Banished Pt. 09

As we headed back to the main group, and walked past the geisterung graveyard, Casey came running towards me.

"Is it over?" she asked, and I nodded, as I took a look around.

"We'll need to collect these cores," I said, and Casey nodded in agreement. "How's Nolan?"

"Healed, but resting. Accelerated healing like that really does a number on your core."

Come to think of it, Raul did pass out after we'd healed him...

And Casey slept a lot while she was recovering from her stabbing.

The Kobalt were up in numbers now, and gathering up their dead, but as we got to the camp, I spotted the little Kobalt girl.

She was sitting in front of a small plant, seemingly a fresh sprouting, and as I studied the earth around it, I noted that it seemed to have been freshly dug.

Was it where her father had been buried?

I wondered if perhaps the Kobalt custom was to plant a tree where a fallen comrade was lain to rest.

As I walked over to her, I noted an empty, forlorn expression on her face, and even as she spotted me approaching, she didn't react.

Not to be deterred, however, I grabbed the child by the back of her shirt and picked her up, and as she flailed about a bit, I spotted Gisela and walked over to her.

"This child," I began, "can I have it?"

Gisela blinked twice, her confusion evident, and she cast a questioning glance at Casey as she tried to process my request.

"Have?" she asked.

"Yeah. What did you plan to do with her, anyway?"

"If no guardian would accept her, we would try to find one at the nearest cluster," she replied, and I nodded.

"Good. Then I can be her guardian."

"If you desire it, none would dissent," she continued, before shaking her head. "But surely the burden of this sapling is one for which you need not worry..."

I waved a hand dismissively, as I turned to the child.

Her hands were folded, and a glum expression on her face.

"Being a brat, are we? What's your name?"

"Do you really expect her to understand you all the time-?"

"Lucia," she replied, cutting Casey off, and she rolled her eyes as I shot her a wry smile, before turning my attention back to the girl.

"Lucia, huh? I like it. So, do you want to stay with me, or do you want to go live with your people?"

Her eyes studied me, tinged with confusion, so I held her up to Gisela.

"Your people? Or me," I said, turning her back to me. "Choose who you want to stay with."

"Ich will Rache!" she replied, and I tilted my head at her.

"You want revenge? On what?"

Her eyes flicked to the little grave, and I furrowed my brow.

"The one who killed him got away?" I asked, and she nodded.

This was interesting...

So, she'd been marking the creature, huh?

Now that I think about it, we had killed, what, five of the things?

If there were seven that I'd seen, and two more that were apparently hiding further off, then that meant that four of these things were technically still out there; the one who'd retreated from our fight, plus the other three who had left to track me earlier on.

Maybe we weren't out of the woods just yet.

"So, you want to kill the thing that murdered your father?" I asked.

She nodded again.

"You still have to choose, though. Me? Or them?" I said, turning her to Gisela.

The girl frowned, then after a moment, she punched my armor, and let her hand stay where it had landed, keeping her gaze firm, and fierce.

She remained like that for a bit, before letting her hand fall, and softening her expression a little, and I nodded.

"Good," I said, but as I set her down, she took a little step, then stumbled, and I caught her, and steadied her a bit as I studied her.

I focused my gaze intently, as I had done before, and I noted that the little blue thread seemed to be moving a bit more slowly, labored, almost, and that the faint blue light that it emitted seemed a little duller than usual.

Her core must be almost depleted, I thought.

I picked her up again, holding her like I would a child this time, and as I moved over to the sleeping area, I set her down next to Bianca.

"Rest," I said, and she shot me a defiant look, before letting out another yawn, and I snickered a little, as I saw her resilience fast fading.

"What is your plan with her?" Casey asked, moving to my side, and I let out a tired stretch, as I plopped down beside the girl.

"She has a useful ability, and I find her determination endearing," I said.

"I know I told you that the Kobalt can eventually develop their cores to our kind of level, but I really didn't expect you to just up and adopt the first orphan you could find," Casey replied, and I snickered a little in response.

"What better way to find out what they're capable of, though? She's determined enough, and she basically killed an aufhöcker last night. If that doesn't scream 'give me a chance' then I don't know what will."

As I let out a tired yawn, Casey shot me a quick look.

