CHAPTER 3: THE MAN FROM STEAK

***The Chicken Tribe’s village…***

The cool fog had just lifted from the village as the criers roused the entire place after their celebrations. The smiths were rekindling the fires on their forges and blooms, while the farmers were heading out to the terrace farms around the chicken tribe’s village. The guards were also going to their respective posts at the village gate, only to find it wide open.

“…”

Exchanging anxious looks, the sentries ran the last few distances to the gate, hoping there’s nothing serious that happened. The drunken revelry that lasted for several of ‘long sleeps’ before made them lower their guard, so they were unsure if their defenses were now compromised.

“If you’re thinking that someone broke through, don’t worry. I’ve been watching it since the start of the long sleep.”

“!!!”

The guards looked around and found a bear-woman sitting cross-legged at the top of their village parapet. She’s the beastwoman who was always with the human chief, and one with a bad temper, Ursura.

“Ah, we worried for nothing,” one of the guards sighed with relief.

Trying to be friendly, the other guard called out to her, “Lady, aren’t you tired from watching that gate? Would you like to take a break for once?”

“Mind your own business, chicken-man!” Ursura countered, “If you’re going to stand on your post, then do it instead of meddling with me!”

Embarrassed by her rudeness, the chicken tribesman silently retreated to his post.

----------

A few distances away from Ursura, and standing right at the foot of the village walls, was the tiger-girl, Teviki. On her hands was a tray of food meant to be the bear-woman’s breakfast. However, as Ursura would not come down, she was forced to stay in her spot for some time now.

“Big Sis Ursura! Please come down, Teviki’s legs are getting tired!”

The bear-woman just ignored her calls. Teviki was close to tears; she was silently sobbing as she shook the pain from her legs and arms…

“Hey, Teviki! Give me that tray; I know you’re tired,” it was the falcon-woman and the new chief of the Chickens, Minahaba. The tiger-girl was relieved to see her and helped in carrying the breakfast tray.

“Big sis Ursura just won’t come down…”

“She’s still there?”

Teviki nodded.

“Did she not go to sleep?”

The little tiger-girl just shook her head.

“Haa…” Minahaba then patted her, “Good girl for bringing this to the bear-woman. You can play now, Teviki!”

At once, the little tiger-girl’s eyes sparkled at the mention of the word ‘play’. Her tail wagged happily as she smiled at Minahaba before running away towards the chicken children nearby. Meanwhile, as for Minahaba, she flew towards Ursura’s spot at the top of the parapet. But, just as she was about to land…

“Lady Ursura!” the mantis-girl, Rishnu, suddenly appeared and scaled the village walls effortlessly. “Has the Chief returned already?”

“That idiot…” Ursura growled under her breath, “I can’t get what he’s thinking! He still hasn’t come back, after making a scene at Chief Minahaba’s ceremony. I’ll really smack his face the moment he appears at this gate!”

“What should we do?” Rishnu’s oozing with anxiety, “He might get into trouble again!”

“Let that idiot suffer!” the bear-woman exclaimed, “He’s old enough to know what he’s getting into.”

“But…”

“Hmm…are you angry that he didn’t bring you along, bear-woman?” at that moment, Minahaba found an opportunity to enter the conversation and she sat down beside Ursura. “By the way, Teviki brought your breakfast; the poor girl’s been waiting for you to come down.”

“Tch! Teviki can be easily bribed!” Ursura grabbed a bread and bit off a huge chunk, “I told her to wake me up when Kuro’s about to do something, yet she was bought by a slice of meat! That’s some guard for you.”

“Haha…well, Teviki’s just a kid, so chill!” the falcon-woman took the jug of milk and poured some for Rishnu, “Besides, the Chief has my permission. After all, he asked me to allow him to take the warriors for a ‘patrol’.”

“Why did you permit him?”

Minahaba averted her eyes from Ursura’s glare, “Haha…he reminded me of the time when we ignored and tried to surprise him about the ‘elder’ thing. I couldn’t refuse his request; I felt guilty for ignoring him, you know?”

“Ah…Chief can be manipulative at times…” Rishnu commented, “I…I like that side of him, a bit…”

Minahaba and Ursura stared at her as the mantis-girl squirmed in embarrassment.

“Rishnu…you like pain, do you?”

“Huh?”

“Nevermind,” the bear-woman shook her head, “I guess each of us have their own preferences. But yeah, I’m telling you Rishnu, if you love your Chief, you’re only setting yourself up to be rejected.”

