“Why are we working for that city boy instead of just killing him for what he did to Big D and the others, Pappy?” one of his malcontent children whined. Pappy couldn’t even remember the man’s name. They all kind of blurred together now that he had so many.

Pappy looked at the man-child out of the corner of his eye before spitting the wad of chew out of his mouth. He was leaning back against a tree watching the mining crew work below. With a grunt, he stood up and walked over to his son, who wasn’t paying much attention to his surroundings.

The man eventually noticed him approaching and stiffened. Pappy tapped him none to gently on the forehead, eliciting a wince from his boy. “How bout you use that muscle between your ears before it rots away and leaks out?”

The man rubbed at the spot as Pappy took a step back. “I’m just asking. Some of the families are whispering that the main branch has gone soft.”

Pappy snorted. “Let them whisper and complain. It’s all they’re good for. But let me spell it out for ya since you don’t seem to understand. First off, if you went to kill Smith along with your idiot brothers, you wouldn’t be here to ask me stupid questions. Gotta say that’s a loss on my part.” The man started to grumble but Pappy cut him off. “And if for some reason God saw fit to allow you to actually take down Smith, guess what?”

“What?”

“We wouldn’t be here, would we?” he gestured to the mine below.

“Well, yeah. But that’s what I mean.”

Pappy flipped a knife out of a sheath and threw it before his son could even react. It impacted the tree right next to his head. “What did I just tell ya? I said think! Do you think I would be here unless it benefitted me or the family?”

“…No,” his son tentatively replied.

“You’re damn right. I suckered Smith into a deal because he had nowhere else to turn. And now, he’ll be more inclined to owe us a favor down the line for our assistance. It’s a win-win. And if your idiot brother Derek had killed the man, there wouldn’t be any deal. Hell, there probably wouldn’t be any Ember Creek by now. Besides, I thought you enjoyed killing the Harc’otti?”

“I mean, sure. What's not to like? They refuse to be reasoned with, they attack without provocation, and their women are butt ugly. I would do that without getting paid.”

Pappy shook his head and turned back toward the forest. “And that’s where we differ, son…” He put his finger to his lips and the man went quiet. It was a testament to his training and survival instincts that he didn’t ask why. So at least he wasn’t a complete waste of space.

With slow measured movements, Pappy drew another knife before seeming to vanish amongst the trees. His son did much the same, only drawing a pistol instead.

There was a soft rustle of leaves, no more than a light scrap against the ground. Two men entered the tiny clearing that Pappy and his son had just been in, glancing around with axes at the ready.

One of the men tapped the other on the shoulder and nodded toward the blade still embedded in the tree. As the larger of the two men took a step forward, Pappy appeared from the side, his arm already in motion.

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The Harc’otti warriors weren’t slouches though. The smaller of the two threw his arm up, taking the blade to his forearm instead of his throat where Pappy had intended it to go. The other man whirled and threw the axe. Pappy had already ducked back behind the tree, the axe harmlessly thunking into the bark, not that it mattered, he was only the distraction.

His son stepped out from behind the tree with the knife sticking in it and fired two shots. With the two warriors distracted by him, they never even saw it coming.

There were no words or congratulations though. Both Klein men remained silent, listening for more attackers. In the distance, they heard other quiet scuffles and shots over the sounds of the miners below.

When ten minutes went by without another sound, other than forest and animal noises, Pappy retrieved his knives. He pointed the blade he had thrown at his son. “See, isn’t it better to get paid to do shit like this?”

“Huh. Yeah, It does feel nice to get paid to kill these cockroaches. Where do you think they’re all coming from anyway?”

That was a good question. Pappy had lived here almost since the founding of Ember Creek. And he knew the local clan of Harc’otti was no more than two, two hundred and fifty strong. Yet in the last few months, his family had run into them on more than one occasion. Which was extremely unlikely. And in most of those instances, someone died. Thankfully the Harc’otti got the short end of that deal on most occasions. With the large wolf packs and dangerous predators, nobody in his family was dumb enough to travel alone or in small groups so they usually outnumbered any Harc’otti they came across.

If he added those kills up along with today's dead, it had to be over eighty of the barbarians slain. It didn’t add up. The local clan didn’t even have eighty warriors, to begin with. And he wasn’t even counting all the ones Smith or the town had put down recently.

No, these bastards were coming from somewhere. If he had to guess, they were coming through a pass over the mountains. Those constant snowcapped peaks would be treacherous even in the summer. But if the group that was responsible for kidnapping Terminus’ workers and providing the Harc’otti with weapons was also assisting the barbarians across the mountain, it made more sense.

He had to hand it to whoever they were, why waste their own men when they can just send the Harc’otti to soften up their targets? It was going to be interesting to see who was going to win this conflict. John and the people of Ember Creek, or this strange group from beyond the mountain. Either way, the Klein family would be sticking around. He had picked their property very carefully. Even with those new automatons, it wasn’t likely that the new group would be able to dig them out if it came down to a fight.

“Doesn’t matter,” he finally replied. “Let’s drag these bodies away before they start stinking up the place more than they already are.”

Each man grabbed an arm and began dragging the first body. This way they each had an arm free if more Harc’otti jumped them.

Pappy and all his ilk knew this area like the back of their hand. So they knew of a ravine nearby where they could dump the corpses. Most of the reason they knew the area around the mines so well was because they had been scoping it out ever since Terminus started mining. When the mines got shut down, his family took advantage of that to sneak in and steal some material for themselves. It wasn’t much but it was essentially free.

That was one of the reasons he had structured the deal with Smith the way he had. His family started to complain about having to work the mine. Typical layabouts. Well, they should be happy now. They no longer had to work and they still got paid.

Well… that wasn’t entirely true. They still had to mine that strange glowing rock. He figured if that group of degenerates wanted the rock so bad, he should look for any to stock up on it himself. And lo and behold, his family found two such deposits on their very own property.

They were just stockpiling it in the caverns that ran through the Klein homestead. He had some of his more eccentric family members playing with the crystals to see what they could figure out. So far all it did was make people sick if they handled it too much. If nothing came of their efforts, he was certain he could at least sell it to Smith or his distant cousin, that weird artificer Travis.

If that other group won, he could sell it to them. Either way, Pappy was happy with the way things were going.