The village that the group had finally come upon was just as backwater as the first one Nirou visited when he arrived to this world. It was basically nothing more than a large clearing with simple wooden shacks constructed around it. Though as Nirou focused more closely, he could see a lot of houses built right up in the trees as well. So the village wasn't necessarily confined to within the clearing. It seemed more like the clearing was more of a public gathering spot, as there was a big fire pit in the center. Maybe they did festivals or something here.

There were only a couple of people out and about at this hour, and they watched the party arrive with a sense of relief so obvious that you could make it out even in the dim morning light. This tiny little village had been living in fear for a while now, and this group represented their chance to return to lives of safety. Well, as safe as you get living in the middle of a jungle. Nirou wasn't sure he'd ever be able to relax if he lived in a place like this.

Rashen didn't take any detours, just a quick glance to find the house he was looking for and made straight for it. It was the largest one in the village, and Nirou assumed it was probably where they were intended to stay. He had his doubts that anywhere else would even have a spare room. The Captain knocked lightly on the door, enough that he could be heard by anyone that was up but hopefully not enough to wake anyone up that was still sleeping. He then stood there waiting for a couple of minutes before making another light knock. Hamid got extremely irritated and was about to pound on the door herself, but she had to stop as the door finally swung open.

"You must be those 'Four Winds'. Thank the gods you're here." wheezed the old man who had come out, his voice hoarse but perfectly clear to Nirou. The others seemed a bit more perplexed, having to take a moment to figure out exactly what the old man had said. However, Nirou realized that rather than any problem with the voice it was more likely that this old man had a very strong accent. Just as with that time when he and Laska bought clothes, Nirou had no way of knowing himself due to the nature of the automatic translation. But this seemed like it would be such a case, as far out of the way as they were right now. There was also the old man's mention of 'gods', which struck Nirou more than anything. He remembered the General saying the old gods were all but forgotten these days except in the most rural of areas. Once again, this place fit the bill.

"Yes, we're here about the Beastmen." Rashen insisted after a few seconds of puzzling out what he had been told. "We're a bit tired from walking through the night, but rest assured that we'll jump right into action if another attack happens. Of course, we're hoping that doesn't happen. We should be able to track down those Beastmen first."

"You don't need to reassure me from the doorway, come in, please." the old man stepped to the side and waved his guests in. "I have the spare room prepared for you already."

The others still couldn't seem to tell exactly what the old man was saying, but they got enough to keep rolling with it. The group stepped inside and was lead to a large open room at the back of the house. The host looked over the composition of the party briefly, then went to pull a huge cloth from a closet nearby. Carrying it over to Nirou, he tapped the young man in the side to get his attention.

"Excuse me. Tall one. Could you help an old man hang this up?"

Nirou did as he was asked, hanging the cloth through the middle of the room by hooks on the walls. The end result being the room divided in two.

"That's better." the old man huffed, satisfied with himself. "Now, I should introduce myself. I am the elder of this village, Ramajayh. We're a very simple village, so everyone seems content to let me take the lead based on my age alone. Or maybe they're just all lazy and like shoving all the work onto a poor old man."

Ramajayh seemed to be saying so jokingly rather than making a real complaint, but Nirou couldn't be completely sure. Though it was possible that it was both a joke and a complaint at the same time. It probably couldn't have been easy to take charge during recent events, especially for an old man. Back when he was serious about becoming a doctor, Nirou had met a few old patients that got into that cynical kind of humor. It seemed the dry humor of the elderly was truly universal.

"Thank you for your hospitality, Elder Ramajayh." Captain Rashen replied, respectfully bowing his head. Nirou figured that he must be a real stickler for respecting his elders, since he had only been like this when talking to the General or the boat captain. He wasn't careful with his words at all when it came to his peers. Or his subordinates, rather. No one on the team was supposed to be the Captain's peer, least of all Nirou.

"We would like to get rest while we can, naturally." Rashen went on. As he was in the process of appending a condition to his statement, Nirou could see the other members of his team getting visibly irritated at their rest being put off. "But first I would like to get a quick explanation of the situation the village is in, in your words. I'd like to sleep on the information so we can get right to work once we're rested up."

It's not the order Nirou would have chosen, but what the Captain says goes. The rest of the group came in closer so they wouldn't have to strain so much to make out the old man's words, and steeled themselves to stay awake at least long enough for this much.

