Chapter 23
Other Visitors
"So what do you think it was?" Sharky asked.
"I'm not sure." Monalisa said, holding her chin in thought. "You're certain it wasn't a mermaid?"
"Pretty sure, yeah. She didn't have a fishtail, but actual legs."
"And it wasn't a siren?"
"A siren? Like those on fire-trucks?" Sharky asked, scratching his head.
"You don't know what a siren is? The creature in old sailor myths, that sings to lure them to their doom. The devices are named after them."
"Not ringing any bells."
"You didn't pay much attention in school, I take it."
"Not really, no. But I was so deep into my drug addiction back then, so everything from that time is fuzzy at best."
"Right, forgot about that. Sorry."
"No worries."
"However, I'm afraid that I don't know what it was you saw. But I don't really know that much about all this. You would probably be better off asking Tyroth, or maybe Mikey."
"Pretty much what I thought, well, Tyroth at the least, not so much Mikey to be honest. But you were the first one I ran into, so I thought I'd give you a shot first. No offence."
"None taken." Monalisa said with a smile. "Though, if I were to guess, I'd say that it at the very least wasn't a siren. It would have hypnotised you with its song if that was the case."
"Well, the song was beautiful, I'll admit that, but it was more the fact that someone was singing at the bottom of the sea that caught my attention."
"I don't blame you. Either way, we'd better tell Tyroth this, just to be on the safe side."
Meanwhile, up in the watch tower by the edge of the village, Raphael and Sarah was on guard duty, and Raphael wasn't overly happy about it.
"This is so boring." he complained. "We've been here for over two months now, and we haven't had a single good fight. We haven't even done any proper training, just work and more work. And now, I'm stuck standing guard."
"Bet you'd be happier if you were paired with Mona. Though I don't think there would be that much guarding being done." Sarah teased, causing Raphael to blush. "Mona's one lucky gal to have you. Almost made me a bit jealous way back when."
"What? Jealous? You?"
"Oh, you got nothing to worry about. It's just that back when we first met, I thought that you were quite handsome, I still do, but it never grew into anything more, since you were already taken. Just a brief case of attraction."
"Huh, I never knew that."
"Like I said, it's not a big deal. I'm not the kind of girl to try and steal someone else's partner."
"But you don't have one yourself? I haven't seen you with anyone at least."
"Nope, I've been single ever since I mutated, but I don't mind. Though I do miss the sex from time to time. Still, it wasn't uncommon with plain casual sex back in the old Mutopia."
"Really? Never noticed that."
"Well, it wasn't like we were doing it in the open. And it was more like an unwritten rule that we could fool around with whoever, as long as it was consensual and we used protection if we didn't want kids, not that that happened until Tyroth and Sephie. Either way, it was mostly to relieve sexual tensions, nothing more, though there were a few that found each other that way, and a few that broke up afterwards."
"Never thought that you guys were so straight forward about this."
"It wasn't for everyone, but the option was there. We were a closed community, so we had to do something to make it work without collapsing from every small issue. I guess many things just didn't get noticed by outsiders like yourself."
"Maybe." Raphael said and looked back at the road, where he spotted something. "I think we got something over there."
"Looks like it. Let's have a closer look." Sarah said, and picked up a spyglass. "Travellers, about half a dozen I think. They're moving rather hurried though, and… are they… green?"
"Green? Let me look." Raphael said, taking the spyglass from Sarah. "Hmm… not sure, but I think they might be orcs."
"Orcs? Aren't they savages? Like in Lords of the Ring?"
"Most might be, but I don't think these will be much problem. It looks like one of them is limping. How do you zoom in with this stupid thing- ah, there. Oh, yeah, they look rather banged up, I can see bandages on some of them."
"They're injured? Wonder what happened to them."
"Bandits, beasts, accidents, could be anything."
But as Raphael continued to watch the group as they moved towards the village, he spotted something else coming along the road, at a much higher speed than the group of orcs. Focusing the spyglass on this new movement, Raphael saw that it was another group of people, some orcs, some humans, and some of other races that he recognised but couldn't name, all running towards the orcs with their weapons drawn.
