RP: 5th Fleet [Chapter Seven] We're Not In Yamatai Anymore...

It seemed to Yuzuki that she'd inspired something unfortunate among the small reptilian people, as such she felt it was worth trying to make up for it. Wiggling her ears she fixed her eyes on Kuroneko and playfully chided, "Is not our own meeting sudden? Surely these fine adventurers have already shown civility. They only ask the opportunity to get to safety, I see no reason not to spare them a trying run." With her opinion on the matter clearly voiced Yuzuki once again shifted her more combat oriented possessions reminding herself that there was a difference between showing kindness and stupidly letting one's guard down.

With the thought fresh in her mind she sent a brief telepathic message to the group, "I say we cautiously let them on. Perhaps their gratitude will pay off. So long as we don't go laying our throats on their blades we should be fine. Else they would have shot us already for taking too long." The last bit was an observation that she felt was fairly true to their situation. She couldn't think of many people who would run themselves to exhaustion as their small reptilian company had. Between asking for permission, and now their stretching patience, Yuzuki felt that of the two groups the ones on foot had been more civil so far.

"I agree with Yuzuki," added Aya telepathically. Now that they had spent a little time talking to the kobolds (or perhaps it would be more accurate to say 'listened to their ramblings'), she was fairly sure they wouldn't pose a threat - though that was no reason to give up any pretense of caution, of course.

Rin supposed she was more wary of the natives after the recent attack, but ultimately it would be up to Sif to make the call.

"Sif is in command. I think it would be her call," said Rin telepathically.

It was too hard to watch the little kobolds fluctuate between their blissful ignorance and near depression at the realization of their situation. Dimitri was also a bit curious as to who they had met before that had used some Yamatain words with them, and apparently gave them food too. He stopped the carriage and sighed some. He heard what the others were saying as well, but he could not communicate back being Nepleslian and all.

"You guys can come along, but you have to tell us about these other outlanders that you met."

Small reptilian eyes carefully focused on the mostly 'Kitsune' crew, and with only a few words spoken, watched as they all began looking at each other.

"Let them on," the littlest one commanded them with a lazy wave of a hand. Out of all of them, Milgip had to admit he was wary of her the most. Despite her small size, the way she acted wasn't at all like someone her stature normally would. She was absolutely nothing like the Fairies and Pixies he knew from hatching-hood, who were all energetic, sporadic, and most of all, very scared of getting stepped on or squished. This one had none of that. The stern but aloof gaze she had, save for the moment she eagerly watched them discuss their tactics, was typically found with someone that had power. And the one with the Halberd...her relaxed expression at it all while the others tensed - she found this all funny, and didn't even have her guard up. But why? Perhaps she was the most skilled warri - DIDSHEJUSTTOUCHHERSEL - no, she was just adjusting her maid's uniform. Did these two have magic? Did the smallest one shrink herself on purpose perhaps? As the vehicle came to the stop, the brown Kobold opened its mouth in a smile, sighs of relief coming out of their mouths.

"No more running!"

"Feet rest!"

"Safe!"

Seeing that they had a ride, the Kobolds all grabbed their crossbows and pulled the trigger, soon pulling the bolts out of their targets a moment later. It was unfortunate, but it was the only way to unload the weapons. What was even more unfortunate was that they were embedded up to the vanes - guide feathers - in the ground, which meant they'd have to clean them a little bit. Stowing them away in pouches on their belts, the Kobolds then started boosting each other over the sides of the carriage like little children eager to hop into a wizard's wagon, the ones already tumbling their way inside pulling the other two up. Finding themselves some spots to sit, they plopped themselves on the pile of loot in the back - their tails just didn't do well on seats made for humans.

"Yes, yes! Will tell, will tell!" the brown scaled Kobold replied as the carriage got moving.

"Uh, tell what?" the red scaled Kobold asked.

"Food? He want know food?" The green one tilted its head.

