I took a seat on a small wooden stool that had been placed near the caravan’s fire—Ghisé opted to remain standing behind me. There were a few stools dotted around, and their consistency spoke to the difference in manufacturing capabilities between the humans and us. Our carpenters were skilled, but everything produced in the village was made to order and no two pieces were exactly alike. The human stools lacked the charm that Hesht woodcraft had, but the exactness of their construction held a different kind of beauty.

I also confirmed that the people in the covered wagon were all human. They peered out the flap at Ghisé and I with a mix of curiosity and fear but remained huddled inside. Only one left it—a young man—and while dressed for the road, there was a notable quality to his garb. The merchant I assumed, though he was skittish and stayed a few paces behind Benny and Jules. Like Ghisé and I, the pair of guards had opted for a one-standing, one-sitting sort of arrangement.

Benny broke the tension. “I wouldn’ta think a Hesht would care for the goings on at Redwall. Into gossip are ya?” The dwarf pulled a teapot off the fire and poured some of the brew into a small ceramic cup, glazed for protection. He handed it to me, then filled a tankard with a yellow liquid from a small cask he had set out along with the stool. I held in a chuckle at how well he fit my expectations of a dwarf.

“Well… we keep to ourselves but it’s good to know what’s going on there. We keep out of contact, but they are our nearest neighbors.” I stared at the cup in my hands dubiously. The tea was my suggestion… surely they couldn’t have prepared some kind of poison or paralytic. I nervously pulled at the collar that never left my neck.

The dwarf poured another cup of tea, from the same pot in a very obvious fashion, then handed it to Jules. “Jules, dontcha like these leaves?”

“I’m not thirsty,” she responded curtly.

His tone turned serious. “Yes, you are,” he stared at her intently. Jules sighed and drank, and so after a moment, I did too.

“It’s good,” I said quietly. It wasn’t just simple leaves, there were clearly some aromatics and spices in with the mix.

“And only a few silver pieces. Ain’t that right Ray?”

“R-right,” the boy merchant yelped.

“It really does talk… It talks well,” I said in a somewhat gruff tone, mimicking the dwarf’s reaction to my speech. I groaned inwardly and looked down at the fire, embarrassed at my tasteless impression at Ray’s expense, but the dwarf just laughed jovially.

“She’s got some wit, eh Jules?”

 Jules wasn’t quite so mirthful. “Everyone knows Hesht are shrewd.”

Shrewd doesn’t quite have the same feel as wit…

“Don’t mind my partner here. She’s a couple hundred years too young to have heard any good stories about Hesht. I’m sure she’ll be askin’ for a lesson, but you wanted one on Redwall eh? It’s the least I could do for your help,” Benny gestured to the bound and gagged bandit. “Oh, and the tea’s on me, payment fer services rendered.”

“Thanks, cause I don’t have any silver,” I grimaced. “Not unless Ray takes it in rock form.”

Benny slapped his knee, “No peddler but a dwarf would. Pain in tha ass. Redwall though…” He scratched his beard in thought, a gesture of his I was becoming very used to. “Redwall’s in a tough spot right now girlie. It’s gettin’ dangerous to walk the streets an crime’s way up, but the count’s doing nothing about it. These folks can’t take it… Even if movin’ on means gettin’ closer to the war, at least that one ain’t happenin’ on the streets of towns.”

My jaw tensed. “Petras isn’t doing anything… shocker. Bet his head is too far up his ass to see.”

“Damn right,” Jules muttered, then twitched and gave me a look I couldn’t quite figure out.

“It’s not all his fault though,” Benny continued. “They’re sayin’ the king is askin’ too much from Petras. Somethin’ about new weapons, and he can’t deliver?” He shot a questioning glance at Ray who nodded in confirmation.

“So since the king ain’t getting what he wants from Petras, he’s takin’ his men for the war, and the only place to get ‘em is from the town guard. Seein’ bandits this close to Redwall, the patrols mus’ be way down.

Bettin’ it won’t be long before The Association is runnin’ that place. And top it all off he threw out his heir back when things were lookin up for Petras. He’s sure ta be regrettin’ that now. Poor girl, she couldn’ta deserved that, but no one’s seen her for a while now.”

“He didn’t... I’m sure. I mean… I thought the heir was a man.” Benny was studying me again, and though I wasn’t sure what face I was making before I quickly adjusted it to stoicism.

After a moment he said, “That’s Redwall though. So what’s your story?”

