Disposable Hero Ch. 03 Pt. 02

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The Gathering - Adjusting.
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Part 15 of the 21 part series

Updated 06/07/2023
Created 02/19/2015
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Bokhun
Bokhun
310 Followers

The Gathering

Adjusting to the Surface

Walking about five hundred meters away from the camp, Henri stopped and looked at the ground, clearly displeased the tracks looked similar to wild pigs but much bigger. Zilvra was lost wondering why he was looking at the ground all she could tell was that a short animal had made a path.

She asked wondering, "What are you looking at?"

He said softly, "I think this is a boar run. Boars are a small, yet very powerful animal, and good eating, I might add. This isn't good, having boars this close to our camp it will only be a matter of time till we have a problem with them, they are very territorial."

She looked at the path, wondering why their territorial behavior would be a problem, and asked, "How big are these boars? Are they poisonous?"

He answered, "They are about as tall as those bushes and weigh more than I do with very sharp tusks that would split your lizard's skin open very easily. We need to kill the boars. Once we do, we will have fresh meat for about 3 days, and if your family has anything to cure the meat then it can last longer. Besides with a build as big as you are we need to increase our caloric intake of food if we are going to be working in the sun, it will cause us to burn more calories so being this thin isn't good, we need a little more mass on us."

His attention was caught by the wind as it changed. He got up and took a deep whiff, his stomach grumbled and smiled at the memories that smell brought up.

By comparison Drow eat like birds and he had had enough of their diet and the thought of grilled boar was great but this smell was even better.

'A smoke house, perfect' he thought.

He signaled to Zilvra as she caught up to him, she was lost as to what had caught his attention. As he followed the smells for about two kilometers he came to a clearing, as he looked at the house Henri saw the cows in the pasture.

Zilvra was surprised by his sense of smell; she didn't smell anything but smoke until they got to the clearing, when the smell of cooking meat came to her. In her defense, with all the new smells around her, she couldn't tell what was what. Henri told her to stay there, he was going to go and talk to the people at that farm. He just hoped his fatigues wouldn't cause too many problems.

Stepping out of the woods and across the road, Henri started calling to the house not wanting to shock anybody, he told Zilvra to stay hidden and wait for his return.

When he got about fifty meters from the house a little girl, about eight years old, came out of the front door and looked at him.

Henri waved and smiled his best 'I'm not here to hurt you' smile while asking, "Is your mommy or daddy home, I need to talk with them."

Before she could answer, a woman of about thirty came out. She saw the sword at his side which sent her back inside where she began whispering something to the girl.

The little girl ran further into the house, as the woman spoke but Henri could see the fear in her eyes, "What is your business here?"

She looked at his sword fearfully, this wasn't good, if she thought he was a threat she wouldn't trade.

Henri smiled at her and in a very friendly tone said, "I smelled your smoke house and wanted to do some trading."

She looked at him and said still not trusting him, "Where are your goods to trade?"

Out of the door came three boys, one holding a crossbow, the others with spears in their hands. Henri kept his hands in view as he didn't want this to get ugly.

Henri carried on talking, "My goods are back at my camp site, I found a wild pig run and was going to hunt the pigs. I stopped when I smelled the smoke. I would like to trade any meat I kill for some smoked meats for my trip to Delliletum"

She smiled and told her boys to lower their weapons. Her voice showed her relief, "You would get rid of those bothersome pigs for us? My husband has talked about hunting them down because they keep destroying our fields, and he will be thrilled if you have taken care of the problem for him."

Henri smiled in relief, happy this was going to work out, "Then we have a deal? I'll bring some coin and maybe I'll buy some fresh goods if you have some. I'll come by in the evening then."

With that he bade them goodbye and was happy to be able to get some real food. When he got back to Zilvra, he was pleasantly surprised to see that she had remained hidden, as she stepped out of the shadows and greeted him.

"Well we won't starve out here, and I've made a contact for your family," Henri said proud of his accomplishment.

She retorted back like he was a moron, "You expect us to trust those humans?"

He shook his head, but understood such ignorance would slowly fade with time on the surface.

