Arthur groaned as his consciousness came back to him. He was happily surprised to be still alive, but most of his body was on an inhumane level of soreness, his eyelids felt as heavy as a pair of boulders and his blood burned in his veins.
“You’re finally awake” said a voice coming from his bedside, interrupting his thoughts of pain and soreness and prompting him to sit up from where he was laying, his eyes shooting open in alarm.
To his relief, he found no carriage or Stormcloak waiting for him, although he still paused in surprise when he saw to whom the voice belonged to.
Arthur found himself in some kind of circular tent made up of animal pelts and held up by various poles of some material, probably wood. The place was sparsely furnished, with only a closed chest made of intertwined sticks and two piles of furs, probably serving as beds, one of which he was currently lying on.
To his side, a mountain of a man sat cross legged, watching him intently, some kind of halberd weapon lying near him. Although Arthur called him a man, he was definitely not human.
If he had to describe him, he would say the man was similar in build to an orc out of World of Warcraft, with rust red skin, a ram straight horn jutting from his forehead, and facial features definitely more handsome than an average human.
All in all, he looked nothing like an orc, but Arthur was still quite hazy so that was the best he could do for now.
“Ahem,” the man said, breaking him from his thoughts once again, “I don’t know about Humans, but among us Oni, it is practice to, at the very least, introduce yourself and give thank to the ones who saved your life and offered you shelter.” He continued, his voice quite unsubtly acidic.
“So you’re an- I mean, hi, my name is Arthur. Thanks for… saving my life?” Arthur sputtered out, still confused.
The Oni narrowed his eyes at him, before exhaling through his nostrils and conceding, “Better than nothing, I guess. They call me Jackal. Get up and ready yourself, our Elder wishes to meet you.” Jackal said.
Then he stood up with his weapon and moved towards the exit, where he turned around and started staring daggers at him once again.
Arthur slid out of the covers ,and as he noticed the small stack of clothing nearby, he realized that he was completely buck naked, which made him pause for a second.
The reaction wasn’t born out of embarrassment or anything similar, but rather because he noticed the multitude of silver lines covering most of his body, some bigger than others.
After miraculously managing to fight and mortally injure the three ‘smaller’ sand worms with his spear, Arthur had been forced to face the pink abomination, which had in turn dispatched its opponents.
It had been mauled half to death, and was much slower than before, but Arthur still couldn’t manage to shrug it off. Baiting the thing around, he had peppered it with all of his javelins, but when it had managed to catch up to him, he had been forced to use his spear to try and block an attack.
Unfortunately for Arthur, the spear immediately broke in half, and the last thing he remembered seeing was the massive monster falling on him. He had thought that would be the last thing he would see, but-
“There aren’t many teenagers in the tribe, you’re lucky we found a set of clothes that would fit you.” Jackal’s voice broke him from his reverie, and Arthur started clothing himself, trying not to think about what happened again.
The Oni continued as he wore a shirt which, as promised, fit him quite snugly. “You’re quite a lucky guy, all things considered. It’s not often that you hear a Life Mage survive such odds.”
Arthur paused for a moment, before speaking up. “I’m not sure what you mean. I’m not a Mage.” Which was actually true, since he didn’t use Magic, but rather Magick, but he wanted to know how much Jackal knew.
“If you wanted to disguise yourself, Arthur, you could have tinted your hair of the same colour. Also, we do not appreciate liars around here.” He responded, his voice slightly irritated this time.
“My hair?” Arthur said, quite confused from the statement. He had thought they maybe had a way to see his status screen or check his magical abilities, but what did his hair have to do with anything?
Jackal didn’t deign him with an answer though, so Arthur decided to leave the conversation there and finish dressing up.
As Arthur finished his preparations and they were about to exit the tent, Jackal turned to him.
“Unfortunately, your equipment was either completely destroyed or damaged beyond hope for repair. That said, we did manage to recover the bundles of Larvae silk you carried around, but you’ll be discussing with the Elder soon about those,” he took a small pause, looking at him, before continuing, “I’m watching you. Try not to cause a scene with other members of the tribe, and above all else, be respectful.”
