Chapter 47: The Calm Before
*Cadence Lee (as Hewka) POV*
The first stage of the plan went off without too many surprises. The area that had been chosen for the ambush had a lot of ground cover so that the [Archers] would be able to hide from the Bronzebirds and spring the trap, but that had also meant that clearing the area was going to be annoying - or so I thought. Sure, Rei and I weren’t able to provide much support from above during this step, but there is something to be said for overkill. With so many adventurers in the area it was more tedious busywork than a dangerous struggle, especially because there was a high number of [Ranger]-like classes. Lots of [Hunters] and [Scouts]; the [Archer] class was fairly rare outside of militaries apparently, although we had a few of those as well.
The point was that it sucked to be a toad around here, not that they wasted arrows on the smaller ones. Young Boreal Toads only took a good kick to kill…
“Something wrong, Hewka?” Rei put her hand on my wing as we watched the work proceed from our vantage point on top of the small hill within the clearing - clearing in the sense that the tree cover broke here, there was a lot of brush covering everything - that had been picked for the ambush.
I had been slowly gaining a greater appreciation for our bond, some emotions and feelings were so complicated to express in words and being able to share my feelings directly along with my words put normal conversation to shame. There was a part of me that felt like I should make a note of this for the future, but for now it helped me share my feelings about the Monsters below.
“It really is difficult to imagine you as a small toad,” Rei reminded me of the drawback of such communication, I could feel her amusement. “I hope this doesn’t bother you too much though, you will just have to bear with it for now.”
Well, no, it wasn’t exactly disturbing or even too bothersome - they were just toads, after all. I had killed a fair portion of my own siblings myself, but it was an oddly uncomfortable feeling to see something I had been kicked into a tree. Admittedly, I would never have been foolish enough to launch an attack on an adventurer’s boot, but on the other claw if a monster is struggling to just fight your boot I feel like killing it might be a bit of an overreaction.
“Little Monsters become big ones if you leave them alone,” Rei gave me a pat when she said that, as if to say that I was the case and point. Fair enough, I suppose. That single point of experience per day doesn’t feel like much, but overall I suppose it is a really important issue for everyone in this world.
“I guess that there is a part of me that realizes that any of them could be like me,” I spoke slowly, working out my thoughts as I talked. “A Monster might not ever be a Sapient, but they can become sapient. Really, the wording here is kind of frustrating.”