Henri said trying to sound worldly, "Right now you need all the friends you can get."

She couldn't argue about that, but still didn't like the thought of trusting these people, and he really couldn't blame her.

When they got back to their camp Henri looked around for a bow and some arrows. He found one and handed it to Zilvra.

He asked Belar if she wanted to help, but she shook her head no and told him that her head hurt from the light. He was guessing it would be the same as being outside in winter on a sunny day without something to shade their eyes.

Henri looked around and saw that it was late afternoon and the shadows were setting in. As he looked around he saw a length of rope and an excellent idea occurred to him. Henri tried to talk Belar into walking out of the cave where she and everybody else were hiding, but he got nothing but attitude from her about not wanting to go out of the cave because of how much the lighthurt.

Henri took the time to speak with Alak about the human farm that he saw and the deal he had made and asked for some money to get the things they would need. Alak agreed, after all he had no real reason to mistrust Henri; it was good to know somebody trusted him.

Henri turned back to Belar. He was unsure of the answer but he asked, "Can you make it dark around yourselves?"

He had seen Dirzune do this and had seen others do it in the fight at the mansion.

Dirzune said, "Yes, but why would we?" Trying not to sound too hopeful, Henri continued, "I need your help with a very big animal that will give us a lot of food when we kill it. Now the best way to kill it is with spears. So if you make it dark around yourselves then I can lead you to the woods where the shade would help you not be so blinded by the sun and you would be able to help me to hunt."

After thinking for a moment Dirzune said, "We wouldn't be able to see where we are going. That darkness prevents our dark vision from working."

Now, he knew this would happen and said, "Tie this rope around one of you and the other person can hold on to it. Zilvra will lead you to the woods, and then you can stop that blackness."

Now, they understood what was going on and agreed, partly because they wanted to see this animal.

Henri walked to the fire pit and got the fire going and well stoked as he told them he was ready. They cast the darkness and were enveloped in a globe of darkness five meters in radius that light could not penetrate.

Zilvra lead them to the woods and told them to stop. They did and canceled the magical darkness. Even though they were in the woods, they still winced as it was still very bright for them. They got a little more comfortable as they walked deeper into the woods.

When they came to the pig run, Henri asked Zilvra, "Are you ready to go wild pig hunting?"

She nodded, clearly glad to be doing something, and he thought she must curious about what a boar looked like.

He handed her the bow and said, "Get up to some higher ground to get a better shot and aim just behind the front legs."

She smiled took the bow and cast a levitation spell and floated up about 2m, he still couldn't believe that her people could do that. Henri put Dirzune and Belar on each side of the run and told them when the pig was there to stick the spears in and leave them in. He didn't like the thought of Belar being involved, she was still with his child after all, but Henri had no choice.

He got in the middle of the run and began to make a pig call as best he could. After a few minutes a 200kg male stepped into the run, clearly not happy. It was green and dark brown but this boar was almost three times the size of one on Earth and had six legs not four. Henri took off running away from the big pig because as soon as it saw him it charged after him. As it came past Zilvra, she fired two arrows, one hitting the shoulder, the other hitting the chest close to the heart. Now the pig came close to Dirzune and Belar, and Zilvra screamed "Now!" and they jumped out and shoved both spears into the sides of the pig which caused it to squeal in pain and slow from its pursuit of Henri.

Henri climbed up a tree, he saw the pig turn and try to head back towards the direction in had come, he knew it wouldn't live much longer but it was still better to wait and to be safe than sorry. After another minute, the pig dropped to the ground having trouble breathing. He climbed down and walked up behind the pig, took out his Tanto and cut a huge gash in the pig's neck killing it quickly. He called both Belar and Dirzune over and asked if they could carry the pig back to camp. He thrust the boar on to one spear and they each took an end. He told them he would be there shortly after he checked out the nest with Zilvra.

Henri fetched the arrows from the pig and handed them to Zilvra, she asked if she could come down now or not.

This gave him another idea so he said no and asked if she could move around with that spell. She shook her head, so he took her foot and told her to keep her eyes out for a nest and a female; he explained what it would look like.

