Birth

"After seeing everything that has happened in this village, and what might be going on in other villages, I think I'm going to have to speed up my plans." Tritus muttered to himself while standing in front of a few burning huts. "Why did you burn them?" Penn asked standing to the side of him. She wasn't the only one; many of the villagers stood around perplexed, watching the burning huts. "This place is disgusting, all of it." he shook his head. "As long as it is here, it will be a reminder of a darker time. This past should be erased. There were things going on here that I had hoped I could prevent, but clearly I was too late. Do you even know how bad this really was?" he asked, staring at Penn. She shrunk under his gaze, feeling the anger coming off of him. She really didn't understand who or what he was angry at, but she kept her mouth shut nonetheless. Penn felt like everything that had been happening in the village was wrong, but at the same time, she really knew nothing about anything. What she saw made her angry and sad, but she thought it was just the way of the village. Her and Tu's villages ran differently and had different rules. Was this different in some way? After a minute of sitting in her mind thinking about this under the intense gaze of Tritus, she finally said something: "Honestly, this is all confusing. I don't know why. I thought this was just another way to run a village. You know, like me and Tu have different ways of running our villages, but the more I see and learn about what has happened here, the harder it is for me to keep feeling that way. I mean, I shouldn't feel so angry and sad about someone else's way of running their village, but I can't help it. I know it makes me sound like a child but it's just the way I feel." She sped through her words as if she had to to get them all out before she lost it. Tritus looked at her for a while longer before he turned and faced the burning huts again. For some time they just stood there not saying anything. They silently stood in the heavy and uncomfortable warmth of the nearby flames. The crackling of burning wood was the only sound loud enough to be picked up. Tritus cut through the trance, his voice emotionally neutral yet loud enough to be heard over the flames, "The feeling you have isn't wrong. In fact, I feel the same way mostly. You're right. There are different ways to run a village, but this is not one of them. Something like this should never have happened. And if we had never come here, this would have gotten worse and would have spread to many other villages Hell, it probably already has." Tritus shook his head at this. "But I'll be damned if I don't help these people and show them that this is not the way to live." he said with some steel in his voice. Thinking about this stirred up uncontrollable emotion inside of him, most of which he couldn't explain his reasons for, not even to himself. "I'm going to start making even bigger changes to this world. Things can't remain like this. Will you help me?" he asked Penn who was obviously a little overwhelmed by everything happening so quickly. "I don't know…" she started to say, but then stopped. She stared off into the fire not saying anything. "You don't have to give me an answer right now, but just let me know when you have one. Okay?" he asked, his gaze finally softening. "Okay" she said after some time not taking her eyes off the flame. "I wonder what's going on in her head." Tritus thought to himself.

The next day, Tritus began assigning different tasks to the villagers. Everything from digging holes for constructing new structures, to hunting for food. The women of the village took to the tasks with ease, while most of the men struggled to keep up with them. It was clear that the women were used to doing even the most strenuous physical labor, while the men had been sitting on their asses. Despite all of this, there still were some men that could keep up with them. "It��s going to take a lot of work, but I think I can fix the village." Tritus thought to himself while walking back to the village, pulling several trees behind him. When he got there, he heard yelling coming from the far end of the village. He dropped the trees he was carrying and sprinted to where the commotion was. When he got there he found two men in a heated argument, one of which was gripping a terrified woman by her hair. "I don't give a damn what that man said. He can't just come here and act like he runs the place. I'm taking what's mine and there's nothing you can do about it." The man gripping the woman said smugly. He was a strongly built man with a huge beard and short hair. The man he was arguing with was the complete opposite, having a scrawny build with a long braid, no facial hair, and extreme pale skin as if he was constantly sick. "No! I won't let you take my sister. This..." the scrawny man started but was cut off by Tritus. "Shut up and listen because I'm only going to say this one more time. I run this village and I'm not going to put up with this shit. Now let go of that woman and leave my damn village before I take your head off of your shoulders." Tritus said with cold steel in his voice. Both men just stared at Tritus for a second before the larger of the two men snorted and walked up to Tritus. The man was half a foot taller than Tritus and more built. "You may have killed Pon, but that's nothing to me. I let you do what you wanted because I really didn't care about this village. But I'm not going to let you take my pleasure from me or my right as a man." he said looking down at Tritus. "Then challenge me and become the leader." Tritus said, removing all emotion from his voice. Despite this, anyone around the two could sense the boiling anger leaking out of Tritus. The man didn't seem to notice and just snorted again. "Fine. I'll challenge you or whatever." he said in a mocking tone, still gripping the woman. The wave of rage that seemed to be emanating off of Tritus seemed to stop as if passing through the eye of a storm. Time seemed to stop for a time. Then, faster than anyone could see, Tritus's hand shot out and gripped the man's throat. Before the man could even acknowledge it, it was too late. Tritus crushed his throat completely and immediately ended his life in that one swift motion. It was over so fast that his body stood stiff with shock for a few seconds, before cartoonishly collapsing to the ground.

