Parlay invitation

JP wit Lorem, Lucian, Omni, Winteroak and Bandorchu

Gonyaul began to make sense of the organized chaos as he recognized the armed men were all consolidating to a certain area. He followed in their wake, staying in the back. It led him to the familiar faces he had been searching for.

He tried to peak around the taller people to see to the front, resorting to hopping up and down but ultimately having to look around. The clamor died down substantially. Someone was speaking with authority.

It was Voah! He was elated to have found her. That must also mean the others were nearby. He listened to her rally speech and was blown away. ‘Wow’ he thought, ‘she is amazing’.

A shout came from one of the soldiers patroling the settlement. In the distance you saw a group of around ten riders in a straight line. They were all armed and clearly were scouting the settlement.

Hearing Voah’s speech, Tarmen was impressed with how much passion she could put into words. Plus it seemed to work better than his own rant, the soldiers from Ostiarium puffing their chest just a bit more and looking to her with resolve.
They would need it when they got their asses collectively handed to them. Tarmen could see them making it out of here, but what condition that would be was what he doubted.
Meeting the soldier who had called, he didn’t like the sight.
Where are the others?
Thanking the woman for spotting them, he ordered another one nearby.
“Check with the others around the perimeter, tell them to report ANY movement. That isn’t all of them.”
He skimmed through several ideas in his head before he sought out Voah, calling Alexis over as well.
“Arbiter, any ideas you want to throw out? Best I can figure is we split up. You, Alexis, and I take command of a number of soldiers, keep close, and pray we can hold them off.”

“We should employ the few buildings we have. Their horses won’t help them in a forge, and it would give some cover from arrows.”

Alexis offered, while she was installing the bowstring on her war bow. It hadn’t seen much use aside from occasional hunting, and even that usually was better left to Islana. The thought of her young friend left a sting inside her heart that she unfortunately could not attend to right now.

“We might be able to fall back to the mine, though one the Odonine won’t like it and two that is gonna ultimately trap us.”

She looked around.

“We got anything that might spook their horses or get them to stumble?”

A loud piercing whistle pierced the commotion around the small settlement. All Odonine looked up perking their heads.

"They want to parley." Markus said from the back. He was holding a battle axe. An older Odonine miner was standing close to the master blacksmith, whispering near his shoulder.

Voah was glad to see they had at least one bow at hand. She doubted the group that rode them intensely through the night was actually willing to parlay, neither did the whispers of her paranoia.

“Alexis has the right of it, they cannot fight or take what they cannot get to. If killing is what they want, we have to make it hard for them. This place is full of treacherous slag and mountain rock. We use it to our advantage. Get them unsaddled.“

Alexis looked to Tarmen.

“Parlay, ey? Up to you. You would have to be the one doing the talking, given the less than charitable stance of the Odonine towards women. Not that we have much to offer if what they are looking for is loot.”

Tarmen tightened his jaw at the idea. Whatever they would demand, he wouldn’t like it.
Where they stood now however, it seemed like their best option.
Spitting onto the ground, he groaned at once again being stuck in the middle of the shit pile.
“Can at least give us more time to prepare, doubt it will end peacefully. Markus, you’re with me, same with that miner for translation, if anythin’ I won’t be out there alone.”
He looked to the horsemen with a weary eye, then back to Alexis.
“What loot we have is raw materials and I doubt our clansmen ‘allies’ will be forgivin’ if we lose it. I like your plan, works well with mine. Stick to the buildings for now, then if all else fails it’s the mine. If they are as smart as our clansmen, they won’t want to go into those ruins.”
The thought of going back down there only made his mood worse. All the same, he checked to see if his blade was still at his side, then signaled to Markus to venture into this ‘parlay’.

Alexis nodded, barking orders to the soldiers to man the buildings.

Then she turned to Voah.

“Let’s find Gonyaul. If there is anyone capable of coming up with some clever trap or something with just the things on hand, it’s him.”

That was good news, Gonyual tended to be surprising at every turn. It made sense that he would have to be pretty good at evasion and improvisation if had helped Alexis defeat a creature larger than both of them.

“Indeed. Let’s make haste.” she responded.