"Well boss, guild wants us to find friendlies, that sure looks like a friendly."
If Binna had taken the time to think about it she probably wouldn't have been surprised to understand the words spoken by the smallest of the newcomers, today had been weird enough so far, so why not? But nonetheless she was surprised, especially since she had been sure that the last speakers of the old tongue had died in the great war so long ago that only transcriptions of transcriptions remained to document it.
Until now Binna would have said that the old tongue was a dead language since no native lips had spoken it in thousands of years. Binna and the other storykeepers only knew it because some of their oldest stories were told in it and they used its written form to write their own language on the page since they lacked characters for their own people's tongue. One of her first tasks as an apprentice had been to practice transcribing a story by copying 'the first spring'. The task wasn't simply a job of mindlessly reproducing the dwarven runes from the stone, the elderly matron in charge of her training wanted her to reproduce the story in the flowing script of the old tongue using a practice slate. The people used the runes of the dwarven language on the storystones because they were simple and angular and very easy to carve into stone. The dwarven tongue was a complicated language and had over sixty different spoken sounds and their writing system had a written rune representing each one. But the story of 'the first spring' wasn't told in the dwarven language, it was told in the old tongue, and transliterated into dwarven runes so that it could be carved into a storystone that could be kept safe in the damp warrens of her clan's burrow.
Her task had been to read the dwarven runes aloud quietly to herself speaking the sounds and forming them into words and then transcribe those spoken words back into the flowing script of the old tongue on her slate. Luckily the dwarven language had enough sounds to reproduce all of those of the old tongue very closely (as well as the much simpler spoken language of her own people) so the process worked if you wanted to write the old tongue (or that of her own people) using the draven runes. The reverse didn't work as well since the old tongue didn't include nearly as many sounds as the dwarven language did. The written version of the old tongue used combinations of characters to describe sounds which made it more flexible in theory. In practice which ones to use to represent sounds that weren't present in the original language was up for (often wild) interpretation.
Because the duties of the storykeepers involved transliteration, translation, and transcribing of those three languages being fluent in all of them was a requirement. Any competent storykeeper could read any of them and converse in all of them. But still, to hear the words of the old ones, the celestials spoken in casual conversation knocked her off balance as much as anything else had today.
Binna's mental wandering left her flat footed as the tall newcomers continued to speak.
***
"Well that didn't sound like any language I know, anyone else pick it up?" Kurt looked around at the faces around him to see gauge reactions.
"Sorry boss", Michael said, "other than the dwarven runes the guild hasn't really given any guidance on languages here on the continent."
Charlotte asked, "Has the Academy made any more progress on deciphering the dwarven stuff?"
"Not much. Last time I was there the latest was that they had high confidence that they could match up maybe a couple dozen words based on that obelisk near the origin. They're pretty sure the dwarvish runes represent phonemes rather than whole words, but aside from a small handful of common ones they don't have almost any vocabulary and no idea at all what they should sound like." Michael lifted his helm so that he could run his fingers through his hair as he thought. "I don't know, I'm not really a linguist. If we don't have a shared language then I guess we can try pantomime."
Brian turned to the small creature watching them from the snow and squatted down until his haunches touched his boot heels. Even so, the small furry creature wasn't even eye level with his chest. He then placed his hand palm open on his chest and then spoke very slowly and loudly, "Me Brian. Me friend."
"Greetings Brian, I am Binna. You can speak normally, I know the old tongue." The tiny squeaking speech was a bit lispy on account of her large buck teeth but otherwise clearly understandable.
Charlotte put both hands over her mouth covering a gasp, "That's the cutest thing I've ever heard. I think I'm gonna' squee."
***
Binna watched the large people with a shy intensity as they set up camp in the small dwarven redoubt. She had accepted their offer to come and eat dinner with them, she'd come this far on curiosity and unfounded optimism so she might as well keep going. She was pretty sure they didn't intend to eat her, but the smell of meat coming from their packs didn't allow her to be completely confident. It hadn't taken her long to make up her mind, she could smell the snow bearing down on the pass. It would be here soon and she hadn't been looking forward to squeezing into some rocky cleft beneath the boulders at the western cliff.
