Chp.8: The great offer

It took Sarpa a few seconds to understand what Haku had just said. "A king?" he whispered confused like just few times in his life.

Haku nodded, not losing his smile. "Yes, Sarpa, a king. The ogre king. Have you ever thought of becoming so?"

Sarpa couldn't help but burst out laughing. Under normal circumstances he would never have dared to do so in the presence of that dragon, but this time the situation was too absurd. He had expected a grand plan or a terrible punishment and instead Haku had come up with an absolutely ridiculous idea. "I could never be a king. It would be stupid of me to want to. I'm just a hunter"

But Haku didn't lose his smile. "Sarpa, Sarpa, my dear. I didn't ask if you think it's possible. I asked if you wish it" he said. "Let's assume for a moment that becoming a king, even for a mere hunter like you, is possible. Would you want to?"

Sarpa immediately stopped laughing, and again the sweat trickled down his forehead. The dragon was speaking too confidently in his voice to be just joking. Sarpa wondered what Haku had in mind. He worried about the consequences… but also because, despite all his beliefs, the prospect of becoming a king flattered him. "I don't deny that I would like to" he admitted. "Everyone wants power after all. But that's impossible. We ogres aren't a united people. And even if we were, no one would accept a weakling like me as king. I can't be a chieftain, let alone a king"

"What if I could change all that?" Haku asked as his smile widened. "What if I could make you stronger? What if I could permit you to afford to climb the ladder, step by step?"

Sarpa's fists clenched. His heart began to beat slightly faster as part of him began to wonder if the dragon really had the power to deliver what he promised. However, his rationality took over. "Even if that were possible, why would you do it? What would you gain from it?"

Haku scratched his chin nonchalantly. "Sarpa, you offend me. I don't have to have ulterior motives. You can consider it as my thanks" he replied. "Our relationship didn't start in the best way and currently there is still a lot to improve, but I admit that I have grown fond of you. Therefore, I hoped that I could reciprocate your help by helping you improve the security of your people. After all, even if I made them fight the fairies, it is not my wish that the ogres be destroyed"

Those words made Sarpa frown. "Destroyed?" he murmured. "What are you talking about? Fairies don't..."

"Oh, but I'm not talking about the fairies. No, no... the real enemy is another one" Haku stopped him. "A few months ago some humans came to visit you, right?"

Sarpa fell silent. Actually, what Haku said was true. Though he hadn't met them in person, Sarpa had seen that a group of human adventurers had visited his tribe, and according to rumors they had visited other tribes as well. Apparently they were a group of wanderers in search of adventure and eager to discover the customs and traditions of each people they came across. They stayed for a few weeks and then left, and he never heard from them again. How did that dragon know that? And why had he brought it up now? "Yes, that's true, but what does it have to do with it?"

Haku snapped his claws. "Very simple, because one of them was a spy. A spy in charge of discovering your every characteristic to use it against you. Theirs wasn't a pleasure visit, but a secret mission with the aim of identifying your every weak point". The dragon licked his muzzle as if in anticipation of what he was about to say. "In case you haven't figured it out yet, humans are preparing to invade this forest"

Sarpa's heart leapt at the dragon's words. "What? Impossible! They could never…", he stopped, realizing he had just yelled at his captor.

However, Haku didn't get mad. Instead, he took the dimensional bag that he hung around his neck and he pulled out what looked like a book, but very small and covered in a leather cover. "This is the diary of one of those 'adventurers'. The proof of what I told you is in it" he said tossing it at Sarpa.

The ogre glanced at the diary, and his breathing came in short bursts. Even though it was unreasonable, he was afraid to open it. If he did and there really was proof in it that what the dragon said was true… he didn't dare think about it. It would have meant that his people were indeed on the verge of disaster, because in addition to dragons and fairies they would have had to worry about an invasion by humans.

Humans were notoriously known to be a very strong and numerous race. Even if they were weaker than ogres or less skilled in magic than fairies, their large numbers and ingenuity couldn't be underestimated. The ogres knew this and therefore, despite their temperament, they maintained a peaceful relationship with humans and did not dare to venture into their territory as they did with the fairies. A war with humans would have been disastrous for them. But the humans had never seemed interested in the Karbraland Great Forest… or at least that was what the ogres thought. Until today.

Sarpa was sweating profusely. If he opened the diary and found that what the dragon said was true, what was he supposed to do? Should he have gone back and warned the chieftains and persuaded them to ask the fairies for an armistice? Or should he have gone directly to the fairies and warned them, so they would have helped calm the hot-blooded chieftains? He didn't know. He wasn't used to being at the mercy of such events that could seal the fate of his entire people.

