Better Than One - Chapter 13 Made Of Wood.

The dull whitish green tinge of Eolas’ skin is shifting colors. My full attention and focus are dead set on his one dull square tooth jutting out further out of his mouth than any other. His white blue lips are slobbering loud words at me. Not a sound is reaching my ears. I am pleading, I am stuck, I am floating. A heavy atmosphere is suffocating me. A salt lake, dry, cracking ground is shifting, splits, I begin to fall, my abs tighten to a ball, a feeling of weightlessness. Globba is at the bottom prodding me in the side with a mad glee in her eyes.

I woke up with a jolt, and choked on my saliva spurring me into a coughing fit, which quickly overtook Estra too. Lan was standing at the side of the bed, still nudging us in the side using a sheath of his sword, a look of concern on his face. “Ffsssthss! ghhgg, …fine, I’m fine!”

The sun was already high in the sky, or so he said. Globba was sleeping, snoring lightly by the side of the wall on her Bigfoot fur rug. I rolled up off the bed and felt that every muscle is sore as hell. However, a new notification made me feel better.

Stats gained: +2 Constitution; +2 Strength; Agility +1

Once Estra was sufficiently awake, she explained that gaining stats could done the old fashioned way, through sweat and blood, which was why she had us working out. It isn’t a lot, but it doesn’t cost any Essence to do it. The efforts were tallied up every five days, with gains slowing down considerably the higher the stats went, sometimes going months without seeing any gains.

In other good news, we had five dragonborn, Lan included. They were standing along with him in a row, and true to Lan’s word, they were a formidable lot. The kobolds appeared like children compared to these five.

Lan [Dragonborn]

Weight: 160 lbs (73kg)

Height: 5’9″ (175cm)

Total Essence: around 29,000

The other four dragonborn were of similar proportions and essence levels. Their new snouts were significantly shorter, yet built like a steel vice.

“Impressive.” I said, and Lan beamed like a proud father.

“A dungeon run like yesterday, and we’ll have another five,” Lan said. Ahh yes, like yesterday; memories of Eolas rushed back. Another victory like that and we’ll be done for. We lost a single kobold and a 35k Essence troll, but gained approximately 200k, resulting in five dragonborn. On paper, it seemed like a win, but in reality it felt empty.

“How close are the other five kobolds to dragonborn?” I asked. I haven’t seen any humans in this world, but from what Lan said, each one of these dragonborn could go toe to toe with a human.

“Three to six thousand each,” Lan said. That’s real close, and we can certainly do it with a next run. That would bring us to ten, compared to the humans’ twenty, we’d need another ten. Estra and I are worth two or three, and so is Globba. That’s if she fights with us, I still haven’t figured out what her deal is, or what she wants. We’re short as we are and that’s merely to break even, hopefully the ogres will send exceptional help.

“Do you need weapons?” I asked. Their short swords appeared tiny for their new dragonborn forms, and likewise seemed redundant given their massive clawed hands, thick spiked tails and a multitude of horns, ranging from two larger ones to a number of smaller ones.

Lan nodded. “We have sword skills.”

“What about armor, shields?” The five were without any armor and I wondered if they even needed any. Thick scales adorned their bodies that would give any scalemail a run for its money, and none of the five were the same color, ranging from light yellow to dark red. I wondered if the colors meant anything, or whether they were purely cosmetic.

Lan nodded again. “A second layer of armor is always welcomed. We have shield skills as well.” I handed over the steel bars and Eolas’ gear to Lan, but kept the large rucksack for myself. The two shoulder straps were long enough to fit on our back, making feel like I was back in school.

“See what Kuuz can do for you with that.” I said.

“Of course, chief. With your permission, I’ll select most promising from the refugees, gear them up and send them to the first two levels of the dungeon to fight the slimes with us.” He gestured at the four besides him.

“Let’s wait on the dungeon for now. I want to minimize the casualties if at all possible.” I said.

“Of course chief.”

“You know, they could spar with each other, maybe learn some hand to hand skills with those claws?” Estra said, and Lan considered it for a moment.

“In case they get disarmed.” I added. “Have them all spend the rest of the day doing just as Estra suggested. We’ll do another dungeon run tomorrow, or the day after, depending on how fast Kuuz moves.”

He nodded. “Of course, chief.”

It seemed like Zoey was next in line to speak. “Problem, chief.” Zoey said. I bet it had to do with food. “We have many mouths; won’t last a month.” I sighed. And there it was. Food.

“Alright, so what do we do?” I asked Zoey.

“We hunt mammoth!” She said excitedly, like it was the greatest thing she knew.

“Mammoth?!” I asked, incredulously. They have mammoth here? Are we in a middle of an Ice age or something? I need to get out more often and look around. “Where are they?”

“In the plains to the west. She and I could do it.” She pointed at Globba, and I looked over and realized she was awake, listening to us.

“Interested?” I asked her, and she nodded. Well, that was easy. Who’s next? Bring it! It was an ogre.

