The Reprieve - Part 2

Even though it was getting darker by the minute, people still moved back and forth around the village. All were holding possessions in their arms, likely to take to their homes, to give them some semblance of normality once they returned now that the bandits had been taken care of.

Food and water were being distributed around so that they all had something to eat and drink for the day to come. Repairs were being made to some of the houses that had been hit the worst, making them more liveable. The whole village was on the move now that they no longer had to stay in the church. The church of which Olivia was nearing the door to.

As she grew closer the village chief told her he would wait outside, wanting to get as much fresh air as he could before he had to head home, having been stuck in the church all this time.

So, leaving him where he was, Olivia went to open the door. But as she did, she was greeted by quite an interesting conversation.

"-so big. It was rock hard and felt so good to touch." Was the sentence she heard as she entered.

Looking around she found Lyrika and Philly sitting on one of the church benches talking. Philly had her book out and was hastily scribbling away at it while Lyrika spoke.

'Big and hard. She's not talking about my… No, she can't be.'

She was tempted to hang back and wait to confirm if that was indeed what she was talking about, but before she could, Lyrika looked up and saw her.

"Olivia…y-your back," Lyrika said, talking louder than she had been. Her voice startled Philly slightly, who quickly closed her book and looked around.

"Yes, I was just talking to the village chief. What have you two been talking about?"

"Huh, oh not much. Philly wanted to know about how we met, and our journey together."

"Right…I see."

Philly looked over at Lyrika and then Olivia, before she stood and started walking over to her. "Yeah, Lyrika was just telling me about your muscles. May I see them?" She said as she started to move and grab hold of her shirt.

"Err, hey, hey." Olivia quickly jumped in with, before grabbing ahold of her arms to stop Philly from stripping her. "You can't just start stripping me without my permission, and so no, you can't see my muscles."

A frown appeared on Philly's face but was very quickly replaced with a smile. "Very well," she said as she took out her book again and started writing,

"Unwilling to expose her body to strangers. Dissimilar to Orcs who are mostly nude. More trust with the subject may be needed to further research." Is what she said quietly as she wrote. It would seem that Lyrika heard this, given that she covered her mouth to stop herself laughing, but Olivia had no clue what she mumbled.

"What did you talk to the village leader about," Lyrika asked as she got herself under control and changed the subject

"Oh, he's just outside. He said he would listen to us about the new chief."

"He will. That's great." Lyrika quickly replied moving to exit the church, leaving Philly who was still jotting in her book.

…

As they left, they found the village chief stood a short distance away from the church, where no other traffic was nearby. This was not the sort of conversation you wanted to be public, so it worked out well this way.

"So, what is it you wanted to tell me about the chief? Other than the fact that he doesn't care about our village."

Not sure whether his anger toward the new chief already would help or hinder their discussion, Lyrika spoke about what she had seen. She told him about what she had found when going through the new chief's camp, the many abused women that she found. She also spoke of how she got out of becoming his wife for the time being, and that people were currently looking into things from her village.

The leader rubbed his head after hearing all of that and thought to himself for several seconds, sighing as he did. Before he spoke, a frown now plastered on his face.

"So, you mean to say that the women the village leaders gave up to secure an alliance have been abused by this man? You mean that while I thought my daughter, was going to help bring our tribes together, she has been… abused and beaten by this man all this time." His voice quivered towards the end.

"…yes."

It was horrible having to say it, but he needed to hear it. It was the only way for him to know something needed to be done, and that his daughter was in danger.

He closed his eyes and walked off, stopping a few meters away where he leaned against the church. Lyrika and Olivia looked at each other but remained where they were, knowing that he needed a few minutes to digest the information.

He returned a while later with tear streaks in his eyes. "I-I don't know what to say. I thought securing an alliance with him would be the best thing for our village and the rest of the beast-kin. My daughter even agreed with me, although I think she may have done so because she found him attractive. To know that she is being hurt by that monster, it just…"

He took a deep breath to calm himself down and continued to speak.

"Part of me wants to ask for proof, hoping that you would say no and joke about this all being some elaborate hoax. If that happened, it would annoy me sure, but I would feel much better than I am now. But, after all you have done for our village, and for you to travel here just to tell me this, why would you lie about something like that? I can't see what you would gain from doing so. So as much as I wish it were not, I am disheartened that I believe you are telling the truth."

"It is. And you are right, we have no proof, only what Lyrika saw. We are hoping to get some form the people in Lyrika's village and from the village chiefs from the other villages we will visit. I'm sure we will need it to prove to the…stubborn ones." Olivia replied.

"Yes. Had you not saved us from bandits, I doubt I would believe your words either."

He quickly sighed and looked up into the sky in thought, before wiping his eye. He stood there for a minute or so and both of the girls were starting to worry. But, he eventually tilted his head back down and spoke.

"I need to save my daughter. All of the girls too. But as you know, that chief is well protected. With all the villages he has visited and alliances secured, he has a veritable army around him. I think your plan may work, but as you convince people he has already visited, he will continue visiting more."

As he said this, both of them realised that was something they hadn't taken into account, as obvious as it was. They could continue playing catch-up, but who knows how long that would take before he figured out what was going on. Maybe there was another way to deal with this that they hadn't spotted yet.

"I will speak to the rest of the village. Or what's left of it, to see if they have any information. Other than that, I don't think there is much else we can do. No men were taken for his army, as he stated they were needed to keep the trade town running. Because of that, there is no one with him we can tell about this, without being ousted. But…, I may be able to help with one of the next villages you visit. To the west is where the chief came from when he visited us. In that direction, there is only one village and the village chief there is Teagan. He is a stubborn old bull, but if I vouch for you, he will believe what you say"

The village head headed off to his mansion with Lyrika and Olivia in tow.

"I shall write a letter of introduction you can give to him and should make him listen to you. It will take a while and so I shall give it to you in the morning. Other than that I don't believe there is much else I can help you with."

"We understand." Olivia looked out through the nearby murky window and saw that there was still a good deal of night left, and many of the villagers had headed in for the night. Something that Lyrika and herself needed to do.

"Saying that there isn't a place we can stay for the night is there?"

"Of course. I have a couple of spare rooms available here that you can take."

"Just one is fine." Lyrika quickly piped up, yet still managed to say it in a very casual tone.

The chief and Olivia looked at Lyrika with a bit of confusion, but he must have realised that with them travelling together, they must be comfortable sleeping near each other, and Olivia just let it be. She figured with all that happened, she would prefer to be in the same room as her. Safety in numbers and all.

"One it is then. You can have one of the guest rooms upstairs," he said before heading towards the stairs.

"Thank you…" Olivia ended up trailing off, having realised that she didn't know the village chief's name.

"Ah, I apologise. With everything that has been going on I don't think I ever told you my name. I am Wilfred Yoban." he said with a slight bow.

Finally knowing the village chief's name they continued on their way to Olivia and Lyrika's room for the night, where he took them up a few flights of stairs. Down the hall, they passed a few rooms, all of which looked to be guest accommodations of some sort and each had the same layout and only had a few furnishings. But, given everywhere else they had been, this was the fanciest and most sophisticated place they had been, and probably will be for some time.

The room Wilfred took them to was not massive, but it had a wardrobe, dressing table of sorts, a screen divider and a bed, which was close in size to that of a double bed. It was big enough for them both to lie on.

Which right now was all they could think of doing given the day they had.