Expected guests.

After navigating at a nice pace throughout the forest, the monster, Gallil, found his way back to the small shack he'd built himself close to the Lake.
Now that he had done the route on purpose, he had a better idea of how much time it would take on average to reach the village from this location.
And when he took out the small pocket watch he kept in his mantle, he found that his hunch had been spot on as well.

Since he had departed in the morning and under clear weather, he had been able to track the sun's revolution during the ride, and as it turned out, he had guessed exactly how much hours it had required to travel the distance. A mere five hours.

With this information, there was no need to worry about the request anymore. He would have plenty of leeway to decide when to depart once the order was completed on his part.
And with roughly two weeks ahead of him he would be able to finish on time. He could even consider making himself a disguise to take part in the festivities later.

With his schedule established, he decided to plan a little scouting routine from now on. A lot of the villagers had looked like trained soldier, or former soldiers at worst, so he did not want to rule out the possibility of them sending out a small force to hunt him down.

Additionally he made to prepare a scroll on which he would write down the quantities of material he would need to make the potions later. The night had been short, and even though four hours of sleep were plenty for him, he'd sworn to use his exile to reflect on himself and how he took care of his body.

An Undine lived on average for five hundred years, and up to seven hundred would they not decide to ascend. Gallil was already past four hundred years old. However he had long since lost the patience to track how many years it had been since the last century. Also since he had been cast out of his territory, he had lost the luxury to look forward to his five hundredth anniversary as well. So there truly was no point.


At midday, after a light meal, Gallil made to prepare for heading out. The scroll was ready to be filled up and the menu for that night's dinner was set in his mind. He would scout the area on foot for about two hours and then gather the ingredients he needed before returning.

But then just as he was about to put his hand on the makeshift doorknob, he heard the rustling of leaves as well as the cracking sound of branches being stepped on from above.

With the intent of removing an easy access to the inside of his shack, Gallil had built it with no widows on either wall. Instead he had used the cobweb-like substance produced by a species of mantis inhabiting the forest to make an open roof. It was sturdier than cobwebs and was mostly see-through so it made for the perfect material in this case.
But back to the issue at hand, the noise had not stopped at all for a few minutes, and now it was easy to distinguish the pace of at least four different people or large monsters. And it was coming his way.

..sigh

"I can hear you up there, so why don't you come down and state your business instead of trying to sneak around ?"

Maybe they had been expecting him to be in the middle of a nap after the events of the previous night in addition to the trip back, and had privileged haste over caution, which if true indicated they were either an inexperienced bunch or monsters, so when he suddenly raised his voice, there was a a couple seconds of silence. But then...

"!"

At the unexpected shout, one of the intruders must have lost balance and fallen to the Lake because there was a panicked and barely stifled yelp followed by a loud splashing sound coming from the water nearby.

"So cooooooldd !!! " no more doubt necessary, it must have been the pursuers he had expected.

"Here grab this and hold on tight !" the monster threw a makeshift rope of mantis thread to the hunter, or rather the huntress and pulled her out of the lake with little effort.

"You're surprisingly light considering your size and equipment."

"Y-y-you are simply way t-too strong." she answered with a frown while shivering from head to toe.

He threw his mantle to the woman and made to sit on what was left of a collapsed tree's trunk.
Once he spotted the rest of her squad coming their way, he gestured for them to take a sit wherever they could in front of him.

"I harbour no ill will against the lot of you for sneaking around my installation, but I hope you'll at least allow me to ask for the details after I lent a hand to one of your own."

"As of now she is no longer one of us, however in response to your goodwill and lack of animosity, I will concede and provide an explanation nevertheless."

"W-w-what do you m-mean I'm no longer-"

"Silence !  Before we left the guard post you knew what to expect in case you failed to follow orders. I was given the right to dispose of either of you three if I deemed it necessary, so be thankful I did not just give you up to those villagers instead. The monster might be able to show mercy or at least give you a swift death if you beg for it, who knows."

"After I g-gave my utmost to the m-mission and secured intel only I c-could have possibly accessed, y-you would cast me aside j-just like t-that ?"

"Precisely. You have already done what was asked of you. And now that you have shown weakness in a crucial situation, you are no longer needed. Thank you for your service and farewell."

"I wish I d-didn't held out my arm before I f-fell, this way y-you too w-would-"

"Okay stop. My patience is about to run out. I have very few hours of sleep and work to do so cut it out already and tell me what led you to track me back to this place."

The woman balled her fingers into fists with however strength she had left with the cold and gritted her teeth in frustration.

Now that her fate remained in the hands of the monster, she had better control her emotions and behave as much as she could in hope of negotiating some sort of freedom later.

Before answering, the man who seemed to be their leader turned his head towards the woman for a moment before turning back towards the monster.
It was impossible to tell what sort of expression he wore behind his mask, but the woman must have been used to the gesture because she seemed to be seething inwardly at the sight of it.

"Where to start.. First of all while we may have been trying to sneak up on you, we do not intend to declare ourselves your enemies, for now at least. But at the same time I would rather you do not try to consider us allies at any point, be it now or in the future."

"..."

"Now while I won't disclose our identities as individuals, I will let you on the purpose of us being here as promised."

