Chapter 04: The Safest Path
314 5 18
X
Reading Options
Font Size
A- 15px A+
Width
Reset
X
Table of Contents
Loading... please wait.

At night, we were all together around the campfire, eating.

Of course, we were just pretending it.

It’s not that we don’t need proteins and carbohydrates. We do need the energy. We do eat.

It’s just that our real process happens in a totally different way. It involves way less chewing and a lot more of sucking. And, besides our large numbers, we don’t need a lot of food. Just a small quantity can make one of our bodies go for a whole day.

But sitting here among the others, we raise the fork to our fake mouth, and pretend to chew it.

Of course, the result isn’t perfect, but it’s incredible well executed, all things considered.

It says a lot of our abilities that we can fool the shinning siblings with it.

Diego had cooked, as usually. Anna and Rosa had skinned the animals together, then he had seasoned it with some of the herbs they carried with their belongings.

He roasted the wild boar for hours at a low temperature, together with the small birds. With the rabbits, he made a stew with mushrooms.

By the way the others are eating, we know it is delicious. Lucas barely stops to breathe between each bite.

We, on the other hand, do it slowly.

At the moment our mouth is closed, dozens of us start tearing the meat apart, and then we bring the pieces to the lower part of our human body. There, the food will be stocked for future consumption. When we drink the soup, we do it a small spoon at a time, making some of our bodies to quickly rotate between our lips and throat, slurping some small drops and leaving, giving space for the next ones to do the same.

It’s a delicate process, which needs to be perfectly coordinated.

We do it easily.

As long as we can remember, we never had any problem in controlling any of our bodies and coordinating then, it doesn’t matter if we are doing hundreds or even thousands of small tasks at the same time. To make one, two or sixteen thousand four hundred and eighty seven actions. It’s the same effort.

After all of them finish their second plate, with the exception of Lucas and us, that are finishing the third and first respectively, Diego finally decides to speak about the subject from earlier.

“-There are some things that have been concerning me.” He starts, and the rest of the group waits for him to continue. “-The monsters haven’t been behaving at all as they used to.”

“-They are monsters, my friend. Who knows why they behave the way they do?” Lucas says, while playing distractedly with a knife on his hand.

“-Even though we can’t really understand them, we have been doing this long enough that we can recognize the patterns. Those patterns have been changing.” Diego keeps going.

“-Is this about the things we found with the Orcs?” Anna asks.

“-Yes, but not just about that.  That Kobold group we fought two months ago was based way more close to the Vexin Kingdom than any other that we found before. And those Centaurs from November, that were operating in troll territory. Why would they risk it?”

“What are you implying?”

“He believes that they may be cooperating with each other, somehow.” Daniel supplies.

“Can they even communicate?” Rosa asks, with a skeptical face.

“I… honestly am not sure about that” Diego admits.

“But why would they even do it? Even the most rational ones are monsters, at their core. Isn’t easier for a troll to just eat the Centaur, than to plot with it?” Anna asks.

“There’s also this”. Daniel says, and puts a small red stone in the middle of the group”

“Sorry, but what the fuck is this?” Lucas says.

“We don’t know. But we found it, together with the Chief belongings.” Diego explains.

“And why did you decide to pick it?”

“The leader of the Kobold group that we eliminated. He used a similar stone around his neck, didn’t he?” Rosa says.

Diego nods. “-We also found a similar one with the Imps, from the start of the year. I didn’t think much about it then.”

“But now you think it means some kind of connection between them?” Anna asks.

“I don’t know what this means. But it must means something. The wilds have been more dangerous than they used to be. And that’s why I want to propose a turn around, going by the river instead of just following north.”

“But that would cost us another three days of travel” Complains Lucas. “Don’t we have a deadline to meet?”

“-Like you care about the deadline. You just want to go back to the city so you can spend your time gambling and drinking.” Says Rosa.

“-Hey now, I’m sorry if I prefer to spend a cold night like this with a nice cup of beer on one hand and a lovely lady at the other, but not all of us were raised in a freaking forest.”

She ignores the jab at her, and says “-I understand your logic, Diego, but then it wouldn’t be better if we hurried ourselves to the city, instead of taking the longer path?”

“-I’m feeling more cautious, lately. We should vote as a group, but I believe we should be careful.”

“-The safest path for me is always the best option”. We say, with a voice only a little louder than a whisper.  It would be weird if we added nothing to the conversation. Actually, we just prefer to be here, into the wild, than back at a city that’s surrounded by other humans. There’s no point in increasing our risks of being caught.

They keep arguing, Anna and Diego talking the most, but we only half hear it. At the end, it doesn’t really matter what they decide. We’ll just tag along with them, like we always do.

Why do we always do it, though?

It feels like what we are supposed to do. It’s safer for us to do it, in a way.

And we remember how dark life as, when we were alone.

So we keep to ourselves, waiting for their decision, when we notice something.

A small Goblin, just entering our reach.

The creature is very small, but it moves incredible fast, and surprisingly quiet. It jumps from branch to branch, occasionally stopping, and sniffing the air.

Should we warn them?

We decide to wait. He’s still far from our group, much further than what we made they believe was our reach. Alerting them could bring unnecessary suspicions to us.

The Goblin keeps approaching, and we track it. It tries to cover a large area, jumping erratically to the left and right, but following north.

Then, suddenly the creature stops. After it sniffs around for a few seconds, it starts moving fast to a specific direction.

Should we warn them?

“-Well, I think if there’s really something like this going on, we should investigate it.” Anna says, and Rosa nods in agreement.

We decide to wait. Although it’s moving closer to us, it’s not really coming to our direction. It may not notice our group.

The creature stops at a tall tree, which apparently was its destination. At the moment the Goblin touches the blood with its finger and licks it, we realize why he went so earnestly there.

It was the same tree that Rosa hit earlier today, while hunting the birds.

After tasting it, the Goblin smiles.

It then looks up and vibrates in a frequency that echoes around him, getting louder.

A frequency that, for the way it feels through our bodies, we know it’s not one humans can hear.

Should we warn them?

While we think about it, we hear another voice, a little far from our reach, making the same frequency. Then another. Then a dozen more.

Suddenly, Rosa goes stiff. Her senses finally caught on that something was not right. Everyone notices her reaction and the conversation stops. So, we decide it’s time.

“- We are under attack.” We finally say, while we hear hundreds of Goblins echoing the signal back.

18