Cheep!?

Cheep!?

Chapter 62

Niko awoke slowly to a dimly lit room. Curious, he lifted his head and surveyed his environment, all the while recollection steadily flowed back into him.

‘Alright, I guess we’re on the pilgrimage now,’ He slowly shook his head, still reeling from the events of yesterday. In the low light, Niko was able to make out a simple bed on the other side of the room, complete with a nightstand beside it and what looked to be a dresser at the foot of it. Underneath himself, Niko noted a rounded bed of surprising softness and quality. Yet, all the while he felt like there was something off about things, like he was getting an echo of every thought he had. That had happened before, generally when Niko had stayed up for far too long. He was almost tempted to lie back down and rest more when he heard movement from the bed opposite his.

“Niko, that you?” A voice that Niko recognized as Skye’s asked.

Keeping his tone low, Niko warbled in affirmation. Then, with a low groan of effort, he forced himself up and out of bed. “If it’s not morning, I’m totally going back to bed.” 

“Ugh… I hear that.” Skye put a hand up to her forehead, before the both of them paused.

“Hey… Niko… what sounds good to eat right now?” Her tone was wary and cautious, but Niko didn’t blame her.

“Hashbrowns with lots of red sauce and… sauerkraut?” Niko frowned, “I hate sauerkraut. What?” 

Skye sat up fully, her gaze set on Niko closely, “I hate red sauce. That’s spicy as… I can hear you clearly.” The realization crystallized the sense of oddness in Niko’s mind–and judging by Skye’s expression, did the same for hers.

“How? Is there–” Niko felt within himself and paused, feeling relief when he noticed a link that felt much more in line with what he’d felt in the pilgrimage initiation than from an attempt at taming.

“I feel something, but… I guess it’s like…” She paused, the memory of their minds laid bare stirring her, “That was our Dreams, but… different, like a starting point but also a destination.”

“That means… what, exactly?” Niko clucked at her with a flat stare, “I don’t know about you, but that sounds cryptic as all get out.” 

Skye blinked out the rest of the sleepiness in her eyes before rising out of bed and stretching, “I don’t really know the details. Supposedly if you do something that brings you closer to your Dream, it helps you more? At the very least, nobody I know has the details. Crowe and Camille didn’t say anything, only that working with yourself was always easier than against.”

Niko mulled that over for several seconds as Skye stretched. He wasn’t certain how to feel about any of that, but he was sure that whatever his ‘Dream’ and strange titles were didn’t matter to him. Whatever anyone, or anything else said, he was very far beyond some notion of fate telling him where he was going. Some people appreciated predestination; Niko was most definitely not one of those people.

He rose and stretched, feeling his muscles tremble with the pleasant exertion, “Oh well, guess we’ll see if I like sauerkraut now.” 

Skye frowned, “I don’t get how you don’t like it. Or how you actually like that spicy sauce Mithel makes.

“You wouldn't get it, not cultured enough.” Niko teased.

Skye gave Niko the stink eye, “The sheer irony of a bird who lived in the forest up til now telling me I’m not cultured enough! I really need to tell Mithel to stop teaching you her babble.”

“That was from Dachna,” Corrected Niko with a sing-song trill as annoyingly as possible.

“Oh, even better,” Skye rolled her eyes with a smirk on her face, “Let’s grab some breakfast, big bird.”

Niko gave her a light peck on the back of her head as they left the room. Skye yelped and grabbed the back of her head while giving Niko a few steps of space, “What was that for?”

“Awful nickname.” Niko chortled at her. She frowned, but then got a mischievous twinkle in her eye. When she darted forward to grab at a feather, though, Niko had already moved away.

“Too slow~!” He taunted in another musical voice, “Even Yak is faster than…” 

He trailed off, and Skye stopped mid lunge on her attack, detecting the shifting morose tinge of his emotions. “Worried about your siblings?” Niko nodded wordlessly, and was unwilling to pretend otherwise at that moment.

Skye nodded, “I get that. You finally reunited with them, and now you’re split up again. It’s rough, but that’s also how it is for adventurers, y’know?” She said, and while noticing how Niko only nodded his head, but didn’t really have any meaning behind it, she continued. “It’s not like it’s a goodbye, either. We’ll run into them again, sooner or later. We’re all already on pilgrimage, so there’s no reason why we can’t catch up to them later. They’ll only have, what, a week’s head start on us?”

Niko thought about what she was saying, before deciding that she was right. Sure, he was still sad that he didn’t really even get to say goodbye, but that was fine. They’d see eachother again, and maybe by then they’d all be powerful enough that they wouldn’t have to skulk around so much. 

Plus, he had to admit he did like the idea of catching up to them.

“Thanks Skye. No matter what anyone says about you, you’re good people.” Niko said jokingly.