It seemed like they had found the source of the orcs' injuries.
"Looks like trouble! Those guys look like they're out for blood!" Raphael said.
"We have to help them!" Sarah exclaimed.
"I'll do that, you run for backup!"
"Right! Try not to kill anyone!"
The two mutants quickly jumped down from the tower and ran towards their respective objectives, with Raphael drawing his sais with a grin.
How he had longed for a proper fight, and now he was finally going to get one. But he quickly tempered his enthusiasm with discipline, for there was more at stake than his own entertainment. He didn't know who of the two groups that was in the right, or what they might have done, and he usually didn't want to get involved in fighting that didn't concern him, but the orcs were injured, so he couldn't just leave them to their fate.
By the time he managed to reach the two groups, one of the orcs had already fallen, a javelin in his shoulder-blade, while most of the others were fighting back, holding the line as best they could.
Diving right into the thick of the fight, Raphael parried several sword slashes from the attackers and countered with several quick kicks that knocked them over. His interruption gave pause, and the fighting slowed to a halt.
"Back off! This don't concern you, outsider!" a male human snarled at the turtle.
"Maybe not, but you know what? I don't care!" Raphael snarled back, giving his sais a quick twirl before focusing on all the people around him.
Both groups wore simple clothes made from furs and hides with various kinds of small bones as simple decorations and several tattoos, giving them all a very tribal-like appearance. Their weapons further emphasized that look, being more simple and crude than what the Mutopians had seen so far, with several of the metal weapons having spots of rust. The weapons themselves ranged from axes and swords to clubs and javelins.
A quick headcount showed that the attackers numbered thirteen in total, five humans and four orcs of both genders, one tall, grey-skinned male humanoid, a goliath, and three humanoids with thick fur covering their bodies, pointed ears, sharp teeth and long arms, bugbears if Raphael wasn't mistaken.
The group of orcs consisted of three males and two females, and they had plenty of old bandages in many places, all with bloodstains of varying sizes and some that were still wet. One of the females had a thick layer of bloodied bandages around one leg and was using a thick branch as an improvised crutch, and was still standing in the way of her fallen comrade, one hand on the crutch and the other armed with an axe. The fallen orc in question was moving and groaning, so he was still alive, but in pretty bad shape.
"Last chance, outsider! Back off or die!" the human shouted, tightening his grip on his sword.
"Why don't you listen to your own advice?" said Sarah as she just dashed up next to Raphael, tonfas raised and ready, and shortly after, Tyroth landed right in front of them.
"More are on their way." the dragon said, his eyes never leaving the attackers.
"No worries, with you here, the rest of us are practically obsolete." said Raphael.
"We'll see. Now, what is going on here?"
"You are in the way of our prey!" the human snapped. "Step aside or die!"
"That's pretty much all he say." said Raphael. "We spotted the orcs, literally limping here, and then these bozos attack them."
"Is that so?" Tyroth looked at the injured orcs and then turned back to the human. "Why are you after them? What have they done to earn your anger?"
"They are traitors to the Great Khan, Lonarg Back-breaker! And all traitors must die!"
"Skunk-sprayed lies!" one of the female orcs cried, her short, frizzy hair as red as their bloodstains. "You and your 'Great Khan' rode into our village and you slaughtered us all!"
"Great Khan, huh?" Tyroth mused. "From the sounds of it, you all hail from the northern territories, the States of the Great Khan, if I'm not mistaken."
"What about it?" the goliath snarled, stepping forward, only to receive an elbow in his stomach from his fellow aggressors and taking a few steps back again.
"You're a long way from home. This is Mutopian soil, and a part of the Torgalian kingdom. You have no authority here, so if I suggest that you all leave peacefully and return home."
"Not without the traitors' heads on spikes!" the human almost yelled, and Tyroth frowned deeply at him.
"Traitors or not, you were all clearly willing to simply cut them down!" the dragon growled. "They are so badly injured that they are barely a threat to anyone, and yet you think that death is all they deserve! I will not tolerate that in my village! I've already given you one chance to leave on your own, but if you won't listen to reason, then you leave me no choice but to force you!"