“Mine?” I said with incredulity.

“Oh come on! You’re obviously no ordinary Hesht,” Jules hissed. My tone might have been a bit of overacting…

Ghisé’s hand went to her spear in response, but I stayed her hand and asked her, “[How much of this are you following?]”

She paused and thought hard. “[Something about Redwall being dangerous and a missing human… Was Alex important there?]” I nodded in response. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the merchant boy, Ray, whispering with someone in the wagon.

I turned back to Benny and Jules, the latter of which was tapping her foot anxiously, one hand drumming on the pommel of the weapon at her hip. I chewed my lip, considering how much to reveal.

“Lemme get ye started,” Benny cut in. “You were captured and held in Redwall, prob’ly for yer feathers.” I opened my mouth to ask why but the dwarf was already pointing to his neck, “That collar ain’t supposed ta just be fer show… Though seeing what ya did back there it seems ta be now.”

I sighed and held Jules’s glare as I spoke, “The count’s heir, Alex, cared for me while I was captive. The court mage used my feathers to make those ‘new weapons,’ Alex freed me though. I owe him my life.”

Her lips went thin, “You mean you seduced him.”

“Wh-what?! No of course not!” I said back, offended. I seduced Vander, sure, but that was a story for a different crowd.

Ray approached with a woman who stepped out of the wagon and clung tightly to his side.

“E-excuse me… u-uhm, Miss T-ta—talta…” He was absolutely terrified, having only an ounce more courage than the woman at his side. Reyna had grand ideas, but how could the Hesht possibly overcome a barrier of this magnitude?

I raised my hand gently and interrupted him, “Liv is fine if it’s easier.”

“Miss Liv,” Ray said then took a deep breath. “Do you know… where Alex is?”

“You… know Alex?” I asked.

He shook his head a bit too vigorously and answered, “My fiancé did… does.” The woman next to him nodded along. “Her mother worked in the m-manor. She played with Alex sometimes.”

I tried my best to smile softly as a spoke, hoping that my expressions wouldn’t get lost in the culture gap. “Alex is safe, and staying with me… B-but willingly and freely,” I added hurriedly. “I’ll be sad when he decides to leave, but I’ll make sure he gets home safely.”

The woman clutching at Ray’s side, finally finding the courage to speak out loud asked me, “Can you tell him… to avoid Redwall? It’s not safe, especially with his disowning. We’re going to Avali City, if he needs somewhere to go.”

I nodded. “I will, but who is the message from?”

“Rose,” she said, then bowed a bit too quickly and went back to the wagon with Ray.

When I looked back to Jules and Benny, he was watching intently, as he did, but his posture was relaxed and his tankard empty. Jules’s arms were crossed, but she didn’t feel the need to have a hand on her weapon at least. Her consternation was played obviously on her face though.

I stood from my seat and placed my empty cup on it. “Thank you for the tea and stories.”

Benny stood and extended his hand, “Thanks for yer timely aid.”

I took it and shook, then turned and patted Ghisé on the shoulder, “[Thank you, Ghisé.]” She nodded with a smile.

“One thing,” Jules said. “So you know, The Association in Redwall is looking for a Thunderbird too.”

The Association again… That’s the group that Alex was trying to infiltrate by getting in with the poachers. They were some kind of criminal syndicate. They should’ve called themselves “The Syndicate” though, an objectively cooler name. But if they were looking for me, they knew more about my connection to Petras’s weapons than I felt comfortable with.

“Thank you,” Ghisé said to Jules with a bit of focused effort. I smiled inwardly at her decision to communicate. I was respect I think—for her equally twitchy peer that nonetheless kept her weapon equally sheathed.

———

Leaving the caravan behind, Ghisé and I walked back to Cee and the rest. When we made it to them, they had two crates and a couple sacks of goods they had liberated from the routed bandits. I asked them to return the goods to the merchant, since it didn’t seem right to step in only to become bandits ourselves.

From Sen I asked a much larger favor. “Of the two guards, did you see the taller one?” She nodded confidently. “Good,” I continued, “Make sure she doesn’t go to Redwall.”

She gave me a questioning look, “What if she does?”

I sighed, hoping it wouldn’t come to that. “If she gets too close without changing her mind… kill her—painlessly if you can.”

Sen nodded in affirmation and flew off. If my sisters wanted this—to revitalize Hesht society and reclaim our place among the other races—we were going to have to trust, not be naive.

