218 - Loyalists

Plotline: Main

Chapter Type: Social

Ever try lying on the beach until discovered? It turns out that I didn't have the patience for it. I coughed up a lungful of water, and made my way along the coast toward the village. I didn't need to feign fatigue or hunger.

Wartime isn't the best time for a foreigner, even a young and unarmed one. Their shouts were less of welcome, and more to alert their neighbors. The whole village was a dozen houses, a warehouse, and some manner of irrigation thing from inland that provided the village with fresh water from further up the river.

"You! Stop there, or we'll gut you like a fish!" an old lady with a whaling harpoon said.

I stopped, raising my hands. "I know I'm not supposed to be here, but I am."

"We have nothing for you, drowned one."

"I'm not drowned." I said. Yes, the Drowned Dead are a thing on my world. Some of them walk and talk, and eat people. Her caution was warranted.