76. The Return to Camp
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The sounds of suffering echoed throughout the camp, V had just finished tossing the remaining prisoners and remnants of the camp into the bonfire. In some ways, it would have been better for them if they stayed in the fire, rather than tumbling out. As V stepped over one of the more severely burned individuals he looked one last time around the camp, making sure he was not missing anything. After his final look, and nod of self-approval, he turned and exited the camp, ignoring the sporadic utterances of "mercy" or "please..." V was no forest navigator, but he was rather certain they walked almost due east to get to this camp. He carefully walked through the forest, taking a few moments to trigger or disarm any of the traps in the area. A few of the prisoners were theoretically healthy enough to crawl, or maybe even stumble out this far, V would not want them dying on any of their own traps. As he, hopefully, wandered back to camp, his exhaustion started to set in. It was morning now, and the camp was a few hours walk away. He looked around the forest and wondered if L, Eika, and Luna would worry if he simply took a nap under a tree. If he was going to do that, it was better to do it now rather than later. The trees thinned out closer to the camp, the current forest area did a relatively good job of blocking the sun. He looked around a few more times for a comfortable spot before shaking his head. L would probably give him hell if he slept out here. Something about how he should be able to go a day without sleep or some such. He sighed and trudged on.

V stumbled over a fallen tree branch as his exhaustion fought against him. He wondered if and when those blessings that his...blessing gave him had run out. While he was subduing the camp, he was aware of his own actions for the most part, but between the feeling of blinding hatred and the sword urging him forward, he honestly only partially remembered the actual combat he took part in before tying up those that were downed. Also, why did the blessing of motherhood, or "The First Mother" as it was called since he expanded his name, have seemingly no real... boundaries? He supposed that was the best word for it. L's blessing enhanced her when doing honorable, in her mind, actions. The evolution of her blessing kept that effect and gave her various aid in protecting him. It was fairly limited in scope. E's blessing was even more limited in nature. He wondered if the Mad Champion's blessing could be considered highly limited or not. In theory it could do anything, but to V's knowledge it primarily had one effect, turning the Mad Champion's beliefs into reality. It was possible that the blessings power depended on the God or Goddess that gave it to you, it would explain the seemingly high degree of power difference between blessings. Even if the Mad Champion's blessing was "limited" to that single ability, it was still a considerably more powerful ability then say, L's blessing. Mothers fulfilled lots of roles in life, perhaps that is why his blessing seemed to sort of just... do whatever it wanted at the time? However, it was not only versatile, but also seemed to be quite powerful. Although he did not really remember much about the time Eika died, according to L he was magnitudes more powerful than normal, and even T expressed his concern to L at the time. His thoughts on the matter were a little disjointed and garbled due to his difficulty in keeping his eyes open.

L and the others had returned to camp a while ago. L worked with the men and women to try and determine what should be done with them. They obviously could not just travel around with a bunch of abused and used captives. During their entire conversation, Eika kept watch over Luna in one of the tents, she kept peeking out of the tent flap at the rabbitkin with only one ear. It was the first adult rabbitkin that Eika had seen since becoming a slave. She wanted to speak with her, but did not want to disturb them. Sometime later, Luna's eyes fluttered open. "Eh...?" She looked around confused for a few moments. "Why am I in a tent?" As Luna struggled to put the situation together, Eika sat down by her side. "You were hurt pretty bad. We used some healing stuff on you, but you did not wake up right away. How do you feel?" Luna looked over at Eika's face, Eika could see confusion in her eyes as she spoke "Fluffy ear girl? Did you save me?" Eika shook her head "Uh. not exactly... Are you ok?" Luna nodded as she waved her arms around. "My arms seem fine!" Luna reported happily. "Hey, fluffy ear girl, where is that man with the angry eyes?" Eika tilted her head, "You mean V?" Luna shrugged as she stood up "I guess so! He was all angry and stuff. He ran off to get some people." She stomped her feet back and forth a few times "My legs are fine too!" Luna deftly wandered out of the tent. Luna never made any sense Eika, thought to herself as she watched.

L had finished speaking to the group, most of which who were now resting. One of the men was the son of a merchant family. He had been with his brother, transporting a load of jewelry from the north to the capital when he was captured. His brother was killed, but the other man with the cut-out tongue was one of his guards. They would travel with them northward for a short while. The women where a more complicated bunch. Two of them were bought from a legal slave market, specifically to "serve" the camp. One was the daughter of a nobleman who died to the slavers, the two eleven ladies where random travelers, not local to the region, and the rabbitkin was a lone wanderer. The rabbitkin seemed in the best mental state, and intended to head back out on her own but she agreed to help guide the other women back to the capitol city. After discussion it was decided that was the best course of action, they could not travel with them, and there was nowhere else for them to go. L decided to hold onto the slave ledgers, as she doubted the rabbitkin would follow up on turning them into the local authorities. For now, however, they were resting and recovering their strength. L had acquired enough goods and food from the slave camp to allow the women to stay here with tents and food while she, V, Luna, Eika, and the two men moved north. Even though L would have liked to find and wipe out the main camp of slavers, as far as the men and women knew from hearing bits of conversation, the main camp seemed to be somewhere in the southern kingdoms, and L wished to finish her task for the God of Honor before taking more risks.

