We caught up do Denabla shortly after setting off. She was walking (I think) toward the creek we told her about. She was moving so slow it was like watching an hour hand though.

"Why did you run off? We were going to have a quick breakfast before we got going." I said as we casually strode up to her not two hundred yards from our campsite just over the first hill.

"You finally up? Thought your generation slept till noon, since you don't work." She griped and sauntered on at an incredible pace for a wounded snail.

"You have me there; I don't have a job. You shouldn't have left without us! What if another group of bandits would have come along?" I admonisher her as we basically stood in place.

"Look young fellow, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but I have lived my whole life without some knight in shining armor coming to save me. I have been on the road for over two hours now and if I had waited on you two, we wouldn't be this far."

Two hours! I did some quick math in my head and decided that we would die of old age before we got to the creek. "Where are you coming from?" I asked trying to take my mind off the eternity of a trip we had ahead of us.

"Now you are interested in my life! Odd to sleep with a woman then start asking questions about her life! Most of you men don't bother learning anything after you get what you want." Still grumpy.

Hawk gave me an accusing glare as I held my hands up in a plea of innocence.

"Are you from the village just up ahead?" She indicated the road in front of us.

"Yes, have you been there?" Hawk asked.

"Yes I have, you two want to hear a story?" She said.

"I would love to! Is it a love story?" Hawk replied with far too much authentic enthusiasm for this time of the morning, or being alive for that matter.

Denabla just smirked and started on the story. "When I was younger my husband and I lived there. He was getting up in his years, but he was the greatest trapper our people had ever seen." She reminisced and actually seemed to pick up the pace slightly in her reverie, perhaps remembering times when her joints weren't filled with fluid. "He was a wonderful man; you know? Always put me first and took care of me when I needed it. A good man should always listen to his wife, and he was the best listener." A sheen came over her milky eyes as she continued. "He was so smart that he only had to work a few hours in the morning and at night, all of the other women were jealous because we got to spend so much time together."

We continued on the same path, slightly downhill and the sun was peeking through the massive tree tops to our right casting long shadows over the road, and letting the occasional beam warm our face. There was a fog in the canopy and a slight drizzle from the needles catching the moisture and dropping it to their roots.

"He would hold me when he got back with his haul for the day and tell me that we would always be together. No death would hold us apart, he would do whatever it took to ensure we would always be together." At this point she had full on tears rolling down the cracks in her face. Her eyes were puffy and swollen, and her voice caught on the occasional syllable. "One day the elder council called him to the hut, we both knew what it was about. As you know the man that brings the most meat always replaces the head elder when he joins the council. There was a problem though." Her voice strengthened perhaps with anger, or resolve. "You see my husband was the greatest hunter we had ever known, none of the legendary elders of the past even compared to his numbers, he could feed the entire village by himself on any given day. He was smart, kind and all the women and children loved him. The problem was that he wasn't a very large man." She indicated Hawk's massive frame, "He was actually about your size and build." She indicated me walking to her left and slightly behind her. "He brought me with him, because any decision he made would affect me as well. Keep in mind that I was nearly bursting with our first child and so when I waddled my way into the longhouse it was a surprise to find the entire council sitting in the hut. They didn't really like each other, and since we didn't know what it was about, we just assumed that he would be getting an offer to take his role on the council." She was openly weeping now, just barely able to continue the story, and somehow her pace matched the mood of the story as we were basically standing as she shuffled along. "The eldest son of the Chief was standing just behind him and to his right. He was a very large man, one of the biggest anyone could remember. He was an exceptional hunter, with unmatched physical skills. He wasn't very smart though, and from time to time my husband would let him claim some of his kills to save face with his father. My husband was just too nice to watch another man struggle. The young man strode forward into the circle and in front of his father. 'You stand accused of treason!' He shouted to the room. The council seemed to expect it and didn't react, but we were stunned, and speechless. 'You have been working with the mines, in exchange for their massive pack of hunters providing you with kills, you will give the village over to them when you become chief.' He then cleared his father's ceremonial sword from his side and leveled it at us. 'Your wife has laid with those mongrels to seal the deal and their demon seed grows within her now!' He was shouting and spit was flying from his mouth as his face turned red with anger. My husband had one hand on my belly in a gesture of protection and the other was splayed forward in a calming gesture to the wild beast in front of him. We were both stepping back in short steps away from the weapon being brandished in front of us. My husband finally spoke up, 'What proof do you have of these accusations? Why are you betraying me? How many times have I helped you when you needed it?' His voice was so hurt." She stopped talking and walking for a few moments to catch her breath and gather herself. "The chief then stood up behind his son and spoke. 'My son the largest and strongest has witnessed these events and we all see the truth in his words!' With that the rest of the council began nodding their heads in approval of the statement. 'No tiny man like you could hunt better than my son!' He shouted at us reflecting his son's reddened complexion."