“Did they say what they wanted in exchange for sending help?” I asked.

“No, they were all too happy to send her. Her name is Bansari.” Zoey said.

Her attire was very busy, encompassing numerous pouches, several satchels, and many loops holding vials and potions of various colors and sizes. She looked like a walking laboratory, or was about to go fly fishing. In one hand she was holding a bag, and in another a long gnarled staff. On her back was a rolled up sleeping bag above a full backpack. It didn’t seem like this was her first outing, judging by how well everything was organized and attached; she smelled like a campfire.

Bansari [Ogre]

Weight: 130 lbs (59kg)

Height: 5’5″ (165cm)

Total Essence: around 17,000

She rested the staff against herself, and waved a greeting with her freed hand, causing a reed flute at her hip to dangle. I introduced myself and Estra, but her gaunt face only returned a sheepish smile. Not the talking sort, I assumed. There was an uncomfortable pause. The large black raven on her shoulder stirred, looked around.

It uttered a sound, and I could swear it said, “Shame.”

“Oh! She’s deaf-mute,” Zoey said. That explains it; they sent us a young, starved, deaf-mute ogre. It seemed like they took it as an opportunity to help themselves instead, by ridding themselves of an unwanted burden.

I looked at her rather small, scrawny frame, she looked back. “So, you can’t hear what I’m saying?” I said, and she squinted back at me.

“That’s like … exactly what deaf-mute means.” Estra said, looking incredulously at me.

“And there’s no magical way of healing that? No magic hearing aid of some sort?” I asked Estra.

Estra shook her head. “Can’t heal what’s already gone or missing.”

“What about mind magic? Can you send messages to her with magic? No?” I asked, tapping on my forehead with a finger.

She shrugged our shoulders. “That ahh, no. I really don’t know anything about that.”

“Sorry.” The raven cawed.

“Where are you going?” Estra asked me, interrupting our walk midstep, as I was heading to catch up with Globba and Zoey.

“I was we, umm, mammoth hunting? We need food; you heard.” I said.

“You can’t just leave a guest!” Estra said. Bansari was still standing there like a lost soul, loaded like a mule. “Those two will be fine, we need to get Bansari situated first.”

“Yeah, of course.” I responded. “Don’t we have an alchemist lab here, somewhere?”

“She’ll be staying here with us.” Estra said, and pointed to an open space on the side of the room. Well, if anything, we did have plenty of space in these quarters. Advantages of being a chief.

“Can you write?” I asked Bansari, and then gestured with a palm of my hand and fingers like I was writing a note, and her eyes lit up. That appeared to be a ‘Yes.’ I looked around the room, and realized that the slate board I had in my previous chief’s quarters wasn’t here.

“And what about you? Can you read and write?” I asked Estra.

“Are you kidding?! Are you saying that a commoner like you can read?”

I nodded. “Oh, I can do much more than that, you should know I had seventeen years of school.”

Estra snorted. “Ha! All that and you didn’t learn any manners.”

Bansari brought the backpack to the ground and retrieved a piece of chalk. “Hi.” She wrote on a suitable side of a stone wall, and handed the dirt stained chalk to me, a hope filled look on her face. The ends of her tattered sleeves were dangling over like a makeshift mitten, and her hand was rough as bark. She was hanging on to every letter as I was writing “Hello.” Like a ravenous beast given a taste, but starving for more.

“Grub.” The raven cawed.

Brunch had arrived, and I had the cook send for Rocks. Estra took over writing while I shared our lunch with Bansari and her raven, called “Neko.” She was eating just as eagerly as she was writing. The poor girl had nobody to talk to; nobody in the ogre village could read or write. I wouldn’t be surprised that nobody besides the three of us here could.

Neko cawed, “Die” as if greeting Rocks, who just arrived. The raven was completely black, and the size of a grown chicken. I told Rocks that I needed a large slate board, up against the wall, and more chalk. Also, another table so that she could practice her craft.

Details emerged as she wrote. She was seventeen and has been a deaf-mute since birth. Her “parents”‘ disowned her at an young age. She continued living at the village with the ogres, taken in by an old witch who taught her alchemy and witchcraft. She picked up how to read and write by herself through books. The old witch had died a couple of years back, and to get by she had practiced Alchemy.

Estra found herself a best friend; the two shared a passion for Alchemy. I wanted to go and kill me a mammoth, but instead I spent the rest of the afternoon playing a tribe aristocrat. Rocks installed a slate board, larger and smoother than I would have thought possible given their primitive technology, but who needs technology when you have [Stone Shaping] magic. It allowed me to tally up our kobold numbers, sort the refugees to their appropriate areas, go through equipment and materials with Kuuz, and get updates about reinforcing base entrances from Rocks.

“Problem, chief,” Zoey said. Globba was with her, mischievously grinning from ear to ear. The two came back several hours later, as the sun was setting.

“Sad.” Neko cawed, cycling through a list of words it knew to mimic.