“H-Huh? Wha-What do you mean?” the mantis-girl’s face was red.

“That sounds like something happened, bear-woman,” Minahaba continued, “You speak as if you had prior experience.”

“Tch. Well, I asked him to be my mate before.”

“Oh my!” Minahaba and Rishnu chorused. They surely didn’t expect that from her.

“But, he rejected my advances.”

“Oh…” Their expectations quickly died down as it had shot up.

“I don’t get it,” Ursura scratched her head, “He did tell me before to never let my past dictate my value as a person, yet he rejected me. I know that for a human like him, I’m already a ‘used’ woman. But why did he say those words? Why did he had to give me hope? It’s painful, you know? I mean, I’m giving my all to him, and yet, he doesn’t even appreciate it.”

There was silence for a few moments as her words sank on her companions. Rishnu and Minahaba could only pat the back of the bear-woman, unsure of what to do. But then, it was the latter who eventually broke the ice…

“Hmm…I don’t think the Chief looks at you that way, you know?”

“I know. You don’t have to repeat it.”

“No, no! I mean, he doesn’t look at you as a ‘used woman’,” the falcon-girl reiterated, “Chief Kuro is not like that.”

“Then how do you explain his actions?”

“Well, why do you think he rejected the leadership of this tribe?” Minahaba countered, “As for me, I think there’s a deeper reason he keeps on doing those.”

“And that is?”

“Haven’t it occurred to you he’s doing those so we won’t be hurt in the end? Chief Kuro is still a human, and from his stories, I could tell that he longs to return to Chersea…to the arms of the girl he truly loves. He’s rejecting us because he knew he won’t stay here, and relying on him would only hurt us.”

“C-Chief Minahaba…you mean, the Chief would leave us sometime later?” there was shock on Rishnu’s face.

“Ah, well, it’s his plan even before we came to his life, you know?” the falcon-woman explained, “That’s why he’s willing to put his life on the line so we could stand on our own as soon as possible. I think the bear-woman knows this as well; she’s with the Chief longer than us.”

The mantis-girl’s head was downcast. She just sat beside Ursura, as both of them sulked.

“Come on, guys! Don’t be sad; I think it’s still a long while before that happens!” Minahaba then grabbed a pair of bread and handed it over to her friends, “Honestly though, I understand your sentiments about the Chief. Even I don’t want to let him go. But see, we got no choice. He belongs to the humans, after all.”

“Tch. Kuro just keeps on doing what he wants without even thinking about what those who love him would feel!” Ursura grabbed the jug of milk from Minahaba’s hands and emptied it in one drink, “That selfish bastard!”

“Well, if the Chief’s going to be selfish about it…” Rishnu suddenly stood up, “Then, I think I’m also selfish myself! I’ll make him realize that it’s much better to stay here, than go back to the human lands!”

“Oho! I like the sound of it, mantis-girl!” Ursura grinned, “You’re pumping confidence back to me! Like him, I’m going to do what I want to do, and he can’t stop me from doing it. He should prepare himself!”

Then they followed that with an evil laugh.

Minahaba could only scratch her head, “I don’t like the sound of this…”

----------

**Kuro**

A few ‘long sleeps’ after Minahaba’s ‘adulting’ ceremony, I found myself standing on the battlefield. My face was full of soot from the burning black powder, and my clothes stiff from the dried blood of our enemies.

“Infantry, advance!”

“Artillery, fire!”

The deafening sounds of explosion from the artillery batteries of our forces drowned the sounds of the battlefield and unnerved a few of our own men. To calm them down, I had to go around and encourage them to keep up their pace.

“Don’t let up! Keep your focus and load those cannons! Remember your training; your friends are relying on your fire!”

The captain of the artillery batteries was quick to back me up, “Load up those balls! We can do this!”

The artillery crews did their best to keep up the pace of our fire, all the while our infantry regiments marched across the field to close in on their enemies—the harpies.

“Fire!” was the thunderous order from the artillery captain. Soon enough, successive muzzle explosions tore through the air once again, pulverizing the harpies’ nests ahead of the marching regiment columns.

“Come on! Keep up the pace; we have the Human Chief with us!”

“Yaaaarrrrrgghhh!!!” the battle cries of our army shook the ground, uplifting the morale of artillery crews. Partly-obscured by the smokes, I watched the advancing chicken tribe infantry increase its marching pace towards the largely-demolished harpies’ nests. After suffering from the storm of solid iron balls, I highly-doubt if the harpies could still put up a struggle.

