The next morning the four of them entered the large building again. It apparently was the tribal building where the town and tribe managed and governed itself.

They entered again the colorful and nicely decorated room. The room had a few grey skins, Amala, Pema, and Tenzin who sat at the end of the room on a small pedestal.

"I am sorry for the bad treatment you got. I thoroughly punished them after they broke the rules. Hope you forgive us and them," said Tenzin and slightly bowed his head.

"No need to apologize and no need to punish them either," said Rufus.

"You are a kind, but naive person. If we do not punish those who break the rules we would not survive. Living in the mountains is harsh. Having rules that are for all of us benefit the entire tribe and community," Tenzin explained.

Rufus was amazed at how capable a leader Tenzin was. It was clear his people liked him.

"You probably didn't have much to eat yet. Luckily my sister spent yesterday night hunting and was able to hunt down this bear last night. Let this also be a formal apology from us to you," said Tenzin.

An entire roasted bear was brought into the middle of the room. It was huge. A grey skin came and started to carve out chunks of meat and gave it out to everyone.

"This is rare for us even. We are many times rationing food if our hunters are unsuccessful or the local faun has been hunted to depletion. We do not want to eat away at our goats too much since the milk of them is far too precious to us," Tenzin explained.

All the grey skins looked like they were enjoying the feast. Rufus didn't see any fat grey skin in the entire town. They all were very skinny or very muscular. Most likely from the very heavy protein diet they ate. No vegetable was found on the table.

"Now let us get to the main point. You all are warriors of the Jacob kingdom right?" Tenzin asked.

They all looked at themselves. They were all gangsters and could even be considered revolutionaries. They were the exact opposite of a kingdom's warrior.

"We really are not warriors of the kingdom. We are more like opportunists. Yes, opportunists. We have our own goals," Haley explained trying to avoid the obvious.

They did not understand what Haley meant by opportunists.

All of the grey skins were looked at Edward. They gave very fierce gazes at him.

"You know it is impolite to lie. Any of my men would recognize a knight of the black sun if they saw them. Just from the aura alone," Tenzin explained and pointed at Edward.

Edward looked irritated. He then smiled and chuckled a bit.

"Yeah, maybe I was once. Definitely not anymore. If one thing I hate more than grey skins are the knights of the black sun and their entire order," said Edward and looked at all of them provocatively.

Amala stood up mad and took what Edward said offensively. Tenzin then held his hand up. Amala understood to calm down and sit back down.

"It seems we hit a nerve, but I think it is even more reason for you to cooperate with us without much resistance. I am also interested in the enemies of the kingdom. Knowledge is power and there is not useless knowledge," Tenzin explained.

The four of them looked at each other. They all whispered and agreed on telling them the truth. They were considered the enemy of the state now so maybe the grey skins would trust them more.

After telling the truth Amala translated everything to the other grey skins. They explained everything from them being from the slums and how they became gang leaders. They left out the parts of Edwards's past being part of the Plangent family and didn't enclose that the one helping them was the prince of the kingdom.

Tenzin seemed displeased.

"What a shame. I had hoped you'd be nobles at least. We tried to capture some peasants or common soldiers before, but they were too frail to survive the hike up the mountains. At least it is good to know you won't try to escape. Don't think you would want to go back to the kingdom," Tenzin said and rested his forehead on his hand.

The four of them felt uneasy. They started to think that telling the truth was a mistake since they do not have any intel to give.

"What kind of information do you want? I may not be a noble, but I am very knowledgeable about the structure of the kingdom. Ask me anything. Just do not hurt the other three," Doreen said and surprised the rest of the three of them.

Tenzin looked surprised. He then chuckled a bit.

"Hahahaha. I was not going to hurt you anyway. As I said before we are not animals as you might think of us and hospitality is sacred to us.

"If that is the case how do you know all this information? You are all basically revolutionaries, not soldiers," Tenzin asked Doreen.

"I used to work for the kingdom. Not as a soldier, but as a noble's secretary. I had to memorize and know a lot of things about the kingdom," Doreen explained calmly.

"I see. Well, then that is good to know. I will then stay in contact with you then. This meeting is over. You may leave now," Tenzin said and excused everyone.

"You there. Might I have a word with you," asked Tenzin from Rufus.

It was just Tenzin and Rufus in the room. Even Pema wasn't there.

"Aren't you afraid be me alone here with me? You said I was dangerous," Rufus asked from Tenzin.

"No. You may be strong, but I believe I could be even stronger. We grey skins also are blessed with divine powers," said Tenzin and released an immense aura.

Rufus felt a bit intimidated, but the aura was small compared to the likes of Rikard Plangent he had felt weeks ago.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Rufus asked being a bit afraid of Tenzin now

"Do not be afraid. I heard you tried to cover for my brother Pema. I wanted to thank you personally," Tenzin said and smiled.

"Yeah. He seemed like a nice person. I'm also used to being a punching bag. Taking a few hits for a nice person was nothing. It seemed he himself is not liked in the town either?" Rufus asked.

"No. He is not much liked. People like him are called abandoned children. You see we could be considered a fortunate tribe. Our lands can provide some food for us and there is plenty of game meat to be hunted. Not all tribes are as fortunate.

"Many tribes are lacking in food. Living in the mountains tends to do that. In those tribes, it is a custom to control the number of children people have. If an unwanted child is born, they are left in the mountains to die. We found Pema in the mountain forests and decided to take him as our brother. He is considered an outsider among our tribe and it is believed the abounded children are meant to die and stay dead for the good of the tribe, " Tenzin explained.

Rufus was shocked. He just was thinking of all the food he had received including the roasted bear. They obviously didn't have much food to spare. Rufus also understood that Pema had also gone through hardship similar to what he had faced.

"I have something to ask of you. Would you mind doing this request for me? Teach Pema your human language," Tenzin asked.

"Why would you want him to learn the human language?" Rufus asked.

"To be able to converse with humans is considered a valuable skill. It increases a person's social status among us. That way Pema's standing in the tribe would increase," Tenzin explained.

"I am not much of a teacher," said Rufus who had never thought anyone anything.

"That doesn't matter. Pema is a fast learner. As thanks, I will have Pema teach you something in return. A skill for a skill. Maybe you would like to learn our language also?" Tenzin proposed-

Rufus thought for a moment. He was thinking of the martial arts Pema used earlier. He had always struggled to fight an opponent like Dorothy who had better skills when it came to hand-to-hand combat.

"I would like Pema to teach me his martial arts if possible?" Rufus asked.

Tenzin looked a bit confused and also a bit reluctant.

"I don't know. It is his own martial arts that he learned and created himself. I myself tried to learn it once but was not able. It might be a fruitless venture for you. Are you sure you want to learn that from him?" Tenzin asked trying to get Rufus to learn something else.

"Yes. I want him to teach me martial arts," Rufus answered.