Private Tales The March of Progress

[Ahsoka]

The Tsa'lagi elf didn't even dignify the stupid man's comment with a look. Instead she took a better look around the tent. It was a large square moth-eaten thing that had a slight mouldy scent which made her nose wrinkle like a rabbits. The other human she spared little to no attention or at least, that was what it looked like. Out the corner of her eye she silently made note of both her 'guards' weapons and any other notable strengths.

If she could just get her dagger back...

With a snort the elf seemed to decide none of it was worth her attention and she turned her back to the two men and lay back down just as the tent flaps opened again.

 

[Vass]

Vass turned his head towards the figure that stepped inside, not bothering to stand or salute.

The man who entered looked down at him, then glanced towards the other figure before slowly turning his gaze towards the Elf with her back turned.

"Not much of a talker I take it?"​

"Nope, can't even speak common." Vass said with a shrug, regarding Hopp with an expression that told he didn't quite believe that himself. Hopp only shook his head, muttering something under his breath about ignorance.

Vass didn't particularly care if the comment was direct at him or the Elf.

Hopp was one of the oldest members of the Red Hundred, and had supposedly been with the Band since their very founding. Such was an easy task for him, given the fact that the man was an Elf himself.

He stepped up behind Ahsoka, though remained a fair distance away.

Vass continued to let his blade bounce between his fingers as Hopp began to greet Ahsoka in more than a dozen different languages. Rattling off a different tongue, waiting for her to respond to one, and then continuing on.

 

[Ahsoka]

Tirrenian, Kaerlian, Panamachian...

Ahsoka was quietly impressed that the man could speak so many different tongues even if some of them were spoken in a way that made her internally cringe. She didn't offer any sign of understanding them though. Instead she just hunched her shoulders and curled her knees up to her chest in an effort to look meek and scared whilst she mentally mapped out the tent. There would be a small window of opportunity with her legs free to make a break for the entrance. From there she just had to throw herself onto a knife, or pike, or whatever torturous devices these humans had bought with them that felled the trees so swiftly and her brothers too. What had they called it? A cross...bow?

The moment presented itself as the man seemed to reach the end of his language limits and the frustration set in to his voice. The sound of his boots signalled he was turning to face one of his companions to talk and in one swift, elegant jump Ahsoka was on her feet and running at a flat out sprint through the tent flaps.

 

[Vass]

Ahsoka dashed forward, rushing through the tent at breakneck speed. Yet none of the three figures within the tent made even a single motion to stop her.

It was her own fault really. She had turned away. Hadn't studied properly what happened when someone entered or left the tent. Plus, she had thought them all morons and fools. If she'd actually watched, maybe taken a look, she would have seen the rope that Vass had tied low at the entrance of the tent.

The rope that as she ran caught her foot.

The one that sent her sprawling onto the ground directly outside of the Tent.

"Youth."​

Hopp commented, his scarred face hovering over Ahsoka as he stepped outside the Tent after her. Behind him was Vass, sword now drawn in his hand. A dozen others were half watching the scene unfold, though most of them held all the disinterest in the world.

From the ground she would be able to see them, the lot. Only about one in four were Human, the others varying in species so far that some would be an utter mystery to her. Orcs, Ogres, Azaki, even a Drider seemed hidden within one of the tents, her strange spider-like leg half sticking out as she slept.

"Always in such a rush. We just want to talk."​

Hopp offered.

 

[Ahsoka]

Ahsoka spat out the dirt that had ended up in her mouth with a silent snarl. She had to begrudgingly accept the insult of youth when she had made such an obvious mistake and she cursed herself seven ways to sundown. Her eyes flashed around those gathered. Monsters. All of them monsters. She cared not what race they were their creed marked them so. It just meant that the Tsi'lagi were going to have to use other tactics and not grow lazy thinking they were dealing with humans. She had to tell them. If she could sleep then she could tell the other Dreamwalkers...

As Hopp stood over her offering nothing but to talk, Ahsoka rolled onto her back and promptly brought her foot up between his legs in a powerful kick. Clearly she had no intentions of doing any such thing. She scrambled backwards, hurriedly trying to get her feet back under her for her second flight.

