Chapter Forty-nine

Chapter Forty-nine

Kay jogged back into camp, just catching Eleniah as she was walking off. “Hey!”

“Back so soon? Where’s the tree?”

“We heard fighting coming from past the trees, and I decided to come back and ask for your advice.” The last part he said with some sarcasm attached. “I heard weapons, so it’s people of some kind.”

She turned and started jogging. “Good thinking. In some cases, it can be a bad idea to go towards the sounds of fighting, but since we have exactly no information about what kind of threats there are, we should check it out.” She glanced over her shoulder, “Good idea coming to get me too.”

“I like sticking together more than I like splitting up, especially when there’s a potential danger.”

“You didn’t complain when I sent you off to cut wood by yourself.”

“You kind of gave me orders and then walked off; there wasn’t much I could do about it.”

She glanced back again with a thoughtful look on. “We’ll come back to that.”

They stopped just inside the tree line, and the sounds of fighting were still audible. Carefully they snuck closer, trying to see between the trees. Just ahead, the space opened up, and they saw two people fighting a pack of monsters.

One of them was around Kay’s height, six feet tall, and gracefully slicing his attackers to pieces with a glaive. His hair was salt and pepper with dark black streaked through with various shades of gray, and interestingly, his skin was also light gray color.

The other person was big. Eight feet tall, with massive muscles, and even darker gray skin, he towered over the, admittedly small, battle. He crushed the beetle monsters swarming the pair with a large staff.

“Stupid, fucking, miserable bugs!” The massive man shouted. “I will crush all of you and desecrate your corpses!”

“That’s a bit more hostile than usual!” The smaller man called out as he bisected a beetle with one smooth swing.

“They ruined my breakfast, Uncle! Look!” He pointed with one hand at a large overturned bowl on the ground. “Ruined it!”

The smaller man chuckled and shook his head as he stabbed downward, impaling the last of the monsters. With a flourish, he removed the blade from the corpse and flicked the creature’s ichor off. “We can make you another breakfast, Darten.”

“I know, but all that good food, wasted!” He sighed and shook his head sadly. “Such a waste.”

“Yes, well, such is life. Before we cook you something else, though...” The shorter man turned to look in Kay and Eleniah’s direction. “Hello there!”

Eleniah exhaled and stepped forward out of the trees. “Hello.” She greeted them.

The smaller and presumably older man flicked his eyes at Kay with a small smirk on his face.

Eleniah sighed and gestured at Kay. “Next is working on your stealth.” She muttered as he walked up.

The larger man watched them warily as the other chuckled. “Don’t be too harsh on him; I just got lucky and saw a flash of his sleeve. Is there anything we can help the two of you with?”

Eleniah looked them over for a minute before shrugging. “We heard the commotion and decided to check out what was happening near our camp.”

“A wise precaution...” He stared at them for a minute. “If you don’t mind me asking, what’s your purpose in being in the area?”

With a smile on his face, Meten walked up to them. He stopped about a foot away from them both with his hand outstretched. “Wonderful. It’s much nicer to meet strangers that are at least willing to talk. The ones that attack you or the ones that stare all suspicious like from a distance are... Well, I like them less.”

Eleniah snorted and shook his hand. “I’m Eleniah; this is my student, Kay.”

“Ah!” Meten shook Kay’s hand too. “So we are very similar in our goals. Adventure and training for our disciples.”

Eleniah sorted again. “I wouldn’t call him a disciple.”

Meten glanced up and back towards his nephew, who’d stopped behind him. “No, I wouldn’t call Darten a disciple either, but it’s more fun to say than just ‘student’.”

Darten bent down a little to shake both their hands. “Hello, I’m Darten. Don’t pay much attention to my uncle if you don’t have to; he’s a bit of a weird one.”

Meten laughed loudly.

“I’m Kay; nice to meet you.” Darten’s hand was three time’s the size of Kay’s, but he was quite gentle as they shook.

“So, I heard that your camp might be nearby? Would you mind, now that we’re at least on neutral terms if we borrowed your fire?” He gestured at the empty bowl that Darten now held. “My nephew could use another breakfast.”

“My food.” Darten mourned.

“It’s your own fault for walking and eating instead of just finishing before we broke camp.” His uncle chided.

“You eat too quickly and then demand we leave! I need more food than you do!”

Eleniah chuckled at their antics and led them back to their camp. Darten had a little bit of trouble moving through the dense trees a time or two, but he didn’t need to rip any of them up to get through. Not that Kay thought he could. They weren’t the giants of the forest they’d passed through to the south on the way here, but the trees on the northern edge of the valley were still bigger around than Kay was, for the most part. As big as he was, he didn’t think Darten was that strong.

When they made it back to their camp, Kay stoked the fire while Darten pulled out some supplies from a large back and started making himself another meal. After he finished, they sat around the small fire and looked at each other.

“I guess we’ll go first since we’re partaking in your hospitality. Once again, I’m Meten, and this is my nephew, Darten. We’re looking for some adventure and interesting escapades while we get Darten a little more life experience.”

“I’m Eleniah, and this is Kay, and we’re basically doing the same, without the family part.” She looked up at Darten. “If it isn’t rude, why are you so much smaller than your nephew?”

Meten laughed, “I’m an Oni, and Darten is an Ogre. My sister is on the taller side for an Oni, and she ended up marrying my brother-in-law, who is an Ogre.” He looked at his nephew with evident fondness in his eyes. “Darten here came out Ogre, while my other niece and nephew are both Oni.” He saw the look of surprise and confusion on Kay’s face. “What? Something the matter?”

Kay, remembering Alice and the others telling him to be better at keeping secrets, glanced over at Eleniah.

She shrugged. “It’s fine. You run into a few here and there. Not a big deal.”

“I’m sorry?” Meten glanced between the two of them, and Darten looked up from his cooking.

“I’m an Outworlder,” Kay told them, “The names for your Ogre and Oni just translated interestingly in my native language.” While Darten was huge and muscular, he wasn’t a grotesque monster with low intelligence and an appetite for all things meat, based on the vegetables he was cooking into his meal. And Meten wasn’t a massive blue or red-skinned monster with horns and a tiger skin loin-cloth, although those were more traditional Oni if he remembered right. He shrugged mentally. This wasn’t a mythological Earth, and all translations across languages were going to have difficulty now and again. Better to just accept that things would be exciting and move on with it.

“Oh, an Outworlder, you say?” Meten smiled widely, “It’s my first time meeting one! What was it like to end up in another world?”

Kay glanced at Eleniah again and got another shrug. Kay nodded at her and settled in to describe his time on Torotia, hopefully keeping all his secrets intact along the way.