Jamal V

PA 1.1 (Year.Month)

Escaping King Youssef’s city turned out to be easier than they’d thought. By midnight even the guards had been too drunk to stand, allowing them to freely walk out the front gates. It was a bit anticlimactic, all told, but Jamal wasn’t complaining.

As the days passed by, however, a new issue cropped up.

Following the river away from the Youssef’s city, they inevitably came across a small village. And once they reached the village, they realized something important.

Specifically, the fact that the people living in this part of the world were a different ethnicity.

It wasn’t that much of a shock, once he’d stopped to think about it. They’d spent the last year travelling (sort of) west, crossing through steep mountains and endless forests. At this point, it would be weird if the people here didn’t look different.

It had been hard to tell last night due to the darkness, but now that it was daytime it was obvious.

Thinking back on it, there’d definitely been some change in how people looked for a while. They’d been getting shorter, for one—which now made Jamal look like a freaking giant in comparison—and their skin had been getting darker as well. But the four of them had been keeping their distance from civilization, and so while they’d noticed some differences it wasn’t as readily apparent until now.

Normally, this wouldn’t be that big of a deal. It just showed that they’d made it far enough to notice a change in ethnicity—you would expect people’s skin to get darker the further south you walked, or for them to get shorter the further east you walked. That was just how the world worked.

But there was a problem that came with that, one he hadn’t thought of until it had slapped them in the face. Specifically, Fei, Yue, and Ishi were no longer able to pass off as ‘locals.’ Now, all four of them were foreigners to these people, and where before they could blend in with a warm smile and a wave, they were now eyed suspiciously by everyone as all four of them were suddenly labeled as ‘other.’

Added onto that, the languages had been slowly changing as well. For a while the three natives were able to communicate with the locals at least relatively easily, but the further they went into the mountains, the harder it had become to communicate, until they reached a point where it was either charades or let Jamal handle the speaking. Which in turn risked being recognized as a God-King.

Put simply, they couldn’t continue on the way they used too without some major changes.

“We’re going to have to visit settlements more, anyways,” Yue argued, waving a hand at the surrounding forest. “We don’t even know what these plants are! There’s no way we can continue foraging in a place like this! And it’ll only get worse the further we travel! We need to visit a city and learn the lay of the land before we continue on.”

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“I refuse,” Jamal scowled, crossing his arms. “It’s too dangerous. You heard what that King You-whatever said. He’ll kill us if he meets us again! There’s no way I’m letting any of us risk ourselves when we could just continue on like we had before.”

“So what’s our plan, then?” Yue asked, throwing her arms into the air. “Live off the land until we poison ourselves on some random berry? Surely we could at least ask the locals what plants are safe to eat!”

“I could always test them first,” Jamal countered stubbornly. “It’s not like I’d die from them.”

“But what if it’s a slow acting poison? You might feel fine, but anyone else could die!”

“Well, it’s not like we’re going to go around popping weird plants into our mouths, are we!?”

“If we get far enough, all plants might be ‘weird plants!’”

“Ishi~” Fei cut in, fake whining. “Mom and Dad are fighting again~”

“Fei,” Yue sighed tiredly turning to the other man. “Unless you have something useful to add to the conversation, just stay quiet. Please.”

“Bah!” he rolled his eyes. “You both spend too much time worrying about stupid shit. If you live every day of your life hiding from a tiger, you’ll never get to kill it and make some sweet tiger-pelt clothes!”

Ishi narrowed his eyes. “I’m pretty sure that’s not how that goes.”

“Wait, you guys have tiger metaphors?” Jamal asked, suddenly worried. “Have you ever seen one before? Are they native to this region? Should I be worried about tiger attacks now!?”

Fei groaned. “Gods, just shut up, won’t you! You’re the only one of us that shouldn’t have to worry about this shit, so why do you even care?”

“Because I’ve already lost everyone else in my life!” Jamal snapped. “And I don’t want to have to lose you guys too!”

Silence reigned in the clearing after his outburst. The other three stared at him, eyes wide with worry and shock. Jamal himself was frozen, standing with wide eyes and his mouth slammed shut.

“I… uh…”

“…fine,” Yue sighed. “Fine. We’ll do it your way. For a while. But if we run out of supplies or have some other emergency, we’ll stop at the nearest town. Am I clear?”

Jamal grimaced, but accepted that was the best he was going to get. “Crystal.”

“…Well,” Fei began again awkwardly. “Now that that’s over with. Uh, Ishi, do we have any plans for where we should go next?”

“We should probably continue to follow the river, right?” Ishi hummed, tapping his chin thoughtfully. “We had some trouble back in the mountains with getting enough water for all of us. If it weren’t for all the snow we might not have made it.”

“Well, we definitely don’t want to go back the way we came,” Jamal nodded quickly. “And I refuse to deal with climbing over any more mountains for a long time coming.”

“So that means we’re going south now, right?”

“For a while, at least.”

“But what if it bends back around?”

“Eh,” Jamal shrugged. “We’ll get there when we get there.”

“If you’re sure…” Ishi shrugged. Then, after a moment’s hesitation, he spoke up again. “Hey, Jamal. You know that… you know that we’re here for you, right? We aren’t going anywhere.”

“…Yeah. Yeah, I know,” he sighed. “…Let’s just not talk about this right now. I’ve got some, uh, stuff I want to do tonight. So if y’all don’t mind, I’m going to retire for the night. Um, see you in the morning.”

With that, the dethroned king got up from the fire, retreating (fleeing) into his tent for the night.

9,903 God-Kings Remain