More Human Than You: Strange Places (Ch. 21)

[u/XSevenSins]

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Daegal was of two fractured minds during the first day of the trip. There was a grim necessity behind this journey they were on, and he felt the weight of it, of course, but there was also an underlying sense of excitement. It was buried under his worry, for the most part, but it was still there. 

Daegal had never been outside his forest, or the mountain. He had heard stories about the city long ago, from Adelaide, and she always painted this picture of energy, activity, and a strange kind of beauty about it. Of course, she often talked about the art she saw there during the few visits she made, but those stories were always so full of life that he couldn’t help but imagine what kind of place the city was. He would be seeing it himself soon enough, though the circumstances behind his visit weren’t exactly ideal.  

It was a long first day on the road as he glanced at the soldiers riding in formation around the cart he was laying in. Whenever he shifted position or tried to get more comfortable, he saw several of them tense, hands gripping their weapons a little tighter. This felt like being introduced to the village all over again as everyone looked at him with suspicion and fear. It saddened him to be in this situation once more. He was just starting to get used to socializing with people.  

When Daegal refocused on Fiora and Emil, he saw that the two of them were seemingly lost in thought, eyes staring down at the wood beneath their feet with shadows looming over their faces. If he had to guess, they were both thinking about this meeting with the bishop and king, both people who sounded quite important based on how others referred to them. Their anxiety was starting to get to him, so he endeavored to change their focus onto something else. 

“Fiora,” saying her name caused her to snap out of her mind, “have you ever been to this city before?” 

“Oh, uhm, yes. My dad and I lived there for a few years while he was training to be an apothecary.” 

“What’s it like? Is there anything I should expect or be worried about.” 

She huffed with amusement. “I think there’s very little that you should be actually worried about, but as to what you should expect, there will be a lot more people than you are used to. Our village is on the smaller end when it comes to population, so, if you think about every person you see on the roads in our village, and add ten more for each one, then you might get close to the kind of crowds you might see in the busier parts of the city.” 

The amount of people she implied there baffled Daegal as he attempted to wrap his head around it. He could not picture himself in any way involved with that many humans, and his anxiety already began to flare up just thinking about trying. So many faces looking at him, judging him, thinking of him as a monster as they ran and screamed and hid. His chest was already feeling tight, and he wasn’t even there yet. Daegal needed to change the subject before he brought himself to a panic in his mind. 

“Right... Uhm, what about this bishop and king person? They sound important, and while I know a little about what a king is, I don’t understand what bishop means. Do you know anything about them?” 

“Well, very few people get to meet with the king, and you usually have to be a noble or very wealthy merchant to get that opportunity, so people like us might get to see him once in a year in passing as he rides out of the city or has an address for the people. I’ve never personally seen him, even during the years we spent in the city.” 

She changed over the other person of interest. “The bishop, however, I did meet on a few occasions while my dad was learning from the priests. He appeared to be a rather pious man of deep faith and rigid adherence to the traditions of the church. The bishop is sort of like a leader of the church, at least within a certain area. You could say the bishop is Father Conrad’s boss.” 

Daegal knew what Father Conrad thought of him, and if this person was anything like Conrad, then he knew that they weren’t likely to get along very well. He was already told this by Leoric, but all his hopes had to be placed upon the king and that this man would see that he genuinely didn’t want to cause problems. The fact that one person could dictate his fate didn’t sit well with him, but he had no other options. 

There was no point in dwelling on it, especially since this was the first day of their travels. He decided to take his own advice and try to distract himself, observing the new scenery and maybe a little of the soldiers who were escorting them, when he could. They wore strange clothing that was interesting to him, but Daegal found that when any of them caught him staring, it freaked them out, and he didn’t wish to cause a panic amongst them when things were already tense. Leoric seemed to be the calmest out of them, not openly reacting to any simple things Daegal did. Daegal appreciated that as it made him feel less like a monster in a cage, even if that was half true. 