As the leader went on, the monster, Gallil, listened on silently trying to take in as much information as possible from the man's speech and manners.

First of all, he learnt that they were a specialized squad from a country northwest from here, whose goal was to investigate, or rather spy on neighboring countries, villages and towns from which no movement had been detected on the international scene for the past fifty years.

Now how did they manage to find this village on the outskirts of the region ? The answer was luck. While they were meant to make investigating this forest their top priority because of its long standing neutrality in terms of sovereignty, or lack thereof, it was supposed to take at most a month before they would have to switch to a different target.

However after a couple weeks around these parts, they spotted a group of renowned bandits. The group did not bother hiding their identity, or rather the whole point seemed to have the people remember it. Unfortunately that had spelled their downfall.
Yes, they were the ones that had been wearing these hoods and masks initially. But they were met with stronger than them and were swiftly wiped out.

Then taking into consideration that the bandits had come to the forest ahead of them and that the forest was surrounded by both the sea and a lake if you removed the direction the squad at come from, they suspected something might have been going on southeast of the forest. The destination had not been part of their initial roadmap, but they figured it didn't hurt to try and delve a little deeper into unknown territory since even those weaklings had been able to survive until now. That being said, they needed to find a way to avoid suspicion in case they found a hideout of some sort, hence why they had come to use the defeated bandits' getup.

And finally, after two more weeks of walking, they found their way to the village.

They had to worry however if the group they had decided to impersonate had had any ties to this village. If not, at best they would be ridiculed or watched with suspicion for their costumes, and at worst they would be either arrested or attacked.
Fortunately it seemed like they were welcome. Or at least since nobody had made a big deal out of their presence, that meant no immediate danger. What was odd instead was that nobody seemed to recognize them either. No familiar greetings, no preferential treatment at the inn or at the bar, it appeared the people there were simply unconcerned about them.

Before the leader could go on about how the rest of their investigation went, he was interrupted by the monster.

"Ok I got the gist of it. So when you said we were neither allies or enemies I guess you meant that it would depend on whether or not I planned on interfering one way or another in your plans after I learned about them, am I wrong ?"

"Very perceptive. However there is more. Since it seems that we can reason with the likes of you, allow me to extend a proposal."

The monster, clever as it seemed, must have guessed what it was about and cut to the chase before the other party could go on.

"You would ask for my cooperation, I imagine ? And since there is obviously no way to make sure I won't spill the beans to the villagers, it's either I willingly follow along or you'll kill me on the spot. Is that what it means ?"

The man let out chuckle before answering.

"I guess you really were framed by that concubine from your former kingdom if you feel more inclined to jump to this kind of conclusion."

"So you listened on my conversation with the dragon I take it. Well whatever, it's my fault for leaking as much to a total stranger in the first place. Now I would appreciate if we could get back to the topic at hand however."

"By all means. And let me correct you about something you said earlier, I do not plan on killing you. So long as you don't bare your fangs at us, we will remain a neutral entity relative to the likes of you. Although I do admit that having you on our side would make for a fine asset indeed. Infinitely more so than that wretched woman at least."

By that point the woman in question had lost all animosity towards her former leader. In fact she had not been paying attention to him for a while. All she had in mind was scrutinizing the monster's speech to try and learn more about his behavior, since that could be the key to stay alive.

Seeing as his provocation had gone unnoticed, the man shrugged before addressing the monster once more.

"So what do you say we work together to find out the truth behind this 'celebration'." 

"I know I'm the one who cut you in the middle of your explanation earlier, but I have no idea what you mean when you say that. And to be honest I couldn't care less. I have a business agreement with their guild and I plan on meeting my end of the contract, besides that I see no upside in helping in your investigation of the place. And finally, once I'm done with this job I'll be moving on, so I'd rather avoid any trouble in the process. Understand that I am growing tired of having to watch my back at all times."

"I see.. Well it's not like I am in a position to force you right now so let's leave it at that for the time being. Still if you ever change your mind in the next few days, do drop by the bar at the inn around three in the morning, I will be in a corner savoring that wine they seem so proud of."

"I'll keep that in mind, not that there is any chance I go back on my word, but I heard you."

"That settles it then."

After monitoring to his two subordinates to get up, the group of three headed in the direction of the village.

Needless to say, the woman didn't try to follow after them.

She sat there still fidgeting from the cold since she had not been able to remove her wet clothes and put them out to dry. She hung her head lifeless, eyes vacant. She must have been trying to prepare for the worst, thought the former King.

After a moment, probably noticing that the headless man had been staring at her through that flame that sprouted out of his neck, she turned her towards him and asked him the question he had expected to hear.

"So ? Am I to become livestock ? Or your sex slave perhaps ? Regardless I'd appreciate that you'd hurry up and tell me my fate so I can steel whatever resolve I have left in- CHII !."  and in the most anti-climatic, she let out the a loud but unmistakably girl sneeze.

The monster was about to answer unconcerned but was stopped in his track. The same woman who had been pale as a ghost since she had come out of the water, and who was until a couple seconds ago resigning herself to what she thought a death sentence, was now red to her ears and staring furiously at the ground while she held back tears.

"...sign"