She then struggled as she sat on a small boulder next to the path. She was quietly sobbing at this point and took several minutes to compose herself. I was having a hard time listening to her painful memory and Hawk was taking it just as bad as Denabla was, his face was swollen, and his cheeks shined with fresh tears. She finally gathered herself and continued.

"Then everything changed. The monster lunged forward with demonic speed and a greedy look in his eyes, then he plunged the sword into my gut." We both gasped then I knelt and held her hand while Hawk wrapped a massive arm around her to support her as his tears fell on her wispy hair. "My baby was dead, I could feel it, she was gone, and then my husband stabbed the Chief in the eye. His skinning knife buried up to the hilt killing the man instantly. Then he held both arms in front of his face in a defensive gesture. It didn't matter though, seeing his father die that monster swung the blade with inhuman strength, he cleaved right through both of his arms and his neck." We all just leaned on one another catching our breath.

"He was a good man!" She cried. "A smart, wonderful man!" She almost whispered. "He would have been an amazing father to our daughter."

"How did you survive?" Hawk said through his own sobs.

"The healer was my best friend and she came running along with everyone else that was in the village when she heard the commotion. She used her healing magic to seal my wounds but told me she could do nothing to save our daughter." We sat quietly for a while just comforting her.

"The elder council was clearly appalled by the turn of events and banished me from the village. That monster was named chief the next day!" She shouted with more strength than I thought she had left. Her rage and hatred clearly fueling her. "Nobody even stood up for me, all of the people that my husband helped just let them discard his body, by feeding him to wild animals! All of those people just let them accuse me and banish me, not one-person looked me in the eye as I shuffled out of the village still carrying my dead child in my belly!" She was shouting at this point. "I found a hedge doctor that pulled little Khutulun from my womb and laid her to rest." At the mention of her daughter's name we both looked at each other in shock and then back at Denabla with suspicion and disbelief. "She was perfect in every way, she would have been smart and kind, just like her father."

We sat there stunned and sad for a long time, then Hawk without saying a word just picker Denabla up in his arms and started walking toward the creek. I quickly stood and almost had to jog to keep up with his long powerful strides. He had a look of determination on his face and she just clung to his chest like a child.

We arrived a few minutes later and Hawk gently laid Denabla down and removed his shirt and trousers, then he stripped her down and took out a clean shirt from my bag. He lifted her again and carried her to the middle of the creek, then he began washing her with his clean shirt. The water downstream of them turned slightly brown as the filth was washed away and she slowly stopped crying, resolve hardened her features and she stood naked in the creek. She hugged Hawk and gestured for us to leave her alone. Hawk reached back into the bag and left her a long white tunic that came to just above his knees that I assume he slept in.

When we got a good distance away, I turned to Hawk. "What are we going to do? Do you think the monster from her story is the current chief?" I asked in a hushed tone.

"We should ask his name and then we will know, but does it matter? Everything I know is a lie, you saw that massive scar on her belly, and I know how brutal our villagers can be when they have been corrupted with the desire for power." He spat.

"Why should we even go back? They don't deserve this hat, and you don't need any reward from them. Let's just hit the road and never look back." Hawk was pacing pondering the possibilities.

"We owe her some justice, and they need to be removed from power. There is no place in this world for leaders that stab their own people in the back. We can't just let them continue to run the village, if we do nothing that will happen to more people." I said grabbing him on the elbow and pointing toward the creek and Denabla.

"I don't even want to look at them! They are monsters, and while they might not be the ones that killed her family, they still know what happened. When the elders are replaced the entire knowledge of their life is transferred in a ritual that gives the incoming elder the knowledge of the entire line that came before them. Each one has the knowledge of several generations of our people!" This was a revelation and hardened my resolve on what must be done.

"We will bring Denabla back with us to your village, then we will confront the elder council about the event and sort this whole mess out. I believe Denabla, but they still deserve to be given the opportunity to confess. It will make it easier to replace them, and it will give them some peace to finally shed the dark secret." I looked up at Hawk to gauge his response.

"You would give those monsters a chance to spread more lies? We should just kill them and be done with it! They deserve it!" He was clearly not on board.

"I know you think of them as pure evil right now, but in reality; most monsters are just normal people. They come from a different set of circumstances and experiences than we do, but most of the time you will find that they were good people that were manipulated or didn't mean for things to get so out of hand. We also only have the one perspective, you can learn a lot from this situation, if you ever get into power you need to know what to look out for." I tried to bring him over to my side, but it wasn't looking very good and my argument was trash.

"I will listen to your wisdom, but not because you have changed my mind, but because you killed Zekros, and I know you can't fight." He simply indicated all of me. "So, you must be a brilliant strategist."

I was a little embarrassed by this, so I simply told Hawk, "You know we should really go over the particulars of that encounter some time. Maybe not in front of Denabla," who was now wearing Hawk's tunic and looking 20 years younger as she shuffled up the slight slope from the creek, so still around the 180 mark. "but right after that."

"Fill your skins and let’s get going we are wasting daylight here." She said as she walked by. Hawk and I just looked at each other and shrugged, then complied.