You can Go on Living; Humans are Confusing

So, apparently, the tale of the Crimson Serpent was ill-fitted for this situation. Perhaps they, too, were familiar with the story and realized playing the Serpent’s role wasn’t in their best interest. After rescuing the children, would she feel inclined to kill them? Moonlight Guardian hadn’t thought that far ahead. She doubted she’d go out of her way to kill anybody, but she wouldn’t hesitate if anyone got in her way; previous instance notwithstanding—that was a technical issue, not a moral one.

Her initial diplomatic attempt had failed, and they had denied her access. Not that they could prevent her entry; she didn’t care how tall their walls were or how square their stones. It didn't take more than a spry jog around the city to reveal an unguarded stretch of wall—the wall was mostly unguarded. From there, she flew herself over, ignoring the chill breeze, and dropped into an unpopulated area, unnoticed.

Like many yutsuukitsuu proficient in flying, she seldom performed the stunt. Mainly, because it was an energy-intensive feat. In Moonlight Guardian’s case, she felt it not only left her exposed but also deprived of the agility pushing off the ground provided. So, unlike Indigo, who would have jumped at the chance to learn aerial combat maneuvers, she viewed it strictly as a utility.

At any rate, getting into the city was never the real obstacle. The children could be anywhere, and she was certain it wouldn’t take long for those soldiers to show up if she started tearing through dwellings. She had failed to get the gate guard’s assistance. But maybe if she concealed her identity, she would be more successful. Leaving up her white hood had been enough to fool Sleepy, so perhaps it would fool the rest of the city as well.

Now that she had entered the humans’ residence proper, an onslaught of discordant sounds of no particular origin and smells of smoke, animal refuse, cooked meat, and swamp gas, all strung together in a heretical symphony, assaulted her senses, and her feet protested the unforgiving hard stone under her feet. Why would they subject themselves to this? Well, if things went well, she wouldn’t be here long.

So, across the cold stone streets, with the same method used at the gate, she solicited the humans throughout the establishment. That was, pointing to the children's portraits and sending out telepathic requests for information. Though often ignored, this generated diverse responses, from complete confusion to terror and even a few shoulder shrugs. The common theme: they were all beyond useless, and not just because of the communication barrier.

Were they all misleading her? She couldn’t know for certain if the children had been brought here, but if these humans’ responses were any indicator, they hadn’t been. Or was there some other explanation? She couldn’t imagine the people were ignorant of what happened within their own tribe. Or could they? Everyone seemed contemptuous of their fellow tribesmen, inconvenienced by their bumbling about in countless masses. This was unheard of in yutsuukitsuu societies. In fact, she doubted that ever in the world’s history had this number of yutsuukitsuu assembled in one place. The mere thought was disorienting.

Perhaps they didn’t know what was happening in their settlement. In such a large tribe, she couldn't keep up with everything. The Elder had once told her she shouldn’t assume so much. If memory served, that comment had also regarded humans. At any rate, this human city was her best lead. She just needed to get back in there and ask some more people. Or maybe try a different tactic?

As Moonlight Guardian pondered this, wearing a grove into the bottom of her mask, a commotion broke out. Well, more commotion—the city was in a constant state of chaos with all the noise. A section of street cleared out, as if by a gust of wind, and she saw what looked to be those soldiers from before—hard to tell, what with the uniform armor—and beside them was the barrel-chested man leading the pack. He pointed right at her.

There was only a handful, but they wasted no time in flanking and assaulting her with those human barks. It didn’t take a genius to know they were unhappy about her sneaking into the city, but she was unsure what action they demanded. They pointed their spears at her but otherwise refrained from attacking.

Her body grew tense as the anger from before returned with a passion, coiling down ready to strike; however, she refrained from immediate action. A crowd of onlookers had swept back in to look as the two sides squared off. Her initial instinct warned they had come to aid their proper warriors. On the contrary, they offered no help and seemed indifferent to the outcome. A hooded red-haired man even appeared amused by the entire exchange. The battle finally began, when the point man broke rank and tried to grab her with a gauntleted hand. This was a bridge too far. She pulled him off balance and kicked his legs out from beneath him, sending him sprawling to the ground, face first.