Well, after that botched ‘leadership’ episode, I realized I need to hurry in my plans to return to Chersea. Don’t get me wrong; I’m concerned about my friends here. However, I’m worried that if I obliged to them, there’d come the time when my situation would end up against me, and I couldn’t simply leave this land.

“…”

And there’s that matter with Ursura as well. Honestly, I don’t know how to deal with what recently happened between us. I mean, it’s not that I’m not attracted to her. She’s a beautiful girl, but I only looked at her as a friend and nothing else.

Maddie’s waiting for me. And I’ll do everything to return to her.

Of course, I wouldn’t back down from my promises to my Beastman friends, either. I told them before that I’d help them free themselves from the abuses of the humans, and that was what I would certainly do! That’s why I had to help them learn to fight back…the sooner the better.

“We’re winning the battle, Human Chief!” the artillery captain was getting excited. “We’re shredding the harpies to pieces!”

I could only smile as I watched the Chicken warriors slowly get used to the sounds of the cannons and musketry fire. That was their greatest impediment in using those weapons effectively; they’re easily-distracted by loud explosions. A few more battles like this, and they could conquer beyond the lands of the Avinus…

Just like what I planned.

But then…

“We got a groundworm from the east coming to this direction!” someone shouted amidst the heavy smoke and noise.

“!!!” Fuck, I didn’t expect this development. I turned to our artillery, “Shoot that bastard with everything we got, hurry!”

“Load up those cannons, quick!” the artillery captain cried out, “Don’t be afraid; we’re the only ones who could destroy that accursed creature!”

Without delay, the crews of the cannons hurried to load up their guns.

“Infantry, keep up your march!” someone shouted that half-plea and half-order, “Let the artillery do its work!”

From the lens of my telescope, I could see some of the terrified faces of the chicken tribe soldiers as the sound of the incoming groundworm reached them. By then, their lines were closing in on the harpies’ nest, and the surviving monsters had already come out to meet them. However, because of their panic, the regiment went on firing as they please, completely losing cohesion and morale.

“For fuck’s sake, don’t freeze up!” I was already shouting, “Don’t bother about the groundworm; you’ll mess up the battle plan!”

“Give that worm our iron! Fire!”

At that moment, the artillery batteries began their fire towards the groundworm. In a short while, seven solid steel cannonballs punched through the body of the monster. We could only watch in awe as the creature got torn to pieces by our lethal projectiles the moment it emerged from the ground. But, though we wanted to celebrate, our problem was still far from over…

“Chief, the 2nd Wing stopped on their march!” Rumia told me, pointing at the unit that remained in their position. The 2nd Wing froze where they stand, and allowed the harpies to surround them. The other wings tried to help, but they were already preoccupied in dealing with the rest of the surviving harpies.

“Damn it! They’d be killed if they got stuck in there! What’s their captain doing?”

“Chief, we should help them!” the dog-girl was getting desperate and was about to go when I suddenly yanked her arm back to where she was standing, “I’ll take over that wing—!!!”

“Stop, I’ll be going instead of you!” I pulled out my sword and was about to step forward, when…

“Hol’ up big boy!”

“!!!”

Someone pulled my sweater and forced me back to my spot. From the corner of my eyes, I saw a man with a grey parka and jeans come forward.

“What are you trying to do, Kuro mah boy?” he said to me, “Trying to be the hero or something?”

“The 2nd Wing stopped moving, as you can see, Loin! They’ll mess up the momentum of our attack!”

“Yes, I still have my eyeballs on their sockets and from the looks of it, they’re chickening out, no pun intended” the man who calls himself ‘Sir Loin’ replied to me, “Now, I’m asking you if you want to play the hero, trying to march to the battlefield even though you’re the general of this army.”

“And what would you like me to do? Watch those guys get torn apart by those harpies?”

“What would you think will happen if the general gets taken out then, Kuro mah boy?”

“Ugh…Chief? Are you still going to talk?” it was Rumia, “The 2nd Wing is about to be surrounded.”

“Rumia!” I pointed towards the right flank of our formation, “Tell Ruka to divert some of his forces to help the 2nd Wing as soon as possi—”

“Haa…alright, shush your claptrap. No need to order the doggie boy to wheel around,” Sir Loin then readied his gun and began sniping on the harpies from where he was standing. Much to our pleasant surprise, he killed every monster that tried to surround the frozen unit.

