The two of us made quick progress back to the cave for our little meeting. I had no idea if it was even worth the time to consider other options or if my escape from this place should be enacted immediately. Not knowing if I was completely fucked or not didn’t sit well with me. My fate here was to be decided by a squirrelly little shit who was either pissing his metaphorical pants in a tent somewhere in fear of me or ratting me out to someone in charge. If he decided to immediately go to someone and tell them about me, I would be screwed.
It was clear that Kala could feel my tension and unease as I caught more than one concerned look coming from her. She didn’t bother to say anything or ask what I was thinking. She already knew that my situation here just became all the more strenuous, there was no need to confirm it.
Once we were back in the relative safety of our little hole, we each sat down at the table. I was still deep in thought, trying to make up my mind on whether to stay or not. Kala picked up the silence and decided to break it.
“So, what are you planning to do?”
“Honestly, I'm heavily considering just getting out of here while I still can.”
“What? But we finally had some good things happen for a change.”
“Sure, a few good things, but they don’t mean shit if I'm suddenly reduced to a lab experiment again. I will fucking kill someone, this entire damn camp if I must, if that even remotely appears to be the case.”
Kala cast her gaze downward. “Right, you sort of told me about that before. I won’t claim to know exactly what you went through, but I imagine it was its own kind of damnation.”
“Kala, if I was sent to the pits of hell itself, it probably wouldn’t have been that bad.” She didn’t have anything to say to that and seemingly tried to avoid the topic. I sighed. “Look, if I have to run, I'm not expecting you to come with me. You’re safe here, as reasonably as you can be in an army that is. You can stay with your people.”
Now she suddenly looked offended. “I’ve stuck with you this far, you dragged me all the way across Valthrain and then some, why would I abandon you now?”
I smiled slightly. “You don’t know how happy I am to hear that, but if it turns out that I can’t stay here, then there is nowhere left for me in this world. I won’t be welcomed anywhere, I'd be hunted everywhere, and asking you to follow me through all of that would be cruel and pointless. It would be better if you just stayed.”
Her brow furrowed deeper at me. “It would be better if you stayed. You deserve a place to lay your head, people to talk to, and food to eat. There is no need for you to suffer on your own.”
“Shared misery is still misery. The only way to lessen it is if only one person need experience it.”
“Why does anyone need to experience it? That won’t happen. I won’t let you be forced into running away with nowhere to go. I don’t care if I have to yell at those generals again every day from now until I die. I won’t let them hurt you like that.”
I gave a huff of amusement. “You’re impossible to argue with, it’s always a losing battle.”
She smirked at me. “So, do you give up on running away? Will you fight with me for your place here?”
I sighed in surrender. “Fine, we can attempt to convince him to keep my secret as well. We’ll try some good cop bad cop.”
Now she just looked confused. “Good what?”
“Cop, law enforcement. What’s the word you would use for it? Sheriff, I guess? Either way, the idea is that I offer him the bad deal where he will experience pain, and you offer him the good deal where he can avoid it in return for his silence. I can threaten to just kill him, but you will argue in his favor, allowing him a chance to escape that fate so long as he cooperates.”
“How is that different from just threatening him like you did already?”
“A scared person will do whatever they think will get them out of the situation as quickly as possible. Right now, he is very scared, and looking for help, a way out. You will offer him that way out, acting as his shield against me. He will accept the conditions if you can convince him that his safety is guaranteed.”
“Alright, I guess that makes sense. So, what, you’re going to bring him here and I'll act surprised and upset that you want to hurt him?”
“More or less, start with confusion then move to defending him from me.”
“Okay, we have a plan, I'll make it work.” She seemed determined that this succeeds. My appreciation of her only increased every time she would go out of her way for my sake.
“I’ll take a walk and see if I can find him and ‘convince’ him to come with me.”
She nodded but had a hint of concern in her expression. “Be careful, okay? He might try to hurt you.”