 

[Vass]

The raucous sound of laughter erupted from a dozen figures that were standing around the clearing as Hopp fell to the side.

Most of them were practically barrelled over as they watched a man, near half a millenia in age, tumbled to the ground from having his sack kicked in. Elves might have been hardier than most, but even they could only take so much.

Vass, to his own credit, wasn't laughing.

There was a smirk on his face, sure, but he wasn't stupid. The Elf was going to keep fighting, was going to keep doing her best to escape or get herself killed.

So the young man did the only thing that seemed natural. As Ahsoka was scrambling backwards, as she rushed to get to her feet, Vass simply jumped forward and tackled her. His bear like arms wrapping around her slight form in an attempt to pin her in place.

 

[Ahsoka]

A very unwarrior like squeal escaped her as she went crashing down to the floor beneath him. This time it wasn't just the force of hitting the ground that hurt - she was beginning to get used to that - it was the weight of the man on top of her adding to that. Especially when he landed with her broken hand wedged between them. Pain shot up her arm and made her vision dance for a brief moment. Thankfully she managed to swallow before throwing up but the pain made her forget her tongue.

"Get off me!" she snarled not in the Common Tongue, but the native dialect most humans used around these forests. Despite perfect pronunciations there was an accent to her words that marked her as different as if her appearance and dress was not enough. "Or kill me. Those are your options. I will not answer the questions of torturers and Treekillers," she vowed vehmenantley. She had seen Tsula's injuries. Had seen the broken woman who had done nothing to anyone but tend her flock. They were all monsters and they deserved the death coming to them.

 

[Vass]

Vass didn't understand the woman, obviously. It came through close enough to something he might be able to parse together if he really tried, but not while wrestling the woman.

His arms wrapped around her tightly, he twisted, and then locked her into place so that a hell wouldn't be able to find it's errant way. Then when she was finally finished bickering about whatever it was she said Vass held her still.

"Lass, do you see anyone torturing anyone?"​

The words came from someone helping Hopp off the ground, a man with a large burly beard. They were spoken in the same dialect that Ahsoka used, though with a far rougher edge to it. Clearly not a native speaker.

"Yeah! And Elthwin is part tree!"

"I'm a druid you fucking dolt."​

The words came in quick succession, jests, spoken in the common tongue. "What did she say?"

Vass asked now from beneath Ahsoka, still holding her in place. Hopp was shaking himself off, head tilted as he took in a breath.

"No one is going to hurt you, Child. We just want to know what's going on."​

 

[Ahsoka]

Ahsoka panted hard as she was manhandled into a tight lock. Her wrists were already bound together but now Vass had turned himself into another kind of bind pinning her waist and hips in place. Even if her lower legs were free she had none of the room she would have needed to get herself free. In the end she slumped against him in defeat - there was no point wasting her energy after all. She might need it and soon.

From her position her eyes darted between the voices that spoke once more betraying she understood exactly what they were saying but her face grew darker with every word. Clearly she believed none of it.

"You hurt Tsula," was all she said in reply and this time she did speak in the Common Tongue. If the forest had ever had a voice it would have had the accent Ahsoka spoke with. It was the gentle spring sunshine bathing sprouting buds, the soft crunch of autumnal leaves underfoot, the warm breeze of the summer as it whispered through the trees. It was a melody and beautifully haunting but her words made it sound as if it were in pain. Indeed Ahsoka looked as though she were in pain even saying it so deeply was she affected by what she had seen of her Kin.

 

[Vass]

"I understood that." Vass said, pointing out the obvious.

"Congratulations in joining the rest of us."​

Someone from the sidelines said, head shaking at the boys ignorance before she turned her attention back towards the grindstone in front of her. Vass offered a scowl in response, but made sure to keep careful watch over Ahsoka.

The elf had already shown more than once that she was willing to fight, and even surrounded he half expected her to freak out in some manner. Not that he could really blame her.

