Inari Village of Hani (Refuge), The Kingdom of Ederath- Late Winter 15 years AR

“I must apologize, Honored Ambassador, this one brings dishonor to himself. Try as I might, I am unable to understand anything that the strangers are saying and they are unable or unwilling to understand ours,” Ambassador Coda’s translator reported, “Their language is far removed from any I have heard.”

“There is no dishonor in not knowing something that one is not expected to know,” Coda explained and dismissed his subordinate with an imperious nod, his hands clasped behind his back. He looked at the strange mutated human in the nearby wooden cage, or at least he thought it was human.

WHAM!

That one was far more aggressive than the others and required further restraints. Even though he was far more uncooperative than the others, they too refused to acknowledge his people except in what he assumed were insults judging by the reaction of the others. They’d been restrained as prisoners of conflict for more than a day and so far his people had learned next to nothing, not their names, their peoples' name, where they came from, or why they killed nearly an entire hunting party.

The sole sailor turned hunter that had survived reported that they’d come across each other in the forests to the north of the settlement and initially the two groups did not fight. In fact, the strange tall humans with tusk-like teeth coming from behind their lower lips seemed afraid of his people until they got closer. From there the now prisoners offered gifts of food but he’d been told they seemed confused. That confusion led to anger when the first mate of the exploration vessel, acting as the lead for the hunting party, attempted to communicate with them. The resulting fight ended with five Inari dead and two newcomers. The lone witness had been ordered to stay back and report to Coda if anything happened but said he was unable to see what started the conflict.

His people didn’t stand a chance in the initial conflict but the people rallied behind the captain of his guard. Together they managed to locate and force a surrender by virtue of numerical superiority. There were only 35 of them and hundreds of Inari. The second confrontation was luckily done with only a single injury and no deaths for either side. Once one of the newcomers threw down their weapons, the others quickly followed suit except the one in the cage who was restrained by his own people.

Not that any of that mattered to Coda. Oh, it did and he made sure to conduct his duties but his mind was often elsewhere. The focus of his thoughts being his Sunada. It had been months since she, along with her personal aide, and half his guard marched off to locate a human settlement but they hadn’t returned. Honor dictated that he weigh the needs of his people over his personal feelings but even then the only thing that stopped him from asking for volunteers was that he had no idea where his dear daughter had gone or where they should start. He could only hope she was safe and the reason she had yet to return was to await the end of winter.

“LYCANS! Dar...” The one in the cage started yelling out as Coda was walking back into the gate of the settlement. He turned to look and could see all the prisoners either looking to the east or trying to turn from where they were bound to posts to look as well. Coda looked and after a moment, noticed carriages, wagons, and hundreds of people moving through the trees.

“To arms! To arms!” The captain of his guard yelled, his word spreading quickly through the settlement. Inari guards and sailors ran forth carrying Tachi and wakizashi blades with his guard captain drawing his two-handed nodachi. Refugees ran out as well carrying crudely made spears and bows. Coda started to worry when the prisoners looked scared, an ill omen when those confined are comforted by the arrival of others but just as ill when those who dwell in these lands looked terrified of those who approached. They didn’t appear to be the same people but- Coda gasped.

“Lower your weapons!” he turned to his guard and militia, “I said lower them!”

The reason being was who he saw in the distance, riding on the first large carriage. He gave no orders and only started running as fast as his old bones could go, out into the open space between them as the carriage came to a stop two hundred paces away. She jumped down and ran towards him, “Sunada!”

When they got close she suddenly stopped and stood up straight, looked him in the eye, and lowered her gaze, “Ambassador Coda Takana, This Assistant to the Amb-”

He cut off her attempt to present herself for duty by embracing her tightly. There was no dishonor to be had in a father loving his child and to ignore her after she’d returned safely would be a dishonor itself. At least that’s what he believed as she embraced him back. He was so caught up in the reunion he didn’t notice the captain of his guard approach from behind, nor the humans' approach from his front.

“Honored Ambassador?” the guard captain reached out and touched his shoulder, Coda moved to rebuke him but looked up at the approaching humans that centered around a human male taller than any in his homeland. In fact, only one male seemed to be of average height.

The humans were for the most part wearing cloth and leather armor except the tall one in the center, wearing steel scaled armor, and the woman by his side, who was barely wearing clothing. Each was armed with anything from short swords on their waists to the massive axe on their leader's back. They stopped twenty paces away and smiled?

“Father, this one presents Thane Jon of Clan Halladson. It is my understanding his Title of Thane is similar to Prefect and it is his lands we currently reside,” at those words from his daughter, the tall young man stepped forward before bowing at the waist with his hands straight to his sides in Inari fashion. He only lowered himself slightly, a courtesy rather than paying homage. To Coda that meant this man viewed himself as either Coda’s equal or superior. Considering his daughter's news that they were currently in his domain, it was likely the latter.

His daughter waved for the Thane to approach and when he was five paces away she placed her right fist over her heart and bowed her head, little more than an elongated nod. The man returned the gesture leading Coda to imitate it while asking cautiously, “My daughter, do these humans bring aid? They are well-armed.”

“These do not bear us any ill will, father. I have traveled with them for some time and their society is bound by honor. Not as ours is, they find it through action rather than words or tradition. Action in the form of the strong putting themselves in peril to protect the weak... Nor are they fully human.”

“Lycans...” a yell came from behind from the prisoners. Coda noticed that whatever was being said appeared to be understood by the human? delegation.

“Father, are those people captives?” his daughter asked with concern, “These people do not abide slaves of any sort… at least not this land...”

“They are not slaves, my daughter. They are prisoners of conflict. Our peoples fought but the cause has yet to be determined,” Coda said diplomatically. With his daughter safe, he focused on the situation. The fact that he did not know the cause that started the conflict meant he must say so or be dishonored. The fact the newcomers looked concerned about the prisoners, meant it was perhaps best to be diplomatic and not accuse the prisoners of starting the conflict. Even if he doubted the cause lay with his own people. His mind clear of worry led to a few other observations, “what do you mean by this land does not abide? And my daughter, where is your escort, your aide?”

“I…” Sunada struggled before turning around and pulling away her cloak and the top of the foreign garment she was wearing. With that Coda could see a patch of fur far shorter than the rest, like it had been shaved and was growing back in, “Humans in the forest attacked us and all but four perished, including myself. We were transported to a land in the south where we… we were branded and sold. I was the last and I fear luckiest when the Thane bought me.”

“I thought you said they do not abide the keeping of slaves?”

“They do not, father. Nearly all those you see here were in chains and many others that did not come. Those before you spent a considerable amount of gold to purchase them and me, only to bring us to their cities to free us and use magic to remove our brands... These treated me with the utmost respect father.”

“Did the ones before touch…” he stopped as her eyes filled with pain and shifted to the snowy ground at the same time as her ears drooped in shame. He reached out and lifted her chin, “The dishonor is not yours my child, but those who would make you hurt so. Let us not speak of this now but again in private… if you wish. Let us invite our new friends to the village.”

He turned to go but he felt a hand take his arm, he turned and his daughter was looking at him with shameful ears. Before he could say anything she spoke, “I made a grave mistake father. As I said, they are not all human some of them are lycan. It is an important matter.”

Coda looked at her, he recognized the word from the prisoners' ramblings but he didn’t know what it meant or why it would bring his daughter shame, “If it is of import, continue.”

“When I first met them, I mistook them for the monsters you warned me of. Beings their people call werewolf, although they look similar they are not the same. I just wish to repay my mistake of thinking them monsters by ensuring others do not do the same.” She said but Coda didn’t understand how they could be confused as monsters. His daughter continued, “Tira… erm… Woooow.”

Coda couldn’t help but look at his daughter, calling humans monsters, and now she was what? Howling? He got his answer soon as the woman that wore little clothing stepped forward and kicked off her boots. Coda could only step back and he knew his guard had their hands on their weapons at what they saw. In a matter of moments, the human woman with orange hair grew tall and sprouted fur. A tail came from behind and immediately started waving as her legs turned digitigrade like his own. Her soft fur-less face changed to a larger, more monstrous version of an Inari while she bared her large teeth.

Were they all like this? One of them said something and she stopped baring her teeth and he watched as her ears moved. They were far less expressive than an Inari’s, but the attempt was clear, she was smiling. The monster woman waved.

**********

“Hi, I Tira,” Tira greeted the obviously afraid Inari. The roughly human-sized people that looked like foxes looked up at the seven foot tall wolf person who loved to smile. A fact, that seemed to scare them as she started again.

“Ummm… Tira?” She looked back at Jon. She dropped her smile and it hurt him. He walked up to her and held her hand as a way to say sorry. She leaned down and he gave her a kiss in her lycan form before she licked his forehead. Not the best first impression to what he gathered was the Inari leader and likely Sunada’s father. Tira was still looking down at him and close, her smile starting to reappear as he wiped his forehead, he decided it was too late to change the first impression and grabbed her by the snout and licked her nose. Better they think lycans were weird than dangerous.

“No! No lick there! It…” Tira hated having her nose licked. She wiggled her nose around and looked like she was going to sneeze before rubbing it on her arm. Weirdly enough it only applied in her lycan form. Jon assumed it was because her nose after the shift was more sensitive. He deflated when he realized it might be that his breath smelled and she was too nice to say.

“Can you two fucking not do that?” Aethred asked looking annoyed.

“Oi, not the best time for it, first contact, remember?”

“I don’t give a shit about the Inari, he just fuckin’ licked her big ass nose! I don’t wanna see that!” Aethred said, which only confused Jon. Blood and monster guts? Aethred was fine. Penis statue? He thought it was funny and was fine. Afgheir pooping? gross, funny, and fine. Willow and Roland having sex? Hilarious and wanted a description… so fine. But licking a nose was across the line in Aethred’s eyes?

“Lycans! Dinna trust the boggin’ choobs. Dey invade yer bit not orc! Orc move south cause of da snell! Orc go back! Orc no rammy wit da lycans! Orc help lycan murdurr da choobs!”

They all looked over at the other complication, the yelling orc in the cage and what looked like a few dozen others were prisoners. They’d briefly discussed what to do, considering orcish tribes generally had good relations with Ederath according to Afgheir. That would imply they should help the orcs but it likely would also lead to bad relations with the Inari.

Ultimately, they had no idea if the orcs wandered into Ederath or if the Inari captured them and brought them there. Hel's taint, they didn't know anything about what was going on between the two peoples. It also didn’t help that the one yelling was speaking common but there were more than a few words that didn’t seem to fit.

“Will you shut it ya fuckin’ bawheid! Gods damned tusk making a fuckin’ racket!” Gertrude came walking up from the wagons a few moments later her appearance startled the Inari slightly as they’d turned to discuss among themselves. Seeing a middle-aged woman walking towards them without a weapon they went back to their discussion.

“Bawheid?” Aethred asked confused.

“Baldhead, empty head. Called the tusk an idiot,” She explained. Jon looked at Aethred with worry, his friend was going over the new insult and seemed delighted in the knowledge that Gertrude seemed to know a completely unknown form of swearing, “The dumb fuck with the speech impediment said not to trust these folk and they were forced south because of the cold. They also want you to kill them.”

“Ummm… camp,” Sunada turned back, her people had finished their discussion. She pointed to a flat area outside the village nearly 100 paces from the wall that looked like it was made of mudbricks with a wattle gate. Jon turned to look at his family, friends, and companions.

“I’ll do it,” Erin volunteered and turned to direct the wagons where to go, pointing with the glaive in her hand at the spot Sunada indicated.

Jon turned back to the Inari and they gestured for him to follow. They approached the wall around the village and there they were gestured to stop. A few guards stayed out and Sunada managed to explain ‘talk Inari… lycan, yes… werewolf, no’. Which was clear enough.

“Lycan let da orc out? Orc dinn-” the one in the cage started again but was cut off by one of his own.

“Will ye clam up ye eejit! Sorry aboot him, He took tae many blows tae th' heid.”

“Garrick no chieftain!”

“Neither urr ye!” a female orc yelled while trying to kick snow towards the cage, "Th' chief's deid.”

Jon looked back and forth between the caged orc and the ones tied up. They all wore heavy furs but the ones sitting tied to posts next to the fire had far calmer looks and despite their heavy accents, seemed to be more articulate. Jon assumed the one in the cage was a brut-

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

Confirmed is a mindless brute, demonstrated by headbutting his cage repeatedly.

“Kin ah ask yer name?” the orc named Garrick asked while ignoring his fellow orc.

“Uhh, I’m Thane Jon. Where’s your clan?” Jon was more concerned that there was a clan of orcs out there, it was something they’d discussed briefly before.

“This is it. We lost a rammy against anither clan o' humans 'n' thay took oor land. Whit we hud after coudnae feed us even afore th' snell.”

“rammy? Snell?” Jon asked, looking at Gertrude.

She thought for a moment before answering, “Rammy’s a fight and a snell be a long period of freezin’ cold. Chills ya to the bone.”

Jon ran the words past him again internally, translated the heavily accented common with slang to something he could understand, “So you came here? I was told that the orc clans don’t try to fight Ederath.”

“We're nae 'ere tae rammy... We just didnae wantae starve,” Garrick explained which in retrospect, Jon had already been told the first part but in his own defense the one that said they didn’t want to fight was a heavily muscled orc that looked fond enough of headbutts to give himself brain damage, “Thir's ne'er anybody 'ere, sae we tried oor luck. Whit brings ye 'ere?“

“I was just granted these lands by Prince Erik… were here to build a settlement,” Jon said after a moment of hesitation. It’s not like he could hide a village or town if orcs came looking anyways. The orcs exchanged glances a few giving Garrick nods.

“Wid ye be interested in letting us bade? we'll work solid 'n' leave in th' summer if ye'll want. Better than dying,” Garrick proposed with Gertrude automatically translating bade to mean ‘stay’.

“No! I no listen ta ya Garrick. Ya no chi-”

WHAM!

This time it wasn’t the loudmouth orc that hit the cage. Everyone nearby from all the races involved froze as Tira stepped away from the cage she’d just punched. A few of the Inari stepped back and the orc stopped talking because she’d taken her lycan form to punch it. Even aggressive and dumb as he seemed to be, he thought twice bout angering her, Tira shrugged “He talk too much.”

Jon looked back at Garrick and decided to ignore the outburst, “What happened with the Inari?”

Garrick looked confused and Jon pointed at one of the guards, who didn’t seem to appreciate the attention, “Oh that! See whit happened wis…”

Garrick started to explain their confrontation. They spotted the Inari approaching and at first thought they were lycans, they couldn’t tell how much smaller the Inari were from a distance and focused on the fact they were an armed group of people with canine features. They thought about running because they knew they had crossed into Ederath but they’d met lycans before and doubted they could outrun them. So they decided to try to talk to them and offered them gifts but they quickly noticed that they didn’t speak common and were in fact not lycans.

While their young chief tried to figure out who the Inari were, the loudmouth, named Alaric, got mad. He argued the Inari were invaders and orcs were friends with lycans so they should kill them. Without orders, he ran through the leader of the Inari group with a spear, which started the fight. The rest of the orcs were forced to fight back in self-defense but lost their chief in the fight. When the other Inari came, they spoke amongst themselves and decided to try to surrender. Which they did, although they did have to knock out Alaric to keep him from attacking and getting them massacred.

It took a bit of doing and their speech made Jon’s head hurt but he eventually understood what happened. He also learned that communication between the Orcs and Inari was basically non-existent. The former had given up on trying to understand the ‘choobs’, the fools, that kept trying to talk to them in a variety of languages, expecting them to understand.

Jon looked at Andrew. Now that his people understood, they needed to convey it to the Inari and figure out where to go from there. More importantly, what to do after.

**********

An hour later Sunada sat with Thane Jon, Andrew, the former head slave, Gertrude, and her father in her father's hut. She was disheartened to see her father live in such a small space but he said it was a matter of survival and scant resources should not be wasted for luxury. She looked up as the final member of the meeting arrived, one of her father's prisoners. The strange man came in and sat down, with one of her father’s guards holding a Tachi to his neck.

“Ummm… Sunada… Garrick… Inari… Orc,” Andrew started off the meeting by gesturing between herself and the orc named Garrick. She understood and looked to her father, who didn’t seem to question the information.

Andrew looked at Jon and the two had a conversation that was too quick for her to really pick up anything before he continued. “Lycan, Inari, Human, Orc? Yes… Werewolf… Troll, Orc? No.”

Her father looked at her, “I believe he is trying to say that orcs are a recognized people and not a monster race, Honored Ambassador.”

She reverted to the honorifics due to the fact that this was the first proper meeting between the leaders of two, possibly three distinct people. If Andrew indicated orcs were people she wouldn't question it but she wasn't sure if the prisoner was their leader or just the most cooperative. Her father nodded before he looked up at his guard and the man moved the sword a few inches further away. It was less threatening than before but he could still slit Garrick’s jugular at a moment's notice.