The redoubt seemed small and cramped with the four 'humans' in it, but it would have felt cavernous had Binna been alone. The room itself was roughly fish hook shaped, with the defensive positions at one end and bunks at the other. Outside there were the remains of abbreviated defensive fortifications, inside just enough room for a platoon of dwarves to live and hold the position against attackers. It was the escape route to evacuate the fort from further down in the valley. At the back of the room where the string would have been tied to a hook, beyond the dwarven bunks carved into the stone walls was the beginnings of a tunnel just tall enough for dwarves to run at full speed but anyone taller would have to crouch. The tunnel continued only a dozen paces before it was filled with fallen stone from the deadfall that protected the dwarves' ancient escape. The Meadowvale clan had used to be the Stonybluff clan until they had been forced to flee their old burrow by the encroaching long ones. Binna had been only a youngling at that time, but she remembered that the Stonybluff warren had incorporated the remains of a small dwarven trading post. Most dwarven constructions were either deep under the mountains, or in remote high valleys, but since even the dwarves had needed to trade with the surface races they had to build closer to them as well. Binna knew that if they removed the many, many tons of stone that filled the opening they would find a tunnel that would gradually descend into the earth for a few thousand paces until they got to another pile of fallen stone that blocked off access to a small intersection structure where all the intersecting tunnels would be similarly filled with stone. The Stonybluff clan had actually decided to excavate the tunnels beyond the dwarven trade post since it might be easier than digging new warrens. It turned out that they excavated the sixth intersection before they gave up. Each one almost identical with no indication that it would ever end.
She doubted that the humans would want to excavate the tunnel of course. Even the shortest (a female perhaps?) would need to walk with her neck uncomfortably hunched in the tunnel. The tallest one was barely able to stand in the redoubt itself even though the ceiling was higher to give room to swing dwarven weapons. The tall one would have to crawl on hands and knees in the escape tunnel. No, Binna didn't think they would want to excavate the escape tunnel, but then what was their aim?
The fifth human, the wild one wearing the skin of a snowbear, returned from the outside and spoke to his comrades using the old tongue: "The coast is clear. No sign of any more gnolls, but that storm is almost here. It's going to get really cold, really windy, and we're probably going to see a couple feet of snow in the next few hours and a whole lot more than that before morning. I think we're safe in here at least until then. But we might have to dig our way out if those storm clouds are as full as they look."
"That's fine I think. The structure turns left in a big 'U' shape and in the back there's a collapsed tunnel. If we camp near the tunnel that should keep the wind off us and let us make a fire without anyone outside being able to see it, if they were to come looking." The one with the pointed shield and armor made of small interlaced rings seemed to be in charge, all eyes were on him when he spoke. "The ceiling is low enough in here that I don't think those gnolls will want to try to fight us in here, but with some fresh snow to cover our tracks hopefully they won't be able to follow us and we won't need to fight our way out in the morning."
They all nodded, seemingly accepting the conclusion. The leader spoke again addressing the wild one, "Brent, did you see any easy firewood outside?"
"Yeah, 'couple of fallen trees just over the hill on your left coming out of the door, maybe a hundred-sixty yards or so."
"Alright, can you start a fire with the extra wood in my pack? Brian, big guy, come with me, let's go get some wood." The leader dropped his pack on the floor and pulled a coil of rope from around a burlap tarpaulin and a small bundle of firewood tumbled out. The leader took the rope and burlap with him and as he and the tall one made ready to collect the wood outside he called over his shoulder to the remaining two: "Charlotte, Michael, check to see if that cistern in the corner is clean, if not melt some snow and throw a bag of beans into the pot for me? I don't think our guest is the meat eating type, so I'll make some vegetarian chilli and we can fry up some of those eggs."
