Chapter 36: Heather

(POV Aaron)

She was right. In the morning and for most of the day, we see neither hide nor hair of the centaur herd. We keep on alert throughout the day just in case, but there is no attack. Nothing.

Nor the next day. Or the day after. By the fourth day, we assume that we have seen the last of them and are almost completely back to our normal activities, save that we are keeping within the safety of our walls as one last precaution for a couple more days.

Naturally, we have to pop out now and again for food and water, but we keep those trips short and quick.

On the sixth day, we decide all’s well and completely resume normal activity.

I’m on my usual run along the riverbank, a little past the bridge and still evenly puffing my way along, when I notice something ahead of me. Before long, I’m able to recognise it as a centaur. A little bit longer, and I’m able to recognise her as the same centaur that asked us for help just under a week before, slowly treading in the same direction as me. I reach up and take off my helmet.

Once I’m within earshot, I call out, “Morning!”

She jumps slightly in surprise and quickly turns her upper body to look at me, all while seemingly ready to bolt. After an initial moment of panic, she recognises me and turns to face me, wiping her eyes surreptitiously. “Are you following me?”

“What? No.” I reply, slowing to a halt a generous distance away from her. “I was just on a run and happened to see you. Are you alright? You seemed a bit startled when I called out.”

“I… Things didn’t go as well as I thought they would. At first everything seemed fine, someone found the body and the whole camp was suddenly up and talking about it…” She sighs. “Nobody liked him, so everyone was quick to move on. A new chief had to step up. The next few days those interested in the position competed in the hunt, as is tradition.”

I nod with furrowed eyebrows. I sense a ‘but’ incoming.

“The victor was a childhood friend of mine. I was happy, even happier when he proposed to me.” She shakes her head. “He hit me just for asking a question, then again when I asked why. It feels like all the men in the tribe just see me as a trophy mare, and not actually as a person.”

A silent ‘but’, but a poignant one, nonetheless.

“Damn.” I shake my head. “Tough break. But you’re here now, so you must’ve left, right?”

She snorts. “Of course. I wasn’t going to stand there and let that happen to me again. Left then and there, and nothing he could do about it. He may be the best hunter in the tribe, but I’m the fastest.”

“The tribe will probably question his leadership now that I’ve left the day after we were wed, and so dramatically.” She muses. “Serves him right.”

I nod. “It’s good that you’re out of that situation, but what are you going to do now? Are you strong enough to survive out here on your own?”

“I don’t know…” She sighs. “I left on the spur of the moment, but now I’m afraid I might have to go back before long.”

I stare at her. “That’s not a good idea. That’s the last place you should be, especially right now. Look, if you want, you can stay with us until you find your…” I look down. “Hooves.”

“I… I don’t know if I can be around men right now.” She replies hesitantly.

“Fair enough.” I nod. “But I swear that we would never treat you that way. If you change your mind, you know where to find us - my offer still stands.”

She nods somewhat stiffly but says nothing.

“Well, hope you do well.” I say, replacing my helmet.

“Goodbye.” She replies half-heartedly.

I turn around and start jogging back.

The trip back to camp is mostly without incident. My wrists are a bit sore from the time I sidestepped a charging bull with bronze horns then smashed my warhammer into its head while it was still charging, but otherwise a normal morning jog.

Boaz is in the watchtower, and together we haul open the crude gate so I can get inside.

“Good jog?” He asks.

“About the usual.” I reply, starting to take off my armour so I could clean it out. “Came across that centaur woman from the other day.”

“Huh. Did yeh find out what happened with that?” Boaz asks.

“Yeah. I’ll need to discuss it with everyone.” I reply. “Do you happen to know where Xiltroth and your brother are?”

“Jakin is in the storage cabin, trying to fix a hole in his pants.” Boaz says, straight-faced. “I think I saw Xiltroth down near the river.”

“Thanks, Boaz.”

I head towards the storage cabin. As I approach, I hear a voice furiously cursing from within. It seems he isn’t having any luck.

The floor of the cabin is strewn with various bits and pieces: sections of monster leather, bones, carapace and horns, and anything else we thought was worthwhile to keep. I enter the cabin and see Jakin sitting on the floor with a pair of pants, a small patch of fabric and some thread laid upon his lap, glaring wrathfully at the tiny needle in between his fingers. I set my armour down in an empty spot.

