Forget walking, forget trotting, forget cantering, I was galloping at full speed with fear in my heart for what the Players could be doing to the trio if they were there. Scenario after scenario ran in my head for the short journey to the cave from the forest near my house and no matter what happened I came to the conclusion of the trio not making it out of there alive. This was all just speculating that the Players were already there. If they weren’t there then I’d have time to prepare for their arrival.
When I got to the cave I saw them there, safe for now. Creeper was the first to notice me.
“Ah Craft, we’re glad to see you here. We wanted to know-“
“No time! I think they’re coming!” I exclaimed, trying to not freak out about the possibility of an attack during the day. At least during the night we would have the possibility of the monsters being able to help us, but since it was day there was no real chance of that. The only ones that could roam around during the day were the other creepers but they wouldn’t be too effective as an army since they can only fight by exploding, killing themselves and maybe other allies nearby.
“What?” Any sign of happiness and peaceful joy was now gone from Creeper’s voice, “Do you mean the Players? I thought we were going to try negotiating peace with them.”
“I want to do that, but they know where this cave is,” I let that sink in for a second before continuing, “I think they’ve known since before I even got here.”
“What makes you think that Craft?” Skeleton asked.
I took a deep breath and began my explanation, “Remember when they came and tried to take my house? I originally thought they wanted it just for mining. But now I think they already knew the cave was here because when Com and I escaped the village there was a swampy area that had nothing around it, almost as if it was recently abandoned.”
“I don’t understand Craft, how does this mean they knew?” Creeper asked, the other two presumably just as confused.
“And why would they abandon it if they were using it for something? I assume it was nearby with a good enough view of this area if they were using it to find the cave,” Skeleton added.
“That’s the thing, they’ve known since before I got here. That’s more than a month of just waiting, but the question here is ‘why?’ If they knew the cave was here and had the power, will, and ability to fight, and maybe even win, then why would they wait? Also why would they take down a station they built for keeping tabs on your area when they haven’t actually done anything with you yet? I thought about it and I think it’s because they only knew the general area until I came here. Interacting with you guys has given them a better idea of where the cave is since I come and go constantly and have a house nearby, not to mention I stand out rather well in this world. My guess is that since I’m practically a beacon to where you live that they no longer needed it and they took it down, but that probably didn’t happen until they caught me.
“Aslo, when they came and tried to take my house, we killed his men and not all of them returned to the place they were supposed to. Their leader told me none of them made it back but Com said only one of them didn’t make it back.”
The trio stood around in thoughtful silence before Creeper spoke up, “This is strange; how can you be sure that the last didn’t actually respawn too?”
I took a look at my house and returned my gaze to the trio, “I trust Com, that’s how. Anyway, we’re off topic. If it was just the swamp I would’ve been more likely to pass it off as weird, this whole world is weird to me anyway, but just a few minutes ago I saw a Player running away off in the forest near my house and I think he was taking a final check to confirm where the cave was.”
“Craft, how do you know this means they know? I mean, couldn’t it just be a big coincidence?” Skeleton asked.
“No, I don’t think it was a coincidence. One thing I learned from my time serving Chrysalis was that coincidences are just conveniently planned events to get your attention. This is one of those times I thank her for those harsh lessons.”
I took a moment to remember some of the harsher training missions we had to go through, one of the worst was the time she led my squad to a watering hole and took a drink from the lake only to have us do the same. It turned out that she put laxatives in the water and had expected us to figure out who was responsible. Nopony was able to pass that test at first because accusing the queen of harming the hive in any way was normally so close to treason you could practically taste the magic beating you in the face from her personal guard just thinking about doing it. It took a week before somepony got the guts to finally say something about it and he immediately got promoted on the spot for willingly accusing her when she had threatened us before the mission with guard duty out in the middle of the badlands should we question her leadership. She said he was the first to see through her deceit, and call her out on it, in over 300 years.
I shuddered and shook the memory away, “Also the leader knew something he shouldn’t have. He knew my name.”
“I don’t understand Craft, how is this reason for suspicion?” Creeper asked.
“Because there’s no reason he should’ve known. When his scouts came here, I never said my name. When Skeleton came to my house and talked to me, he never said my name. Even so, he knew my name. That means he must’ve learned it from the only way that makes sense. He’s been spying on you guys since before I got here and his scouts heard my name.”
Suddenly it seemed like they understood the gravity of the situation.
“Oh my, it seems we underestimated them,” Creeper whispered. I had the feeling that if he had arms or forelegs he would’ve put his head between them while they held his head up.
“Craft! Craft, help!” I heard Com shouting from the direction of my house.
I ran out of the cave to see what could be wrong but what I saw was worse than I thought. There were ten Players, each clad in iron armor and each wielding diamond swords. They had surrounded Com against the walls of my house and one of them was barking orders to the others. This one, along with 3 others, walked into the open field that was my front yard and began shouting.
“Craft the changeling, we know you can hear us. We have your friend, the traitor to mankind, Com in our custody. Come to us immediately with your monster friends or we’ll be forced to slay him and destroy your house, then we’ll come for you and those beasts you keep for company.”
The sight of all this sent me through a few phases, each lasting a few seconds each. First was shock, next was fear, and finally I was enraged. This last one stuck around and I spoke quietly to the trio in an authoritative tone, “Guys, stay here. I’ll handle this.”
“But Craft, his instructions were-“
“No,” I cut Creeper off with a single glance. I must’ve surprised him with the sheer rage planted across my face because he took a step backwards and nodded.
With all my rage kept in check by my wish to keep Com from dying, especially since it meant that he’d be even more at the mercy of the Players than he currently was, I slowly walked toward the group of soldiers with a deceivingly calm mask. I knew the fate of a traitor, killed if mercy was factored in, tortured if it wasn’t. Mercy was something that Chrysalis didn’t have for traitors; I didn’t want to test the Players on this.