"Uh, shumai good bits of steam meat, and dango sweet sticky!" The brown scaled Kobold could only sigh. It was starting to get obvious now that it was the leader of the group, and had some idea of what Dimitri was asking.

"But boodog bestest!" it absolutely had to add.

"Boodog bestest!" the others chorused.

Dimitri was a little amused at how the kobolds antics as they worked their way into the carriage and couldn't help but offer a slight chuckle. He didn't really expect them to give a lot of good info but he was a little surprised at how quickly they got off track though. "Yes, food is good, but can you talk about who gave you the food?" He kept his voice at a conversational tone and tried to hide any tension he has, not sure of the limits of these guys skittishness. Either way though it wasn't time to sit around so he got the wagon moving once again.

Aya started as the Kobolds "safely" discharged their weapons. For a split second she wondered if the squad had been tricked. It was only as the Kobolds plucked the arrows from the carriage that she realised the truth. She simply listened as the Kobolds began to meander through a completely unrelated topic. It seemed like getting any useful information would be an uphill battle, to say the least. As Dimitri prompted the Kobolds with a clarification, the blue skinned Neko nodded as encouragement. Hopefully they could keep on track this time!

"Ostelandi from the Osteland?" the brown scaled Kobold asked. "Uh. Many different peoples from many places. All come from the far away across the Steppes of Woe," it began, only to get interrupted.

"By threading The Needles with the Silk Thread Pass!" the red Kobold suddenly spoke up.

"Shshshshshshsh! SH! I telling stuffs!" it scolded the other one. "Where was?" the reptilian asked itself, a claw briefly clacking at its chin-scales. As the carriage bumped along the road for an awkward silence however, it became very apparent that the Kobold had asked itself this in all seriousness. "Oh! Right. Yes. They different groups traveling together for some reason. Great host for war; mostly men, with attending train. All similar, but each has special. One likes heavy infantry with one hand sword called 'Dao', while another is fast horse raider. Then, weirdos from the islands extra-east. They do a lot, but proud of strange thin, long, curved two hand sword with one edge," it started to gesture with its hands.

"You sees them? You sees them? Curved swords! Curved!" the green Kobold's childish, high pitched voice pretended to spit. The apparent leader of their bunch simply nodded along in agreement though.

"Odds thing; theys had to go through Ostewüste to get here. Nobody hears of Ostewüstei anymore," it began to ponder, oblivious to the plume of dark smoke rising ahead of them. "Wonder why."

"It almost sounds like some of them are from our homelands. The ones with the curved swords maybe," Sif mused aloud. "I wouldn't know a thing about some great war party however. I thought it was just a few adventurers like ourselves that had left," she added, leisurely watching the smoke in the distance. "What do you all think?"

Despite the potential meanings behind the thick black smoke up ahead, they still had plenty of time to come to a decision.

Already well out of the way by the time the decision was made and the wagon came to a stop, Yuzuki found that it was simple enough to peek over the brim of her shield observing as the small lizard folk unloaded their crossbows before boarding. Despite their adorable nature they were clearly trained in their craft, likely well enough to pose a problem for her own company.

Their scrambling embarkment was brief and the return to motion of the wagon proceeded without incident. As the steady motion and the sound of shod hooves on the road resumed Yuzuki found that she was for the moment content with her decision to voice support for raveling with the small folk. They had proven trustworthy enough to not immediately seize the stopped wagon, and were content to share information through gossip.

Though their chatter was immediately upon food a subject that for the moment Yuzuki would rather not think too hard on, she was glad that Dimitri ventured a question that directed them toward the various factions. It turned out that most were largely identified by their weaponry something that should have been expected. It was probably unavoidable as humans likely largely looked the same to the small folk, or at least to most of them.

Generalizing seemed to be a poor idea in this world as even with her relatively small experience it was clear that the quality of those they met was varied. Some appeared much more canny than others, something that would have to be taken into account should their two parties ever have to fight.

