“So,” I say quietly, darting a glance at the samurans tied to the ground. Hopefully they won’t be able to hear from this distance, or see the flashing colours of Catch’s and River’s crests, but maybe we should go around the other side of Trinity anyway.
Having done that, I start again.
“So, do you think any of them would be open to diplomacy? Should I even try diplomacy?” The two samurans eye me.
Should the Honoured Pathwalker not be part of this discussion? suggests Catch. She would surely know better how to advise you. I shake my head.
“I don’t trust her yet,” I say bluntly. “I trust you two.” They both look a little taken aback, Catch more than River, a sense of feeling flattered coming across the Bond from both of them.
Then I would say that you are likely to need to prove yourself to the Warriors too, River responds a little hesitantly after a moment of thought.
“They won’t accept my victory over a Pathwalker as sufficient?” I ask for the sake of being thorough, though the reactions of the Warriors have been fairly plain so far. Both samurans before me send me a sense of negation.
The Pathwalkers and Warriors are good at different things: they will not accept that they would necessarily be the losers just because one of the others has lost, River answers. I sigh.
“Great. So I need to win four more battles, do I?” River and Catch exchange looks.
Not necessarily, River ventures to say.
“What do you mean?” I ask.
The Warriors have a ranking system amongst themselves, as do the Pathwalkers, Catch continues, a hint of enthusiasm creeping into his voice.
Yes, agrees River, continuing the thought. I feel a hint of amusement at how close they’re getting – and suppress the tinge of jealousy that causes me. Just because Catch and River are friends doesn’t mean that River can’t be my friend too. If he even sees me that way….
I catch myself before I end up going too far down that train of thought again, tuning back into what the lizard-man is saying. -so if you can defeat the strongest, the others will most likely fall into line.
I take a moment to mentally recall what River said – my ears heard, even if my brain was elsewhere. Something about a regular competition among the Warriors to determine exactly where in the rankings each fell.
“But how do I know which is the highest ranking?” I ask. River and Catch exchange another glance.
Wasn’t it Murmurs-quietly?
No, he lost a ranking to Leaps-from-fright at the last fight.
But what about Sleeps-peacefully? He did pretty well last time.
I don’t think he was higher than Leaps-from-fright, though.
They seem to have come to a consensus.
“Leaps-from-fright, then?”
We think so, River replies, a little doubtfully. But perhaps check with the Honoured Pathwalker: they monitor all the Warrior ranking fights. We may have missed something when needing to go and find resources.
Standing up, I beckon Joy over. She seems a little confused by my gesture so I clarify with a mental instruction to come over. Looking a little irritated by my summons, she nonetheless obeys.
“Which of the Warriors is higher in the ranking?” I ask her bluntly.
Leaps-from-fright was higher than the other three in the most recent ranking fight, she answers without hesitation. That is why he was charged with my protection specifically.
That was an interesting bit of information.
“How would the village take the fact that you were captured under his watch, then?” I wonder.
Poorly, she answers promptly, a biting quality to her voice. Warriors are highly-valued, but his failure in such an important matter would immediately drop him to the bottom of the Warrior hierarchy and disbar him from ranking fights for a good few double moon cycles were he to return without me.
I nod slowly, my mind turning over the new information. I wonder how it might affect my own likelihood of turning him to my side. If he feels insulted and offended by me overcoming his defence, he will probably be less open to a proposal from me. On the other hand, if he fears returning to the village without the Pathwalker more, then he might be open to making a deal.
“Alright, next question. You said that the Warriors and Pathwalkers are kind of two sides of the same coin, the Pathwalkers offering direction; the Warriors offering support.” I wait for her to send a confirming feeling down the Bond. “So, what would happen if the Warriors and Pathwalkers come into conflict?”
Joy hesitates.
It…has happened. Not in our village, but in others. And it was always a poor outcome for the village, which is why we do our best to balance the needs of both Warriors and Pathwalkers. To ensure that each group still respects the other, every year when the warmth returns, shortly before the eggs hatch, we fight each other. Each group has a ranking match to determine the hierarchy within the group, and then the top Pathwalker fights the top Warrior to determine the overall hierarchy. The loser of the battle must fight with the others of opposite role until they win.
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“And who usually wins those matches, or is it fairly equal on each side?”
Even though a Pathwalker is not always the highest ranking of the village, it happens more often than not. In those cases, Pathwalkers with more combat-capable magic tend to do well against him. However, those with less combat-capable magic are sometimes at a disadvantage, and the speediest Warriors can sometimes take us unawares. When the top Pathwalker loses against the top Warrior, it usually only takes one or two battles with the other ranking Warriors before she wins.
Also interesting to know. I think I might have an approach to work with.
“Alright, I’m going to try.” Standing up, I walk over to the bound samurans. “Joy, translate for me, please” I tell her before starting to take the hides off the Warriors’ faces.
The Warriors immediately start squirming and insulting me, agitating the Unevolved samurans again.
“Quiet, please” I tell them, and Joy repeats my word in their clicks and grunts. They don’t; if anything, the sight of a Pathwalker standing at my side seems to set them off even more. The insults and threats are kicked up a notch. “I said: quiet!” I try again; again Joy repeats my words. Again, they have no impact.