It was on. There were four of them against Moonlight Guardian. Once they attacked, she felt no hesitation in meeting their force in kind. Their spears found only empty air. For someone as adroit in redirecting attack as she, the spear was a terrible choice of weapon, and once the distance was closed, there was little recourse. She trampled the prone guard—not that it was more than an insult—as she closed in on the first spearman she beheld. With a swift twist of the wrist, she diverted his spear thrust, and once near enough to see the man’s eyes dilate, she pulled the bone-white sword at her side, drawing it across his belly.

The two standing guards backed away as their comrade collapsed to the ground, guts spilling out. The prone guard fell back to the ground after attempting to stand and scrambled backward, leaving his spear behind. Moonlight Guardian turned to push the attack but hesitated when she saw the soldiers making space, unable to steady their spears.

A scream rose from the crowd of onlookers, and Moonlight Guardian spared a sidelong glance to see humans fleeing in every direction, pulling up their skirts and securing their headwear on their hasty retreat. One stalwart individual lingered, but he too pulled his hood down and fled with the last to disperse.

The prone guard collected his wits enough to grab a curved horn at his waist and sounded a loud blast. The sound was intolerable, and Moonlight Guardian pressed her hands to her ears. Was this some kind of unorthodox attack? She readied her sword, but the man regained his feet and took off running, making a squeaky sound. The other soldiers retreated as well, keeping their spears on her.

How should she respond? If they were beasts, without a doubt, she would finish them. But these were sentient creatures—at least, she assumed so. True, she had never had reservations about chasing down aggressive humans. But this was different. That was her territory, and this time she was the intruder.

Once again, the decision made itself, as many decisions had that day, when a band of soldiers rushed in, spears at the ready. Moonlight Guardian counted about 20, and she heard more clanking just out of sight.

Well, if they were trying to overwhelm her, she needed to make quick work of the soldiers before her. Once again, she turned the spears with ease, and the soldiers found it impossible to attack her without striking their comrades as well. She dropped two soldiers. Perhaps her caution wasn’t warranted.

Another cry went out and all the soldiers dropped their spears and drew short swords at their belts. One of them went running, but none of the others paid him any mind. The remaining warriors began to circle her, but she wasn’t about to allow that.

She slew another soldier, cutting outside of their attempts to flank her, but with greater difficulty. Thanks to their shorter weapons, multiple soldiers could engage her at short range. Still, they were not particularly skilled. As long as she could keep from being flanked, this wouldn’t be too challenging.

For the next dozen exchanges, the human fighters waged a battle of attrition, suffering from one casualty after another. However, due to the change in tactics, she couldn’t land any one-hit kills like before, needing to deflect attacks and position herself out of harm’s way. Still, if they thought she would tire; they were mistaken.

While that was true, it was also true she didn’t understand human combat tactics, as noted when more soldiers approached from the opposite direction. Disengaging, she turned and felt a spike of shock surge through her. Her chest tightened as she observed these soldiers were fully clad in armor—no exposed flesh here—and they carried shields. For a moment, she wasn’t even sure if these were human or some kind of metal creature. However, after a metal warrior sounded another series of grunts, she assumed it was the former.

Her sword drew to her side as she decided on a course of action. She had gotten sloppy and was now pinned down on both sides. She could continue hacking through the original lot of soldiers, but then the metal-clads would cut her down. Or she could try pushing through the metal soldiers—there was only a single line of them. If she could take one of them out, it would be easy to slip out. However, there wasn’t much vulnerable surface area. It appeared the eyes were unprotected, but perhaps it was better not to assume. Even if unguarded, it would be a hard target to hit while avoiding other attackers.

Of course, there was the obvious answer of jumping or flying over their heads. Why hadn’t she thought of that first? She kicked off the ground, propelling herself into the air, but fell flat when something grabbed her by the tail. A darting glance revealed a grasping hand reaching out from a window, holding fast. She might have felt a great sense of indignation by this clear personal violation, if not a heartbeat later a zipping sound flew right past where her head had been.

In that context, she was more than willing to appraise the figure whose hand grabbed her tail. Inside, the building was dark, but even under their hood, this person’s red hair stood out as they gestured for her to follow.

This person had just saved her life, intentional or not, and somehow seemed familiar. So she decided to trust them and followed. She hopped through the window into the dark room, but enough light was present to make out the figure; they beckoned her to follow. Of course, she kept her sword at the ready. Can’t be too careful, and this place had already proven full of surprises.

