12 Zavyyn wakes up

It's not white anymore, it's dark. I can feel a swaying. This is soothing, and nothing is pounding my head. In fact, there is no soreness, no pain, just the rocking, and a little bit of noise.

"You awake?" Jondahar's deep voice not only rumbles in my ears, but also all along on the front of my torso. Opening an eye, I see his shoulder slightly shifting as the underbrush moves past, my cheek on his back.

"I'm alive," I croak out. Jondahar takes me off his back and gives me a canteen.

"We're heading to the river. If we can get to it and go upstream, we should be able to get away from the plantations around here and escape." Jondahar's tone is low and fast.

"Is there a problem with that?"

Tell me the bad things early so I can mentally prepare for the oncoming awfulness, please.

"We don't have a boat and getting one may be difficult." Jondahar is well-spoken for being a hulking green guy. I guess that is why they put him in charge of things.

"We could probably build something?" We're in a forest, and plenty of the men are carrying various tools as weapons.

"Anything we can build fast enough isn't going to hold up if we come across Sidhe patrols. They see escaped slaves, and they'll try to drown us all so they can display us at the slave markets as a warning to anybody thinking to escape."

You know, I didn't even think twice when I drowned those guys before. Maybe I should think twice before I use violence as a problem-solving tool? Or, I could be paying attention to the immediate problem Jondahar has brought to my attention instead of my philosophical worldview.

"Let's build whatever is possible when we get there, and I will see what I can do with magic to improve it."

Maybe I can help the building? Or do something after? I really don't know. Trying to focus on this problem is hard, as horrible images and sensations fill my brain. This has been a rough patch since my memory began.

"Some of us can use different magic systems, so we should be able to throw together a fairly large raft. The problem will be how long it takes us to build it. If you can keep watch for any Sidhe and deal with them, we should be okay." Jondahar sounds confident.

I think of those tiny, twisted bodies, their faces masks of agony. Maybe there is a way to deal with any patrols that doesn't involve slaughter.

"Yeah, I will deal with them. Should be a snap." Jondahar raises his eyebrows.

"We'll have a few people around to help you. Don't worry. And we're very grateful for what you've done." I slowly nod in response. It looks like most of the group is stopping to eat.

"There's fewer people."

All the dark elves and some of the orcs have left on their own. There are a couple dozen each of kobolds and orcs left. I think that was all the kobolds, and maybe half the orcs.

"What happened?"

"Many did not wish to escape by the river. They left the group. They're no longer our responsibility."

I am okay with having less responsibility. I don't think I can take care of myself yet, much less other people. Fewer people means fewer mouths to feed and whatnot. I am a little surprised nobody fought over supplies or anything, but I guess everyone thinks it would be better to sneak through the woods quickly, and there's enough supplies for everybody to carry. Really, everyone seems to be more eager to get away from that place than anything else.

"How far away is the river? Like, in days of travel."

If he used some crazy measurement, I would look stupid for not knowing it. What is a furlong, anyway? Sounds like a bear-snake to me.

"The river itself is not far, but we will need to detour around the town. So perhaps 3 days of walking for us."

Our caravan has plenty of elderly and very young people, so I guess our pace is good? It doesn't feel fast enough, though. Maybe I can figure out some way to make us all fly? I think I have a decent idea of how to do that.

I give Jondahar the rundown on my idea. He's worried about us being spotted in the air, but with a very small amount of effort I can make the bottom of our craft glow blue, making it effectively invisible from below.

By the end of the day, the women, children, and elderly were setting up shelters and cooking a few ugly deer I snagged while we moved. They looked a bit like a cross between a deer and a wolf.

"Fangdeer," Jondahar told me when I asked about their name. And sure enough, even their antlers looked like large canines, and were very sharp.

Since they were carnivorous, their flavor was not that great, so they were being rubbed with strong smelling herbs and cooked in broth made from chicken bones one enterprising granny brought in a sack. There was also rice, which seems to be the main grain around these parts. That makes sense to me, as so much of this area is swampy.

That night, I had a proper place to sleep, and got to sleep at a decent time.

***

Waking up is awful. An orc lady shakes my shoulder and tells me something, but I cannot move. I see everything around me, but beyond the orc lady, who was quite pretty, entities with triangular faces and huge eyes stare down at me, unblinking and emotionless. Their long limbs stretch into needles. They swell up into enormity and the limbs dip down, straight into me. I feel a violation as the needles go into my spine through my posterior, and then I feel a sharp shock and my view tumbles around.

