Claire was walking towards the birdmen village.
She was alone.
She had sent Rithargus back to his village before night had fallen. She knew that as a slime, he could take either a humanoid form or a slime form, and should have no trouble sneaking back in the night by slithering along. Even so, she was a little worried.
'Was I too harsh on him?'
She had told him to return immediately, and was angry that she had found him drinking with other lizards serving him.
It would only serve to continue destroying her reputation with the lizardmen if one of her subordinates were to start acting superior just because they were protected under her influence.
She hated people like that who would go crying to their parents or their superiors if someone tried to defy them, or those who would use their superiors to threaten others into obeying them. She couldn't allow her people to become like that. She was like a mother to these slime people, and she felt guilty as if she had raised a problem child. She had to properly raise the people under her to become proper citizens, or she will have failed as a leader.
Even if it had only been 2 days, it seemed like she had been in this world for years. Not the simulated memories- just the events that had happened over the last 2 days alone were enough for Claire to want to go to sleep and never wake up. How many new people had she met? How many insane situations had she been through?
But now she was finally alone, and at peace.
However...
It was lonely.
Very lonely.
Why was it that when she was in the middle of chaos and uncontrollable situations, that she felt so much more alive than when she was alone and in peace? Was it perhaps that she enjoyed the chaos? No no no... that couldn't be...
Claire sighed and continued making her way to the birdmen village, and walked thinking on things for quite a while before seeing yet another well built village in the distance. However, for this one, there were stone walls instead of a simple wooden fort. It looked like a castle from the distance.
Towers spanned the stone walls, and a large metal drawbridge overhung a moat. Were these people really birdmen? They had built quite the structure. Then again, she was starting to get used to these monsters having humanoid civilizations. The intelligent monsters... they were no different from people. Perhaps their technology was outdated, however they really were quite intelligent- and no different from people.
Claire continued approaching the village, only to realize that there were no people standing guard at the front gate. The drawbridge and gate were open, however nobody seemed to be going in or out.
"How strange... this should be the right location, according to the map that Trop drew up for me...
Trop was an orange slime, one who's profession was in the field of cartography. He had visited many nearby settlements in secret, and been able to map out the general location of them. Of course, he had never been able to enter them, but he was able to at least give a location so that the slimes would know where enemies might be coming from incase they needed to flee.
Claire had reached the bridge at this point, and looked around to see if there were any guards at the towers. There was nobody.
"Hello!? Is anyone around!?"
Claire had shouted to see if there was anyone near the gate.
There was no response.
"I'm going to come in if nobody answers!"
Claire slowly, and cautiously put one foot on the drawbridge to see if there was any sort of trap laid for intruders. A wide open gate was surely suspicious.
While she would not be hurt by any trap, as the entities would be reset, but she still wouldn't let her guard down.
She slowly crossed the bridge after confirming that it was safe.
'Agh... is this trespassing!? Nobody is here though... but isn't that the same as saying 'ah nobody is home, so I should be fine to come in'. No, no, no... this is a city! Back on earth, cities didn't usually have people preventing others from coming in... even if this is a medieval setting, perhaps the people of this city are merely friendly and don't mind visitors... yes, that must be why the gate is open with no guards!'
Claire knew this was likely not the case, and that the people of this village were probably even more hostile than the lizardmen... before they somehow gained an unreasonable fear of her at least...
She thought back and figured that she might have even been quite lucky that the lizardmen feared her so much... even if it was a total lie, and a complete misunderstanding, she had been able to easily convince them to come to the slime village for a meeting. She could leave the rest up to the antiheroes, but for now she had to get the task of inviting the leaders to the village completed, and she was one half there.
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Claire had finished crossing the bridge, and entered the city to see a large number of buildings... however, they were not regular by any means.
The walls of the village were very high, at least 3 stories.
They had as a result, covered up what lie within the village.
On the ground, there was no sign of civilization to be found. The bases of enormous trees covered the ground, with no buildings or man-made structures anywhere aside from the wall itself. However, when Claire looked up...
It was an entire labyrinth of tree houses!
They were connected to each other through branches and the like, and supported through connections in the wood and convenient placement of the structures.
However, despite the fact that a large variety of lively looking buildings were up top, there seemed to be no birds flying around on top, nor any walking around on the ground.
There were no ladders or ways to get up into the city... was this a natural defense against hostile invaders? Still, wasn't it a bit loose to just have your gates open, especially when these bird people had declared war on another tribe? What if the lizardmen came in and hacked the trees down? Well, they would likely die by being crushed from the falling debris in doing so, but still... in war, anything goes. Suicide included.
Not only this, but certainly the birdmen were not the only ones who could fly in this world. The ghost girl could float, and flight seemed to be a trait that was natural to some races.
Claire started shouting.
"Hello!!!! IS ANYONE HERE!?!"