While she listened the faint scent of smoke reached her nose distracting Yuzuki and encouraging a briefly ventured a glance toward their destination. Noting the smoke wondered what would meet them, a busy village? Or charred ruins? Not wanting to dwell long on the pointless wondering Yuzuki instead inquired politely, "Have there been crop failures lately? Any sickness going about?" Answers to these questions might give an idea of why there had been soldiers moving about.

The Kobolds' explanations weren't particularly insightful, but it at least gave Aya an idea of other locations in the world. Perhaps these would show up in future, perhaps not. The important thing was that she knew of their existence now and could act accordingly. It was a start. She noticed the pall of smoke up ahead. She hoped that the locals simply liked their bonfires. But the tower of smoke seemed foreboding, to say the least. Almost as if she hoped that the black smoke would go away, Aya instead chose to focus on Sif's remark and attempted a slightly different angle of attack from Yuzuki. "I'm pretty interested in that war host too. Is there some big succession crisis? Did somebody gravely insult someone else?"

It was proving hard to tear her eyes away from the smoke, however, and her concern could not be wholly hidden.

Rin was not sure of what to think of their new passengers; while certainly odd they did not seem to be malicious in their intentions.

While Rin did wonder for several moments what in the world 'boodog' was, her attention was draw away from their guests and toward the column of black smoke up ahead.

"If there is a war party ahead, perhaps we should avoid them," she suggested.

Dimitri listened carefully and tried to piece together to kobolds' story, which was not a task they made easy with their grammar but after a while he was fairly confident in his interpretation, but it left him with more questions than it did answers. His thoughts were distracted by the plume of smoke, trying to gauge how big it was and maybe it was just a cooking fire.

"Honestly things are a bit convoluted, it sounds like they might be from where we are, but there are parts of that that don't sound right either. Maybe it's a culture on this world?" He didn't stop the carriage yet, wanting to get a little closer before he made a judgement on the nature of the town.

Amazingly, the Kobolds answered Aya's question.

"Oh, silly prophesy," the blue Kobold spoke up, dismissively waving a hand. "Fear rise new Dark Lord of west."

"I'd pay copper pense for more fortune like this. Or maybe crack open cookie with parchment of good feelings inside," the Kobold leader added. As the other little reptile-people started watering their mouths over the thoughts of various cookies and sweets, it took a good look at Rin and shook its snout at her. "No, Osteland war host not near. Saw them week ago maybe?" it asked nobody in particular. However, at this moment, Dimitri spoke, only to feel the Zesuaium destroying gaze of Sif as she angrily stared at him. The brown Kobold adorably tilted its head to the side however.

"Of course is from same place as fluffy-ear girls. All pretty foxies come from Osteland!" it replied to him, both its hands pointing to Rin and Aya respectively; Kuro however, was pointed at with a foot. As the smoke came closer, and the glow of fire became clear, another Kobold looked up into the air and sniffed about.

"Smell...roast!"

"Barbecue!"

"Kebab!"

"...really?"

"Ok, ok, I lie." Ignoring the Kobolds, Sif rose from her cushions and stood on her tip-toes so that her head poked over the back of the seat so they could all see her.

"It's time to make a decision. Do we go into the village, or do we skirt around it through the fields?" she asked them. It was painfully clear now that the village ahead was on fire or had a good part of it on fire. What's more, the gentle breeze carried with it faint, ghostly cries and screams of terror. Right now, it all boiled down to one important decision. What they'd do next.

Still refusing to look toward the village Yuzuki suppressed an urge to growl, a bad habit she'd picked up in training. Even so she wasn't fond of how the situation was developing, what had been a desire for a warm bed and a full meal was once again turning into an unwelcome feeling of fight or flight, one that was all too familiar. Trying to mask the displeasure Yuzuki did her best to keep her voice neutral as she replied to the question, "It seems unwise to venture into unknown danger, even should our fellow travellers be willing to lend their aid we could easily be overwhelmed by whatever is occurring ahead. We could be driving into a small army for all we know. It's callous I know, but this isn't our fight, and we won't do much good if we're all run down by cavalry or feathered by a group of archers."