Binna felt uncomfortably the center of attention again for a moment as the humans regarded her before setting to work. Charlotte (she was almost certainly a female) busied herself with retrieving the food and cooking implements while Michael the smallest of the males filled a small cooking pot with what was apparently clean water from the small cistern in the corner of the bunk room. The wild one, (Brent?) set up a small three legged stand and hook near where he was working on building a fire. After setting the pot onto the hook suspended by the stand over the still unlit firewood, Michael found himself apparently unoccupied. He knelt down a respectful distance from her position and smiled an unnervingly toothy smile at her. He didn't have the sharp fangs of a predator like the long ones, but he also didn't have the plant eating teeth of her own people either, at least not in front. It was a curious middle point between predator and prey that threw her off balance. But she suspected that the facial contortion was supposed to be inoffensive because the rest of his body language was calm and restrained, placing his own head roughly on the same level as hers and leaving his limbs in a position where he would have difficulty to lunge out and grab her.
"Hello, my name is Michael. You said your name is Binna?" His voice was considerably less baritone than the largest male or the leader, but not much higher than the wild one's. He had pulled back his cloak hood and removed his small metal helmet revealing pinkish skin about the same shade as the inner curve of her ears, soft hazel eyes, and sandy-brown hair that while longer than her own fur didn't quite reach his small round ears on the side of his head.
"Yes, my name is Binna. I am a storykeeper of the Meadowvale clan. I collect and keep stories and information for my clan."
"That's fascinating, your job sounds a lot like mine. I am a sage with the Explorer's Guild. I also collect information and stories for my people. Though, I suspect that the nature of the stories and information I collect might be a little different."
There were a thousand questions swirling in Binna's head, but before she could settle on one Michael continued.
"This is the first time we've encountered anyone on the continent who is willing to talk rather than trying to shove a sharpened piece of metal or bone into our guts." His sharp laugh at his own joke was not unlike those of the people, just deeper and throatier. "No offense intended, but you look a lot like a rabbit wearing clothes. You have the teeth and ears of a rabbit anyway. Kurt assumed that you were vegetarian, but we should actually ask, right, since you can talk?"
Binna was too busy trying to place his unfamiliar words to take offense at the suggestion that she might not have been able to talk or wear clothes, and instead decided to ask, "I'm not familiar with a 'rabbit' and I don't know what a vegetarian is. Is that something to do with vegetables?"
"Oh, yeah. A vegetarian is someone who doesn't eat the meat of animals. They only eat vegetables and maybe eggs and milk. And a rabbit is a small animal, well I guess one that looks a lot like you do. Except they don't stand up on their hind legs, at least not much. Oh, and they don't wear clothes."
"Ah, well. I can't really say if we do or do not look like 'rabbits' there are no animals that I know of that look much like the Kennik. But, yes we do mostly eat vegetables, roots, berries, some grasses and leaves. We don't eat eggs, that seems rather troublesome. Bird's nests are up in the trees and the eggs are really small. Though we do drink milk, at least when we are very young and our teeth haven't grown yet. Our matrons feed the young with their milk. If you mean the milk of other animals? That seems to fall into the same category as eggs. It seems awfully inefficient to milk other animals. None that I know of produce much milk at all. Though, occasionally one of the trade expeditions will bring back cheese, which I am told is made from the milk of animals. It's always been second or third hand before it gets to us though, so I'm not sure what kind of animal it might come from."
"Ah, so there are other people besides your own on the continent that are peaceful? That'd be a nice change of pace." Michael opened a satchel on his hip, made of what appeared to be animal hide and retrieved a book bound in what appeared the same kind of hide only dyed a red color. Binna paid close attention as he opened it revealing some sort of fine pages inside. They were thinner and whiter even than the fine bleached linen sheets in her own journal. The young human? Yes, she decided Michael was probably younger than the other males. The young human then produced a small wooden stick with a center of a black substance that he then used to begin quickly taking notes in his book by scratching the sheets with the small stick leaving dark grey marks. Binna couldn't read the words, but they looked familiar. Some of the markings looked very much like dwarven runes but others were partly or wholly rounded in a way that would be difficult to carve into stone. The more she looked at them the more she felt that there was some pattern in the markings that reminded her of the flowing script of the old tongue. After writing a half dozen lines he looked up at her again and asked, "Kennik, is that what your people are called?"
