Chapter 40 Captive

Lucius decided to keep watch on it for a while, keeping dead still as he hid behind a tree.

After watching for a few more minutes he came to the conclusion that it was indeed lost. It kept changing directions erratically, almost as if it were moving merely for the sake of it.

Whatever liquid was pouring from its thorax seemed to be due to an injury. As the limping appeared to be caused by trauma to its front leg, near where the site of 'blood' was coming from.

~Was it in some sort of fight?~ he wondered, carefully moving to the next tree so as not to lose sight of it.

He could very well just kill it right now, however, that would leave many questions unanswered. For one, he still wasn't certain whether the insectoid was a colony type, which would mean that there were more nearby causing even larger problems if he unnecessarily killed one of their kind.

~ This whole 'creatures having intelligence' thing is sort of confusing,~ he thought, imagining a group of insectoids hunting down his commune after finding the creature dead.

~Should I approach it?~ he considered after thinking it over for a bit. The creature's wings didn't work, it was crippled due to an injury and though its pincers looked scary, Lucius was still fairly certain he could outmaneuver it.

~But this is exactly what got me last time,~ he realized right before approaching. He had assumed that the shrooms didn't have any natural weapons apart from their fangs and had been taken out due to that sort of carelessness.

~No, I'll keep my distance. But I can't very well let it go without asking it about where it came from.~

"Oi!" he called out, standing very far from the insectoid.

"Xepop, Exxor," the insectoid replied, turning to look at Lucius. A moment of silence descended upon the two, as if they were sizing each other up.

From the way it was staring at him, Lucius could tell that it was indeed an intelligent creature. The first place it looked were his hands, and after that, the creature began analyzing the rest of his body as if searching for possible weapons.

"Exxor?" the creature blurted out after it had finished its search. It began approaching Lucius slowly, and with every step it took forward, he would take one back.

"Don't come closer. I don't want any trouble, I just want to know if there are more of you guys around. I don't mean any harm," he tried saying. Though he was fairly certain that there was indeed a language barrier, there was nothing else he could do.

The insectoid stopped for a moment once it saw Lucius's 'halting' gesture and began pondering something.

After a while, it turned around to show Lucius the spot where it had been injured and then spread its wings as if to show him the damage.

"Yes, I see. You were injured," Lucius said slowly. ~Gods this is hard.~

"What happened? What hit you?" he continued, pointing to the creature's wings in an attempt to communicate.

The insectoid stared at him for a moment, pondering, before walking towards a nearby bush. "Rexop," it said.

"Thorns?" Lucius replied, after staring at the bush for some time.

The creature did not respond but continued to stare at him.

~This is getting us nowhere. I guess I'll just have to search around to see if there are more of them," he decided after a while.

~But what do I do about this thing?~

"Exxor," the creature said once again before trying to approach him.

"Stay back," Lucius shouted in response, holding out his hand in a halting gesture once again.

"Exxor," the creature shouted louder this time, erratically opening and closing its wings.

"Yes, we already established that. You're injured, but I can't very well come near you, now can I?" he replied, taking a few steps back.

"Exxor, Exxor, Exxor," the creature said repeatedly, creating buzzing sounds with its wings as it trailed around in circles. The liquid pouring out of its thorax seemed to be flowing out at a faster rate with every second that passed, and in turn, the creature was getting slower and slower.

~If it dies on its own I guess that would be a solution too,~ he realized. Deciding that he was going nowhere with this line of questioning he began walking back to the leaflings.

~Better get back I have to warn them,~ he realized. For all he knew, they might already be walking nearby the camp.

*

"He's back," one of the leaflings whispered once Lucius came into view.

"Shhh, he said to keep quiet," another one complained, kicking his colleague on the leg.

"Ouch, don't kick me."

[+10 Stamina.]

"We're going back to the camp," Lucius ordered once he reached them, looking back at the area he had just come from.

The leaflings all had puzzled looks on their faces. First, he told them to hide and keep still, then he disappeared for a whole 30 minutes and came back telling them they had to go back?

"What about the materials?" one of them asked, hoping they could still pull some stuff around.

"Later, not now. Now let's get going," he said again, shoving the leaflings forward.

"Aww," they groaned, reluctantly making their way back to the camp.

*

"Pagan, has Alpha come back?" Lucius asked once he got back to the camp.

"No, he's still out," Pagan replied turning to look at Lucius, "When can we have a session," he asked immediately after, walking towards him.

"Later, I need everyone to get into the tent and stay there. I'm going to get Alpha," he ordered. After a moment of confusion, the leaflings began walking into the tent, whispering questions to each other.

"I'm coming with you," Pagan called out as Lucius was about to leave.

"No, stay behind. It's dangerous," Lucius replied, already quite a distance away. However, Pagan wasn't having that and was already running towards him.

~Sigh, lords why won't you just listen,~ he thought to himself, slowing down so that Pagan could catch up to him.