She blinked, and then glowered, “And who is saying what about me? Is it Dachna?”

Niko immediately sensed an opportunity for mischief, “No one at all~! It’s just a saying, right?” 

Clearly not believing him, Skye grumbled under her breath about Dachna much to Niko’s amusement. 

They split up, took care of their morning needs, and by the time they’d reached the main room breakfast was already being served. Out of the Wyldwalkers, the pair were the last to show up for breakfast, but it didn’t look like it was by much. 

“G’morning!” Ronald shouted over to them, looking less sordid than the rest, albeit only fractionally. Apparently that was enough to be a morning person, still, Niko groused.

“Morning. I have no idea how you’re this chipper right now, don’t you get tired?” Niko went with the longer greeting to see if Ronald could understand him as well as Skye. 

By the blank expression on his face and the subtle way his eyes slid over to Skye, he guessed it wasn’t effective at all.

Skye snorted, “We say good morning, he also says–,” Skye word for word translated Niko’s words, “As an aside. I can hear him near perfectly now. Kinda hoped you guys could catch some of it too.”

“Plebeians,” Niko shook his head with faux sadness and judgment.

The half-elf broke out into a wide grin at that.

“What’d he say?” Dachna asked with suspicion written across his face.

“Oh, nothing much. Though, I’ve heard you’ve been quite chatty with him?” Skye crossed her arms over her chest, exaggerating seriousness.

“I swear it’s nothing provable in court,” replied Dachna with a perfectly straight face, causing Mithel to almost choke on her water mid-gulp.

The group sat down together and ate, making more playful jabs at each other before a light breakfast was served. 

Camille entered the room halfway through, holding her own plate of a much heartier meal and pulling up a chair. No one waved her off–the group was more than happy to dine with their ruthless instructor–and in another few minutes Crowe joined them. This time the man actually sat down at the table, “Good morning everyone.”

The Wyldwalkers exchanged pleasantries before Crowe started eating, “Now that you have begun the pilgrimage, we have some suggestions on where to go. If you would like, you can strike out on your own, but I would suggest refraining from staying in smaller villages for more than a day or two at a time.”

“That whole ‘dragging people into things’ bit you mentioned before?” Dachna asked the man.

Crowe nodded, “Just so. I will refrain from going into detail on the mechanics behind that, but just know that you will be able to stay in larger places for longer without… issues arising as rapidly.”

Niko paused while eating and chirped out, “So… On a related note, is this Baron guy going to be a problem? All I’m getting is that people don’t really like him?” 

Skye translated, before turning her attention back to Niko, “Honestly? He’s an arse, but I don’t personally know much about him. I keep… or kept my hands free of politics before this.”

Ronald grunted, “He’s scum, like what Camille was saying. The only reason why most people in Greenleaf don’t know much about him is that he hires all his people from another city. And–” he paused, seeing everyone looking at him, “Keep in mind, the following is all ‘alleged’ and has no ‘grounding proof’ and most of it comes from my Dad. I’d appreciate none of it gets spread around, but you all should know what we’re getting into.”

At this, the rest of the team nodded, while Crowe and Camille only looked interested in seeing what information he had on the man. Ronald continued, “From everything I know about the man, he’s an abusive employer. He regularly beats anyone in his employ, and the only reason why he’s still here is because we can’t get anyone to give up any official testimony that the Baron is the one who does it. It’s always some unrelated accident at fault when they get asked, but the other problem being that most of them aren’t allowed to roam outside of the manor into the city. Their employment contract dictates that only specified individuals are allowed to go into the city for pickups of deliveries, and even then they don’t talk to anyone that they don’t have to.”

Ronald cleared his throat, “The only reason why we do know some of this is that rarely we’ve gotten anonymous information from people previously in his employ that send letters detailing what goes on. That’s been going on for years, and unless it’s some very elaborate ruse, I’m inclined to believe these people are hoping someone can do something about the man.”

“Why don’t they just… leave anyways?” Mithel frowned, “Surely they can just walk out the front gates?”

“Some have,” Ronald admitted, “But it seems the Baron either pays well or has leverage, because most aren’t willing to leave. We… don’t know too much about that, because anyone who sends us letters anonymously isn't willing to expose themselves. We could be reading into it too closely, but Dad and I think they’re under duress. Might even be that the guards have spies for the Baron; it’s not exactly traitorous, since he’s technically the one in governance.” He waved a hand flippantly, “But anyways, we’re pretty sure he facilitates and deals in all kinds of black market goods, including capturing prospective tames that aren’t strictly legal.”

That comment led a few eyes to Niko, who felt his guts tighten. “Considering the Kingdom is supposedly so tamer-friendly, that seems like a dramatic counterpoint to what everyone keeps claiming to be fact.” 

