Chapter 8: Proving to be worth (part 3)

Empty while pouring, even though the heavens fall, even though the earth shakes, even though I fall apart

Chairo, Chore, Chavi and Srishta were close to the center by now. They didn’t walk for long but it felt like an eternity. It was more than a walk; it felt like a journey, a very long and arduous journey. They haven’t felt ready to take on their destiny at the front of their village; now they are. They were prepared to take back what was theirs, or so they thought.

Suddenly, they heard rumbling, and the ground itself started to shake. They had difficulties keeping both their feet on the ground; their balance was off due to the shaking. The few drunk goons that still tried attacking them fell down. Suddenly, they heard a massive scream; it was so close to them.

“YAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, WHERE ARE MY GUESTS LET THEM COME I AM HUNGRY,” it was incredibly loud, so loud that the ground started to shake again.

“It’s him,” said Chairo while regaining her balance.

“That’s the guy who took your village? Sounds like a giant to me,” Srishta, even though the air felt heavy, literally and figuratively due to the putrid smell in the air, tried to keep it still light.

“He is,” answered the brothers in unison.

“What do you mean?” Srishta asked. He wasn’t aware of that, he wasn’t prepared for that, not physically, nor emotionally, nor spiritually, nor in any way a normal human would be ready to face a giant.

“He’s a giant,” answered the brothers again, in unison.

“So like, an actual big guy, very big?” asked Srishta. He sounded confused and afraid at the same time, not because he thought he couldn’t handle the challenge, but because he was thinking about the stories his mother read to him during his bedtime when he was younger.

“Eat your vegetables, do your homework and sleep on time or else… THE BIG BAD GIANT WILL EAT YOU!” he heard the voice of his mother in his head.

“Didn’t know you’d be scared of a giant, you seemed quite calm seeing this carnage unfolding in front of you, though,” asked Chore

“I just… I wasn’t prepared for it mentally, that’s all, now I know, so I won’t budge when I see him. Do not worry,” their steps, almost instinctively, got slower. As a hunter attacking their prey, they all automatically started whispering, even though they knew that the prey they were hunting knew of their arrival. Especially the brothers, they were quiet, not like mice, because they are the prey of many animals. They resembled a fox, getting closer to their goal with each step, becoming more silent, careful, and calculated, while their fangs grew longer and more pronounced.Their lethality increased while their presence decreased. Srishta felt it; he felt like the siblings he had met were fading away in the background. Their sword slashes still cut off people's heads without a second thought; they might have become even more accurate, but he noticed that it was like the sword slashes got quieter. Srishta got lost in his own thoughts, thinking about the owl back in their homeworld and wondered if they had something similar here that was also a hunter, lethal but quiet.

Chairo was the opposite, she did not care. It was as if every slash she dealt and every death she caused got louder, as if she wanted to be found. Her mood also seemed to get better overall; the more she got rid of the goons, the more he saw a smile on her face. He couldn’t really understand what he was seeing in her. If her brothers were quiet foxes or owls, hunters that were quiet and calculated. She was a hyena, loud and strong, showing her teeth quickly.‘No… that’s not a good comparison,’ Srishta thought to himself. ‘Hyenas hunt in packs; they rely on each other. This is no hyena, maybe a massive loud one, but definitely not a hyena,’ Srishta kept thinking. He was right, it was as if she didn’t want to be with the rest of the group; she wanted to enjoy her carnage alone. She tried taking care of any goons before the others did and seemed displeased every time her brothers got to it first. She seemed human to Srishta, not in a good way. Not the good side of humans building things, but more the one that wants to destroy. Maybe she was the most human of them all.

“You haven’t done anything yet, by the way,” said Chavi in an annoyed tone. Srishta knew that it was about him without Chavi looking at him.

“Yes, I know. My weapon is not very suited for this type of combat.” He answered in a self-assured tone. Chavi and Chore were unsure whether Srishta could add anything to this small-scale war, but the tone of how his speech reassured them; he would definitely be useful to them later.

They heard another loud voice; this time, it wasn’t something that could be understood, instead, it was a roar. The massive roar was like thunder; it was deafening, and very short-lived. It was of an animal, a big one.

“Does your giant also have a giant dog?” asked Srishta, wondering if there were even dogs in this world.

“What’s a dog?” They asked in unison. Srishta got his answer. “Could be one of his pets, I guess,” said Chore. Srishta did not feel better hearing that at all.

