A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

"No, you haven't!" Karesh said. "You just complain about how disgusting it is. That isn't fricken' helpful."

"She is trying though," Kaya pointed out.

"Don't you stick up for her, Kaya. It's not about being nice. These are just cold hard facts. Logic, right, Jorah?" Karesh said, sure that Jorah would side with him as soon as he brought up something as in line with Jorah's temperament as 'logic'.

"I do agree," Jorah said. "It seems illogical to bring them. But you're not exactly helping the situation either, Karesh."

"Enough," Oliver said. "I'm wasting time here. Pauline, Amelia, if you're forcing yourselves to stay, as burdensome as you're being, then you'll have to establish a use for yourselves.

The problem is worth considering, for we'll be frequenting the Grand Forest in the future, and though we might not be in as much of a rush as today, there still likely will be times when you'll be forced to go beyond your physical limits. What will you do then, to offset the burden of carrying you on a sledge?"

Pauline could not have looked more ashamed with herself, but she still spoke up to offer a suggestion regardless. "Uhm… I could make tea for everyone," she said. "We brought along this flask in a cosy – the water stays warm for a couple of hours."

"More weight!" Karesh exclaimed. "No wonder you're so heavy!"

She dipped her head, thoroughly abashed.

"Tea would be fine with me," Jorah interrupted. "If you would handle the business of keeping us fed and watered, I would have fewer complaints. That would at least be distributing our duties, and giving you a purpose. Also, since you're sitting, you should be in a better position to watch for attacks than we are. That would serve a purpose."

"I can do that!" Pauline said happily.

"I could as well…"

"I mean… fine," Karesh said. "But really, if they don't handle the butchering, they're not properly helping… If they could cut the meat and make us rest, that would be enough."

"Karesh!" Kaya said. "You can't make girls do that!"

"Why not, you fricken' meatball? Why do you always go soft in the head with women, eh? They're here in the woods with us. They can't just be something to look at. Even their Lady's cutting things up with her sword, defending us. Her retainers have got to have a use," Karesh said.

"I'm not—" Kaya began hotly, only to be interrupted by Amelia.

"Fine!" Amelia said. "If you're going to complain so much, I'll do it! I'll ignore how gross it is, and cut them up anyway."

"Uhm… I will also try to," Pauline said, though it was clear that the idea seemed even more impossible than her.

"Sure, do what you can," Oliver said. "Just remember, that if you have a use, people will be less likely to leave you behind. If that's important to you, it's something to consider. Anyway, I leave you to it. I'm off now."

"Uhm… Thank you," Blackthorn said meekly, stopping him before he left. "I should have been the one to take care of that… It was my problem."

"You'll know what to do in future," Oliver assured her. Then, he was off again, back to the thoroughfare, and then onwards towards Moonbear territory.

These creatures were closely nestled alongside the Hobgoblins, which once more proved to be a convenience for Oliver. The Grand Forest being what it was, it would have been irritating to have five thoroughly scattered classes of monsters that he needed to hunt.

Still, that minor variation from Hobgoblin trail to Moonbear – an earlier deviation from the Hobgoblin path, off to the right, deeper into the forest – brought with it a new class of lesser enemies, amongst the goblins, another type that Oliver had not laid eyes on before – the Bell Birds.

As the name would imply, that was the sound that Oliver heard as he rang through the woods. A chorus of bell-like chirps, as though he was entering a churchyard rather than a forest. The sound wasn't just loud, but so all-encompassing as to be disorienting.

He couldn't even hear his footsteps hit the floor, which proved worrying enough for him, for it almost meant the approach of any other enemy would be dampened. It made him realize just how much he relied on his hearing.

The Bell Birds had clearly seen him, because their chorus had increased in volume by terrifically large amounts the second that he'd entered their patch of the woods. Just like the Water Sprites, these were creatures that much preferred to hunt in packs.

They would start up a chorus, covering the forest in a blanket of sound that even the most able-eared bit of prey couldn't pierce through, and then they'd begin their barrage of attacks.

Even without the overwhelming sound of their chirps, they were quiet moving creatures. When they left a branch to swoop in on their prey with their spear-like beaks, the flutter of their wings was as quiet as a bird was likely to get. Not quite as quiet as an owl, but approaching that level.

It was only by moving erratically, and diving into the snow, that Oliver managed to escape that fate of having one run him straight through.

It swooped past overhead, just past his ear. His raised sword only just managed to clip its black wing, and send it crashing to the floor before it could return to the well-covered branches of the trees in preparation for another attack.

The monstrous bird squawked in the snow as it attempted to fly away on its broken wing. Oliver rushed after it, staying well clear of its straight and razor-sharp beak, twice the length of its already fairly large body.

It turned its head to look at him with its single eye, waving its beak as a man would a dagger. The creature definitely seemed to know its strength, even when the natural tactic given to it by instinct had failed. Of course, a bird that had lost its flight was unlikely to do anything to Oliver that he couldn't deal with. He swiftly pierced it, and moved on.

Then the next one came as he ran, this time from off to the side, its black and white body hardly visible as it swooped in from the corner of his eye.