“It’s these blasted fingers of mine.” He growls, noticing the clamour. “They’re so thick and clumsy. Couldn’t thread this bloody needle to save my life.”

I walk over and proffer my hand. “Everyone has their own set of skills and talents. Yours just doesn’t contain this. Let me.”

Sitting down next to him, I take the various items from him and carefully thread the needle. Settling the patch in place on the ripped pants, I begin to stitch them together.

“Doesn’t seem to bother yeh.” Jakin grunts. “Yeh seem to have a knack fer everything yeh do. Never seen anything like it.”

I nod. “Doesn’t make my life much better, though. Sure, it makes it easier, but… How do you enjoy something that’s easy to do?”

“I wouldn’t mind if it were easier to get a drink around here.” Jakin shakes his head. “We can only carry so much back from the halflings, and it’s always gone within a week.”

“Alright, imagine you have a beer right now. It’s a nice beer, and you enjoy it.” I say. “Now imagine you have a hard day of work, and you’ve just gotten your pay. You take the money you just earned and buy a beer - the same beer. But this time it doesn’t just taste good, does it? No, it tastes great. It’s like that. You work hard for something you like, and it just feels so much more worthwhile when you get it.”

“Aye, can’t argue with that.” Jakin gulps. “Now I really want a bloody beer.”

“Everything’s easier, everything becomes less enjoyable the better I become at it.” I sigh, before giving him a wry smile. “Exception being things done with friends. Somehow, that never gets old.”

“Company makes everything better.” Jakin agrees. “If not for Boaz standing by me, I would have turned down a much darker path.”

I finish my very basic running stitch and tie off the thread. After handing the pants back to Jakin, I set the needle and thread back away in their box. “There we go. I almost forgot; I need to talk with everyone about something. Could you meet me at the watchtower in 10 or so? Just need to get Xiltroth first.”

“Sure.” Jakin pushes himself to his feet and groans, stretching. “See yeh there.”

Nodding, I leave the cabin and head back out through the gate again, towards the river.

It doesn’t take me long to find Xiltroth sitting cross-legged on the banks, facing towards the river. As I approach, he evidently notices me, because he calls out to me without turning around.

“Aaron. Something up?” He asks.

My eyebrows raise. “You can tell who it is by the sound of our footsteps?”

“Between you and the twins? Yes.” He replies. “But between Jakin and Boaz themselves? It’s a work in progress.”

I nod, mostly to myself, as he still has his back to me. “Huh. Well, are you free right now? I’ve got something to discuss with everyone.”

“Free as a man can be, I think.” He replies, getting to his feet. “Let’s go.”

We return back to camp. Boaz and Jakin are already there at the watchtower, idly chatting.

After they open the gate for us, we all climb up the ladder and crowd the small platform of the watchtower. We’ve been holding meetings up here for a while now, mostly because it lets all of us participate in the conversation and keep watch at the same time.

“When I was out on my run, I happened to come across our centaur friend.” I start.

“Huh.” Jakin grunts. “Have they decided whether they’re attacking us or not yet?”

I pause. “I actually don’t know. It completely flew my mind. I doubt they’ll attack us, but I can’t be sure.”

Jakin’s eyebrows raise. “What’d you talk about, then?”

“To make a shortish story shorter, her childhood friend became chief, he proposed, they married but then he was abusive, so she left.” I explain.

“...She has rotten luck with men.” Jakin comments, shaking his head.

“She does.” I agree. “And she seems to think the rest of the men in her tribe are much the same. I don’t know how accurate that is, but I do know she shouldn’t go back there.”

“You offered that she could stay with us?” Xiltroth asks.

“Pretty much.” I confirm. “How are you guys with women?”

The twins visibly wince.

“Uhh… Fine. Fine.” Jakin repeats himself numbly.

“Just fine.” Boaz agrees in a half-whisper.

“Are you two okay?” I ask, confused.

“Fine.” Jakin repeats, before shaking his head. “Bad memories. I think I still have half a bottle of something…”

They both clamber down the ladder.

Still confused, I turn back to Xiltroth. “How about you?”

He shrugs, curiously following the twins with his eyes. “Don’t know. Haven’t really talked to a woman in years.”

