Chapter 20
Homecoming
Several days had passed, and finally the small caravan was nearly at Mutopia again, after having been away for a little more than two weeks. While the travels had been very uneventful, Tyroth still longed to be home again, and especially to see his beloved family again.
As they left the deep forest behind, the group could see the outermost farms ahead of them, and they were looking better tended to than when they had left, if only a little, which was still commendable since there were only so many of them and far more work.
But something felt off with the scenery, and after a short moment looking around, both Ragnir and Tyroth found what it was. Just past the outermost farms was a new building, rising ever so slightly above the nearby houses and barns.
A simple watchtower, just over six meters tall.
"Seems your people have been busy while we were away." Ragnir said as he steered his ox down the road.
"So it seems. I wonder what else has been going on around here while we were away."
"I guess you'll find out shortly, lad."
And Ragnir wasn't wrong, for as they made their way to the square, the inhabitants quickly swarmed around them, happy to see their leader again, and curious to see what they had brought with them.
"Welcome back, boss!" Cam the Rhino greeted Tyroth as the latter stepped down from the cart. "We've missed you."
Suddenly, Sephie came and threw her arms around Tyroth's neck, seemingly out of nowhere.
"Some more than others…" Cam continued.
"So I've noticed." Tyroth chuckled as he returned the hug to his mate. "I got a lot to tell you all over dinner later, but you also have some stuff to explain to me, like that tower back there."
"That would be my idea." Rattletrap said proudly.
"Only in so much that you inspired it when you got stuck at the top of the spruce tree in the square." said Leonardo.
"What was he doing up there?" Tyroth asked Leonardo, completely ignoring the now complaining rat.
"He claims that he wanted to get a good look of the area, though I have my doubts. Still, after that, we figured that a watchtower could be a great benefit, as an early warning system. We're still working on a schedule for it, but it's something at least."
"Seems like you can handle things well, Leo."
"If I have to, just don't think about going on vacation any time soon."
"Wasn't expecting any. But I do have someone that I'd like everyone to meet." Tyroth turned back to the cart. "Come on, ladies, we've arrived."
It was at that moment that the Mutopians noticed the three elves in the cart, who had hid in the cart and just now peeked over the edge of it.
"There's nothing to be afraid of, we're all friends here." Tyroth assured them as he helped them out of the cart. And almost instantly the gathered people started asking questions all at once.
"Who are they?"
"What are they?"
"Where did you find them?"
And so many more.
"Please, calm down." Tyroth said. "I'll explain all in greater detail soon, just know that they were in need of aid and I helped them. And they are still in need of some medical attention, so James will have to take care of them shortly."
"Don't worry, I'll do my best." the chimpanzee said as he stepped forward. "Follow me, I got my clinic nearby."
The elves were a bit hesitant, but after being reassured by Tyroth, they followed James where he led them.
While they were taken care of, Tyroth and Ragnir started to distribute all the things that they had bought.
James' clinic was little more than a room in his house that was cleaner than the rest of it, with the basic medical equipment that he had brought with him, though he lamented that he didn't have anything better now that he might actually need it.
"Okay, please sit down, and I'll examine you one at a time." James said as he gestured to some chairs.
"Are… are you a healer?" one of the elves asked.
"Of a sort. I am a doctor. I use medicines and treatments, rather than magic, like you might be more used to for all I know. But with or without magic, I will do all in my might to help you recover." Picking up a clipboard and a pencil from his desk. "Now, if I can just have your names and how old you are, I will begin the examinations."
The three elves exchanged confused looks, but complied, if a bit hesitant.
"Um… my name is Mialeth. I am seventy five years." said the elf with black hair.
"I am called… Valynore… forty nine years." said the blue haired one.
"… and… I am… Inayra… twenty two…" said the green haired one.
James just stared blankly at the elves. Shaking his head to snap himself out of the state, he looked back at his chipboard.
"Right, elven names. I should have known." he muttered to himself. "Since I know that I'll most likely misspell and mispronounce those names, I'll just settle for calling you Mia, Val and Ina. At least for now."
