The Island of Wonder

Strange girl. Nicole looked at the ratgirl’s back as the girl turned around and left her, disappearing into the tent given to the Rat survivors. She could have at least explained how she made the feather bolts work. Nicole carefully took one last bolt from the scorching embers and looked closer at it. Looks almost the same, except the color got darker. She tried loading it into the crossbow, but as soon pressure was applied to the feather, it crumbled and turned to dust. "Ugh. What the fuck?"

At that moment, Nicole remembered Soi’s words about the Rat Tribe. "They are all just a bunch of criminals. Never heard of any Tzurai that would be a good person." Nicole checked all her pockets and anything that could be stolen from her, but everything was intact. Well, they don’t look so bad for now. Limia seemed pretty nice, if we ignore the fact that she just suddenly left.

The next few days went on the same as before, with the addition of three more wagons joining the caravan and nine more people in the evenings. Nicole couldn’t say that the Bees were hostile to the Tzurai, but she noticed that any time a Rat person even just passed by, the Bee guards tensed up, ready to react immediately if needed. Maybe Tzurais are not that bad. Or these ones are just an exception?

One evening, Limia suddenly joined Nicole and the catgirls at dinner. She simply approached and sat down as if she always did that. As expected, the two Torakai got nervous at first, but soon curiosity inside Soi won and she initiated a conversation.

"So… you are Limia, right? What were you guys doing around those parts? It’s the border of Torakai and Druvokai territory." She tried to sound as if she wasn’t suspicious of the Rat people.

"Oh, you know. Same as you guys." Limia smiled slightly. "Life of traveling merchants." She sounded calm, but something in her voice made Soi and the rest feel like she was mocking them. "But you three look even stranger than I and my people do. What are cats and… a human doing with the Bee caravan? Some secret operation between your tribes?" Limia pointed at Soi with her spoon.

Soi frowned. "Not your business, rat."

Nicole groaned and rolled her eyes. "Come on, girls, no reason to start fights, right? Neither of us needs to create any additional conflicts. Can we just forget about all that and enjoy the food and have some normal, casual talk?"

Iloe nodded actively, agreeing, despite the fact that she was the most on guard and nervous whenever any Tzurai was around. Even now, she was sitting in a way that put her as far from Limia as possible.

An awkward silence filled the air, and only Limia seemed not to care, as the ratgirl just sat and ate, looking into the fire. By that time, Nicole was done with her own dinner. She glanced at the ratgirl.

"Do you like being a merchant?" Maybe not my best opener, but it’s all I could think of.

Limia shrugged. "Doesn’t matter. It’s better than staying in any Tzurai village or city, and no other tribe would welcome or accept any of us."

"What’s wrong with the cities of your tribe?" Nicole asked. Additional knowledge won’t hurt.

At first, Limia cocked an eyebrow at her, then chuckled. "Right, you are… unique and not from here. I don’t know what your experiences were with other tribes, but believe me, with Tzurai it’s just a worse version. Poor or homeless people everywhere, killing and stealing from everyone. Rulers of the tribe are being killed and replaced so fast that no one cares about keeping up anymore. Most say Pigs are the worst, but even they stick together and have some kind of community. Tsk." The ratgirl spat into the fire. "Only those who are too weak to leave or strong enough to secure themselves some kind of stability live there. And I am neither of those."

Damn, now I feel sorry for her. "Well, at least you have friends you travel and work with, right? Or maybe family?"

Limia stood up sharply. "Friends, family? Hah, I wish." And then she left, as suddenly as she appeared.

"Okay, that was… something," Iloe sighed.

The next evening, after stopping but before dinner was ready, Nicole decided to go find Limia. If they are merchants, maybe they have something interesting? And I didn’t ask her about the feather bolt yet.

Approaching the big tent, Nicole heard two loud voices, but they were too muffled to understand anything. At first, she wanted to wait it out and go inside in a few minutes, but then she heard the sound of metal clashing. Are they fighting in there?

Led by curiosity, Nicole walked around the tent, making a big semicircle to make it appear as if she was just wandering around. When no one was looking, she hid in the bushes and made her way to the back wall of the tent, where she could now hear the voices perfectly.

"How are you not getting this? It’s too dangerous!" Nicole easily recognized the voice of the leader of the Rat travelers.

"No, Teor, you idiot! It’s your plan that is dangerous!" Limia said. Nicole could hear her unsteady and ragged breathing.

"I am getting tired of this. Girl, what happened after we followed your idea last time? Two of our people died!"

"Yes, it didn’t go as planned back then! But they will kill us all when they find out! This squirrel fucker and Jathun are not blind. What are you going to tell them?" Limia paused, then continued while imitating Teor’s voice. "'Oh, we just decided to leave part of the crates with goods in the forest for completely no reason.' No one trusts us already. Ugh, how can you be so dumb?!"

