Dreamweaver chapter 14

 

“Be quiet or we’ll be discovered!” people whispered, passing it down the line as I neared toward the small hidden area where the commotion was coming from. People are still edgy from what happened during the attacks, and looking over their shoulder.

By now we were several miles from the orc fortress and the school. It’s a beautiful green area with lots of cover. But who would have known this area was so deadly either?

After talking so long I didn’t realize it but we’d gotten pretty far. We’d been steadily climbing down into a rich valley area which had a bit of a slope but was getting more and more green the further we progressed. The grassland area felt cool to travel in but it was also making the edges of our pants dewy and a bit wet, we could smell all kinds of things in the air too with its rich freshness. It was very different from growing in a concrete city. Here and there I even saw evidence of flowers and bees growing and thriving around in the grass as it slowly but surely became a dense woods area. Surely if it weren’t for the orcs this would have been the type of land that would grow buckets of crops for a farm with barely a hoe and plow being used it’s so vibrant with life.

But… for it to be controlled by the orcs…how shameful.

Now the school and the orc fortress were just out of sight. But even though we’d made a few miles I didn’t feel comfortable with how far we’d gotten just yet. It wasn’t far enough to camp yet, nor was it good enough for us to be safe.

We probably weren’t going to be that hard to track, I thought.

Creeping forward I had to duck low to stay hidden and found myself entering the hidden opening of a hideaway spot, but that was high up but with sheer drop-offs on either side of the path going into it.

It was a harrowing experience, and then suddenly we were crowding around what looked to be a sort of camouflaged hill overhang with a sheer cliff drop that was above the roaring water sprayed riverbank about forty feet down below that wound through shear sharp tooth shaped rocks. I couldn’t see the river at first, but the heavy water vapor and noise of a waterfall close by was obvious and heavily scented the air with a fragrant spray that floated up from below feeling deliciously invigorating. It wasn’t until later that I was able to see the fast moving river that was fairly loud below us and that gave off a cold current and vapor above because of its terrific force and speed.

We also had agreed that some of us would go ahead to make sure it was safe. There were several others here already, also staying low.

“Shh! Have everyone stay quiet. These guys might be dangerous!” Akimoto was saying, where he was at the front of the discovery and seemed to be the one knowing what was going on. He was pointing to something below us. Yuta was with him, having crawled up quickly and was one of the first to be there. They were both huddled under cover like the others and I could see the fear in their eyes.

The students had followed him here and there were at least twenty students getting close to this area and many of them were crawling forward on their elbows, laying flat like Akimoto while the others were trying to keep the rest of them quiet. They’d crept right up to the drop off of the precipice which made us somewhat secluded.

Slowly I crawled forward too, wanting to take a look going further out into the hidden lookout spot. Yuta was also there and so were a few others. But the majority of the others were still hanging back and not in this little hidden spot where Akimoto had found.

We couldn’t help but look over down to the twisting rocky river. Overall it looked beautiful; the pristine water was mountain snow runoff that had melted from the weather change of Spring and flowed down from the mountains to the northwest of us and crystal clear because of having come from ice pack and snow melt. So much so that in the spots where the water was forming pools, you could see fish swimming below despite us being not quite even that close to the river. It also looked like it would take a little time to cross while being very cold too, but wouldn’t be impossible to do so on foot without tools. However, that was deceptive too, since it was likely it would be very hard to keep your footing in the strong current, and the rocks all over in the middle and by the banks did look sharp and jagged. They were some kind of volcanic rock it seemed.

Would we get washed away by the force of that river trying to cross it?

“What the heck?!” I whispered.

“I don’t get it. Is this a war world?” someone else said. But they weren’t looking at the river; they were looking at what was going on nearby it.

“Must be…it’s like we just go from one carnage after another,” a girl with badly smeared mascara said.

Below us was another scene of carnage, but it wasn’t orcs. This idea totally had me flatfooted. I was seeing another skirmish of some kind, figures below were shouting and shooting range weapons at each other along the river’s edge.

Both were human groups, but their cultures and armor seemed to be different. One side had almost samurai looking primitive wood armor, bows, arrows, spears, and wooden shields, while the opposing group had sheer numbers and mostly just loincloths, a few leather protective pieces, but mostly a lot of exposed tanned skin, weird cloth headdresses with fancy ornamentation of metal and elaborate paints, swords, javelins, and spears. It was clear that both groups looked like something straight out of a history book from around somewhere between 1,000 B.C. to around 400 A.D.

Both sides were fairly numerous and trying to gain an upper hand while using logs and trees for cover around the riverbank. They kept trying to look for openings with the shield using guys having a better defense in general, and better unity. However the other side outnumbered them by quite a bit. They kept trying to both dodge and attack, with some of their people even trying to lure enemies into the open, to be cut off by his friends after he were to fall back, but it wasn’t working very quickly for either side.

