"What? What is that thing?" Varma asked herself completely baffled.
Venamo immediately blocked her mouth and shushed at her. He was thinking about snatching the weapons from the guards, and looking for any opportunity. Everybody in the crowd was chattering and some people got as close as they could to the Continent Crosser and the guards had to poke their pole arms to keep some at bay. Venamo knew that that none of the guards were distracted, but he still kept thinking of ideas. He knew that trying to take anything by force would get him shot by a crossbow bolt, so he didn't entertain the idea for long. He couldn't speak to Yilka or Varma, which didn't make brainstorming ideas possible. He only slightly shook his head to them as if to tell them that nothing is possible at this time. They started making their way through the crowd, but as they were almost out of the crowd and on their way to the hills, their attention was grabbed.
"There she is!" A guard shouted.
Varma expected the worst and turned to the direction of the yell, as did her two cousins and the rest of the crowd. Above the crowd a red cloud of mist made its way towards the Continent Crosser. Crossbow bolts were shot towards, but they all just went through it. The red cloud moved much faster than any naturally formed mist or smoke, or any person for that matter, and once it was above the roof of the continent crosser, it materialised into a woman with tied up red hair, a mask covering half of her face and clothes of all black. The woman kicked the crossbow out of the hands of one guard, and then turned into red mist again. The red cloud flew upwards along the chimney of the machine and at the top of it she materialised into the woman again. The woman was hanging from the top of the chimney with one hand, and took a pouch out of her belt with the other hand.
"Don't let her do it!" A guard shouted right as the mysterious woman was going to hang the little pouch above the hole of the chimney.
A crossbow bolt was shot at the bag, breaking it and spilling its contents down and away from the chimney's hole. The mysterious red haired woman grunted angrily, turned into mist again and flew away along the railroad.
"What was that?" Varma asked in confusion.
"Doesn't matter. The guards are more alert now, and we have even less of a chance of getting their weapons." Venamo reminded and continued his way towards the hill.
"But wait! These!" Varma said and picked up a crossbow bolt that had punctured the earth.
"Do they have the crest on them?" Venamo asked.
"They do! Here on the steel tip." Varma replied and showed the bolt.
"This is good. Let's pick up a few of these in case we lose some. They fired quite a few these around." Venamo said and picked up one.
They searched the hill and the area around it for arrows and each found one. The guards had went to chase the red cloud along the railroad and weren't paying mind to anything happening in the hills. Once three arrows had been collected, the three Uhmakians on their quest returned to their patient mounts and headed back to the same direction that they were initially headed to before they got distracted.
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyO3EH6EXQ2
Most of the day went riding the hilly landscapes again, and right as the lack of sleep was getting the best of Yilka specifically, the familiar tent where they stopped by earlier came to their vision when they crossed a hill.
"I know we don't really have a reason to stop by the snake woman's tent but... if I stay awake for a moment more... I'll fall off this mount." Yilka said and yawned between words.
"We still have some ways to go between here and the Wound. It'd be best if we all take nap there, since that's the purpose of the place." Venamo seconded.
"I could... stay up for one day more." Varma said and yawned.
"We'll stop there anyway. We can ask some further questions about the things that we saw back there." Venamo said.
And so they stopped their mounts outside the tents where they found wooden spikes punctured into the earth with ropes around them for tying up animals. Their mounts got left outside, but the brothers took the satchels from their mounts and went inside the tent. Inside the tent they saw more people this time and not only Ku. In the middle of the tent five people were sitting around a cauldron where chopped vegetables were being boiled. In the back of the tent Ku was on her knees reciting prayers in the Venomfolk's language, but when she heard the flap of the tent open and close, she opened her eyes. She stood up and walked up to the visitors.
"Did you find what you were looking for?" She asked.
"I believe we did." Venamo answered.
He took the water satchel that was hanging from his belt and then took a chunk of dried wax from there.
"Oh yes. That dark purple shade is unmistakable. Now you just need someone who knows how to forge a replica." Ku said suggestively.
