the base right now are far different than normal humans… Well I guess every race here is different then they normally are… Alright, back on topic, humans are generally lazy. They are complacent with living in towns and the huge majority of humans are arrogant and full of themselves even though they have no right to be.”
I’ve seen enough interactions with humans to know how true that is. I keep explaining.
“Humans are also the most likely to be bigoted towards other races just because of their race. Humans outnumber every other race currently and out of the four main continents they control three of them. Humans are the most varied race out of every single race. You can have a human the size of a goblin or as big as a bugbear, they can be anything from a warrior to a mage. That is how they’ve gotten to be the strongest race. While other races tend to focus on being the best at one particular thing.”
I think I might have been too hard on humans. One of my students is a human and I can now see that me talking so badly about humans has upset him.
“Once again, this is just those that aren’t part of this army… I sometimes wish I was a human. Humans get far more chances than other races to do what they want in life… I wish my lifespan wasn’t so short and I could keep reading far into my old age. It could have always been worse… Kite could have decided to kill all of us gnolls and move on by himself. Kite is… The best human. He has all the traits I wish every human had. Compassion, understanding for those who are different… Humans have the highest potential for greatness if Kite is any indicator of what humans can be.”
I’ll talk about them as they are listed but… The more I think about it the more I realize that I am going to be alienating the children when I speak badly about their race.
“Once again, I would like to remind you that these generalizations are not based on any of the people in this fortress. This is the average person of that race… Don’t judge the people in this army based on these stereotypes because they are most likely wrong.”
I quickly look over the room again. There are three children in the group I’m about to talk about.
“Goblins are thought to be the weakest of all of the races. Not just physically but mentally as well. Goblins tend to live in caves ore forests near another races village and they will attack and leech off of them by attacking caravans. They also need the females to survive because they normally only have male offspring… Which makes you three completely opposite of the average goblin doesn’t it?”
I still can’t believe how unique each of these goblins are. When I was young, the leader of those goblins tried to ally with us but neither leader wanted to become a follower. After a brief scuffle with our alpha, they’re leader laid dead on the ground and the rest of the goblins scattered… Normal goblins aren’t supposed to be… This special… I’ve studied them for a few weeks at one point but while they never noticed me following them their mother caught me and put an end to it.
“This is the perfect example as to the difference between people living at this fortress and the average versions of that race. Each of the goblins in this fortress are exceptionally skilled and most are female… Until you goblins were born I had never heard of a female goblin. Normal goblins are also extremely cowardly, this makes them easy for other races to manipulate. You’ll often see armies use goblins as front line fodder during wars… Goblins were also thought to be a monster at one point because they could evolve like monsters can into hobgoblins… More research will have to be done to figure out the exact reason why it’s possible for them to evolve.”
Gnolls are next.
“Gnolls… Gnolls tend to be idiots who rely on their instincts to stay alive. Using superior numbers to overpower other races, gnolls are often thought to be at a similar intelligence as goblins but just slightly stronger and having better instincts. The majority of gnolls born will grow up to fight while a small portion of our weakest member raise all of the children.”
It’s hard to say just how much Kite has changed each race… The goblins and gnolls would have been nothing special, we might have been wiped out by a different human but Kite saw the value in us. Next would be demon kin.
“Demon kin are very group oriented. Once a child is born he is raised by the entire village. Most demon kin do not know who their true parents are. Demon kin are physically stronger than humans and have a natural resistance to magic but because of their small numbers they are often forced to fight for humans… I guess that goes for most races now that I think about it. Assume that humans force the races to fight for them unless I say otherwise from now on.”
I take a second to gather my thoughts before I continue.
“Kobolds are a very volatile race. Many of their traditions either involve maiming or killing one another to prove who’s stronger. Because of this, it is extremely difficult for them to form alliances or join groups. They idolize dragons to an almost fanatical level and treat them as superior to all other creatures, often enslaving themselves to any dragon they meet. They are extremely intelligent and can live very long lives if they aren’t killed by one another. That doesn’t mean that kobolds can’t do good… Many lives were saved because of one of my friends sacrifice during the war with the pirates.”
I wait a few moments and let the children understand what I’m saying… I thought I was over it by now… One of the very few kobolds I related to, one who enjoyed reading as much as myself and would often lend me books his men managed to procure… I still miss him, I miss Shikki.
“Next would be lizard men. While they are called lizard men, the also include women as well. The society is very male oriented though, strength is a sought after power for them and the strong in their culture often have many wives. They have a test that every man of their village has to pass to prove himself and become an adult. Lizard men are extremely good swimmers and have a much bigger lung capacity than other races… Over several generations of living in a certain area they can also change their scale color to help them survive.”
I pause again to catch my breath.
“Next would be the murine folk. They are a race very similar to the beast races but with the sole difference being that they are only mouse people. They are the most culturally set in their ways. Murine folk have longer lifespans than most races and as so, most of the older ones have scars covering a good portion of their bodies. The murine also have many unique techniques, jobs and classes compared to other races which might have one or two.”
One more to go.
“Bugbear is the newest race that has joined our army. The person who is now the leader of the bugbears actually tried to kill Kite when they first met. That is truly scary if you think about it, someone from the northwest continent is smart enough to know Kite’s power… In this upcoming war our army will make a huge difference, possibly even shifting the tides of victory into our sides favor… That wouldn’t have happened if Kite was assassinated...”
I’m off topic.
“Well… Some key features of the bugbears is that they are covered in fur. Their size is huge and they are surprisingly quick for their size. They are very well adept at hiding even with their immense size. Because of their size, strength and stealthiness they make very adept assassins… Well… I mean they have other traits too. They make very good alchemists but only with poisons... Which make them better at assassinating. Another thing you commonly see is a bugbear leading a group of gnolls or goblins.”
Well, that’s the basics of each race that is part of our army.
“I’ll quickly go over some quirks of some of the other bigger races. We’ll end with some of your questions and that will be it for today.”