“So… What should we do now?” Cyrus asked awkwardly.

“Follow the plan, of course.” Iris answered with some irritation.

“Which… is?” The warrior asked embarrassedly.

“Wait, don’t you remember the plan? How can you be so stupid?” The mage slashed at him.

“That’s not fair… I do remember, but I focused on the contingency part…” Cyrus defended himself.

“Only the contingency? No way… You… You didn’t think this would work, did you? You thought that we would have to fight our way out… For the Gods. Were you hopping for this to fail?” She asked with a judgmental tone.

“No… That’s… When have we ever been successful in avoiding conflict? Remember what happened last time we tried? Someone ended up dead and we had to flee…” He explained without much certainty.

Upon hearing the words, Rick eyed the trio speechlessly; Cyrus didn’t seem to be kidding. They had reached a standpoint with the ratlings, both sides didn’t move and only stared at each other.

“Guys, that’s enough. This is not the time and place…” Hakon offered them some reason.

“Urgh!” Iris snarled. The stupidly of her teammate knew no bounds.

“I think it’s okay to try it now.” The foxkin said without much confidence.

Iris and Rick exchanged a nod, and then signaled to the healer to go forward with it. He moved slowly, ready to run back at any sign of danger. The situation became even tenser, the ratlings obviously on edge. Hakon took a few things from his pocket and placed them on the ground. Then, the healer walked back using all his will not to run.

The ratlings’ attention clearly changed to the bundle of things on the ground. Once the foxkin had moved midway back, the leading ratling couldn’t resist anymore. The curious being, walked forth, crouched, and carefully started to touch the objects. On the adventures side, Iris took out an identical object to the one in the ratling’s hands and started combing her hair.

The creature observed the mage’s action, and sometime later tried to copy. The other ratlings watched their kin attentively as if waiting for some kind of opinion. The ratling combed its furry head down to the back and then emitted a grunt of pleasure. At this point, something the team didn’t expect happened. The ratlings started to move around excitedly making sounds that matched the group’s understanding of surprise.

The leading ratling passed the comb around, and one by one, the others got to experience the combing pleasure. Then, to further the team’s shock, the same ratling picked up another item, a flask, and pointed it to Iris. The girl reacted after a moment of confusion, taking out her own flask and drinking from it.

The creature observed the action, almost suspiciously. However, instead of copying the drinking, the ratling seemed to smell and shake the flask first. Only then, did the being drink from it. Fortunately, the ratling’s response a few seconds after drinking was another happy grunt, this time a little louder. The others around swarmed the flask, eager to try it too.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Iris continued to teach the ratlings how to use the last two items, a pair of boots and a small satchel. For each object, the creatures got more excited. In the end, the leading ratling had to beat up those around to bring them to control. The being seemed to understand that they had to come into some kind of accord with the team.

***

“I don’t agree with the book!” Yana complained as she threw the book, ‘Clow Wars’, over the counter.

The somewhat forced smile held by Anne froze and her expression turned serious. The bookmancer glanced at the book and then at the Clow, obviously showing her dissatisfaction with the other’s handling of the object that represented her craft. If the book hadn’t been bought, resulting in the transference of its ownership to the holomancer, Anne would have revoked the Clow’s customer status and banned her from the bookstore. Intentionally damaging books is something she couldn’t ignore.

“The book doesn’t care.” The storeowner replied plainly. It was better to make her discontentment known and avoid such things in the future.

“Oh… You know, its contents could give grounds for a blasphemy charge. Imagine if it gets to court…” The Clow stroke back.

“Worse things are being said in any tavern in the nation…” Anne matched her bout, letting go of the woman’s previous offense.

“Hardly the point… but fair. Anyway, isn’t the author too biased against my family? I mean, I didn’t expect any of the flowerings I got from history classes, but assigning our victories to chance doesn’t seem fair too.” Yana explained her disagreement.

“Well… That’s surprisingly a good question…” Anne admitted with some humor, which made the Clow grumble in irritation. The bookmancer just ignored her and continued.

“When you stress too many unlikely events, you’re hinting to ridiculously of it. It’s a form of constructive sarcasm. I don’t quite like it or use it in my work, but it does the job… Because of heritage, you perceived those points as if giving excuses to diminish the Clow accomplishments, while it’s actually trying to hint at the moves done behind the scenes. Of course, the events that helped your family get a solid foothold in the continent so fast, can’t be all coincidental. Which means, they were orchestrated, or at least accounted for.” Anne explained while serving them both some tea.

The Clow eyed the tea suspiciously but refrained from commenting. Instead, she was more interested in pondering over the bookmancer’s explanation.

“So, is the book claiming that we only won the wars because we’re plotting behind the scenes?” She asked, throwing some disdain and incredulity into the question.

“Not exactly. It’s more about the speed and solidity of the victory. Without these ‘coincidences’ the Clows wouldn’t be able to stabilize their rulership in such a short period.” The bookmancer corrected.

Yana wanted to refute it, but she realize that the claim did make sense.

“First, the Clows arrival at the continent couldn’t happen at a more fortuitous time. The Clan Wars had intensified, so the beastkin were at their weakest. The Theocracy was fully engaged in war with the Solar States and couldn’t fight wars on two fronts. There was a coup in course in Dohrn, so the dwarves were occupied with a civil war. Which left Elvyhn and the Oryn Kingdom as the only real obstacles for their conquering.” Anne presented a review of the events written in the book.

“The official accounts say that the elves retreated because the war was costly and too far from their forest, but I’m sure you’re privy to real specifics. Though, I would add something that neither the book nor you would know. The elves were greatly restrained by some private royal matters, which might be the only real coincidence in the whole thing, but certainly, was something that whoever planned your conquest knew.” The bookmancer added before drinking some tea and continuing.

“As you know, the last country to recognize Clow Nation was the Oryn Kingdom; their war only ended 80 years ago. I would wager that even the problems the Kingdom faced with the Orcish Clans, which came as a result of the war, were foreseen, and maybe even ‘encouraged’ by your family. After all, it was common knowledge that the wealthy oryners would prefer to pay battle mercenaries than to fight their wars, and with the right push the orcs would turn against anyone…” Anne offered her own insights into the matter.

Yana felt uncomfortable with having her family’s battle mighty contested, but she could see the merit of those theories. Unconsciously, she started seeing her Clow name in a new light.

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