"My brother saw what the seal looked like. If necessary we might just make one ourselves." Venamo replied.
"For the right price, I could make one." Ku said.
"You didn't mention that you know how to make one." Venamo wondered.
"You didn't look like you had anything to pay me with. But I see that your bags are full now." The Venomfolk woman replied.
"We have fine salts in our satchels." Venamo revealed.
"Two handfuls of that should easily pay for three seals. But what sort of fine salt is it?" Ku asked.
"I don't know enough about fine salts to tell." Venamo answered honestly.
"With one smell I could tell." Ku suggested.
Venamo turned to Yilka to ask a question.
"She says that she can forge us three seals for two handfuls of the salts. How do you feel about that?" Venamo asked.
"Two handfuls? We'll have plenty remaining even if we give her that." Yilka answered and opened his satchel that was almost overflowing with the fine salt.
Ku sniffed the air with her snakelike nostrils and shivered.
"Ohh fear salt. That is strong, and useful." Ku said and licked her lips with her Y-shaped tongue.
"What did she say?" Yilka asked his brother.
"She seems eager for a deal." Venamo replied and turned to Ku.
"It's yours if we can have three seals and a place to stay until morning." Venamo bartered.
"I can easily arrange that." Ku said and cupped her hands.
Venamo poured two handfuls of salts into Ku's awaiting hands.
"And now our end of the deal?" Venamo asked.
"Of course. As soon as the feral folk have cooked their vegetables, I can use the fire to heat the wax and mold it with my molds. In the meantime, make yourselves comfortable." Ku wished.
Varma nudged at Venamo's sleeve to get his attention.
"Ask her what does she do with these salts?" She told Venamo.
"What do you need these salts for?" Venamo then asked Ku.
"Oh, the fear salt works well in driving away visitors who don't want to leave. Those are more common than I'd like." Ku answered and walked away to store her salts in a bag by her personal chest.
"She agreed to make us the seals and to let us stay until morning." Venamo told the others.
"She better have those ready by the time I wake up." Yilka said and went to a rug by the corner of the tent.
The others didn't argue and found themselves some rugs as well, and the noises of the feral folk talking and eating didn't prevent them from falling asleep.
Several hours passed, and in the late hours of the night Varma woke up. She got up from her rug and saw that the feral folk had left already, and Ku was nowhere to be seen.
"The fire is not even on anymore and it's this hot? I'll melt in here." She murmured to herself quietly and left the tent.
Outside the tent she went to check if the mounts were still there. In there he found them sleeping on their bellies, and with them was Yilka who was sitting on the ground cross legged with the thicker end of his cudgel touching the ground and the thinner end enveloped in his fingers.
"Why are you awake? Did you get hot too?" Varma asked and sat down leaning on the other beakmount that was sleeping.
"Hot? I'm wearing my rug as a coat because of how cold it is here. I'm awake for other reasons." Yilka answered without revealing anything more than that.
"Well, sorry if I didn't see what you're wearing here in the dark." Varma said with snark.
Yilka didn't find it very amusing and just looked into the hills.
"I couldn't stop thinking about the fight before. I saw a man kill himself with the weapon I was holding. And before that, I hit the other man in the head with my cudgel. He wasn't moving afterwards, and I keep wondering if he lived. I know that those fellows tried to kill us but... to see a body lifeless at my own feet..." Yilka spoke.
"Vena said that he doesn't feel remorse for those who would try to kill him." Varma said.
"I don't know how he does it. He's our hunter and he's seen more death than I have. I suppose it's something he's just accustomed to." Yilka wondered.
Suddenly Varma shushed.
"Wha..." Yilka was starting to say but he got shushed again.
They both listened and heard the sounds of galloping coming from the hills. The galloping got louder and from behind the hills some white coated mounted rangers showed up.
"We need those permit seals now. That snake lady better have made them." Yilka said and went under the tent's wall inside the tent with Varma following.
"Where is that snake lady?" He wondered out loud and looked frantically.
"There's a chest somewhere in here. Let's look there." Varma said and walked around the pitch black tent looking for the chest.
