Chapter 30

The Traders – Part 3

It took a while, but people finally started to calm down. The fact that Olivia only stood there and did nothing must have helped with this. All these people knew tales of what Orcs and Goblins did, and here was one, the monster they had been taught to be afraid of. Yet this one spoke and just stood there calmly, waiting for them to sort themselves out, doing nothing of what the stories said they did. She was even with a very attractive girl, who looked to be with her willingly.

This was something that a few did make sure to ask Lyrika about, wanting to make sure she hadn’t been coerced. Some even asked if she was wearing a slave collar or if she had been hurt by the monster.

This was all quite the affront to Olivia, and even though she understood why they asked this, it didn’t make her any less annoyed by what they were saying.

After a while, it seemed like many of the questions that were asked of Lyrika ended up being repeats of things they had already asked. By this point, some had actively started to ask Olivia some questions. Albeit at a distance. She was asked what she was, where she came from, how she can talk and why she was not like other Orcs and goblins.

She did her best to answer these, but for some, there just wasn’t a way to do so. The whole incident of where she came from was not one she could go into detail on. Then there was how she could talk. Aside from talking about learning when she was a human baby, which she couldn’t really do, there wasn’t much else she could say.

Eventually, the questions died down and they were able to get on to the main matter at hand. It was during this that Olivia and Lyrika spoke to the man who had answered the door and learnt that he was actually the current chief of the village. He spoke about how this place used to be a bustling trading village which many people journeyed to in order to buy all manner of things, mainly people from the nearby towns. But, its proximity to these towns kept a lot of beast-kin away, as while relations were better with humans, not everyone felt the same way and still feared contact with them.

It was also quite a small village and its only commodity was trading with others. Members of the village travelled to others, buying up items, to then sell in the town to human and elven traders from the towns. There were, of course, houses for the people who manned the stalls, ran the inns and took care of security, as they had seen journeying in, but when you compared the numbers to other villages the number of buildings was lacking. There was also the fact that the people in the village hadn’t changed in a good long time. No one new came to settle down, which also meant no one wanted to or in some cases, could leave either.

When the new chief came along promising them a better community, they figured that would lead to more trade, which was always a good thing. There was also the hope they would get some new blood in the village, meet new people, and improve relations. He also spoke about helping to bring beast-kin and humans together, which again would only improve things for their trading village. They had no reason to doubt what he was saying, especially when he came to them with plans and money on how he would make things happen. With all the other villages jumping on the bandwagon, this also added to his authenticity. When he also left some of his tribe to help with security in the village, this further endeared him to them.

.....

…But then the bandits came.

The men he had left in their village proved to be nothing more than useless. When push came to shove, they did nothing.

It was slow at first. The number of carriages arriving in the village started to drop, until they eventually stopped coming altogether. When the town sent people to investigate, most of them ended up never returning. The ones that managed to return spoke of the bandit group being large in number and residing along the path that met the road connecting the two nearby towns.

They had hoped that at least one of the towns would help them, given their own carriage had likely been attacked, but they received nothing. The villagers thought to contact the towns themselves, but they could not reach either of them having to get past the bandits to do so. They had no idea whether the attacks on carriages were heard by the people in the towns, but surely someone would notice.

So, they were on their own, and that was when the bandits decided to take advantage. Before they could send people away from the village to get help from the other beast-kin villages, they were attacked. It happened in the evening under the cover of darkness. Supplies were being prepared by members of the village to give to the ones leaving in the morning when all of a sudden fighting was heard throughout the village. The people on watch were hit first, and many were killed or taken. Once they were dealt with, they then had free roam in the village and started to take people from their homes.

With all the panic, only a good handful was able to fight back, but the bandits knew how to fight and had a large number. Some tried to flee but were very quickly picked up by the bandits. A good deal of the beast-kin took refuge in the church, where they were able to hold them off and stop them from getting inside.

Members of the village had high hopes that the new chief would save them, but they later found that the men he left had fled as soon as they could. Some thought they did this to reach the chief and bring help, but it soon became clear that that would not happen, when they found that each of the men had communication orbs in their belongings that they left behind.