I’m starting to feel frustrated. It’s difficult to speak through someone else, especially when Joy’s voice is being drowned out by the racket that the Warriors are making. Her teeth click together in annoyance as she has to once more reinforce the root bindings that are holding them captive.
Taking a deep breath, my focus narrows onto being heard.
“Quiet!” I tell them, loudly and firmly. They all go silent, staring at me with their eyes wide. My own eyebrows go up a little in surprise. I wasn’t that loud, was I? Surprise also echoes down my Bonds, surprise and shock. If even my Bound are shocked…did something different happen?
Suddenly, the memory of the recent upgrade to Animal Empathy comes to mind – that talked about being able to be understood, didn’t it? I’ll have to check later. For now, I have another job to do. Focussing on the desire to be understood, I speak once more.
“Do you understand me?” I ask, and this time hear a strange…overlay of my voice. While words are coming out of my mouth as usual, I can also hear some clicks and grunts, as if River were speaking at the same time, his voice combining with mine.
“How are you speaking?” the biggest of the Warriors asks, the one I’ve identified as Leaps-from-fright. Well, that confirms it, doesn’t it? I’m going to have to explore this Skill for sure. But not now.
“That doesn’t matter. Now, listen to me –”
“What have you done to our Honoured Pathwalker, you egg-sucking prey beast?” Leaps-from-fright roars. “What have you threatened her with that she will stand by your side and turn against us, her kin?”
I eye Joy.
“Care to tell them?” I invite. She clicks her teeth together nervously, but steps forwards.
“He has great magic. He overcame my Will and wrapped a chain around me.” There is a sudden outcry from all the samurans on the ground, one of outrage and disbelief. I glare at Joy.
Tell them everything, I order her with annoyance. She flashes me a look, but then focusses back on her people.
“But I accepted the chain after we had conversed!” she hurriedly added, her words causing the cries to die down as they automatically listened to the Pathwalker. “He…Our Shaman…Our village is in danger, and he offers a way to survive – as long as we submit to his leadership. He offers power and knowledge; I have felt his strength and I have accepted his promises.”
Well, I suppose that’s a reasonable summary of things without actually going into details of exactly who is at fault here. Probably just as well – Joy seems to still hold a fair bit of loyalty to her ‘sister’ and is unlikely to cast her as the villain. To my mind, she definitely is, though.
There is silence for a few moments. The Unevolved look to the Warriors; the Warriors all look to Leaps-from-fright, the hierarchy clear. Perhaps I didn’t even need to clarify with Joy about who is the highest ranking – I’d have been able to see it here.
“You swear that you speak the truth, not only the words he wishes you to speak?” Leaps-from-fright asks suspiciously.
“I swear it on my Weave,” Joy answers, raising her right paw, a faint green hue surrounding it briefly. The big samuran’s spikes flash a complimentary green with his acceptance. Whatever vow that was, I suspect it was something big.
“Perhaps he has proven his strength to you, but he has not to me,” announces Leaps-from-fright a moment of thought later. “Release me from these Bonds, and I shall test his might and see if he is worthy of leading our village.”
Since that was as much as I was expecting to happen, I direct Joy to loosen his bonds.
“I accept,” I say, the focus needed to create that overlay of my voice coming easier each time I do it.
The Pathwalker flicks her claws and the bindings over Leaps-from-fright fall away, even as the others stay tight. Still not completely trusting my newest Bound, I privately direct River and Bastet to keep their eyes out for treachery. At the first indication that any other bonds might accidentally come loose, they are to order the rest of my Bound into action, that action depending on whatever the situation is at that moment.
My attention is going to have to be on the big lizard-man now prowling towards me.
“Do you dare allow me to use my weapon?” he snarls at me, his grunts having a growling quality to them.
“Of course,” I tell him grimly. “Feel free to take it. I shall not attack until then.” Eyeing me suspiciously, Leaps-from-fright goes over to retrieve his spear and shield from where River and Catch had put them after retrieving the samurans from the pit.
While he’s doing that, I move. He whirls around at the first sound, clearly expecting me to take advantage of his turned back, but that wasn’t what I was doing at all. Instead, I cross over to an area of the clearing to one side of the pit – I might be able to drive him back into the pit and win the fight, but I don’t think that using tactics like that would prove my ‘strength’.
Having chosen my battleground, I wait for my opponent to prowl closer.
Joy, allow the others of your group to sit up, but not stand, I tell her, making sure to include Bastet and River in the communication so they didn’t think they needed to give the order to the rest of my Bound. I’m not willing to take my eyes off my opponent, so I hope that she has indeed done what I asked of her.
Stopping several paces away, the samuran eyes me, bouncing a little on his elongated toes, his claws digging into the soil.
“You should have attacked while my back was turned,” Leaps-from-fright growls at me. “That was your only chance to beat me, prey beast. I will enjoy ripping your spine out of your body and whipping you with it.”
“You should never have attacked me at all,” I respond, unable to resist the smack talk, though unruffled by his threat. “Your mistake was in coming so close to my home. Like the Pathwalker, you will submit, or die.”
That appears to be the end of the pre-fight banter: as if there had been some signal, the big lizard-man explodes towards me, his feet digging deeply into the loam.