When the soldiers noticed me they stood in a wide line, separating me from the others that held Com down.
“What do you want, Players?” I spat the last word out as though they were the traitors.
“Mind your manners, monster. We hold your friend, the traitor, in our grasp and were instructed to kill him if you didn’t come with us,” he paused for a moment, “and where are the other monsters?”
“They can’t come out, it’s daytime. Didn’t they tell you this before you put your helmet on?” I responded.
“Oh, we know, but we don’t care. Bring them out or we kill him.” One of the soldiers holding Com in place edged his sword closer to Com, who twitched away from the blade.
“If I bring them out they’ll die. Don’t you know the first thing about them?” I decided to play the smart alec card to see if I could get anything useful from them.
“Of course we do!” the soldier barked at me, “We’ve been watching them for months, we know more about them than you could possibly know.”
“Sir, you weren’t supposed to mention anything about that,” one of the other soldiers in the line whispered loudly, defeating the purpose of whispering.
“Shut up, private! I will say whatever I please, his highness won’t hear anything about this if any of you want to make it back with your equipment and job intact,” the soldier in charge yelled at the group.
“If you know so much about them, then why didn’t you know they could talk?” I said, wanting to get his attention.
“We do know that, creature. This isn’t news to us.”
“Is it because the scouts you sent to spy on my friends told you when they respawned after I took them down? Well, everyone except the one soldier I killed. I know he didn’t respawn like the others.” It hurt to say this with Com so close; I knew he must hold some sort of grudge against me for it even if he didn’t say anything about it. The soldier in front of me moved slightly, enough for me to know that he didn’t expect me to know that much.
“Let’s get down to the point of this little intimidation session, shall we?” I said in a firm tone. If this kept up any longer I wasn’t sure I could keep myself from doing something stupid. “Why are you here?”
The soldier in charge stood quiet for a moment before clearing his throat, “Craft the changeling, you and your...associates are hereby invited to the nearby village to talk.”
I stood there waiting for more...but nothing else came from him.
“Wait, that was the whole message?” I asked suddenly confused.
“That and that if not all of you show we will come for you, we will find you, and we will kill you. You’re actions in Last Hope has thrown our people’s idea of what you monsters actually are into question and our leader wants to talk to you, and refusal will only bring him to deciding you are worthless monsters worthy only of a swift blade to the throat.” That last part he said with a tone suggesting that was his favorite part of the message.
“If he wants to talk to me, that’s fine, but I won’t bring them if you can’t guarantee it’ll be just us and him.”
“That’s preposterous! You just want to kill him you filthy monster, don’t you?” he yelled at me, staying right where he was thanks to his fellow soldiers keeping him from attacking me while they reminded him that I was needed alive.
“I...we are not like the monsters that took your world away from you,” I said loud enough for them all to hear. They were all paying attention to me now, even the soldiers who were supposed to be keeping Com from moving, “I’ve lived with them long enough to know that.”
“And what would you know about our world?” one of the other soldiers asked me, earning a quick glare from the soldier in charge.
“I know they destroyed you from where you felt safe. If you would-“
I was interrupted by the soldier in charge shouting at me, “How do you know this?”
“Because Com told me what happened!” I shouted back. “He willingly told me what happened and I can tell you that the inhabitants of this world are nothing like that! They want peace as much as you do and you can’t see that because you are blinded by your hatred of anything that looks different. If you would just take a bucking moment to watch and learn without prejudice and bigotry you might actually find that they are very kind! They’ve only attacked because they were attacked. If you would’ve taken the time to find out why the first meeting of Player and monster went bad in the first place maybe you all wouldn’t need to be cowering in fear all the freaking time!
“Tell your leader that I will come alone to talk with him, I’ll represent all of us.”
“Craft, I will come too,” Com said with determination in his voice, “I want to be there. I needto be there.”
I almost said ‘no’ but something in his voice kept me from doing so, so I just nodded.
“And what makes you think he’ll agree to that, creature?” the soldier scoffed, “If we wanted to we could slay you here and now and all we’d have to say is that negotiations failed and we had to kill you.”
“I know you will because you know I can kill you. Permanently.” I wasn’t sure I could actually go through with that, but since I did it before I was sure they wouldn’t call me on it. “Now go back and tell him these are my terms for negotiating with him.”
Luckily my threat seemed to work and they began to collect and left in formation: the leader in front, followed by four more soldiers side to side, and finally the remaining five behind them also side to side. Before they got too far I heard one of them yell that they would return with an answer for me by nightfall.
Com came over to me and just stood there while we watched them disappear beyond where we could see. The limited vision thing this world had was still one of the top 3 strange things I had encountered thus far.
A few minutes after they disappeared, Com spoke up, “Why did you tell them about my brother and his friends?”
“I had to know what they were told,” I said simply.
“And what did they know?”
“More than the rest of the villagers. It sounds like your leader hasn’t told them about their survival yet. I think he’s trying to get them riled up so they’ll still want to attack.” There was a short pause, “Com, that Player called your leader ‘his highness’, who is he?”
“He was our prince. He was Prince Kaile. Now he’s our village’s leader.”
I sighed, “Royalty, it’s always royalty.” I got up and went into my house, down to the basement, with Com following me.
“What’s next Craft?” he asked me.
“Tell the trio about what happened.”
“What about you? What’re you going to do?”
I looked around and thought about it. I didn’t want to have to, but I knew that it would probably come down to it. First there would be negotiations. If they failed there would be an ultimatum. If that failed, there would be fighting, a war. And if they wanted a fight, then at least I wouldn’t leave us defenseless.
I looked at him and grinned, “Me? I’m going to make us an armory.”