Chapter 36

The Reprieve – Part 1

Not one to just leave someone waiting for a handshake, Olivia took Philly’s hand and shook it.

As she did, she couldn’t help but think about how what she said made no sense. Beast-kin have been around for a long time, so surely people would know what they do in their life and have it written down. Plus, she is a beast kin herself.

“But, you’re beast-kin as well. Surely you already know about their culture and how they live. A lot of people must do.” Octavia asked.

“Ahh, well, I see why you’re confused. I was raised in elven society, so I have no clue what it’s like with other beast-kin. On the matter of my research, the sad fact is that no one has…cared enough, for lack of a better word, to write about them. Having been slaves for a good deal of time, beast-kin, even now are not really…seen as an important race. Plus, things change over time, so even if someone did write about them decades ago, how things are now could be different to how they were then.”

‘That’s so sad.’ Olivia couldn’t help but think. For them to just be seen as some sort of lesser species was just wrong. Having travelled with Lyrika all this time Olivia had found to her to be lovely and amazing. There was no way she could be a lesser…anything.

“So, I decided that my paper would be on them. But…that was until I met you. Ill probably still do something on them, but you are much more of a mystery compared to how the beast-kin live. Part Orc part Goblin, two races nearly extinct, known for attacking people and kidnapping women to forcefully breed with, and neither known for their intellect. Yet here you are saving people and talking like a natural, so why would I be scared of you after you saved me from slavery.”

It shocked Olivia a bit after hearing all of that. She couldn’t help but wonder if maybe Ameril, Lyrika and most of the other people she had met and saved were the strange ones, keeping their distance from her even though she helped them.

As she thought about it though, she very quickly shook her head at that. No, this bunny girl was the odd one.

.....

“How did you end up being captured and enslaved, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Not at all. Answering your questions should be reciprocity enough given you will be answering mine soon, right?”

Olivia grimaced at that.

As she was about to start, one of the women came back with a good number of the villagers from the church. Some were there to help deal with the prisoners, some to see the rest of the former slaves that had been captured, and others to hurl insults at the bandits.

Hugs were given and abuse was thrown, and then they got to work taking the wagons to the village hall and mansion. Given the size of the village, the village chief’s home was used as both his home and meeting place, among other things. It also contained a few jail cells, which is where these men were going.

As they moved, Lyrika found her way to Olivia, where she saw a flash of relief show on her face once Lyrika saw her. This quickly changed to a slight grimace, the reason for which Olivia did not know. She continued heading over, but her pace slowed as she saw a bunny-kin excitedly talking to Olivia.

“How I was captured, well it all started at the institute with my boyfriend, or I guess you could say ex-boyfriend, who helped give me the idea for this trip. I told him all about wanting to learn what beast-kin were like when not influenced by other races for my research paper and to better understand myself. A while later he told me about settlements of beast-kin in the human kingdom, and about how they mostly lived independently from the humans and that I could visit and research them at the source. He practically packed my bags for me.”

“That seems odd’ Olivia couldn’t” help point out

“Yes well, I thought so too. I did a little digging and it seemed that him getting a very buxom elven girl as his research partner had something to do with his eagerness to send me away. But honestly, what a coward. If he wanted to start dating some elven girl he could have just ended our relationship. But no, he had to create some convoluted scenario of sending me on a trip in order to, I don’t know, not feel guilty about cheating on me.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.” Olivia said, not really knowing what else she could say.

“Why? He was an idiot doing all that. After finding out about it, I broke things off with him. Someone like that isn’t worth the time or effort to be with. But, it wasn’t all bad news, as the trip was still a good opportunity for my research, so I took it.”

‘There is one word that describes this girl well. Pragmatic.’

“But as it turns out, this was the first village I got to when I arrived. I walked right into the village when they returned to try and break into the church a couple of days ago… Huh.” Philly said as she cocked her head to the side.

“Err, what is it?”

“I wonder if my ex-boyfriend knew about the bandits and that’s why this was the first place he said to go. Maybe he’s smarter than I gave him credit for?”