"We didn't do anything."​

It was Hopp that responded. The Red Hundred generally did not torture, in fact they never had. It wasn't within their keeping. They were mercenaries, not questioners. Not to say their morals were as tight as a nuns, but torture was a leg too far.

An enemy deserved respect, and death was a form of that.

"We've been constrained to...here. We don't even know what's going on, or who you are for that matter."​

Hopp gestured to the camp.

 

[Ahsoka]

Ahsoka ignored Vass as much as everyone else seemed to be. If she could move anymore she might have craned her neck to give him a disgusted look but she was pinned so tight it was an effort to breath through her bruised lungs let alone anything more. Her eyes stayed instead on the man before her. Their chief, she presumed.

When he proclaimed they had not done anything she snorted and begun to laugh when he claimed further they had no idea what was happening. What a foolish trick! It would not ensnare her that was for sure. So they had not got anything out of Tsula and the stick so now they decided to try with the honey? Once she had finished laughing she gave the Chief a dark look.

"You. Them. What is the difference? You come to our lands and take it with your... your..." she didn't know the word for city which was what was being built nor army which was what they were. She scowled at her own lack of knowledge. "You kill my people."

 

[Vass]

"We haven't killed anyone."​

Unfortunately, well, maybe. Vass had signed up to be a better swordsman, to learn from the best. To become something that would be challenged near every day. He had experienced quite a bit of that since joining the Red Hundred, especially during their time in the Underdark.

This though?

This situation seemed far more frought with...politics.

"Right now we have no idea what is going on. We're part of their army, but only because they hired us and stuck us onto the side."​

Hopp leaned over Ahsoka.

"We are here because they told us things, things that were half truths. Right now we simply want to understand what is happening."​

 

[Ahsoka]

Ahsoka snorted once more when they claimed not to have killed any of her people. There were no other captives with her which meant that either everyone had gotten home safely aside from her or some now lay in shallow graves. Considering how many she had seen around the wall she doubted it was the former. As Hobb stood over her forcing her to tilt her chin up if she wanted to look him in the eyes she instead looked away. Anger burned deep in her heart and looking at him, at any of them, made her feel sick.

"So you can better understand how to hurt my people?" She asked quietly then shook her head and shut her eyes. Ahsoka wouldn't say another word. And that was clear from her whole body language: the chief had reached the end of anything he would get from her.

 

[Vass]

"Kress." It was Vass that spoke now, shaking his head. "You'd think we were ripping out your fingernails."

Not that he could really blame her.

There were few instances Vass could think of where he would willingly speak to his own captors. In the Underdark he had been filled with bravado and snark, but that had faded away quickly as he'd watched his friends die one by one.

"Quiet, Vass."​

Hopp said with a shake of his head. Though not to silence him. Instead he seemed to listen to something, head half tilting, lips thinning.

"Take her inside the tent. Lord Eklier is coming."​

Vass took in a breath. "Don't bite me."

He told Ahsoka as his grip somewhat relaxed on her form, his body kicking up as he lifted the Elf from the ground and pulled both of them up. She had more freedom to move now, she could likely even break free, but he moved to take her into the Tent.

 

[Ahsoka]

Ahsoka would have rather have had her fingernails ripped out. The fear that the longer she stayed here the more chance there was she could give them any kind of information that would hurt her people and leave them homeless was more terrifying than any physical threat against her person. She would die here. Die with her secrets. The realisation was sombreing but not one she shirked from.

It was the reason why Vass found no resistance as he hurled her to her feet. She sucked in a deep breath now there was less pressure on her bruised chest and gave a few painful coughs as he shoved her towards the tent.

Who was the Lord they hid her from? She dare not ask though she wanted to. Something told her that he was worse than the men here though and that if she found herself in his hands things might go differently.

Inside the tent once more she dropped back onto the roll mat she had woken on without prompting. Truthfully she was in too much pain to stand or sit. She curled up on her side and squeezed her eyes shut with rasping, laboured breaths. Her face was cut up from the various falls, the warpaint smeared with sweat and blood. Bruises mingled with the paint up into her hairline. Unconsciousness lay just within reach but she had to sleep, had to dream and so she fought the darkness.

 

[Vass]

Vass didn't follow Ahsoka all the way to the bed roll, but he did keep half an eye on her as the sound of the Lord reached the clearing in which he'd just been standing.

"Where were you last night?!"​

The conversation did not start out well.

Hopp was not the leader of the Red Hundred, that title fell to someone else. It seemed though that did not particularly matter to the man who had come into their camp. The argument quickly devolved, ushering conversation of betrayal, of knife-ears, and a lost prisoner.

"WE KNOW IT WAS THEM! WE FOUND A BODY!"​

The shout rang out.

"What Body? Who is they, My Lord? We have no-"

"Don't you play dumb with me! Your men were seen fighting the Elves last night!"

"We fought shadows my Lord, despite being kept on the outskirts, and only because one of our own spotted intruders."​

After that the conversation continued to devolve with every few seconds until eventually the Lord shouted that someone saw them carrying a body back to the Red Hundred camp.

"SHE WAS SEEN! Don't deny it!"

"One of our own, injured, now I'll thank you to-"

"I'll have your head for this! The King will hear of it and your tents will be searched."
​

Vass heard something of an objection from Hopp, but it appeared that the Lord was already stalking away.

 

[Ahsoka]

It was hard not to hear the conversation happening a few feet from where she lay with only a bit of canvas between them. It was made only worse by the fact it was about her. As the argument went on she opened her eyes and watched Vass' reaction to everything that was being said in case he betrayed something about what he thought this group of men should do with her. Or whether he was just watching her. Ahsoka did not think they were beyond staging the whole thing hoping it would get her to talk. Either way it seemed that a deadline hung over them all.

"How long?" she asked quietly in perfect Common Tongue, the language she assumed Vass could speak. It was such an ugly language she wrinkled her nose for a second in disgust as though it even tasted foul on her lips.

 

[Vass]

Vass seemed to rock on his heels for a moment. "An hour."

He spoke without really thinking.

"Maybe more." He would need to convince the King, and then there would be a few negotiations and...well it didn't really matter. The mercenaries were outnumbered nearly a hundred to one. They couldn't do much to fight back.

Plus he wasn't entirely sure that they would even want to. None of them liked being kept out of things, but they were fighters at the end of the day. Not spies.

Vass turned towards Ahsoka. "What the big deal with all of you anyway?"

He asked, frustration in his tone.

"Its not like there's plenty of land elsewhere." Outside he could hear discussion, though most of it was the others talking over themselves.

 

[Ahsoka]

Ahsoka only stared at the human after he asked his question. Quietly she fumed though and that came through in her stare. Of course a travelling mercenary would not know what it was like to have a home. A real home. A home a person would bleed and die for. How could she even begin to explain to him or in such a way it would get through his thick apish skull? The elf thought about turning her back on him completely and trying to find her way to sleep. If she were to die in the hour then she must send a message to her Chief before it was too late. But something made her eventually speak.

"This is our land," she spoke as if speaking to a five year old. "Why should we leave?" A five year old she wanted to strangle. "You have no right to it. We were here before your cities were even a dream," she snarled. "Then you come here with your machines and your armies and you destroy centuries of work. Centuries of love for what? A city to make money from?" Ahsoka spat in disgust then did twist away.

"At least I will die on the land I love and go back into her roots. Your precious king cannot take that away from us."

 

[Vass]

Vass blinked. "I didn't ask why you should leave."

The young man said with a roll of his eyes. "Conceited much?"

A tsk clicked his teeth before he continued.

"It's you're home, obviously you don't want to give it up." What did she think he was a complete moron? Perhaps she should look into a mirror and ask herself what her own preconceptions were. Not that he had been much better a few years ago.

Before joining the Red Hundred Vass had assumed that everything not-human had meant him some sort of harm. Even Balderic, who was likely his closest friend within the Band now. All of it had seemed so strange, so foreign. Now it was almost second hand.

"I meant why do they want your land so bad." The Mercenary explained. "What in the fuck makes it special enough to throw all these lives away?"

There was plenty of other places for the King to go. Forests, plains. Sure there would be a fight over grazing rights and the like, but not an all out war with Elven guerrillas. He had to assume that would be better, if not easier.

 

[Ahsoka]

"Then why are you fighting for them?!" Ahsoka rounded on him in a fury, forcing herself to sit up again despite her body's protests. "If any of you have such a moral compass as you seem intent on pretending then why would you take this contract in the first place?"

They didn't. They cared more about coin and having a good little scrap than they did about fighting for what was right. Of that, Ahsoka was completely convinced. After all it wouldn't have taken much to dig up what types of people lived in these forests. Her kind might have shirked living with mortals but they traded with settlements all over this area.

It had always been the same with the bands these kings had brought with him to try and purge them from their homes. Just this time they had brought more than just humans with them. Clearly the xenophobic king was comfortable enough sending other races to fight and die for him as long as it got rid of the people sitting on the land where he wanted to build his new castle.

 

[Vass]

"I don't decide where we go!" Vass snapped back at her, no small amount of rage on his tone now. With the shouting outside it was unlikely that anyone would actually hear them yelling at one another, particularly given that it seemed everyone in the camp was now there.

"I'm just a soldier!" He told her. "I don't know where we're going!"

That wasn't entirely true.

Members of the Band had a little bit more input when it came to what campaign came next. The Simple truth was that they hadn't been given all the facts for this one. It happened from time to time, and was an unfortunate bi-product of being a mercenary.

Vass glowered. "Why the fuck would I want to fight in a jungle? I'm made for a battlefield!"

He said, clearly venting some of his frustrations.

Plus, she hadn't even answered his questions. Not that he noticed.

 

[Ahsoka]

"For gold."

Ahsoka managed to make the word sound like it was something filthy with the amount of disgust and contempt she lathered into the sneer. Men would go anywhere for gold. She had seen it over her short span of centuries. They would fight for it, they would die for it, they would sell their own mother for the right amount too. Her people had tried to avoid it for as long as they could but if they wanted to trade for the things they needed from outsiders it was the currency they were forced to sully themselves with. Not many people accepted a good goat-skin anymore or a well bred dog.

"If you disagree with what they're doing here then cut me free and leave these lands," it was a dare. She held her hands out towards him in a challenge. "What holds more weight, obeying orders or doing the right thing?"

 

[Vass]

Vass didn't hesitate, mostly because he's never been the sort to think about these things. "Fuck off."

He was far from any sort of philosopher, never even claimed to be close. Yet even he knew that the right thing wasn't always right from another perspective.

"You slaughtered more than a dozen men last night." He pointed out. "Some of them just watchmen, soldiers who do this because they have mouths to feed at home, because there isn't anything else where they came from."

Not all of them, of course.

Some of those were cruel bastards, butchers, but Vass knew mixed among them were those who were simply trying to make enough coin to survive. It wasn't an uncommon story. When the fields didn't grow, when the local lord took too much, there wasn't anything left but soldiers. A single campaign was enough to feed the family sometimes. "Was killing them 'the right thing's."

Of course she's argue that they were strangers, invaders, and she had a right of it in a way. But some of those men hadn't wanted to be here, hadn't even been asked. They were simply trying to survive.

 

[Ahsoka]

"Yes."

There was not a hint of remorse, of pity, of sadness in her tone when she pronounced her judgement. Her eyes stayed level on his with her hands outstretched, bound, towards him. She kept her challenge on the table so to speak and lifted her chin in an act of silent defiance. She didn't care one bit who they were before they had come to her lands and cut down her trees and torn up her earth to make way for an ugly human settlement. She only cared that they had and for their crime they had to pay.

"When the ground is not plentiful or is too hard to plough we move our families and seek new opportunities. We do not commit a crime and excuse it because we were hungry," she sniffed in derision. "Only the weak blame their ignorance on their own hard times. Why should my peoples children suffer so theirs do not?"