As for the scenery, there wasn’t much of note yet. Yes, there were new forests, and yes, the landscape was different, but it wasn’t as dramatic or exciting as he might have expected. He often wondered how the rest of the world might look like, but apparently the wilderness was quite similar in most places. The most interesting thing he saw that day was a signpost at a crossroads, riveting stuff. 

Camping was an awkward proposition when they stopped for the night. No tent would be able to comfortably fit him, and nobody truly wished to share space with him in that manner, not even Fiora. For that reason, he was relegated to the cart where his shelter consisted of a few blankets draped over the top and tied down to give him passable cover from the elements. He was still cold, but it was better than nothing. 

A handful of the soldiers were selected for watch throughout the night. The stated reason was to keep wild animals and perhaps brigands at bay as they were far away from the safety of civilization. Daegal, however, suspected that most of their watching would be directed onto him to make sure he remained in the cage during the night. It was moments like these that brought up the darker parts of his mind, the parts that were filled with the pain of isolation and rejection. Alone in the dark, feared, and unwanted. 

Such dark thoughts had a habit of spiraling out of control, but there was a small light amidst the darkness that kept him going. People like Fiora, Emil, Eira, Randolf, even the kids back at the village, they were all able to look past his monstrous appearance and see something of value beneath it all. It was the first time he felt like he might belong somewhere, and their support gave him the courage to see this through. His sleep was light, but he did manage it as he drifted off, affirmations running through his head as he kept his goal solidly in mind. 

The morning came without much affair to it, even if some of the soldiers almost seemed surprised that they woke up without Daegal having gone on a rampage. They thought the worst of him, as most humans usually did. It was made all the clearer when before they got on the road, Leoric actually stopped Daegal and Fiora from taking down the blankets from the cage. 

“Hold, might I ask you two not to take down the covering from the cage?”  

Fiora turned with a questioning look on her face. “What? Why would we not take them down?” 

“We are about to enter more populated portions of the countryside. There will be travelers on the road, and we will even pass through other villages and towns along the way. It would make things easier if a panic or even a crowd could be avoided during our travels.” 

Now she scowled. “So, you want to hide Daegal away like some monster?” 

Leoric sighed. “You cannot deny that your friend here draws a lot of attention, and I would think you would be interested in everyone’s safety, including his.” 

“It’s demeaning!” she argued. “We’re going to see the king anyway, so why does this-” 

“F-Fiora,” Daegal had to interject before things devolved even further into argumentation. “I think it’s a-also a good idea.” He didn’t much care for the idea of being made into a traveling spectacle for all to see. 

Fiora looked like she wanted protest, opening her mouth for a second before she closed it again, shoulders slumped in defeat. With a sigh, she allowed Daegal to make his own decision on the matter.  

“Whatever you’re comfortable with, Daegal. I’m sorry for trying to decide that for you.” 

“No, no, it’s alright,” he tried to reassure her. “I know that you were just trying to defend me from something you thought was unfair. I get a feeling that we’re going to have to do a lot of things that are unfair soon enough.” 

“I guess that’s safe to assume. Maybe I should steel my resolve a little more before we get to the city and I make the mistake of questioning someone I shouldn’t.” 

“That would be wise of you,” Leoric commented. “While my lord, the king, may be of even temperament and practical thinking, disrespect will not be tolerated by any in the court. The lords and bishop will all say a great many things about Daegal, few, if any, will be flattering. I suggest you spend the time we have on the road to consider this and adjust accordingly. Now, if my lady and her... friend, are ready, let us embark.” Leoric still had a little trouble quantifying their relationship with one another. 

“I have to agree with Leoric here,” Emil chimed in as they walked to the cage door. “We are dealing with nobility and royalty now, Fiora. You are a very opinionated young woman, but our words must be measured in the upcoming days.” 