This girl was so calm and collected as she wondered whether her ex-boyfriend had set up her capture to become a slave. Yeah, she was the weird one, not Ameril or Lyrika.

“I mean, with him being so cowardly that he had to send you off on a trip rather than break up with you, I doubt he would have been able to work up the nerve to set up your capture by human bandits. It was probably just bad luck.”

“You might be right there. You are actually quite smart yourself. Which is very surprising for Orcs and Goblins. Why is that?”

“Err…” Olivia was both insulted and confused by the question from Philly, but thankfully, before she had to answer, Lyrika had decided to push her way into the conversation, which Olivia was very thankful for.

“…”

For about five seconds as she realised what caused her to grimace when she saw her.

“Why would you take on all those bandits on your own? How can you be such a reckless idiot? You could have died.”

“Err…I-”

Both girls were just staring at her in anticipation of Olivia’s response. One was full of curiosity and excitement, while the other, while she sounded angry, Olivia noticed that it was out of concern for her well-being more than anything else. But even so, she did not feel like answering either of them right now and so, took the third option.

“I-I better go check on the prisoners and talk to the village chief.”

And so she hurried off. Cowardly, yes, but it probably saved both her life and sanity.

Only for the time being, as she doubted neither were going to just drop it.

…

Making her way to the village chief’s home she found the leader of the town overseeing the jailing of the bandits.

“Ah, Olivia. Thank you for all that you have done for this village. Capturing the bandits and saving our friends. I don’t know how we could ever fully repay.”

“It’s-it was nothing. I couldn’t just sit back and let them be sold off as slaves.”

“Such modesty. It’s not much, but everyone has decided to some money together to say thank you. It doesn’t come close to repaying you for what you have done thought. I should be able to give it to you tomorrow morning. It’s much too late for any of that, and I’m sure everyone just wants to get some sleep.”

Olivia wasn’t too sure how to deal with this. Taking a reward for saving lives just feels wrong. She was thankful that there had been no talk of a monetary reward before she had saved them, as that would have been a lot worse. She was tempted to say no, but she did need the money, and from the look on the leader’s face he wanted her to take it to feel like he had actually thanked her.

“Thank you.”

“Like I said, it will be but a small token and doesn’t come close to thanking you for all you did.”

“Well, about that. There is still the matter that myself and Lyrika came here for. Would you be willing to listen to what we have to say?”

“Of course. I know you have been waiting to talk to me about this, so I am more than happy to hear you out now before we head off for the night. I have a feeling I may need the night to process what you are going to tell me.

‘He’s got that right.’ Olivia thought to herself, knowing that he would not likely take the information well.

And so, Olivia headed out with the leader in tow and went in search of Lyrika to explain everything that had happened

…

Looking around, Lyrika was no longer where she had left her, and given the darkness of the evening, she had probably made her way to the church.

Now that the danger was over, many of the villagers were moving gear out from the church and back into their homes. Only a few homes had been completely ransacked and had been left inoperable, but as far as Olivia could tell, those homeowners were no longer present.

While the imminent danger was over, many members of the village were lost. Some had been killed and some had been sold as slaves. It was disheartening, more so given that Olivia couldn’t do much in that regard. She can’t bring the dead back.

There were also the ones taken as slaves, but they could be anywhere. Depending on the size of the slave network, they could already be in towns or villages far away from where they were. It would take a miracle to find them, which even the village chief knew was the case.

For the ones that remained, while they had lost friends they were all just thankful to be alive. Some had lost family members, and either mourned or decided to set off in search of their loved ones. Others tried to change their minds, telling them it’s a fool’s errand, but what mother or father would give up looking for their child, just like that?

The village chief did say that he would reach out to the other villages for help now that the bandit threat had been neutralised. Hopefully, with more people, they may be able to do something.

Olivia couldn’t help but wonder what would have been if she left Lyrika’s village earlier. Could she have saved more people? But the more she thought of the good, the bad reared its head. Had she turned up sooner, it could have been a time when the bandits were in the village. She could have turned up during the initial attack. All of these scenarios were unlikely to have ended well for her and Lyrika.

Nothing good would come of thoughts like these, so she put them to rest and headed to the church.