The bard had given something to me, and so I thought I should give something to him as we said our goodbyes. He gave me information; I gave him a rhyme to sing.

In days of old

when knights were bold

and toilets were not invented

they'd drop their load

in the middle of the road

and walk away, contented.

He thought it hilarious, and could make quite a good living with the uproar of a drinking hole's praises. Luckily, these people had passed such an age and were able to laugh at it since they had invented outhouses at least. We made our farewells, and since he was in a rather good mood, I'd say my objective was a success, at least for now. Dulcet wanted to sing the song too, and there wasn't a reason to stop her... the first time. Singing the same thing over and over was getting annoying quickly, though. She was a drider, born as a drider. Human infancy and the speed of spider aging was... well, it was what it was.

...

Continuing along the road with two of my daughters was feeling a little lonely, but at the same time, welcome. I looked through the eyes of some of my other children, and saw what that scream during the fight was. I had been so focused on my objective that I didn't even think about checking up on what had happened. Just about everyone had one or two injuries, some had more. Laina was taking care of it as best she could, but it was actually Djraine that had started helping her as well. She stayed and rested like she was supposed to, and the other drider were brought in to the cave and got checked on from there.

Shore was outside with Cletus. Shore was tending to the garden, and under the tutelage of someone that I hadn't noticed, or so I assumed, had started feeding corn to the captured birds. Bander was the one who went up to them and started looking at them, making almost a crowd at this point. The birds were injured, and when presented with food, they consumed it like a glutton would. They must have been starved and beaten to tame them! I wondered if they were aggressive and it was necessary, but something told me it wasn't.

Paying attention to my own surroundings again, I saw what looked like a keep or some kind of tower ahead, peeking over some hills. While we got there, I thought I could sing a few other songs, hoping that if anyone heard us it would make them less fearful and hateful; just enjoying our music. Dulcet thought it was a good idea, but of course she would! She had a gentle but deep voice for a female, which is why I gave her the name, and Sun just smiled. The first song I sung was one I heard in a cartoon, sung by a squadron of magical fruits. There were other songs I sang too, making sure the feel of the song transitioned in emotional overtone organically, but ending in a sad but somehow uplifting song I heard in a television show about time travel. It was a really nice song and I'm glad I was able to focus on the lyrics and not just the beauty of the pyramid built into an asteroid orbiting a skull-faced star. I heard a few dings in my head throughout the rest of our musical mission to help the others listen, but I brushed them away for now.

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We had finally arrived at the keep... or redoubt? It probably counted as a castle based on its design. There were various odd things set up on top of each of the hills surrounding it, and the castle walls were oddly shaped. I imagined if looking at it from above, it would be a strange and disorganized six-sided oddity, with none of the walls the same length. The guards out front looked ready for a fight, but I put up my hands and instructed my girls to do the same thing- not preparing for being handcuffed, since I doubted that was a thing in this world, but just to say 'we are not armed, we are not here to fight'. I put the bug jar under my arm so I could put up both hands.

After awhile, someone from above, probably on a walkway, shouted something down to the guards, and they replied. It sounded like words I could understand, but they said it too quickly for me to catch what it was. Someone came out from behind a small wooden door built into the tower base behind the guards, and started to talk.

"What do you monsters want?"

"We aren't monsters. Also, I wanted to talk to whoever is in charge."

"Every time beasts like you have come anywhere near our borders, you have attacked! The only reason you're alive right now is because our forces didn't notice you until now!"

He was clearly lying. We were being rather loud and drawing attention to ourselves for the last three hours, so such a thing was impossible.

"Can I please speak with your commander?"

"The Commander is not present!"

Hey, I was probably right! That is the guy I ate. Heh.

"Who is your master? I wish to speak with your master!" I figured that's probably how he was referred to, judging by the level of civilization.

The man looked like he wanted to argue more. I counteracted by yelling at him again.

"Your master will be displeased if he learns that you took it upon yourself as to choose what he does and does not do, and who he does and does not speak to! Are you the leader here, or is someone else?!"

He went back inside, and after an annoyingly lengthy wait, he came back.

"The duke will see you now. Only you. The others have to stay outside."

It was just as well. A drider was not designed to walk around in narrow corridors designed for jumi, even if they might as well be humans with gemstone hearts. My spider legs were just too wide to fit in properly, so I walked along the wall instead. I didn't have to go far- the tower we had entered wasn't even attached to the other part of the castle- and that part was just a small square stone monument of sorts, almost like the entrance to a mausoleum with stone double-doors. That had a wide and winding pathway that went down, and for this I walked on the stairs. Eventually, we came to a widened area that was like a huge basement with various candles lighting the area.

There was a big desk with some knick-knacks that were impossible to misidentify sitting on it. This guy was reincarnated, too!