“Fair point, I'll be cautious.” With everything as ready as it could be, I went out to get our little problem and bring him back in. Of course, I didn’t know where he was holed up at, so that would mean having to wander the camp for a little while until he could be found. Now, wandering around a camp that was angry specifically at me was not exactly ideal, but that was the least of my concerns right now.
I entered the camp with less hesitation and more purpose than previously. Despite my drive to find the little red-tailed rat, I maintained an awareness of those around me. It wouldn’t help to just waltz right into a fist that could be avoided with but a little attentiveness.
Stalking through the camp like this necessitated ignoring many of the venomous glares that I received along the way. If there was a clump of people on the path I was taking that seemed to radiate a certain level of hostility, then I would divert in another direction. So far, no sign of the rat had been found. If he was hiding in a tent, that would make things difficult, if he had already gone to a higher power and reported me, that would make things impossible.
I fucking hate this. Why can’t I just have a moment of peace? It felt like I could barely take a breath before the next thing came around to try and fuck with me.
Amid my annoyed and angry thoughts, something felt a little off. It was the kind of feeling you get when there are eyes on you. Well, there were plenty of eyes on me, but those stares I had tuned out for the most part. This was different.
My eyes slowly scanned in front of me to see if anything appeared to be out of place. No one ahead of me looked any different than what was to be expected, so this person must be behind me. I made a show of looking around like I was lost before turning. I quickly absorbed everything in my line of sight and noticed movement off to the side between a few tents. Someone had ducked in cover to avoid being seen.
Now that it was all but confirmed that I was being followed, it was time to find out who and why. This was a distraction from my original goal, but I couldn’t take someone in for a “talk” while being watched. Acting like I didn’t notice anything, I continued walking.
I rounded the corner of a tent, and as soon as I did, jogged across the row and hid where I could see who was coming. A few seconds after taking cover in my hiding spot, who else but red-tail himself rounded the corner. He looked around and appeared to be very confused, if not worried, about my sudden disappearance.
So, you decided to keep an eye on me? I guess that’s a way to go about it, avoid me by knowing where I am at all times. Too bad for him though that his attempts to stalk me were met with failure. I stepped out of my hiding spot and approached him from behind. Putting on a little dramatic flair I clapped a hand on his shoulder. He jumped and looked like he was about to shit himself with how ridged he became.
“Hey buddy, why don’t we have a talk back at my place.” I had to admit, it was fun watching him squirm in my grasp.
“I... I... don’t...”
“Shhh, just stay quiet, keep walking, and try not to look like you’re ready to piss yourself. Manage to do that, and I won’t pluck your eyeballs out of your skull.” I really had to make this guy think I would kill him in order for the plan to work. He opened and closed his mouth a couple times like a fish out of water. “Nod if you understand.” He stopped flapping his jaws and gave a short nod. “Good, now walk.”
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I kept a firm grip on his shoulder and encouraged him to walk. He managed to get his feet moving, but he looked like he had a stick up his ass. We received more than a fair share of confused looks as we walked out of the camp again. Some people might have just thought he was just another Kala situation and sneered, but no one decided to question us. Poor bastard was probably holding out hope for that.
We exited the camp's main radius and started approaching the tunnel to the room. Before we entered, he made one attempt at defiance and refused to move forward. I dug my fingers into his collarbone which made him wince and squirm a bit. I pressed him to move forward, and after a few more seconds of resisting, he caved, and started walking again.
Reaching the room, I threw open the door and shoved him inside. He stumbled a few steps and came to a stop in the middle of the room. The door was closed with a slight slam. I was hamming it up with the theatrics right now.
“James? What’s going on?” Kala said from her seated position. She had started acting out her role as well and was quite frankly doing a good job of looking surprised. Our little red-tailed friend snapped his attention to her as he didn’t even realize she was in the room until this point.
“Sorry Kala, we have a little problem that needs to be fixed.” I said while glaring at the one in question.
“P... please, get him away from me, help me!” He pleaded with Kala.
Kala gave him a quick look but almost immediately turned her attention back to me. “What do you mean problem?” She asked with a convincing furrowed brow. She was far better at acting than I was. I wondered if that was because she had to appease those who had been her masters before and just bullshitted her way through the day.
