As the journey continued – this time on the wagon with Tom – it went a lot more peacefully.
The 5 people peacefully made their way down the road towards the next village – they still had four more villages before arriving at {Moonlesh Mountain Town}. The plan was to check out the adventurers guild within the 3 villages as well as the two in order to get some information and kill some boredom. This meant they still had this next village to go before they could have some fun – it sadly meant they may need to part from Tom at that point depending on what route they decide to go.
Although they were still in the hilly planes they were decidedly closer to the {Evergreen Forest} which was a polite way of saying that horrid had already invaded the forest and built forntieer villages. The forest wasn’t particularly as dense as in other places nor did the trees reach the legendary heights the girls had heard about from their elven companions but it was still fairly wooded and was getting denser the further down the path they went. If they didn’t have Eel they may need to worry about ambushes.
As for if someone could sneak up on Eel? Well if they wanted to they likely had duo-coloured hair and a sword larger than a grown man (as well a habit of genocide).
The little lovers duo happily sat on either side of Tom sharing their adventurers together over the years. Unsurprisingly the one with the most words was Eel. In comparison he just sat there jollily while nodding along. Occasionally giving them some input and his own thoughts to the pair. As for Fuka and Lyada – they were simply sitting on the back of the wagon with Lyada just looking around while not paying attention to much. She was mostly just watching the clouds pass by with Fuka beside her looking far more vigilant than the others. Since everyone else was ‘busy’ the duty of lookout obviously fell onto her.
Much to her anxious displeasure absolutely nothing happened after they ran into Tom; that was until they discovered that there was a masked dirt covered man in leather armour that seemed to think they didn’t notice. When he spotted them he jumped down from the tree he was viewing them from and ran in the general direction towards the village. In truth many of them didn’t – it actually took Eel pointing it out for them to even realize that there were tracks beside the road when they pulled up. Of course, the only reason he was allowed to escape alive was because Eel was talking and doesn’t like to leave things.
Running from an animal after spotting it is the most dangerous move you can make afterall – Eel being no different takes it as a challenge of their authority. There is something about someone running away from her that just pushes all the right buttons. It could be said that that man would have been dead if Tom hadn’t picked up the four girls.
“Must’ve been a scout or something to be so good at running away yet leave such a mess fufufu~!” <Eel>
“Ya dee realize that the only reason ya noticed ‘im was that yer literally the bane of their existence?” <Fuka>
“Real question should be why was there a scout here…” <Emily>
“Could perhaps be just because the village is worried about attacks from the south?” <Tom>
“Sure everyone know Elves violent.” <Lyada>
“Eh~ they seem more like the beehive type. Won’t do anything if you don’t act rashly but will be the cause of your suffering if you hit their nest – horrid most definitely attacked the nest.” <Eel>
“Hmm…” <Lyada>
“Well, either way, not like we can’ deal with some bandits even if they show up…” <Fuka>
“I could also just destroy the village as well while I’m at it – daring to spy on this mighty dragon fufufu~!” <Eel>
“That is… Ill advised, Eel.” <Tom>
“Hmpf, what are they gonna do about it, point their pitchforks at me? Shouldn’t be as rude as to spy on me while I’m just going on my way – they’re lucky I didn’t kill the scout.” <Eel>
“Makes sense to me…” <Emily>
“Reasonable.” <Lyada>
“Whatever… *Sigh*” <Fuka>
“… Can you not do it?” <Tom>
“Fine~.” <Eel>
With that as the deciding factor a village got the chance to remain on the map… Well no really accurate maps except the military ones of the elves had such details on them so it just had the chance to remain on local maps. Three of the girls quickly forgot about that whole situation but the other two looked concerned and tense at the prospect of either an attack from the forest, village or bandits.
On the other hand Eel was excited to finally kill something!
Ever since she killed those wolves who were apparently highly respected species in the local area, everything else never dared to appear in front of her. Possibly also because there were quite a lot of reptiles and insects around – both of which had higher senses than a wolf so would likely be able to realize how terrifying the little girl actually was. That was something most humans couldn’t realize!
Their peaceful life soon returned and it didn’t take much longer for the group to come upon the village; letting Fuka and Tom calm down promptly. There were no sudden attacks from bandits and with no signs of defenses it would seem like the village had merely been on high alert for attacks from outside. Perhaps it could be something as simple as just some animals having been hungry lately so began attacking villagers.
Wheeling into the village nothing seemed wrong so Fuka & Lyada did the same as usual – jumping from the back to gather some information and water.
Meanwhile the three sitting at the front continued to do just that – Emily had already nodded off while hugging her book and Eel’s spear. On the other hand Eel eyes up all the villagers around before something surprising happened; a man with brown hair and a decent looking face along with mismatched leather armour darted towards them with a hatchet and simple wooden shield.
Alongside him were some villagers with angry faces.
“Let go of those children and come with us while we wait for the authorities or pay with your life bandit scum!” <’Decent’ Man>
“What?” <Tom+Eel>