As she walked around, she stepped on something squishy and heard an aggressive hiss. She realised that she had stepped on Ku without realising it in the dark where she blended into the ground even better. She said some angry words at Varma who couldn't understand any of them. Varma apologised frantically but Ku couldn't understand her either. Before they could get come into an understanding, the dim light of the night entered the tent as the flap was opened and man in a white coat rocking a big crest and wearing a glowing metal helmet entered the tent with a lantern and a sword.
"I am on official duty to investigate a murder that happened in the province, far from any settlement or worksite." He announced as another man dressed similarly and carrying a crossbow also entered the tent.
"A murder?" Ku asked.
Venamo got up from his rug and grabbed his sword from the ground where he left it. He joined Varma, Yilka and Ku when he saw them standing off against armed men.
"We are not hostile. We are only here to ask questions." The ranger assured everybody.
"What sorts of questions?" Ku asked.
"A tongueless and fingerless man stopped us and led us to a site where four men were found dead. One of them was cut in half, two of them had holes in their necks and one's skull had been cracked from behind. Has anybody stopped by here carrying blade weapons or blunt weapons?" The trooper asked seriously.
Venamo understood the implication and hid his sword behind his back, hoping that in the dim light of the lantern nobody had noticed it. But Yilka who couldn't understand a word, kept his cudgel up and ready for combat.
"One of them certainly has a blunt weapon." The crossbow carrier pointed out when he saw the white glow coming from Yilka's Beast Slayer.
He pointed the crossbow at Yilka and told him to drop the weapon, but of course Yilka didn't understand the command. He made the same command several times but to no understanding.
Venamo understood that the situation is serious, and told Yilka to drop his weapon in a language that he understands too.
The sword wielding trooper looked at Venamo with interest and then at Yilka.
"So you're Uhmaks. Do you have permit seals to leave your worksite or are we dealing with a case of runaways?" He asked.
"They do have permit seals. I collected them as they entered, so that they wouldn't run off at night without paying." Ku lied, and took three newly made but genuine looking permit seals from her personal chest that she knew the location of with her eyes closed.
"Bring them here." The sword wielding ranger demanded, and so Ku handed the seals to him.
He sheathed his sword and inspected the seals in the lantern's light, and everybody was feeling tense, especially those who couldn't understand any of what was being spoken.
"They seem genuine. But we'll need to inspect that blunt weapon this toiler has." He then demanded.
Yilka still couldn't understand, and so the ranger walked over and snatched away the cudgel himself while pointing his sword at Yilka. Back at his initial position he inspected the Beast Slayer and its glowing light, and then turned to look at Yilka again.
"Your weapon has been blessed by the Holy people. But their pilgrimage won't happen for many months, and their route is far away from here. I don't think any permit allows a toiler to wander off that far, or for that long." The sword wielder said.
The crossbow carrier then pointed at everybody and told everybody to separate.
Venamo and Ku understood, and distanced themselves from Yilka and Varma. The sword wielder hooked his lantern into his belt and walked up to Yilka with his sword pointed at him, got behind him and twisted his wrist. The ranger sheathed his sword again to get two hands on Yilka who was struggling too much. Venamo knew that he had to do something, but he saw the other ranger aiming a crossbow at him. The ranger apprehending Yilka had to get more of a control of the young Uhmakian, because simply twisting his left wrist behind his back wasn't enough. The ranger put his right hand on Yilka's right shoulder, but that only made Yilka shake even more. With his struggling he made them both shake so much, that the lantern on the ranger's hip fell down and hit the ground. It didn't break, but the sound of it hitting the ground and the glass cracking ever so slightly got both of the rangers on edge. The crossbow carrier now aimed at Yilka and shouted threatening words at him that Yilka couldn't understand. While both of the rangers were focused on one man, Varma scampered to the satchels were the fine salts were being kept and took the whole satchel with her. She ran to the ranger apprehending Yilka with intentions of throwing the fear salt into the ranger's face, but the man with the crossbow saw her and fired a bolt at her. Right as Varma was near the ongoing arrest, the bolt hit the satchel she was carrying, and sent the salts flying everywhere and raining on both Yilka and the man arresting him. Varma was quick to duck out of the way of the raining salts, but the two men were not. As the crossbow carrier was taking a new bolt from his quiver, Venamo charged at him and slashed the crossbow in half with his Defiance and pointed the glowing sword at the man's heart. Elsewhere in the tent the man arresting Yilka had let go already and gotten on his knees as if to beg. On his knees he was crying tears of terror while complaining and begging. Yilka on the other hand had fallen on his back and was screaming as if he was in pain.