A little while later, Tyroth arrived at the clinic, and found James looking over his notes with a troubled look on his face, while the elves sat on the chairs eating some fruit.
"Problems, James?" the dragon asked, causing the chimpanzee to jump a little.
"Only retroactively, so to speak." he sighed. "Let's discuss this in private."
Stepping outside for a while, James sighed even louder before he spoke.
"There really are some horrible people in this world." he began. "During my examination, I asked them my standard questions. Names, age, cause of injuries, and I can barely believe what they told me."
"Start from the beginning, please."
"Alright. First, they have are quite diverse in their age, the youngest being only twenty two, followed by forty nine and seventy five, not at all what I expected. None of them look above thirty."
"Elves do live longer than humans, some can even reach a thousand years, so this is very young from their point of view. Unless I'm mistaken, these are basically seen as teenagers or young adults among their people."
"All the worse for them then, I'm afraid." James continued. "I had no idea that I was dealing with former slaves, it really caught me off guard, as did how easily they shared this information with me. According to them, they were captured a few years ago, and imprisoned in an unknown location, where they were mistreated and abused daily, 'conditioning' it was called apparently, before they were sold off to the woman that you bought them from."
"I had no choice. From what I heard, they would have been killed if they hadn't been sold. I couldn't just leave them to their fate."
"Trust me, I don't blame you, and you don't have to explain anything to me."
"But I will, and I will do it for all to hear at dinner. There is still much to discuss."
"I can imagine. But getting back on topic, the wounds that we can see on them are only the more recent ones, and while they claim to have had some bones broken, particularly finger bones and ribs, I could not find any evidence of it. But it's the ears that really makes me angry with all this, more than the rest at least."
"So there's more than just some form of prejudice or racism?"
"It is outright an act of pure cruelty. They cut off a small part of the ears, less than a quarter of an inch, but only on one ear at a time, then when that had healed for about two weeks, they cut off another piece from the other ear, then repeat the process. Then they 'evened out' the ears before selling the poor girls."
"Bastards!" Tyroth growled loudly. "I should have gutted that… monster when I had the chance."
"I doubt anyone here would have objected. But to summarise, they have a large amount of bruises and wounds, some older and some still very fresh, with several minor infections, they are also starved, bordering to malnourished."
"So what do you recommend?"
"Most of the injuries will have to heal on their own, but I can help clean the infected wounds and properly bandage them. Other than that, some rest and food, and they will recover in time, though they should be careful not to eat too much until they've adjusted to a more normal sized diet."
"So no lingering issues?"
"None that I've found so far, and for that I'm happy. But that actually brings me to another thing that I need to talk to you about."
"Barely back, and already back at work…" Tyroth sighed. "Well, let's hear it then."
"I don't really have any better way to formulate this, but what should we do about the 'new' Mutopians?"
"New Mutopians?" Tyroth asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes, I know! It's not the best way to word it, and I mean no offence by it, but it's no less true. You and me, and most of the others, we're all 'true' Mutopians, the originals, in the sense that we've been mutated by the water, while the others have not. Your parents, April, Casey, the turtles, Monalisa, Splinter, Kemeko, Pandora, Jake, Devina, and now Ragnir and the elves, none of them have drunk the water, and are all thus 'new' Mutopians. And that is just the issue."
"That they are not mutated by the water?"
"Yes, or rather, it is because they can not drink the water without mutating. Look, all us 'true' Mutopians heal faster, and in dire situations we can use the water to completely heal ourselves. The others don't have that luxury, at least not without mutating, and that's just the humans. We still have no idea what will happen to those that used to be human, or never were human to begin with. And with how limited my tools and supplies are in this world, the water could mean the difference between life and death, if it works the same, which we don't know."
"You're worried that your skills won't be enough."
"In a way, I suppose. Look, I know that I'm a good doctor, but there's only so much I can do, especially without proper tools. The water we brought with us, while limited and with a heavy cost, is a guaranteed way to save lives, but it is still a very extreme solution."
"We need something of a middle ground." Tyroth mused. "Devina possess healing magic, limited perhaps but still something to consider. Maybe she could help you."
"That is an option, one that I hadn't even considered. I guess I still haven't accepted magic as a tool for healing, despite the water that we've been using being magical as well."
