Snek_Inna_Tenk says:
Maybe don’t ask anyone to read that note to you.
Yeah.
You stuff the note away deep into your bag.
GrizzlyBear says:
As far as scary armed strangers in the woods go, they were pretty nice! There really is something about the people in this country. Anyway, I hope you didn’t lose the road, if not, head back right away. If Zeb is really as light as you say, then maybe carrying him is preferable to listening to him hyperventilate about everything that happened in the last hour
Don’t forget the reason you’re still standing here is because you managed to convince them you were a follower of their depraved cult. They were wearing the hides of people and talked about turning Zeb into a dude stew.
But sure… they at least had manners.
Guess strangers greeting you with treats is a Siltrian thing… Except this time you’re trying not to think about what the hell you just ate.
Even if it was… tasty…
Now, as for how you’re going to get Zeb out of this mess, you’ve learned a way to carry people, though you don’t remember if it was for injured comrades or drunken idiots – or injured drunken idiot comrades.
Either way, the twink is much lighter than he looks, so hauling him back to the main road shouldn’t be too hard.
After twenty minutes or so, you make it back to the main road. Surprisingly, everything is just as you left it, along with the crater in the road from the crank engine’s… unspooling. It might be a good idea to leave before the Qoths graciously thank you for giving them more work.
Maxwell says:
After addressing immediate safety, perhaps take a moment to prioritize cleaning up the blood on the knife and Zeb. And if we must keep the invitation to the murder cult, let’s find a place it won’t be easily found if we’re searched. Psycho killer is probably not the look we want to be going for if we are stumbled upon again, or when Zeb wakes up
Garfunk says:
Once you have the chance, it would probably be a good idea to get those vines off our dainty boy and maybe even try to wipe some of that blood off him. The last thing you need right now is another person jumping to conclusions...
After putting Zeb down on the side of the road, you wash the blood and tears from his face with your Waterskin. You make sure to clean his knife as well before cutting through the vines. As for the cultists’ note, you briefly consider giving it a place under your clothes, but realize you might ruin the note with your gross sweat. So, it’s going to stay in your dry bag for now until you find something with cool pockets.
…Also, maybe take a breather if you need it. You did good, but it looked like you saw a ghost back there.
Look…
You’ve got… issues. Issues that might’ve followed you into Siltria. You usually hide them well, but something back there caught you off guard. It made you feel—anger? Fear? Embarrassment? Maybe a shitty cocktail of all three? I don’t know, it was just weird… to hear those words from someone else this time.
It was stupid of you to lose control like that. It won’t happen again.
Anyway, womp womp. It’s time to focus on real problems, like getting Zeb to Cohv.
He’s at least alive and safe, so let’s take what we can and move on.
Starting with this manual he was reading.
Exrhythm says:
briefly imagine yourself as a multilingual librarian. one day, you will be able to read Everything, and nothing will stop you.
You would love that… but there are so many words! Thousands even. It amazes you that there are enough symbols in the world to represent them, let alone how people can remember each one. You could only ever pick up patterns from signs and bottle labels in Wulnic, your native language. Continental apparently uses completely different symbols, and isn’t even read vertically. It’s going to take forever to learn how to read everything.
But maybe there is hope. Before your long voyage, you could only speak Wulnic. Iron, for all his drunkenness, somehow knew some Continental and helped interpret for you. Eventually, the crew got fed up with his slurring and pants-pissing they decided to teach you themselves. Despite how tough it was, you took great pride in learning.
Now that you’re here, you haven’t had too much trouble speaking with the locals, so you think you did a good job.
If only you had books on board…
Maybe Zeb can teach you how to read this one.
lightningfox89 says:
Wake up Zeb, and see if he can tell you how to get to Cohv. Ask him what direction it’s in- you can do the rest with your magnetic-field detection ability, right?
Hmm. That usually works… He’s still breathing at least; he made a weird snort. Still, you’d prefer if he’d just drag his own ass to Cohv.
And sure, you can always feel the north in your head. Otherwise, you would’ve been hopelessly lost in the forest. But you’re certain the road leads to Cohv anyway.
That being said, Yuovo will definitely have some choice words for Zeb as he once again “misplaced” his shipment …You’ll grab a bag so it’s at least not a total loss.
Time to go. Your muscles and lungs still ache from this morning…
This is going to be fun.
“It was weird… to hear those words from someone else this time”
Whoever speculated that Glass had a flashback to herself being in a similar situation was right on the dot.
She’s come 180 degrees, you could say. Perhaps she’ll come a full 360 degrees later in the story, where she’ll then say this to Zeb and he’ll protect her.
Gyyattt damm
On we go to our future.