His grumbling and grouchy ride rocked left and right as Avin leaned on the back of the beast. The saddle was decidedly not comfortable, Avin complained for the tenth time. The Grolls trodden along lazily, carrying Avin on their hard backs.
The rustling of leaves, cool fresh wind smelling of the morning dew and the comforting reluctant warmth of the early sunrise. And of course, the constant chewing of the Grolls added a very calming touch to the whole morning experience. Normally, he would have woken up and done his morning training, but today he had things to do. Well, things to sell.
The sounds of morning rush reached his ears, and Avin pulled the wide off his head, which was shading his eyes. He knew the path by instinct now, able to guide the Grolls even without the need to look, with just the nudges of his feet. The village ahead was surrounded by a wall of tall shrubs that grew beautiful blue and green flowers. It might not have seemed like the most defensible fortification, but looks can be deceiving. Avin and his companions, the Grolls, trod past the entrance to the Delsy colony.
The Krimzons had five colonies governed by five Chiefs. A warrior of Spirits, and a shield and voice of his people. Then came the Krimzon guards. Each colony was made up of about a hundred guards. Sure, that number wasn't great, but each of them was about thrice as skilled as an Empire soldier, or so Avin had heard from the Chief. He had never seen an outsider combatant around here to find the truth for himself.
Then the people had pale white skin and bright red eyes. Dark curly black hair was the most common, and occasionally red hair, well, once many had red hair in the previous generations, according to the Oracles. But now Avin had only seen one in this generation.
Each house was built at the base of the bloodbark tree, wooden walls surrounding the giant trunks like armour. Painted with beautiful patterns, each house tries to outdo the other in terms of who can add more colours. Pink-red flowers grew from the hanging vines like a natural chandelier, except these chandeliers expanded out to the whole colony, sheltering it under their beautiful umbrella.
Avin was distinctly different from the Krimzons; he didn't have the white bone-like skin. Avin's skin was something between a light tan and pale, distinct from even some of the empire's merchants he had seen.
But the people smiled and waved at him as he rode by regardless.
"Avin! The biggest pain in the back of the Ulov!" an old man in his seventies, perhaps, shouted out, who had a greying long beard, sat on a rocking chair smoking from a pipe as he waved his cane.
"Who?" Avin turned to glance around him in surprise, to look for whom the old man was talking about, and rode away as the old man laughed.
A few more exchanges followed after that, all patting him on the back with words of thanks. He couldn't believe that just a couple of years ago these people didn't even want to let him into their colonies. But Avin had won them over with time, helping them whenever they clashed with the Ulov's and taking care of wild animals that sometimes ventured close to the colonies. He had saved the lives of more than a couple of dozen people, children and women of the Delsy colony.
Well, he didn't really mean to, but he was being honest with himself. At first, he was quite content to leave them to their fate. Why should he even bother with the people who didn't even want to associate themselves with him, like he was some kind of disease? But then Vlad had told him to always be good to your neighbours-even the mean ones.
But really they were not exactly mean, just wary of outsiders. The Krimzons were an old people Vlad had said, older than even the Empire. And they had survived so far only by isolating themselves from the outside. The same went for the Ulov too, but they were different.
He was pondering it when he saw a girl standing in his way, her hands crossed as she looked up at him with those wide green eyes. Avin pulled the reins on the Grolls as they came to a stop just before her.
"Hello, Selina," Avin said, leaning forward looking down at the pretty girl. "You look annoyed today… as usual."
Selina huffed and stomped up to him and climbed on top of the Groll beside Avin. She didn't seem wary of the beast, for they were naturally calm creatures, not easily startled. And Avin doubted if they could even startle Selina if they tried.
"I told you so many times just to call me Seli, Selina is such a grandmother's name."
Avin shrugged, "How is Selina a grandmother's name? It's such a good name, shame it doesn't suit your grouchy self. Besides, it's funny to call people names they don't want you to use."
"." She said with an annoyed look.
"Exactly. So. What can I do for you today?" Avin asked, used to the girl's antics, after all, she was his only friend around here. Most of the kids his age weren't really fond of him. Well, Avin couldn't really blame them since he had thrashed the hell out of more than half of them on more than a couple of occasions.
"I want you to beat the crap out of Reema," Selina said in a flat tone.
"Why? No, let me guess, because she is trying to get all close with Renry–"
"Sindyl." Selina cut him off. A moment of silence followed as Avin turned to regard the girl.
"Sindyl? But weren't you trying your luck with Renry–"
"That was last week." Again she said in the infuriatingly monotonous tone.
Avin opened his mouth to speak, but halted as Selina threw him a look that seemed to say, "You think long and hard before you speak anything." So Avin just swallowed instead.
Avin sighed, young girls and their friend circles running circles around romantic circles made Avin's head spin in circles.
Avin just snorted and scowled down at the girl, "I don't go around beating up little girls, girl."
"Except for the time you beat up Nelin, Losy and–"
"Now-now, no need to count all my glorious achievements. Those girls were mean to me and you know it." Avin replied in the tone of a wounded puppy.
"They were fourteen Avin," Selina said, giving him a pitying look, which really made him want to strangle the little brat.
"So are you..." he said with gritted teeth. Selina, in response, just shrugged as if it didn't matter.
"Well of course, I'm different."
Avin scowled, "Different? And how are you different, pray tell?"
"I have you as my friend." She said in a sweet voice.
