With the Minos villagers helping transport the barrels of beer, Akira and the others all took up positions around them to help protect the precious liquid cargo from any harm.
As they walked through the dark stone tree forest Akira continued to inspect the Minos that were walking near him. Almost all the Minos group that offered to come with them were young men and as he inspected each of them, he saw that their bodies all showed signs of scars from old wounds.
When he compared them to Zundar who was walking next to him, their bodies were severely lacking in muscle.
The female Minos villager saw Akira’s discreet staring and decided to walk over to him after saying a few words to one of the young men pushing a wheelbarrow.
She held her hand out to Akira and said, “Spearia.”
Zundar scratched his head and said, “I think that is her name.”
Akira grabbed her large hand, which was smooth and not as rough as he expected, and shook it while slowly saying, “AKIRA.”
Spearia cocked her head to the side and slowly mouthed the name a few times before saying, “aKEeYra…”
“Close enough,” said Akira.
With a nod of her head, Spearia walked away happily and returned to walk with the other Minos villagers.
Their walk through the stone forest was uneventful as the Minos knew the forest well and were able to exit the forest only a short distance away from where the ashy hill was being worked on by several dozen marines and even more skeleton pirates who had been hard at work digging into the hill and erecting an earthen redoubt with its walls supported by the thick stone trees that had been cut down.
Another group of marines on top of the hill sweating as they tried to finish carrying several ballistas up the ashy hill to be placed inside the redoubt so that it had enough firepower to hold off any would-be attackers. With the added weight of the ballista they were carrying, the ash was making the process even harder as their legs sunk deep into the ash with each step they took.
Spearia and the other Minos’ faces all relaxed slightly when they saw this. It confirmed that Akira had not lied to them.
“Come with us and see our ships,” said Akira motioning to Spearia and the other Minos.
Zundar translated his words to them and they nodded their heads and continued to follow them up the ashy hill. The Minos villagers had little to no problem with the ash as their sturdy bodies kept moving up even with the extra weight of the beer barrels.
When they reached the top of the hill they stopped next to one of the redoubts walls that were still being reinforced.
This height allowed them to look out towards the ocean and see the many ships anchored offshore with many smaller whaleboats ferrying people and supplies back and forth from the ships that also were teeming with activity as they were undergoing repairs.
“Unoriedouos. oudidorz,” said Spearia with a nod of her head. The others around her all nodded in agreement.
“They agree that we are not from the central cities and are outsiders that came here on ships. I guess they are relieved that we are not part of the conflict between the two factions,” said Klyn.
“Zundar translated this for me. Other ships came to this land that had dangerous people known as Demigods. The Minos really need to be careful if they meet them as more often than not they will kill someone from the demon race before talking to them. Even if you kill them they will reappear a day later,” said Akira.
Spearia and the other Minos all listened closely to Zundar’s explanation and then began to chatter with each other excitedly at a speed that was too fast for either Zundar or Klyn to understand.
Spearia turned to Zundar once again and said, “Winodescridus. Estoei.”
“They have heard of such people from old tales passed down in ancient scrolls.”
With the help of the Minos, they were able to unload all their purchased beer near the shoreline for the sweating sailors to transport back to the ships.
With their task done and a few more words of goodwill shared with each other, the Minos waved them goodbye and disappeared into the stone forest returning to their village.
The marines and sailors seeing the new barrels full of beer all cheered wildly at seeing them.
“QUARTERMASTER?” shouted Akira looking for someone in the crowd.
“Here!” shouted a werewolf wearing thick glasses and holding an open book in one hand and a feather pen in the other.
“Make sure that these barrels arrive on the ships fully intact. They are to be rationed out with the noon meal. We are far away from home and there is no telling if we can find another friendly village to replenish it if we drink all of it too fast.”
“It shall be done as you say!” said the quartermaster as he flipped several pages and then dipped the feather pen in an ink-pot hanging from his belt before he began to fiercely scribble onto the paper.
“I think we should help them in their conflict. They seem really nice,” said Zundar as they began to walk up the ashy hill once again.
“We can’t just think they are the good people here just from what they have told us. For all we know they could be the aggressors in this conflict. We have to do some more investigation and see what else there is to find around here. If there is another village then we can use both of their stories to see what is true and what is not,” said Akira as he looked at the earthen redoubt that was almost finished.
