68 Meta and Meda

"So what do you propose we do with the kids?" asked Meta as another jumped on his head at the mention of a kid, laughing merrily with the other two.

"I think we should find them some kind of foster home and let new parents keep them." Page said, "why did he use so many kids anyway."

"They're small, hard to catch, and actually quite fast, making them perfect thieves for the adults. Really impressionable, a day of fear will be etched into their memories for a year and control them nicely. Also, the perfect scapegoat, don't know much about the world yet." Meta said, pulling one down from his head and chucking her to another woman who had come over, apologizing for letting the kid attach to his head like that as the kid laughed. "It's no problem, Ajean." he said to her.

"But unless you know someone willing to take on more than 20 kids, I doubt that's something we can count on. Especially not in Melanis, I heard the people are shrewd and only think of themselves." The hunter that was with the merchant group came around, recognizing the three familiar faces. He was holding a kid in each arm and a wide grin on his face.

"Then what? Take the kids with you?" Page said, "we all know the job of a merchant is not a safe one by far, having twenty or so children around will not make it any easier."

"Yeah, but what else can we do? Leaving them in Melanis might get them caught again, or maybe even beaten or starved to death. I could never leave them here alone and my other traveling partners would agree. Especially Ajean here." the hunter directed his hand to the approaching woman who appeared before. "I'm Meda, Meta's brother."

"We only plan on making one more trip, to the dwarven land." she said, "Then if they will accept us, we will stay there and help them out as we make a living with these kids safely with us."

Gror replied, "I'm sure the elders would accept you, they always talk about growing the population and mixing with other races for a more diverse place, but I'm not sure if we can accept you right now, we are currently facing a crisis at our homeland. That is actually why I am here, searching for a suitable place to move."

"Is the crisis something we can help with? We would be delighted to assist in fixing the issue." Ajean said, worried.

"Our usual place was recently infected with Kiluarts. They are all still babies so no one has died yet, but in a few year's time, they might spell serious trouble for us."

"They're all babies?" said Meda, who had let all the kids back to the ground and had them run to the other kids to play. "No parents at all? That sounds really fishy."

"Our elders think the humans living near us may have planted the eggs there near our mines. We've had a feud with them for years, ever since the dragon apocalypse ended and they were looking for new land. They've been trying to get rid of us Dwarves through any means and this seems to be their final measure."

"But putting Kiluarts there will stop them as well."

"We think their mentality is, 'if they can't have it, nobody can'. But the Kiluarts will push us out within three years, my elders also think that maybe they intend on killing the Kiluarts the moment we move out and reclaim the land."

"Kill Kiluarts?" Page said, "Well, I guess if the parents aren't around, it's not so insane. But if there is a den of Kiluarts nearby, they will be in serious trouble, the entire area will."

"What do you mean? Why would that be the trouble?" asked Meta.

"Kiluarts, especially baby ones, release a high pitch frequency from their hearts when they begin to die. The younger, the louder and such a noise attracts other Kiluarts nearby or any creature that can hear that frequency. " Page explained.

Meda continued, "The rare occasions when a human can hear it, they always describe it as a terrible experience, like a concert of nails on a chalkboard or multiple serious cases of terrible tinnitus all at once. But this means you would have to abandon your place, either way, they would quickly grow too big and strong to coexist with another race, sometimes even with each other."

"Yeah, that's why I'm out here. And I think I've found the perfect place, it's near a volcano with a cave rich with our basic digging minerals already confirmed to be there." Gror said.

"Are you sure you will go there?"

"That will depend on my elders and what information the other scouts bring back."

A child tugged at Ajean's hair and she playfully laughed with her but said to the others, "then we'll have to make two trips, one to First Dwarven and once again to the newly designated area."

"You still want to stick to that, despite what we've just discussed? The trip to First Darven is a long one too, with a long stretch of desert and rocks."

"And we plan on braving through it all with the kids. We can't leave them here, but we also can't stay. We are basically outcasts here, making a living will be nearly impossible with what we have now, we only have pickaxes and things good for dwarves." Meda said proudly, "Besides, I'm on the verge of becoming a B Class hunter, I can brave most dangers for us, heh heh."

"It's true, we were only caught because they took me, hostage. And they beat him down when he finally gave up," Ajean said, sadly.

"Ajean, it's not your fault, don't beat yourself up over this." Meta said consolingly, "Besides, it's all over with now. All's well that ends well, right? By the way, what ranking do you guys have?" he said when he turned to the three.

"I am-" Zeeth began to answer right before Page cut him off.

"We're actually not enlisted." He gave Zeeth a quick look of caution and Zeeth understood, he didn't want to reveal too much about themselves so he nodded and followed along. Gror didn't need to understand the glance, he didn't apply to become a hunter in the first place.

"Oh, that's such a shame, the industry could really use a few more people like you guys. I'm sure you could get into the C ranks fairly easily, you beat those two," Meda gestured towards Weller and Fatso, tied up to a pillar and still limited with the Mana Distortion Stones, "and saved our lives. Once you get a license you can get a ton of benefits. Hunters have free access to many of the helpful training buildings the business provides, although hunters can only access the buildings of the same ranking or lower than their own. There is only a 50 styr cost to take the test and they provide you with possible jobs if you ever need to look for freelancing."

"Really?" Zeeth and Gror both asked, neither of them knew too much about the hunter's society.

"Yeah, would you like to know more?" Meda said, excitedly, glad to share what he knew.

"We would love to, but we should actually go back and tell our last goodbyes to our teacher since we plan on leaving soon. You can tell us the rest later on our trip to First Dwarven."

They quickly went back to Rolas and explained what was happening.

"You're all going to leave?" she said, looking a little worried but her expression quickly hardened back up as she said, unconvincingly, "about time, sheesh. You were all so annoying."

All three of them could easily tell she was just trying to hide her sadness. "Rolas, we plan to come here," Gror circled a spot on a map to the far left he just pulled out, "this is First Dwarven, my homeland that has recently come in some trouble so we intend on moving, and it looks hopeful that we will move here," he circled another spot on the map next to a small patch of red mountains.

"Come visit us at any of these places some time." Zeeth said, "we probably won't be staying at First Dwarven too long but if we aren't at the place next to the volcanoes, there is a small tribe called the Falhala Tribe that we've recently befriended. Tell them that you're friends with us if we're not there and maybe they can help."

"Psh, I don't need to come to visit you guys," she said, but she took the map anyway and placed it on a table. "If you're leaving, then I need to show you something, Zeeth. Follow me."

She led him to the moving wall that she and Karkov fought at. The wall opened up all of a sudden and swallowed the two of them, cutting them from the others. "I must admit, after your battle with Karkov, I analyzed your body," her eyes glowed a light purple, "through my skill. That necklace, that skill with the one hundred dots and the hound, I've never seen anything like them in my life. If you don't mind, could you tell me what they do?"

"I'm not sure if I should, actually."