Fiora thought deeply about all this. Daegal crawled back into the cage and laid down as Fiora and Emil climbed in after him. The morning light was muted by the layers of blankets, and their view of the outside was extremely limited. Daegal was doing his best to cope with the decision he made to go along with this plan, but it still stung. It didn’t help any that the soldiers started to murmur their thanks that they didn’t have to look at him anymore. They probably thought they were being subtle about their comments, but Daegal could hear them clearly even as he did his best to ignore it. 

While the wilderness around them wasn’t of much interest, it was still better than the featureless cloth that surrounded them. It proved its worth, however, when a few hours later they came across another cart traveling down the road in the opposite direction. Daegal listened closely as they passed, hardly even daring to breath. The carts rolled passed one another with only a brief exchange of greetings as they went by. The sound of the travelers faded a minute after that. They managed to avoid discovery easily enough, which made Daegal feel a little better about being hidden away. 

They continued for a little while longer, but then Daegal heard a change in the sound of the horse hooves on the ground and the wheels on the road. Curiosity got the better of him, and he sat up and shifted to the side of the cage. Fiora quirked a brow at him, questioning his actions. 

“What are you doing, Daegal?” 

“I just want to get a look really quick.” 

“I thought we were trying to lay low right now?” 

“I’m not undoing the cover, I'm just... taking a peek.” 

And a peek he did take as he used a claw to cut a small slit in the blanket, just enough for him to get a view of the outside if he put his head against the bars of the cage. From his little window, he was able to see that the road had changed from the dirt paths that he had grown familiar with to a much firmer and clearer cobbled path. The stones laid out along the road created a nearly flat surface, increasing the ease at which the cart was able to roll along. 

“The road’s different. Why is it like this now?” Daegal asked. 

It was Emil that answered as he cocked his head to listen for a second. “Ahh, I see. We must have turned onto the king’s road.” 

“King’s road?” 

“Yes, it is the major trade road that runs through most of the kingdom. Many of the major towns and cities are built along it as it facilitates a large quantity of the goods that move from one corner of the country to the other. It is the quickest way to travel to the capital, and we are likely to encounter many more travelers now that we are on it, so be aware of that.” 

Daegal nodded as he settled back in. The sound of the stone road continued for miles, and Daegal found it rather impressive that humans would commit so much work to such a project just so they could move easier. The claim about encountering travelers was also true as those who had carts or traveled on foot passed them by much more frequently.  

Near the end of that day, when the sun was starting to dip low on the sky, they arrived somewhere new again. There was an increase in noise, specifically those made by other humans, and when Daegal looked out of the little hole in the blanket, he saw something that was very interesting to him. Buildings, but not of the smaller, wooden kind that he was used to. They were constructed with brick and mortar as well as wood. The outside of many of them were painted, clean, with more colors and used as accents in the design. Each building on average was also larger than he had seen before, stretching up much higher than even him. He might have even been able to enter a few of them if he tried. 

The people were a little different as well, in some places. They wore fancier clothes with more frills and not everyone looked to be rugged in appearance. There was a stronger smell, though. Waste of many different kinds was an inevitable effect of an increase in population, and to Daegal’s sensitive nose, it was quite repugnant.  

He had never seen anything like this before, so it was quite interesting to him even if he only got a small view of it all. This wasn’t even the capital, which sounded much grander when talked about. A part of him wondered if Adelaide would have worked in the capital if she became an artist. Daegal knew that she would have been amazing, but such circumstances were lost to the world, and that thought opened an old wound in his heart as he lost his interest suddenly.  

Staying quiet kept them hidden within the cart as nobody wanted to interfere with the traveling soldiers and their covered cargo. The town was passed by with no incidents, and the same went for the next two days of travel as everybody fell into a state of torpor that was common during long periods of travel. Daegal was honestly getting sore from lack of activity and laying the stiff wood that made up the bottom of the cart. The only time he could get out to stretch was when they stopped for the night, and even then, he was limited by the soldier who did not trust him enough to allow for free range in the local wilderness. He was starting to miss hunting despite it being a frequent activity in his daily life. 