“Great.” I sigh.

“Do you think she’ll come?” Xiltroth asks, leaning over the railing and looking into the distance.

“Hard to say. I hope so, but it’s difficult to predict what someone will do when they go through something like that. This place is the logical decision, but…” I shake my head. “She was hit hard just when she thought life was turning for the better. She might not be thinking too logically. If she does come, we’ll need to give her space for a while.”

Xiltroth nods silently.

We stand there silently for a while, watching the landscape.

The twins come back a while later, their eyes a bit redder but looking completely sober. “We’ll be fine, don’t worry.” Jakin says. “Just… Old memories hit us hard.”

“Don’t worry about it.” I wave it off. “Anyway, if she’s coming, she’ll probably come before the end of the day. We’ll need to give her some space until she’s able to collect herself.”

“Speaking of space, where’s she going to sleep?” Jakin asks.

“Good point.” My eyebrows furrow. “Do we still have our old tents?”

“Should still be hanging around in the storage cabin somewhere.” Boaz shrugs.

“Should be simple enough to sleep in them for a while. We can build another cabin for her to live in eventually.” I muse.

“What if she doesn’t stay around that long?” Jakin questions.

I shrug. “We could use it as an armoury. We’re starting to run out of room in the storage cabin, so another place for our weapons and armour could be helpful.”

While we do wear our armour quite a lot, and generally carry weapons with us at all times, it isn’t like we never take it off. Sometimes we need to clean and do maintenance on it, and other times… Well, even we like to relax every now and again.

In the afternoon, almost evening, Jakin spots her in the distance. It takes her a while to reach us; she’s walking slowly, almost dragging her hooves.

When she does reach us, she nervously looks up at the guard tower. I’m there, of course. Jakin had alerted us immediately upon seeing her. I’ve left my armour in the storage cabin so as not to appear too threatening.

“Before I come in there…” She calls up, “how many of you are there?”

“Just four.” I call back. “Including me.”

That must have surprised her, because it takes a couple of seconds before she calls back up, “Alright, let me in.”

I signal Boaz and Xiltroth to open the gate, and after a few seconds they haul it open. She walks through into the camp and looks around, relieved when she sees that there are indeed only four of us.

I climb down the watchtower, with Jakin following after me, and walk over. “I’m glad you decided against going back. I suppose we should introduce ourselves. I’m Aaron, a human, in case you hadn’t guessed.”

“Jakin, dwarf.” Jakin says shortly, but not unkindly.

Boaz introduces himself immediately after. “Boaz, also a dwarf.”

“They’re twins.” I supply, seeing the vague look of confusion on her face. “Jakin has a scar on his face you can use to tell them apart.”

“And I’m Xiltroth, a demon.” Xiltroth finishes.

“...Heather.” She says, cautiously.

“So Heather, what do centaurs eat?” I ask. “I should start making dinner before it gets dark.”

“I can eat anything, meat or vegetable.” Heather replies, before seemingly registering the latter half of what I said. “You cook? Aren’t you their leader?”

“Sort of.” I reply, shrugging. “It’s more that nobody else wanted to lead the group, so I stepped up to fill the gap. We all do what we can to help the group, which in my case includes cooking.”

Heather blinks in vague confusion. “I… See.”

“Right, just one other thing, then.” A sudden thought strikes me. “Wait a second. We were going to have you sleep in the house, but can you fit through the door? I don’t know if the door is large enough.”

The door is a bit taller than I am, but Heather’s waist is practically at my shoulder level, let alone her head.

We lead her over to the house. Heather takes one look at the door and says, “It’s too small.”

“Right.” I nod, thinking. “We’ll have to put a tent up for you instead.”

“We’ll get onto that.” Jakin nods. “Should be able to put a few of our tents together to make a bigger one.”

“I’ll keep watch.” Xiltroth moves towards the watchtower.

“And I’ll get started on dinner.” I say, to no one in particular. “Feel free to take a look around. There’s water in the barrel there if you need it.”

We had bought it from the gnomes on one of our last trips there. I hadn’t really thought about how useful it might be beforehand, but now we have it, it amazes me just how useful it is. Filling it up is a bit of a pain, but once it’s done, we don’t need to keep going to the river every time we need to fill our water bottles.