"Get off me!" He was screaming up at the ceiling while struggling against nothing and letting out more screams of pain.
"Father is eating me! Mother! Vena!" He then screamed incoherently.
Venamo ignored the ranger that he was threatening and rushed to Yilka. He knelt by his side and grabbed him by the collar and shook him to get him back into his senses, but Yilka only did his best to push Venamo away while struggling and screaming like a child in peril.
"They both inhaled the fear salt." Ku stated.
"So what is happening to them?" Venamo demanded an answer.
"They're reliving a moment of their lives when they felt the most fear." Ku replied calmly.
"How do I get the effect to end?" Venamo asked impatiently.
"By waiting for that memory of his to end. Entirely depends on how long the fearful experience was." Ku answered.
"I just want to know what those men wanted and what's happening." Varma stated, not having understood what was said.
"They found the remains of our last fight, and we are not safe in this land if we let these men tell any tales." Venamo replied.
"Well, the other one already scampered away." Varma pointed out.
"Curse all of this. We have to leave this land immediately. He will certainly tell others about us. If Ku is right, he should be fine in a few moments. The incident he's seeing didn't last that long. Go grab our things and I'll drag him outside." Venamo commanded Varma
Varma went and collected the remaining intact satchels, the weapons and the arrows and took them outside, and Venamo dragged his brother by the wrists outside while he kept screaming and fighting back.
"What will the Venomfolk lady do now? The whitecoats will be back sooner than later and eventually the one who's still begging at air in there is going to come into his senses." Varma wondered out loud.
"She's survived so far. We have our own concerns right now." Venamo said while hanging the satchels into the mounts.
Right then Yilka on the ground gasped loudly, sat up and breathed heavily while sweat ran down his face. Venamo and Varma both crouched down by his side to check on him.
"Are you feeling all right already?" Venamo asked.
"No. Not at all. Is the situation over?" Yilka answered and asked without looking at either of the others.
"That situation in the tent is done with, and we'll have to get going. We won't stop by the Road of Blood. We'll go directly to the Wound and under it, and then we'll reunite with Suiv and Vaino." Venamo explained.
"Alright." Yilka said meekly without any arguing.
Venamo and Varma helped Yilka to his feet and he didn't even thank them afterwards. He only walked to his mount and got on its back on the first attempt. Varma once again belly flopped to the back of the mount that Yilka was on, and Venamo got on his own mount as well.
"Are we ready to go?" Venamo asked.
Yilka only gave an affirmative sounding grunt and got his mount moving towards north where the Wound is.
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0uMImPqklP
Once the Wound was in their sight, so was the worksite where the Road of Blood hides. Varma would have wished to go check on Pinean there, but without the disguises they had the last time, they had to circle the worksite far. They found the forest that is growing by the Wound, and in the forest they decided to look for the tight tunnel by moving along the wall towards the worksite.
"Stay vigilant for wallcrawls." Venamo reminded as they were walking along the wooden wall.
"What's a wallcrawl? Is it that hairy beast that was beheaded on the other side of the tunnel?" Varma asked.
"The very one. They do exactly what their names tells you, and they are dangerous." Venamo warned.
"Didn't seem very dangerous when it was lying headless on the ground." Varma joked.
"Folk with mindsets like that don't live long in the woods." Venamo snapped back with.
"Found it." Yilka said from the front of the little queue that they were all walking in.
"You found it?" Venamo asked.