“Eh? They look kind of Japanese…” someone said. “But I’m not sure yet.”

“Not Japanese exactly. There’s something different about them and how they dress,” someone else said.

“Eh?! They do!” someone confessed.

“We don’t know for sure yet,” someone said. “Even if they are they might not be ‘friendlies’.”

“Well only one side does. Their wooden armor looks really like from something I’ve seen somewhere but I can’t quite figure it out. The other looks quite different,” Akimoto said.

“But the other guys, those headdresses and stuff, that’s almost like…” he scratched his chin.

“Ancient Egyptian warriors right?” Yuta guessed.

“That only explains one group, who is the other group?” I whispered.

“They might not be Japanese, they just look Asian, but yes the others look Egyptian,” someone else argued back in whisper.

“Well some people you can tell if you look long enough,” another reasoned.

“Eh? That explains the window popping up in Egyptian hieroglyphics doesn’t it? Those guys are Egyptian, and the hieroglyphics also match with them. So they must have some kind of significance here somehow,” Yuta wondered.

“Not really, for one, did the window pop up in Egyptian hieroglyphics because we were on Egyptian land, or because the Egyptians here control more parts of the world, or because they were here longer? What if its only because the Egyptians were the first ones here with writing? If there are other cultures and groups besides the Egyptians then why didn’t the window appear in those languages?” I asked.

“Shun! Why do you always say something difficult,” Yuta face palmed himself in frustration. “You make my head hurt.”

“Well, it’s true. It’s a good question,” Akimoto reasoned.

But as we said that, more and more of the Egyptian soldiers were getting crushed, because they didn’t have shields and had only small pieces of armor with a huge amount of exposed skin. The Egyptian warriors did have greater numbers however. The arrows from the others wood bury into their flesh quite quickly and the trees didn’t offer them much cover. They too were throwing their javelins back as best they could but it wasn’t going very well for them.

Then we heard chanting and some kind of runes drawn by one of the Egyptians in the air in a quick series of motions. He was obviously some kind of leader because his headdress was fancier and all black with gold snake ornamentation and some kind of black makeup around the eyes like you’d see in Egyptian art. He pointed suddenly at the opposing troops after finishing the rune he’d drawn in the air. The air was suddenly split by a blinding thunder bolt hitting the ground from the sky which split a tree in half and knocked three of the primitive looking Asian warriors off their feet.

That guy just threw a lightning bolt at the other team! No freaking way! I’m sure of what I saw! I saw the energy around him before he tossed it too!

Is this magic?!

We saw dirt also explode with the small shock wave and then it settled. They didn’t get up and were just lying there, while the Egyptian magic user covered the retreat for his forces, while getting on some kind of chariot pulled by many horses all linked in pairs also painted in his black and gold colors while the rest of his men were marching on foot.

As quickly as it had began both sides were withdrawing, though they were shouting stuff at each other angrily. I’m guessing their shaking their fists at each other was something about revenge, but I wasn’t entirely sure yet.

“I’m not sure who won? They both lost a lot of people,” Akimoto whispered.

“That’s true,” I admitted.

“Looks like about twenty three Egyptians died, and the Asian warriors lost about seven, wait no nine, counting what the Egyptian sorcerer did,” Akimoto said, after counting them off. “But they did seem reluctant to engage each other directly which was why the death counts were so low compared to how many were there.”

“Hmm, yeah that’s what it seemed like to me too,” Yuta said.

“There sure seemed a heck of a lot more Egyptians though,” I said.

“Not much of a skirmish was it? I wonder why they quit? The amount that died was probably less than a tenth of each side’s forces,” a girl asked.

“Maybe because the orc nest is active nearby. That might bother them both quite a bit more than each other,” I guessed.

“Hmm, yeah that sounds what I’d think in the same position. They won’t eat each other alive, but the orcs will. They can negotiate with each other too, but not with the orcs. It would be the ideal strategic decision to save your military strength for whatever threat is more dangerous and pressing,” Yuta acknowledged.

“Oh wait a minute! Those Asian warriors I think I understand now. The wooden armor, I should have realized!” Akimoto was in a daze. He looked like he’d just scored an A on a math test.

“Eh? What is it?” Yuta asked.

“Those are Yayoi era soldiers! I’m sure of it! I remember a few years ago going with my family to see Yoshinogari. I mean come on; don’t they look sort of samurai-ish except maybe a bit more primitive from earlier eras? The helmet designs are definitely pre-samurai, resembling what would later be considered a samurai looking helmet and not something you see in old Chinese history stuff. Plus Korean military history and armor history have vastly different look. They also looked somewhat Japanese but not quite like us and not Korean either?” Akimoto continued.