They walked out, and Arthur tried to follow Jackal’s ‘suggestions’, avoiding to stare at people or bump into them while still looking around like some kind of tourist.
The first thing he noticed was that they were no longer in the middle of the desert, but rather in a grassy area quite similar to the one he had woken up on when he arrived in this world. The grass’ movement was almost unnoticeable, but by focusing on it he could still observe it slowly travelling away from them, much like the other place.
The tent village was largely unassuming, made up of around twenty of the dwellings and as many carriages.
What stood out to Arthur were three longboats beached in the middle of the small village, which confused him quite a bit before he remembered about the existence of magic. If his assumptions were right, he wanted one of those.
Another thing which made Arthur’s mouth fall open was a herd of thirty or so animals, which he assumed were used to train the carriages. What was most peculiar about them was their appearance, as they resembled some kind of lizard hybrid with the head of a bearded dragon, the body of a chameleon and a straight tail splitting in two near the end.
Stolen novel; please report.
They were also as big as bulls and possessed three pairs of legs, and Arthur was relieved to see they were feeding on the grass, rather than on meat.
The Oni and Human pair quickly traversed the camp, going straight for a tent at the middle of it, with only a quick detour to walk around and away from the boats, almost as if Jackal suspected Arthur would try and steal one. He probably would have given the idea a thought, if he knew how to even start up one of the vessels.
Although Arthur tried to avoid looking overmuch at the villagers, the same was not true for them, and as they neared their destination, they had gathered the attention of the entire tribe.
Jackal opened the tent flaps and motioned for Arthur to move inside, to which he quickly obliged, if only to get away from the attention of the crowd.
The Oni followed him, and Arthur saw another Oni was waiting for them inside, sitting behind a wicker table with a cup of tea in her hands. Another chair was ready, together with another cup of tea, although Arthur wasn’t sure who they were for.
“Ah, our guest is awake. It’s good to see you in good health, young Life Mage,” she said, smiling kindly up at him, “Please, take a seat. We have much to discuss.”
Arthur sat on the chair, feeling a bit awkward for leaving Jackal standing, and spoke up.
“Thank you, uh…”
“You can call me Nadia, dear.” She said, answering to his unspoken question, “And you must be Arthur, right?”
“Wait,” Arthur said in surprise, “how do you know my name?”
“Well now, isn’t it rude to ask a girl to give out her secrets.” She answered with a twinkle in her eyes. Then, she turned serious. “I think it’s my turn to ask questions, Arthur. Who are you, and where do you hail from? While our tribe is open to give refuge to any who may need it, we cannot risk taking in someone who could be a danger to us. Especially someone like you.”
“Someone like me? What do you mean, someone like me?” Arthur said, quite worried at the Elder’s words.
“A Life Mage, an invaluable asset to any nation or organization, just wandering around lost in the desert, completely alone. Do you expect me to believe I should not be worried about an entire army coming to take you back at any moment?” Nadia answered, her calm voice promising thunder, her kind smile long forgotten.
“I- Well. I’m not a Mage, for starters.” Arthur argued, trying to keep his voice neutral even as he felt a powerful presence pushing down on him.
“Do not lie in the face of the Elder!” Jackal shouted from behind him, composure forgotten in his rage.
Nadia for her part simply held up a hand, surprising both of them even as her expression went back to, if not kind, then at least not as menacing as before.
“He’s not lying,” she said, her voice a mixture of surprised and thoughtful.
“What?” Jackal responded, his voice containing just confusion.
“If you’re not a Life Mage, then what are you? And why do you possess a lock of hair infused with life magic, as all Life Mages do?” Nadia went back to interrogating Arthur, who was just as confused as Jackal now, although for different reasons.
“Again, what’s wrong with my hair?” He just asked, wanting an answer at least for that.
Nadia looked at him, and then made a gesture with her hand. A swirling circle of blue gasses appeared before Arthur, and when it stabilized, he could see his own reflection. Everything was normal, just as he remembered it, but for a single locket of golden hair.