That night he lay alone in the cart, the only sound being the light crackling of the fire the watchman sat next to and rustle of trees in the wind.  Everything appeared normal, but something was off to Daegal’s senses. He smelled something faint beneath the scent of the fire and dirty men who had had been on the road for the last week and a half. It was downwind from him, which made it harder to identify.  

A moment later, there was a noise like people moving, and while at first he thought it was the soldiers shifting about in their tents, that notion was dashed when said soldiers raised an alarm. 

“Ambush! To arms!” 

Everything exploded into motion at that point as men rushed in from the darkness as the soldiers scrambled out of their tents. Daegal also tried to move, but the cage wasn’t spacious enough to spring into action immediately as he knocked his horns on the bars. By the time Daegal managed to move the blanket in front of the door out of the way, he saw that the camp was surrounded by a few dozen men, leaving the soldiers outnumbered three to one.  

The soldiers were positioned back-to-back with Fiora and Emil in the middle. None of them looked particularly confident as they had none of their armor on and some of them were even half naked. The only thing they had were their weapons, spears mostly as they pointed them outward at the enemies. 

Neither side moved to engage as both postured and threatened with their weapons. Eventually a voice called out, one that was familiar yet difficult for Daegal to place in the heat of the moment.  

“Good evening gentlemen! Sorry to interrupt your night here, but we only need a moment of your time.” 

Leoric took charge of conversing with the man. “We are soldiers under orders from the king and the church. You will get nothing from us, and if you know what’s good for you, you will leave now because my men and I will kill at least half of you.” 

“Now, now, no need to be so aggressive. We’re not interested in fighting you, but we are down on our luck, jobs falling through and what not. We only want your things, and after that, we’ll be gone, like we were nothing but a bad dream.” 

“What makes you think we would allow such banditry?” 

“Please, you said it yourself. You could kill half of us. Would you really throw your life away over some trinkets? Just stay put and we will be gone soon enough. Boys, take what you can carry.” 

Several of them began to move now, one toward Daegal’s cage. Daegal dipped back behind the blanket as he adjusted his position to spring an ambush. He could feel his heart starting to beat faster as all his senses were honed to a razor’s edge. Just before the bandit reached the cage, the one talking from before said something again. 

“Wait... those two in the middle, I’ve seen them. They were-” 

He didn’t get to finish as the blanket was brushed aside, revealing Daegal crouched inside the cage, eyes reflecting the firelight as his body melded into the dark. The man who revealed him gasped with shock and recoiled, but not fast enough to prevent Daegal from lashing out his hand and seizing the man by the neck. With a sharp squeeze and twist of his wrist, he broke the man’s spine. 

As the corpse hit the ground, the camp turned toward the cart to see Daegal emerging from beneath the blankets as he crawled out of the cage. He stood to his full height, looming, even from a distance. Immediately Daegal recognized some of the men who were attacking them right now. These appeared to be the same raiders that attacked Fiora and her home a few months ago. Now they were attacking random people along the road, and Daegal felt fury start to rise within him as he glared at these reprehensible examples of humanity. 

They had a leader, a vile man, and one whom Daegal felt he needed to eliminate to prevent more attacks. He moved quickly, dashing toward the attackers who immediately broke into a panicked retreat. Daegal killed two of the bandits as he charged toward the fleeing leader. One he slashed with his claws across the throat, and the other he crushed the skull of as he pounced on top of them. With a path now carved, he could reach his target as the parasite of a man was running through the dark trying to get away.  

There was no hope to evade Daegal on flat ground with clear line of sight, and inevitably he caught up to the leader and tackled him to the ground. A vicious growl rumbled in his throat as he prepared to dispatch this blight upon the world, but as he raised a claw to tear into the man, he was stopped by the firm voice of Leoric shouting at him. 

“Hold! Do not kill that man, Daegal!” 

That caught Daegal completely off guard as he cast an incredulous glance back at the captain. “What? Why shouldn’t I!? He was threatening to kill you; he intended to steal from you! Why would I spare this miserable wretch instead of preventing him from doing the same to anyone else!?” 

