When morning came, the entire party ended up sleeping in. It wasn't that much of a surprise since they were already awake for hours before arriving at the Vanguard. And after all that, they still had to go through the 10-hour test. Not to mention the time it took for them to learn about the village, eat dinner and build the house. It wasn't a surprise for anyone that they were taking so long to wake up. Still, at around 10 a.m. Grilat started knocking on their door.
"Hey, going to spend the entire day in there? We already had breakfast. Since you guys took so long to come out, you guys take care of the cleaning. Get moving, or you won't have anything to eat," the man pounded the door and created a much louder sound than it was supposed to. Courtesy of a spell made exactly to wake people who should already be working.
The party didn't hear anything he said, but they heard the noise created by his pounding. This happened because Hera kept the soundproof bubble up the entire night. She considered dismissing the spell, but if anyone woke up, they might want to talk about the curse or something, and it was better to have a safe place to do so. Luckily for them, when the noise started, Sammy went outside and heard Grilat's message.
The turtle passed the information to Nimbus and Lurize, who started waking up everyone so they could start the day. Unfortunately, there wasn't that much food left, and what was still in the pot wasn't very appetizing. Still, everyone ate and cleaned up the kitchen area, which was just a place outside near the central treehouse with a large slab of wood resting on the ground and small stumps to form the chairs. One thing that surprised Hera was how a group of people from so long ago still worried about doing dishes. From what she remembered, humans from thousands of years ago were not particularly clean.
"I honestly didn't expect this to happen here. I imagined that they didn't have that much hygiene, but they even take baths," Hera said as she was washing some plates with soap while using a thick piece of fur as a sponge.
"Actually, that's a common misconception. Humans started using soap before even the pyramids were built. I think the oldest finding was somewhere in Babylon. I don't know the date exactly, but it might match how far back we came," Bonnie said when she heard Hera's comment about hygiene.
"Be careful when you guys are talking about things like that. We never know who's listening, and we can't let them realize that we are from the future," Sammy quickly interrupted them so they would stop that conversation. That was too risky for their current situation. He didn't have to worry about people listening to what he was saying, so it was an advantage that he could speak his mind without a problem.
"My bad," Hera replied.
About an hour passed before they were able to finish the work. Even if they were a large group, there were a lot of things to clean. The pot, in particular, was very complicated. It seemed like the cook wasn't stirring properly, and a black crust of burnt food was at the bottom.
When they were done, they went to look for Multrak, who was going to tell them what they were supposed to do while living here. It was very easy to find him since, apparently, he would always stay in the treehouse unless something was going on outside or it was time for a meal. As they started talking, the elder was sitting on the small stage in the middle of the tree house while the rest was on the stumps around it.
"I hope your first night was restful. We usually wake up when dawn breaks, but considering your efforts yesterday, I told Grilat to let you sleep for some time. Now, I'll be honest. I spent quite a while thinking about what I could do with all of you. I mean, sure, you will have to hunt as it's part of the sentence, but when you're not doing that, I try to see if I could fit all of you in the same area. After all, you seem to be so close, but I'm afraid that might be more complicated than I expected," Multrak said.
"It's actually even better if we are not together all the time. Not to say that we are having any problems. It's just good not to be stuck in our bubble," Helena said. They already discussed this before leaving the house. If they stay together all the time, it will be harder for people to open up and for them to get more information. Right now, what they needed was to learn about this place and the people who lived here. They had to search for clues about what, or who, could start the curse.
"Oh, that's great. Honestly, that makes things much much easier. Currently, we need people to make clothing, stand guard around the walls, People to help butcher the monsters and prepare food, and people to take care of the cleaning. And I mean washing clothes, seeing if everyone is cleaning their houses and things like that. Cleaning the latrine is something that everyone has to do at some point, but we will leave you all out of the rotation for a week at least. If nothing among those jobs seems attractive to you, I do have a couple of other options, but they are a bit more nuanced and depend on someone else," Multrak explained.
"What are those other jobs?" Bonnie asked, not excited about any of the ideas he put forward.
"I could use some help trying to figure out the patterns in the monster's movements. Every now and then, some packs move around and change their den and hunting zone. It's complicated to find them when they do that and even more complicated to predict those changes. Honestly, I wanted someone to help me with this for a long time, but people who live here are not that well-versed in seeing those kinds of changes. In simple terms, they are great warriors, but even a pile of rocks is smarter than a pile of them. The only ones who could actually help me with that are already too busy with other things. Aside from that, we could use some help with the traps around the village. Some of the training areas need some maintenance, Kadhan also needs some help with his work. He is trying to grow some herbs to make potions, but it's been taking a toll on him, but I'm not sure any of you will want to help. I also have a request for you, Hera, but I'll leave that for after you're all done with training. I don't think you have enough time to take care of everything."
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"Training? What do you mean training?" Blue asked.
