“Why? The beast is dead now.“ At an urgent cry of Taisia, Foreigner asked with confused curiosity.

  As she said so, she saw a faint figure of a crowd coming her way through the dust cloud. She raised her hand to wave at the villagers like a hero would, but Octavia intercepted her in the middle.

  “Let’s go in. We can talk after.“ Octavia dragged Foreigner to Taisia’s house, and Pafnuty followed them right behind, while clicking his tongue after seeing the approaching mass.

  Once the three were inside, Octavia closed the curtains tightly before turning all the candles off. After the utter darkness consumed the room, she took a place behind the sofa away from the window, and Pafnuty followed her example right away. Foreigner did so too without knowing what was happening, but she could figure out something terrible was going on outside as the wall was thin enough for the sound to travel through.

  “Please! I beg you to listen! My friends are unrelated to that creature, I swear!“ Taisia cried out loud in desperation, but not one from the crowd listened to her voice.

  “Lies! Then how could that beast showed up after those outsiders came to our village? Bring those bastards out and we will expose the truth ourselves!“ One villager raised his voice, and soon it became the voice of the masses.

  Madness. It was pure madness encumbering the air. There was no logic or reasoning in their words any longer, only the wrath and fear derived from their hopeless reality remained. The only thing they sought was a scapegoat to avert their eyes momentarily, not the answer to the circumstance they were in immediately.

  “We should do something!“

  Inside the house, Foreigner whispered to Octavia. But before she could stand up, Octavia grabbed her shoulder and pulled her down rather violently.

  “And what are you going to do? Plead innocent?“ Octavia spoke sharply with her eyes piercing through Foreigner’s. “Face it. You going out will just worsen the situation. All we can do now is to hope that everything calms down with the minimum blood spilled.“

  “But we can’t just stay here and—“

  “Of course we can’t!“ Before she knew, Octavia grabbed Foreigner’s collar and brought her face right up close to make sure the message was delivered. “But we have to. There is nothing we can do. Now, stay down.“

  Although Octavia spoke in a coercive tone, Foreigner was not threatened at all. Instead, what she saw behind her eyes was the lament of the decisions in the past and fury at the powerless self. Without any other words, Foreigner sat back down, and Octavia stared at the darkness in front of her, desperately trying to blank her mind to escape from her pathetic self.

  Feeling unease, Foreigner turned her head away from Octavia. Pafnuty was there with his chin resting in his hands and drawing a circle on the floor with his fourth hand. She wondered why he was there with them, as he was part of the village and not one of the outsiders the mad crowd was looking for. But she couldn’t say her curiosity out loud. This was not the time for that.

  Over the wall, the chanting of the crowd did not seem to falter. Below the unified voice was Taisia begging the villagers to stop, but the voice only grew louder and louder. Every time Foreigner closed her eyes, she found herself in the middle of the crowd, with their lightless eyes staring at her as they demanded a reason. But somehow, she was not afraid of it. As if she was used to that situation. And that sheer fact scared her.

  “Octavia, am I the problem here?“ Foreigner opened her mouth once again, without being able to hold back the guilt consuming her from inside.

  Octavia sided her eyes at Foreigner and saw a tear dripping from her chin. She placed her hand on top of Foreigner’s head and patted it roughly, enough to mess up her hair.

  “If there is anything, it is the timing of our visit that needs to be blamed.“ Octavia threw out words rather casually, then opened her mouth again.

  Taisia could not understand how she ended up in this situation.

  The entire village had gone through the catastrophe in the recent time. The famine struck the farm, leaving nothing but withered weeds to survive the winter. And this was critical for—

  “—Tribe Of Harvest. That’s the name of the tribe living in this village. Do you remember how I mentioned that this is one of the few places where Aranaims made a settlement? That’s because these guys have a different lifestyle from most Aranaim, and that is survival through farming instead of hunting, to honor their deity Mother Earth. And as an extension of that, it is strictly prohibited to produce—”

  —meat. At least part of it, as it was against the law to perform a slaughter only to feast your stomach. However, it was allowed to eat from a carcass that had died from natural causes.

  Taisia remembered the first day she thought of this irony. She saw the glaring eyes of the villagers watching her and Papa as if they witnessed a horrifying blasphemy. But on the day when Papa returned with a dead animal on his back, they rushed to the shop to obtain the fresh meat with glee on their faces. And the next day, their eyes came back.

