AC: Here's the second time I'll check this chapter a little more deeply than a quick fix.
The moment Theb-Saar learned about the possibility of a clan of Mipedians, who might know how to read the human language called English, he immediately searched for their location. This would give them a great advantage against the other tribes and maybe reached the Cothica faster. More importantly, learning more about the Chaotic Players and maybe of their mysterious world.
During two days, his search offered little result. With his son and a few others, they searched for a way to locate the clan.
The king hoped that his accursed father didn't exterminate them. He could clearly see that possibility. Such ability would be dangerous for his father. Exchanging secret information's for a royal assassination, selling many secrets to the other tribes, etc.
Thankfully, his son found out that his father never reached his claws on them, "I found something father."
"What is it?" he approached his son.
The Crown Prince showed a report. It explained the localisations where the soldiers annually collected the taxes for Al Mipedim. He showed a few other ones.
"What is standing out between the two?" his red eyes failed to notice it.
"The taxes coming from the Crimson clan location. As you can see, it was much closer to the castle at the beginning of grandfather's reign. As he showed his true color, I notice that they never payed their taxes for a while. Eventually, once you took the throne, they began to pay once again. However, the location of the oasis is father to the East. As far away as possible from grandfather and his soldiers."
The blue Mipedian scratched his jaw, "I never went to this Oasis," he sighed, "I should check if any clans are still hidden."
"Still. They paid their taxes," the white Mipedian told his father with a small grin, "They respect you, even if you never meet them."
"And I shall rectify this."
Chapter 19: The One Who Read Human Words
The next day, the king went to the Oasis with a small escort. The most notable Mipedian were his nephew Mudeenu and Sobtjek.
Sobtjek, the High Muge, was a Mipedian with orange scales, looking less intimidating than the two royals. He had a pair of silver horns on the side of his head and spikes of the same color on his back and yellow eyes. He wore a purple cloak and loincloth of the same color. He held a staff that ended with purple bat wings and a sharp blade.
"Do you believe they could still read the Chaotic Player's language?" Mudeenu asked his uncle with a bit of uncertainty. There was nothing to gain from keeping an unknown language.
"We can only hope. If they value their ancestors who befriended the Messenger Of The Cothica, then some might have tried to remember," Theb-Saar replied.
"Even when the M'arrillians erased Gosh memories of even meeting the Messenger?" Sobtjek brought that detail.
The two royals frowned, but had nothing to prove if they did or not.
Still, the king had faith that they had fought to remember something. There were many things they might had brought back from Kaizeph to help them remember this Chaotic Player.
The group arrived at the Oasis. It was a small one with a few permanent habitations made of rocks or anything else that could be found in the oasis. It was an Oasis large enough for one clan to live independently on their own. The group entered the village and the Mipedians quickly bow in front of their king.
"Welcome to our Oasis my king. It is an honor to finally greet you," a Mipedian, leader of the village, Theb-Saar guessed, said, "My name is Welsh."
He was a tall Mipedian with crimson scales, amber eyes, a horn on his snout and one of his foreheads. He wore a brown loincloth with a cloak of the same color. He wore a blue sword on his back, standing out of his cloak.
"Stand up. I am not here to get my ego flattered," the blue Mipedian replied with a small smile. He could see the pride in the village. The pride of being a Mipedian, "I came to visit you for an important reason."
Mudeenu gazed at the group and remained quiet. Saying anything stupid or provoking the ire of the clan might put everything on the side. It was all in the hands of the king. He gave a nod when his uncle presented him to the village.
Sobtjek also did the same when presented himself.
"An important reason? If it is about the taxes, we are paying them," the crimson dragon said with a confident smile.
"It isn't about that. I am not sure if you are aware, but we are currently exploring the city of Kaizeph," Theb-Saar began.
The villagers began to grumble a few words together. It was clear they weren't aware of that.
The High Muge also noticed some excitement among them.
The leader of the clan lightly twisted his head to the side as he gave all of his attention, "You found the Lost City."
"Yes," the blue hand gave a sign to the orange Mipedian who took out a tablet from a bag, "We found many tablets in the Wind Quadrant but little about relics. However, those tablets have higher values."
Welsh grabbed the tablet and read it. The moment he saw the image of his ancestor with the Chaotic Player, he asked, "Is that our ancestor Gosh with the human?"
The three knew that they surely had tablets of their ancestors somewhere and knowledge they needed.
"Yes," Mudeenu replied. The Chaotic Player weren't often called humans among the creatures. From what he knew, it was mostly said between the creatures and the Chaotic Players.
"And I can see some resemblance with Gosh," Sobtjek commented.
The crimson creature wondered why he was showed that tablet. He wondered how they obtained those, "Can you explain what is going on please? Pardon my rudeness my king," he quickly apologised for his bold demand.
"No worries. I came here and expected that, if he was remembered," Theb-Saar said.
The group sat together in the house of the leader of the clan. It was colder inside than under the burning sun.
"What we found out was that The Messenger Of The Cothica went to Kaizeph long ago and met Gosh. His name was Alexandre and united the tribes long ago," Theb-Saar explained a few more details of what they found out and added, "And that Alexandre is surely still alive in the Cothica."
Welsh gazed right into the red eyes of his ruler and asked, "W-what? I'm certain he wouldn't live that long and… You are sure?"
"We have spies that overheard other Chaotic Players. One of them knew of him and will… talk to him about their discovery on their world."
"Chaotic Players?" the crimson humanoid lizard asked. He never heard those words before.
Sobtjek was the one who explained who they were and some details.
"So… Those who came from the Cothica came back… but in numbers this time," fire burned in the eyes of the Mipedian. It was clear that he wanted to meet those mythical beings.