“Kuro mah boy, though you refused being the ‘old guy’ of those birdies, don’t forget that you’re still the leader of this army. If you go down, we all go to hell as well…”

Rumia and I could only watch in awe as Sir Loin went back to the rear lines, where the reserves were waiting.

This man is a mystery for us…

----------

Sir Loin of Steak.

Yes, I’m aware of the absurdity of the guy’s name; as far as I know, there’s no place in this world—or the others—who’d name itself after food. Or was I wrong? Because this place could be stupid sometimes…

Anyway, sporting a black wavy hair, grey parka, blue denim jeans and red and white rubber shoes, I initially thought of him as some random pervert who came from the mainland Cherwind. After all, I found him watching some Avinus mating, together with Chief Habu.

But, as it turned out, I was mistaken.

“…”

Looking at his appearance, I realized Sir Loin wasn’t from this world. His weapon—a big railgun—was way too advanced for the technology level of Cherwind. I could also tell that he’s not from Earth, either. From what I could still remember, my old world was about to invent such large arms for personal infantry use.

Intrigued about his background, tried asking him about that matter before, but Sir Loin just refused to provide clear answers. Or rather, he didn’t know the answers himself…so he claims. The only thing that he’d tell me was that he was just walking around in some weird, grassy place, and the next thing he knew, he was already standing beside Chief Habu.

“…”

Well, I admit I’m suspicious of him. However, Sir Loin soon proved to be a valuable addition to the chicken tribe’s army. See, while I reintroduced smelting to the Avinus—enabling them to create iron weapons, his knowledge in weapons allowed us to make muskets and cannons. It was him who helped us mixing the right formula for black powder. As a result, I reintroduced firearms to the warriors of the Chicken tribe…I feel it will be a wasted opportunity to increase our fighting power if I didn’t.

I guess Sir Loin knows the formula for black powder well, since he’s using a railgun.

“…”

On a related thought, how the hell does he carry that stuff? I mean, it looks big enough to qualify as a minigun (the ones mounted on helicopters or fighter jets), and he just whips it up as if it’s a stick.

“Kuro mah boy?”

Whoever he was, one thing was sure: Sir Loin could be helpful. His otherworldly knowledge was important now that I’m racing to improve the Avinus’ lives, so that I could get out of Cherwind as soon as possible. I had no choice but to put a certain degree of my trust in him, though of course, it’s little by little.

“Kuro mah boy, don’t fall in love with me. I don’t really swing that way, unless you tell me you’re secretly a member of the opposite sex….”

“Ah, sorry about that!” I was brought to my senses by his words, “And don’t worry, the feeling is mutual.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

Sir Loin chuckled before continuing, “Anyway, the doggie girl just came back with the casualty report. Check it out.”

“Watch your tongue, human!” Rumia countered, “Call me by my name, and respect our chief!”

“Oooh! Bite me right on the ass and tell me if its soft,” Sir Loin slapped his butt, or whatever he could flex before Rumia, “I’m warning you though, once you pop you cannot stop.!”

“Disgusting,” the dog girl clicked her tongue and ignored him, “Anyway chief, the 2nd Wing suffered 23 dead and 14 wounded. Also, their captain was inconsolable; he lost two of his siblings earlier. They were among the dead.”

“How about the 1st Wing?”

“Five dead and twelve wounded. They incurred casualties when they tried to help the 2nd Wing.”

“And the 3rd Wing?”

“Seven wounded.”

I could only sigh upon hearing those. A ‘wing’ of the newly-organized chicken tribe’s army consisted of 100 people. Though the casualty count was relatively tolerable, still, those were 28 lives we lost, and 33 injuries. I could heal them as always, but what’s concerning me was that, most our dead wasn’t because of the ferocity of the battle.

It was when the 2nd Wing ‘froze’ in the heat of the offensive. For short, it’s a mistake that could’ve been avoided.

“…”

This isn’t good if we continue to incur losses like this.

While the villages of the Avinus and its immediate vicinities were already clean of monster hordes and their nests, we still had to clear the hinterlands to make it truly safe for these tribes to grow. And with the relatively small adult population of the chicken tribe (most of which perished from harpy attacks before and the subsequent starvation), I’m trying to minimize the casualty count until the next generation of chicken tribe’s children matured.

