I was glad Malas was walking near Sun and Laina. Mostly, I was glad he was walking with Sun- she liked getting hugs, and Malas was a doofus that needed to be looked after. I think he got a lot worse after he reincarnated here, but he had died quite a few years before I did, and I wouldn't be surprised if he had reincarnated into someone even stupider in the meantime. As a matter-of-fact, he might have been alive when he reincarnated with the rest of my pets that became children. Well, many pet owners considered their pets to be their babies, and I had felt the same way. This life made the feelings of the previous that much more valid.

Cletus was in between Laina and Dulcet, and Aneis and Lyre were in the back. Sting and Djraine, of course, were up front with me. I would have preferred Cletus to be up at the front, but it didn't really matter. If we were fast enough, then we could position ourselves however we needed to in order to protect people and keep ourselves in good ambush and backstab positions. We might even be able to put up a few webs, and that would be really nice!

Shore, Mels, and Bander were talking about something, though I'm not entirely sure what the topic was since I only understood most of the language. As long as I kept hearing it, I was sure I'd get better, and that was very necessary right now. The gardener woman was riding on Sting's back since he had the most comfortable-looking shape. The widow abomen absorbed a lot of shock from their steps, so climbing on them would probably be bouncy and uncomfortable and the tarantula archetypes didn't have a narrow enough spot to sit on properly without the rider's legs getting in the way of their own.

"Don't worry, it's okay." I told the woman. "Elray get to meet all smiz other mar. Gahn'tee to see there are this many yorp! Calhoo shammy safer", she stated in response.

I understood enough words to get the jist of what she was saying, but I couldn't forget Sir Isaac Newton's Third Law of Relativity. I was hoping that it wouldn't function here, but I didn't want to be unrealistic in either direction. Not much was happening right now as we made our way to our neighbor's village, so I scanned the emotions of everyone that I could. Nobody was overly emotional in any way, and not many... images representing or composing fragments of thought came to me, either. I guess that meant everyone had an open mind and no expectations, so they were rather adaptable right now. I designed their new abilities and bodies well enough, I think, that we could live long enough to figure out what was going on before actual danger could present itself.

I spoke to the gardener woman a little bit here and there on the way without slowing, and finally a few words decoded themselves and I was able to learn her name. She was called Esmerelda the Second, Daughter of Wulfenite the Fourth and Topicia the First. Apparently these people were named after the color of jewel in their chest, or their jewel changed to the jewel they were named for, I'm not sure. I'll ask some other time. The name sounded very fancy and aristocratic, but it wasn't- there were other Esmereldas, but they had other parents, so to set her apart, since this world hadn't invented surnames, they used the name of a parent. Additionally, I learned that males had the jewel name as it was, and females had a variation name. Esmerelda was an emerald, Topicia was a topaz. Jewel color, type, karat, and any other trait was totally unrelated to lineage, though each jewel was flawless. A flawless diamond would be very interesting to see, but acquiring one wouldn't be worth it. Finally, I learned the name of this species of humanoid. I'm pretty sure that meant my aspect list would update itself!

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When we arrived at the village, it looked a lot like it did when we had first arrived- no people anywhere, and it was quiet and deserted-looking. I didn't see any knights, and Esmerelda didn't jump off of Sting and go running or start screaming or crying or anything so I figured we were still early. I thought some questions needed to be answered.

"I thought you said they were seen and on the way?"

"No, they were seen and stammacee, but they mohbip arriving ch'ten."

While looking at the buildings and thinking what quick traps and annoyances we could make with spiderweb, my mind drifted and I started thinking about how to make a lumberman's saw. I was pretty sure I knew exactly how much work it would be, but that would also be on the assumption I'd have other tools to shape the metal right. I shook my head, and looked around again.

"Are there any cellars or canning rooms or something else underground to store food? If there is, some of us can hide there and come out to fight if it becomes necessary."

"Nadnas suah-aht too expensive so that's aywso silo."

The grain silo was farther than I would be comfortable with, if I was considering it a hiding place for reinforcements. I did want to keep the villagers out of the way, in case one of the soldiers decided to break into a building and do what they did the last time I was here. I sent Esmerelda inside her little farmhouse, and sent Lyre with her. I sent Sun, Aneis, and the other widows to the other buildings with a single wolf. The widows would web the doors and windows from the outside under the overhangs so it wasn't visible from far away, hopefully, and each wolf could let the people inside know that no one would be able to get in no matter how hard they tried. Well, at least not for a little while; spidersilk was strong but not invincible.

It didn't take much longer to see something far off on the mostly flat grassy fields spanning out from the village. Another village was out that way somewhere, I was told, and I assumed the moving dark shapes that periodically glittered were the silhouettes of the investigators. Cletus, Sting, and myself were the ones in the middle of the village, waiting for them to get close enough to talk. Hopefully they would want to talk and not just flip out at our image. I didn't know how many there were, but hopefully we'd be fine, and figure out something that wouldn't make everything worse.