“I didn’t know you can tell Asians apart that well,” someone said.

“Well a lot of people can. I don’t know how it works but my grandpa and a few others can look at people and tell where they come from usually. And something about this language skill does make me feel that those guys are Yayoi era people,” Yuta said.

“Are you sure?” someone asked.

“Well it doesn’t matter if Yuta is right or wrong, but the fact is that Akimoto is right. The evidence is right in front of us. It’s also known that Yayoi people used wooden armor and had some form of military technologies though not as advanced as later eras. They do look like Yayoi era foot soldiers of some kind,” I reasoned.

Even I had read about the fabled Yoshinogari and seen pictures of it. This stank of that place.

“Well it’s true that Korean and Chinese don’t look exactly like us and it’s somewhat noticeable. They didn’t look like them and did kind of look like us,” someone surmised, thinking aloud. “It’s possible both of you are right.”

“So we have stumbled on the edge of a Yayoi era civilization and an Egyptian civilization that border each other? Then there’s an orc civilization or fortress next to both too. Isn’t that weird?” I asked.

“It’s better than running into another orc city,” Yuta said, not realizing what he’d just said.

Instantly the lights went on in several students’ heads.

“EH?!!”

“I didn’t think about that. We assumed there was only one orc city. There might be several, or a whole empire of them. We need to get the fuck out of here don’t we?” Akimoto slapped himself in the forehead. “Why didn’t I realize the danger…”

Egyptians practiced slavery…don’t want to go there.

And it seems there must be some mysterious reason at work, why their cultures haven’t changed and are the same as the ones from ancient history.

“I wish I could argue some other way, but it does look like that’s what happened,” Yuta admitted, shrugging and going through the argument step by step for some of the doubters. “They did sort of look like pictures of armor and clothing I’d seen of Yayoi people that I’d studied and looked at in history class. Wooden armor is classic for them, with very little in the way of metals, they also had a very definite architecture to their buildings, and style of dress. It does seem to match them well.”

“But they were primitive right?” A girl said sadly. “Are we going to have to live primitively?” she turned to her friend.

“Not necessarily,” Akimoto reasoned. “The Yayoi were believed to have in part come from near the Yangtze River area in China. Then they evolved quickly into their own culture and way of doing things, with their own types of buildings, sturdy living structures, a system of multiple palisades around towns being a typical type of fortification, farming, and actually their clothing was fairly nice looking even by today’s standards. This could really be them or a remnant of them moved to this world.”

The girls gave off a sigh of relief.

“Well, will they understand us?” Akimoto wondered.

I shrugged, “Well I’m not a linguist. A lot can change in what…1,500 years or so?”

Yuta scratched his head, “yeah it would be about that much. Just hope they don’t meet Kenji first. That won’t help any.” He rolled his eyes, saying the last part.

“Yeah that won’t help huh?” I said.

“If we were to compare it to other languages, it’s likely that it will be a form of dialect similar to ours but we probably wouldn’t understand them first. A lot of European languages changed drastically in a thousand years. Maybe it would be like a pre-cursor language that’s definitely related though,” a girl said.

“Who cares just keep Kenji away if we want to make an impression,” someone said.

“Damn. That would be awful, especially if his apprentice is with him,” Akimoto grumbled.

“I think so too, Akimoto,” I agreed.

“But will we be able to talk to them?” I wondered.

“That’s a tough question,” Yuta said. “Because of my ability, probably I can, but not sure if the rest of you can. And we don’t exactly have anything to barter with.”

“We also don’t know which of them and the Egyptians were the true aggressor here, or if both were,” I added.

“Even a little would help us to be able to make some progress and make everyone’s lives more stable,” Akimoto said.

“At the very least, their language would be closer to ours than Egyptian. The others might be able to learn enough of it to get by,” I said.

Despite that comment Yuta didn’t look unhappy. I was worried he might feel less important, but the idea that we could still progress in this world and gain other skills had already been ingrained to him.

“Well why were they fighting? Did you understand anything they said?” Akimoto asked, looking at Yuta.

“OK, well here’s the gist of it,” Yuta took in a deep breath. His face scrunched up while he sorted the details in his mind. “Bear in mind I didn’t catch the whole thing, because I came in after they were already talking. But the wooden armor Asian people wanted the Egyptians off their land. The Egyptians claimed it was their land and that Pharaoh had been generous to them in the past, letting them rule themselves without dispute and that they owed them tribute for it. The other guy just argued back and said it wasn’t generosity that made them decide that, but rather the threat of the monsters in the land and to not lie so boldly to his face. Then it was bloodbath.”

