The biting wind off of the water made Samba shiver. He snatched an oversized groundhog from the snow and snapped its neck with one hand before tossing it aside. To his right, Mark ripped his axe through the snow to cleave another in two. Samba dismissed his notifications about the Charging Groundhog he'd slain.
"Any more near you?" Mark asked, his accent still terrible.
The two of them watched to see if any of the snow shifted around them, but it was still. Samba shook his head. "I don't think so."
Samba took another glance around the newly made clearing in front of the settlement. With the threat of the demons looming, they'd needed a lot more materials and time to be able to spot the demons from coming from further away.
A wall had been erected roping in both the Underbridge Clan's great hall and the human settlement which Samba had learned was called Wavecrest. There was still a lot of hesitancy between the two groups, but the Cave Goblins had started reinforcing the wooden palisades with brick.
Samba was proud of the peace they'd created.
"Should we head back?" Mark asked.
Samba flopped back onto the snow. "You can head back if you want."
Despite the chill in his fur, it felt nice to just relax. They had a shared goal of defense, but no looming assaults pending in the future. There was no forced combat against their neighbors. This was how he wanted life to be.
Instead of leaving, Mark sat down beside him. "You have thoughts?"
"I do, but I think you're asking, 'what are you thinking about?'"
"Tal. Yes. What are you thinking about?"
Samba considered whether he should tell Mark or not. Most of his concerns stemmed around the leadership of the clan and that didn't seem appropriate to tell an outsider. Yet... he also couldn't tell anyone in the clan. They worshipped Gi.
Maybe there were some things that you could only tell an outsider.
"I..." But how to start?
"You don't need speak. You don't need to speak," he corrected himself. "I don't want you sad to be. Share with friend sometimes nice is?"
Mark sometimes struggled with putting his action words at the end like they were in his language. Samba had made much less progress with the human tongue, but he could speak some very basic phrases. Samba smiled at how much effort Mark had put in so that they could communicate with each other.
He supposed it was only fair that he actually communicate now.
"You remember how I told you about my Progenitor?" Mark nodded. "Well, he was... sort of the father to all of us otters, but he was..." Samba tried to think of how to say it with words that Mark would know. "he was... a monster."
"Tal..." Mark said, slowly, but he could tell he was confused.
"He wasn't a monster like me. He was a monster like the demons. His sole focus was getting stronger and he made lots of decisions that weren't in the best interest of the clan to do so. Some were... horrifying."
Mark tried to piece together his words and Samba wasn't sure his language skills were quite up to task yet to be having this conversation, but Mark was incredibly smart. He said a few words in his language before he responded. "What happened you speak? No, what happened when you spoke?"
"When I spoke?" Samba asked, "With Gi?"
"Tal," Mark said, happy his meaning was received.
"I... I didn't." Samba sat up, snow falling down his back from where he'd laid. He thought back to when he'd first heard about Gi murdering Children or his plans to attack the Spiked Eagles. How could he have deterred him from that?
"Hmm...," Mark said, carefully. "Not comfy? to speak bad, but not speak bad too."
Samba was frustrated. Mark clearly didn't understand the situation. Gi wasn't someone that you could just disagree with. He was so absolute in everything he did from worshipping Danna to growing his power. His Progenitor had probably never had a doubt in his entire life.
No, that would have just gone poorly.
"Mad?" Mark asked and Samba tried to force away any frustration from his face.
"No, I just... the way you say it makes it sound so easy, but it's not. Kumo didn't even listen to me. How would I expect Gi to?"
Mark rubbed at his beard. "If... then? If hungry then eat, right?"
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"Yes?"
"If no speak Samba, then who speak Samba?"
It took him a second to translate what Mark was trying to say. "If I don't speak for myself, then who will?"
Samba's frustration only worsened. It wasn't that easy. He couldn't just argue with Gi... could he? What would have happened if he'd confronted Gi about the Possession Flower Children? Arguing with Kumo had been fruitless.
"Leader is... hard," Mark mumbled to himself to try and get the order of what he wanted to say next correct. "Share hard times is better. Leader is lonely."
It was. As much as he loved the peace that he and Mark had cultivated, the others still questioned their idea. How could monsters and humans live together? Tala, Lamb, and Corin didn't seem to have any issues disagreeing with him. Even though Samba disagreed with his methods was this how Gi felt as he built the clan?
If Samba had done a better job of being there for Gi, would everything had happened as it did?
The hole in Samba's chest ached in time with his thoughts. Having rejected Gi's decisions had made the pain easier to handle and the time since his death helped further, but his now turbulent thoughts only made things worse. Samba gripped at the fur on his chest.
Mark shot to his feet, startling Samba out of his thoughts. Mark stared off into the forest with one hang gripping his axe.