"You probably exhausted your core," she said. "Get some rest. I'll handle things here."

"Will I be able to wake up if there's trouble?" I asked, and Casey shook her head.

"You might wake up, but until your core's power regenerates you wouldn't be able to fight or use any kind of abilities," she answered.

I lay back, then let out a sigh, but as Casey headed off, I noted that Lucia was sitting, with her knees into her chest, and wearing a frustrated expression on her face.

"If you want your revenge, you need to get stronger," I said, "and that won't happen unless you sleep."

She frowned, then scooted a little bit away from Bianca, before lying down on her side, her back to me.

I studied her for a bit, but my own mind was quickly accelerating towards unconsciousness, and as I drifted off, that image of her form, crumpled, and alone, stayed with me.

***

Joanna stepped into the office expecting an execution, and instead she was greeted with champagne, and Beluga caviar.

"What's the occasion," she began, a confused expression on her face.

"We're celebrating a promotion of sorts," the man explained.

"Yours?"

He chuckled a little.

"And possibly more," he said, tilting a glass towards her.

"I don't understand... our asset is-"

"Out of the woods, and on the way to great things!" he exclaimed, and she shook her head.

"This is a draft of the kill order. Even if they make it through Irileth's domain, he won't survive..." she began, and the man laughed.

"That kill order won't see the light of day," he said, and as she eyed him, he smirked. "Let's just say, the person who drafted that is currently 'looking for a new place to sit'."

"The chair? He's been removed?"

"Removed and replaced," he added, winking suggestively, and her lips finally broke into a smile.

"And your seat-?"

"-open, and awaiting my recommendation," he explained.

His eyes travelled over her body desirously, and Joanna suppressed the shudder, as she licked her lips.

She drew the blinds shut, then unclasped the front of her jacket, as she approached the desk.

"Well, allow me to submit my application," she said suggestively, as she cleared his desk with one sweep of the hand.

***

I woke up with a thick sheen of sweat on my brow, and as I sat up, I pulled at my breastplate a little, trying to get some air down into the stuffy space between it and my chest.

Thanks to the thick canopy above, direct sunlight was out of my face, as the only light that came to the grove was the little slivers that managed to make it through the shield of leaf, vine, and branches, and they shifted continuously as the treetops swayed gently in the light breeze.

I took a quick look around.

Francesca was asleep a few bunks down from where I was, and Nolan was a little bit further off; but the little bundle I'd expected to find beside me was gone, and Bianca too, I noted, was nowhere to be found.

I let out a yawn, as I stretched groggily, then slowly climbed to my feet.

Every muscle in my body screamed achily in protest, and I twisted to and fro a bit, trying to ease some life back into them.

Apart from Francesca, the sleeping area was basically empty.

What time was it? I wondered.

I took a look around, then spotted Myrinne, and I quickly moved to her side.

"Is Gisela around?" I asked, and the girl shook her head.

"Her first rest since the long night-cycle," she said, gesturing towards the sleeping area.

I nodded.

"And Casey?"

Myrinne gestured away from the camp area, towards the north east, where Raul's group had headed to set the forest ablaze.

I started making my way over there, when I noticed there was a long line of little saplings planted along the length of the battlefield where we'd engaged with the aufhöcker and geisterung the night before.

I counted twelve saplings in total, and I silently wondered how that loss would affect us going forward.

Losing runners and hunters seemed inevitable if we ended up in this kind of conflict.

Would we be able to replenish those reserves as we moved through the clusters scattered throughout the forest?

Then there was also my concern that the majority of our migrating party were men.

Most of them seemed younger, and were perhaps 'unattached' so to speak, but we'd need to start finding spouses for them to procreate with if we were to expand to a sufficient size after settling down.

As I walked over to the large group gathered on the other side of the fallen tree, I found an operation of sorts in apparent progress, and it made for quite the strange scene.

Bianca, for starters, seemed to be cutting into a dead geisterung at the direction of some Kobalt men, while Casey, my new young apprentice, and Evie, seemed to be gathered around one of the untouched corpses, apparently examining it.

