Chapter 29
Dealing With Prisoners
With the slavers safely locked up in their own cages, the Mutopians had time to see to their own injuries, while they waited for Sarah to return with Tyroth.
"How are you doing, Heather?" Sonia asked, looking at the crossbow bolt in the dragonfly's arm.
"I am a little groggy, I will admit that." Heather answered. "My arm still hurts, but whatever drug the bolt is covered in has dulled the worst of the pain."
"Seems most of them had coated their weapons in some form of sedative." Sonia said, glancing at the slaver that she hit with one of their own weapons. He was still soundly asleep and snoring loudly, much to his comrades annoyance.
"I am not surprised." said Velnak. "If you can limit how much your prey can resist, it makes the fight all the easier, if there is one at all."
"Good thing then that we Mutopians are as sturdy as we are, or I would have been out like a light as well." said Heather.
"Sturdy or not, you're still hurt, and we need to tend to it." said Erica. "I think that I can do something, but that bolt needs to be removed first."
"I can handle that." said Barry.
Kneeling next to Heather, the warthog took a strong grip on the bolt. Looking her in the eyes, she nodded in response and braced herself. With a single motion, the bolt was yanked out, and despite that her arm was mostly numb, Heather still groaned in pain through clenched teeth.
With the wound reopened, blood began trickling down her arm again, and while it would heal in short time, an open wound is not something to take lightly.
Erica traced a pattern in the air with one hand, while whispering in the Druidic language. Once done, she placed her hand on Heather, and the dragonfly's body glowed golden for a brief moment, the wound closing itself seamlessly.
"There, how's that?" Erica asked.
"The pain is gone." Heather said, flexing and moving her arm a bit. "It is still a bit numb, and I am still a little groggy as well, but otherwise I think I am fine now. Thank you."
"You should be all good. And don't mention it." Erica said with a smile. "The way I understand it, Cure Wounds spell can heal almost any injury, though some wounds might need more than one casting. However, it don't work on poisons and the like, only real damage."
"Still, it's a real help for us all." said Patch.
"True, but I'm afraid that that's all I can do now." Erica continued. "I'm all out of, what where they called… spell-slots, some form of charges that I need to cast all but the simplest of spells, like the thing I've done with the plants or the acid claws. I'll need some proper rest before I can cast anything else again."
"Far better than nothing, if you ask me." Barry said, patting Erica on the shoulder.
"Guys, we've got incoming." Amber said, pointing towards the village, where they all saw Sarah was on her way back, followed by Tyroth, Raphael, Leonardo, Jack and Ragnir.
"Sarah told me what happened, and from the look of things, you've handled this well." Tyroth said as he surveyed the area, his eyes lingering on the caged slavers.
"We killed two of them, brother. Unintentionally." Amber explained.
"Unfortunate, but sometimes unavoidable. Something that we all know well." said Leonardo.
"Heather was hurt, but Mom healed her with magic, so we're all fine now." Amber continued.
"So what do we do with these idiots, boss?" Jack asked, pointing his scimitar at the slavers.
Tyroth looked at the slavers, but didn't say anything, instead he walked up to the cages, specifically the one that held the scarred woman. Said woman wiped some blood of her face on her black cloak, carefully tracing her fingers along the wounds left by Amber's clawed hand.
"Come to gloat, have you? Feeling good about yourself, 'heroes'?" she asked mockingly when she noticed Tyroth. "You should have saved yourself the trouble, and just let us take you all without a fight."
Again, Tyroth didn't say anything, but rather turned his attention to Valynore.
"I'm told that this is the woman that captured you years ago. Are you certain it is the same woman?" he asked.
"I am." the elf said with certainty. "Her face has haunted my memories ever since she took me captive. Still do."
"Aw, do you want your mommy? Want her to kiss you good night?" the woman sneered, and that got a reaction from Tyroth.
With surprising speed, he slammed his hand against the bar closest to the woman's face, grabbing it, the metal groaning as it buckled under his force. Tyroth's eyes locked with with the woman, now pressed against the far back of the cage, the dragon's intense glare transfixing her as the metal he held started to turn red hot.
"Listen closely, and choose your next words with great care." Tyroth growled in a dark voice. "I do not want to kill if it can be avoided. But scum like you, I would gladly rid the world of in an instant. Right now, you're alive because we allow it, so don't make me change my mind."
Releasing his grip on the cage, the metal deformed by his fist and radiating heat, Tyroth walked over to the others.
"So what's the word, big guy?" Raphael asked, his finger twitching near the handles of his sais.
"We don't have a good way to keep them, lacking any kind of prison here." Leonardo brought up.
"I know, but I'm not about to let them run loose again." Tyroth said, looking back at the slavers, thinking for a moment. "Ragnir, do you think you could contact the king and tell him that we've captured this lot?"
"No problem." the dwarf responded with a smile. "I can imagine that Sammy will be mighty pleased to put them behind bars. Still, it will take at least a week for any kind of soldiers or guards to get here."
"We'll have to find some way of housing them until they can be properly dealt with then. I want them guarded around the clock, by at least four people with combat experience. We also need to really make sure that they're not carrying anything that might help them escape or get the better of us. They'll need food and water as well, but we should keep their rations small, though they don't even deserve that much. And find some way to muzzle the dragonborn, so he can't use his breath attack."
"Um, excuse me?" a male voice interrupted from the cages. "Hi, the dragonborn in question here. I'm Graz, and this is my colleague, Dorron."
"Hi." the minotaur said, waving his hand and smiling.
"What do you want?" Tyroth asked.
"Well, firstly, on the behalf of both of us, I'd like to thank you for not killing us."
"Really appreciate that." Dorron chimed in.