When they got closer, Zilvra saw a small clearing off the run on the side of a small hill. In the middle of the clearing there was a large female pig grazing with its five piglets.

Zilvra raised the Long Bow and fired two arrows hitting the sow in the heart and just behind the heart. The sow squealed and looked to see where the arrows had come from but the sow had no clue. She tried to run into the bush as two more arrows hit her and the sow fell to the ground and started to bleed out.

Henri told Zilvra to come down and help him catch the piglets. Upon returning to camp with the dead female pig and the captured piglets, Henri gutted one pig and trussed it up above the fire and told the others in the party to keep turning the pig for the next four hours and it should be done by then.

Henri grabbed both his Katana and Wakizashi and placed them one above the other, he took his pack placed the piglets inside and took the sack of money. He had Zilvra come with him as he would need her help to carry the pig.

It was dark when they got to the homestead. As he walked up the road Zilvra went with him she knew that humans couldn't see very far at night and she would stay just out of their light.

Henri shouted to the family so as not to scare them when he walked up. A short man came out, lit lanterns on the porch of the house, and stood with a crossbow in his hands as Henri came into sight, Seeing the pig on Henri's shoulders the man lowered his crossbow and greeted Henri as he called for his boys to help Henri out. The men stayed on the porch as the farmer's wife came out and they started talking.

She said, "I see you got a nice looking sow there"

Henri set it on the steps and said, "It is, and I also have five piglets for you" as he took out the scared piglets, which were squealing and gave them to her.

Her husband smiled and said, "Thank you friend. I have been meaning to get rid of them for some time, let's talk a little business. My wife said you were looking to trade the boar for some smoked meats, is that correct?"

Henri lied, saying, "Yes, we lost our horses on the way to the dwarven Underearth stronghold, and they gave us lizards. It will take us forever to get to the nearest town to get horses and when I saw the pig run and smelled the smoke house I thought about stocking up for the trip."

The man couldn't argue with Henri's reasoning. If he only knew the truth, Henri doubted the farmer would have been so helpful.

The farmer offered, "I have a horse I could lend. The nearest town where you could get horses is about a day away, unless you try the elven village about a quarter day from here. For a 100 gold deposit, I will let you borrow our horse"

'Shit, just my luck' Henri thought.

Henri knew from the Drow, that Sun kissed, or surface, elves hated the Drow and vice versa. Henri's current allies were blind and he was outnumbered by people who knew this land better than he did.

Henri thought hard and replied, "Agreed. Can you show me how to get to the elven village Mr...?"

The man said, "Mr. Ranchov, Mikhail and your name good sir?"

Henri replied, "Henri Bordeaux. It is nice to meet you."

Henri extended his hand and greeted his new friend.

Henri looked at Mikhail's wife and asked, "Could I get some bacon from that boar?"

She nodded and offered, "You said you wanted some fresh goods. Let's go into the larder and I will let you pick a few things. Honey, can we give him a few bottles of that wine the elves traded for meat, for the pigs?"

Mikhail nodded and they talked some more in the larder. Henri sampled some of the cheeses and meats they had and made his choices for their trade. With the business done they headed out.

Henri said that he would be by tomorrow just after dawn to get the horse and pay them for it. They agreed and Henri bid them good night and headed back to camp. Zilvra joined him when he was out of the sight of the humans.

When he got back to the camp, he showed everyone his haul. They enjoyed the fresh bread he had brought from the farm and what tasted like oranges even if it looked more like a lime as well. They found the pig to be very salty; they loved the elven wine Mikhail gave them.

For the most part everybody was happy with Henri's first trade. He told them the bad news about the nearby elven village and mentioned that the farmer would lend him a horse.

Zilvra looked at him with a very puzzled look and asked, "Do you know how to ride a horse?"

His eyes got wide when he realized he didn't. Hell he was used to walking, or riding in an Armored Personnel Carrier.

Henri mused and tried to be tough, "How hard could it be?"

Zilvra smiled and knew that tomorrow was going to be very funny indeed, she watched him closely as he walked over to the wagon that kept his things.