“He knows about me, or at least he has an idea. Either way, he’s a risk that needs to be dealt with.”
Our victim’s eyes widened as he looked between the two of us. His gaze settled on Kala. “Wait, you know about him too, but that... Oh gods, please, I already promised not to say anything!”
Kala put up the start of a defense for him as well. “James, you’re not thinking about actually killing him, right?” If it was possible to see the blood drain from his face, I think we would have at that point.
I turned towards Kala and made an offhand gesture to him. “Can’t trust a single word he says. Caught him stalking me when I went out just a minute ago as well. He’s probably planning to stab me in the back the first chance he gets.”
He launched into a desperate and bumbling defense of himself. “No! Wait, that wasn’t... I was just... I-I-I just didn’t want to get in your way, so I followed you to make sure I wouldn’t!”
“That is the worst lie I have ever heard. I can’t risk you opening your trap when you will just lie to my face like that.” I took a step towards him menacingly. Kala intercepted me and put a hand on my shoulder.
“James, no! You can’t just kill him.”
“Why not? I can make it look like an accident. I’ll just drop a big rock on his head after I break his neck, make it look like one dropped off the side of the volcano.” Not that I could actually do that without someone seeing me, but he didn’t need to know that.
Kala looked aghast at what I had said. “James, that’s not right! You don’t have to kill him.”
“Then what do you want me to do!” This was her chance to be his savior, I hoped that she could pull it off.
“Just, let me talk to him for a minute.” I furrowed my brow, alternating between glaring at the little rat who was two seconds away from huddling in a corner and wetting himself, and looking very unsure at Kala. She maintained her own firm gaze as part of the act, and after letting the tense moment hang in the air, I caved to her.
I threw my hands up. “Bah! Fine, have your minute.” I stalked over and leaned against the door. You could see the little bit of relief wash over him as he thought that he could maybe get out of this alive.
Kala walked over to the table. “Would you like to sit down? I promise I won’t let him hurt you if you’ll just hear me out.” He looked unsure if he should put himself in a vulnerable position, but he eventually came over a took a seat with his back to the wall.
Kala dipped her head to him and took a seat of her own. “Thank you. I know you must be scared, so maybe I'll answer some questions if I'm able to. Could I get your name?”
“Uhm, it’s Holdrem.” His eyes flickered to me for a fraction of a second before resting on Kala once more. “Wha... what is he? He died, there was no way to survive that, but he’s still here.”
“Nice to meet you Holdrem, I’m Kala. Now, to answer your question, he’s a human, and while he hasn’t told me much about himself, he seems to be rather difficult to kill.” She was keeping it vague and omitting a few things. I applauded her for her discretion.
“Wait, so he’s not a Thrainian?”
Why does it take people knowing about the magical bullshit going on with me to believe that?
“Yes, while it might be difficult to tell at a glance, you will notice that his ears are different. If you would care to know him beyond the surface, you will find that he does not share many habits or beliefs of Thrainians as well. He is a good man.”
Holdrem looked rather incredulous. “He threatened to torture and kill me, how does that make him good?”
“I apologize for his aggression. He has had a rather... difficult, time in the past. The Thrainians experimented on him, causing him unimaginable agony and suffering. As you can guess, this has made him rather warry of people finding out about him.”
So, she’s painting me as a damaged sympathy case? Maybe that wasn’t far from the truth. I certainly had my fair share problems up north, but it was still a little annoying.
“He was tortured?” Holdrem asked inquisitively.
“Yes, he doesn’t like to talk about it much, but it was bad. In fact, it was Alathos himself that ordered it to be done according to him. He just doesn’t want to be experimented on again. If you were in his position, would you kill to prevent yourself from ending up in the same situation you only just managed to escape from?”
Holdrem looked down at the table, clearly thinking about her question. Kala sighed before continuing. “Look, he is a good person, he saved me from slavery after all. Despite his threats, he’s more scared than you are. I promise you that if you keep quiet about this no harm will come to you. If you have any more problems with him then just come to me and I'll straighten things out. Is that acceptable?”