"Yes, that's what we are called in our own language. It translates as 'the people' which I have found to be a common theme in most languages. Ah, others call us by our name from the dwarvish tongue, Kobold."
"Kobold? Really? You don't look like I'd expect a kobold to look."
"How would you expect a kobold to look?"
"Umm." Michael fished out a different book from his satchel, much thicker this time and bound in a dark brown. He thumbed through the same sort of fine pages which Binna was beginning to feel envious of until he found the page he was looking for. "Well, we have an entry translated from an old tome which describes kobolds as 'often seen in the company of goblins, they are scaily of skin, thin, dog-like creatures with small horns on their head.' There's also a sketch." He turned the book around to show a sketch done in a fine black ink showing one of the people, but very sick.
"Ah. Yes, that's one of my kin but that poor fellow is very sick. There's a disease we call 'the flensing' which causes a sort of mange on our skin causing it to become scaly and our fur to fall out. There is no cure, and as it progresses it causes us to lose all of our body fat and stops our teeth from growing. That means eventually someone infected will lose their front teeth, and near the end even our ears will fall off leaving just the nubs at the base." She reflexively touched the base of her own ears. "It's a really horrific way to die and it can take years to run its course. Goblins are the ones who carry the disease, but it doesn't seem to affect them. From time to time a goblin band will attack a burrow and a few of the people will catch the disease from fighting them. It's shameful, but since there's no cure we have to exile them. I understand that they often choose to take their own lives."
"Well, that would explain it. Sorry for bringing up something so horrific."
"This land is harsh and every kennik is ready to give their life for the protection of the clan. I think we all just hope it doesn't have to be that way."
Her small moment of reflection and solemnity was brought to a close as Brent, the wild one, managed to bring the fire to crackling life under the pot.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Charlotte the female called out to Michael, "Mike, gimme a hand here would ya? We got some veggies to chop." Michael made an apology and moved to help cut the vegetables.
Binna moved to get a better view of what they were doing as Brent left, presumably to help collect the firewood.
Charlotte and Michael used a dwarvish bunk as a makeshift table to cut the vegetables. They used a small slab of wood each to avoid dulling their knives on the stone and had several wooden bowls to contain the cut vegetables. Binna recognized most of the vegetables, there was a carrot, a sweet potato, onion, garlic, corn, and a small green squash which looked something like a cucumber but almost certainly wasn't. Binna didn't recognize several of the ingredients though. There were several corked glass jars with various red and brown powders in them as well as several clay jars with wax sealed tops that Michael said contained 'diced sundried tomatoes'. There were also several similarly shaped vegetables in various mottled shades of green, yellow, orange, and red. They were mostly empty inside save for a core studded with seeds, and the humans were cutting only the outer shell to use. Michael called them 'bell peppers' and was happy to give her all the seeds she wanted. If nothing else, the clan farmers would be awestruck to get seeds for a new kind of vegetable.
As the pair were near complete in preparing the ingredients the three other humans returned. Their arms full and backs bowed under the weight of easily enough wood to last several days even though they spoke of leaving in the morning. Kurt and Brian hauled the wood to the collapsed tunnel where the fire was already well underway and Brent busied himself setting up some sort of triplines across the fortifications outside and around the entrance. Satisfied with his handiwork he then joined the rest of the group.
The leader, Kurt, added some firewood and stirred the pot of beans. Apparently satisfied with their progress he then poured in some of the spices from the jars and took a deep breath of the fragrant steam. Though not unpleasant, the intense odor nearly gagged Binna from across the room. The human however seemed to enjoy the full brunt of the smell over the steaming pot. Maybe it was no wonder that they hadn't smelled the long ones in the thicket they must be nearly nose-blind. "We're going to need to boil these beans for another hour before adding the other stuff. The snow's already coming down in curtains out there and it's been a long week since we've had a roof over our head, how about we get some entertainment going? We have a guest after all."