———

“So Redwall can’t even deal with their own affairs. That’s good, right?” Cee asked after I briefed everyone else on my conversation with Benny. “They can’t attack us even if they wanted to.”

“It means that the village is in no imminent danger of being attacked. I wouldn’t say it’s good though, people are abandoning their homes because it’s too dangerous to stay. And even if the town leader loses his power, this ‘Association’ is looking for me too.”

It looked like the gears in Cee’s head were spinning hard. “Why did they warn you?” she asked. “Why would they keep your secret from their own people?“

“I think it was because we helped them, just like we would have if they were a group of Hesht. That probably only worked because of the dwarf, Benny… The dwarves live long lives, and a not so distant ancestor could have known—”

Cee was listening closely, but her glassy eyes told me that the lesson could wait. “We’ll figure this all out at home,” I said as I pulled her into a hug. “Thank you for trusting me Cee.”

The rest of the night passed by peacefully. We had no issue getting back to our camp, and I had no issue falling asleep immediately. Ahbe took up Sen’s forward duties the following day, and when Sen finally did return, her easy, sleepy face told me that things went fine. No one left the Ray’s camp all night, and they had already continued their journey away from Redwall when the sun came up.

I rode in our wagon with Sen’s head in my lap as she slept off her overnight shift, and chatted with Ghisé and Cee. The latter wasn’t very talkative though. As long of a week as it had been for all of us, Cee went through the thickest of it at my side. She put her reputation at stake and planned the mission. We leaned on each other through the lower tunnels and came out alive after facing the earthwyrm. She jumped into my fight with the wolves, and let me see my recklessness through.

Still, I had faith she would be come through okay. I saw the parts of Cee that had alienated her from the clutch, but I also saw why… She was just an all or nothing kind of person, and frankly I loved her at her “all.”

It took one more night in the Redwood, but late afternoon the last day, we broke the tree line and spotted the edge of the canyon that held our village. I patted Molly affectionately for all her hard work hauling the ore and suplies.

“We’re home,” Sen said quietly through tired eyes. We all shared the same look of road-weariness, though buried beneath was a mix of relief and accomplishment.

Still, there was a lot of work to be done now…

———

{{ Cee PoV }}

“Come in,” a voice came from the cloistered room. When I entered, the Chief was sitting cross legged with her eyes closed. She only opened an eye for a moment, then returned to her meditation.

I took a seat off to the side and waited—as usual. Sometimes I thought she drew things out on purpose. It was the little twitches of her lids as she tried to stealthily ensure that I was being patient and not getting distracted. It was a test I never failed… usually.

“Chief Getra.” Her brow twitched at my interruption, but I powered through. “I would like to make my report and end my day.”

She sighed and pulled her lips into a thin line, “Did you use up all your patience dealing with the Lightblessed?”

Had Tali sapped all my patience? Spending time with her was taxing, and not just because of that creature in the tunnels or fighting off wolves. She got bossy at times, turning a blind eye to authority. It was type of behavior that earned her the Princess moniker from Terese when we were barely fledglings, and on the trip it was disruptive to my leadership. Getting her talking made it easier to keep her in check, but presented a different exhausting issue: having to listen.

As fledglings she had these fantastical ideas—like burying her share of berries, saying that it would turn into more berries. After having nothing sweet to eat for two weeks, she gave up. Still, she would swear up and down that it should work, she just didn’t know why it wasn’t. If we tried to call her out on making things up, she would just make more things up until she annoyed us or confused us… many times she even confused herself.

She did have good ideas though—like hanging a perch from an outcropping so we could pretend to fly even when we were too young to. Kelz and I would take turns pushing and “flying” for hours, but even though it was Tali’s idea, she was scared to play with it.

Those days, it was easier to just ignore her meandering line of thinking until she came up with a great idea, a terrible one, or just lost interest. I couldn’t just wait for consequences on our expedition though: I had to get her talking, and exhaustingly, I had to listen. Listening to Tali go on in the mines… well she was making a lot more sense than I remembered, and I still wasn’t entirely sure what to take from the whole experience. She was as bewildering as I expected from Lightblessed, but also Tali… So was I out of patience? Sure I was fatigued, but I was already looking forward to when I would next visit her.

“No Chief. I’m not out of patience… just tired. The journey was not without incident.” I raised my head slightly, just enough to see that she was studying my expressions.

Eventually she relented and her features softened, revealing her kinder more private side. “I’ll brew us some tea then.”