As I approached them, however, some Kobalt men moved past me, apparently hauling planks of wood, and as I cast a look across, in the direction from which they'd come, I noticed that Raul seemed to be using his sword, with some attached wooden implements, to cut evenly sized planks of wood out of the massive tree trunk, and there already huge sections missing from it, along its length.

"Nate!"

Bianca dropped her dagger to the ground as she darted towards me.

"You're okay!" she called, leaping towards me, and I caught her as she hugged me tightly.

"I can't believe you let me sleep through all this. I could have stabbed these bastards to death!" she exclaimed, and I snickered at her.

"You need to learn some speed and strength skills before you can do any fighting," I chastised her, and she frowned.

"Yeah, well Casey is making me cut up corpses, and it sucks!"

I snickered at her again, then pinched her round, rosy cheek.

"Well, it'll help you work on your cutting skills," I countered, and she pouted a little.

"Fine! But if I don't get some lovin' later to make up for all this, I'm gonna be pissed."

She put her hands on her hips, and I ruffled her hair playfully, before sending her back to work.

"I see you finally got her under control," I said, gesturing to Bianca as I approached Casey.

"It's easy. Apparently if you say, Nate would be pretty impressed if you could skin fifty dead geisterung, she just jumps right to it."

I snickered a little, as Evie shot me a glum look.

"I'm not sure she deserves the chance you're giving her," she said, her tone a little worried, and I frowned.

"I don't think she's a bad person... she just needs the right kind of influence," I countered, and Evie sighed.

As I studied the group, however, I realized that they were extracting the core from the dead creature.

"How many cores did you get so far?"

"Nineteen. Without Gunter it was pretty tough finding them at first, but I think we're getting them much more easily now," she explained. "There's just four more over there, and we're done with the dead in this area."

"What happened to Gunter?" I asked.

"He was wounded. He's fine, but he needed to rest."

I cast a quick look at the Lucia, then smiled.

"Is she the one locating them?" I asked, and Casey nodded, scowling a bit as I gloated over her.

As I concentrated on Lucia, however, I noted that the ability to find cores wasn't really a new skill, but rather, one that seemed to branch from the already existing sensory one.

The girl seemed to shift uncomfortably under my gaze, and Evie shot me a disapproving look.

"She's an orphan now. We shouldn't be exploiting her just because she has a useful ability," she said, and I snickered.

"You seem to be mistaking her intentions. She has her eyes on the monster that killed her father," I replied, and as Evie glanced at the girl, she frowned.

"You have your whole life ahead of you. Don't throw it away chasing revenge," she offered, and the girl scowled at her.

"I don't intend to let her throw anything away, but she wants to get stronger, and we're in an opportunity to humor her."

Evie frowned, and I suddenly remembered the desire she expressed to have a family of her own.

Maybe I could use that?

After all, the child would need a guardian when I was busy.

I turned my attention however, to Raul.

"What's up with the lumber work?" I asked.

"Apparently, he did some wood work in his earth-days," Casey said. "It was his idea to turn the sword into a plane tool, and cut some of that wood off into planks."

"That could be useful," I said, and she nodded.

"Gisela said we might be able to make a few more carts before we leave."

"If the danger really is past, it might not hurt to stay here a few days," I said, and Casey nodded in agreement.

"Bianca is working on getting furs off of the corpses, but if we can get some of the meat off of them as well, then we might actually have something that the Kobalt value for trade when we start hitting the clusters."

"True. From what I gather, we were basically depending on good will up till now," I said, and Casey nodded.

"When you're done handling stuff over here, come get me. I wanna take my new apprentice over here for a little run," I said.

"A run?" she asked.

"Yeah. I'll need to build up her strength and speed physically until her core is developed enough to use armor. Plus, I don't wanna waste the cores from the run Francesca and I made last night."

Casey nodded as Evie shot me a disapproving look, and I offered her an apologetic glance, as I turned and headed back to the camp.

As I spotted the little stream from earlier, however, I took a quick look at my own armor, which was stained and streaked with dry blood, and I quickly decided to make a little detour.

I removed several of the pieces and gave them a quick wash, before washing away some of the sweat and filth from my skin as well, but as I splashed the water across my skin, a curious sound echoed down to me, from further up the stream.

Was that... a girl's voice?

