Chapter 246 - Conversation II (2/2)

”Sisters?” asked Mason. ”Related by blood? Or a term for your people?”

”People. We are all blessed to be the chosen of Zahaka, the All-Seeing, and fashioned in her image, we hold no men among our ranks.”

”Then how do you, you know…,” trailed off Mercer.

”And you intend to court the golden maiden of Riviera with this lack of tact?” said Mason with a sigh.

”A select few males from other kin, we take,” said the Serpi with all the cold explanation of a biology professor explaining mating behaviors. ”Then, when they have performed their duties, we release them.”

”Well,” said Mercer as he looked at the Serpi. ”Does not sound so bad a fate to me-,”

Mason cut him off with a jab of his elbow.

”Do snakes fight?” asked the Lupi from a distance, her voice a little muffled from chewing down on a spider leg with the same intensity as Tia.

”Combat is not our way, nay,” said the Serpi.

”Hm.” The Lupi returned to eating, rather disinterested at the fact that the Serpi were not war faring.

”Considering how the conversation is going, perhaps it is a good time for us to get to know the other a little better,” said Li. ”And it has been long since I have sat down with individuals under me and talked with them.”

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Throughout that night and over steamed spider and in the presence of a warm fire, everyone talked. At a certain point, Old Thane decided to bring out one of many jugs of ale he had bought and stored. Just like the old man to value ale so much, and when the first jug came out with pale liquid pouring out liberally into bowls, Li understood why his and the old man's packs were so heavy despite the fact that they knew Li could produce food on the go.

Well, it was not like Li could blame the old man. He liked when the old man was happy, and this was that. The only issue was explaining to Tia that she could not drink the mystery liquid, but when he explained that it would taste very, very bad, she relented, though not easily.

Though, Li supposed, she would easily neutralize alcohol in the same way he could, but oddly, he felt it a little against his principles to let her drink. ;

With the alcohol, conversation flowed a little freer as both the Lupi and the Feli quite liked the taste of it, never having drank it in large quantities in their homelands. The only experience they had of alcohol was when they very rarely traded for it or found it naturally occurring in pools of fermenting berries, but the latter method had become much rarer ever since the elves destroyed many of the trees that produced the berries.

Through the night, Li learned much of what the beastwomen wished to do, for though they were officially deemed champions for his cause, they had their own goals and histories as well.

Vilga, the Lupi, had been torn from her tribe from a young age. Among the beastwomen, she was one of few that had been in chains since a young age, taken and placed in arenas where she was raised as a gladiator to fight. There, she became incredibly strong and grew sturdy as well, eating special foods that promoted bodily strength.

All she had known was fighting, and there, she derived the entirety of her life's worth until finally, she had been sold down south to a Soleilian nobleman who had a taste for girls built like her. Thankfully, Li had freed her kind before she could go further down that life, but now she faced a sense of isolation from the rest of her tribe for she had never truly learned their ways.

And thus, she wished to explore the world and find who she really was in joining Li.

Sheela, the Feli, rather loudly declared that she did not believe the lifestyle of hunting and farming as suited to her as it was for her little sister. She did, however, learn much about human culture in the past two months, and came to realize that the job of adventuring seemed to interest her, and in particular, she wanted to hunt down Azhar to teach her the profession's ways and also to make him one of her mates, for among her kind, the stronger females took many.

The Serpi Asala's purpose was known rather well, for she was there to record Li's adventures for the sake of future knowledge. She also wished to see how the Midpath was doing for it was a construct created by her goddess, after all. If ever there was damage to it, she would mend it, not to mention that she could make sure that Li could follow the Midpath properly.

All in all, a rather diverse group with varied interests, but all individuals whom Li was invested in seeing succeed for the help they had brought to his community.