Henri docked his tablet to let it recharge tomorrow and slipped one of the ear buds from his iPod into his ear. As it was nighttime Zilvra saw this movement clearly and looked at the cord going to his ear.

She asked, "What is that?"

Henri said, "It is more of my people's magic as you call it. We call this an "iPod" it makes music."

She looked at him in shock wondering several things like how did he get a group of musicians in such a small thing, or even what music sounded like to this strange man and said, "Can I hear this music?"

He took the other ear bud out and set it in her ear. Then he turned the volume down while she watched him as he chose Eric Clapton performing acoustically and let it play. Henri chose Clapton because his father was a big fan and every time he played it Henri felt a little closer to his father, which he could use right about now.

Her eyes widened in amazement at hearing music coming from the ear bud. Henri saw everybody looking at them and he asked if they wanted to listen to the music. Of course they all said yes and one by one he plugged in the ear bud and played Layla over and over and over till they had all heard the song.

Henri chuckled to himself; he never thought in a million years that he would see people shocked by something he had come to take for granted.

This of course led to more questions from Rikton. This was the one person of whom he didn't have a good read. Superficially at least, Rikton seemed fascinated with everything Henri said, like he honestly wanted to know.

Rikton asked trying to make a point to the others, "Henri, how would your people act if they saw us?"

Henri had all eyes on him as he said, "Well it would depend on where you were. If you were in Japan where I was before coming here you would be walking into a war and at the very least we would look at you as spies."

Dirzune knowing how her own people treated spies, wanted to know something else and asked, "From what you have seen, if we stayed true to ourselves how would your people react to us?"

It wasn't often that she spoke and Henri found himself wondering what they would think and finally said, "Again, it depends on where you were in a war zone. We have kill on sight orders, so if you showed up there you would be shot at, if not killed. As for your way of life we really wouldn't care as long as the other person agreed to such a thing. So yes, if you went back to beating and killing each other we would stop you. It is against our laws."

Rikton asked lost at the thought of laws that people followed and asked, "So your people follow these laws?"

Henri said, "Sure. We are for the most part a law abiding people. We even hire people to enforce the laws, without those laws we believe we would have chaos."

The other woman who Rikton said was his daughter finally spoke saying, "Why does any of this matter? We are living in the surface wilderness leaving our fates to a human and a male no less. Have you lost your minds trusting a slave?"

Rikton knowing that the surface is male driven said, "Ethev that is enough ..."

He didn't get to finish as she roared, "Who are you to speak to me, remember your place male, my matron may be soft for you but I have no such compulsions, sire or no."

Henri could believe such disrespect to their own father but that didn't mean he liked it and said sarcastically, "On my world we have a saying that children should be seen and not heard. You could learn a lot about the people on the surface by shutting your hole and listening to those who have been on the surface, dumb ass."

Her eyes glowed with hatred as she charged him, Henri stayed seated as she went to strike him.

As she swung he blocked, rolled and turned then spun her to the ground. Throwing his weight over her chest and started to dislocate her shoulder, only stopping to say, "I guess you never saw me fight in the pit."

She screamed in a rage, "Let go of me! How dare you put your hands on the eldest daughter of Dirzune and next head of our house!"

Henri laughed at her and just to remind her of the truth said, "You are now the head of nothing, and don't forget that if you want a fight then I am more than happy to beat some respect into you, because that seems to be how your people learn things. I will let you up when you apologize to your father." As he said that he tightened his hold a little more, if he added any more pressure he would dislocate her shoulder.

She had gritted her teeth but hadn't said a word as he sat back on her hip and waited. She started to chant and Henri knew she was going for a spell of some sort. He had to let her know that that wasn't happening so he put his left arm around and grab a hold of her breast, giving it a squeeze.

She screamed sounding more helpless than anything, "You're dead! You just don't know it yet."

Henri replied, "You could have saved yourself from all of this by apologizing to your father, but I must say "That's a very nice rack you have there.""

Zilvra, pointing out the obvious, said, "You really think she is going to do something that goes against our nature?"

Bokhun
Bokhun
310 Followers
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