The rest of the group seemed to like that idea. Murmurs of agreement made the rounds and they began to unpack their belongings.
As the room began to warm the humans began to shed their exterior clothing and armor. Brian the massive warrior was first to strip down. He had left his massive backpack, shield, and bedroll in the redoubt while collecting the firewood, but now he draped his voluminous wool cloak over them. Binna saw several more small packs attached to his belt and a long bladed axe that was hidden under his cloak. He took off the belt and the axe and set them beside his shield and maul. He then began removing his armor. This was the first time Binna got a good look at it. It was made of several layers of flexible cured and oiled leather intermixed with steel plates. The under layer was sewn to a second layer of leather and to that leather was riveted overlapping steel plates. A third layer of leather was riveted to the top of the steel plates, and even larger steel plates were riveted to it. The larger exterior steel plates seemed to be thicker than the ones under and they didn't overlap but they were coated with some sort of brownish-red lacquer. Overall the armor was flexible and strong, but looked incredibly heavy even for a creature the size of a human to wear. And he wore so much of it. His gauntlets and helm came off first followed by the pieces on his shoulders. He then removed the wide belt that fully surrounded his gut, which released the piece covering his chest and back so he could also remove that. He moved on to pieces covering his upper and lower arms, upper legs, and then finally his armored boots that came to his knees. They all seemed to be made of the same sort of construction and all seemed far heavier than any reasonable being would want to wear. Under his armor was breeches and a jacket, both made of a quilted and padded cloth. He didn't remove those, but he did remove his wet and steaming woolen socks that he placed by the fire. He flexed and wiggled his toes reveling for a moment in freedom before pulling a new pair of dry socks from his pack and putting them on.
The two other steel armored males did much the same thing. They also removed their much thinner and lighter helms and woven steel armor. They seemed to be made of countless rings of steel each with a small rivet to keep them closed. Kurt's set seemed to be made of heavier rings than Michale's but both were long enough to cover them from wrist to knee and had a seperate hood to go under their steel helms. Under their armor they both also had similar undergarments, long coats from wrist to knee made of a quilted material like the jacket and breeches of their larger companion. Unlike their larger companion they did shed these coats as the room warmed revealing thin cloth shirts and breeches. They also removed their soft leather knee high boots and swapped wet socks for dry once they had finished stripping.
Brent the scout removed his large heavy cloak of icebear skin revealing breeches and jacket made of soft leather sewn to a padded cloth inner. He also had an armored clamshell of hardened leather on his chest and lower arms. Unlike his companions he didn't remove his armor opting to keep it on, but he did remove his knee high boots to change his socks. But also unlike his companions he promptly placed his boots back on his feet apparently not feeling comfortable being disrobed. Nor did he let his bow or sword stray out of arm's reach.
The small female, Charlotte, was the last to remove her garments. Binna suspected that her lower body mass was harder to keep warm. After all, Binna herself hadn't yet removed any of her cloaks and robes either even though she could feel the room warming from the cheery fire. Finally Charlotte removed her white fur cloak with pale spots and placed it folded neatly atop one of the dwarven bunks to keep it clean. Under her fur cloak was the bright aquamarine dyed linen robe that she had caught glimpses of earlier, she removed and folded it in the same manner as her cloak. Under that was a smaller but warmer mantle of some sort of soft woven animal hair that Binna was not familiar with. It was a cream color and draped her front and back from shoulder to knees. It looked like a blanket with a hole cut in the middle for her head. She also removed this and again folded it and placed it next to the other garments. Under that she wore soft oiled leather boots that rose to mid-thigh and some sort of one piece garment that covered her from neck to wrists, dyed a dark blue and cinched at the waist by a supple leather belt festooned with pouches. Like her male companions she removed her boots (accomplished by undoing a number of straps that held the boots to her legs) and replaced her socks, which showed that the one piece garment continued down each leg to her ankles. The deep midnight blue of the garment seemed to alternately reflect and absorb the light in the room depending on how the cloth moved. It deeply fascinated Binna to the point that she overcame her shyness to edge closer to the female human. "Can I touch your clothes? I've never seen a cloth like that." The human nodded her head in a gesture not unlike that of the people indicating that it was alright. Binna touched it hesitantly at first, but then stroking it up and down. It was as soft as a newborn's fur and felt like no cloth that Binna had ever encountered. "It's called velvet," Charlotte offered, "this one is made of silk, it's really expensive, but incredibly soft and warm. So it was worth it."
