11 The Cheerful Camp in the Distance

"Oh Lord, kumbaya! Oh Lord, Kumbaya! Oh Lord, Kumbayaaaa!"

The sun has fallen, leaving the skies dark with a thin sheet of clouds moving in to seemingly embrace the moon above. Below it was a merry company of people circling around the campfire in the middle of this wide green plains of grass that was now filled with shade.

The lights that were given by their flames were bright but their smiles as they danced around and talked were brighter. The camp was surrounded by a flimsy wall made out of twigs and broken planks and in the middle, a few steps from the celebration stood a watchtower manned by a single person along with his birds. It didn't do much about the cold wind sinking deep into their skin but with the help of a melodic sound coming from a flute somewhere, they've all behaved as if they were celebrating in the middle of the day. One of them was Melvin who's now singing on top of his lungs with a mug of mead in hand and a handful of potatoes on the other.

"Honestly, when you guys told us that you were sent from the Tinora, we were expecting some prideful weird-ass pricks!" He chugged down his drink and followed, "But hey, It doesn't mean that you weird-ass pricks ain't welcome!"

"Thanks, I didn't expect for you guys to throw something like this…" Roland mumbled as he nibbled his cup.

"No, don't worry about it. We don't get a lot of friendly visitors around here and we do have plenty of mead and bread to spare." He smiled before he looked to his side and followed, "We would have had meat for you guys if some dumbass didn't wolf everything down yesterday!"

"Hey," said the guy who manned the watchtower.

"So how's the party up there with the birds you greedy bastard?" He asked before he gave his attention to Roland once more. "In any case, you don't have to worry about us since the new supplies would come tomorrow afternoon."

Roland and Charles shared an awkward laugh until Roland turned his head and saw Melvin flexing his muscles in front of the other five men by the campfire.

"I guess, that's good to hear… I'm sorry for crashing in," Roland said as he looked down and scratched the back of his head.

"No worries young man. I'm in charge of the other 14 people here and I tell ya, these guys are having fun because of your little group, and all you had to do was to hand us a decree from the governor himself." He let out a nervous laugh as he looked away, but he soon cleared his throat and followed, "We cant' disobey it anyway."

"Right…" Charles replied as he forced himself to smile.

Their leader sighed and filled his mouth with mead, letting the silence take over the space between Charles and him. It went on for a few moments until Roland leaned forward and said, "But hey Mister Neil, the party is really lively. I never expected that you guys would have a good musician with you too!"

"Oh…" Neil's flushed and his drunken smile was then curbed by a wave of disappointment as he stepped back to point them towards something behind him. "You mean her…"

They saw a fairly built woman sitting on a bench a few steps from the watchtower while grasping onto a metallic silver horn that was as huge as her body. Both of them were allured by her sunbaked skin that seemed to glisten beneath the moonlight and they couldn't help but lean forward to see more of her as her thin lips parted her from her instrument. She brushed a bit of her short hair to the back of her ear before she tilted her head and welcomed their gazes with a concerned smile.

"B-b-but th-that's a w-war horn!" Charles looked away with a heavy heart and a reddened face.

Roland, on the other hand, sank his teeth into his mug and emptied it. He wiped the cold sweat dripping off of his face with his forearm as he waited for this sudden feeling of lightheadedness to disappear.

"That's Maya…" Neil said as the sound of footsteps rustling on the grass invaded Roland's ears. "Quite adept at her skill of blowing things but when you see her work, it really gets you turned off."

"Hey, Chief and hey uhhh…"

Roland raised his head and saw a woman wearing a brown woolen vest on top of a green long-sleeved shirt. She patted the dust off of her pants as she walked towards them with her boots parting the grass beneath her feet.

"I… wanna say, Norland?" She followed with an unsure tone.

"Blowing…" Charles whispered as he placed his palm over his face. "...But that's a horn…"

Roland smiled and opened his mouth but to his surprise, his words didn't come out. They just shared an awkward gaze as he turned his head from side to side with a broken smile.

"Was he... complaining about it chief?" She held her breath and asked her boss with her voice carrying a worried high pitched tone. "I was just doing what the other's have asked and I saw you pointing them at me…"

"Not quite…" Neil shrugged and replied. "They said that it's good… until they saw you playing…"

"Oh no, I'm really sorry if you were weirded out about it Mister…"

"Roland…" He replied as he moved back to catch his breath. "Just Roland would be fine."

"I-I see. So Mister Roland then." She lowered her head and looked away with a shy smile. "I'm really sorry. I'm using magic to make the sound the same as the one playing in my head."

"Hey, that's pretty neat," He said with his voice beaming until it quivered and staggered when he followed, "You're like a bard then… w-with a pe-p-peculiar w-weap-weapon of c-choice."

"We-"

"Well, gentlemen, I guess I'm off to bed." Charles interrupted Maya as he stood up. He looked at them and followed, "See you tomorrow morning Mister Neil and Miss Maya…"

"Really?" Neil sighed as he glanced at Maya who's standing at his side. "Why though? The night is still young."

"Don't worry too much about it sir, I'm pretty weak with alcohol and I saw a lot of weird things today too." He cleared his throat as he looked at Melvin in the distance and his weary smile was suddenly twisted into a look of disgust. "From black potatoes to a horn sounding like a flute and to a grown-ass man tearing off his beard in front of other men while shouting."

Neil chucked along with Maya and said, "Sure, have a good night then."

Charles replied with a nod and went to his tent without a word. He tossed himself into his makeshift bed and it didn't take long before that sweet-sounding flute resounded in his ears along with the others' cheers once more. He sighed and rested his head upon his arm. He spent his time staring at the two empty beds in front of him for a few minutes but then, the music stopped.

He pulled his head back in all of that silence. He closed his eyes to take a deep breath and when he opened it, he saw a tall shadow carving its features upon the thin sheet in front of him along with the sound of someone screaming,

"Shit! Everyone, grab your weapons!"