Holding his sword to his side, Tyroth let his mana encase it before igniting it. He then held his other hand high above his head and created a ball of fire almost four feet across, burning so hot that Raphael and Sarah took a few steps away.
The attackers all took a few steps back as well, and the human that had acted like the leader of the group cast a very vary gaze on Tyroth, and then behind the dragon, where he could see more of the Mutopians hurrying their way, and all of them were armed.
The odds were clearly not in their favour any longer.
"Grah! Fine! We'll leave! For now…"
With great reluctance, the aggressors turned around and began the long journey back to whence they came, constantly glancing back over their shoulders with much annoyance.
Once the distance between the two groups was far enough, Tyroth dispelled his fireball and the flames around his sword, letting them dissipate into nothingness.
"That's one disaster averted, now to see to our guests." Tyroth said, mostly to himself. Sheathing his sword, he turned to the others. "Okay everyone, let's help our 'guests' to James' clinic, on the double! And we'll figure out what's what later."
"We'll need a stretcher for this guy here!" said Donatello as he knelt by the orc with the spear in his back. "He's still alive, but barely conscious, and in bad shape, but I think he will pull through. We just have to not make it worse for him."
In short order, things sorted themselves out.
Sarah rushed to James' clinic to both retrieve a stretcher and warn the chimpanzee of the incoming work, while Raphael and Monalisa both supported the female with the crutch, allowing her to lean on them.
As the people were heading back, Tyroth remained behind for a moment, looking towards where the aggressors had left.
"Am I really doing the right thing?" he wondered out aloud. "I don't even truly know who that is in the right here." He sighed deeply.
"Still doubting yourself, hun?" Sephie's voice came from behind him, making him almost jump out of his skin.
"Gods, don't scare me like that, love." Tyroth panted as he tried to slow down his heart rate, turning around to face his mate. "You'd give me grey hairs if I still had any. I thought you were with the others."
"I was, but I did see that something was troubling you, so I turned back. Though, I didn't realise that you were that deep in thought. Sorry." She gave him a slightly sheepish smile, and he smiled back and shook his head.
"It's okay. I just have a lot on my mind. More so than usual, at least."
"I've noticed. But you did do the right thing here. Those orcs were in dire need, and you helped them, we all did. Just like we always do."
"True, but what if these five really are the bad guys in this? We know next to nothing about the politics of this world and its inhabitants, so what if the actions of the others were justified?"
"No-one can know everything, hun. And you made a decision based on what you saw with your own eyes, a decision that avoided any unnecessary bloodshed. You said it yourself, 'we'll figure out what's what later'."
"I just hope that it isn't too late by then."
"Whatever happens, we'll all face it together. When it happens."
"I guess you're right. Still, I do wonder if it would have been better if we had taken the other left path when we found the road, and settled down in Berstolia instead."
"Who knows. It could have been easier, or it could have been harder. Though I think it would have been far easier to do some shopping. Oh, how I have missed being able to go shopping all these years, I mean really shopping, spending a whole day going from shop to shop, all that stuff. Do you think we could do that one day?"
"I don't know. Maybe. But it would take almost a week just getting to the capital, and then the same back here, and spending all that time travelling only to do some shopping is more than I'm actually willing to, truth be told. But if do pick up things that we need for the village while we're there, and we have enough money to spare, why not make the most of the trip."
"That sounds like a lovely idea."
Sephie took Tyroth's arm as they both began heading back home, smiling at him. But she wasn't smiling because of the possibility of going shopping one day, but rather that she had managed to take his mind of things.
'You work far too hard, honey.' she thought to herself. 'I know there is a lot to do, but we will help you where we can. If only you could relax just a little more every now and then.'
As the pair walked back to the village, they were unaware that a pair of eyes watched them from the shadows of the forest, and they did not belong to anyone of the people that had been present only minutes earlier.
An individual dressed in a dark ninja outfit, silently taking notes of the earlier event.
'Interesting.' the ninja thought. 'And most impressive.'
More visitors have come to Mutopia, and not just the poor wounded orcs, but a ninja of some sort as well. Take your guesses where this individual might be from.