"Are you better? Your screaming was disturbing everyone else." I see Jondahar's face, his brows pulled up and the ends of his mouth pulled down. Ah ha, I think he is worried about me! I am grateful for this level of concern. It's probably the most concern I have gotten yet.

"I'm sorry I had to slap you, but it seems to have worked."

Wait, he slapped me? What about my gratitude?

"It's fine. I'm okay. I just had a nightmare. With my eyes open. If a slap is it all it takes to make that go away, it's fine." I feel the ache now.

This elicits a hearty chuckle from Jondahar. Actually, it is more like a low-pitched giggle. That laugh is not what I expected from a guy who has more in common with a castle than me when it comes to size.

"Well, you've woken up now, so come eat some breakfast. Most everyone else has eaten already, but my wife was worried you wouldn't eat, and I decided to wait for you as well. A meal is better when eaten with others, after all."

Is it? I did not know that.

The giant bug guy, Tyu, wants to eat with us as well. I figured he would drink fluids like a mosquito for some reason, but he's actually a fairly normal and fastidious eater. He even has a white linen napkin tucked into a collarbone-like armor plate.

'Your color is poor. You should start with a glass of water to improve your circulation and jump start digestive processes.'

Well, there's that weird bug brain voice again, hi there Mister Chitin-pants, I hope you enjoy your stay in my brain. You're certainly less scary than the giant things I just saw.

'Your mind is different. It is like it was hacked apart and then put back together. For that reason, speaking with you is interesting.'

Well, that is delightful, and I have drunk this water so I shall get on with eating now, shall I?

'You might want to address your sleeping habits to prevent more nightmares. Waking nightmares are especially bad.'

Well, I am not sure I have the leisure to address my sleep schedule at the moment, but I shall keep that advice until such a time as I can apply it.

Moments go by without Tyu droning at me, so I can assume his focus has moved on. Hopefully my mental tone was not too sarcastic?

The breakfast was a large pan of scrambled eggs. I am worried about how much we're eating given how many of us there are, although other grannies were more enterprising than the one with chicken bones; they brought hens. I didn't see the hens, so I am not sure how they were brought, but these folks can also use some magic, so no big deal, right? I should probably work with the guys today to make some sort of vessel for the river. I can make something large enough to carry everybody, and I can likely make that fly.

"If you are not touching the river, we will not be able to successfully escape. The river is connected to a mighty magic that will aid in our escape."

I press Jondahar to explain the magic, but all he can tell me is that if we fly away, we will not wind up in the same place as traversing the river.

I idly curse that god as a railroading jerk, and mess around with the vessel design in my head. I can still do a wide skiff like I wanted before, and just have something extend down to touch the water. If a pole is long enough, I can still hide most of the skiff by making the bottom glow blue to blend into the sky. Then it should just look like a pole unnaturally standing straight up and going upriver. If the pole gets attacked, we will just drop it, ascend a few hundred feet, wait for the people to get sick of looking for us, and then replace the pole. If we had tons and tons of rope, I would just try it with rope, but there isn't much rope nor is there time to make more. Pine saplings are plentiful, though, and we can just lash a few together with vines or something to make a stockpile of spares.

I explain to Jondahar my idea, and he begins directing the men to gather materials. This isn't going to make an especially sturdy vessel, but it should be fine if it doesn't take actual attacks. Soon, there is an enormous pile of felled trees with leaves, bark and vines all stripped. Some of the people can use magic spells that make whirring blades of wind or water, and we use those to buzz the logs into an enormous pile of planks, while chipping the roots and branches. Using those chips and the dust, I begin making molded pieces for the base and the rails. Most of the deck is made from the planks, and I throw on a large open gazebo for people to be able to sit in the shade. I think I'm getting better at manipulating a zillion cantrips per second. Yup, still getting skill-ups.

Now it is about noon, and we're enjoying some lunch in the gazebo area before we take off. A bear with crystal claws wandered close to us, or was attracted by the noise, or something. It is now a hearty chili with rice. After we finish eating, I tell everybody to take a seat and brace themselves, and our skiff goes up into the sky.