"You. Come here and tell me what happened." Tritus pointed to the man who was just standing there trying to understand what was going on. Tritus obviously wasn't in the mood to wait for a response. The man, noticing Tritus's impatience, hurriedly started speaking, "He wanted to take my sister because it was his right and..." he was cut off. "Do I look stupid; I know that much I'm asking why you didn't do anything?" Tritus said staring daggers at the man who shrunk underneath his gaze. "I was saying…" the man started but was cut off again by Tritus. "Oh, your right." Tritus said, rolling his eyes. "You were talking while he held your sister by the hair, because talking is so helpful in the situation." Tritus laughed tauntingly without humour. "I tried to..." he started for a third time. "You tried!" Tritus said to the cowering man. "You didn't do shit! You stood there and whimpered at the man while he held your sister by the hair." Tritus shouted, hardly hiding his disgust. "I'm not a fight..." the man tried to defend himself, but this seemed to make Tritus even angrier. He grabbed the man by his tunic, dragged the man mere inches from his own face and spoke quietly in a near whisper. "You don't need to be a fighter to protect those you care about. You should always throw the first punch when it comes to defending your family.." Tritus spat the last words. "Why should I fight a fight I can't win?" the man asked Tritus. The question seemed to make Tritus's anger flare up and he reared back his fist, but before he could throw a punch, a hand fell on his shoulder. He looked back to see the woman smiling at him and shaking her head. He clenched the cloth of the tunic even tighter, then he pushed the man to the ground. "Are you okay?" Tritus asked after taking a deep breath. She nodded. She then hugged Tritus tightly, and walked past him to her brother to help him up. Seeing this, Tritus took a deep breath and turned away only to run into Penn and Peddle. "Are you okay?" Peddle asked. Tritus smiled at her and patted her on the head and nodded. "Are you really?" Penn asked who wasn't convinced. "You've been so hostile and unpredictable since coming to this village." she said. This took Tritus by surprise. She was right, he had been uncontrollably angry since coming to this village and he really didn't understand why. He knew what was happening was upsetting, but he didn't think it would have such a explicit impact on him. He tried thinking of a reason for his susceptibility, but he couldn't find one. "Yeah I'm fine." he said, not realizing that he hadn't answered her question. He then walked away from them, clearly lost in thought.