“Well, that’s new,” was all he could say in response, and the reflection soon disappeared.
“I ask you again, Arthur. What are you?” Nadia said with a tone of finality.
Arthur explained to the both of them the events that led to this moment, from the time he woke up in the grass to now. He omitted actually telling them that he was not of this world, simply saying that he got lost while traversing the desert. When Nadia asked him about his life before that, and how he got himself lost and alone, Arthur simply replied.
“I can’t tell you, for two reasons. One, I do not think you would believe what I say, even if you can somehow tell I’m saying the truth. Two, I simply don’t want to. But,” Arthur held up a hand, seeing Jackal enter his field of view menacingly, “I can guarantee you that you have no reason to worry about my past. I believe no one can or will try to follow me, and no harm will come to your tribe if you shelter me.”
Nadia looked thoughtful for a moment, while Jackal simply appeared to be waiting for her to tell him to dispose of Arthur. After a few intense moments, Nadia simply smiled, surprising both of them once again.
“Very well, I accept your explanation. I have no reason to pry into your business as long as no harm will come to my tribe, so that’s that. I think we can bring an end to this tiresome interrogation, what do you boys say?” She said, a twinkle of mischief coming back to her eyes. “Arthur, in quality of Eldest of the Royal Oni tribe, let me welcome you as our guest, as it is tradition, for as much time as you can buy.”
“As much time as I can buy? I’m sorry, but I don’t really have much money on me.” Arthur said, the relief from a moment before already starting to wane.
For her part, the Elder simply looked at him weirdly. Then, she supplied, “While it is true our hunters saved your life, what they recovered from that place is all your own bounty, not theirs. It would be dishonourable, to rob a hunter of his quarry.
“Our tribe, after much consideration, is willing to offer you the following trade. First, we would like to request the meat, skin and bones from the single Larvae Queen and six adult Sand Wyrms, in exchange for room and board for up to a complete rotation.” She looked at him, probably expecting either an affirmative or negative.
“What is a rotation, exactly?” Arthur asked instead.
Nadia looked at him as if he was joking, but then relented, “A rotation is the time it takes for the sun to rotate around the world,” she answered.
A year then? Maybe. Better than nothing.
“Fine by me,“ he finally answered. “What else?”
“For the price of all the Sand Wyrms mana cores, the silk you gathered, and your services as… whatever it is you do, the tribe can provide you a teacher of the arcane arts, in the form of our Inscriber, plus training in the use of one weapon of your choice by our best warrior, Jackye.”
“Jackye?” Arthur said, even as both he and Nadia turned to look at Jackal. “Ah. That Jackye.” Arthur added, trying to keep his voice neutral.
“Grandmother,” Wait, what? “I don’t think that’s-” Jackal tried to protest, but Nadia interrupted him.
“Come now, it will be good for you as well,” and that was that, apparently, since the red Oni didn’t try to discuss it further.
Arthur thought about it for a minute, sipping on some tea and ignoring the looks Nadia was throwing him. The tea was quite bitter, but he refused to show it on his face.
Honestly, there was no downsides to what she was offering. Even if they worked him like a slave, which he doubted, he could only gain in the form of either Levels or new, work related, Skills.
The fact that he could also maybe learn more magick and improve his abilities to defend himself would have been enough for him to accept.
Plus, although he didn’t know the value of what they were trading, the trade would be worth it either way. After coming so close in his last brush with death, he realized more than ever that knowing how to defend his life was essential.
“Do you think this Inscriber would be able to teach me more Magick?” Arthur asked Nadia, just to be sure.
“Sure, although Redrick specializes in Inscriptions, he is an adept Mage, and should be able to teach you Magic, if you have the aptitude for it.” She told him, seemingly sure of her answer, but Arthur still wasn’t convinced.
“Elder, I don’t use Magic. I use Magick.” He said, completely serious.
Nadia looked at him, then at Jackal. Then, she asked a very important question.
“What?”