The Truth - Part 1

It was around midday when the group decided to head off.

Felixia was carefully positioned across Olivia's lap on the Umbrea, and they made sure to add some more padding from various sources to give Felixia some more comfort.

Then, when all was said and done, they headed off to the village, thankfully having an uneventful trip from then on.

…

It was as they passed through a small group of trees that they saw the village. There was only one village in this direction, it practically being in the corner of the group of beast-kin villages.

From a distance, it looked unassuming. There was a reasonable number of buildings present, but not enough to call it a town. A few fields were on the outskirts, all of which looked to be manned by people, so the place wasn't abandoned.

It just looked normal.

Not that they knew what to expect. But given this was possibly where the new chief came from, they expected something to be different. But it was just a normal village.

  …

Before they could head down towards the village they just had one problem to deal with. A problem that went by the name Olivia.

Obviously, not wanting to get the same reception that they did in Teagan's village, she would have to hang back and let the girls head in first. It wasn't something Olivia liked, as it felt like she was sending people she cared about into an unknown place with no protection.

But, thinking back to the assault on Ameril's carriage, she realised she was dead wrong about them being defenceless. Well, for Ameril that was the case, but Lyrika's skill with her bow and Philly's potions, they were hardly vulnerable should they wander into this village and something happened.

So, hanging back out of sight of the farms with Felixia in her lap, Olivia watched the girls head towards the entrance of the village to see if anything was out of place with it, and possibly...broach the subject of her entering. Hopefully, before anyone spotted her like last time.

…

Time felt like it was moving slowly for Olivia as she remained in the treeline. She had hoped the girls would be quick in locating the chief of the village, to allow her inside. If it turns out the new chief they are after was actually the original chief from this village, then they had to hope someone took over his role in some capacity, giving them someone with authority to talk to.

So, instead of being bored out of her mind, she went ahead with her usual exercising, ensuring that her toned body remained as such. When that was done, she checked on Felixia who was still asleep, recovering from its fearsome battle.

Then, the last thing on the docket she could do was practice her fighting skills.

Morning star out, she went to work following all that she had learnt in Teagan's village. She found a rather young tree that had about reached her height and got to work taking swings at it. She tried it from different angles, using what she had been taught to try and keep her speed, strength and accuracy in a good balance.

She still had much to learn as she could tell from her swings that there were problems. She couldn't tell what was causing them, but she could see how some of her swings were faster than others, some were on target and others not. She also found that depending on the angle of the swing, she saw even more problems crop up for some than others. There were many things she needed to figure out, so getting some more advice back in Teagan's village should be one of the first things she would do when she gets back. Other than that, all she can do is continue to practice, adjusting things to figure out what works best.

But before all of that, she heard footsteps coming up behind her, along with the chatter of three lovely ladies.

…

"So, the chief said he was fine with me entering," Olivia asked as they headed towards the village.

"Yeah. Took a little bit of explaining, but when we told him how you took down bandits near Yoban's village, he was all for it." Lyrika replied.

A part of Olivia felt that it was odd that it didn't take much convincing. They didn't have much to compare it to given that Yoban's village was desperate, and Teagan's was helped along with Yoban's word, but this place had nothing to do with those two. Surely they should ask more questions or even be a little more reluctant to let in what most people knew was a monster.

Could there be some other reason that he was fine with letting her stay?

"He was quite young and got a little worried when we said we would have to leave if you couldn't come in. That might have had something to do with it." Philly piped in with.

'Ah, makes sense I guess.'

The allure of three very attractive young girls being in his village won out over the possible threat of the monster that wanted to enter. Saying that surely if three girls were vouching for a Half-Orc half-Goblin, both races being very well known for what they do to women, to come into the village she had to be different from other of her races. If he was competent in any way, that may have been something that swung him as well.

…

Before long, they were at the entrance. It was only when they got nearer to it did Olivia realise there was something about the village that didn't look right.

She couldn't quite place her finger on it. It looked just like any other village, a large number of houses surrounded by walls, with farms on the outskirts past them. But still, there was something a little off about it.

It was only as they got to the entrance that it hit her. People were still gawking as they travelled past them, some running away or back into the village. But she realised that all these people were on ground level. There was no one up on the walls staring at her in shock.

"Where are all the guards?" Olivia silently said to the girls.

It was at this point that all three of them looked up at the walls, confusion on their faces as they too noticed this oddity.

"That's strange. Any town or village needs guards to keep its citizens safe. For how long have they had none I wonder." Ameril said as her eyes roamed over the palisade.

"This place would be an easy target for a group of bandits to attack. I'm surprised they haven't all been killed or taken like Yoban's village almost did."

It was very odd, and something they were sure to ask when they found the chief.

All they had to do was make sure they got there without causing an incident. Or at least without one of the civilians here causing one.

Looking around at all the faces staring back at them, Olivia could see the fear in most of their eyes. A few were shocked, and some more intrigued than anything else. Given how rare Orcs and Goblins were, it made sense that some felt that way.

But again, it was as she looked at them that she noticed something else rather strange. From the looks on the girl's faces, as they surveyed the area as well, she was sure they had seen it as well.

"Where are all the men? And why is everyone quite…old." Ameril asked the rest of them.

That's not to say there were no men at all present. It wasn't like some harem paradise for the chief running this village. But, the majority of the men were quite old, close to being unable to work. The rest were a little older than they were. This, however, just brought more questions. Where had they all gone? And if something had happened to them, why were these few men still around?

It was the same for the women. The majority of them were at the point where they would have to stop working on the farms or whatever other jobs they were doing. The rest, were older than themselves as well, probably past the point of marriage for this world.

It was a village that had no guards, hardly any men around and the population was aging. Not to say it couldn't be defended by both the few men and the women here, but, against bandits like the ones that attacked Yoban's village, they would be slaughtered.

They needed to get to the bottom of this. It was more than likely that if the new chief did come from this village, then it may be linked to why the village was like this. If not, then they were all still very curious about how this village was managed like this.

But enough speculation. That would get them nowhere. What they needed was answers from someone. And the first port of call was the Chief that they were heading towards. Hopefully, he could shed some light on what was going on here, as well as whether the new chief was involved. If he was, then finding information on him would then be their top priority.

They could only hope that they would be forthcoming with this information. Hopefully, he had wronged them in some way and would be fine to freely speak up. But, if they were not…then they might need to get a little creative with finding the information.