V eventually stumbled into camp around the same time as Luna was wandering out of the tent. "Nice to see you made it." L nodded to him as she stood up. "You look a bit worse for wear." She examined V’s exhausted gait. "Well, I did fight an entire camp of slavers after not sleeping. Cut me some slack." L rolled her eyes and began to report on the people they had rescued. V held up his hand and shook his head. "No, no. Sleep first, then everything else." He stumbled into the tent Eika was in. "Oh hi! Thanks so much for sa..." Eika slowly trailed off as she saw V's glazed over eyes and watched him basically collapse into the sleeping bag style cloth they had set up inside the tent. "Oh. Well. Eika will just head out and let you rest." Eika quickly and quietly left the tent. Eika squinted as she tried to make out what Luna was eating a few feet away. "No what? Why are you doing that?!" She ran over and grabbed the grass out of Luna's hands. "Eh?! I’m hungry! I always eat grass. A long time ago I was really hungry and was asking some man in fancy clothing for food, he pulled away from me and said "People like you should just eat the grass between the stones." and so I did!" Eika shook her head, she very clearly had been over this with Luna and thought she had learned that they had real food at the ready. She dragged Luna over to L, "Can you give us something to eat? Luna is hungry, and so am I." L looked down at her and nodded, withdrawing some jerky type meat she had recovered from the slave camp.

As Luna and Eika snacked on the meat, the one-eared rabbit kin came over. Eika was excited, she wished to talk with her, but she also was scared. She had no idea how rabbitkin talk to each other. Did they have their own language? Did they do things like shake hands, like the humans do? The rabbitkin woman stood in front of Eika, looking down at her for a time in silence. She was taller than Eika, roughly V's height, her eyes carried a harsh and steely gaze. Eika felt like withering underneath the woman's silent appraisal. "Your small, but the shape of you're ears would make me think you are from one of the northern clans, perhaps one of your parents came from the south?" Eika's mouth felt dry as she responded "I uh, don't know. My clan died when I was very young. I cannot even properly remember my mother’s face." An unforgiving look crossed the woman's face. "A tale all too common for our people. I am sorry for you and your clan. I will remember your face in honor of their deaths, adding it to the faces of my own clan." Eika forced words out through her dry throat. "Did your clan get attacked as well?" The rabbitkin woman nodded "I failed them, and because of my failure, they were slaughtered by a band of jealous dwarves. I was the only survivor; I was in line to be the next leader of our clan. But instead, I simply lead them to death."

Eika shook her head "I’m sure it’s not your fault! Everyone hates us!'" Eika was unsure what caused her outburst, but it was her true feelings. It was unfair for the woman to blame herself. Even if she did not know the woman's story, Eika thought that in a world that hated them, it was not one person’s fault that their clan was killed, it was not the rabbitkin's fault, but the world's. Eika had never really considered it before, but faced with one of her own kind, her thoughts formed rapidly. The woman only shook her head, "Perhaps they do, but some of our clans survive out there. It is possible to survive in this world, but it shows those who make mistakes no mercy." She gazed at Eika's dredge collar for a moment before sneering "If you wish it, I will try to free you. I will probably die, but I will not leave one of our kind to their fate." Eika quickly shook her head "No it’s not like that!" Eika glanced at L who had looked in their direction. "These people are kind... well. Kind to me anyway. Eika likes this collar, it reminds me that someone wants me, that someone will protect me!" Eika held out her hand "Eika is my name by the way..." The rabbit woman did not shake her hand but responded, “I go by the name of my clan, in memory of them, Spindle-leaf. The name my parents gave me no longer matters, everyone who knows it is dead." Eika nodded a little sadly. Luna's ears flicked and she muttered lowly to herself "Eika..."

The woman spoke again. "To wear your collar with pride disgusts me, but I cannot blame you. You know nothing else..." She sighed deeply "How old are you girl? Perhaps you are short because you are a child? You seem to carry the naivety of one." Eika shook her head "I'm an adult! I’m sixteen! Although I will be seventeen in a few days..." Spindle-leaf nodded. "You may yet perhaps grow, many of our kind do not physically mature until seventeen or eighteen years. Sixteen is a human number for adulthood. Many of us lost all knowledge of our kind over the hundreds of years of slavery, perhaps even thousands of years really..." She looked down at Eika "You know nothing of our kind, do you?" Eika shook her head "Sorry...." she said in a small voice. Spindle-leaf's visage took on another harsh look "I will share some of what was lost with you while we set and wait."

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