"Yes, very much so." Graz continued. "But the main reason we're talking right now is this; we don't belong with the others here. No, no, no. We are professional mercenaries, you see. Muscles for hire."
"So what? You think that will change anything?"
"A bit, actually. Yes, we attacked you, but it was only business, nothing personal. Can't say the same for the others here though. But me and Dorron, we're just tools that they have rented. The sword doesn't decide who its owner cuts with it. They hired us, so when they say attack, we attack. Nothing more difficult than that."
"Is there a point to this?" Tyroth half groaned.
"Well, yes. You see, as our employers are now, let's say, out of business, that means that we are unemployed, and we would gladly offer our services to the highest bidder, as per standard guild regulations and contracts, and since you hold our lives in your hands right now, that makes you the highest bidder by default. So, what do you say?"
Graz and Dorron both looked at Tyroth with expecting eyes, while Tyroth looked at them with confusion in his.
"Like I said, muzzle the dragonborn." he finally said. "Let's get all of them into the square for now. I can't deal with this kind of headache right now."
"I'll take that as a 'maybe'." Graz said as the wagons with cages were driven towards the village.
"Call us!" the minotaur chimed in.
"Serves you right, damn sellswords." one of the slavers muttered.
"Is what they said true, Ragnir?" Leonardo asked as the others escorted their prisoners. "About being mercenaries?"
"I wouldn't be surprised if it is. There are several mercenary guilds active here in Torgalia, and many other nations as well, and it's always been a case to case basis on potential law breaking and such."
"So even though they attacked us, we don't know if they'll be punished for it? Swell." Raphael complained.
"Honestly, I wouldn't worry too much about two random mercenaries." Ragnir continued. "They're a pair of shrimps compared to the whales you've caught."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Tyroth asked.
"We didn't tell you this, because it's not meant to be common knowledge, but there is a bounty on slavers." Ragnir explained with a wide grin. "Sammy is willing to pay a good sum of gold for every slaver that is either captured or killed, but this is only known to a select few."
"So we could get paid for hunting this kind of idiots? Now we're talking." Raphael grinned and rubbed his hands together.
"And that's why only a select few knows about this." Ragnir continued. "Sammy fears that if the public knew, they'd all be out trying to hunt down the slavers, and most likely getting either captured or killed themselves. Better to leave it to the professionals, and call the reward a 'compensation for their troubles'."
"Sounds like a good move to me." said Leonardo, looking back at the wagons on the road. "I'll see if we can find some place to keep them until the soldiers arrive. It also looked like some of them could use a small amount of medical attention, just enough to not get sick or anything."
As the others decided to retire for the time being, Velnak remained for a moment, looking first at the work they had done, and then at wagons in the distance.
For all his life, his family have had indentured servants, and he had never questioned it, nor asked where they came from. Over the years, he had heard about slavers and slaves, but he never thought much of it, he didn't even believe that they actually existed, and whenever King Samalor had made any move against slavery, Velnak had thought that it was very strange.
In his eyes, indentured servants, and thus slaves as well, were simply people of the lowest class of society that simply couldn't take care of themselves or were unfit for more physical labour, and they should be happy that someone takes pity on them to begin with.
Now, however, he wasn't sure what to think, maybe there was a difference between a servant and a slave, a very important difference even. It struck him that had it not been for the combat prowess of the Mutopians, and the warning from the elf, he could very well have been kidnapped and later sold as one of these slaves himself.
These thoughts would continue to haunt Velnak for some time, but he was determined to solve this conundrum that they had left him with, and he had a feeling that once he had, he would need to discuss it with his father.
On the way back, Amber walked up to Jake, walking beside him while talking.
"Hey, Jake. I just wanted to say thanks for that assist before, not sure if I could have handled it on my own." she said.
"No worries, Amber." the young human said with a smile. "We're all basically family, after all, and family looks after each other."
Amber smiled, and gave Jake a quick kiss on his cheek, making him blush.
"Geez, Amber."
"I just thought you deserved a little more than a simple 'thank you'." the marine iguana giggled.
"I'll gladly help, but you don't need to make a big deal out of it. However, at the end of the day, all I did was point and shoot."
"And what's the problem with that? You're good with a gun."
"True, but that can't be all I can do." Jake said, almost sighing even. "I'm lucky your brother allowed me to bring my gun, as an emergency option, but it will only be useful as long as I got bullets, and I can't buy any more here."
"You're right. I hadn't even thought about that."
"It's not an issue yet, but sooner or later, I'll run out of ammo. After that point, I can't really do that much in a crisis, not like you guys."
"That's not fair, Jake. You're great at hand to hand too."
"But I'm still only human. I got no enhanced strength or healing ability, and my only other weapon is a pocket knife. I'm grateful for the help and training you guys have given me, but I'm still not on the same level as you. I've actually considered mutating as well, just to keep up."
"Please don't think like that, Jake." Amber said, placing a hand on his arm. "If you would want to mutate, that's your decision to make, but that is not the right kind of reason. And I like you just the way you are."
"I know, I know. It's just a thought that's crossed my mind, that's all. But still, I would like to be able to contribute more in battle, without my gun."
"Well, we can keep training you, but if you ask me, you might need a new weapon. I suppose you could take one from the guys we fought, or maybe Loki could make something for you. He does want to smith things for us."
"That's not a bad idea. I'll go see Loki about it later, bet he'll be excited to making me a weapon."
"Knowing my nephew, I'm sure he'll be delighted." Amber said with a smile.
Gonna be honest with you guys, I didn't think this chapter would be this long. It just sort of grew on its own.
Still, the Mutopians have prisoners now, a first for them, that's for sure, and they might get a reward.
And on the side lines, Velnak has been given something to think about, while Jake ponders a new weapon.
It's really amazing how much I was able to summarize into those two sentences there.