Escaping The Empire - The Nonhuman Chronicles

Hearing Talia's words made Ariel frown. “I suspect we're all in the same situation, no longer having a home to go back to.” She was surprised just how sad that thought made her.

Further conversation was interrupted by the smell of cooking meet. Ariel's stomach growled in response, making her blush in embarrassment. The little food she had been given by her captors had been far from filling. “On second thought, maybe we should first see what is cooking and possibly get something to eat. Flying and scouting are much easier when not done on an empty stomach, and besides, I'm pretty sure we're all hungry.” She looked at Wilhelmina. “Or at least most of us.” The angel took a few more whiffs of the pleasant scent and took a step towards the source. Then she stopped and looked back at the faun. “Coming, Talia? I doubt the guards were feeding you any better than the rest of us, so you too must be quite hungry. I doubt anyone here would be in a hurry to attack you, and if they do... that is sure to change their mind.” She finished, pointing at the faun's improvised spear.

 

Kerri had already made herself at home, at least a little. She kept close enough to the fire to stay warm...but also kept scratching at the starchy rags that they had put in her in. What was it with humans and these stupid uncomfortable things? Not seeing a real purpose to keeping the things intact, she tore at the clothes again, pulling off her pant legs and leaving them much shorter while doing the same to the rest of her sleeves. More importantly was the uncomfortable bending feeling behind her. Turning her head around slightly, she searched backwards and guided her claws into the cloth along her rear.

Schhrzzt

The sound of the tears came with the fluffy white tail behind her managing to get free with now finally having an opening. This was better...sort of. Like most of her kind, if anything, she felt herself to be completely overdressed for surviving in the wild. Her ears had perked along with the wind to sounds that she heard, keeping an eye on the fire with a hungrier than usual look...would it have been better to just eat it raw? Cooked food did taste better, but it sure took a lot longer.

 

Axel hoi

Axel hoisted his war-ax over his head in triumph, then proceeded to equip himself in his gear. Once he had fixed his tabard with its religious iconography over his armor, his nose detected the alluring scent of roasting meat. Eyes half-shut, he followed his nose towards where Kerri had made her fire. He plopped himself down nearby and instinctively reached out for one of the cooking chunks.

 

Kerri had laid down to rest on the bedding she formed of torn rags, only for her ears to perk, starting to twitch in the directions of the sounds of heavy tromping through the underbrush, so bulky and heavy, she'd have to notice even if her ears weren't as sharp as they were. Like an elephant barreling it's way through, her eyes creaked open to spot a hulking figure coming out towards her believing it should just help itself to her meal....her natural instincts functioned on her own to have her spring out and intercept it, from grabbing her meal. Her throat started to let out a low pitch making a guttural growl, letting her claws come out, but only just barely using them to bat the hand away. This thing was big...but she wasn't about to lose her meal to anyone. Her animal parts twitched and motioned on it's own and it took her a solid ten seconds to remember to put her growls into a proper language that could be communicated.

"Back off."

 

"Yeah, but don't think this means we're friends" She keeps her spear gripped and follows along after the two of you as you head towards the stream where the remaining "companions" have gathered.

 

“I understand. We just met, and we have all been through a lot – though I suspect you have been through a bit more than the rest of us... In any case, I do not expect you to suddenly become friends with the rest of us... though I, at least, would not mind having you as a friend.” Ariel gave Talia a reassuring smile, then focused on making her way to where the smell was coming from as her stomach growled again.

 

@Omega98 @moonblack
Kerri had the fierceness of her yellow eyes tracked onto the giant bull, her muscles tensing and ready to spring if she had to. He was much bigger and more menacing, but the almost feral girl’s was obviously agitated, only being distracted by the approach of more people heading into the camping area she made for herself. Going on her instincts, she took a step back towards the fire, guarding it defensively, now unsure who she was supposed to focus more on, stretching her arms out in some vain attempt for the petite beast girl to look bigger.

“...hiding only works when you don’t all pick the same spot. Everyone had managed picking up on working with each other was the best option, but the wolf clearly didn’t share the same intentions.

Stomach growling, she looked back at the cooking meat that had been attempted to steal. Obviously more than she needed for herself, but without any intent to share any of it. Her grasp of language was limited by needing to think of proper tongue instead of gestures and growls, though the lack of willingness to help was already made evident. “...not yours.”

 

Ariel raised an eyebrow at the beast girl that was trying to protect the meat that was being cooked. Now that she was free of the annoying collar and could use her magic again she would probably be able to disable her with a spell, but she did not want to fight the other prisoners unless he absolutely had to. Thus she decided to try the diplomatic approach – she could always change her mind later.

“Hello there. My name is Ariel. What's yours?” She asked politely as she gave the beast girl a friendly smile.

