Bab 3: Spoken Tongue
Among the female slaves that were caught, one particular woman, one of the two that came from the Human race namely Amanda, had just encountered a change in her life again.
"Just as I've thought our fate is sealed when we are being moved to another place when we were moved away from our kidnapper's camp, those slave traders, this person came to our rescue and subdued the slavers with difficulty it seemed." she thought as she looked at the man that stood away from them, but their figures seemed to not enter his eyes and was deeply pondering.
"Look its a human.. Is he a slave trader as well..?"
"Look closely, he wore strange clothes."
"He seems to be watching us."
These small whispers reached my ear after some time after we were set free.
'No he isn't. He is obviously wary of us and keeping distance from us.' she speculated while she also watched the other.
Although grateful, suspicions is still there given that this person who save us is a human with unknown origin, more so as he spoke a language we cannot understand, along with wearing strange looking clothes.
After he set them free and broke their chains, he kept his distance and just watched them. He make it painfully obvious he is lost.
She once caught a glimpse of his eyes shimmering with interest and excitement when he looked at them when we started to go out of the carriage with an obvious surprise and slight fear.
Ever since then, he remained silent. I got a chance to look at his attitude when I asked my little sister to give him a part of our food we cooked.
Gratitude and doubt was what she saw, but he didn't turned down the offer.
She had a thought that he is from another group of bandits and he was after them, but she took out that possibility when he broke our chains and gave us the key to our shackles.
She and her little sister are from a small town that the slavers raided some time ago. Along with them are women and children of different races who shared the same fate as themselves, and ever since, they never got a slight hope of ever getting away, as they burned out homes and killed our relatives and loved ones.
Their slavers who caught them seemed to be from a large group of bandits notorious inside and out of the Empire, based from the camp where they were moved from.
There's been more groups that were moved out ahead of them a week ago, and there are still more of them left behind when they left their camp. With the shackles and chains locking them down, this also eliminated any chances of them getting away despite outnumbering them.
This travel was supposed to take them out of the Empire by sneaking out of the border by purposely having less people to man the caravan.
But she is not sure if by pure coincidence or because it was planned, here they are, released from chains and taking their rest.
She knew he meant no harm at that moment when he left those clothes. Even when she interacted with her little sister back then about our shackles, although with real difficulty.
"#####..###.####-.."
Suddenly, his eyes were onto her when he approached her, with a scroll of dried skin of an animal in his hand.
The others who were eating, serving the food, attending to the kids with me, were alerted as my sister and other kids pressed onto me and their caretaker in fear at his sudden approach.
Those we were strong-willed enough tightly held the weapons they got while surrounding him quietly.
"...#####, ### ,#####-"
He spoke again, yet this time he opened the scroll in his hand towards me and pointed at it, and gestured at the ground.
His tone was interrogative so he may be asking a question.
Is this place the one I point in the map? -or so how she understood he was asking.
With little understanding to each other, she just nodded and shook her head as she said 'yes' and 'no' when she slightly understood and answered his question. She ends with tilting her head and asking to clarify with an asking tone when she do not understand.
The kids stopped shaking and were just looking at him quietly when he made body and hand gestures that seemed exaggerated.
"..Group?..everyone... This land...there?...move..? Why?" As she try to comprehend what he was trying to say, everybody else remained quiet while looking at him.
He pointed at the dead bodies of the bandits who held and pointed further away, atleast opposite the direction where the caravan was headed to.
'Is he...trying to tell me that there might be more and he wish for us to move further away to safety...?'
He pointed at the map where we believed we were and slid his finger away from it westward, further away from the route where we encountered each other.
She more or less understand what he is trying to say. But she cannot get the idea why that direction of all places.
In the end, he gave her the map and pointed at the other slaves who were armed. He made a gesture for her to talk to them, before he left.
He led the reins of the horses pulling the empty carriage to a direction away from the open route where he came from. He rummaged through the pile of weapons and tried them all out.
He is very weird and as someone who held weapons like myself before and used them. Its obvious he knows nothing of proper wielding.
"Amanda, what did he wanted from you?"
A girl with black long hair carrying a sword in its sheath hanging around her waist approached her.
She seems to be a half-kin, or pure-blood? She has those small horns, despite having long black hair that is common among humans also. A half-demon- perhaps.
"Canna, he.. For some reason, it appears that he wants us to move further away.. Or so I think he is trying to say."
"Oh, does he now?"
"Well, accoding to this map that he gave me, he wants us to move westward." she said. With little understading she had with their previous talk, she can only assume.
"I've been from the west, but from this forest-" she looked at the same map Amanda was holding. "-..there's only the shorelines, and if we moved abit south, we can move along the flowing river until we reach the sea. But there are no towns or City there but the nature is abundant. Further north along the shoreline will be the Port of Byzantine Kingdom which is 6 days away from that point...-" Canna explained as she stood beside her.
"Have everyone pack their stuff. Leave unnecessary things and board the carriages." he said briefly as Amanda spoke to the others near her.
With compliance, the others moved. Children boarded the carriages while the others loaded the necessities. She noticed that the young man assisted as well.