"Very well. I'll tell you what I know." Ramajayh said, stroking his beard to apparently get his brain juices flowing. After a few moments of effort to remember the details, he went on. "The first attack was twenty seven days ago now. We've lost ten of our villagers since that time, with two or three attacks every week. Our village has less than three hundred residents in total. Were this to keep up, we'd all be wiped out in no time. But of course, you know that the story goes even further back than that."

"The Tiger Beastman sighting." Kishaldam interjected. She seemed to have become completely acclimated to the old man's accent by now, not having any trouble following along whereas the others were still struggling slightly. "It's been nearly three moons since we first got that report. I can only imagine how long it actually took to get to us, given the low priority it was assigned."

"Almost half a year, if my memory serves." Ramajayh answers with a sigh. "Our village is not considered important, you see. We don't produce any particularly notable goods, the location is of no strategic importance, and none of the youngins that have left seem to have been able to put in a good enough word for us. Were the sighting near Port Mayaladi, I have no doubt that you'd all have arrived in weeks rather than months. But alas, only word of killings finally got them to hurry things along. Not that the island officials care about us of course, but they could be sure that once the Beastmen wiped all of us out they would move on down to the important towns. That's what makes it a cause for concern."

"I find it odd that the officials would ever have let the matter be." Laska spoke up. "Is the knowledge that a Beastman roams the island freely not already a reason to be concerned? I was under the impression that a lurking Beastman was among the greatest fears of the island people."

"You'll change your tune once we start our search for real." Hamid scoffed. "The jungle is torture to make a thorough search of. And Beastmen can hide like nothing else. There's a reason it was the four of us that got sent here in particular. No other team in Anjdrahm can put up with combing the jungle and still have enough fight in them afterwards to take down multiple Beastmen. If there hadn't been any deaths yet, I could see the island officials being lazy and putting the whole thing off. Course, that line of thinking only makes sure you don't do anything about it until someone does end up dying."

Hamid is barely finished speaking when everyone gets distracted by a loud thud. Most of the people present instinctively winced at hearing Ajandi slam into the floor without catching himself.

"Huh? No, don't worry I was still listening." the man insists as he lifts his torso back off the floor and shakes his head to stay awake. At least he didn't seem to actually be bothered by the fall. "Tiger Beastman, right. That's what we were talking about."

"I think you would be better served if you got the rest of the details from the people directly involved." the Elder suggests, after looking over the state of the group. "After a good rest, of course. I'll even have a meal prepared for you all when you wake up, so rest easy."

"I suppose you're right, Elder." Rashen relents, feeling the fatigue creeping up himself. "But please, wake us immediately if anything happens. Tired or not, we have a responsibility to protect this village now that we're here."

With his piece said, the Captain let Elder Ramajayh go while the team split into their separated parts of the room. Nirou, Rashen, and Ajandi went past the hanging cloth to the left side of the room while the girls stayed on the right. Nirou had a few things he wanted to ask based on what he had just heard, but he decided to file them away in his mind for now. He was pretty tired himself, after all. Everyone pulled some cloths out of their luggage and spread them out to sleep on instead of laying directly on the wood floor. It wasn't a whole lot more comfortable, but it was something. After hiking through the jungle all night, it took no effort at all to fall right asleep.

Nirou swore he had only just shut his eyes when he woke up, hours later. It seemed to be the middle of the day, as it was pretty hot and there was no shortage of light flooding in from the open window. Looking around, Nirou could see that Captain Rashen was already up and gone while Ajandi was still there snoozing away. Getting up from the single piece of cloth that had to pass for a bed, Nirou looked at the larger cloth hanging in the middle of the room and remembered that the door to the rest of the house was on the other side. He had to think about whether that was a big deal or not. Eventually he decided to just go, paying no attention to anything except the doorway he was headed to. Rationally, there shouldn't be anything to get bothered over if he did that. Though there were still only two of the girls that he could expect to behave rationally.

All his overthinking was for naught anyway, as the other side was empty. He made his way out and heard noise from a hallway on his lefthand side, so he went that way assuming that's where everyone was. Sure enough, the path let out at a large dining room type setup with his companions seated at a large table chowing down on some food they had been provided. An assortment of tropical fruits, vegetables, fish, and bird meat dishes. It was quite a spread. Probably the villagers' way of going all out for the arrival of their long awaited saviors.

Captain Rashen looked up to see Nirou coming in, then turned to the subordinate sitting on his left. "Hamid, go wake Ajandi up. He'll get right up if you're the one to do it."