Holdrem looked at me from his seated position. I kept my face impassive but softened my gaze at him. Kala was building me up as being worth sympathy, and while sympathy had always irked me before, I had to use it to my advantage in this situation.
He took another minute of thinking before coming back to her with an answer. “I, will refrain from speaking of this with others.”
Kala reached across the table and grabbed his hand, giving him an appreciative smile. “Thank you. We both appreciate this, right?” She put emphasis on that as she looked back at me. I just grunted and looked away, still trying to act stoic. “He is. Do you have any other questions?” Holdrem thought for a second before shaking his head. “Okay, well if you do have any more later you can ask me then. I’ll leave you to think this over for a while. James, I believe we can let him go on his way now.”
I looked at him for a moment before letting out a sigh. The sigh wasn’t even acting, this was the part I was most nervous about. Kala did a good job, but there was no way we could be certain he wouldn’t betray us anyway. This was the plan though, and while I would prefer a more concrete solution with guaranteed results, it would have to do.
Pushing off the door I opened it for him. Holdrem looked at me and the open door, then back to Kala. She nodded at him that he was free to go, and he cautiously got up from his chair. I looked at him and he at me as he made his way towards the exit. There was still some nervousness in his expression, but also a little bit of something else underneath it as well. I couldn’t make out what it was for certain, but it felt a little like curiosity and sympathy. That made me feel a little better about letting him walk, but it still inspired anxious thoughts about it.
My gaze never left him as he walked at a normal pace down the tunnel towards the exit. He looked rather pensive as he left, which was good, and I made sure that he had made it all the way out the exit before closing the door again. I turned back to Kala who was leaning back in her chair.
“So, how did I do?” She asked me.
“Pretty good I think, he certainly looked like he was thinking about what you said. You’re a damn good actor.”
She did a half bow from her seated position with a flourish of her hand. “Thanks, but it was kind of easy when I was just speaking my mind about most of those things. I do think you are a good person who’s just been through a lot of pain.”
My face scrunched up a little bit. “I don’t know, I feel like most of the ‘good’ in me was gouged out.”
“If that was true, then I wouldn’t be here, you wouldn’t have gone along with anything I said, and you definitely wouldn’t have treated me with such consideration as we traveled.”
“That’s just being a normal person with a basic level of decency.”
Kala adopted a ‘really’ look. “James, I don’t know who you were before you came here, but evidently you were such a good person that the level of kindness that you give now doesn’t even register to you as such. What you did for me would be held up at the level of saintliness for those who worship the god of justice and light. I get the feeling that if I knew you before all this, I would think you were an avatar of such a god.”
I rubbed the back of my neck, feeling a little bashful at how high a pedestal she had placed me on. “Jeez, you’re going to make me blush if you keep heaping praise on me like that. It doesn’t feel like I deserve so much.”
“But you do! I thought I would die surrounded by people who thought of me as less than mud, but you saved me, fed me, taught me, all without me even having to ask for it. No amount of praise I could give would ever repay that.”
A soft smile formed on my face. “You helped me too. I don’t think I would have made it this far without you. I’d probably be wandering around in the woods, stealing food just to get by. I’m glad I met you, Kala, I really am.” She smiled back at me, and we both had a moment of appreciating one another.
“So, what do we do now?” Kala said after a time.
“I don’t know, pray that we don’t suddenly find our door kicked in within the next hour by an armed contingent of soldiers? Other than that, maybe just kill some time for the rest of the day? How do you feel about a little workout session?”
“I could go for some exercise, sure.” We started up some in-house workouts that we could accomplish, sit-ups, push-ups, various stretches, etc. There were a couple of unique stretches that Trelnval did for their tails that I found interesting to witness. It was just a little something we could do to pass the time while we waited for dinner to roll around. It seemed that we weren’t being swarmed with soldiers just yet, so that either meant we were good for right now, or they were waiting for an opportune moment to strike. Either way, tomorrow would be where we found out for ourselves what was to come.