As the wood bonked him on the head, he flinched. It didn't hurt, but he'd been expecting a rather long and arduous process of her breaking through his Vitality and [Regeneration] to balance the scales.

"Samba, you're an idiot..." Alice said.

Samba looked up at her. Her face was still red from crying, but it didn't hide the anger and grief still present.

"I took from you," Samba said, trying to remember the words. Mark had learned so fast that he hadn't needed to pick up more than a basic understanding of the human tongue. "Take from me. Fair."

He didn't know the last word in the human tongue, but she got the gist. She knelt, grabbing his face in her hands much more roughly than he thought she intended, but she was driven by her rage.

"How does something you make us something? I don't know why she came. I don't know why Mark is something and I definitely don't want you to something too. Just... why? I don't understand."

Subconsciously, she continued to hold his fur as she stood up and stared out through the hole in the wall of her home. Like her, the humans outside looked lost and confused. Samba understood though. She wasn't upset with him yet because she didn't understand his role in Mark's death.

"My Progenitor died." He didn't know the word for Progenitor and he was only guessing that the words she'd said earlier meant died or killed. It should be close enough. "Tiria, my family, came for Mark to bring him back."

Her eyes narrowed as she tried to parse his barely passable language skills. She studied each of the humans outside as though the understanding would be painted across their face. Her hand squeezed, pulling on his fur.

"Did you want this? Did you know?"

"No," Samba said, a tiny spark of defiance still present in his Soul. "Mark was my best friend. I would never want this. No gift is worth."

She just nodded along as she continued to look out towards her people. Her hand didn't loosen its grip on his fur, but his answer seemed expected to her.

Tears welled up in her eyes again, but they just shimmered there, unwilling to fall. She took a deep breath, releasing her death grip on him, and the rage that had marred her face settled into a resolute mask.

And it was a mask.

Samba knew how deeply Mark and Alice cared for each other, but during their conversation, she'd come to some conclusion. She turned to him and her gaze pinned him in place.

"You came here because you wanted me to kill you." She was intentionally using words that he knew now, barring kill and die which he'd just learned. "Do you want me to kill you?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"A life for a life."

The weakness in his heart squirmed as she took in his measure with her gaze. All of the mistakes he'd ever made and all the times he'd fallen short flew into his face and it was all he could see.

But she saw something else. "No. Dying is easy. Living is hard. You want to help? Protect my people."

"But I'm too..." He didn't know the word for weak, but she understood anyways.

"Weak? So am I. You weren't the only one that watched Mark die. At least you fought."

Is that how she felt? She had never been trained as a fighter. He doubted her Knot had been very well developed at all. As long as he'd known her, she'd never killed a single monster and she had the misguided expectation that she should have fought? Against Tiria?

Samba tried to find the words to tell her how flawed that thought process was - to tell her that she wasn't the one to blame, but she continued before he could speak.

"Protect us and teach me to fight. I don't...," her mask cracked just a hair, but she shored it back up before she broke down. "I don't want to be helpless again."

"I... I will help you," Samba finally managed to say. "A life for a life."

For a moment, Samba could see the same resolve in Alice that he'd seen in Mark except... Mark had been trained to fight. He'd had the tools to do so and the backing of his family.

Alice had just lost her husband in a way that she could barely understand. She had a daughter who understood even less that she now needed to protect on her own. Her entire life was falling apart at the seams, but instead of breaking down, she was going to push through.

She had all of Mark's kindness and she backed it with steel.

Alice was a true leader and as Samba realized that he decided then and there. Wherever she led, he would follow.

A life for a life.

***

With Samba's commitment in hand, Alice strode out of the house. Her composure balanced on a knife's edge and she thought that if she didn't act now then she'd only be able to wallow in her grief.

"Gregory!" She shouted while pointing towards one of the hovering people. The man looked startled and pointed at himself. "Yes you. Please go grab Mayor Fellin and bring him here. Delilah, I need Tala, one of the female otters. Ask any of the otters and they will bring you to her. Mention that we need Elizabeth as well."

Suddenly snapped out of their daze, Gregory and Delilah rushed off to listen to her commands. The rest of the people of Wavecrest seemed like they were slowly waking up.

She understood the mental block. Flee from almost certain death, then Mark died, then there was that... god? In her head, she knew that Samba's Progenitor wasn't a god, but his presence...

She shook her head. There would be time to come to terms with everything later. "Trent! Is Tre-"

A man popped out from behind one of the houses. His features were wrinkled, but his body moved like that of a much younger man. He bounded over to her.

"You need me?"

"Yes, I'll need you and one of the otters to go gather the army."

He leaned in to ask a question, probably trying to confirm whether they were still our allies, but his gaze fell on Samba who loomed behind her and he fell silent.

"Ah, y-yes ma'am."

Not knowing what to do, Trent waited beside her. Alice had already moved on. She sent out more runners. They confirmed the kids were back and settled. They gave her a count of current food supplies.