Given their limited resources and numbers Yuzuki didn't much envy the idea of venturing blindly into whatever was bringing ruin to a settlement of this world. Had their group been clad in more familiar equipment she might have suggested they probe the event, but as it was she wasn't confident that soldiers of their own relative era who had been on this planet so briefly were ready to fight for their lives against natives. Especially not with a clear idea of what threat they would be facing.

Aya shifted uneasily. Aside from the tower of smoke that wasn't getting any smaller, it seemed there was a budding tyrant roving about. Somehow, everything seemed so much nicer and cleaner in fiction. It was easy to forget the suffering that could result from a few decisions. She could no longer avert her gaze from the village. Yuzuki's comments didn't make her feel any better. In fact, it stoked a nascent sense of anger - anger that they hadn't been here earlier, anger that they couldn't stop whoever was responsible, anger that they might yet turn away. "No. We should help these people! It... it isn't right to ignore people's suffering like this!" Aya knew it wasn't rational. Cold logic suggested that the newcomer Neko was right. But Aya's heart told her otherwise.

"We're no better than whoever was responsible for... for this if we run away now," Aya spat, glowering at the smoke as if she could put it out by sheer force of will. "And I wouldn't be able to live with myself if we didn't do something."

Dimitri gave a nervous chuckle as he tried to avoid eye contact with Sif, he realized his mistake, but Sif glares were just too much. Though it wasn't a good sign, there was something to distract the conversation from Dimitri's blunder and he went with it. He could see the glow of flames from the village, so it was certainly not a simple cooking fire. The question became was it a raiding party that started it or simply an accident.

"We do not have the supplies to help fight fires, if we did go down there we wouldn't be much help, and if it was a raiding party that did this we could likely be captured. We would help them better by sending word to the next town about what's happening here."

As the group of 'Adventurers' deliberated with one another, Sif took the opportunity to leap off her cushioned seat and hopscotch over to Kuroneko's side. The two briefly looked at each other, but it was only the Neko Maid that smiled, a glint in her eyes.

"Unless you say otherwise Rin, we will be heading away from this village, and towards the next instead," the Mini-Neko firmly stated, crossing her arms with authority as she did so. With the way she had her face set, it was difficult to tell whether or not Sif was pleased or disappointed with their decision. Even the way her eyes were hard set gave little for them to work off of, making her inscrutable. Still, the seven inch tall woman didn't forget about their hitch-hikers either. "The four of you are welcome to come along, though, if you wish to depart for the village instead, do so now." The reply in and of itself however, was surprising.

"Yes, we gets off! Golden fire bright and scary to night animals," the brown one stated.

"Gold! We look for gold!" the red one suddenly perked up from a snooze at the 'G' word.

"Maybe town being looted. So we loot looters who loot for us!" the blue scaled Kobold quickly added in.

"If too scary, we just hide in grassy! Thankee for ride!" the green reptilian derailed the train of thought. Leaning over in its seat, the armored creature's little arms wrapped around the nearest person, pressing its hard helmeted head into Yuzuki's and rubbed it about in the Neko's chest like it was a cat. And without any regard for the armor that it was wearing. The others broke out into squawking as they all made to do the same, making sure to at least try and hug every single person in the carriage before clambering over the sides and out the stairs all at once like little critters fleeing from the light.

"Ara!~ I think I'm going to miss those little fellows," Kuroneko sighed. Still, the carriage's journey continued on. "The next place we'll go to is a fairly large border city though from what I understand. Fairly well fortified from what I understand. The magical academy there is small, but it's exactly what we're looking for too," the Neko added with a smile. Making sure none of the others were feeling too down as they gave the burning town a wide berth, the fire slowly shrinking behind them, she added, "No matter what, there were pros and cons to each decision. I don't think any of you could have gone wrong with either choice," the woman smiled on them all.