It sounded like little, muted sobs, punctuated by little whimpers, and as I followed the sound, my chest piece and arm guards bunched in my hand, I moved upstream until I spotted a little armored figure, stooped down under a tree, and wiping at her eyes as she stared at the little, gurgling stream.

That armor... Jeannie was wearing that set, wasn't she?

I dismissed my armor piece, and stowed it away in my satchel as I approached her tentatively.

"Hey," I called, and she quickly wiped at her eyes, as she scrambled up.

"I'm sorry," she said, and I tilted my head at her.

"For what?"

"Everyone's busily taking care of what's needed..." she began, and I raised a hand to stop her.

"We've been through hell last night; if you need a moment to gather yourself, you shouldn't feel bad. Or hesitate to ask," I said.

She let out a sigh, as I gestured to a little rock beside the stream, and she nodded, as she took a tentative seat.

"We lost a lot of people last night," she said.

"We did," I concurred.

"Do you know their names?"

"Only a few," I replied, and she sighed.

"I only knew one; Lars. I found out his name less than an hour before he died. When those bear things came at us, I charged in following Francesca, but... I don't know how she can be so fierce and composed in the face of so much craziness. I killed one, I think, when everything just started spinning out of control around me... and just I froze. I couldn't move

"It was your first battle," I offered. "It's natural for you to be overwhelmed."

She shook her head.

"While I was frozen in place, one of those things leapt at me, and Lars lunged at it and knocked it over, putting himself in the way... it tore him to shreds before I could stab it. My lack of ability cost us a life; and now my hands just won't stop shaking."

She broke down, and I took her hands into mine, and steadied them, before putting an arm around her shoulder.

"That's what we're here for. We can depend on each other to deal with things when they become too much. You don't need to deal with this by yourself, okay?"

She nodded, resting her hand on top of mine, as we sat there for a bit.

"I'll be fine," she said. "I'm sure you're probably needed."

"It's fine. You can take as long as you need," I offered. "And if you need anything, please don't hesitate to ask."

I gave her one more reassuring squeeze, before turning to leave and heading back to the camp, but when I got there, I spotted Cameron with the princess, and I suddenly noted that her brow was wrinkled with concern.

As I headed over to her side, however, I realized that the princess seemed to be practically glowing with excitement.

Mine Götze! It brings me joy to see you unharmed, she said, and I nodded, regarding her change in mood with some curiosity, as I turned to Cameron.

"The last time you had that look on your face, you thought we were gonna be forced to have an impregnation ceremony," I said. "What happened?"

"Come with me," she said, and the princess followed us excitedly, as we moved to a portion of the princess' sleeping area which was out of sight from the main camp.

There were two of the princess' companion-servants there, and she dismissed them, as Cameron released my hand, and took a deep breath, before lifting up her shirt.

"Holy shit... is that-?" I began, and she nodded, as I stared at what could only be a subtle but undeniable baby bump.

"I- I don't know how it's possible, but-" she began, but I quickly cut her off as I swept her off her feet, lifting her up by the hips, and nuzzling my face into her stomach as I spun her around a bit.

She giggled at the stimulation, and as the dizziness eventually floored me, I cushioned her fall with my own body, and we collapsed into a bundle on the soft, padded earth.

But even as she laughed, that worried look reappeared on her face.

"You don't need to worry; your core is just accelerating your pregnancy," I said, and she bit her lip.

"Are you sure? What if something's wrong," she began, and I shook my head as I leaned in to brush my fingers against the little bump, and caress the spot gently.

"I promise you, nothing's wrong. It's just like the accelerated healing, and accelerated everything else," I explained, and she sighed, relaxing a bit.

The princess took a seat beside Cameron, the movement performed with an almost practiced grace, and she too placed a hand, beside mine, over the bump.

"Wunderschönen," she muttered, before moving her hand to my face.

The child will be as beautiful as you, my king. Enjoy the moment with your goddess, she finished, as she stood, and left us to our own devices.

I pulled Cameron to me, and kissed her lips.

"You are happier than I expected you to be," she began, and I snickered a little.

"I guess I am. Maybe it's something I never thought I'd have, much less with someone whose company I enjoy as much as yours," I said.