AR Chapter 507 (Patreon)

Yesterday's chapter. I'm gonna get the full twelve chapters this week. I'm so close I can taste it.

Our journey south was significantly different from the last time I’d made it. The first time, there had been some mystery aggressor hunting my people, and I’d needed to find who it was and repay them in kind. As such, we’d moved cautiously, searching under every boulder and crevice to see what would dare to see us as food and disabuse them of that thought. When finally we’d found some, we’d captured those we could and made our retreat.

Now, I knew exactly what these aggressors were, and not only did we know who the Misti Hawar were, I’d also led my people in battle and emerged in total victory against them. So far as we knew, nearly half of their fighting population had been killed in the war, and now their society’s continued existence hung in the balance. If I decided to press the battle further, then there was a great chance that we’d exterminate them completely. More importantly for reference to the journey, I knew exactly where I was going, I would have guides to take me to this meeting, and I was coming not from a position of confusion but of power.

Stepping through the forest, it was amazing how much things had changed. Not necessarily within the southern forest which remained much the same, but my own people’s feelings walking through it. Now, we understood the ants, we knew where we were going, and it was, for the first time that I could remember, a journey taken without any nervousness or fear. Every step was punctuated only with the excitement of either being able to fully subjugate or continue the war on their lands had me making the long journey without any unhappiness at separating from where I wanted to be.

The days passed, with every one of my pack able to move quickly through the forest. Foire’s guidance was more than enough to keep us on track, and, though we carried food with us, we didn’t need to actually eat any of it. Instead, we could simply enjoy a short hunt of whatever we came across. There was nothing I hadn’t eaten before, goats, a few ants, once a bear, and nothing that gave me any progress on my Quest. Instead, it was just food, and the journey continued without incident.

“Are we going to go there and fight everyone we find?” Trai asked the question whose answer she knew for that dozenth time.

“If they don’t want to fight against us, we won’t fight. This is a diplomatic mission.”

“Shouldn’t we go there and make sure that they understand why they shouldn’t stand up to us again? Show them how weak they are compared to us? If we go in there, kill the strongest people they have, then they’ll be more willing to surrender. And they’ll have a harder time trying to rise up again as well.”

“That might be the case,” I flicked my tail, “but we’re not really going to negotiate with them for their sake. This display is for the benefit of our relationships with everyone else moving forward. Showing even a little mercy now is going to show every other country that we can be trusted to defend ourselves, to kill the people who attack us, and also to not be a force dead set on destroying everything that isn’t ourselves.”

“But that’s boring,” she complained, coming close and leaning on my side. I casually tried to push her away, but instead of allowing me to do so, she ducked under the arm and then scrambled up my side, like one of the Kha that we found living in the trees and hiding from the ants.

I started to laugh at the childish movements, my steps becoming slightly less steady as I was forced to accommodate for her weight on my side. The heavy stomping would have scared off any prey nearby, but we weren’t trying to be stealthy, even though the Sik’Tal hunters were scouting out ahead. Then, I felt something change in the way that Trai was clinging to me. Instead of childish playfulness, she started to press her whole body against me as her head hesitantly reached up to the base of my jaw.

Without thinking, I stopped allowing what she was doing, my right arm rising to catch underneath her armpit, then grabbing her arm by the shoulder and pulling her away. I wasn’t quite able to hold her entirely aloft at arm’s reach, but I nearly could. Her face stared at mine, nervous, embarrassed, and hopeful.

“Why not?” she asked, her voice soft. “There’s no reason why you can’t.”

“That’s true, nobody would tell me no, and it’s not a problem either if I mate with every female in the country. I have no problem with any of my people finding as many mates as they want, it has nothing to do with me. There’s no reason why I can’t. The simple fact of the matter is that I only want one mate. That is Sybil. My singular focus will remain until I decide otherwise, and for years, there has been nothing that has swayed me from that path. You, despite not being much younger than me, will always be a child in my eyes because I saw you hatch. If I make the decision to see you as anything other than a child, I will let you know. Until then, this will not happen.”

I continued on my way, and Trai bowed her head as I continued past. Despite getting turned down, she didn’t seem to care much. Within a minute or so, she was continuing to flounce along beside us, and I could read the hope for combat in her shoulders and face. I couldn’t say I faulted her for that, as a part of me hoped that they’d stubbornly push against us and would justify a slaughter of every one of their number. 

Similar thoughts filled my mind as we made our way forward. Days passed, and, instead of weeks, it took us less than a single week to get all the way to the boundary of the mountains we’d claimed as our own. There, in the pass that we’d initially escaped from the indlovu lands through, waited a delegation of Misti Hawar.

With a smile, I stepped forward, ready to begin our diplomatic mission in earnest.