“Ummm… orc…. Kill…” She tried but wasn’t sure how to say kill in their language, She tried again miming stabbing, “Orc Kill Inari?”

Andrew raised his hand and took out a piece of parchment. He drew a figure that roughly looked like a person and then drew lines down in front of it. It took Sunada a moment to realize it was a cage. He pointed at it and said in her language, “Kill Inari.”

“No, my assistant. It would take more than just one,” her father protested and she looked at Andrew. She pulled out her own and drew a similar figure fighting others with Inari shaped heads. It was undignified but their options were limited. She then drew five Inari but crossed them out to signify they were dead. The two went back and forth with that, not taking a moment to let her father in but he seemed content to wait.

After half hour she believed she got the story, “Honored Ambassador, I believe they are saying that the one in the cage murdered the first mate but the other… orcs only fought because our people attacked them for the actions of but one. It wasn’t an attack on our people but a single murderer.”

“I see my daughter but injustice has been committed if that were the case. What is the verdict of the ruler of this land? With that, we shall see how these orcs react. Do they hold honor and submit their own to be condemned or will they dishonor themselves by attempting to disrupt justice?”

Sunada started drawing again, showing the orc in the cage walking out, another with him being beaten, the last with him being stabbed. She slid the parchment over and the three, mainly Jon and Garrick had a discussion. This finally revealed why Gertrude was there, she acted as an interpreter for the conversation with the orc. Jon looked sick but he looked at her and pointed towards the door, resting beside the door frame was his greataxe. She looked at Garrick, the orc man looked saddened but he nodded.

They had agreed to execution.

**********

Jon walked back into his caravan and tossed his axe down, he felt sick to his stomach. For the first time since the bandit attack, he’d taken the life of a person. This time he didn’t bite out anyone’s throat in the forest but it was far more public. To make it official, to help ensure relations with the three groups! In front of hundreds! His people, the Inari, the Orcs! While the Orc, Alaric, was held down with ropes, completely helpless! Jon kicked one of the cabinets hard. He knew the man was a murderer and with his death, the other orcs were released but it still didn’t make him feel any better. Jon kicked the cabinet again, breaking the door, and sat down.

All he could think about was the orc begging for his life before Jon took a deep breath and chopped the man's head off in one swing. It was a quick death and Jon wasn’t a stranger to blood anymore but seeing the head rolling on- Huurgh

Jon spewed his latest meal on the floor, having gotten himself too worked up. He looked down at it, fighting the urge the puke again. After getting his stomach under control he noticed he also had some on his armor. He stood to remove it and took out his broadaxe and threw it to the side, it wasn’t the one he used to carry out the execution but he still didn’t want to hold it at that moment. It ended up hitting the wooden floor and dug its sharp edge in, causing it to stand on end.

*knock* *knock*

Jon looked at the door and debated opening it. After a moment it opened on its own and Tira stepped in and froze, behind her was Sunada. They both stared at him and the interior of the caravan. One axe haphazardly tossed on the floor instead of its rack, the other actually stabbed into the floorboards, a puddle of vomit on the floor and on the front of his scalemail, and the destruction of an innocent cabinet door. Even in his current mood, Jon could admit it wasn't the best sight.

After a moment Tira held up her hand to Sunada and closed the door. She stepped over and started undoing the rest of the straps of his armor. Soon enough it was off and she led him to the bed and stripped him down, grabbing a spare cloth to clean his chin. She pushed him towards the bed. When he was there she stripped down completely naked before crawling in with him and getting under the quilt.

He could feel her pressed against his back and he could only think of the other time he’d killed people. It was a different time and a different person but the same effect. Jon focused on his breathing and felt a woman holding him. The same as Jaesmin had done, Jon felt him being held tightly from behind as he contemplated taking a life. He rolled over to face Tira and kissed her cheek. He wanted to kiss her lips but he was already wondering about his breath after he licked her nose, now he knew it smelled foul.

They didn’t have sex or fool around, they didn’t really kiss. Tira didn’t even lick his face to make him smile...They just held each other without a word as she ran her hand through his hair. He eventually started dozing and felt her lips touch his forehead and although he wasn’t sure if she said it or if he dreamed it. The next morning he remembered hearing her say, “It okay. I love you, my mate.”