Echoes of the Abyssal Blade: Path to Free Will-Chapter 99: Kindhearted Barbarians

While those from the Dragon’s Tooth colony helped themselves at the banquet, Idhar, the chief of Hawk’s Eye colony, gleamed with a bit of suspicion.

He started to ponder silently, "It is not so simple that a single large colony can easily climb over the layers, and that too from the fifth layer, It is hard for me to understand their real purpose, but from their looks, it feels like they do not have any bad intentions towards us, on the contrary, they all look too wounded to have any strength for any other thoughts, let’s see, how things unfold in the future."

Raerin understood that not telling the truth to the Hawk’s Eye colony could become problematic later on, but it was stated in his ancestral notes not to disclose much about themselves, unless they reach their head colony, The Warring Dragon Colony in the fifth layer, and they can tell and explain everything truthfully to The Warring Dragon Colony’s chief.

Meanwhile, Idhar and other members of the Hawk’s Eye colony’s attention went to Jonan, who was in a corner sitting alone, minding his own business.

Despite their fierce appearance and demeanor, most of them were curious about the foreign-looking individual from the Dragon’s Tooth colony.

Noticing their attention, Raerin decided best to let them know a bit about Jonan, but he decided to lie, while mixing some truths about Jonan to them.

Smiling, Raerin spoke to him, "Idhar, I can see that you must be getting curious about the boy from my colony."

Idhar nodded with a dubious smile, "Indeed, I have never seen a male with such pale skin, which even leaves our women’s beauty to dust, and his physique is unlike ours."

"Never in my lifetime have I heard or seen a male like this before."

Raerin then replied with a sigh, "Truth be told, even we are not aware where this boy comes from, my son found him in a forest all alone, without anyone, you would not believe it, but the boy speaks different language from us, we taught him our language first, and only then were we able to talk to him."

"After conversing with him, we realized this boy comes from an unknown land, how he came here is not something that we have any knowledge of."

Raerin’s voice lingered in the air, soft but weighted, his words pressing against the wary silence Idhar kept behind his sharp eyes. The firelight danced between them, shadows flickering across weathered faces and scars long earned in battles most would prefer to forget. The aroma of roasted meats and spiced roots filled the great tent, where Dragon’s Tooth members gratefully partook of Hawk’s Eye’s generous feast, their exhausted faces betraying how long it had been since they’d eaten in peace.

Idhar’s gaze drifted back to Jonan, still seated at the far end of the tent, his pale skin catching the warm glow of the fire like polished bone. His silver-blue eyes held an inward distance, as though no one here truly existed for him. Even the noise and revelry around him seemed to brush against him without stirring so much as a twitch.

"I’ll admit," Idhar finally muttered, his lips curling in a humorless smile, "it takes the edge off one’s vigilance when a man with skin like that looks so lost. But..." he leaned a little closer to Raerin, voice lowering to a rough murmur, "strange things wander these lands. Things that look harmless until your people bleed."

Raerin chuckled softly, not in mockery, but in an understanding kind of way, the kind of laugh that comes from a man who’s seen too much to dismiss any worry as foolish.

"Ah, yes," Raerin said. "If I were you, I’d think the same. And I won’t ask you to trust him. But I’ll tell you this much, he’s not an enemy creature, or a beast in a different form, he is a human just like us, but a bit different."

Idhar grunted, neither agreeing nor denying, but letting the conversation settle there. It was a warrior’s courtesy. Raerin appreciated that much.

Before they could press the matter further, the tent’s entrance stirred. A soft bell chime announced new arrivals, and one of Hawk’s Eye’s watchmen stepped inside.

"Chief Idhar," the man announced with a respectful dip of his head. "The chief of Hollow Root colony wishes to pay respects."

Idhar raised a brow, casting a quick glance at Raerin before waving a hand. "Let them enter."

In strode a woman, broad-shouldered and sun-darkened, with a furred mantle draped across one shoulder and a jagged bone knife hanging from her throat. Her hair was bound in thick braids adorned with carved wooden beads, each one a marker of an old conquest. She wore the garb of a fighter, loose yet durable, bearing the colors of dried leaves and earth.