Boards creaked as they descended a flight of stairs before reaching cold dusty stone. The figure turned to Moonlight Guardian and made a strange gesture, grabbing and then pulling his hand back, baffling her. Eventually, the hooded figure sighed and grabbed her cloak, pulling it off. The action hadn’t registered as an attack; hence why she didn’t retaliate. Before she could offer a protest, however, they tossed a black cloak at her. Her cloak was white, as were most of the items she wore.

Fortunately for this well-intended interloper, she realized their intention and the benefits of changing her appearance. She donned the black cloak, and the figure led her to the other side of the musty basement as she heard the soldier stumbling into furniture on the upper level. She wondered what good a disguise would do if they were cornered down here. Perhaps it had been a brash decision to follow this stranger.

However, the sunlight dispelled this notion as it poured in from a door in the ceiling. Before she could object, she was pulled through, her eyes adjusting to daylight once again. The red-haired figure set the door back in place and pulled her along. She might have felt inclined to oppose, but by this point, the swift shifting circumstances had left her disoriented. Seeing as this red-haired man, as it would turn out, had no immediate means to harm her, she allowed him to escort her across the street and into another building.

Passing through the rectangular door, the den had the immediate aroma of cooking, with the scent of meat, vegetables, and spices she couldn’t place, as well as the odious vapors of alcohol. There were a number of humans here as well—gratefully, none in armor. They sat at elevated tables, much like she had seen in the Elder’s dwelling. She couldn’t tell, but it appeared people at different tables were unfamiliar with each other. Some were eating, some were drinking, and many were doing both.

The red-haired man barked something at a heavy-set balding man behind a long, solid oak table. He raised an eyebrow until her escort flipped one of those shiny metal objects she had seen visiting travelers carry. The man caught it and walked back through a door behind the long table.

The red-haired man led her to a table in the back corner and gestured to a chair. This was bizarre. She tenuously grasped what was happening before, but now the nut had fallen off the tree, and rolled off a cliff… and into a ravine. As she took the seat, she saw through a window the soldiers spilling from the dark room she had just emerged. They were in clear disarray, with soldiers running off this way and that. One of them came bursting through the door. Moonlight Guardian was ready, but her new companion put a subtle hand on her shoulder.

The soldier grunted, and the occupants shrugged, gave open-palmed gestures, or just shook their heads. The guard seemed satisfied, and he ran off.

The issue was resolved for now, but she would keep her origin under the hood from now on. Of course, that would make locating the children difficult…

With the immediate danger passed, her pulse slowed and the finer processing of her frontal cortex came back online, and she recognized the person sitting across from her as the red-haired man from the crowd of onlookers. He rested his head on his hand with a grin she didn’t much care for; it reminded her of a child up to something nefarious. Of course, yutsuukitsuu rarely saw the facial expressions of non-children, so perhaps this was unfair.

His hair was cut short and spiky and looked well-maintained. He smelled of… something, pungent, but not necessarily unpleasant. If she had a notion for human characteristics, she might have noticed he was a bit more tan than the others she had encountered, who were by and large fairly pale. However, the one thing that unsettled her was how he kept staring at her with those appraising, dark amber eyes.

Smiles eventually broke the silence with a string of unintelligible sounds. Moonlight Guardian couldn’t help but let out a terse sigh. If there was one thing she was growing tired of, it was these nonsense noises.

He must have heard, as his grin turned apologetic, letting out a laugh—at least that she understood. He put a finger across his lips and looked to the corner of his eyes. An idea must have occurred to him as his finger straightened. On his open palm, he drew his finger in strange patterns. She didn’t understand, but this was by far more intelligible than the grunts humans seemed so fond of.

Her stare intensified as she tried to discern his meaning. This was only the second person she had found who had tried communicating with her, so she wasn’t about to squander it, even if he was suspect.

Despite his best efforts, Moonlight Guardian was still perplexed, so Smiles tried a more direct method. He removed from his coat a piece of leaf-like bark, unlike any she had ever seen—where did he find that?—and a piece of charcoal. In the corner, he drew a picture. Her ears perked up. It was only three strokes, but it appeared to depict a yutsuukitsuu. Did he have information??

She pulled out the pictures she had drawn. Honesty, they were not much better than what Smiles had drawn, but how many yutsuukitsuu could there be in the city? He cast a cursory glance over the drawings before resting his head on his hand and grunting again. Abruptly, he cut off with a self-deprecating smile.

