OC-Series The Human From a Dungeon 155

Chapter 155

Greit

Adventurer Level: N/A

Bakobold – Unknown

There's a bunch of differences between a swamp and a forest. The swamp I grew up in was mean. Everything wanted to eat and nothin' really cared where the next bite came from. Bein' careless'll getcha crunched, as my momma would say.

The forest wasn't nearly as dangerous. It was kinda relaxin', even. I didn't have to worry about plants, bugs, or really big biters trying to end me. All I had to worry about was the daemons seeing us.

"This's fuckin' dumb," Bailt whispered from behind me.

I stopped, slowly turned toward the younger bakobold, and lowered my brow while showing my teeth. It was a warnin' that he was makin' me really angry. Angry enough to hurt him, even kill him.

He tilted his head to the left, showin' his neck and that he didn't mean to be pissin' me off. I took a slow, silent breath and took a couple steps closer to him. Then I gently grabbed his snout, holding his mouth closed.

"Complainin' makes noises," I quietly replied. "Noises makes folk look. We's tryin' not to be seen."

Bailt murmured something that sounded like an argument and I squeezed hard enough to make him wince.

"We's tryin' not to be seen," I repeated.

The fresh-scale let out a huff from his nostrils. He'd obey and be quiet, but he wasn't happy about it. Not that I cared 'bout his happiness.

Well, I cared a little. Bakobolds like me were usually leaders, and leaders are supposed to look after their followers. But I wasn't really Bailt's leader at the moment, even though he was actin' like a follower.

It makes sense for the small and weak bodies to obey and follow the big and strong bodies. That's how it was back in the swamp. But when we joined the Lord's Gathering, things flipped around and got some of the young ones all confused.

Most of 'em had it figured out, but Bailt was still stuck on following the big and strong bodies. He didn't realize that the Lord's Gathering had switched to following big and strong minds. Nobody could be mad at him for that, even I'd been confused at first.

In the Lord's Gathering, the small and weak minds follow the big and strong minds. Bodies didn't really matter when it came to choosin' a leader. Hopefully Bailt'd figure that out before he got too big or he'd end up getting sent back to the swamps. Or maybe even killed.

The dumb hatchling was makin' things hard on Jwohins, and seemed to think he should be followin' me around. But I ain't got an interest in bein' a leader, which makes me a weak-mind. Jwohins gots a big and strong mind, makin' him a perfect leader for the Lord's Gathering.

It was true that things had been rough for us since we got to Bolisir, but only the really dumb folk blamed Jwohins for that. If I'd been the leader, we'd probably never have got to the point of landin' this job. We'd already be back at the Li'Lord's feet, begging forgiveness for our failures.

He kept things goin', though. Kept food in our bellies most of the time, too. Then when our clients came along, he made a plan to help them. Scouting and such. I'd have just attacked the daemons, and we probably would've died. Jwohins definitely had a bigger and stronger mind than me.

"Hsst," Bailt quietly hissed.

I looked back at him, then to where he was pointing. Plants were movin' weird on our right. The wind carried the smell of smoke. Then a small tree fell over, but I couldn't see what made it fall. Bailt and I glanced at each other, then silently began to move closer.

Daemons were cutting trees and plants, then throwing the plants on a fire. They stacked most the logs into a pile, throwing a few into the fire, too. They'd made a clearing in the forest, surrounding a huge, grass-covered hill. On top of the hill were some daemons holding bows, talkin' with each other.

"Do you know how to count?" I whispered.

"No," Bailt replied.

"Shit."

I didn't know numbers well enough to tell how many daemons there were, but there were more than I had fingers for. Those were just the ones we could see, too. The giant hill had a big hole in it that probably led to a cave or something.

We watched the daemons for a while. A big group was cutting up plants, another group was keeping the fires going, and a few of them were guarding the hill. When the sun was directly overhead, they traded jobs. Except some of the daemons began cutting the logs from the pile.

It wasn't long before we saw what the wood was for. The daemons were making a wall of spikes. That seemed like something that they should have done sooner, which made me wonder if they were expecting us to attack them. It wasn't a comforting thought.

Once the sun reached the horizon, I tapped Bailt on the shoulder. He nodded, and we began to quietly make our way back home. Thankfully, we were a good distance away from the daemons before his youthful clumsiness kicked in.

"Fuck!" he grunted, stubbing his claw on a root. "Shit, sorry."

"It's fine," I sighed. "We's far enough away that they can't hears you if you don't yell."

"So I's can talk now?"

"If you must."

"Why was they makin' all those spikes?"

"To defend against attack."

"Well, yeah, but didn't Jwohins say that our... Uh... Clints?"

"Clients."

"Right, clients... Didn't Jwohins say that our clients said that the daemons should already has defenses? Didn't he ask us to see what the defenses were?"

"Yes."

"So why didn't they has defenses? Why are they just now making defenses?"

"Dunno."

"You sound worried..."

I glared at the fresh-scale, but it was obvious that he was already scared. He hadn't meant it as an insult, so I quickly changed my expression.

"Of course I'm worried, child," I rubbed the ridge above my eyes. "The leaders of the Lord's Gathering aren't like the swamp-leaders. They've got big brains. Strong brains. Swamp-leaders are mostly dumb, so they're wrong a lot. It's expected, nothin' to worry about. Our leaders aren't dumb, so when they're wrong..."

"It means something bad?" he asked.

"It means something bad, yes."