For those who regularly dealt with the Chaotic Players, it wasn't anything mythical about them. Except that they came from the Cothica, nothing about them was made out of legends.
Stories about the Cothica were extremely vague. They knew it was a great source of power. The tribe who obtained it will rule above all. There was nothing else about it. Everything had recently begun to come together with the coming of the Chaotic Players.
They weren't mythical being on their own. Where they came from and what they could do was above Perim. What they could do was the mythical part of the humans.
"And we might need your help," the king added.
"You can ask anything my king," the crimson Mipedian bowed.
Sobtjek grabbed another tablet and shown it, "Do you understand the writings on this tablet? We know it isn't something written by creatures. We suspect it came from the Chaotic Players."
"Why not ask the humans?"
"The humans who are coming now are bound to rulers they couldn't break. Such as telling anything about the Cothica. Alexandre wasn't," the blue Mipdian explained.
The prince added, "It is the best way to collect information about the Chaotic Player and the Cothica. Probably just a few bits."
The High Muge offered the tablet.
The leader of the Oasis gazed at it and said, "That's English. Much easier to understand when you know it."
"I'll be interested to learn about it eventually," Sobtjek commented with a small smirk as he scratched his jaw. If it was simpler, why turned their back on a better system of writing.
"I assume you can read it," the king asked with hope.
His nephew was certain of it.
"Of course," Welsh began to read the text, "I have stayed in Kaizeph for a solan now. It is a little hard to handle my situation now. My family and my friends are hunting me in my dreams. Little of their face do I seem to forget. I'm not good at drawing, so I can't make sure I remember them. My friends here are helping me fixing the scanner, as I decide to call it. I'm thankful of them. I might have ended up in worse shape or just bad shape," he finished reading it and gave back the tablet.
They got a little of the inside of Alexandre mind after he stayed for a solan.
Mudeenu asked, "Did he thought of ending his life?"
"Probably. It's a tablet and he couldn't just break it and start over," Sobtjek commented at the damaged part, "Or wouldn't."
"This is fascinating. We have a few tablets on our own, but they are mostly those made by our ancestor Gosh," the crimson reptilian being said as he crossed his arms, "We have very few texts of this human."
"We might want to know what they are written on them too," Mudeenu quickly said.
His uncle let out a small smile, "Don't get too enthusiasm about it. It might just be a few thoughts."
"We won't mind sharing it," the Mipedian told the visitors.
Welsh brought the tablets they held and preserved for many generations. He read each of them while Sobtjek transcribed it on a papyrus. He made sure to write it in their own language. There was a lot of discovery from this simple clan who preserved so many unknown treasures.
"Thank you for everything," the king said, before talking about why he was craving for knowledge. He didn't go in details, but he said that there might be a way to go to the Cothica one day, maybe soon.
"That is but a dream," the crimson lizard replied as his tail tapped the sands. He looked down and said, "Still…" something came in his mind and looked at the king, "If they are coming back and Alexandre is still alive. Maybe… you can tell him to come here."
"He isn't a Chaotic Player… yet," the king replied. He thought about it and said, "However, I know one I can ask to pass the message to Alexandre," he crossed his arms with a small smile, "And he is trustable. Peyton will tell him that Gosh descendant wants to meet his ancestors' friend."
"Thank you," he gave a nod at his ruler.
"There is another reason we came here," Sobtjek said. He got the attention of the Mipedian, "Since you know how to read the Chaotic Players writing, then you might help us in our kings project. The one he told you about. This might bring us a great breakthrough to the Cothica."
One Mipedian of the village raised his hand and proposed himself. They talked a little about what he might be useful for. It continued for a while.
The prince saw how quickly the king obtained the full support of the village. Much quicker than he anticipated, that's why he is the king of our tribe, he knew he was far from his uncle or cousin talent in rallying people that quickly and gaining their support and trust.
He knew why he was brought here. He had in front of him an example of his Uncle way, compared to his grand-father's ways. He hadn't forgotten that he had the attitude of his grand-father, but less bad.
Theb-Saar and his guards were about to depart, when the king had one last question, "Tell me honestly. What would you have done if my father still rules over Al Mipedim?"
That was a tricky question for the leader of the village. He lightly frowned as he searched for an answer. A polite one that wouldn't be taken the wrong way, "My father hoped for the best. If the Tyrant remained, we wouldn't follow him. Father told me that we would either become tribeless, or trying to join the Overworlders. Death at his hands wasn't accepted. Father hoped that the humans might one day come back again and wished… to see them."
"Your father is gone then," the king replied.
"Yes. Father and some of our men joined you to overthrown the Tyrant and… never came back alive," Welsh let out a short sighed. He lightly smiled, "He was right to have faith in you, even if he barely knew anything about you."
"They were too many soldiers to remember all of them Welsh, but I thanked each of them for joining me."
The prince gazed down. His father was badly injured when he helped his brother to overthrow the Tyrant. Still, his father was proud of doing the right thing. He could feel it in himself, sad from his passing, but proud of his decisions.
Sobtjek commented, "Good thing you didn't have to leave your home once again."
"Obviously," the crimson lizard replied, remembering one tablet where Gosh commented about how much he missed the desert.
The High Muge added, "If you meet any humans. Do not get too excited. They will surely try to get a scan out of you for their matches. However, they could see your memories with their scanners."
"We will try and remember that."
After this, the group left the village and returned to the castle. They commented a little about how they should call the Chaotic Players. They decided they would call them humans.
The villagers and their leader felt overjoyed, knowing that the humans were back.
AC: This is the end of this chapter.
Next Chapter: Hunt Him Down.
Rothar was hunting a M'arrillian he spotted to take it down and won't let it escape with something they stole from the Chaor.