Binna retreated back to her perch on an ancient dwarven bunk and continued to watch the humans with undisguised curiosity.
At this point it was warm enough for Binna to begin removing her own clothing. She removed her cloak and three robes that she had worn for warmth. Her own patched garments looked rather destitute in relation to the garments of the humans, even as mudstained and trail worn as they were. Despite their much patched appearance the glossy white silk of the burrowgrub made for very capable clothes for the people. They cut the wind allowing their own winter fur to keep their bodies warm, and the natural coloration of the silk blended with the snow so well that even someone as untrained as Binna in the ways of the wilds would be able to hide effectively in a snow drift. But Binna couldn't help but envy the fine leather boots that the humans wore. They were better even than the silken boots that the scouts used, though the idea of wearing the skin of an animal did turn her stomach a bit. Like the humans Binna removed the silk wrappings from her feet and laid them out to dry. She removed her wooden sandals and wiggled her toes to return some warmth to them.
The low stone tables in the room made for solid improvised benches for the humans as they unwrapped their bedrolls and opened their packs and satchels. Charlotte unrolled her woolen blanket and set it atop one of the low tables, she then proceeded to sit with her legs crossed in a manner that Binna felt was clearly impossible for her own limbs as the human searched her packs. The young female brought out a small porcelain instrument that looked something like the wooden nose whistles that the people used except that she put it in her mouth and gave it an quick toot before also fishing out a hollow wooden stringed instrument wrapped in an oiled cloth that looked like the box harp that she learned to play as a youngling but with a curved body and a much longer neck. Kurt also produced a similar but much larger stringed instrument and they both began to tune them.
The large male Brian picked two sticks from the firewood pile and tapped experimentally on his shield as a makeshift drum. Brent and Michael were the only ones who weren't preparing anything by this point, but if Binna was learning human facial expressions and body language, they seemed to be eager for what was to come.
Now that she could see him without his helmet and hood, Binna decided that Kurt was much older than the others in the group. His skin tone was a few shades darker than Michael's and had the look of age. The fur on the top and sides of his head as well as his facial fur was greying in patches and compared to the other three males his hairline extended further up the sides of his skull. His dark hair shot with steel grey was wavy and long, tied in the back to keep it out of the way. Binna inspected the group of humans again now that they had mostly disrobed. Brian the giant had a ruddy complexion and smooth skin that spoke of youth. His eyes were slate blue and his short cropped hair blond. Where Kurt had a finger's length of hair on his jaw, mouth, and neck, Brian had only short stubble. Brent was much different than the other males, his skin was dark. His skin had the shade of moist, rich soil ready for planting. Not quite black like that of a beetle, but not quite brown either. His hair was also fluffy and stood up on his scalp. Finally, Charlotte. Her smooth and unblemished skin had a slightly different tone than the others, not unlike polished and oiled birchwood. Her hair was long, black, and straight, tied in the back. Her eyes were a deep brown and had more of an angled shape to their sides than the others which were more rounded.
As Binna was pondering differences and similarities between the five humans Kurt completed his tuning job and asked Charlotte, "What do you want to play first? Something everyone can join in on maybe?"
"Yeah, I think so. Let's start with something easy."
Charlotte placed the small porcelain whistle into her mouth and made a seal with her lips that Binnah could not do owing to the cleft in her own lips over her front teeth. With a deep breath she began to play a jaunty tune that the others recognized instantly.
