“This is the best I can do. ” Shuji said with a grimace as he produced something that looked suspiciously like a Chinese firework covered in arcane symbols.
“It is meant for celebrations and we were saving it for when the village became fully self-sufficient… but this is the closest thing I have in our our current stock. I can think of several things back in the Capitol that would serve you much better, but this will have to do. I am fascinated by your theory, and hope you live to tell me if it works.”
“Yeah, me too Shuji... Me too.” Tilly replied distractedly as he adjusted the tight-fitting satchel designed to sit on the small of his back over his jacket. In it were two health potions, some bandages, flint, and tinder along with some simple rations and water.
“I wish we had more for you, but our stock is dangerously low, and we have no healer here. Just a few farmers with some poor medicine skills, and these last potions. It says much that Lord Hiro is issuing them to you... they are the only thing that can save a dying man on the walls.”
Tilly nodded slowly in understanding as he looped the satchel around his back and let it settle in place. It may have been his imagination, but he thought he felt his jacket shifting for a second. But then the sensation passed, and Tilly found the storage item sitting snuggly but not uncomfortably on his lower back.
“Don't worry Shuji, I get it. No one wants this, but we all have to do what we have to do... Your village is in trouble, and Hiro is risking some of his most precious remaining resources in a last-ditch effort to change the situation. Another potion or better fire starter won't make much of a difference. Either my plan works or it doesn't.”
With those words, the door opened and one of the escort Lapins grunted in Shuji’s direction. Through the open door, Tilly heard a loud nasally voice complaining.
“Nyuk, are you sure we can't just raft him to the bottom of the mountain and wait to see if he comes back?”
“Kuro, you idiot, you heard Lord Hiro. If he doesn't stop whatever is up there, we all die anyway. Your wife and son included! Now if you don't shut up, I will shove-” He stopped talking as he noticed the guard had opened the door, and both Shuji and Tilly were watching the pair.
“-It was just a joke, you don't have to be so harsh,” replied Kuro in a low petulant voice.
'Well, looks like it's time to go.'
Tilly looked back at Shuji and gave him a small bow.
“Thanks for your help Shuji, I hope I see you again. I would love to be able to ask other questions.”
“Good providence human, I too look forward to your triumphant return.” The lapin replied with just a hint of worry coloring his cheerful tone.
With that, Tilly brushed past the guard and stood before two particularly muscular Lapin males with felling axes strung behind their backs. The sun was beginning to set, and the rest of the village had taken on a hushed defeated tone. Women were shooing children toward homes and sharply shutting doors. The men not already on the wall were moving in that direction. The gurging calls of the Corrupted began to ring out from the surrounding forest.
All the energy seemed to go out of the Loggers as they turned to look at the gate. Tilly emerged from the squat building and the pair looked back at him with their faces set in grim lines. The two guard lapins checked that the trio was set and then hurried off to join the others at the wall.
“So Kuro, Nyuk. My name is Tilly. Nice to meet you, did you say something about rafting?” Tilly started, not exactly knowing how to begin with the reluctant duo.
“That is correct, human. We typically lash our logs together upriver and ride them downstream to the mill. Instead, tonight we will take some of the logs and use them to pole upstream and ride out the night on the river. Tomorrow morning we will hike up the mountain and face whatever we find there, likely our deaths. These creatures seem most active at night, so we plan to arrive at our target around noon tomorrow.” Nyuk answered solemnly.
“Huh, well I can't say I like the death part, but everything else sounds good. I want you guys to know, I do have a plan, and if it works, none of us will die tomorrow.”
“I have already kissed my son goodbye, human. Don't ruin my mood with false hope.” Kuro stated dismissively before turning and walking towards the small dock on the river bank.
'Well, so much for team building' Tilly thought wryly as he and Nyuk followed after the sullen lapin.
They marched through the village, toward the area where the wall met the river. When they arrived a few minutes later, Tilly was interested to see that they had built the palisade a good distance into the river. This created a small harbor that sheltered a small dock leading out into the water. At the edge of the platform rested a crude but sturdy-looking raft of eight large logs.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
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The trip upriver was uneventful. There were a few Corrupted creatures on the banks of the river, but they mostly headed back toward the Village for what Tilly learned was a nightly battle.
They would spend twilight crowding the forest around the village and then throw themselves at the wall until their numbers were spent. For some reason, they only attacked at night, and did so in a steady stream, almost as if they didn't want to take the village, but rather exhaust its inhabitants night after night. The tactic was disturbingly sophisticated for something Tilly still hoped was not sapient.
He spent the ride taking throws at the passing creatures. He only managed to wound a few and didn't get any experiance for his efforts. The two loggers just ignored the creatures as they steadily poled up the river. For them, this was business as usual.