Though she understood the others are keeping away from him, a human. With understanding, he maintained distance as well, while also lending a hand.
"I'll teach the others how to erase our traces just in case so we can eliminate any potential pursuers. What should we do about him?" Canna asked as she pointed at the young man who helped them.
The young man noticed this and faced their way, meeting Canna's and Amanda's sight.
Before they could do anything, a girl have silently approached him and tugged his sleeve.
This girl has little presence even among them. She almost never talk and barely stood out for attention. She was the type to observe and was quiet. The slave dealer also deal with her less due to how she behaves.
She has short pale blue hair. Her skin was fair and she is small like the height of children, but her chest under her clothing indicated otherwise a growing teen.
The young man faced her way. He knelt down her height and seemed to ask what she needed. Canna was cautious of the young man, and Amanda watched his action very closely monitoring even the subtle movement of his breathing.
"That girl, she is a half-kin." Canna said softly that only Canna can hear as they watched him.
The girl presented something to him in her small hand, and at the distance, only Canna with clear eyes could tell what it was.
"..Its.. a seed..?"
.
.
"..Seed?"
He asked. The girl just stared at him as if waiting for him.
He smiled wryly as he slightly knelt down her height and grasp her hand gently.
"I think its important, so it'll be best if you keep it. I do appreciate that-"
Without further talking the girl seized his hand and shoved the seed in his mouth while he was talking. Due to his posture, he easily fell on his back, with the girl on top of him.
His reflex fail him as he swallowed the seed that blocked his throath from breathing as he shoved her off him in struggle, with a soft sound of something hitting the ground.
He cough violent as try to get back up.
'Oh no, I swallowed it! What is it?!'
The ruckus gathered attention as the women rushed to them to check what's going on.
'Damn, what do they think their doing? If they had her swallow me a poison-!'
Without proper balance, he kicked off the ground away from them with his back towards the thicket as he pull out a dagger he got to scare off anyone who approaches.
"You...you kid.. Was that seed a poison to kill me!?" he asked furiously as he wants to get some answers.
.
.
"Okay, this is way beyond expectations." Canna commented as she jogs to the child's side, holding her shoulder while the kid quielty whines at the pain.
"..What did she do-?" Amanda asked herself as she gathered towards them with the others with worry.
Suddenly the man dashed away from and drew a dagger against the women.
"You...you kid.. Was that seed a poison to kill me!?"
Everyone got startled at his words as they look at the small girl in question. Not everyone paid attention to the two when it happened and only a few who just happened to be nearby was aware what took place.
"Poison? But that seed is just-..wait." Amanda mumble as she realized something as she walked in front of everyone and stopped at a safe distance before him.
"M-mister. Let me say sorry for her. I'm s-sure she didn't mean to harm you.." another girl tried to mediate.
"Then what was that seed then!?-.. ?" he asked but also seemed to miss something as he felt something hot in his abdomen.
"That... I.. don't-" the same girl tried to mediate was at loss for words.
"..That seed was poison..?" he mumble out some words, only when he heard his own words did he realized he did not recognized them, and on top of that, he just conversed with them.
Some girls and women are kinda slow, and only when did some smart ones told them what happened did the others made some reaction.
"H-he spoke our tongue!"
"How did that happen exactly? Excuse me-"
"Ah! He said seed!" a small girl among them pointed at him.
The other's made quite a scene.
Canna helped the small girl with blue hair stand up with care, although it hurt for the small girl, there was no injury and the girl herself had her normal expression after just a moment.
Oliphym felt no pain nor any harm that happened to him, so he immediately felt shame.
Aa smart as he was, although just an assumption, the little girl gave her a seed that allowed him to understand and talk to the natives. He withdrew his knife and knelt as he looked at the little girl at the distance looking at him as though nothing happened-expressionless.
"I am sorry, it was sudden.. Are you alright?" he said with an apologetic smile.
The rest of the camp was relieved and the other's with nothing left to assist or offer left it to the other people closely related to the people involved at they went back to their own places.
---
With the language barrier out of the way, he managed to properly introduced himself, albeit forging his past, origin, and identity.
He made his story as follows, an orphan whose parents died during their travels, leaving himself to live up until now, wandering aimlessly. This was his summary.
They bought it anyway.
He also came to know the names of the people who, somehow, have better impression of him compared to the rest that was still keeping a distance from him, although still, keeping the same number and not deserting.
It appears that these bandits pillage and plunders villages without discrimination of from which race it was.
He also got to meet Canna. Based on his observation, more interactive with Amanda so from his perspective, they are friends.
Finally, he got to also say his worries about possible bandits coming from behind, and his advise to move off the road, away from the place.
"- and I understand that some of the others wants to returns from where they came from, but I also know, I am not sure, that some of you have no more place to return to, so I'd advise sticking together until you lot are away from this dangerous place."
The women who are the eldest among the rest pondered and discussed among themselves about his notion.
"I know your concerns, but moving west-, there's basically nothing there. We're ill-equipped if we encounter any trouble."
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone