Chapter 26 Ayla

Oma invited us to spend the night at the village. Ayla of course wasn’t happy with this, but I decided to ignore her. She was hostile, fine, she clearly had her own shit, but I wasn’t going to let that affect me.

Miggy of course jumped at the chance, and when I left him, he was entertaining those teenage girls with heroic tales that seemed taller than the metal gods. I left him to it. He’d spent months alone in a cave. A little human contact could do more than any health poultice could.

For me? I was more than fine being alone. It had been a long day anyway. I drank more tea and gratefully accepted broth and grilled fish from some of the young girls. I laid down to sleep. The fur bundles were far more luxurious than the ones we were used to in the wild.

I opened up my technology tree. I was past bone now, and into hide armour. I allocated my technology points, unlocking the full hide tree. Beside it was the next level of weapon technology after bone — horn.

Hide needed furs, but in far greater quantities. Where fur armour might need five fur, hide needed twenty which then needed to be treated at a tanning rack. It then needed to be reinforced with a resource called resin, which I had sporadically looted from trees. I was glad now that I’d held onto it. Clearly it was important, though to craft a full set of hide armour, I would need eight more.

Horn weapons, predictably, required horn. I remembered the bison stampeding from that morning. To craft a horn bow, spear, and knife, I would need sixteen treated horn, which itself needed five horn pieces to craft a single treated horn. This again needed resin.

It would take some time to farm all I needed, then again it was a higher tier of crafting, so this didn’t surprise me.

Making a mental plan to do this tomorrow, I settled to sleep. But despite my body’s exhaustion, sleep did not come. I lay there an hour. The campfires of the village were extinguished now, and Miggy and the others’ laughter were long gone as well.

I got to my feet, gently moving past Larry. Every night he slept beside me. As I said, beast-adjacent. I walked through the village and saw a makeshift guard tower, or at least a little platform up on some wooden stilts. There was a crescent moon tonight, the silvery light cutting through some of the murk. There was a lone figure up there, and I could easily guess who it was.

Ayla stood sentinel, bundled in furs to protect her from the chilly night air. She made no movement, or acknowledgement as I approached.

‘Good night, isn’t it?’ Okay. Charisma boost or not, I was no master of small talk. She raised her eyebrows at me. ‘Some nights it like urgh, sucks, but this night? Not terrible-‘

‘Why are you here?’ Her voice was quiet, but her intent all too clear. ‘I saw your friend entertaining my cousins, so his motivations are clear. You? And I don’t want to hear about some gate. Tell me why you’re really here.’

It was a loaded question. And a good one. Why was I here?

‘I don’t know,’ I said, ‘a life of purpose. To get stronger, fight harder.’

Ayla shook her head, her displeasure clear. I briefly thought of using my Sovereign Presence ability, but that felt…wrong. ‘So you fight for yourself,’ she said, after a short, uncomfortable silence. ‘Just like all the men here.’

‘Where are those men?’ I said. I was suddenly tired. Defensive. Unhappy to be judged by some woman I barely knew. ‘Why aren’t they defending this village?’

‘They were taken, along with my father a week ago. Held by the Warlord’s tribes.’ A little notification in my HUD lit up. I clicked on it.

[Side quest unlocked: Tribal Colours – The men of the Galar tribe have been captured by the Warlord as punishment to others who would challenge him. Their tribal chieftain is sentenced to death. Rescue the Galar before the execution.]

[Reward – 7,000xp, Increase Warlord vulnerability, Rare weapon fragment.]

She was staring at me. I realised several moments must’ve passed. I quickly closed the HUD. ‘Mind-touched,’ she muttered, ‘fool, sky person or not-‘

‘Let’s go rescue them,’ I said. She raised her eyebrows. ‘What? Your people are taken, aren’t they? So let’s go get them.’

‘You would help people you barely know?’

‘You can spend all night insulting me,’ I said, folding my arms, ‘or we can both get some rest. If the Warlord attacks tonight, I doubt one woman with a bow is going to deter him anyway. Then tomorrow you tell me where they’re held. We go get them.’

Her suspicion didn’t dissipate. Good. Neither would mine.

Ayla didn’t trust me. Fine. She didn’t have to. I didn’t care about her village. I didn’t care about her, but I was finding that gate. And if that meant our interest aligned right now, on this night? That was fine, too.

But once it was over, I was moving on. I was never getting stuck anywhere ever again.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

I found Ayla by the gate to the village early the next morning, as we had arranged. She looked no happier than she had the night before. Still beautiful though, which was a little annoying, even if right now she was looking at me with a smoulder.

‘Does that ever get tiring?’ I said, with a yawn, ‘being so angry all the time?’

Ayla tightened her bow and affixed her club to her primitive backpack. ‘I don’t have the luxury of feeling otherwise, skyperson.’ She said it like it was a slur, or like I’d been the one to use it to hoodwink her grandmother.

‘Fine,’ I said, stretching out, ‘well look somewhere else won’t you? I can’t take you glaring at me the entire way to finding your tribes-people.’

She looked like she wanted to say more, but mercifully didn’t. Instead, she said, ‘I am the only Barbarian left to the tribe.’

‘I didn’t know women could become Barbarians.’

‘I’m sure what you don’t know is as vast as the green sea.’ I didn’t know what the green sea was, but something told me it wasn’t a compliment. ‘If we leave, we must return quickly. The Warlord won’t come back, but there are vandals, and other dangers. I must protect the village.’

‘Well,’ I said, brightly, having expected that, ‘worry not, because I have two capable defenders to leave behind.’