“It’s still a lot to put on me all at once on the very day we’ve met.” Crusch Lulu said in a bit of a tiff. “I’ll skip the mud for now… but if we survive this, on the way back I will… I will permit it.”

The happy thudding of Zaryusu’s tail on Rororo’s back was impossible to miss.

“I’m sorry… but I am still a male, and the idea excites me.” Zaryusu acknowledged and moved his hands so that they were beside her long, slender body and holding onto the necks of two of Rororo’s heads.

“I- Yes, I understand. My tribe is not large, I know what it is you’re feeling, at least by… observation.” Crusch replied.

“Now who’s the pervert?” Zaryusu joked and she gasped, scandalized.

“It’s not like that!” Crusch exclaimed, and blushed when he laughed at her.

“I know, but the humans have a saying, ‘Turnabout is fair play’ and you put me on the spot first.” Zaryusu replied without any taunting or meanness to his words.

“I suppose I did do that.” Crusch admitted succinctly.

“We should be there soon.” Zaryusu said, allowing the subject to shift and pointing to a distant wall of earth and logs. It was barely a dot ahead, but he saw it clearly.

“You mention humans, you were a traveler?” Crusch asked.

“Yes, I bear the brand of my tribe to mark me as such, I left and wandered the realms of men for several years.” Zaryusu replied.

“Why?” Crusch asked, looking up over her shoulder at him, he wasn’t looking down at her now, his mind was elsewhere, eyes focused forward.

“Why?” Zaryusu reversed the question.

“Yes, unless your customs differ from ours, that brand meant you would no longer be able to participate in governing the tribe, you would be forever apart from your own people. That is a very heavy burden, and besides that there was the very big risk that you might die out there. You could have been enslaved, or killed by humans, or a monster, or any number of dreadful ends.”

“I could also die in our next tribal wars.” Zaryusu answered in a voice as cold as Frost Pain.

“I left because I knew things couldn’t stay the same, sooner or later we would be hungry again, sooner or later we would have to fight each other again, what if the hunger is greater next time? How will we survive? We still might not, we still have not recovered from the wars amongst one another, and now the frogmen threaten to destroy us.” Zaryusu replied with his entire body tensing in frustration and anger.

“The world outside our lake and our swamp… I thought it might have answers. Knowledge that might help us to change our fates. I was right, I found things that, if we had known them years ago, would have meant none of us would go hungry. If someone had gone before me, none of that might have happened.” Zaryusu’s jaw tightened and his mouth audibly snapped shut.

“Yes, I understand… what if we fail, but are we able to leave?” Crusch asked, “Will your knowledge help us?”

“Maybe. I made human friends in the Kingdom among the adventurers, the Kingdom is safer than the Theocracy, I was warned never to go there or I would be killed. Baharuth to the north is far too great a distance, we’d have to travel far to get around the area ruled by frogmen. We aren’t well suited to the caves of the dwarves, though they are friendly enough. Anywhere we go, living will be hard and anything might go wrong, our old likely would not survive such a journey.”

“That is true…” Crusch said, and then her blood froze when Zaryusu spoke again.

“I noticed you had very few elders compared to us. Why?” Zaryusu asked, Crusch wasn’t sure if his tone actually held suspicion in it or if it was all in her own imagination, but she chose to answer honestly.

‘Our lives depend on one another… I have no choice but to trust this one.’ Crusch reasoned, and putting her hands on the outside of his own, she answered, “It is how we avoided fighting in the war at all.”

“I don’t understand, did they find a dangerous food supply and risk themselves to bring it back?” Zaryusu asked, “Could stronger ones make it, if so, perhaps we could harvest something worthwhile before fleeing if we have to.”

“No, nothing like that. That would make this easier… when the tribes went to war, our chief, he didn’t want to risk joining any side. So he instead... he made laws. Laws with stiff penalties.” Crusch said and searched vainly for the words to carry on with her explanation.

“Laws, how do laws help feed you? You can’t eat laws.” Zaryusu pointed out, and she lowered her head a little, watching the ground vanish slowly under Rororo’s tireless round feet, the squelching mud and the breeze were tranquil to hear and to feel for a moment, but only for a moment.