"And I can ask you to beat them up, but they can't do the same." She finished the second part under her breath.
The smile came and went from Avin's face as he looked at the girl with incredulity.
Selina just gave him a sober glare, "What? Weren't you the one who told me that in this world power is what makes the difference between two parties, so since I hold you, I hold the power. Plain and simple."
"I am not the hammer at your disposal you brat." Avin reached out and flicked Selina on the forehead.
Selina rubbed her forehead, but had a shameless smile on her stupid face, which really only made Avin smile. They bantered some more as they made their way towards the biggest structure in the middle of the colony where the Chief lived.
It was a big structure connecting four Bloodbarks in an approximate square with a long wooden structure. The Guards Keep was a two-story fortification. There were no colourful patterns drawn on the outer walls of this building; instead, it was painted grey and black, making it stand out and giving off a grave, heavy feeling. Avin brought his gang to a stop just outside the parameters of the Guards-keep, and hopped off, stretching his back and smiling in satisfaction as his spine cracked.
"By the way, there seems to be more and more raids on the outer posts, huh?" Selina said, eyeing the Grolls seriously as if seeing them for the first time..
"You just noticed?" Avin asked incredulously.
She just humped "No, but I have bigger things to think about, you know."
"Sure you do, don't I know?" Avin shook his head and looked around. There were very few people around the square.
He made his way into the Chiefs' hold, Selina following him. They first searched the practice grounds for the guards and found it empty, then they looked in the barracks and still found no one. Avin left the Chiefhold with a frown.
"So you really don't know where they went?" He asked Selina, who just shook her head in confusion.
"They must've left in the night since I didn't hear anyone talking about their departure."
"Hmm.." he wondered where they had gone before he saw a group of figures coming his way, tired and hunched figures dressed in black leather armour.
Leading them was a man with a roughly kept stubble, a lazy gaze but had a handsome face who looked to be in his mid–thirties: Chief Kevan. One of the five warriors of Spirits in all of Krimzon Valley.
Kevan had a serious expression on his face, which was not very common for the man was very jovial, hell, even goofy at times.
But that serious expression vanished and turned into a wide mischievous smile as his gaze met Avin's.
"If you want to talk to the chief, then know that he has a huge, and I mean huge, humongous and exhaustive line of beautiful women lining up for his attention, so please get in the line." The chief laughed at his own joke and ruffled Selina's hair show just glared at him in annoyance.
"Seriously, what is up with everyone and their misguided romantic delusions today?"
In response, Selina swung at his side, which Avin effortlessly sidestepped.
"What did you put in the glass of the women's water chief for them to get in the line to see you? Must be strong stuff." Avin joked as he dodged another punch by Selina.
Before the chief could say anything, the guards behind him nodded to Avin and walked past him, some ruffled Selina's hair, which she tried to bat aside, which only made the men laugh.
"Useless sacks of sorry, stupid, senseless slops!" Selina cursed as they walked away and into the barracks.
"Slops?" Both Avin and Kevan asked in unison.
"I don't know, it's a word I learned from master Yorum. It's a word they use to describe some kind of animal that walks slowly and lives inside a thick heavy shell. They call them turtles too, I think."
"Ahh.." Avin nodded, he had read the story about the rabbit and the turtle too from his collection of short stories.
Avin had two kinds of story books, one which contained more grizzly life lessons, and one obviously made for children. That Fox and lion story belonged to the grizzly life lessons, and the rabbit and the turtle story was in the children's storybook.
Avin gestured the Chief towards the Grolls he had captured, "I was wandering the woods and found these poor guys lost. So I brought them to you, you can take them, but of course, for the right price." Avin said with a smile, but the smile vanished from the Chief's face as he regarded the Grolls.
"You got seven? Where?" The chief asked, all levity gone from his voice, Avin nodded.
"Last evening, they were heading here, you see, from the south-west, quite close to my humble hut, fortunately for me and unfortunately for them."
"There were another dozen of their riders harassing the outposts all night, we've just returned after chasing them off to the north…" the chief trailed off as he gave Avin a meaningful look.
"So the dozen were a bait for you? To draw you out north, followed by a quick raid from the south?"
"How did you know they were coming?" the chief asked as he walked up to the Grolls, Avin and Selina walking beside him.
"I saw them skulking about a week ago, so I started stalking them. I saw them do all sorts of things, but most importantly, I observed them picking up a route for their raid– or so I assumed. Weird... considering they're not usually this deliberate when it comes to a mere raid."
"Hmm, this is troublesome. There will be a meeting of chiefs in a couple of days. I want you to come with me as a witness." Kevan said, putting his hands on Avin's shoulders eyeing him grimly.
Avin simply shrugged, "As you say, Chief."
"Oh, can I come too, chief?" Selina said, perking up in excitement.
"Why do you need to go? It's a meeting of adults, not a picnic for children." Avin admonished.
"No, it's alright–" Kevan replied, but Avin cut him off.
"No need boss, she will just be a nuisance–"
Selina eyes Avin and smiled mischievously and opened her mouth to speak, "You know I have some business with Elizei–"
"On second thought, we should not leave Selina behind, Chief. How dare you even suggest it? I mean think about it, what would we ever do without our little charming lady, the bringer of fortunes, and the well of wisdom that she is. Her counsel should never, under any circumstances, be ignored."
Selina just nodded with a content smile, "as I thought"
Kevan just gave a weak chuckle. "Sure"