“How long have these attacks been happening?” Tilly asked one of the stoic lapins after missing another impossible throw at a creature moving through the dark forest.
The one called Kuro looked over at him, almost surprised he wanted to talk as they set out on such a grim task. He looked over at Nyuk incredulously and the other lapin just pretended not to have heard. With a wearied sigh, Kuro answered.
“First our hunters started discovering creatures slain in the forest by unnatural means. They were killed but not eaten, and the killing was uncommonly savage. Then attacks began to happen at the logging camp. We always posted a guard and were able to fight off the creatures but Lord Hiro grew concerned. He sent our hunters to follow the creature's trail during the day and find their source.” At this point, Kuro slowed in his story and watched another creature stumble by on the river bank, clearly ravaged by corruption.
“Only one hunter returned from the mission. He was wounded and severely poisoned by the Corruption. Before he died, he spoke of an evil spreading at the top of the mountain and reaching down towards the valley.”
At this, Nyuk lifted one of his hands from the pole and made a sign to ward off evil. Kuro looked over at the motion and narrowed his eyes in annoyance.
“At this point, Ichiro, our Lord’s son, and our last true warriors formed a party and went to stop this threat before it grew too great for our village to overcome… they failed.
“They have not been seen since that day, and the attacks on the village started a week later. With Lord Hiro on the wall, we have held.”
“In no small part because we finished the palisade far ahead of schedule,” Nyuk grumbled
Kuro just ignored him and continued, “But our supplies run low. Our rice fields and gardens have gone untouched so far, but the game we used to subsist on from the forest is all but gone. We fish the river for now, but even that has its limits. If the attacks intensify, there will be too many for Lord Hiro to handle with only our militia to assist. Even if they merely continue as they are, we will flag and fail eventually.”
“Can’t you run? Or at least send your women and children to safety?” Tilly asked quietly, the weight of the villager’s plight weighing down on him.
Kuro’s sneer returned with a vengeance,
“Our teleport platform is inactive, and our messages go unanswered. They told us we were being sent to ‘Subdue this area of the frontier for the glory of the Empire…’ what a load of pit-cursed shit.” Kuro finished before spitting vehemently over the side of the raft.
That answer only produced another round of questions in Tilly’s mind, but he saw the flat look of fury burning in the lapin’s eyes and decided to hold back for now. It wasn't too much longer before the lapins seemed to notice some landmark that was invisible to Tilly’s eyes in the dark. They moved the raft closer to the bank and lodged the poles deep in the silty river bed through two holes in the middle of the raft that seemed to be made for this purpose.
Tilly looked around and saw that the eddy they were in was produced by a small but familiar stream flowing down into the river from the nearby shore. The poles seemed to be able to anchor the raft well enough in the reduced current near the mouth of the stream, and Tilly noted that they were still far enough away from shore that any creatures would have a difficult time approaching the raft without making a lot of noise.
Without a word, both lapins settled down and reached into their packs to produce some of the rice ball and fish rations that each of them had been issued. Tilly followed suit and hunkered down on the unsteady raft, reaching into his satchel for his own rations. He felt sick to his stomach when he thought about what they would be attempting tomorrow, but he knew he had to eat, so eat he did, with mechanical efficiency.
“We will get what rest we can here until dawn. Then Kuro and I will go with you up the mountain to this ‘temple’ and we shall see if this plan of yours works.” Nyuk said with finality. Kuro just let out a quiet burp before curling up on his side of the raft, and almost instantly began snoring.
“Wow, he doesn't waste time does he?” Tilly wondered, unable to keep the awe from his voice.
“Kuro is only really good at two things. That Lapin can fell and haul more trees than any other two put together and he can sleep through anything.” Nyuk said looking over at his companion with something other than the hard expressions he had worn for the whole of the trip.
Tilly simply nodded, wondering if he would be able to sleep at all with the horrors he planned to face tomorrow. Nyuk laid down himself, but surprisingly continued in a voice just loud enough for Tilly to hear,
“Kuro likes to say that he is only really good at three things… But don't ask him what the third thing is.”
Tilly snorted and almost choked on the last of his rice ball, shooting a glance at the more serious Lapin, but he was already snoring. Looked like they both were no slouches when it came to that second skill.
Tilly gingerly followed suit, laying back and looking up at the sky visible through the overhanging branches.
He hadn't gotten a chance to do so during his last two harrowing nights, and what he saw hit him in the chest with the force of its beauty. It was like one of those special Hubble images that NASA used to raise money. Instead of shining from a computer screen, the incredible sight spanned the night sky. There were uncountable stars, intermingling with nebulae and something resembling the northern lights dancing beyond the mountain tops.
It was truly incredible, and Tilly idly started to wonder just how many of the dreams of men were nightmares, and how many were things like this. Sometime during his reverie, he fell asleep to the sound of the quiet rush of the river.