Finally, they came back with Mayor Fellin and Tala who had the undead woman in tow. The latter made everyone uneasy, but with Mark's passing, she was the only one who could translate. That would be another thing that she would fix.

"We need to discuss what comes next." Alice's words were relayed through the bored sounding undead. Tala's sharp eyes were looking from Samba to her.

She hadn't been close to Tala due to the language barrier, but Samba had always bragged about how smart his wife was. She seemed to know her husband just as well as Alice had known hers.

She placed a fist to her stomach and bowed low. "The Templar and Priests of the Underbridge Clan wish to follow you. Not because of the desired reparations from our Progenitor. We follow Samba. If Samba follows you, then so do we."

There had been a lot more passion in her tone than the translation had provided. Alice wasn't sure what she expected, but what seemed to be a statement of fealty wasn't one of them.

It did make sense though. She'd heard Samba's stories. He was the one who'd trained everyone in their clan, he'd saved so many of their lives throughout their battles, and he did it all with a smile.

He was their Mark.

"In these troubled times, Wavecrest would like to tie ourselves closer in friendship, but I have to ask... Did you know?"

Tala rose from her bow and shook her head. "No. None of us did. We split off from Tiria back in Igna and none of us knew she was coming to Wavecrest. Even if we did, we wouldn't have let her have one of our own. Mark was one of our own."

While she believed Samba wholeheartedly, part of her still screamed that Tala was lying. How could they not know? Tiria was their Subgenitor. How could they truly choose Mark over her?

She smothered that part of herself down because she did actually believe Tala, and even if she didn't, the fiction would be better for her people.

"Tell me about your Progenitor. What can we expect?"

She made a face and then glanced at Samba behind her before answering. "He says he wants to destroy the Demon Empire. Despite his desire for us to protect you, I'm not sure I trust his intentions for either of our well beings, but... He's also a force of nature.

"When he sets his mind on something, it sometimes seems fate itself twists to make it happen. Back when we were considered a minor clan, he destroyed another one entirely on his own. When we elevated to a major one, he led us to take out one of our clan peers before hunting down the leader of Igna who was a highly advanced B in the same day.

"Even death didn't stop him. Frankly, he's probably our only hope against the Demon Empire."

The shadow of a smirk played across the undead woman's features as she talked about Gi's exploits. Alice knew that she was a mercenary and it seemed clear that she didn't share Tala's hesitancy. That made her a liability.

Another reason that she needed to figure out a better means for translation.

"But?" Alice could tell that Tala's statement had an unsaid exception left hanging in the air.

"Even if we need him, we should be careful. A rockslide cares not who gets crushed underneath it."

****

Guilt, sadness, anger, confusion - Samba still had all of these feelings. Listening to Alice direct both the Wavecrest and Underbridge Clans did ease his confusion some.

He'd made mistakes and been too weak to protect Mark. Those were his sins, but following Alice put him back on a path. He wasn't sure what kind of Otter he'd be in the future, but if he didn't do something now, it wouldn't be the kind of Otter that he wanted to be.

After a couple hours, Alice had sent runners off to their still approaching army to help control the narrative over what had happened. With Tala's agreeance, they didn't want to incite any more dissonance between their peoples if at all possible.

Alice herself left towards her home, alone. As much as Samba wanted to be there to protect her, he also understood that she needed her space. Her husband had died not even twenty four hours ago and the mask she wore must have grown heavy.

Trying to put aside his concern and guilt, he left with Tala towards the ship turned great hall where they slept. Once they were out of earshot of the other humans, Tala finally spoke.

"Are you okay?"

"No." They both knew the answer to that question, but it wasn't what she truly wanted to ask.

"I know that Mark was important to you and I meant what I said about the clan following you, but... are you sure this is where you want to be?"

Samba turned in shock. "Tala, Mark was my best friend. He died because of our clan. How can you even suggest leaving them now?"

"I'm not-," Tala started and took a deep shaking breath. "Listen, I meant what I said. If this is where you're supposed to be, we'll follow you. I'm just scared about our family. I know what happened to Mark was Gi and Tiria, but we were just about to flee with the demons on our heels. Demons that we didn't have the fighters to beat. Do you really want to fight them with Gi?"

"No." It took a surprising amount of self control not to spit at the sound of his name.

"You say no, but Alice seems determined to work with him and you seem determined to be her personal bodyguard. So where does that leave us?"

Samba didn't have an answer for her. Tala was right. She was always right. It was one of the reasons that he loved her, but that small defiant spark wouldn't go away. He couldn't just abandon Alice after he'd let Mark die. It wasn't his nature.

Tala sighed. "And that leaves our people stuck in this war fighting behind the banner of the rockslide-turned-demigod. Like I told Alice, the clan would follow you to their graves and not regret a single step. I meant that. Even if I lead them, you're the one they follow - whether you're playing bodyguard or not. Just promise me you won't forget them."

"I... I promise." It was another heavy burden, but with Tala taking the First One's share of the effort, how could he promise less?