The bandits soon left, and after the mess of that day, people left the church to mourn, gather their belongings and bury the dead. A good number decided to leave, which inspired the rest to do the same. But, when the bandits returned and caught them as they travelled, that changed a lot of people’s minds.

Especially considering they kept returning each day right as people are starting to leave, giving them more people to capture, before they then harass and try to get into the church.

Which is why they were here now. They were expecting the bandits to turn up today, but they had not yet arrived. Whether that meant they would still come, or they had given up on the last remaining people was any ones guess.

…

But this was quickly resolved when a man at the top of the church rang the bell.

“They have come, quickly… into the church.”

Lyrika and Olivia followed suit and waited for the bandits to come. As far as they had been told, there was a good number of them. Not an army by any means, but enough that Olivia on her own could not handle. It was even worse if these men were well-versed in combat, which was likely a given since they managed to deal with the security in the town.

Soon, shouting and expletives were heard from the other side of the door. It was then followed by banging and the sound of swords hitting wood, where they tried to break through.

This place was built to last though, and so all they managed to do was create a few chips and cracks in the wood. They did break one of the planks the villagers had put on the inside of the window, but the other three planks held firm. All it would take is another couple of nails to put it back up.

These bandits could have used fire to burn the church and smoke them out, but that would probably end up damaging the merchandise that was within. There is also the possibility that even as bandits, they were religious and god-fearing, where destroying a church would be very sacrilegious.

They were at it for an hour before they stopped.

“You can’t stay in there forever. You only have so much food, and there is none left in the village that you can eat. No one’s coming to save you so you may as well give up!” We’re the final words one of the bandits said before they heard footsteps heading away.

…

“It’s been like that each day, and they’re right. We are running out of food, we are all alone here. None of us are strong enough to take down the bandits. Even if we run, they will end up finding us like they did the others.”

Now while Olivia did help people when possible, the keyword, was possible. That didn’t mean in this situation she wouldn’t try, but if a group of guards on watch were unable to take down this large group of bandits, how would one half-orc half-goblin do it?

Taking Lyrika to the side while the villagers wallowed in sadness at how doomed they were, they looked at their options.

“What can we do?” Lyrika asked. “If we leave we run the risk of being attacked by the bandits. If we try to go to one of the towns for help, we again will probably get attacked by the bandits.”

Olivia did wonder about this. She was by no means a detective, but even she knew that these bandits were not omnipresent. How did they capture the ones that were going to flee. Was it bad timing or something else?

Her mind immediately went to an inside man or woman, given all the films she had watched on Earth. Someone could have betrayed the town and told the bandits that people were going to escape through a communication orb or something, which they were probably hiding.

If this was the case, was that person still here?

She did look around the room after thinking that, but quickly realised there wasn’t much point in doing so. For one, what would she glean from looking at these people? Did she expect to see one of them sitting there with an evil grin while rhythmically touching each of their fingers together and cackling?

She had to wonder that if they were here, why had the villagers not been captured? Surely, they could wait till they were asleep and then open the doors. Even if people were on watch they just had to get themselves nominated for it. Unless that’s not possible for them to do.

So, if they are here, is there a reason they haven’t got the rest of the village captured?

By this point, Olivia had confused herself and decided to move on while remaining weary of the villagers. While inconclusive, it was probably best to inform Lyrika.

“It’s possible someone on the inside helped get people captured. I don’t know for sure, but it’s possible. It’s also possible that they are still here as well.”

Lyrika gasped at that revelation, but Olivia cut it short as she held her hand over her lips.

“I said possible. Now, I want to help them too, but like you said we are on our own. We can try to get food for them. Even if there is someone feeding them information, we should be able to get some before we are found out. We also might be able to figure out how to deal with the bandits if we find out where they are.”

After Lyrika agreed, they took out all of the snares from Olivia’s pack and informed the village chief of their plan. Then with a bit of shuffling, and head nodding, they were back outside.