“Tribute? That’s about as old as it gets. It’s like saying give me your lunch money,” someone said.

“Yeah, at any rate the two sides don’t get along and they said something about the mountains and the river, which is this area are the corners of the borders for both of them and to respect the border. Then the leader of the wooden armor people said they are entitled to a share of the new slaves coming to this world and to not cut them out. And they knew this was the spot they’d arrive at. The other guy didn’t want to share any of the new slaves from the other world, which has no magic, and that they would take them by force if they had too. At that point, you saw as much as I did and the shooting had already started.”

“Eh? So both sides practice slavery huh? That’s not good at all,” I scratched my chin thinking about it. And the only way ahead to escape the orcs seemed to be crossing the land of both of these two people’s that was interlocked and clearly already settled.

Wait...could it mean they think we’ll be the new slaves?

I don’t have any proof.

The others haven’t caught onto this. It’s quite disturbing to think about.

“Hmm, can we really trust people that practice slavery?” Akimoto asked. He wasn’t sure what to do and was shaking his head, while he kicked a rock.

“I think not,” Yuta concluded.

“Exactly! That’s the right question to ask,” I replied pointing at him. I’d also have to tell the girls this, back where they were still walking.

“But even so, we need access to being able to get trade, weapons, tools, shelter, and…all the other stuff we need,” Akimoto grumbled sighing.

“Well, if the river is the border, we’d been thinking going downstream to find a city right? But if they practice slavery, how are they going to see us? Do we still want to go that route?” Yuta questioned seriously.

“Yeah that’s a problem. We don’t know how they would react,” Akimoto said.

“So a culture that practices slavery would take people as slaves from the people that are strangers to them or from other lands. I’m thinking either of those two groups might be hostile to us. Especially if we were the cause of why they skirmished; we might be considered a valuable resource to them. Either one of them, or both, might and probably will try to enslave us,” I thought aloud.

“I-I don’t want to be a slave!” a girl exclaimed.

Within a short period of time half the girls were sobbing. I heard them say a lot of things like not wanting to be slaves, hate this world, this sucks, and all kinds of complaints, including wish there was electricity here.

“Well, the two leaders arguing did understand each other so they have some of this new world magic stuff and can communicate. Plus the one looked like a mage if there ever was one, and are you sure you heard him right when he said he wanted a share of the slaves from the no magic world?” Akimoto asked Yuta to be sure.

“That doesn’t sound good at all,” a girl said, her head dropping down to her chin in sadness.

Yuta frowned, “I know I heard him correctly, though I wish I were wrong.”

“Saying they were from the world with no magic, can only have one meaning because it’s already proven this world does have magic,” I said.

The others nodded in agreement.

“So one of the two groups is probably responsible for summoning us here and knew we were here in fact, which was why they were here at the border,” Yuta concluded.

“Then the other side gets jealous from discovering them through their scouts maybe and decides to not get cut out of the deal,” I suggested.

“Hmm that’s likely, though I’m not sure which side summoned us yet,” Yuta said.

“We should tell the others and see what they think as soon as possible,” Akimoto suggested, to which all of us agreed.

“That means they are just waiting for us to cross over from the area here to be snatched up,” I said. “And both sides looked like they had quite a few soldiers and well armed.”

“You know they would have captured and seen all of us if it weren’t for how many trees and brush are in this area,” Akimoto said. I think I felt a chill up my neck.

“Man, why’d you have to say something like that? I’ll have nightmares for sure,” Yuta cursed.

“Well he’s right,” I said.

“They might be harder to fight than the orcs, since they have real weapons and armor that aren’t made of bones and wood,” Akimoto sighed.

“I still didn’t see metal,” I argued back. “The bulk of their equipment was wood but with a few spear points carved from stone, the bows and arrows were biological material and from plants, and nobody had anything metal except for the guy on the chariot. So metalwork exists but maybe it’s expensive or something? So there is a chance to surprise them with a few things I think.”

“I don’t want to be a slave,” a girl pleaded shaking me by the arm and crying. “Please!”

Then suddenly Akimoto had a big blue screen in front of him, also in the same hieroglyphics. The others too one by one, there were like nearly ten other people that had blue screens popup all at once including Yuta.

“What the heck?!” Yuta exclaimed.

“So many? That’s a lot, all at once,” I said in surprise. “What do they say?!”

Was I going to get one too? Mine was item related but…was that good enough? It wasn’t job or skill related and that made me nervous. What if I was an NPC, or a fail like Kenji?

I couldn’t help but feel like stress was coming off me like I’d just gotten out of a sauna.

People are starting to get job classes just like in RPGs...I’ll have to figure out what the triggers are.