Klyn nodded, “True. We can’t go headfirst into an old cold war that we have little to no information on.”
“We know that the Minos’ village is inland to the west of this hill but not south or north of us along the shoreline,” said Akira as he looked up and down the shoreline.
“Then let’s go!” said Zundar as he slammed his fists together ready to run north.
“Hold on!” said Akira, putting his hand up to stop Zundar from running off. “The shoreline is too hard to travel on for long. We should use the whaleboats to row up and down the shoreline to get a better look. This way we can scout the area out quicker and we will be less noticeable than if we sent the large ships to do the job.”
“A good idea indeed,” said Klyn.
Akira and the scouting team commandeered several of the whaleboats and began rowing north along the shoreline scanning everything with their sharp eyes as they passed.
An hour had already passed with them finding little difference in the bleak ashy shores and stone forest that covered everything that could be seen.
“How long do you plan to have us row north?” asked Zundar as his muscles bulged and moved the twin oars into the water, sending the boat speeding forward.
Akira looked away from the shore and at the rowers who had been taking turns over the last hour.
“We can head to shore for a short break so everyone can rest and have a meal,” said Akira.
There was a light cheering from those in whaleboats as they turned to the shore and rowed as close as they could get.
Akira was one of the first to hop out onto the ashy shore followed by Zundar, Dolph, and Vilkas.
Fluffball who was still in the boat stopped moving as his ears perked up.
“YAP!” said Fluffball warning everyone of a distant noise coming from the forest.
Everyone paused what they were doing and listened intently. Faint sounds of metal and stone clashing could be heard… and it was getting closer.
Akira motioned for everyone to get out of the whaleboats and form into a defensive position.
The sound of battle grew even louder and they could now hear curses and shouts echoing through the forest in a language that they did not understand.
Two people burst out from the forest, one stumbling from a fresh wound, the other rushing forward using it as a chance to strike a fatal blow severing the wounded man’s head from his body.
Akira watched with a blank face as the blue-skinned skinny man with one sharp blade-like horn jutting out of his forehead shook his sword to remove the blood and sheath it.
The blue-skinned man gave a roar of excitement and when he calmed down his gaze fell on Akira and the other werewolves who were watching him closely.
***
Brumon froze seeing such a large group of warriors only a short distance away from him.
‘Who are they!? I have never seen anyone like them before.’ thought Brumon as his mind raced trying to figure out what to do. ‘Are they potential new allies or enemies?’
As Brumon scanned those on the shore his gaze stopped on Zundar and his expression turned into one of disgust which was quickly masked by a smile as he quickly looked away from him and looked at the black-armored warrior in the center of the group.
“Honored warrior. Are you the leader of this… group?” asked Brumon forcing himself to ignore Zundar’s presence.
Brumon waited for a reply from the large black armored warrior but there was nothing but silence from him as he turned to the large Minotaur who spoke with another warrior from the unknown demon race.
“He is,” said the large Minos in a rough uncultured accent.
Brumon was sweating slightly wondering why the large Minos was not angry or looking to kill him after what he just did a moment before.
Brumon ignored the Minos man who spoke and directed his attention to the black armored man once again, “Please excuse my unsightly reaction as I was taken over by the excitement of the fight. This fight was a personal matter and I hope that you will not interfere with such a small thing.”
The group of unknown demon race warriors all took note of him not looking at or responding to the Minos man and so the bookish man spoke instead. “We do not intend to start a fight with you.”
Brumon’s face twitched as he tried to keep his smile on his face but it was hard with such barbaric use of the language.
‘Are they like the others?’ Brumon wondered for a second as he looked at the whaleboats before clearing his mind.
“I will now leave…,” said Brumon, wanting to escape quickly.
But there were still formalities that one needed to do to not offend an unknown force and so Brumon saluted them with his raised sword before slowly backing into the forest as he watched the group near the shore to make sure they did not follow him.
***
“What was that?” asked Klyn.
“That was unexpected,” said Akira.
“YAP,” said Fluffball, agreeing with Akira.
“For some reason, I have a feeling that he did not like me,” said Zundar.