Hamid grumbled a bit at having to temporarily abandon her meal, but did as she was told this time. Nirou figured maybe she got a kick out of yelling at her teammate to wake up and wasn't all that bothered.

Taking a seat next to Laska, Nirou grabbed whatever food looked good to him at this moment, then reminded himself of what he wanted to ask this morning.

"Hey Laska, I wanted to ask about something." Nirou stated during a break he had made in his eating. "You guys were having trouble at first telling what the Elder was saying, right? I'm assuming he's got a strong accent."

"It's even tougher than that of the woman that sold us clothes in the market." Laska replies, almost hesitant to admit it. "I'm almost envious of you. But it's only natural, with how far out we are in the wilderness. This is probably among the most remote settlements on the continent."

"That's the thing I was thinking about." Nirou went on. "This is so far out of the way that they still mention 'gods' like the General was talking about. But even if it's with an accent, they still speak the same language. Maybe it's only weird to me, but how exactly did it become this prolific? Even the most popular language in my world doesn't get around like this."

"The Church has spent centuries proselytizing in every corner of the continent." Kishaldam makes her way into the conversation from the other side of Laska. "Priests are sent on mission even to tiny villages like this. More than just the holy scripture, they teach everyone that they can both Firstspeech and Firstscript. Since higher society had more obvious reasons to learn them, they were able to fill things in from both ends as it were."

"Yes it's been quite some time, but we still had members of the Church making their way to the village when I was a boy." Ramajayh seemed to have been listening in and gave his part. "Many of us can even read and write thanks to their work. Though I'm sad that our old language isn't used much anymore."

"The only place on the continent that still mainly uses their traditional language is the northeastern tundra and the nomadic tribes that live there." Kishaldam states confidently as she dispenses yet more knowledge. "But the Church is always sending priests there, even now. They seem to be dead set on their language being universal."

Before Nirou could ponder too much on the matter of the Church supplanting other languages, Hamid and Ajandi joined the rest of the group at the table. Ajandi seemed to be shivering a bit despite the heat, so Nirou didn't have to wonder too hard about how Hamid had chosen to wake him up. As everyone finished eating, the Captain addressed the team.

"Today we stick to the village, we shouldn't search the jungle until we have all the info we can get." Rashen explained the plan. "Plus we'll still be tired from that all nighter. Tomorrow is the soonest that we'll possibly be in top form for a fight, so we don't want to get into one before then if we can help it."

"You've been deathly serious about your precautions when it comes to the possibility of fighting Beastmen." Laska noted, her curiosity getting the better of her. "Can they truly pose such a threat to you, the most elite team in Anjdrahm? You all are not only skilled, but in possession of powerful gifts. There's no harm in being too prepared of course, but I can only wonder about the kind of foe that would drive you this far."

"Beastmen are no joke." Ajandi replied with an uncharacteristic seriousness. "In the last invasion, I saw friends of mine torn to pieces in an instant. If you aren't careful, it'll happen to you too."

"The raw strength of a beast, with the cunning of a man. No human could ever hope to take one down without a gift." Hamid added, though she seemed slightly less tense about the topic than the others. "But we do have 'em. So we should be fine. So long as there aren't too many, of course."

"As long as we outnumber them two-to-one, then we have little to fear. Even on a one-to-one basis, I'm confident we would win without suffering any permanently debilitating injuries." Kishaldam assessed their odds. "But if we were to be outnumbered, then we have no choice but to make a tactical retreat. You have no leeway when fighting a Beastman. One direct hit will kill you, and that's that."

"And no offense, but I'd like it if you two didn't have to fight any Beastmen at all." Rashen admitted. "I can't be sure about your safety if things get too chaotic. So try to leave things to us if you can."

Laska merely replied with a reluctant nod. Nirou could see that she had too much faith in her abilities to not take any offense at the suggestion. Hopefully any situation they got into would be one that he could help her keep her cool in. Maybe the fact that he would be facing certain death in such a fight could be used as leverage.

With all of the briefing out of the way, everyone thanked Ramajayh and his family for the food and got up to leave. Stepping outside into the humid midday jungle, the village at its peak liveliness could be seen.

"Alright team, leave no stone unturned." the Captain insisted. "Let's wring every bit of info we can out of these people and get to the bottom of this so no one else has to get hurt."

At that, Rashen enthusiastically started striding off towards the nearest villager he could see. Nirou couldn't help but wonder how good a team of elite combatants was actually going to be at this kind of PR thing. But he supposed he was going to find out one way or another.