After more walking and seeing corpses, making corpses and witnessing the defiled state of the village they loved so much, the siblings finally reached the center. There was one big campfire in the middle, surrounded by multiple types of beverages, and some burnt corpses were also in the fire. That is what Srishta thought at least; he was unsure if it was corpses of animals or humans. They were too burnt to be able to be told apart. The campfire was massive; it was made out of entire logs of wood. There was an enormous amount of charcoal around the fire; there he saw corpses, again, he was unsure if those were of animals or people. At first, Srishta didn’t notice, but there was a giant silhouette at the other end of the campfire that he didn’t see due to the enormous size of the campfire. Next to the giant silhouette, there was another, a bit smaller one and a large amount of goons. They didn't appear drunk, at least.

“YAHAHAHAHAHHAH MY GUESTS HAVE ARRIVED, PLEASE POOR THEM A DRINK,” the siblings and Srishta stood there across the other end of the campfire. They were on edge, ready to get into action at any second. No goon moved to serve them a drink, Bran, in a very annoyed way, smashed one goon to pulp.

“I said… POOR THEM A DRINK,“ the goons, still readying their weapons, saw the pile of flesh, blood and bones their colleague became and didn’t want to end up the same way and thus started running towards the closest booze and tried giving them.

The brothers put their weapons away; it was how they got educated. If your enemy does not ready their weapon, there is no need for you to do the same. The previous goons may or may not have been drunk, but they still had a weapon, thus it was completely honourable and normal to kill them once they came in range. This was something different to them, so they put their swords back into their sheaths and politely declined the drinks that came their way.

Chairo was different, any soldier that came into her lethal range got immediately killed. She had none of it, there was nothing in her heart that felt something for them. There was no code to her, no honor, no respect and no responsibility to uphold anything.

“YAHAHAHAHAHAHA YOUR SISTER HASN'T BEEN EDUCATED LIKE YOU,” laughed the giant again, rumbling the ground due to his laughter.

“What she does is her problem, we do what we want.” Chore answered firmly but still with slight annoyance in his voice.

“So why do you not have your weapon ready, Bran?” Chavi asked. Srishta was not prepared for this situation, he expected to immediately get to the fighting part of this encounter, but apparently that was not the plan.

“I want to have a sit-down with you guys, a proposition if you may say so. You do not strike me as stupid, and neither am I. I assume you assumed that the government spoke to me, and if you did assume that, you were right. I don't know where this new guy came from, but if he’s allowed to listen to the conversation between you guys, I will allow him to,” said Bran. Srishta was shocked; he had not expected such a brute, a massive one at that, to speak in such a tone.

“We allow him,” said Chairo on a short notice. She pointed her halberd at him.

“Talk,” said Chairo. Bran started laughing, but quickly suppressed that laughter to start talking politely again. He was speaking in a business-like tone.

“Let me cut to the chase. The government wants you guys dead, even if a miracle were to happen and you kill me and everyone affiliated to me, there would just be another guy coming here to replace me, and I promise you, the next guy would be worse,” said Bran.

“And? What do you precisely get out of not immediately trying not to kill us?” Asked Chairo, she was confused about what Bran would have to get out of them, still being alive.

“It’s not necessarily that I get something out of not killing you; I get something out of you guys being alive and helping me. Look, I knew that your father was strong and he probably raised strong children, and that is also why I exiled him. If I killed him, you guys would impossibly want to help me; it’s called revenge. If I don’t exile him, he would immediately go for my head. If you work with me, there is no need to work under me. I lied to the government that I killed you guys, this is an officially recognised village. We can even make a compromise, I’ll teach my goons some etiquette so we stop trashing the place.” He seemed earnest in his request.

“What exactly do you get out of it? So you did all of that, to just live in our village?” asked Chairo, still confused by this request.

“Taxes, it’s all about that at the end of the day. The government promised me an independent status, so you will basically continue being unaffiliated. At the same time, I get paid to do basically nothing and you get extra protection for this village from me,” he said, he was trying to convince Chairo. He was saying everything to Chairo and only looking at her; he knew she was the new head of the village without her even officially getting this title.

“Deal’s off,” Chairo responded calmly.

“Are you certain? If the deal is off, what happens then? You kill me, something worse happens to your village, the government will hear from it,” Bran actively tried to convince her but it wasn’t really working.

“Yes,” she responded.

“So I guess we will have to fight then,” Bran responded. He got up, calmly but surely and noticing that his owner was ready to get at it, his pet did too. It was a massive pig, but with massive horns and pitch black fur.

“You’ll die at my feet,” Chairo said.

“Let’s see that,” Bran said, picking up his massive club and getting ready to fight. He readied himself for the first attack.

The siblings and Srishta all got ready to attack or parry, depending on who was gonna move first. The air was incredibly tense, it was like two samurai ready to cut each other down at any moment. All the hands were on their weapons.

They are ready.