Well, it’s not like the other Avinus tribes never offered to help. They also began mustering their respective armies for our clearing efforts, but they won’t arrive in the chicken tribe village for a while. The warriors from the other tribes were also badly mauled by the monster hordes before, and it would take time for them to replenish their numbers and train men to raise their performance in battle. For the time we’re waiting for them, I decided to reorganize and train the chicken tribe’s army in the combined use of muskets and iron weapons.

Just like in early modern European armies of the 18th and 19th centuries, I armed them with swords, pikes and muskets.

There was no question of the swords’ and pikes’ use in battle. Combined with the physical strength of the Beastmen, melee weapons were lethal tools for their warriors. However, aside from the monster hordes, they also needed to fight against human armies, and for that, the muskets were a good weapon of choice.

See, the muskets were a terrifying arm against any mortal enemy. The human forces were exploiting their distance in shooting at their enemies, so if the Beastmen could also attack them from a distance, I think that would negate their advantage. As for the monsters, not only these poor creatures die quick when they get shot in the head from a considerable distance; the small explosions also startles them, giving the Chickens a moment’s advantage.

However, as the Chicken tribesmen were also frightened by the musketry fire, the ‘advantage’ often gets lost.

“…”

Goodness, what should I do in this situation?

“Ahh…drowning in shit eh, Kuro mah boy,” Sir Loin then entered the conversation.

“Well, I think you could tell it from my face.”

“Indeed. Keep sighing like that, your lungs might fall off, or something…I dunno; I’m not a fucking doctor..”

I had no answer for his words. While I wanted to tell him what’s on my mind, I’m still having my doubts.

“Hmm…alright. Shit man, I know you don’t trust me but, I’m just trying to help,” he backed down, “However, if you don’t want your chicken boys fried to perfection by the harpies—no pun intended—I could offer you some useful hints.”

“Hoh? Really…”

“Try me.”

“Okay, I guess it won’t be harmful if I did. What is it that you’re thinking?”

“Well, watching your chickies fry themselves in the heat of the battle, I can tell that their training isn’t enough.”

“What?”

“They can use those shiny blowpipes you call ‘muskets’ and ‘cannons’, that’s for sure,” he pondered a little before continuing, “What they lack, though, is discipline.”

“Discipline, huh? As in, like in the military?”

“Yep. Are you a military boy?”

I shook my head. The closest thing I had for military training was my compulsory ‘Citizen Army Training’ in high school, and the ROTC during my college days. And, honestly? I hated it. I didn’t mind standing in the middle of the scorching heat, or carry heavy sacks while running under a heavy downpour. What pissed me off was that some of our ‘cadet officers’ got inflated egos and abused the authority given to them.

But hey, maybe Sir Loin has the solution for my problem, so why don’t I give it a shot?

“Ah, figures! Well, first, you have to show me how you train these guys,” Sir Loin countered, “After that, we can talk about what we should do.”

----------

***The eastern shores of the lands of the Avinus…***

Just like the western seaboard of the Avinus archipelago, the waters that lay to its eastern side was a rich fishing ground. Its shores were also home to the tribe of the Falcons, who’d send out scouts from time to time to check on schools of fishes roaming around.

“…”

A pair of Falcons were on the watch at that moment, looking for a precious catch to be relayed to their fisherfolk. As their fishing ground spanned the area between the northeastern tip of the Avinus lands to the southwestern approaches of the ‘Enclave’, they headed to that direction. It was a good opportunity for them, for the human fishing activities in the area practically ceased when Malvette was destroyed.

Now that their rivals were missing, the Falcons could fish in those waters unmolested.

However, once the human territory came into view, one of them spotted several ‘white and brown’ boats from a distance.

“Probably a fleet of human fishermen,” his partner told him with a sigh, “Looks like they’re back. Anyway, don’t get near them, or they’d think we’ll attack.”

“No, I don’t think those are human fishermen,” the spotter insisted, “Look, they’re heading towards our lands.”

The other falcon-man stopped on his flight and carefully examined the boats. Indeed, just like what his buddy had said, the fleet was moving slowly to the Avinus archipelago, much to their shock.

“You think it’s a human invasion?”

“I don’t know; but in any case, let’s see how many of them are in each boat. Hurry!”

Wasting no time, the falcon scouts flew closer to the fleet. However, they were even more surprised when they realized the identities of the passengers in the boats.

“Those are—”

“Goodness…those are Beastmen from the various tribes in the mainland! They’re refugees!” the second falcon then ordered his partner, “Quick, head back to the village and tell them about this! I’ll guide the fleet to our shores!”