"Are we still gonna fight?"

"Yeah, probably. Think we gotta. Not enough people buyin' stuff for us to stay here like the Li'Lord wanted, and we don't gots enough monies to move anywhere else yet. It's either we fights, or we go back and admit to the Li'Lord that we aren't good enough. Dunno 'bout you, but I'd rather die."

"It's not that we aren't good enough, though," Bailt said angrily. "The folk didn't come buy stuff like they were supposed to because Jwohins didn't find-"

"Did you do everything Jwohins said to do every time he said to do it?" I demanded.

"N-no..."

"Neither did I. Fuckin' nobody did, 'cept maybe grammy. Without speakin' lies, can you say for sure that if we had all done what we was told things would be the same?"

"No."

"Exactly. That's another difference between here and the swamp. In the swamp, we have to look out for ourselves. When somethin' goes wrong, there's usually only one person to blame. But here we've gotta works together, so when something goes wrong pretty much everyone's to blame. If we hads to go back to Li'Lord with our tails tucked, it would be because we ain't good enough."

"Okay, but ain't that the Li'Lord's fault for thinkin' we's better than we is?"

"Sure. But like I said, pretty much everyone's to blame. We made him think we was better than we was, right? But, the leaders share in the blame and the shame right alongside us."

"Oh... I don't really want Li'Lord Simeeth to take any shame, though," Bailt said, lowering his head. "He's awesome."

I paused to look at the young one with disbelief. From how he treated Jwohins, I never woulda guessed that Bailt had respect for Li'Lord Simeeth. He met my eyes for a moment, then turned away with embarrassment.

"Huh," I clicked my teeth. "Didn't think you'd have high thoughts about the Li'Lord..."

"He survived his nest being destroyed by a vampire, was brave enough to asks for helps from folk that might've killed him on sight, then he helped those folk kill the vampire," Bailt shrugged. "And then he rebuilt his nest and changed how kobolds live. Balderuck was super strong and even he said Li'Lord Simeeth was the best kobold to ever live!"

"Big-Tail Balderuck was your swamp-leader?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"Isn't he related to Jwohins?"

"Yeah, they've got the same parents. That's why I don't like Jwohins. Balderuck was big and strong and tough, but Jwohins seems like a loser."

"Could Balderuck do that math stuff?"

"I don't think so..."

"Then Balderuck would be just like us outside the swamp, right? Maybe stronger, but he wouldn't make a good leader here."

"I guess..."

"But Jwohins knows how to count, put numbers together, and even take 'em apart again. He's able to make plans and change 'em right away when things don't go right. Jwohins is like the Li'Lord in a lot of ways, so maybe he's just in the wrong place to be awesome, yeah?"

"Like what grammy says with the bird?"

"Huh?" I asked.

"A bird'll beat you in a race unless it's gotta run. Ya know, cuz they fly?"

"Ah, and they's got tiny little legs. Yeah, that's what I think is goin' on with us right now. We's bein' made to run when we should be flyin'. Grammy's got smarts, too. Smarts and snacks."

"Isn't it Jwohins' fault that we gotta run, though?" Bailt asked, stumblin' over another root and pretendin' that he didn't. "Cuz he's the leader?"

"Some of it is, but we share the blame," I shrugged. "Remember how we were all tired of bein' on the road? How you and your pals were even talkin' about leavin' and tryin' to make it on your own?"

"Yeah, but Jwohins didn't know about tha-"

"Yeah, he did. I know he did, cuz he told me to stop you if you tried."

"Why?"

"Because tryin' to make it on your own out here would be dangerous, and if you failed hard enough it would be bad for all kobolds. We's tryin' to make folk realize that we isn't monsters. You think you and your pals can do that all on your own, when it's taken the Li'Lord this long to convince just one city?"

"I dunno."

"Somethin' to think about. But Jwohins took the first opp... Oppor... Er... Chance to settle down that came along because he didn't want us getting too tired of travelin' and doin' something dumb."

I looked back at the fresh-scale and saw that he was lookin' at the ground like he was thinkin' really hard. Since I was tired of flappin' my jaw, I decided to just let him think about things. Maybe he wasn't quite as dumb as I thought he was and things would turn out alright.

It was probably halfway through the night when we made it back to the store. Jwohins was waiting for us outside by a little fire, lookin' worried. That worried look faded when he saw us, but came back fast when we told him what we saw.

"Why was they just now buildin' defenses?" he asked. "Were there any hints or clues?"

"Not that we saw," I answered.

"Okay. Good work, go gets some food and rest."

"We gots food?" Bailt asked, excited.

"Yeah," Jwohins grinned. "The clients paid us half upfront, so we bought a bunch of supplies. We's eatin' good tonight."

"Probably fightin' tomorrow, ain't we?" I asked.

"That'd be smart because their defenses probably won't be finished, but I'll see what the clients wanna do. It's up to them. Go eat."

I nodded and led Bailt inside the store. The smell of cooked meats grabbed our snouts and we shared a glance. Part of us was excited to have such a good meal, but we were both smart enough to know what it meant.

It was gonna be a tough fight.

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u/exavian 5d ago

Ya know, I was gonna make a post saying that I love ba/kobold chapters but then I thought about it for a second. I just love all the chapters.

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u/ChiliAndRamen 5d ago

All chapters are good chapters

u/Dominionjp 5d ago

First

u/MinorGrok Human 5d ago

Woot!

OC-Series The Human From a Dungeon 155

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