The twins somehow manage to erect a centaur-sized tent using only sticks, stones, rope and a fair amount of canvas, and I cook something up for dinner.

We’re generally able to hunt one or two monsters that are edible every day, and we have vegetables from the gnomes to supplement that. It’s pretty fine eating, considering we’re in the middle of nowhere.

Heather is silent while we eat, and moves off almost immediately to the tent once she finishes eating.

By the time we finish eating, it’s getting fairly dark out. We don’t need to discuss the order of watch; we worked out a more permanent order a while ago.

“Make sure you keep an eye on Heather while on watch.” I say.

Jakin raises an eyebrow.

“What?” I say, somewhat defensively. “Just because I’m kind doesn’t mean I’ll trust someone I’ve just met.”

Jakin shrugs and wonders off towards the house.

It’s not like I expect her to do anything. But you never do, and it’s better to be prepared, just in case.

The door to the house has a latch locking it. Just a little wooden thing, not enough to stop anything determined, but at least enough to give early warning should anyone force the door open.

And I think it’s fairly impossible for centaurs to go up ladders, should she decide to go for whoever’s on watch. Again, not that I expect it to happen.

Nothing of note happens overnight, unless you count the slight scare of a passing flock of boomer bats.

Nothing much happens during the day, either. Heather is silent all day, and after a brief time aimlessly walking around in the morning, retreats back into the tent.

The next morning, while we are having breakfast as usual, Xiltroth picks up a section of log from the wood pile to add to the fire. The log was originally intended for use in the construction of the storage cabin, but like many similar pieces of wood, was rejected for whatever reason. It is particularly long, and has been sitting at the bottom of the pile for quite a while.

Xiltroth goes to break it in half so that it will fit on the fire.

“Don’t.” Heather says, surprising us with the first word she has spoken since two nights before.

Xiltroth stops his motions and looks at Heather quizzically.

“Can I have that?” Heather asks.

Xiltroth looks down at the section of log in his hands, then at Heather. “Uh… Okay.” He hands it to her, still looking at her with confusion.

Heather takes the log and what’s left of her breakfast, gets up from the ground and walks back into her tent.

Xiltroth looks at me. I shrug. Maybe she wants to make something out of it.

We don’t see Heather for the rest of the day, not even at lunch. We do see her at dinner, but she just grabs her dinner and snatches up some long, straight sticks before retreating back to her tent.

The next morning, I’m distracted from my watch by the sound of something thumping into wood somewhere nearby. I take a look around and see Heather holding a bow, slowly firing arrows at a stretch of wall from across the open area in the camp. After a short while, she walks over to the wall, pulls out the arrows, walks back and starts firing again.

So that’s what she was doing with that wood. I wonder what she’s using for the arrow heads.

Some time later, she stops and returns to her tent.

“It seems Heather has made herself a bow and some arrows. Noticed her practicing this morning, shooting at the wall.” I mention to Boaz when he comes up to switch with me.

“At the wall? I hope she’s not damaging it.” Boaz narrows his eyes.

I shrug. “Easy enough to check. Easy enough to fix, as well. Shouldn’t be difficult to put together an archery target.”

“Mightn’t be. What do they look like?” Boaz asks contemplatively.

“You haven’t seen one before?” I ask in surprise.

Boaz shifts uncomfortably. “There aren’t many dwarven archers. Too short to handle most bows, yeh see.”

“I suppose that makes sense.” I nod thoughtfully. “Well, most of them are round targets on a stand. Some people just shoot into bales of hay… In fact, I think some people just shoot at mounds of dirt.”

“Dirt?” Boaz raises an eyebrow. “It shouldn’t be difficult for your average man to knock together a simple wooden target. Why shoot into dirt?”

I think about it for a second. “Well, I’ve heard that the arrows can be damaged if they get shot into something that doesn’t have a bit of give. Wood doesn’t have much give, but dirt does. That might be why.”

“Hm.” Boaz grunts. “Well, feel free to get onto that. I have watching to do.”

“Why you…” I growl jokingly, before shaking my head in defeat. “Fine then, I will. I’ll make a mound of dirt so majestic you won’t be able to believe your eyes.”

“Right.” He rolls his eyes.

I set off down the ladder to go make me a mound of dirt. Looks like my run will have to wait.