A few days later, a woman approached Peddle and Penn who were sitting on the elevated platform at the center of the village. She smiled at both of them and sat next to them. It took Penn a moment to realize that the woman was the same one that Tritus had helped a couple of days earlier. Tirtus hadn't been seen since then, and Penn didn't know what she should do. For a while, the three of them just sat there in silence before Peddle spoke. "Where'd he go?" she asked Penn who just shrugged her shoulders. "I'm not sure." she answered, her anxiety apparent. "You came here together with him, right? Who is he?" Peddle asked. "Honestly, I don't know who he is. He just showed up to my village one day, and he's been dragging me from one village to the other ever since. I really don���t know anything about him." she said to Peddle, but while looking at the women listening intensely to their conversation. When the woman realized that Penn was watching her, her face turned red and she looked away. "What's your name?" Penn asked the woman. The woman looked at her, smiled, and shook her head while pointing to her throat. "You can't talk." Penn said understanding her. She nodded. "That's June." Peddle piped in. "She's new here." she smiled at Penn. Penn was about to ask when she remembered that she couldn't speak. "Is that right?" she asked June who nodded. "How did you get her? How long…" Penn started to ask but stopped when she remembered again that June couldn't speak. June smiled and dropped to the ground and started moving her finger through the dirt. "What are you…" Penn started but stopped when she saw what she'd done. She was drawing simple illustrations on the ground. It was a bunch of huts with stick figures among them. She drew what looked like a bird flying through the huts and hitting the stick figures. Two of the figures ran away. They ran through the trees until they met some other stick figures. The new figures tied up the other two and took them to a new set of huts. Penn stared down at the ground for a time trying to put the story together. Finally, she exclaimed, "Oh! I get it!" She hovered her finger over the drawings. "The stick things are people, and the two that ran through the trees were you and someone else after your village was attacked by an aven. Then, you ran into some people who brought you back to this village. Is that right, June?" Penn asked. June nodded. "What happened after that?" Peddle asked smiling up to June who paused at the question. She didn't move or seem to do anything, then she just smiled and shook her head. "Are you sure you can't tell?" Peddle asked, wanting to hear the end of the story. When Penn was about to speak, a voice sounded over her. "There are some things that people don't want to talk about, Peddle." a male voice said from nearby. All three of the girl jumped at the sound of the voice and turned around. "Calm down, it's just me." Tritus said to them as he popped up behind them. "You can't just sneak up on people!" Penn shouted at him. The others didn't say anything, they just pouted at him which made him burst into laughter. Penn also pouted at this and punched him in the chest. "Where have you been?" Penn asked, still pouting. Tritus wasn't sure, but he thought he saw a glimpse of concern behind her eyes. "You seemed really angry when you left. Half of me thought that you weren't going to come back." She said with a slight shake to her voice. At her words, the image of a pair of ocean blue eyes flashed into his mind, but was gone just as fast. "No, I just needed to clear my mind and put some things into motion. Peddle and June, I'm sorry but I need to take Penn for a bit to discuss some plans I have, I'll bring her back soon." he told them. Peddle was still pouting and didn't look at him, but June nodded. Tritus nodded to them and walked away with Penn trailing behind him.