"Chief Uovanna of Hollow Root," she introduced herself, her voice deep and even. She offered a respectful nod to both men, then spared a lingering glance at Raerin, eyes flickering briefly to the foreign strangers gathered behind him.

Raerin rose from his seat and inclined his head. "I am Raerin of Dragon’s Tooth. My people and I are honored by your presence."

Uovanna grunted approvingly. "Word travels fast through these layers. Strangers from the fifth... not many live long enough to claw their way back from there. I thought it worth seeing for myself if it is true."

Raerin’s face tightened a little, but he met her gaze with unflinching calm. "It’s no small task," he admitted. "But the path back to one’s own home is something they have to do."

She nodded and understood Raerin’s difficulty.

It wasn’t long before the second colony arrived, this one heralded by a pair of tall, dark-skinned men carrying twin curved blades etched with shimmering crystal at their end. They parted the tent’s flaps for a slender man with hawk-like features and robes of deep indigo, his face marked with ceremonial ash.

"I am Murren, chief of Ash Horn colony," the man said in a crisp and soothing voice.

Introductions were exchanged, polite but cautious. Raerin could sense the weight of scrutiny in Murren’s gaze, a man accustomed to hiding daggers behind words, though none unsheathed just yet. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Then, at last, came the third. The final visitor arrived without fanfare — a heavy-set, grizzled man with a thick beard streaked with gray, his armor battered, but his bearing as steady as stone. He offered no ceremonial greeting, only a nod.

"Jafh of Tarrow Claw colony," he said simply, his voice like gravel. "I heard strangers walked these lands, and I don’t much care for surprises."

Raerin met the man’s gruffness with a firm clasp of forearms. "A fair instinct. But we mean no harm."

One by one, foods and drink were shared, as was custom. It was a mark of civility in these treacherous lands — breaking bread before breaking bones. Conversation eased, though tensions did not vanish.

When Raerin spoke of their harrowing ascent from the fifth layer in following a vicious beast, and their struggle to now going back to the fifth layer to report, all three colony chiefs listened intently. Their expressions shifted — Uovanna’s hardened face softened in grim empathy; Murren’s gaze flickered with intrigue; and Jafh just hummed in response.

"A cursed mission you and your colony had to endure," Jafh muttered. "We who live between these layers are just born to die in war."

"Yes that is our fate," Raerin said quietly.

After a time, without fanfare, each of the visiting chiefs presented gifts to Raerin’s people. Simple things — bundles of dried meats, medicinal herbs, nectar treated with preservative wax, and a few sets of hide-wrapped footgear for the long journey back down the layers.

"Your path won’t be easy," Uovanna said, pressing a small pouch of bone talismans into Raerin’s palm. "These’ll keep the rot gnats away if you pass through the Bleeding Cavern."

Raerin just nodded, without understanding.

Murren gifted him a slender, silvered dagger. "An old piece," he said. "Meant for some special beasts that don’t die easily."

Jafh, predictably, said little, but left a heavy satchel of masks to wear, these masks were special, they would protect them from areas which were too poisonous.

Raerin accepted every token with both hands, bowing deeply to each in turn.

"I swear," Raerin said, voice low and hoarse with sincerity, "my people will remember this. If fate crosses our paths again, know that you’ll have friends in Dragon’s Tooth... and in the Warring Dragon Colony, should we make it there."

Uovanna raised her drink. "If fate wills it, friends."

The other chiefs gave their own parting words, and one by one, they left the great tent, their shadows vanishing into the night.

Across the tent, Jonan still sat alone, untouched plate of food beside him, eyes lost in the glow of dying embers. He looked... tired. Not just physically, but in a way Raerin recognized too well, the exhaustion of someone carrying the weight of a homeland they could never return to.

Jonan exhaled a breath, watching it fog faintly in the cool night air. His thoughts drifted, unbidden, to Dreavows and the poisoned hearts of those who ruled them. A land where kindness was currency and cruelty an art form. Here, among brutal strangers, he saw more honest humanity in a single evening than he had in years among his own people.

"What a bitter thing", Jonan thought, "to feel more at home among the strangers of a different land than at his own home."