It took us another fifteen minutes to reach the wooden fortress. The wooden fortress was situated in a clearing in the middle of the jungle. The clearing itself looked to have been artificial and was probably done by the owner of the fortress in order to construct the structure. The size of the fortress itself was bigger than we initially thought when we observed it from above.
The fortress was quiet. Too quiet. There were not even guards stationed around the perimeter. It was as if it was completely empty. Our group was just crudely hiding behind a tree. A good scout could probably spot us from a distance.
"So...should we go?" Rob asked the question we were all wondering.
"I am not entirely sure myself..."
I am not a god who plan ten steps ahead. Nor am I a god who is able to come up with genius strategies on the fly.
"But it's really too quiet, isn't it? I quite literally can't hear anything. Not even any sounds of small chatters." Alisia also chimed in.
I stroke my chin to think. Could this be a trap? Did they know we were coming? But whichever it was...
" I'm going in. You three stay here." I left the cover behind the tree towards the clearing.
"Tiven! We'll follow—" Neityr was about to follow me as well. I turned around and stopped here.
"No. I already told you that I wanted to go alone and risk anyone. Now just let me check if there's anyone. I may be weakened, but I am still a god. I'll be fine."
I started walking towards the fortress before she could say anything else. I approached the large wooden gate in front of the fortress when I realized something. I pushed the door open to find...no one.
"Huh?"
There was no one. I could see that there were tents set up and...cages. I activated my enhanced hearing but did not find any trace of anyone in the vicinity. With that realization, I turned around towards our hiding spot.
"You three! There's no one here! Come." I shouted.
"Really?" Rob shouted back.
The three hurriedly made their way towards the fortress.
"Huh. There's really no one here." Rob started to examine the tents.
"But the way the tent is set up is as if people were sleeping here not very long ago." Neityr also did the same thing as Rob.
The tents did not interest me as much as these iron cages. What could they be for? They're huge. Were they capturing large beasts? Perhaps they are a group of hunters?
"I found something!" It was Alisia who shouted. She went deeper inside the fortress. We made our way to her in a hurry.
"What is it?"
"This campfire. I can tell that they are from around three days ago." Alisia was touching the remaining ashes of the campfire.
"Then they have not been gone for long. But why would they leave their fortress unattended?"
Could they be the gnolls? It would explain their lack of foresight but it would not answer how they built this structure.
"Alright. Close the gate behind us in case anyone comes. We will split up and search through the tents to see what we could find." I ordered.
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We split up to search through the expansive fortress. I went deeper inside to find the center when I heard a noise. Or rather, a cry. But it did not sound like a cry of any humanoid creatures I knew. It could only come from an animal.
I searched for the source of the cry with my enhanced hearing until I found a very large cage. Inside, there was a dead carcass of a humongous beast. The beast had the face of an avian creature with the body of a large mammal. The mammalian bottom half have furs while the avian arms and head have feathers. Its face consisted of a beak and two large pupils. This creature is known as an owlbear, vicious hunters of the night capable of besting experienced warriors if they are not careful.
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The owlbear seems to have died a couple of days ago. Flies and maggots were slowly developing in gaping wounds in the middle of its chest. The creature was dead yet I still head a cry. Where could it come from?
It was then I saw it. From the behind the massive owlbear, a small baby owlbear emerged. Its face was filled with anguish from the death of its parent but it lit up when it saw me. The baby owlbear approached me as it cried some more, begging me to release it.
I crouched down to reach the eye level of the owlbear. "The people who live in this fortress did this to your parents?"
Of course, the owlbear could not understand me and yet its eyes seem to answer my question.
"Aren't you showing a little too much trust in me? Who knows? I could be one of them." I said that and stood up again. It seems apparent that the people who live here may be hunters after all. It's hard to tell if they would be hostile towards us since I don't know what race they are. We should hurry.
"Keee!" The owlbear responded. Its eyes seem to say it knows that I am not one of them.