"Agreed. Though morally just, we're not obligated to help. We're simply here on our home's behalf," Sif nodded, flipping a leather flap for a bag and jumping in, tumbling over the brim. "Though. There is something troubling. We were supposed to get more food at that town." As her head popped out of the bag, she held up a plain piece of food wrapping, minus the food. "We have enough to reach the city, but stretched rations are less than comfortable. And, most importantly?" the Mini-Neko paused, drawing their attention. "I think we're out of sweets."

They were doomed.

Tilting her head as she regarded Aya, the newcomer considered her for a moment before inquiring in a neutral tone, "So either we're victims or murderers?" She didn't hold her attention on Aya for too long instead turning to watch Sif as she moved over to Kuroneko and seemed to share a quiet intimacy, perhaps some silent telepathic or digital communication. When Sif spoke up, Yuzuki couldn't help but cast a glance toward Rin, wondering what the red Neko's disposition was. There was much to wonder, and little information. Especially for herself, it had quickly become apparent that as far as information of this world went Yuzuki was the weak link.

Their passengers however seemed plenty eager about the raided village, pointing out the safety of the fire from animals and the possibility to scavenge from the raiders. Given that they lived in this world Yuzuki had no desire to argue with their analysis of the situation. What she didn't expect however was the hug, and subsequent physical contact that tore a pleased giggle from the throat leaving her giddy even after the small lizard bounded away and over the side of the wagon heading off in pursuit of its goals. Sitting and tittering Yuzuki found that she agreed with Kuroneko's sentiments, and took interest in the mention of a magic academy. The thought of getting a chance to learn something new had her memory venturing back to he training at Fort Hankou; while she wasn't as proficient as AIES-chan, or Myu-chan from back at base when it came to learning, she had been grouped with them in the eyes of the often startled instructors on the base. Their small group had been considered a bit of a blight around the seaside facility. Too clever for their own good.

Taken from her reverie by the mention of food, Yuzuki found herself grinning and chirping happily, "It'll be fine. I promise to eat our Nepleslian friend before you if times get tough~" Punctuating her joke with a wink Yuzuki smiled to herself and considered that if they really needed to the Neko among them could live off the prairie grass if need be. It wouldn't be enjoyable but it would get them to their destination.

Looking about their group Yuzuki wondered if the need for food and supplies would change the verdict of the others on whether they should skirt the town. Personally Yuzuki liked the idea of having to try to scavenge off the land better than being killed on an unfamiliar world. The others however might take their chances with the enemy.

"Well... no, but - " Aya was cut off mid-stumbling argument by Sif. Her shoulders slumped as the Mini-Neko said that they were going to leave the village behind. Ignoring the kobolds' hurried attempts to hug her and the others, the young Neko simply watched the village as it receded into the distance. Kuroneko's comment was only somewhat helpful in soothing Aya. Sif's observations definitely didn't help. Aya had desperately wanted to do the right thing, regardless of whether the squad had had an obligation to do so.

The sweets situation only made her feel worse.

Dimitri did not expect the hugs from the tiny little kobolds, and it showed on his face. However he soon steeled himself to continue on, he didn't want to abandon the village, but if the raiding party was anything like what they already faced they were in trouble. So he continued on, steering the carriage wide of the village, and quick. For a while he just listened quietly to what everyone said, but once Sif spoke of the food he saw an opportunity to lighten the mood.

"If we're low on food, we can always do some hunting. I an show of my amazing hunting skills." His words bled sarcasm he wasn't a good hunter, but watching him try to hunt a deer might be amusing for the neko who could likely do it with ease. "As for sweets, if we find some honey we can make candy out of it. I heard some of my passengers talking about how to do it once. It's really easy."