 

"...Kerri." The hushed and single word reply was proof that the wolf could communicate if it really wanted to, but it just held a critical stare at the...thing. It's not as if she ever read that many books and she lived mostly isolated. She didn't know what it was, but the simple girl's one track mind was mostly ingrained in protecting what she had made. Her claws were partially extended, but not fully unsheathed just yet. Survival instincts told her not to attack something until she actually knew how it worked...that didn't change that in Kerri's mind, this girl was just another thief.

"...get your own." This was an unusually long sentence for the creature, though with the flat and neutral expression on her face, it wasn't easy to tell that this was her doing her best to be as friendly as she could be under the circumstances. Half between her territorial nature and the fact that she still hadn't overcame her general naivety towards strangers, she just stood there cautiously, tempted to just grab her things and run, but staying put for the time being.

 

“Nice to meet you, Kerri,” Ariel remained polite as she tried to decide what to say next. She had never actually dealt with someone quite like the beast girl, so she wasn't sure what the best approach was. “Well, I would, but... that's not something I am very good at. How about some help? Or just sharing a bit of your food, once it has been cooked?” The angel paused to catch her breath, then added “We were all prisoners of the humans and they will no doubt try to recapture us again. In order to improve our odds of escaping them we should all work together, don't you think?” She tried to reason with the girl.

 

Tilting her head slightly, she lowered her arms a bit, but didn't look that much more willing. Ariel's point would have been made evident on most, but the girl really did run on a pretty simple logic, and didn't like to think too far ahead.

"You can't hunt? But I can. You need to share things to live....but I can live on my own.. You can't." Despite the simplistic reasoning, it did show that she had some intelligence in her own way. There was a point that she could survive just fine by herself, and in her perspective, the winged thing wasn't going to be of any help, more likely to just slow things down, in her mind.

"...empire...they're going to play chase. It's harder to play, when you don't all run in the same direction." Even her account of the actual danger of the empire seemed like an over simplification, but showed she did grasp the bare facts and Ariel could at least understand her point that being grouped up together was just going to make it easier for them to be caught if they were all trying to hide in the same area.

 

Ariel considered the beast girl's words. “The Empire is large, with many soldiers. They will chase us, and they will find us – we won't be able to hide, at least not for long. A single person will be easily subdued. But if we work together we will have a much better chance to repel the Empire soldiers and get away.” She tried to make the beast girl understand her point, and at the same time looked around at the other people there, wondering if they had any better ideas, or at least something to add so as to convince Kerri without a fight.

 

Kerri was silent. She obviously had the capacity to at least consider what Ariel had to say...then shook her head. "Hunt, fight, run. I can do all that....all you people do is talk." She wasn't entirely wrong about that, and while obviously doubting that the winged thing would be in anyway helpful to her survival, she still stepped aside and didn't block access to her cooking. "Eat...today...we'll see."

 

Talia watched the tense meeting between Ariel and Kerri and between the fierce Kerri and the rather massive minotaur sitting by the fire. Suddenly she felt like her little spear wasn't quite enough. She hesitated a little before speaking. It's not yet time for her to give up her brave face despite her odds. The faun took a few steps forward and tried not to point her spear directly at Kerri. Such a movement might provoke the predator and her instincts as prey are telling her not to provoke the wolf. Still, it may be something she could rely on to break the tension. "Wolves travel in packs, right? We might not be able to all hunt, but we may be able to..." The girl nudges past the enormous Minotaur as she speaks and finally takes in how much larger he is compared to the rest of them. Surely he could likely break any one of them over his knee if angered. "uhh...help in other ways and we would have safety in numbers."

With a quick stab of the spear, she stabs one of the smaller chunks of meat and backs away quickly to have a seat nearby where she could keep her eyes on everyone in the group.

 

Wilhelmina moves over and sits down. To the group she says "I believe we should think about moving when you've finished your meals. Many of the humans survived the collapse. Once they get word out, more will come for us. We'll likely be blamed. They'll claim that their incompetence was actually our doing."

 

"Wolves have extended families...packs are just terminology to describe the social dynamic." Kerri's face remained as normal as ever, not paying any mind to correcting the faun with using words that would stun people by the fact that she actually understood what they meant. She didn't add to it however, accessing the group. Looking over the size and bulk of the Minotaur, there was a silent nod of approval, apparently passing whatever logic she used to deem someone acceptable. While her beast behavior did lead her instincts prone to being easily irritated, her general naivety caused her to actually raise an eyebrow to the faun. "...helpful?...you sure?...mmmm...we'll see..."