What followed was a series of gestures. He pointed to the picture and turned his palm up. Was he saying he didn’t know where they were? Then he pointed to himself, then her, and finally the pictures of the children. Telepathically, she frowned hard at him, and he must have felt it because his smile fell away. Undeterred, he tried again, pointing to himself, then to her, and finally to the picture of the children, but added a large circling motion with his finger.

The grunting was annoying, but these gestures frustrated her. With grunting, no effort was required, but with these gestures, it took a great deal of mental strain to not understand. What she wouldn’t give to have Indigo or the Elder here to translate. Indigo…

No! She couldn’t get distracted. Clearly, this guy didn’t know where the children were, but he was offering something. What she needed was somebody to help her find the children. Someone who could decode these cryptic squawks. As she thought this, she realized Smiles was nodding at her. Wait? Was she thinking out loud again? Did he understand her?? She didn’t hesitate to ask.

He looked at her, pinch-lipped, but he hesitantly nodded his head. Her thoughts didn’t seem clear to him, so she tried asking him to hold up three fingers. He looked at his hand, confused. So he could kind of understand her, but only a little. Still, this was a major improvement on where things were a moment ago. And more importantly, he seemed willing to help her find the children!

But wait. Why was he so willing to help her? Without question, Moonlight Guardian wasn’t an expert on human culture, but from what she had seen, being helpful wasn’t the norm. Then again, these humans were unpredictable. They had sacked her village. The gate guards had seemed unamiable, but not exactly hostile. The townspeople had been more or less indifferent to her presence, with a few noteworthy exceptions—though she thought she was in disguise, she now suspected many of them recognized her heritage. Now this grinning red-haired man appeared friendly.

The yutsuukitsuu were not homogenous in thought, but certain things were consistent. For instance, if your tribe was hostile toward another tribe, you would be hostile towards them. Perhaps you wouldn’t attack on sight of an individual member, but hiding them away while the tribe was after them would be unthinkable.

But that didn’t matter. This was the only opportunity to find the children she had come across. Whatever his reasons, she would just have to be careful. She nodded her acceptance of his aid, just as the balding man brought over food and drink.

Smiles spoke to another person on the street, the commotion from earlier nowhere to be seen. Moonlight Guardian shifted her watchful eyes, scanning for a resurgence of the guard, but nobody here seemed aware there had ever been an intruder. Such blissful ignorance would never occur in the Two Trees, and she suspected it might be a ruse to catch her off guard.

His current target of inquiry was a man exchanging those round shines for red fruit. Moonlight Guardian guessed he was like the traveling merchant that came through the village, though why they would perform such a nonsensical ritual to distribute provision within their own settlement nonplussed her. It required dozens of them to dole out very specific supplies, generating a lot of noise with them all yelling out as if their inventory wasn’t clearly on display. Surely, the notion of keeping such staples in a central location with tribesmen accessing them as needed wasn’t lost on them; this bizarre ritual was far more complex.

Regardless, Smiles mingled through the cumbersome display with grace and proved far better at asking around than she. That made sense; they were of the same species and could communicate. That said, he hadn’t been more successful; nobody knew anything; these people seemed oblivious to everything. For her part, she kept out of sight. No need to draw attention to herself and suffer a repeat of the earlier transgressions. The cloak given to her, while appearing black in the dark, was closer to a faded gray, and didn’t seem out of place. Few paid her any heed and the few that did were soon redirected by a few clicks from Smiles.

She assumed this merchant, too, like those before, would exchange some amiable communications but reveal no information. However, the man’s eye flashed recognition, and he spoke with an interest unseen in the other’s. After several scores of heartbeats, they concluded their communications and Smiles exchanged a shiny for a round fruit.

He turned his attention back to Moonlight Guardian, giving her a smile… Well, a broader smile. She suspected he couldn’t straighten his mouth if he tried. His face coughed more of those sounds as he ushered her over to an unoccupied stretch of street. Though his mouth was moving, he didn’t seem to expect her to understand, as indicated by a lack of response to her confusion; Smiles had proven quick to recognize her thoughts of confusion, assuming he was paying attention.

Once they were out of the way of traffic, he squatted down and gave her a thumbs up. She recognized it as a gesture for good—they used it in the Two Trees as well—and assumed he had found some useful information. She stared with eager eyes, and his mouth opened but then closed with a wry smile.

