Peaceful Demonstration

The monks. Again.

They’ve formed a circle around the camp, shoulder to shoulder, with just enough width between them that none of us could pass through without touching them. The idea is that we’d have to acknowledge them in passing by them. To push a boundary aside. And for as long as we ignore them and go about our buusiness, they would watch us.

It has been two days. They remain, clearly fasting. They never move, never speak, never do a thing at all. It’s like we’re trapped by statues.

The captain’s sick of it. He parts the flaps of his war tent, blade in hand, much to the surprise of the rest of us.

I speak out first. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“We have a problem. If these petulent… people won’t respect our space and our authority, we will show them the error of their ways. Send a message,” he says. He seems almost unsure of himself as he talks, a sort of unsteadiness that I’d never seen in him before. How much of himself is he pushing aside?

“Are you insane?” I think he is. I think he’s been out here too long, in the thickest part of the wilds, and everything is getting to him. The scarce food, the silence, the lack of action. We’ve done everything we can to make life in a boring outpost bearable, but I’ll admit, even I was starting to feel the fatigue. But… my fatigue didn’t manifest as unchecked bloodlust.

“You are my disciple. You will follow me, and you will not question me. Do you understand?” He says this, again, with just the slightest wavering in his voice.

“We can’t do this—have you even thought about the backlash it’ll cause? Captain, please…” I follow behind him as he starts a march towards the walls. I am the only one speaking out. I hear the shuffle of equipment and the dragging of blades as each of the remaining seven gather themselves.

He approaches one of the monks. They’re… I’ve never gotten used to seeing these animal people. They just look wrong, I’ll admit. Some kind of cat, one of the tallest of the group, and one of the strongest, at least a glance. Blade in hand, he stares the creature down, puffing out his chest and bumping himself against them. They don’t budge… not even a little bit.

“This is the territory of the Knights of the Summit! We have allowed you to stay as long as we can, but we have classified work to conduct! Clear out now or else we will be forced to drive you out!”

The cat doesn’t move. It just stands there, tall and proud, eyes to the sky. It doesn’t… even blink. Suddenly, I feel like something is wrong. I grab my Captain by the shoulder, and he forcefully shrugs me off.

“So be it!” With a halting motion, he draws his hand back, and when I notice the cat doesn’t even react, terror sparks in my chest. He strikes at the cat, and all at once, the entire ring of people… disappears.

There’s a moment of confusion. But it’s not long. In their place, appears… the visage a particular bird. I’ve seen it before. It has tried to speak to us. I recognize that red glow around its head.

I hear the movement of wind, and back up. As my Captain turns around toward the source of the noise, he sees that same bird, twirling through the air, bow in hand… and before he can react, an arrow is loosed into his throat, and he’s on the ground.

The rest of us scatter. The illusions stay there, trapping us here. They’re very much physical, and they don’t move at all when we try to push against them. The bird lands on their feet with a roll, back to us. While the rest of us are trying to back away and get some breathing room, Ivaln charges…

and is cut down. The bird whips around, and in a flash of dark blue and bright orange steel, rips their blade out of their scabbard and through his neck.

The rest… I don’t even know. It’s complete chaos. The bird dashes around, and each time they cross blades with one of us, the skirmish lasts only a few seconds. I don’t know if I saw anyone land a single blade on the thing. When they were done with one of us, they would wipe the blood off of their blade, plant it back in the scabbard, and move on to the next.

At this point, I had no intent of fighting. I was backed up against the illusions, trying to find someplace to hide as the bird seemed distracted with my compatriots. I knew I wouldn’t win, and more importantly, I didn’t believe I was on the right side of this battle.

As I move behind a tent, I hear the battle go quiet. I suck in a deep breath… and the bird leaps atop the tent, sliding down the side and landing cleanly in front of me, hand planted into the ground and back to me.

I have my blade drawn. They stand, and turn to look at me, crest in full bloom behind them, a threatening red glow washing over both of us in the night.

Then… after a moment of looking at me, it leaves. The illusions dispel, and it bursts into the air, catching on a tree and disappearing into the canopy.

No one else is left in the camp. I think… the only reason I survived is because I said something.

I’m done with this. These people are scaring me now. The animal people have gotten more dangerous, more bold, more aggressive, since the fall of the Dominion. This is a losing war, and I’m not going to die for something I’m not sure about.

Fuck it.