For a time they just walked in silence, until Tritus started talking. "I plan on constructing mines to collect important resources for the villages. I need to train villagers in how to properly design and operate them. I also plan on opening schools, clothing shops, and a shipyard on a wide bend of the river. I also want to establish a military so we can secure the stability of the region and speed up the process. These are all just the basics and more priorities will come with time but..." he stopped talking when he realized that she wasn't listening. "Hey, Penn." he said, but didn't get a reply. She was clearly lost in her own thoughts. He called to her a few more times, until he decided to walk in front of her and stop, making her run straight into her back. "Sorry. What?" she asked, still not paying attention. "Hey, are you okay?" he asked when she looked up at him to apologize. She froze up at his words and stood there like a deer in headlights. Then, her body visibly slumped at his words. She didn't say anything for a while until she spoke in almost a whisper. "What was that." Tritus asked, not hearing her. "I said, I think I hate you." she said slightly louder. The words didn't seem to faze Tritus in the slightest. "Oh is that all? That's not surprising, I guess I did kill your family." Tritus chuckled with no humor in his voice. "Yes, but that's not it. I don't care about that, I mean I do but, ugh this isn't going the way I wanted it to." She said covering her face in frustration. "Just say whatever comes to your mind. I won't be bothered, I promise." he said, turning around and looking at her. She stood there and just looked at him for a moment before she seemed to deflate even more. "You keep throwing me into these situations that I don't want to be apart of." she blurted out. Tritus made a gesture prompting her to continue but didn't say anything. "I don't want any of this. You…you…you keep changing everything around me and making my life harder. You shake up everything I touch and I have no control over any of it." she clenched her fist and shook slightly. "Yeah, you killed my family, but I wasn't attached to them. They were awful, and they probably had it coming. On the other hand, because my family is dead I have to become the new chief. I have people in my own village, people who I thought were my friends, trying to kill me just for power. Then you show up again, dragging me across a damn forest into all of these weird situations. Oh yeah, and I'm now chief of not just one village, but four!" she started to yell slightly, her voice getting increasingly louder and more panicked. "Then you drag me through the forest again, and throw me on top of an animal well-known for destroying entire villages, hell, June's village was destroyed by one. Now we're at some village with horrible things happening that I don't know or even understand, but you seem to know a lot about. After that, you just up and disappear on me. You don't tell me a single thing, you just disappear." she said, her panicking and shouting turning into shaking sobs. "Do you know how scared I was? You just dropped me off in some strange village and left. I don't know these people, or how their village works. I don't even know how to get home from here. I thought you weren't coming back. I just want to go home and hide from all of this. I'm not strong, okay. I'm just scared, so let me go home." her broken sobs turned into pleading. Tritus was shocked. He didn't think that what had been happening had affected her this much. Granted, he knew it was a lot, but he thought that she could get through it unscathed. At that moment, the mask of the strong, smart, and calculating chief was gone. There was just a girl who got put into a terrifying situation that she wanted no part of, but dealt with it anyway. He just stood there watching her crying and pleading with him to let her go home. "I'm sorry I need you, so you have to stay with me." he said with some steel in his voice, while pushing away the emotion that he felt. "However, I promise I will take some of the pressure off of you for now." he finished a bit more gently. She just shook her head, rejecting his words. "Sorry, but you are way too smart to be left alone, and I have plans for you. So, you're just going to have to deal with it. I know this is hard on you, but this is bigger than you." he said the steely edge coming back to his voice. "You just need to suck it up for now, and once we are done, I will let you go but not before." he finished with no room for arguing. She wanted to fight him, to make him let her go, but when she looked up at him and heard his words and tone, she choked down a rising sob and held her tongue. She knew she had no real choice in the matter. It took her a second to compose herself. When she finally did, she didn't have much to say. "Okay," was all that she said while wiping away the tears from her face and sniffing. Tritus stood there like a brick wall, without concern or judgement. After her face was dry and the color had returned mostly to normal, she looked up at Tritus, as if asking, "what's next?" By the time she was ready to discuss their current plans, Tritus was already mumbling to himself and pacing. She decided not to interrupt and waited for him to finish going through his thoughts.

"I know that I may have been too hard on her, but I really don't have any choice." Tritus thought to himself. While he was confident and collected on the outside, seemingly emotionless, he was actually a mess. He was a ball of anxiety over what he had said and put Penn through. "I can see how all of these events happening over a short period of time could have affected her this heavily, but I really didn't have a choice. This really is bigger than her." he tried justifying to himself. He was replaying her break down over and over again in his mind, and It made him really want to let her go, but he knew that he couldn't do that. No matter how much he really wanted to let her return home, he knew what his job entailed and all that he would need to carry it out. Either way, it didn't mean her cries didn't bother him. It did more than even he knew. This genuine fear and desperation shook him to his very soul. "I'll make It up to her somehow, but right now, I have a job to do. I'm sorry Penn." he thought to himself before he started walking back toward the village, a determined look on his face. Penn walked quickly to keep up with him, the both of them silent and deep in thought.

Trailing behind Tritus, she had a torrent of emotions ripping through her. Everything from fear to overwhelming anger at Tritus, herself, and the world at large was passing through her. She just wanted to go back home and sleep it all away. At the same time, she was angry at herself for getting so upset and not being stronger. She was never supposed to be a chief. She wasn't supposed to be anything but another village girl and now she is being forced to do things that she never wanted any part in. Suddenly, without any hesitation, she slapped herself in the face. "I'm done with feeling sorry for myself. If I'm going to be forced into doing something that I don't want to do, then I'm just going to have to make it work for me." she yelled at herself. "I'm not going to be this scared girl anymore. I can definitely take advantage of this situation. I think." she said with a little less confidence. "No, it's fine, I can do this. One step at a time." She tried to pep herself up to the point that she almost seemed to be skipping. Tritus glanced out the corner of his eye and saw her, but she didn't seem to notice. Tritus smiled at himself but didn't look back again. "Maybe she's stronger than she thinks." he thought to himself, feeling a little better about the pressure that he was putting on her.