"Yeah, even Brent knows the words to that one." Brian then began to bang out an enthusiastic if inexpert beat on his shield as the other two joined in with their instruments in a much more practiced way.
Binna watched and listened to the music with rapt attention. She'd never heard music and poetry combined like that. The words were in the old tongue, and though she didn't recognize some of them the tale of a traveler far from his homeland still intrigued her.
***
Kurt watched the small and oddly cute rabbit girl as they played. Everyone joined in, this particular song was always a favorite when they had the opportunity to relax. Everyone knew the words and the tune was simple enough that he could keep up with Charlotte even though she was a much better musician than he. The small creature watched them all with plainly fascinated eyes and joined in clapping with Brent and Michael before the second chorus was through. It really had been a long week of making camp out in the cold. Tempers were short and even he would likely have started snapping at people if they'd needed to pitch a camp in a grove of trees again, not to mention the storm raging outside might have led to some frostbite which would have been a disaster for the expedition. They all desperately needed a night of fresh hot food, warm fire, and song.
He could feel the spirits of the entire group rising as they came to the third chorus. Even Brent was singing along as Brian had predicted. The arrangement would never have satisfied a purist back home, Charlotte could play that porcelain recorder like nobody's business but it was at least an octave higher than a flute. Of course it didn't matter, the entire group was smiling by the time the song came to an end. He considered playing it again just because it was such a resounding success but their guest hopped down from the stone bunk in the wall where she had been watching from and bobbled cautiously closer to the group with a plainly curious look on her face.
"I've never heard music like that before. We have instruments to play music but we never put words to the music like that. It was amazing, but I have a question: Your homeland that you sing of, you say it is 'down under', but what is it under? And, what is a 'vegemite sandwich'? I'm sorry, that was two questions. Please excuse my curiosity."
Chuckles from the group broke any tension that might have still been lingering, and Brian spoke up. "Oh, man this is the first time we've had to explain all that isn't it? No one else has wanted to talk before now. How exactly do you explain being straight up isekai-ed?"
Charlotte barked a laugh from across the room, "Isekai-ed? You're such a fucking weeb Brian."
"Who you calling a 'weeb' little mister 'if I'm going to look at an ass all day it should be an attractive one' lookin' like a fuckin' Japanese school girl over there. If I'm a 'weeb' you're the fuckin' weeb-lord."
Pantomiming an arrow strike to her heart, Charlotte raised her hand in surrender. "Ack! I yield! You win!"
Shaking his head in mock disappointment Michael joined in, "Jesus, you two. Get a room!"
Binna felt completely at a loss trying to follow the conversation, and so waited patiently for them to get back to her.
"Oi, oi, oi." Charlotte was at this point holding her head and massaging her temples as she spoke. "Man, I know you're joking but, oi."
"Six months ago, maybe a year and I would have told you no questions asked, straight as an arrow. Only ladies for me, yo. But now, man this body wants what it wants, and I'm not sure what I want anymore." She laughed without much mirth and continued, "I'm pretty confused about what I want, but it's sure Not 'Studlord McThundercock' over there that's for sure, I mean have you seen the heat he's packing? Talk about a classic 'male power fantasy', I'm not sure how he walks around without knocking shit over."
Despite the continued laughter at Charlotte's apparent joke, the previously jovial mood darkened a little and Kurt moved in quickly before the mood could sour any further and returned focus to their guest. "Binna, to answer your question none of us here are actually from the land in the song. And it's not really under anything, that's just a name it was given. But the better answer to your question is that none of us are from this world at all. I can't think of any better way to explain it than just to say the basic facts. We're all from another world and we were brought here by the beings you may know as 'Celestials'. We're not really sure why they brought us here, but it seems to have something to do with the black fog coming from the center of this continent. We're one of many groups sent to try to find a way to the center of the continent to figure out what's going on there because our sages and scholars all agree that whatever is going on there is a threat to the entire world and we don't know how much time we have before something really bad happens."
***
(End of Chapter 2)
Written by Charles Caplan, all characters and situations are fiction.