BXBX NOVEL Chapter 376: Culprits Found!
Chapter 376: Culprits Found!
"The guys confirmed the that the items were in fact there, and I asked them if I should grab them all now or leave them. I was told by one I probably should, so I did. It wasn't many of them, and clearly not all, but it was enough to get the point across, especially with the testimony from the two boys.
"So we all crawled out, with more than a bit of dirt on us, and we confronted the group with the evidence. I'll be honest, I was expecting another fight to start and have to argue for a while but… big hat just nodded and accepted it before asking for the items. Before I could even ask he said. 'I plan to hold these in the temple and wait till we have gathered the rest before returning them' and honestly, I thought it was a good idea. Still do, but I left before seeing how that all played out so I've no idea if it actually worked out well.
"With all the evidence though, the whole group was more than happy to walk around to the area where the tracks were. It was pretty dark already, so they couldn't do much better than say, 'yup there are tracks here' but it was a good start. Big hat guy thanked me for figuring this much else and then asked if I was going to lead the expedition to follow the tracks"
Kamiko sighed. "So, apparently he thought that I was interested in tracking them myself, and possessed that ability. Not sure what gave him that idea, maybe it was because I found them in the first place? Also he wanted to take a bunch of people, but I was planning for like… me and a tracker or two, maybe a warrior? I thought I'd be able to handle any fights well enough myself and wanted stealth.
"Before that turned into a big argument, big hat dude said that they'd discuss it amongst themselves and assign roles. I was free to rest if I wished. I was famished at this point, so I asked them for food and a place to stay, and big hat dude, talked to some other guy I really don't remember and headed back to the temple.
"Down the steps I go… again. At least I managed to avoid an extra trip by staying with the old man the first time. The meal was fine. Nothing like mum's cooking but it certainly wasn't bad. Quite a few fruits, a lot of rice, and a bit of meat.
"That was probably the worst part actually. They had all this fresh food. Beautiful fresh rice, nice juicy fruit that likely was picked that same day and… at least a week-old cured meat. Not even sure what it was before the curing because there was enough salt in the damned stuff that I could have used the same salt to season a month's worth of meals back home.
"Still, I didn't complain. I was tired, and sort of over them at this point, so I just ate a little bit of the meat, even though there wasn't much to begin with, while focusing on the rice and fruit for most of the meal. Then I resummoned my clothes to clean them and headed to bed."
Kamiko took in an obvious breath as she paused her story just to give a sense of time passing. "Now once I woke up, I was met by another random guy. Pretty sure it was a different random guy, but I can't be sure. They asked if I wanted food, and I decided I'd have a light breakfast as well. I didn't know how long I'd be away for and I'd hate to fail the mission because I was out of food.
"So I had more rice, which I'm not complaining about, and then was shuffled off to meet big hat guy who had set up… a sort of camp? I guess at the entrance of the forest. Apparently, they rotated through a few people and watched the tracks to make sure that whatever they were going to be following didn't know they'd been discovered.
"The big hat guy then informed me. 'That we have reached a compromise. You will stay at the front with two sufficiently competent trackers. After you have departed, a second group here will wait for a half a turn of the clock before leaving to follow in your path. If you need backup, one of the trackers will shoot a flare arrow in the air. If they cannot do so, but you can, please take it as high as possible and light the fuse.'
"I thought it was reasonable enough. So, I was introduced to Tracker 1 and Tracker 2. Apparently they were a pair of husbands that were planning to retire soon. Or, that's what they said, but as far as I could tell they weren't exactly old. Only like 30? Maybe 35? So I have no idea why they said it. Maybe as a joke?
"Tracker 1, was a big guy and moved surprisingly softly for it. I nearly switched his nickname to twinkle toes. Easy six-foot five guy, with muscles as wide as my head. Tracker 2, was also big but it was more like he'd been stretched out instead of bulked up. Slightly taller than Tracker 1, but much thinner. He was actually louder when he walked.
"Now, the lot of us headed out. I'll skip over the boring parts of tracking through the forest. It took us hours of following the tracks, but they didn't make a lot of sense to the trackers. Or so they said. Apparently they were wolf tracks, but they were much too deep set into the ground to have been common wolves.
"Still it was no more than three wolves so Trackers 1 and 2 weren't worried and we marched on. Eventually we found the place in question. And… honestly I chuckle a little thinking back to it now. See, it was a group of wolves and monkeys that had been working together with the birds.
"The hideout was a small cave with a large tree that grew out of the back of it and broke through the dirt hill it was contained within. The monkeys had been collected shiny things and just… shoving them into the tree. Like, knives and forks and spoons were all stabbed into the trunk with the rings all pushed onto a few smaller branches.
"It was rather anticlimactic then that when I made the mistake of stepping on and snapping a twig, all the animals froze, stared directly at the three of us, and then bolted. They just… left all the stuff behind.
"Trackers 1 and 2 debated about sending up a flare. We, didn't need help exactly unless requiring extra hands to carry everything counted. In the end though, they decided not to because apparently those arrows are hard to make. So we just got to work pulling all the cutlery out of this poor tree.
"When the other group showed up, arrows notched and ready for action they were rather startled to find us digging silverware from a tree. It took me and the Trackers quite a while to explain what had happened. The other two couldn't stop laughing and I couldn't help but laugh along with them.
"Because really, what we found while we were taking the tree apart, was this huge bag of seeds. And we think that the wolves and the monkeys were paying the birds off with bird seed to steel shiny things so that they could add it to their tree. Still not sure why they impaled them into the tree, but I'm sure they thought there was a good reason at the time"
"All that was left was getting it all back. That was a bit tricky because nobody actually brought sacks to carry everything but the MONKEYS had some. All very small, and with some holes in them so we had to be careful, but it wasn't so bad. Then I got back, and once the stuff was handed over, I left" finished Kamiko with a smile.
"Wow" said Kat. "Your first contract was a lot more involved than mine. I mean, I know it wasn't that long, just a few days but still, mine was only a few minutes!"
Kamiko shrugged "Yeah… that's probably not normal. But I was happy with mine. It was a nice easy mission that gave me a… well maybe not a good taste of what contracts are like but I think it helped."