Skye translated his words, wincing alongside the rest of the people in the room. 

Camille spoke up then, “That’s a fair criticism. I’d like to say that most people respect beasts, but that’s on an individual level. The beast tribes, for example, are usually neutral at best these days. Their outlook on life tends more towards the wild side of things, like the strong over the weak, but they’re also not unreasonable. Still, some people with more money than sense get the idea in their heads that they can make poaching a lucrative business. And, unfortunately, they’d be right. You can find all kinds of beasts on the black market, but usually the upper echelons don’t bother stomping it out because they deal in the non-sapient creatures. You’ll never see something like a Red Hawk there, either, since that’d cause the Kingdom as a whole to come down on the market.”

“Doesn’t mean there aren’t people who make private deals, I guess,” Mithel’s expression soured.

“Anyways, that’s mostly what we’re dealing with,” Ronald brought attention back to himself, “The Baron is known for doing some bad things, but we don’t really know for certain how much. He’s at least got his fingers in the black market, abuses his people, and I’d put money on him being responsible for what happened with Niko’s family and a lot more besides.”

Niko sighed loudly, “And can someone remind me why we care about visiting this guy? Can I just decapitate him and be done with it?” 

“Please, I’ll bury the body.” Skye snorted laughter after her translation was complete, but Ronald shook his head with a wry smirk on his face.

“I’d love to, but laws are laws. We shouldn’t start arbitrarily breaching them, even if it would be satisfying.” Ronald played with the knife on his plate idly, “...Unless we can somehow get him to attack us?”

“Is that an invitation to make a Baron apoplectic with rage?” Dachna piped up hopefully, “Because I’m a master at pissing off rich people!”

Mithel slapped his shoulder playfully, “Please, don’t. As much as I hate this guy, we don’t need to be the ones to step out. But, on that note, how are we actually getting any useful information out of the Baron? I doubt he has anything just lying around?”

At this, Crowe spoke, “We believe that there will be some evidence somewhere on the estate. That will… not be your job.”

“We’re going to have someone else take care of that, the only thing you need to do is keep the Baron focused on you. He may even suggest that he put you up for the night, since you can’t come back here.” Camille added on, even as the Wyldwalkers looked at her aghast.

“What do you mean!? I-but–this food! How can I eat all of this food if we can’t come back here?” A machine-gun retort of squawking erupted from Niko, and while ordinarily Skye would have found it amusing, she, too, was distraught and translated quite dutifully.

“We’re getting kicked out?” Dachna frowned, looked at the food, then back up at Camille, “How much would it cost for us to get meals like this going forward?”

Camille smiled as she rattled off a price that made Dachna go pale and stiff. Mithel cleared her throat, her voice tight as she answered for Dachna, “Right, well, I guess that’s not happening anytime soon.”

“Well, I wouldn’t be too worried, Ronald’s well on the course to figuring out how I do what I do. Between him and you,” she gestured from Ronald to Mithel, “You guys won’t have any problems making money in the future, even without relying on hunting too much.”

“How?” Ronald’s expression took on a fierce visage, “I need to know.”

All at once, the team were leaning forwards, expressions deadly serious. Camille looked at them with a bittersweet expression, “Wow, the Baron was the casual talk, but the food is the serious business, huh?”

Crowe cleared his throat then, “That… generally is how that works with adventurers. You’ve always just been spoiled by yourself.”

Camille opened her mouth to retort when she paused, “Y’know, that’s fair, actually.”

The rest of their morning was spent–with Ronald taking notes furiously–detailing how essence control was the epitome of her art, how to make it work, and then suggesting that the entire team at least raise their skills to Ronald’s current level. The higher the better, there was no going wrong with good essence control.

When they finally left the Guildmaster’s estate, Niko wasn’t the only one looking wistfully back at the gates. Niko mournfully cried out, “Damn… I’m going to miss that food.”

“Right? I mean, I’ll miss Crowe and Camille, too, of course.” Skye cleared her throat.

“And the Guildmaster, though he never really showed much,” Mithel muttered, “Wonder what that’s about.”

Dachna shook his head, “You just wanted your eye candy.”

“Of course! I have eyes, they should be used.” Mithel nodded vigorously to the statement, leaving the group looking at her shamelessness with open dismay.

“Wow. You’re like a horny old man, aren’t you?” Niko shook his head.

Skye erupted in guffawing laughter until she wheezed, “Hah! That’s so true!”

Mithel pouted, “What? What’d he say?”
“Oh,” Skye’s eyes shone with mirth, “You wouldn’t get it. Too uncultured.” 

They laughed at that, even Mithel, but she then pressed, “No, but really, what’d he say?” 

The only answer she got was Skye’s and Niko’s cackling as they made their way to the Baron’s estate.