AR Chapter 514 (Patreon)

With that, Monday was a sick day and now that's three chapters of each book this week. Gonna try to get three of each again next week, since I'm out from next Friday to the next Tuesday or Thursday. Kinda depends on how things shake out.

As we strode from the room where the strategizing had taken place, Brutus almost ran to stand by my side again. Evidently, the separation hadn’t been as painless for him as it had been for me. He looked me up and down to make sure that I hadn’t somehow been harmed, and I cocked my head in disbelief.

“Brutus,” I interrupted him as he continued to worry. When he met my eyes, he stepped back and let me continue to speak. “I’m an adult. I am more than capable of protecting myself, and you all would know it if I’d been attacked. We can all be pretty confident that the Misti Hawar don’t pose much of a threat to me. Now, stop.”

He didn’t answer, simply bowing his head and stepping back to flank me as he had until then.

“As this is my range,” Pliet said, pulling my attention back to her as she spoke in the human tongue, “I will be providing for you. If you need more food than what we give, say so. The rules of hospitality demand that we serve you while you retain your guestright, so do not hesitate to state your needs.”

I flared my frills, but she didn’t quite understand what I was saying. With an internal groan, I said, “Yes, that’s acceptable. We would be fine for several days, even if you don’t feed us at all.”

“You don’t need food?” she asked, her muzzle quivering with an emotion I didn’t understand.

“We’ve become accustomed to taking what we can get when we can and living without when we can’t,” I said simply. “Multiple times, attempting to starve us out has merely reminded us of our place as hunters. Most creatures that hunt do not have the luxury of eating every day. We don’t need to either.”

Her eyes fluttered as she blinked multiple times at my reminder of her people’s attempted siege, then she blazed on. “Is there any problem with me giving you food? I’m offering you what hospitality you would like.”

“A single meal a day is fine,” I answered, following as she walked towards a different building. “For each of us, we eat about 30 pounds a day if you’re looking to spoil us as much as we’ll let you. Half of that will be acceptable for a few days before we start getting… bitey.”

She looked up at me, narrowing her eyes. “We are more than capable of feeding you. This isn’t some opportunity for you to show off or something.”

“How much do you know of my people’s history? Specifically, how I came to lead my people into the Shandise?” I asked instead of answering.

“Nothing,” she answered simply. “Suddenly, you all appeared. So far as we can tell, you came through the lands to the west, but that’s all we know and didn’t care to learn more.”

“Do you know where the Veratocracy is?”

“The far side of the continent. None of my people have been anywhere near there in centuries. It’s thousands of miles away and through three countries, at least.”

“And that’s where I hatched,” I said, purposefully raising my voice to make sure that others could hear. “As you can imagine, a swarm one thousand strong of keelish was seen as nothing other than pests. Once I became the leader of our swarm, I led us on an escape through the human lands. Over one thousand of us began the journey. We were pursued at every step. The old and weak willingly sacrificed themselves to give us enough energy to escape. We ate friends and parents to save ourselves from having to hunt as we were hunted. We didn’t sleep, we ripped through every barrier in our path, and we died. We died by the hundred. Of over one thousand, only thirty survived.

“Five of those survivors now stand before you. We ate only as much as we needed to continue to move and ran for hundreds of miles. Then, we found a home where we could eat when we wanted and rest, for the first time. We deserved to rest, didn’t we? However, I saw that my people were going soft. We were too accustomed to eating until we were full every day. Even multiple times a day. Where was that hunger, that fire that had allowed us to escape?”

We continued walking in silence for a few short moments, and the Clan Head who walked at my side spoke up. “You’re saying you deliberately don’t eat as much as you would like?”

“We got fat,” I flicked my tail, dismissing her interpretation. “We were slow, comfortable. Life doesn’t allow a slow, fat Saharliard to survive. If we don’t continue to fight and strive, then something will come along and decide we don’t deserve to live.

“Now, I refuse to let my people get fat and comfortable.”

Pliet looked up at me with a strange tilt to her head, but after a moment, she nodded slowly and turned her attention back towards the front. There were ideas there, thoughts that she was trying to grapple with, and I didn’t care to ask her about them. Instead, I just looked forward and followed her towards a clearing where tables had been set up. Every single one of them was made for the Misti Hawar instead of something of my size. The tables reached my knee. Looking down at them, I couldn’t help but wonder if I should even try.

Instead of continuing to think too deeply about it, I just followed where she led, until she sat at a chair at the table and then looked up at me, back at the table, up at me, and then cursed under her breath. At least, the words she spoke in her language were sharp enough that I figured that was the case.

I simply settled down onto the ground. Sybil had gone through painstaking efforts to figure out a chair that was comfortable for us to sit in, a strange construction that, with someone sitting in it, leaned their chest forward while the tail spread out behind them. This table was so small for me, though, that I could just lie down on my side, propping up on my right elbow, while picking up my food with my left hand.

“It was hard to believe just how big all of you are before actually meeting you,” Pliet apologized. “We simply weren’t ready to take care of you. I suspect that you are larger than most Indlovu at this point.”

“I doubt it,” I clicked my jaws indecisively. “I know that their hunters are a bit shorter than I am, but I’d guess they’re still heavier than I am. The warriors, at least the ones that I saw, are taller than Brutus and probably twice my weight at least.”

Silence fell for a short while before she shook her head. “You are not the creature I thought you would be.”

“I’ll consider it a compliment,” I answered, baring my teeth in what wasn’t really a smile. She gulped in response, and I turned my attention back to the food. The hospitality was an opportunity for me to show that we weren’t just monsters, but, if they pushed us, the monsters would return. And I wouldn’t pull on the reins this time.