We made our way back to the village without too much trouble, Adra and Lenore were very good when it came to navigating, good enough that I had once jokingly asked Lenore if she was part pidgeon, causing her to go off a rant to my great amusement. It took both of us a moment to realise that the rant had been partially caused by my memories and prejudices against pigeons, the idea that they were akin to flying rats, something completely alien to Lenore. It was quite interesting just how much we influenced the other, simply due to the close proximity in our shared mental realm. At the same time, I wondered when I would start to preen. But, if I was honest, I was aware that Lenore and her love of flying had influenced me, that a part of me wanted to fly, only that I was unable to do so. But I would learn, would find a way, even if I had to subdue a dragon to serve as my mount. If not in the beta, I would have enough time to achieve that once the game was officially released.

On the way back, Adra continued to needle Sigmir and me with the scene she had witnessed, causing Rai to blush quite a bit with her antics. But at the same time, she managed to make all of us laugh, not allowing me to dwell on the nauseating effect its magic had had on me. For that, I was quite grateful and the few comments that managed to make Sigmir blush almost as red as Rai made her simply look cute. And a cute Sigmir was one I rarely saw, fierce, beautiful, strong, those were adjectives that applied to her on a daily basis, but cute? That was a lot less common. So, I was grateful, even if I blushed just as bad from time to time.

Sadly, the weather showed that it was starting to be spring and it first started to drizzle before turning into a full-blown deluge, drenching all of us in water.

We got back to Koswanow in the late afternoon and I instantly felt that something was different about the town, a slight change in the air, like a bad smell. Finding out where it came from only took a few minutes once we were inside the walls, there was a small group of centaurs who had decided to rest in town. Part of me wanted to simply move on, to reduce the exposure we had to the centaurs as much as possible, but another part of me was defiant. Why should we be forced to move on, to forgo the rest and experience we had earned, just because they were here? And would we be forced to avoid civilisation until we had crossed the area claimed by the centaurs? I wasn’t happy with either of those idea.

A quick talk with Lenore and Ylva had both of them retreat into their Hallows, sure, the Sablekin had seen them, but I wasn’t sure if they would mention them. On the other hand, Ylva might cause some raised eyebrows, her colour reminiscent of the wolves the centaurs had problems with further north, if that information had been spread.

In a way, the exposure to the centaurs now served as a test, whether we would be safe to enter a larger centaur-camp, maybe even a city. It was an idea similar to the one that had us talking to their patrols when we had seen them on the road, controlled exposure, without moving into the lion’s den. Or the horse’s stable, so to speak.

Once again, I decided that I would keep myself in the back, merely watching and having Adra take the lead. She was simply a lot better when it came to talking to people, with her ability to put people at ease. On the other hand, I still had problems talking to people normally, something not helped by the effect of the special abilities I had taken in the beginning.

I watched as Adra mostly ignored the centaurs as we walked up, merely giving them a greeting but no further engagement. I noticed that some of them looked at us with a bit of annoyance in their eyes but, as Adra had, I ignored them, as if they were without consequence. When we got to Stelur’s house, we knocked and were quickly asked in. Before walking in, I used my magic to freeze the water in our clothes into tiny ice-crystals using the diamond dust-rune, before drawing them out into small clouds. The others started to shiver from the sudden cold, but at least, they were dry and could quickly warm up inside.

There, I was treated to the funny image of a centaur, easily a head taller than Sigmir, standing in a room made for a being slightly taller than myself. I wasn’t sure whether she had to slouch, but she looked quite… framed, as if she was about to bash her head against the ceiling. A mischievous part of me wanted to spook her, just to check if her reaction to being spooked was the same as a horses might be - rearing up on their hind-legs to kick with their front-legs before bolting away. But no, centaur-baiting was not part of our plans, fun though it might be.

“Greetings, Stelur. As promised yesterday, we took care of your problem. Would you mind putting us up for another night?” Adra greeted the owner of the house right away, without showing interest in the centaur.

“Greetings, Adra. I thank you and no, I wouldn't mind. The village has quite a few guests these days.” he answered and a blue screen appeared, telling me that the wolverine-hunting quest was completed and I had gained a chunk of EXP, enough to push me to level sixty-seven.

“But first, let me introduce you to Captain Khulan, she’s the leader of the centaurs that grace our village with their presence.” he introduced the captain and, for the life of me, I was unable to hear any sarcasm in his voice, despite the fact that they were, in effect, invading his home and annexing the land.

“Captain Khulan, these are a few adventurers from the north, who happened to stop in the village and have done a service for us. Adra, Rai, Morgana and Sigmir, unless my memory has left me.” he gestured to each of us in turn and we all gave a semi-polite nod to the captain.

“Ah, Adventurers, are you? Greetings.” she looked us over and, on a whim, I stretched my magic into the shadows beneath us, extending the trick I had learned to block the Observe-skill to all of us. Just as I had expected, I felt the skill activate and gently blocked it, without adding any sting to it.

“We like our privacy.” I admonished the Captain, without elaborating further. She raised an eyebrow, but otherwise, she didn’t make an issue of it. I was quite happy about that as, if she had continued to try, I doubted that I would have been able to keep her from looking at our information, not without being on guard for the rest of the evening and maybe even throughout the night. I considered returning the favour but, after a moment, decided against it, feeling it a little too provocative.

Adra, maybe worrying that I was about to do something reckless, engaged the captain in a conversation, drawing her away from the rest of us. Stelur gestured for us to take a seat at the hearth, before following the two of them.

“Why do you think they were so annoyed to see us?” Sigmir asked, speaking softly so only I could hear. It was easy for her to do so, as I had, once again, taken a seat on her lap, snuggling up to her.

“It might just be some sort of power-play. At the end of the day, what do they gain from controlling an empty area? Unless they collect taxes or something like that, they only spend resources, without a whole lot to show for it. But if they want to collect taxes, they need to provide something for the people, or there would be resentment. Sure, it would be possible to claim that they protect them from invaders from the north, or something along those lines, but for that to make sense, there would have to be a threat of invasion. Nothing we have seen there even hints at such a threat.” I began to explain, trying to make connections to knowledge from the real world. Sure, not all of it would apply to Mundus but there should be some understandable basis, at least in my opinion.

“And what does that have to do with us?” Sigmir continued, not quite seeing the connection.

“The people here had a problem, the wolverine. If the centaurs had been here and solved the problem, they would have gained goodwill and demonstrated that they are here to help the people. We have taken that chance away from them, so there might be resentment. Or it might be something completely different, maybe they just don’t like two-legged beings. Who knows.” I explained, not wanting my possibly overthinking answer to confuse Sigmir.