At this, finally, someone peeked their head out of their home.
It was a small birdman- likely a child. He looked like a baby toucan, but a bit larger and was peeping his head out the window, cocking it to the side as if he was confused.
The birdman left the window and the door to the home opened, to reveal his body. He seemed to have the proportions of a human yet the appearance of a bird in every way- feathers covered his body, and his legs were claws. His arms were wings, and he had a long beak.
The boy fluttered down from the treehouse and landed near Claire. He seemed interested in her, and was looking all around her.
"What are you doing here, miss? Could it be that you're here for the session? All the adults have gone there, but I am not old enough yet to take part... Erasalis said that anyone who wishes to take part is welcome though, as long as they know what they're doing and are prepared to put their heart and soul into it!"
"What are you talking about? What session? Who is Erasalis?"
"You didn't know? Erasalis is the hawk who is in charge of the daily sessions... he is always going on about how we birdmen need to show ourselves off to the world, and how we need to be prepared to do so... or something like that. I think the sessions are preparation for that... or something... I don't really know, Its a little too complicated for me to understand."
"Can I go to this session"
If everyone was there, then did Claire really have a choice but to go? She had a job to get done here, after all.
"Of course! Anyone is welcome as long as they have spunk! Or so Erasalis says. Let me fly you up there."
With that, the toucan child grabbed Claire by her shoulders and lifted her up to the trees. Claire almost let out a 'eek!' but held it in as she breathed in and out slowly trying to maintain composure.
The toucan flew over to a large building.
It was a rectangle, and it was the largest building among the matrix of treehouses. As they got closer, Claire started hearing something odd.
It was... whistling?
Beeboxing?
Dubstep raving?
It sounded like a massive party going on.
The sounds were all... natural, like they were being made from the whistles of birds or the beating of drums... but they had a certain beat and rhythm to them that made it seem like it was a college party on earth.... she didn't even understand how it was possible to produce such sounds without computerized software. Surely these birdmen weren't THAT advanced, right?
Claire was dropped off at the entrance, and the young toucan flew off.
"I hope you fit in well, miss!"
Was Claire about to get into something crazy again?
Was it too late to turn back?
No, no, no. She couldn't turn back. She had come here to speak with the leader of the birdmen. Who knows? Perhaps he was in here. It seemed that all the birdmen were present here, so she had to do what was necessary, so she worked up the courage to approach the door.
The sight she saw was something that she never would have imagined.
There were around 200 birdmen- all with builds similar to humans, just like the young toucan, but otherwise with features as if they were birds. They were lined up into rows of 20x10, and every single one of them was....
Doing squats.
Not only this, but on the side surrounding these excersizing birdmen were a group of female birdmen- who were skinnier and had slightly different body frames, all whistling the loud rave music that Claire had heard from outside- producing the electronic sounds through completely natural means.
"Lets go, lets go, come on everyone, work those thighs! I wanna see them get all the way to the floor! Oi, Jacobs! I said ALL the way to the floor! Don't be bullshitting me with those halfass squats! Take a look at Ron over here! look at that full form! That's what I like to see! OI! Petri! What did I tell you about touching your tail to the floor then coming right back up! Just because you've got a long tail doesn't mean you get any bonus points! I said all the way down! That's right! Mhm! There we go! That's what I like to see! Come on boys! How are we ever going to show everyone our greatness if we don't first buff up our thighs, hmm? The answer is that we aren't! We already have the most fabulous feathers in the realm but if we don't have the proportions to match then nobody will look at us in awe! I want it to be so that the second we invade those lizards that they surrender just by taking a single glance at our majestic forms!"
The one shouting out orders to all the birds was a hawk, who was pacing back and forth and addressing multiple people simultaneously.
This was likely Erasalis. He took notice of Claire at the door and took flight as he floated over to her.
"OH!? Whats this?! Has a human come to take part in our session? It seems that someone has finally come to respect the magnificence of us! Please, right this way, human woman! Come! Do squats with us!"
Claire was rushed over to a spot in the lines and she was placed next to 3 buff birdmen.
"Ehhh!!!! Wait!!! I came here for-"
"Hoh!? A human has come here to join us eh? I look forward to working out with you!", an Owl next to Claire stated while continuously squatting.
"it isn't every day you see anyone other than a birdman around here... I am glad you came to see things our way.", a stork exclaimed, also while mid squat.
"Come on girl, work it! Get it going like the rest of the guys here or you'll lose out!"
"EHHH!!!???"
And so, Claire found herself doing squats with the birdmen.
"That's right! Look at those skills! You must be a natural at this! You guys all need to learn from her!", Erasalis shouted.
'Why am I doing this!?!'
"You have more style than even I do", a nearby peacock commented.
'Could there not be one day where nothing crazy happens!!?'
And so, the squatting session continued for another hour.
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