Most of the actual words she spoke were soft spoken, and no longer arguing with the rest for the time being, she gathered her share of food. Opening her mouth, her two small frontal fangs were visible. Really just tiny triangles that would probably struggle to break the skin, it was in stark contrast to the claws she let fully extend to grab some meat off the fire. Her bite wasn't impressive, but those long sharp spikes protruding from her fingertips were weapons in their own right. She looked at the rest, apparently keeping whatever thoughts to herself...until she noticed it.

A woman approached. Human...no. The scent wasn't like that. It was different. She didn't know how to place it. Naturally inclined to investigate something that gathers her attention, she had approached this dressed lady...then stepped closer. She had a face like those rich people who didn't do anything on their own...but their was a unique air that got caught into her nostrils that soon lead the wolf to getting in well past arms reach to look her over and make her investigation....she didn't understand what she was looking at...but somehow it led to a small smile curling on her lips as she stared at the lady, eager to share her findings.

"Hey...you smell."

In the wolf's mind, this was a compliment.

 

When the wolf girl swatted his hand away, Axel was startled; when she extended her claws and warned him to back off, he snorted. She was tiny like the rest and now, back in his armor with his ax, he wasn't worried about any kind of physical altercation. He could take her in a straight fight, of that he had no doubt. But he was chiding himself for his foolishness. He was thinking with his stomach, not his head. Meat cooking over a fire didn't just happen, someone made it and now that the chef had appeared to claim her meal he was more upset with himself than her for the assault.

Then the others from the caravan approached and he was content to remain silent for the time being as the newcomers exchanged words. Eventually, the wolf girl acquiesced and allowed the others to take a portion of the food, and once she did, Axel's hand darted to claim a chunk of meat and scarf it down. He'd apologize for his behavior later.

Finished with his makeshift meal, the minotaur belched and then rose. He held out his ax and thumped it once with a thick digit, then pointed to the debris field where he'd found it. "Stuff." He said simply, then moved to find some grass to complete his meal.

 

There was so many unique things that she never saw before...the twitching in her ears showed. She wanted to sniff. She wanted to taste. Kerri didn’t have much for a scientific method for discoveries. She went by poking at stuff to see what it does until it gets mad enough to tell it to stop. The winged girl...were those real? She was going to test that later...and this human....but not totally human lady...she’d have to see how it worked later...but the minotaur had pointed to part of the field that she hadn’t checked yet.

Not that the wolf carried much...but her cloak. She wanted to keep that. It kept her disguised if she ever needed go into settlements. It was also one of those few bearable types of clothing that wouldn’t just itch and another layer was always helpful for the weather. While she hadn’t satisfied her instinctual desire to annoy her new found party, she had a priority of getting one of her few belongings back....she didn’t quite head off, looking at the group.

“Shelter...can’t strip one of the caravans . To close too crash place to stay forever. Tents are portable.” Her face scrounged for a minute, thinking on something, but not saying it outloud.

While none of these people were going to be willing to have anyone order them, Kerri saw the need. She had been assured of their use, but was still only seeing them as people who were eating all their food and were going to expect her to do all the work.

Not in her blood to wait around anywhere too long, she got a move on to collect that cloak and rummage for what she needed to make a tent.

 

“Thank you, Kerri” said Ariel when the beast girl finally agreed to share her food with the rest of them. She took one of the smaller chunks of meat, moved to the side, sat down on the ground, and started eating. At the same time she checked out the other people there with her.

There was Talia the faun, sitting to the side as well and keeping her eyes on everyone else. Then there were the vampire, Wilhelmina, and the beast girl. As she watched Kerri started smelling and examining the countess. She's likely never met a vampire before. The angel guessed.

Last, but definitely not least, was a large Minotaur – and he had apparently found some armor and an ax. Judging by how well they seem to fit him, maybe the weapon and armor were his and the humans had taken them. Maybe he just got them back... That makes me wonder, did they also take my clothes? While her usual skimpy clothing did not leave much to the imagination, and did not offer any real protection, it was still better than wearing nothing but her see-through lingerie. Thus once she had finished her quick meal Ariel went to check and see if she could find her clothes, or anything else she could wear.

 

<I had completely forgotten that Ariel has been running around basically entirely naked at this point.>

You all rummage through the debris from the caravan and find your clothing and equipment. you also manage to find about a dozen or so changes of clothing for the soldiers. Although these are pretty worthless for any of you at this point. There's also a sack of bread which i'm sure most of you are also sick of at this point...but it is food...

Talia, with seemingly the fewest possession, was the first to finish finding her things. She pulls a modest pile of clothing out of the wreckage and looks around for a place to get changed. "I'm going to take a short walk downstream and get changed...Maybe wash up a little."

She takes a few steps downstream towards where it bends out of view and turns back looking a bit flustered "D-Don't follow me!"


The sounds of combat from up the pass seem to have died down. From your position though it's pretty impossible for you to tell who may have won and who survived.