But he couldn't stare at the diary cover forever, and he knew the dragon was waiting for him to read it. So, very reluctantly, he opened it. It was written in the human language, but this wasn't a great problem for Sarpa: the ogres in fact, not having their own script, had assimilated the one of the first human traders who arrived in the Karbraland Great Forest generations before and therefore they used theirs. And even though Sarpa was only a hunter, each male ogre learned from his father how to read, write and do simple operations, since this was considered essential in order not to be cheated by skilled merchants. Therefore, even if with some effort, Sarpa could read the diary.

And he didn't like what he read at all. Entire pages dedicated to describing the structure of the various ogre cities and villages, explaining the materials with which it was built, the structure of the buildings, the position of the most important areas, and above all an accurate description of their weak points. A tally of the strength of the various tribes, the number of soldiers in each, the social system of the ogres, their battle techniques. The identification of various parts of the forest suitable for a fight, and others dangerous in case of war with the ogres. That diary contained basically everything needed for humans to carry out an invasion with minimal casualties and annihilate every obstacle along the way. And it wasn't just ogres that were described, but fairies as well. This proved that humans really intended to occupy the Karbraland Great Forest.

Sarpa's hands shook and he almost tore the pages of the diary involuntarily. He refrained from doing so because, despite his anger and concern, something in him told him that the dragon wouldn't have appreciated such a gesture. "Where... Where is...?"

"The owner of that diary? Currently, I've already completely digested some pieces of him, and my siblings have digested the others. For a few months, actually" Haku replied anticipating what the ogre wanted to ask him. "Why do you think I knew so much about your people and fairies even before I met you? I found that human and killed him, and then I read his diary thoroughly"

Sarpa grunted. "I... have to warn..."

"Who? Your chieftains? And what are you going to tell them? That diary belongs to me, don't forget it. I won't let you take it away. And even if I let you, do you think they'd believe you if you showed up with just it, without even the owner's corpse? They'd just think you wrote it for some crazy reason" Haku said. "But let's just imagine they believe you. What do you think they'll do? That the tribes will unite to face the common enemy?"

"We did it with the fairies..." Sarpa whispered.

But Haku laughed. "The fairies are a tangible, concrete enemy that everyone of you know well. Humans, on the contrary, are something almost mythological for you. You ogres don't know them, you just know that they are very strong and much better than you at making wars. Even if you never have faced them, at least not in the last ten generations, you fear them so much that you have let some of their adventurers wander the forest without ever trying to pick a fight with them. How do you think your people will react when they know that these fearsome beings are about to invade them? Worse yet, that they know their weaknesses? Sticking together would be the best choice, but will the chieftains really react like this? Or is it more likely that each one of them seal themselves in their own fortress, using the weaker tribes as a buffer and leaving them at the mercy of the enemy?"

Sarpa opened his mouth, desperate to retort, but the words caught in his throat. He didn't know what to say. His mind desperately tried to imagine a future where the ogres would stick together to face their opponent, but sadly he couldn't. As much as he hated to even think of it, he couldn't help but admit that the dragon had been telling the truth.

Haku almost laughed at the ogre's desperate expression, but he held himself back. "Don't worry" he told him. "I know for sure that humans are currently busy with other matters. They won't attack your kind for a long, long time. Maybe years, maybe even decades. But they will for sure, otherwise why send spies here? It's only a matter of time... but many things can happen during this time"

Sarpa looked up and met the dragon's cold eyes. He knew trusting him was foolish, but at the moment he had no other way to avoid that terrible future fate. "What do you mean?"

Haku smiled wickedly. He knew he had won: even if Sarpa hadn't yet said it aloud, in his heart he was already ready to accept any proposal the dragon would have made him. "Let's suppose that, during the long years that separate us from the future invasion of humans, something changes. Let's suppose that an ogre appears, an ogre so strong that he can defeat all the other chieftains. An ogre with extraordinary charisma and an excellent reputation among his people. Let's suppose that this ogre decides to centralize his power, eliminating the various tribes and instead forging a united kingdom, and let's suppose that this new ogre king knows the expansionist aims of the humans and that he decides to prepare, eliminating every possible weak point of his fortifications, building new outposts, making the routes more difficult, increasing the size of his army. In that case, when humans will arrive one day, they won't find a group of divided tribes, unprepared and weakened by continuous internal clashes, but a united front ready to face them". Haku's smile widened so much that the monstrous teeth under his lips showed. "I was wondering... if that ogre king could be you"

Sarpa let out a snort as his heart trembled with tension. This time he didn't even wonder how what the dragon was proposing was possible: he was only interested in knowing what he was planning. "What's the price?" he asked. "Don't try to prank me with the excuse of thanks. I know that you never do anything without a purpose"

Haku gave a fake sigh, as if he was disappointed. "You know me too well. You're right, there is a price" he replied. "I will let you save all your people. But in exchange, I want one of your cities!"