He pulled another piece of paper from his cloak and drew a large, jagged, and oddly shaped blob. The drawing left her shaking her head, but there was a sense of familiarity to it. He then drew a dot at the bottom and four strange symbols above it. She had no idea of their meaning, but they reminded her of the symbols throughout the Elder’s den.

He tapped on the dot with the charcoal, pointing to both her and himself. Then he drew another dot closer to the top, with additional symbols above it. Recollection scratched at the edge of her consciousness, and she struggled to recall. Next to the dot, he drew a picture of a yutsuukitsuu—the same three-stroke drawing—and drew an arrow from the picture to the second dot. He taped the illustration and then the second dot.

Now she remembered! This crude drawing resembled those land drawings the Elder had shown her before departing on her sojourn with Dawn! From there, understanding quickly followed. Smiles indicated they were at the first dot, which was on the lower half of the sketch, and the children were at the second dot, which was on the upper half.

If memory served, the Plains tribe was located closer to the center of the drawings, which would make an extensive journey to the children. But wait a moment. The children had been abducted no more than 5 days or a week at most. It had taken her close to three moons to travel half that distance with Dawn. Even by herself traveling at full speed, she doubted she could cover that distance in a moon’s span, and without question, she could travel much faster than these humans.

Was Smiles lying to her?? Even humans couldn’t be that vile, but there was no way it could be true. She mirrored his gesture, agreeing they were both at the first dot. But pointing to the second mark and the yutsuukitsuu sketch, she shook her head. Some gestures were indeed universal, and the two had discovered several of them: a nod meant yes, a head shake meant no, and we have already mentioned the thumbs up.

He almost frowned, but his eyebrows rebounded. He drew a second picture of the children closer to where they were, as shown by the first dot, and another arrow pointing upwards. When she failed to respond, staring blankly at the drawing, he sketched several more yutsuukitsuu, all in closing proximity to the lower dot, with arrows pointing from one yutsuukitsuu to the next.

She got it. They were moving to the second dot but were not yet there. Well, in that case, she had no time to lose! She would leave immediately. Giving a telepathic thanks, she rose and was about to take off when she felt him grab her cloak. She turned to find him frowning.

Of course, this was his cloak. It made sense he would want it back. It was too big for her, anyway. His frown deepened as she went to undo the metallic twisting clasp holding it in place. Considering he never frowned, this was a strong expression to Moonlight Guardian’s mind. Did he want something else?

He shot his finger between them both and then gave a sweeping gesture with his finger. She had learned from past observations that he used this to indicate going somewhere and interpreted it as, “let’s go together.”

Moonlight Guardian stared, raising an eyebrow and projecting the sentiment. She could believe someone might consider helping her discover the children’s location, even if they were human. But this was far from simple aid. This would be a massive commitment. Could he just up and leave his tribe? Well, she shouldn’t assume to understand human culture, but even still…

She shook her head. There must be an ulterior motive, and even if not, he would only slow her down. He was undeterred, however.

With an open palm, he gestured to the people out and about and then to himself with his thumb and nodded his head. He pointed to her, again gesturing to the crowd, and, with heavy-lidded eyes, shook his head. She understood his meaning; he meant he could speak to humans, and she could not. The implication: he was an invaluable resource.

A valid point, she thought, wearing that chin groove deeper. It might even justify the slower pace. Still, what would he gain? Would he want some kind of compensation?

Gesturing to himself, he then pointed to the second dot on the map. He followed up with the “going” gesture. Moonlight Guardian understood that meant he was going or would go to the second location. He repeated the series of gestures, indicating she would go to the second location. He finished a third round of gestures but added a motion that looked like he was brushing something off his clothing, almost like he was brushing her away.

Did he mean he would go without her? That seemed pointless. Unless… He was already going to that location, even before he encountered her. That was strangely coincidental. But in that case, it would be no great service for him. She still assumed there was a reason he wished to accompany her, but given the context, chances were it wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle.

However, even if it came without expectations, could she even tolerate his help? It went without saying, but Moonlight Guardian DID NOT like humans. The idea of traveling with one was unpleasant in itself. And with the slower travel speed, was it even an option? But Smiles had a point; she couldn’t communicate with humans, and even if she could, they were liable to become hostile. Having someone to interact with humans could be the difference between finding the children or not. So, as much as the prospect disgusted her, she gestured to the two of them traveling and nodded.