  Once Papa left far away above the clouds and became one with the stars, she continued his legacy. But recently, it became harder to find any animals lying dead in the wildwood. As a result, there was nothing left in the village to eat off, and the villagers blamed her for it instead of discussing the failure of cultivation this year. However, she did not bear a grudge against the villagers, because that was also part of becoming a butcher. But the tide quickly turned more brutally when—

  “—Tribe Of Plunder ravaged the village. That was when Taisia was young, but it wasn’t a special occasion. In fact, they ravage the fellow Aranaims anytime they need to, or even when they don’t, for pure entertainment. And from the looks of the village, it seems like they came here not too long ago. So now you have the picture. There is nothing to eat, and even the small amount they had got stolen. Then, suddenly, two outsiders showed up in the village, with well-treated hunted meat in their hands. And what happened after that? An attack by the mysterious creature, as if heavenly judgment is upon this land for violating their god. If you ask me, it sounds like a perfect case for the blame game. Nobody needs to be responsible, and nothing needs to be learned. Just treat this year as an unfortunate time that got blown up by those despicable outsiders, and boom, problem solved.”

  Octavia ended her lecture with a long sigh as she looked up at the ceiling.

  “What a shit—”

  —show. Taisia thought to herself. She was in a deep one where there was nothing she could do to improve the situation. All she could do was exercise her right as the homeowner to repel those trespassers. But how long could they last? Until the angry mob got tired of the girl in front of them? Until one madman throws a rock at the window to break it open? Or perhaps when one particularly huge Aranaim approached her, all the while splitting the crowd into two?

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  “Ah, Taisia. Young girl. I would like to make a formal request. Please, hand out the outsiders so that we can give them a proper trial to ease our heavenly gods we live upon.“ Rurik bowed politely to Taisia, with a gentle yet crushing voice coming out of his mouth.

  But to Taisia, it was blatant that everything was an act of deception. Rurik was a violent opportunist with the desire to put the entire village within his grasp. The only reason he could not do so was simply because he lacked support from the people. Even though he could be the ruler through strength if he willed to, his ambition was far too great for him to waste his strength on conquering a small village like Abaskan. At least, that’s what she heard behind her Papa's back when he argued with Rurik.

  However, knowing that did not help her in any way. Rurik was still in front of her, and the crowd went frenzied at his appearance. She was on the brink of collapse, and all she could do was pray to something that would exist somewhere.

  “A truly loud chanting going here, isn’t that lovely?“

  The door behind Taisia opened and closed, alongside the crowd going silent with no one daring to raise a voice at the unexpected scenery. Taisia turned around to see what the crowd saw, and Pafnuty was there while scratching the back of his neck.

  “Please, I can hear your idiocy escaping from your brain. Why don’t you morons go back to your place and learn how to read first?“ He snapped at the crowd as he picked his nose after finishing the business with his neck.

  “Get back to your den, rat! We need to hang the outsiders for provoking the god! They slaughtered their child, and the god demands repentance!“ A voice came out of the crowd, and the people once again went mad with their fists clenched high.

  “Oh, really? That’s strange though.“ Pafnuty shouted over the gibberish of the crowd. “So, are you suggesting that the god you so cherish was busy looking at what those outsiders had to do instead of what was happening inside the village?“

  The crowd suddenly fell speechless. There were hundreds of heads on the work, yet not one of them came up with a fine argument. The silence was in the atmosphere for once in the night, and it was not the crowd who broke it.

  “Get out of my property, Rurik! The fate of the web is handled by the spider, and you have no right to be on my web!“

  Taisia yelled with the confidence Pafnuty showed her. With one of her trembling hands, she grabbed onto Pafnuty’s like she used to when she was young, and Pafnuty did the same for his friend.

  Rurik clenched his six fists at the tiny rebellion unraveling in front of him. The crowd he held as a weapon was now scattered in their own confusion, and the riot he had in his hand slipped away into the void. But he still had one more thing he could do in his grasp. Engulfed in wrath, he slowly raised his uppermost right hand to Taisia’s head, with violence dripping from the holes in his mask.

  “Enough!“

  At the voice roaring from behind, the villagers reacted instantly by paving the way. As Elder Germogen walked along the path towards Taisia with his supporting staff, Rurik retracted his arm from Taisia with a low growl echoing in his neck.

  “Rurik. What is the commotion here?“ Germogen demanded an answer from Rurik, who showed respect to the Elder before gushing out the excuses.

  “Elder Germogen. We have gathered here tonight to deliver the judgment upon the outsiders who brought catastrophe to our village. You have seen it as well, haven’t you? The creature that descended upon our village to give righteous retribution for their sins.“ Rurik glanced at Elder Germogen behind his mask, only to see the disapproving look of the Elder.

  “That is nothing but a theory. Those outsiders will be forced to leave by sunrise tomorrow, and I command you to focus on the restoration of the village instead. Or perhaps, do you truly believe that Mother Earth will rule over us with a punishment instead of a love?“

  At the sharp voice of Elder, Rurik ground his teeth but couldn’t raise an objection.

  “As wise as always, Elder Germogen. I shall now gather the men to remove the beast from our village.“

  Rurik walked through the crowds along with his minions, and people dispersed to their own places. But before he left, Taisia saw his eyes, looking at her with the flames of vengeance burning behind the irises. She knew what happened tonight was only the beginning, but she was still glad to have another night passing by with no blood spilt on the ground.

