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The soul-chilling scream of a celestial howler monkey marked the end of the barrage of Makary's firearms. It also served to warn all the humans just outside the forest of the change.
Standing right beyond the line of the last trees, I had the best seat to observe how humans reacted to this scream.
"It's working," Makary muttered, watching how the chaotic mess just ahead came to a sudden spot, as all the humans cowered in fear of what this scream could mean. "You know, seeing how well you predicted their reaction..."
The middle-aged man shook his head before giving me a long, thoughtful glance.
"It's worrying, you know?"
The corners of my mouth curved up a bit in reaction to Makary's words.
After all, what else could I do but smile when I couldn't exactly understand what the hell was he talking about?
"Humans are crowd creatures. And with how panicked they all were..." I shook my head. "Giving them another push was all it took to achieve... that," I said, pointing out my hand at the unnatural peace just a fewteen meters ahead of our small group of three.
"I will always give credit where credit is due," Makary muttered, his eyes fully centered on the events up ahead. "But I still don't think it's a good idea for you to come out personally."
Makary crossed his arms on his chest and shook his head before finally turning around and taking a proper look at my face.
"I still believe it's too risky for you to be the emissary," he stated.
For a second, I was inclined to agree with him. Even though I have yet to find the time to properly measure the depth of changes that my recent rebirth brought forth in terms of my power and its limits.
"Now that we are all here, I believe there's no more time for us to waste," I stated before giving Fay's hand a squeeze and taking my first step outside of the forest. "Let's go!"
The four of us walked out from behind the trees with hardly any of the humans just ahead noticing.
In their eyes, we were nothing more than just a few more survivors who somehow managed to make it outside, despite taking much longer than the others.
It wasn't before we approached the part where a lot more humans crowded the wetlands that they finally started to take notice of the few peculiarities that set us apart from everyone else.
First, in our group of four, there were two women! Secondly, not a single one of us wore any kind of protective equipment or bore arms that they would be familiar with. And with a complete lack of any form of crest or insignia implying our association with their own forces...
"Chris, could you...?" I asked while turning my head to give the feminine man a quick glance.
I wasn't exactly sure what I expected to see. Maybe fear? Determination? Devotion to the case?
Regardless of what I expected to see on Chris's face, all he allowed his expression to show was just how relaxed he was, despite stepping right into the midst of an entire army of people who were our for our blood.
'I guess his looks are not something that he should be judged with,' I thought, watching how the man detached a simple, crude even, loudspeaker from the strap of his backpack before fiddling around with it for a while.
"Here," Chris spoke softly, turning my way and passing over the speaker while making sure not to tangle the cable that connected the device to the weighty backpack strapped to the man's shoulders. "It's online already. All you need to do is press the trigger and speak out."
Taking the device into my hand, I turned my eyes towards the crowd just a few steps ahead.
By now, quite a few of them were already taking notice of our arrival and the uncommon if not outright weird clothing we wore. And as I saw the panic settling in their eyes yet again, I sighed and raised the loudspeaker to my mouth.
"Make way!"