She felt another burn from on her pale scales. The pain gnawed at her a little before she answered.

“No, no we don’t eat the laws, we didn’t, I mean. But whenever someone broke a rule, our chief would exile them, he would escort them out of the village, far out of sight, and then when he returned, he brought back meat to feed the tribe with. Nobody knew what he was doing, not at first. He almost always chose the aged ones for ‘punishment’. Eventually we did figure it out. But we pretended we didn’t.” Crusch tightened her hold over his hands.

“We pretended we weren’t guilty for what felt like the longest time while the other tribes fought each other, we were showing our shameful selves and pretending we didn’t know that we were eating the bodies of our elders. How hypocritical we were… it wasn’t until the famine was near the end, when we knew, we were sure that we were safe, that we turned on our chief. Only when we were safe, did we put the blame on him and start our own war against each other. I led the way. I rallied the village, and I killed him. He saved us, at a terrible price, and took all that guilt on himself so that we could go on… and I killed him for it.”

“I see… I don’t know what to say to that.” Zaryusu answered, inching closer as if to offer his warmth.

“The strange thing though, he seemed at peace, my staff came up, and he bowed his head to me to accept the blow. He offered no real resistance, only a token of his true ability, and so I took his life with ease.”

“I never knew your chief, but can I offer an explanation?” Zaryusu asked as kindly as his rough voice would allow.

She nodded with quiet acceptance and awaited his condemnation.

“I think he knew his tribe would survive, you took the role of chief after him, the tribe was in good hands, and it was over. And because he accepted all the guilt, the tribe could go on as it had without despising itself. I don’t know the character of your chief, but if my brother were in his place, I think that would have been his thought.” Zaryusu said with pride.

Crusch Lulu’s tail drooped, a heavy weight seemed to have fallen away, and without even thinking about it, she let herself lean back into the body of the large male behind her. “Thank you for that. I think maybe you’re right, looking at it that way, it does sound like him, he was a truly great leader.”

“He must have been, now here you are doing the same, putting your life on the line to lead them as he did before you. It is hard to be chief, I don’t even envy you, and I do not even envy my brother.” Zaryusu gave a vigorous shake of his head. “Strangely enough, not being part of the governing life of the tribe was not a bad thing to think about when I considered becoming a Traveler. After the war, when things settled, I didn’t dislike the idea of not participating in a decision to kill our own ever again. Any risks I took risked only myself. That seemed a little enough thing to handle.”

“You say that, but ‘yourself’ is all you’ve got.” Crusch Lulu replied, and then raised her hand and pointed ahead.

The matter was dropped in an instant, “They’ve spotted us.”

Zaryusu looked closely, she was right, the solid wall was giving way to a view of the interior as the gate opened up in front of them and guards at the top held long spears at the ready, their numbers quickly increasing as others rushed up from the inside, ready to fend off the monster Rororo and ‘whoever’ was riding him.

“If they attack, I will turn Rororo around, he will take you back, warn our tribes that we failed and to run to the adventurer’s guild of Re-Estize and ask for help. Ask for Moknak of Rainbow.” Zaryusu’s instructions were swift and given without regard for whether Crusch would agree with them or not.

“You’re going to risk yourself again?” Crusch demanded to know.

“I have only myself, I am a Traveler, I can be lost. But I’m also the bearer of Frost Pain, they may not attack, but if they do, by using Frost Pain’s power, I can buy time for you to escape.” Zaryusu said, and sensing her hesitation he raised his head and spoke to his companion.

“Rororo, if they attack, take my friend back, even if you have to carry her in your mouths.” Zaryusu commanded, and Rororo nodded as if he understood.

“You can’t make that decision for me!” Crusch Lulu exclaimed.

“Someone has to survive, and you are a chief.” Zaryusu said in the bluntest way he could.

Crusch Lulu could not argue with his reasoning, and launched no more objections as they came close enough to see into the eyes of the lizardmen on the wall.