"This world has a lot more magic than our own. And with some luck, we might just find someone that knows some of this world's healing magic that could be of assistance to you, maybe even teach you a thing or two."
"Teach me magic? I don't know about that." James scoffed.
"Don't knock it before you try it. There are many ways to gain magical powers here, and it might just be the complement needed to put your mind at ease."
"Perhaps. But I guess that remains to be seen."
"Hey, boss! You done soon or what?" the two heard Percy call out as the grasshopper walked up to them. "We've got something to show you."
"Show me? What have you done now?" Tyroth asked concerned.
"You'll see, and I think you'll like it. Just hurry up, both of you. We won't eat until this is done, and I'm hungry."
The grasshopper lead Tyroth and James to the old village hall, where the rest of the populace had already gathered. There was one thing that caught Tyroth's attention, and that was that there was a large piece of cloth above the door, as if covering a sign or similar.
"Got any idea of what's going on, hun?" Sephie asked her mate as he walked up next to her.
"I was about to ask you the same." Tyroth responded.
"Sorry, but I don't know what they're up to. I've seen that people have worked on this place, but they've been very secretive about why, especially Leo."
"Leo, huh? What is he up to now?"
They were about to find out, for Leonardo walked up to the door of the village hall and addressed the crowd, but he looked in the direction of Tyroth and Sephie specifically.
"For a couple of weeks now, some of us have worked hard on a special project here, and not too long ago, we completed it. So it is with great pleasure that I now unveil our seat of power, Dragon Hall."
Pulling off the cloth, a brand new sign was revealed. Carved to look like a pair of extended dragon wings with the words 'Dragon Hall' engraved on it, in a vaguely rune-like font.
Tyroth looked at the sign in confusion, wondering what was going on, and he was about to get his answer, as Leonardo now addressed him personally.
"Tyroth, since you are our leader now, it is only fitting that you have a residence fitting of that position. So that's why we want this to be just that, your home."
"Wait, what?! My home?!"
"Yeah, that's right, boss." said Jack. "I mean, you are our jarl and all, and they should have a proper mansion, or something. So me and Leo got together with a few others and fixed this place up for you, Sephie, the geckolings, maybe even your folks, there's room for them."
"For real?" Sephie asked. "No, no, no, this must be a dream. This can't be happening."
"We're serious." said Leonardo. "You get several bedrooms, a study, meeting room, kitchen, pretty much everything you could want or need, during these circumstances."
"This is awesome!" Freya almost squealed, though she tried to keep her voice down as Leonardo wasn't done talking.
"Easy for you to say, you're getting a mansion. I couldn't even get a room in a tower. This is so unfair." Pandora complained.
"Hey, we could always set up a sleepover."
"Hmm, that would be great."
"This is just too much, Fearless." said Tyroth, his eyes travelling to the mansion and back to Leonardo again. "Can we really afford to spend this much on just the few of us?"
"The place was going to waste as it was. And it is a home worthy of our leader and family. You deserve it."
Again, Tyroth looked at the mansion. Then he closed his eyes for a moment and chuckled. Opening his eyes again, a few tears had formed in the corners.
"You guys are crazy, you know that, right? But you're my kind of crazy, and this is a wonderful gift. One I can't ever hope to repay."
"Be the leader we know you can be, and we'll call it square." Jack chuckled.
"And if not, these hats you bought for us more than make up for it. At least if you ask me." Michelangelo said with a wide smile, wearing one of the hats in question. Kate was at his side and only rolled her eyes at him, but with a smile as well all the same.
Finally home, and with stuff to boot. People sure are curious about the new arrivals, whom clearly haven't had the best of time prior to this.
Names and details are as follows, in case you need some clarification.
Mialeth: Black hair, silvery eyes. 75
Valynore: Dark blue hair, silvery eyes. 49
Inayra: Dark green hair, golden eyes. 22
Trust me, I needed it as I wrote this chapter. Not sure if the elves will be main characters, probably not, but they will still be around.
There is more going on than just them, as you've seen. And now Tyroth with family have a new home, and what a home, huh?