"Here." Yilka said and stepped aside to show the tight tunnel that goes under the Wound.
"If the tunnel is here then the false rock where the work coats are should also be near." Varma pointed out.
"Our task was to bring the stolen weapons to a member of the Road of Blood somewhere on our side of the Wound. We have no reason to go to the camp right now." Venamo reminded.
"Oh, and guys. By the way..." Varma began.
"What is it?" Venamo asked.
"We forgot the permit seals back at the scale lady's tent." She remembered.
"Damned be! We did!" Venamo exclaimed.
"We're already on this side. As long as we don't get a reason to come back here, we won't need them, right?" Yilka asked.
"But if the Road of Blood sends us on a job, we'll likely have to come back here." Venamo pointed out.
"I'm sure they have spare ones. Let's just go." Yilka said and went first into the tunnel.
The short and tight tunnel had been blocked with the same log that was there when they first came in. With some effort, Yilka pushed the log away far enough that he could fit through. Once everybody was on the other side, they saw the bloodstains of the wallcrawl that was beheaded earlier, but the body and the head were no longer there. A trail of blood was on the ground and it seemed to be leading towards the encampment.
"Looks like the body has been dragged out of here. So somebody has been here." Venamo stated.
"You think it's the Road of Blood members or if somebody came looking for us?" Yilka asked.
"I don't know why anyone would want the carcass of that wretched beast. Our encampment was this way. Come." Venamo said and followed the trail of blood on the ground with the others behind him.
They found the site of the Bloom festival's celebrations abandoned. Extinguished ashy fireplaces were on the ground and the long community table was completely empty, and no people could be seen anywhere, but one distinct object could be seen. The overturned carriage that the family came with, as well as the mounts attached to it.
"Mother and Vaino aren't here but our carriage is here. They've gone looking for us!" Varma pointed out.
"This is not good. They better have stayed away from the wall and the creatures that crawl on it." Venamo added.
"We better go look for them before they get too far." Yilka suggested.
"They had a head start, so we have some catching up to do." Venamo added.
"So we have no time to waste. Let's untie the mounts now and head back to the woods!" Yilka demanded.
And it was right then when they all heard yawning from under the overturned carriage. Fingers stuck out from under it and the carriage started rising. Venamo helped lift it and the carriage got flipped over to its side.
"Or let's not." Varma said with relief when she saw her recently awoken mother rubbing her eyes when the morning light shone on them.
Once Suiv had properly opened her eyes and seen who was in front of her, she suddenly got angry and pulled off her leather shoe. She gave Venamo and Yilka both a proper smack to the side of their necks and then pulled Varma by her sleeve to be close to her.
"Do you understand how worried I got? I spent all of yesterday digging through the forest searching for you all! If you two want to disappear into the woods, at least tell my girl to not come along!" Suiv yelled at them.
Yilka was looking away in shame thinking it'd make him invisible somehow.
"I tried to but..." Venamo began to say.
"But but but. I don't care." Suiv quickly interrupted with.
Varma taunted the brothers with a cheeky smirk thinking that all of Suiv's wrath had been laid upon them, but then Suiv turned her face to her.
"And you will not run along with them when they decide to disappear into the forests! You clearly heard me shouting at you to come back, but you defied me and ran along anyway. Do I need to keep you on a leash from now on?" Suiv scolded Varma with.
"I... I ran to them to tell them to come back, but they threatened me to keep going along with them." Varma poorly explained.
Suiv only looked at her with an unimpressed expression.
"You are not good at lying. And lying is against Leri's principles so be glad that Vaino is still sleeping." Suiv said to Varma then looked at the old man still sleeping on the ground.
"The truth is this; we followed a man who showed a way under the Wound. We followed him there." Venamo admitted with a straight back and an honest tone.
"What? Have you lost your heads? If they catch any of us sneaking to their side, the forces of Vastusar will use that as a reason wage war against us! Before you were even born, the tribe agreed that the battle is over and we won't try to meddle in the affairs of Vastusar and South Uhmakas. Last time we tried, it was them who were punished for it. If you catch somebody sneaking to the other side, you better report them to the tribe council and put an end that activity before we all fall under Vastusar's aggression too. You should know that they're looking for any excuse to gobble up our lands and put us under their heel." Suiv explained to them.