After some more metal clanks and Limia’s groan of pain, they started arguing again. Limia’s voice changed from angry and annoyed to almost begging.

"If we run, they won’t go after us. Even if the squirrel informant took notes on us, it doesn’t matter. Our tribe is being hunted anyway. It’s easier to get rid of us all than to hope to find someone worthy. It’s a miracle we weren’t killed right after they helped us with the Ectokaens! Please, listen to me one more time!"

"Hah, everything you planned didn’t work, so now you are just asking for mercy and trust? You even tried to fight me, as if you ever had a chance. I am your father, after all. And as your father and the leader of our group, I already made my decision! So shut up and accept it."

A second later, Nicole heard a harsh slap, followed by footsteps running out of the tent. Another, heavier set of steps approached the tent wall she was crouching behind, then stopped, followed by Teor sitting down and spitting.

"Gh, stupid bitch! I know the risks. But what else am I supposed to do? We won’t survive long in the wild."

Realizing she had probably heard everything worth listening to and that the argument was finished, Nicole very slowly retreated, careful not to make any sound that would alert the Tzurai man. Once she reached a distance where she wouldn’t look suspicious, she relaxed.

In the end, they are up to something bad after all. Fuck. And here I was, hoping the stereotypes wouldn’t be true this time… It seems there is something in those crates that can expose them? I’d better check it. Nicole glanced at the three wagons that belonged to the Rats. But not now—it would be too easy to spot me.

To pass some time, Nicole decided to finally start teaching Mignon how to throw knives. She made a wooden target and brought her pet from the wagon where he was sleeping.

"Wake up. Time to become more useful."

At first, Nicole took the knives and slowly, repeatedly threw them. Then she handed one to Mignon. "Come on. Your turn."

"Woof!" He took the knife and threw it like it was a rock. The weapon hit the target, but only with the blunt side, then bounced down onto the ground. Mignon turned to Nicole and looked at her, mouth open and breathing fast, like an excited puppy.

"Uh, no. Look." Nicole threw again. Then she slowly placed a knife into Mignon’s paw, showing him how to hold it properly, and holding his arm, imitated the throwing motion. After she released him, Mignon threw the knife, but it wasn’t much more successful. They continued again and again, even from time to time, to encourage him, Nicole gave him pieces of bird meat. But Mignon didn’t seem to grasp the idea.

Shit, I really thought it would be easier. Well, I have nowhere to rush.

Hours passed, and after it got dark, Nicole was ready to continue her investigation. Under the moonlight, after faking going to sleep and waiting for Iloe and Soi to fall asleep, she sneaked out.

I could notify everyone, but first I want to make sure that it’s not a simple misunderstanding. There is already too much tension going on. One wrong move and it may end up badly.

Nicole headed to the place where the Tzurai wagons were parked. At first, she was cautious, but no one seemed to be guarding them. The only ones who weren’t asleep were the Bee guards on watch, but all of them were pretty far away, judging by the torchlight.

Nicole approached the first wagon and climbed inside. Crates, crates… There are only a bunch of chests, and all locked. Hm… Maybe they are carrying some drugs or other black market stuff? Without thinking for long, Nicole absorbed the lock and excitedly opened the chest. Let’s see what dark secrets you hide. Her eyes scanned the contents, and her smile dropped. Uhm… What?

Nicole definitely did not see what she expected. A stack of papers and some clothes? Really? She grabbed the papers first. After quickly going through a few, she realized it was some kind of diary. Oo, that’s something.

Day 150 after my 20th eklipse. Fuking shit! I dont want to die! Wy, just wy it had to happen? Its al my fault i n the end... If not my greed, ectokaens wouldnt attak us and we wouldnt meet those fuking bees. Father had to agree on their deal. Woulded and with only 9 of us left, we would have hard time reaching any village. Tsk. He said their leader, Jathun, asked for one third of al we have as a payment. Another greedy bastard. Same as me, hah. It wil be a miracle if they wouldnt find out what we are really carrying. I pray to Itis but every tzurai knows to never fuly trust anyone. Especialy other tzurai, even if she is our goddes... The torakai pair and this, how did they al cal her? Right, humn. Strange girl. But she invented some kind of preloaded bow. This bitch tried to use ectokaen feathers as arrows for some reason, so i had to show off and use the trick o normally use with throwing spikes. Worked wel enough and feathers actualy proved to not be as bad as i thought. Maybe this Nicol is smarter than she looks. Doesnt matter. If i wont manage to persuade father to organise our escape, i will go alone. The rest can die if they want it so much. But i just want to live.