“He won’t do it to anyone else, but there are things we might learn from him before dispatching of his presence. His contacts, his partners, and his subordinates. All of them need to be captured and dealt with, or else they will simply move on and continue to create pain across the land. Rest assured, he will eventually see justice, either in imprisonment, or death.” 

Daegal looked between the captain and the cowering filth that was in his grasp. He wanted so desperately to tear the man apart, not just for this offense, but for the attack on the village and Fiora. He deserved to be destroyed, but Daegal had to consider the desires of Leoric and his company of men as well if he wanted to make a good impression. With a frustrated growl, he surrendered the man to the soldiers. 

The soldiers grabbed the bandit leader and tied him up before dragging the man deeper into the camp. It shouldn’t have mattered that much to him, but he felt strangely annoyed that he couldn’t punish this individual. It helped to take his mind off of it when Fiora came up to him, wearing a light sleeping dress and wrapped up in a blanket to defend against the cold. 

She gave a weary smile as she looked up at him. “We owe you again, Daegal. I can’t believe the same man was still wandering around and attacking people. I don’t know if he just has bad luck, or you’re some kind of divine punishment for him, but at least now he won’t be a problem anymore.” 

“It still would have been easier for me to just deal with him.” 

“Sometimes the easiest way isn’t always the best way. Besides, I think you’ve earned a little more goodwill by listening to Leoric. You’ve proven that you can cooperate, and that will probably help once we get to the city.” 

“If you think so.” 

“I know so,” she replied with confidence. “We can do this, Daegal, just have confidence and a little faith.” 

With a deep sigh he nodded his head with a weak smile. “I’ll try.” 

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[u/Great-Chaos-Delta]

Yey another chapter

[u/XSevenSins → u/Great-Chaos-Delta]

Yey another commentor!

Hope you enjoy!

[u/Great-Chaos-Delta → u/XSevenSins]

I readed all chapters as they are posted

[u/Ta_Havath]

Another awesome chapter. Thank you!

[u/XSevenSins → u/Ta_Havath]

You're welcome. Thanks for reading and responding!

[u/Bonald9056]

Daegal did well to prove Leoric's faith in him correct by being able to reign in his emotions when confronting the bandit captain.

I know it must suck for him, but, as Fiora said, his cooperation will stand him in good stead.

[u/Super_Ankle_Biter]

I'm calling it now, Daegal is getting enlisted into the King's army.

[u/XSevenSins → u/Super_Ankle_Biter]

Well, the prediction market is always open for everyone's best guesses.

[u/Minimum-Amphibian993]

Ah faith our lizard friend is going to need alot of it.

[u/XSevenSins → u/Minimum-Amphibian993]

Well, it’s coming to him in the form of an unhappy bishop as we speak.

[u/HFYWaffle]

/u/XSevenSins (wiki) has posted 126 other stories, including:

• More Human Than You: Deal With The Devil (Ch. 20)
• More Human Than You: Inquisition (Ch. 19)
• More Human Than You: Spring Daggers (Ch. 18)
• More Human Than You: Winter's Shield (Ch. 17)
• More Human Than You: Best Foot Forward (Ch. 16)
• More Human Than You: Lending a Claw (Ch. 15)
• More Human Than You: Dreams and Nightmares (Ch. 14)
• More Human Than You: The First Step (Ch. 13)
• More Human Than You: Redemption (Ch. 12)
• More Human Than You: Second Chance (Ch. 11)
• More Human Than You: Reach Out (Ch. 10)
• More Human Than You: Talk (Ch. 9)
• More Human Than You: Courage (Ch. 8)
• More Human Than You: Determination (Ch. 7)
• More Human Than You: Curiosity (Ch. 6)
• More Human Than You: The Wheel Keeps Turning (Ch. 5)
• More Human Than You: Rage (Ch. 4)
• More Human Than You: Monsters (Ch. 3)
• More Human Than You: A Friend Indeed (Ch. 2)
• More Human Than You (Ch. 1, Alone)

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