"The situation is serious. A group that works with the Crown has shot down and killed the Fire Feather, and they intend to do that to the other Grand Beasts as well in order to cause a rift between the Sisters so that they'd destroy each other and make the Crown of Greater Vastusar the lord of the created world." Venamo explained further.
"And our kindred who are stuck on the other side have to choose between living like feral beasts or beasts of burden because their fathers rebelled. Makes me boil inside." Yilka said bitterly.
"And who fed you those rumours?" Suiv asked with curious disbelief.
"We saw the Fire Feather being shot down with out own eyes. I was next to her when she took her final breath." Varma assured.
"And the men who did it told me their group's and the Crown's ultimate intentions before taking his own life using my blade." Venamo added and pulled out his sword from his back to show the dried stains on it.
"And right on the other side of that wall are caves where the South Uhmaks have to pick moss all day, and if they leave without a permit, they get sent right back." Yilka added.
"Well... that does sound quite bad." Suiv admitted.
"Really does, but there is a secret group who want to fight back. They told us to steal three pieces of Vastusarian weaponry for them in exchange for learning what they know. And now we have to return these arrows to the first member of theirs that we meet here on this side." Varma told Suiv and pulled out said three arrows from her quiver.
"You made agreements with secret rebel groups already?" Suiv asked shocked.
"Well, we sort of... found them." Yilka explained.
Suiv took a deep sigh.
"If you men want to make that choice, then that choice is yours to make. It does sound like a dire situation, and I won't stop you from joining the fight. Just don't let anyone know that you came from this side. I don't want the rest of us to fall under attack." Suiv said to the brothers.
"What about me? Can I join the fight?" Varma asked.
"You? You are staying at the homestead until you're old enough to choose your own path. Besides, me and Vaino will need someone to help with all the work if our hunter... I mean hunters are gone." Suiv replied with certainty and pulled Varma to her side.
"Before any of us make any decision, I say we all return home for a couple of days at least to rest and regroup and prepare." Venamo suggested.
"And you still have a debt to pay to a certain someone." Yilka reminded Venamo.
"Don't worry. I remembered that. Not honouring agreements is something that only the Wicked people would do, but not me." Venamo replied.
Before the brothers could bicker any more, their attention was caught by Suiv who let out sounds of mild pain and gently pushed Varma away from her.
"Why are you so burning hot? Are you sick? Even at your sickest you've never been this hot to touch." Suiv asked Varma.
"I don't feel sick at all. I've been feeling oddly hot yesterday and today though. It's a bit bothersome but I can live with it." Varma said and shrugged.
"We'll have to ask a doctor about that." Suiv commented.
"I wonder if Nofa knows anything about that or if she has anything for that." Yilka wondered out loud.
"We will not make any more deals with her." Venamo insisted.
"Why not? We have plenty of the wares that she wants." Yilka reminded and then shook the satchels of fine salts that were draped on his shoulders.
"What did you bring with you in those bags?" Suiv asked curiously.
Yilka and Venamo both side eyed each other, knowing that Suiv wouldn't approve of what they had in the satchels.
"Lying is wrong." Suiv then reminded them.
"We stole fine salts from a quarry because the wizard's daughter back home wanted them in exchange for the feign flesh she gave for my injured hand." Venamo admitted once again with a straight back and an honest voice.
"You... You stole from the other side and brought the stolen goods here? We are doomed. Just doomed." Suiv said with a hopeless sigh.
"The Crown's forces don't know that we came from this side. If they are looking for us, they'll be looking for us on their side of the Wound." Venamo reassured.
"You better be right. Now let's go home. There's a medical man in Reutsa. We'll stop by there and ask about Varma's condition. And if I find out that you let my Varma even slightly smell those salts, I'm throwing you over that wall myself." Suiv said.
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