Walking into the barn I see there are some of the blue behemoths around the place feeding, resting and relieving themselves. Looking again, those two over in the back seem to be “relieving stress” together; I guess even giant blue moths have to come from somewhere.
Turning away from the show I notice two of the crew sat down at a table near the entrance. One a young lad with golden locks, reading what looks like a manual whilst checking out some of the farming equipment lain out around the table. Looks like this was where all the tools where kept. The other resident is a hooded man in robes as dark as the deepest of wells his face draped in shadows as per usual. On his shoulder sat his namesake, a crow.
As the barn door slams shut behind me, they both turn to assess me.
“The protagonist has arrived!” I declare.
Crow simply grunts and nods his head in my direction before returning to scribbling on one of the many maps around him. How did he get so many already? We’ve only been here a day.
“I hope this protagonist brought back something nice from the woods” says the youth placing a set of shears back onto a wall rack.
“I managed to snag a twin tusked boar” I reply “Sam wants me to get some milk and cheese for whatever she’s brewing, said you’re the one to ask”
“That I am! They don’t call me Fred the Farmer for nothing after all” he chuckled walking over to the table. “But now I think about it, this will be my first time taking it from a cream behemoth, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out. That handbook over there is really useful, glad I got one of the captives to ‘lend’ it to me”
“There’s no need to touch the moths Fred” Crow said in his typical gruff tone “There should be some stored over there” the crow on his shoulder raised a wing in the direction of some barrels and crates.
“Amazing work as always Crow” I complimented the hardworking guy. I liked to imagine that, under all those shadows, he blushed a little. Unfortunately though, red cheeks didn’t fit with his colour scheme. “Where are these so called Cream Behemoths then? Other than these blue freaks, all the behemoths I’ve ever seen are a dirty brown”
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Fred spoke up “actually, these ‘blue freaks’, are them.”
“But they’re bl-”
“I know Yura. I know.”
This is just one more reason to hate cockroaches.
After coming to terms with the fact some people have no naming sense. I packed up some cheese and Fred grabbed one of the barrels of milk and we headed back to camp. Crow decided to stay for a bit and finish up some of the maps. He was probably working on some plans to set up The Wolf’s Maw’s new lair. The guy just loves designing lairs for not so good hearted groups and he was a workaholic to the core. I should save some of what Sam makes and bring it him later. The silly guy will starve himself before he stops his work.
We got back to camp and gave Sam the stuff. Remy was lounging around the fire looking better than she must have been before. Her brother Thane had the prisoners encased in earthen chairs facing the fire. Kind of cruel to make them watch the remaining signs of their life before we arrived burnt to a cinder but I don’t think they could cry so it’s fine. Turns out Thane had been taking them on a toilet break when I arrived so maybe they didn’t have any fluids left for tears.
Leaving Fred to talk to Sam about the food, I headed into the main ranch building to try find a bath before we ate. Whilst I was searching for the right room I may have come across a certain gnome captain standing on a stool whilst looking at his reflection in the mirror. I was going to walk in but decided I didn’t want to risk him preventing me from eating so I continued my search for a place to wash.
About half an hour later I returned outside, hair still a bit damp but overall I felt so much cleaner than I did before. I sat down at a chair at the table Thane had fashioned for all of us and just in time, because Sam began serving up a dish of Roasted Porkchops with Cheese Sauce. It had nice blend of herbs which went nicely with the pork and the sauce was so nice and creamy harmonising the dish. Oh! So that’s why they’re called Cream Behemoths~
After taking a portion to crow in the ranch I headed into the ranch as Thane and Cavendish were taking first watch for the night. Finding a small room with an empty bed I placed my mace within arm’s reach then jumped in and thought a little about the rather hectic day I’d had. Whilst I was looking around the room something catches my eye. There’s a picture frame on one of the walls with a painting of cockroaches. Three of them standing together, two tall cockroaches and a shorter one. A little like a family.
I rolled away from the picture on the wall in an attempt to forget it.
To forget that I am sleeping in a bed which belonged to a cockroach.
To forget that the short cockroach was probably the tall ones son.
To forget that this is probably his room.
To forget that I killed him.