"What?" Samba asked.
"Others come."
He got fully to his feet as well and readied himself for battle. The humans should be able to see them from the wall and hopefully the clan would notice that something was wrong. He stood beside Mark so they could face whatever this new threat was together.
A human woman wrapped in furs stumbled out of the forest and fell into the snow when she noticed Samba.
In an instant, more humans rushed out of the trees, all of them wrapped in fur. They didn't have any weapons stronger than sticks, but all of them seemed ready to defend themselves.
The hurried situation ruined Mark's grammar, but Samba got the gist of what he was saying. These were refugees of some kind and it would be better if he wasn't here. Samba nodded and then retreated back towards the great hall. Wavecrest's wall had a gate, but the one they'd built around both only had an opening in the sharpened trees that formed it.
Several Cave Goblins were hard at work using their limited supply of bricks from a cave they'd found further inland to reinforce the wall. Monsters had spread out from the great hall into the walled space between it and Wavecrest with more houses being built every day.
"Underbridge Clan! Head to the great hall!"
Some looked to him curiously, but nobody argued and started pushing themselves through the snow back towards the great hall. Samba knocked on doors and made sure that everyone was moving. At one of the long log houses, Elizabeth peered out at him.
"What's going on?" She asked in her usual dull voice.
"Human refugees came. I'm rounding up the monsters to make sure there is no panic among them. We don't want any casualties."
Elizabeth stared at him for a long moment and Samba was just about to leave when she spoke. "You are a strange monster."
Samba sighed. Was it so strange that he wanted peace? "Why are you even still here? It's not like I'm paying you."
"The Surge has changed things. I'm waiting for Ry to get back with more information about this continent before deciding my next actions. I am still open for hire though."
Samba started to tell her she could shove it, but then he remembered something from the Dungeon that he'd forgotten about. "Wait. Don't you speak the human language?"
"I do...," she said suspiciously. "Why?"
"You could teach Mark the monster language much easier than I could!" Despite who he was talking to, he was starting to get excited. Then he could explain to Mark better about Gi and how he was feeling. "What if I paid you to do that?"
Even on her dull face, her expression looked like he'd just asked her to sculpt pottery from goblin shit. "I'll... consider it. Anything else?"
His brain finally caught up to what she'd just said about Ry who Samba was pretty sure was her Subgenitor. "You sent Ry out to scout?"
"That is what I said."
"Then... as payment for you staying here, I want to know what Ry finds out."
Elizabeth stared at him for a long moment. "...Very well." She closed the door to her cabin before he could ask anything else. That was the exact opposite of what he'd wanted all the monsters to do, but she wasn't really of the clan and looked somewhat human anyways.
Once he'd gotten everyone gathered together in the great hall, Tala, Corin, and Lamb came to find him and he explained the situation with the refugees to them.
Tala looked concerned. "Are you sure that it's a good thing that more humans are coming? What happens if they outnumber us?"
"What do you mean? We're practically the same settlement at this point. Nothing will change."
Corin rubbed his cheek thoughtfully. "She makes a good point. Us being stronger makes a good deterrent, but what's to stop them from attacking us once that's no longer true?"
Samba stared in disbelief. He'd known they had concerns, but did they really think so little of the peace that they'd built? After his conversation with Mark, Samba's emotions were still out of sorts and it surprised even him when he found himself yelling. "JUST STOP!"
All three of them flinched backwards at his sudden shout and Samba rambled into the space.
"Nobody is going to hurt anyone else. We're at peace. Peace."
"I'm just say-," Corin started, but Samba shouted over him.
"WE'RE NOT GOING TO KILL THE CHILDREN."
A few of the monsters spread around the great hall looked over at his outburst. Tala and Lamb looked bewildered. His pulse had quickened and his fist was clenched as though he was ready to fight anyone that believed how Gi did. Corin had been the one that had told him about Gi in the first place though.
He'd seen what he did.
"I'm sorry, Samba," Corin said carefully. "I'm not suggesting we do anything... like that. Having the humans as allies is a good thing. I'm just suggesting some caution. There's no guarantee that the humans feel the same way as either you or Mark."
Tala reached out and placed a hand on Samba's elbow, rubbing the fur there gently. "Yeah, no one is suggesting killing anyone."
His anger that had flashed hot was now melting. He felt a little embarrassed for his outburst though he still believed very strongly that the humans and Underbridge should be united. "Sorry... I guess I'm just a little on edge. I'm going to go wait to hear from Mark."
Samba left the great hall and then laid back in the snow near the entrance to the wall into their camp. The snow seeped into his fur and was uncomfortable, but it helped distract him from his swirling thoughts.
Hating Gi was so much easier. Why did Mark have to put these thoughts into his head?