"Of course. Even if you passed the test, we have no idea if you can work as a group with us. We have some strategies and techniques that help us survive in this jungle, and we must share them with you before you are able to go hunting. If you had done a poor job during the test, we would probably consider that you need a couple of months of training. But since you have all done pretty well by yourselves, a week should be enough," Multrak explained.
"What are we supposed to do during the training?" Shane asked.
"Every day, Grilat will explain a few of our processes and signals while also teaching some basic survival techniques so you won't just die in the jungle. There is also some stamina training and combat training, but we're going to skip that. You are all good on that part. Since the training will be more theoretical, you'll have it after dinner. I say that, but knowing him, it's possible, if not probable, that he will ask to fight one on one to see what you can actually do. Don't worry, we'll have people on standby to make sure you don't kill each other, but it will be just a way for him to understand your strength better so he can set you up with a better hunting partner."
"Got it. I think we are ok on that front too. This won't be the first time we live in a jungle, but it never hurts to learn more about the place," Shane nodded, "By the way, who is Kadhan ?"
"One moment, I'll ask him to introduce himself," Multrak got up and walked to the door with potions dangling from the side, " Kadhan, can you come out? I want to introduce you to the group that arrived yesterday."
The door slammed open, and from it emerged a man with arms and legs that were closer to that of a monkey than a human. He also had a long tail that was carrying an empty bottle. The man wore a fur waistcloth that went below his knees. His feet were actual feet and not hands, as the rest of his body would indicate, he was shirtless, and his chest and shoulders were covered in scars forming odd and intentional patterns. Some blood-red tattoos on his stomach seemed to be glowing, and he had a large bird skull covering his head. In a way, it reminded Hera of a plague doctor, but the man's eyes were showing inside the nostrils of the skull.
"Yes, why are you calling me?" Kadhan 's voice almost sounded like it had some natural reverberation to it, as if layers of his voice were placed on top of each other and had their pitch slightly changed.
"The new people want to meet you. Well, they probably don't, but they might need something from you. So, I want to introduce you."
Kadhan stepped forward, his body moving from side to side, but his head remained perfectly still. In a blink of an eye, he moved to be face-to-face with Multrak. Hera was able to see some of his movement, but it was too fast for Armory and Scythe to follow it properly.
"You wound me, elder. Have I not played my part in this village? Have I not supplied potions, and tonics, and salves for any sort of ailment or injury our troops ever sustained? Why would anyone not want to meet me?" Kadhan's words came out in a song and a whisper at the same time, and the emphasis he would put on the syllables would change constantly. It was something very unnerving, even if what he was actually saying and doing showed no sign of him being a threat.
Multrak whacked Kadhan's head with his stick, "This is exactly why no one likes being near you. Stop acting like this and, at least, speak normally."
"But this is my normal way of speaking, elder."
"Then speak like I do! Stop being weird."
" If I do that, it won't be my normal anymore. Also, we are all weird, elder. The world is weird. Finding something that's not now that would truly be strange," even with the bird skull on its face, everyone was able to notice the large smile forming underneath it as Kadhan spoke the last line.
Multrak pushed him away, "Fine, fine. Just stop talking. You are giving me a headache. Anyway, as I was saying, this is Kadhan, our resident healer."
Kadhan turned to Hera and the others, "I prefer to be called Witch Doctor," the last two words came out with even more effects on his voice, and now whispers flooded the area coming from all around them, repeating his title 'Witch Doctor' again and again.
"So here he is. I told you I didn't think any of you would want to help," Multrak rubbed his temple.
"They are help? Help for me?" Kadhan asked with a pep in his voice.
"If any of them wants to, yeah, they can help you," Multrak sighed.
"And can you? Can you help grow plants or make potions? Or salves? Or hexes? Or voodoo?" each time he asked a different thing, he would shift his body to the side, but his head only moved forward as he got closer to the group.
"I can, actually," Hera spoke up, but Blue pulled her arm back and whispered.
"What are you doing? That guy doesn't seem normal."
"And people avoid him. Which means that if he was doing something strange, no one would know," Hera replied quietly and got an approving nod from Sammy behind Blue.
"Just… be careful."
Hera nodded, "I will. And I'm not alone, remember?" she turned back to Kadhan, " Sorry about that. But yeah, I know a bit about herbs and potions. I'm not that good with salves, and I have no idea how to make a hex or how to use voodoo, but I'm willing to learn."
" Wonderful. Come, Come. We have much to do," Kadhan smiled at Hera and gestured to her to go inside. She turned to Multrak, who also nodded, confirming that she could go.
"I guess I found my job. If you guys need anything, you have a way to contact me," Hera glanced at Sammy, the black in her eyes becoming a blessing since it would hide where she was actually looking at.
"You too. If that guy tries anything weird, tear him apart," Alex squinted at Kadhan, who didn't even react to the threat.
Hera just waved at the group and walked inside the seemingly small room. As far as she knew, hexes and voodoo were just different types of curses, which could mean that this person could be the biggest clue they had found so far.