I still couldn’t hear squat, but Nishka and Fuzzball locked eyes in understanding.
Nishka inched forward cautiously then stopped again and peered ahead. Figuring it couldn’t hurt to try, I too squinted into the darkness…and practically stumbled back in shock.
The ceiling of the cave arched—carved by tools—over an entire city. Rows of houses lined the cave, meticulously constructed from blocks of clay or stone—couldn’t tell you which—showing distinct signs of an intricate culture. Every wall in sight was adorned with vibrant, moonlit decorations.
These people were nothing like the ogres. Hell, they were more sophisticated than our own villagers. At a glance, I counted between fifty and seventy houses, at the center of which rose a much larger building.
When we’d set out, we had expected to find a few dozen people. But judging from the number of houses, the population of this settlement—no, it really was a proper city—was profoundly larger than that.
There were small family gardens. Light spilled through the windows of each home. The boisterous laugh of a group of bull-kin rose musically from some distant corner of the city.
“They speak the same language we do,” Nishka noted.
I nodded, remembering myself, and added, “There’s way more of them than we thought there’d be. Probably a couple hundred, at least.”
Wak’wakgoro and Elpaco both gazed out at the subterranean city, their jaws gaping.
Even though the city was more compact than our village, it was clearly at the same level of technological advancement and cultural complexity as any aboveground settlement. Were we really going to capture some of these people and put them to work? Not only would it be hard, but…I mean…
“I’ve seen enough,” I said. “Let’s head back.”
“Do you see those dogs over there? These people have dogs. We should get out of here quick,” said Nishka.
“Yeah.”
Elpaco’s animal ears twitched deftly in response to Nishka’s observation.
We retreated immediately.
We’d come looking for burly minotaurs. So, let’s figure that half of the two to three hundred people in that city were males and that half of those were adults. At least fifty. Just as a guess.
Now let’s look at our village: If we counted up every hunter and adventurer we had, we would barely reach twenty people. Even if we assumed the village chief and the rest of the leadership could manage a little fighting, that would just barely put us at even numbers.
This was too much.
Nishka led us quickly through the cavern.
We passed through the room where we discovered the snoozing minotaur, but apparently the bull-kin man had turned onto his other side and was now asleep facing away from us. The guard for this path into the city, probably. I stole a cautious glance at him and saw that he, too, wielded a broadsword—that weapon so popular in this world—though it was propped against a wall as he slept on the job.
Once we darted through the guardroom, Nishka’s pace quickened even further.
“I had no idea the cave had turned into this! Even after my forty years, I guess there are still things I don’t know about this forest,” Wak’wakgoro whispered as he walked noiselessly down the passageway. “They didn’t build a city like that overnight. Maybe they saw the wyverns weren’t comin’ to the cave anymore so they decided to link their cave up to this one.”
“Could be. But how are we going to explain this to the village chief?” I asked.
“We just gotta tell her exactly what we saw. Nishka’s no good for that, so that’ll be up to us, Shooter.”
Nishka snorted loudly and turned away, as if Wak’wakgoro had injured her pride. “Hey, I can wordicate with the best of ’em. Come on, man!”
“No, I think we better let Shooter tell her. Unlike you, he’s a learned man.”
“Hmph. He’s an illiterate reject from some buck-naked clan!”
Wow. Cool, Nishka.
“Well, since you’re from a tribe of steppe barbarians, what choice do we really have?”
Elpaco gasped. “You come from a barbarian tribe, Nishka?”
“That’s right,” I cooed. “Her tribe eats wyverns raw, so you better be careful not to make her angry!”
“I am not a barbarian!”
“Aww, gonna fly into one of those barbarian rages?” Yep, she was a barbarian through and through!
Once we made it out of the cave, we met up with Camulla and Cassandra.
Camulla took Wak’wakgoro aside to discuss something with him while I anxiously moved to Cassandra’s side.
“What’s the matter, Shooter?”
“We found a city of bull-kin at the other end of the cave. It’s really well built and there are a ton more people living there than we thought.”
“A…city? Not just a settlement?”
“What they’ve got going on in there is way fancier than some piddly settlement. Some pretty ritzy houses too, way nicer than a load of village huts. In fact, how attached are you to our hut? How do you feel about having hornier neighbors?”
Cassandra pouted, looking a little miffed. “I was worried about you, you know. You shouldn’t tease me.”
“I know, I know. I’m fine. Promise.” How was she so cute even when she was irked at me? How did I land a gal like her?
(Uh…forced marriage, I guess.)
Soon, we were hurrying down the road to report our findings to the village chief as quickly as possible. I couldn’t wait to see what she decided to do. No way would she stick with that initial plan now—not when the minotaurs spoke the same language as us. We might even be able to negotiate with them and hell, even if that was off the table, the village chief would surely understand that we could not take these guys.
Maybe the village chief could try to assert ownership rights to the land and try to collect taxes—she could at least hold discussions to establish borders.
Even if she didn’t think of those options off the top of her head, I had to at least suggest them. The more alternatives we had to war, the better. Because even if every single person in the village went to hunt down the clan of bull-kin, there would be an intolerable number of casualties. It wouldn’t be worth it at all.
With these thoughts tumbling through my mind, the six of us hurried down the road toward the stone tower, guided by its steady lantern.