  “Thank you, Elder Germogen.“ Taisia showed respect to Elder Germogen, who shook his head as a response.

  “Do not. I was not helping you, but merely did what needed to be done for the village. Make sure to get Octavia and her friend out of this village by sunrise tomorrow. This is an order.“

  Elder Germogen turned around without waiting for a response. Soon, no one was in front of her house, and only then did she notice she was still holding onto Pafnuty’s hand, which she quickly released.

  “Thanks, Pafnuty. I owe you one.“

  “Ah! You do now, don’t you? I must use this one delightfully!“

  Taisia got annoyed by the lofty tone Pafnuty released jokingly, and smacked his back with her palm, yet that was not enough to stop Pafnuty from dancing around her in a circle before rushing back into her house. After a long sigh, she looked around the empty front yard of her place, then went inside her house.

  “Well done, you two. Couldn’t have done any better.“

  Octavia was standing behind the sofa and cheered on Pafnuty and Taisia as they walked back in. Taisia was flattered to hear that from her, but Pafnuty ignored her and went straight to where Foreigner was.

  “Where is Foreigner?“ Taisia asked Octavia, who pointed below where she was.

  “She’s fallen asleep. Doc, I assume that’s what she’s doing, right?“ Octavia asked a late question, with a slight worry attached to it.

  “Oh, yes. She’s sleeping soundly. I suppose this is another side effect of the counteractive substance, but she won’t be dead. Hmmm, I see. This experiment is a failure in that case.“ Pafnuty shrugged his shoulders and went around the sofa to sit on it.

  “Pafnuty! Don’t just sit there and help me carry her to the room!”

  “Oh, please. She can sleep on the—”

  “No, she can’t! She saved me and the village tonight, and having her rest on my bed is the least I can do. So get your ass up here and help me carry her on my back!”

  “Dear Taisia, you know carrying another race on our spine isn't the smart—”

  “Shut up and move!”

  With the strike of the match, the room became bright once again. Octavia looked around for the candle and couldn’t help but smile. As what she saw was the sweat dripping under Taisia's mask with Foreigner on her back, and this was the first time to see her challenging something new ever since her father died, no matter how small it was. She lit the candle and closed her eyes while gathering her hands. Alongside a small prayer that this won’t be her last time to see such a scenery.

  “Thanks for your hospitality, Taisia!“

  The next morning, before the sun rose above the mountain range, Foreigner, Octavia, and Taisia were standing in front of the collapsing entrance of the village. Among the group, Foreigner expressed her gratitude in a voice fully replenished from a good night’s sleep.

  “Not at all! Oh, before I forget, here! I made some food for you to eat on your journey. Please take it!“

  Taisia handed over three lunch boxes she made early that morning with the ingredients Octavia brought. Even though she had to wake up early for them, she was proud of finishing them in time.

  “Thanks a lot, Taisia. Can't wait to see what's inside.“ Octavia took the lunch boxes and placed them in the bag Foreigner was carrying, while knowing what the menus were as she spied Taisia making them this morning.

  “But are you guys sure about leaving this early? I can talk to the villagers if—“

  “We’ll be back when everything calms down. Then, let’s spend some time together for real.“ Octavia smiled as she shrugged her shoulder, and Foreigner supported her by nodding at a noticeable speed.

  Taisia’s eyes gleamed with sorrow, but she shook her head to remove that from her face. Instead, she placed a smile under her mask for the proper goodbye.

  “Of course! I’ll be waiting for you guys to return.”

  The moment Taisia cleared her mind, the three of them heard footsteps and the clattering sounds of glasses coming from the village. It was Pafnuty, with an enormous bag designed for Aranaim on his back, running at the speed of a turtle while gasping a puff. Once he reached the entrance, he almost vomited out of exhaustion, but thankfully kept that in his stomach.

  “Now, shall we?“ Pafnuty spoke with a harsh, cracking voice to Foreigner and Octavia.

  “So, you are leaving with them?“ Taisia spoke in a judgmental tone without forgetting to put on her judgmental look.

  “Of course! A whole new world awaits me outside this village, so why wouldn’t I take this opportunity to get into the research lab called the unknown?“

  Pafnuty walked next to Foreigner, almost tripping on his own leg during the process. Taisia released a sigh and shook her head, yet she felt assured to see Pafnuty leaving with the two.

  “Alright, shall we go?“

  As Octavia announced as the leader of the pack, Foreigner nodded her head, and Pafnuty raised four thumbs up.

  Taisia stood in her place until the three became a small dot far away. The sun shimmered on the world as it peeked out above the mountain range, and Taisia gathered her hands to make a prayer. For the three brave heroes to finish their journey safely.