"Interesting. Maybe you can tell I am not a mortal?" I asked the baby owlbear not expecting an answer.
"Keee!" It cried again.
"Well. Good luck." I was about to walk off and the baby owlbear cried even louder; rattling the metal cage with quite a lot of force.
It seems Neityr was also nearby as she also suddenly appeared.
"Hey! What is that creature? It's really cute. " Neityr was awestruck by the baby owlbear and the dead parent behind it. She also approached the cage and crouched down. Neityr put her hand inside the cage and pet the baby owlbear.
"An owlbear. Did you not recognize the gnoll from before? Do the tribe give you education on monster species?"
"Not really, Tiven. We were only given rudimentary knowledge on intelligence species but certainly not monsters."
"Well, that's an owlbear. I presume the people who live here are hunters then since they are locking them up in cages. Maybe they are currently out on a hunt and will return soon so we should hurry with our search." I turned around to search someplace else.
"Wait!" Neityr called out to me.
"What is it?"
"Can't we release it? I...don't feel good leaving a defenseless child without a parent like this."
"Why should we?"
"I don't know...I just think we should."
I raised my eyebrows at her answer. "But what benefit will it give us?"
Neityr looked up to me with a confused face. "I don't know..."
Interesting. This is what makes mortals quite fascinating. Sympathy, selflessness, heroism. There exist a mysterious force telling them what they should do. Tis' a feeling foreign to a god. But spending time with the tribe has also kindled that mysterious emotions in me. Perhaps I should go all the way, for now, to test it out.
"Alright. You win. Step back. I'll try to get it to open." I hope the sheer sharpness of Icarus is enough to open it.
"Thank you, Tiven!" Neityr was overjoyed and walked away from the cage. Why did she thank me? I was about to help this creature, not her.
I pulled Icarus from its scabbard and slashed the door of the cage where the lock mechanism should be. It worked. The door of the cage flung open with force.
"Keee!" The baby owlbear cried out in joy. It ran up to me and hugged my leg.
"It seems like it really likes you, Tiven!" Neityr smiled at the sight.
"Indeed. But I have no clue why."
As we were conversing, Rob and Alisia also made their way towards us.
"Hey, guys. It's so weird but we didn't find nothin'. Only blankets and beds inside the tents—What the hell is that thing!?" Rob seems shocked to see the baby owlbear.
"Keee!" The baby owlbear responded as it looked towards Rob. Perhaps I misheard but the sound of the cry seems to be more hostile towards him.
"Nevermind that for now. You three truly did not find anything?" I asked them.
"No. It's truly odd. It seems as if they took everything and yet they left the door open." Alisia responded.
"Then we should probably just leave this place for now and continue our journey with the settlement. This is a waste of—" Something interrupted my speech.
The sounds of carriages rolling in the grass were heard by us coming from outside the gate. Chatters of an unknown language were also spoken by various individuals of different genders.
"This is bad. The owners of this place are coming. From the sounds of it, we are massively outnumbered as well." I did not expect they would return this soon. This was a huge blunder on my part.
"M-maybe we could talk to them?" Neityr stuttered in nervousness.
"Nah! This is not good! What would you do if a stranger invades your place and then starts to talk to you in an unknown language? Nevermind we freed this fucking monster here! We should get the fuck out of here! " Rob pointed at the baby owlbear in my leg.
"Keeeeee!!!" The owlbear responded in anger. But it also buried itself behind my leg as it also knew its kidnappers and murderers of its parent have arrived again.
"For once, I agree with this numbskull. However, the only gate leading outside is at the front and the walls are too high for us to climb. For now, we need to find a place to hide." I responded.
We searched for a place to hide in a hurry before we managed to find the back of a huge tent in the furthest area from the gate. The cover of the tent and the wall behind us should hide us for a while. However, we truly did not expect what we saw when they entered through the door.