Chapter 58 part 3

Jenn reached the gate when she was starting to think about taking a small break for some lunch the next day. She would have continued moving through the night, but she was pretty confident that she'd want to be better rested than doing that would allow her to be.

She didn't take as long to get to the gate as she had taken to get to the village, mostly because she knew where the path to the gate was this time.

As she stood before it, she hesitated. Nor because she thought that she might need to take a bit of a rest first, but rather because she couldn't help but feel a little nervous about what she might find on the other side.

As far as she knew, the natives of that world didn't know about the gate, so she might be able to sneak in without problem, but at the same time, she couldn't really take it for granted. Not when so much was on the line for her people.

She didn't like being the one who was responsible for everyone, but she also knew that she'd pretty much done it to herself. So she really didn't have anyone else to blame. Especially since she'd accepted the responsibility knowing full well what she was doing at the time. It would be nice to feign ignorance about it, but she doubted she'd like herself much afterwards if she did that.

Shaking those thoughts from her head, she took a deep breath and stepped through the gate. She knew that she wouldn't be able to do anything if she didn't take that first step. Especially because if she wasn't on the same world as the settlement her people had been working at building, then she wouldn't even be able to know what there was that she could actually do.

As Jenn felt the familiar sensation of passing through the gate, she felt like the sudden change in temperature was sucking the breath out of her. The change was mostly from the wind, which was blowing in the direction she was coming through the gate in. Which would explain why she didn't feel it before she passed through.

The snow felt a little deeper than it had been when she'd been here last, though she wouldn't be surprised if that was just part of her imagination. After all, it's not like she measured how deep it was then. All she cared about at that time then had been about how to help everyone survive this winter. Especially since it had come on so suddenly for them.

Which was also complicated with how the wind blew the snow around, sometimes adding more in one area, while removing some in another. Though, while the wind didn't feel that strong, the blowing snow certainly reduced her overall visibility.

Nothing around her felt any different from when she'd last been here. Using her magic, she was able to tell that there were more tracks in the snow, mostly to and from the privy, that were in the process of getting covered up again, but she didn't see anyone actually outside at this time in the area in front of her. Not even any of the natives that had approached her people, according to Saelea. She hadn't been sure if she would need to expect guards making sure that none of them tried running.

However, with the area clear in front of her, Jenn was confident that she'd be able to reach the others, get an accurate sense of what was going on, and then she could put the mask and hooded tunic that she'd made and take the place of the 'chief' of her people.

The only problem was that she hadn't realized she'd been seen by some of the natives. So, as she walked towards the main building, where she was pretty sure everyone was still otherwise crammed in there like sardines, she only stopped when she heard the footsteps behind her.

She turned to look to see what looked like a nine-foot person, about twice as wide as any other person she had seen, with two head. She could tell that it was female, though she wasn't sure if she knew what it's age was. As far as she knew, it was an adult, but it could easily still be considered a child in their culture.

The left head had white hair and blue eyes while the head on the creature's right had steel grey hair and emerald eyes. The creature didn't seem to wear much clothing, just little more than a leather loincloth around her waist and what looked like two leather straps across her torso in a crisscross pattern, one running over each of her breasts, or the bumps that might one day become breasts. Jenn couldn't be sure right then.

"What you doing here?" the left head demanded in a loud voice.

"Where you come from?" the head on its right demanded at the same time.

Then before Jenn had a chance to respond, as she also noticed another of the creatures a little distance away back from the way that Jenn had come from the cul-de-sac, watching them. The only details she could make out about that one, with the blowing snow, was that it was male.

The creature in front of her also seemed to take exception with its other head and both were glaring at the other. Which made Jenn wonder just how volatile of a situation this might be.

"Uh, which question would you like me to answer first?" Jenn asked as calmly as she could, a little unsure as to what might set this creature off. She didn't like thinking of her as a creature, but that's all that came to Jenn's mind at that moment.

"Mine!" both snarled, turning their glares to Jenn.

"Alright," Jen replied as conversationally as she could. "First, I came from another world called Earth, I traveled across other worlds to get here and I'm here to speak with my chief about the situation here."

Jenn could see the wheels turning slowly in the heads that were staring at her. If she hadn't been going out with Alex at that time, she might have considered seeing if both of them might be open to a relationship. She couldn't help but think both looked rather cute, even though they were still looking at her rather hostilely, their glares slowly fading as they processed Jenn's words.

The heads looked at each other before back to Jenn. "We no see you come to no exit. How you get there with us not seeing?" the head on the left asked, sounding a little less hostile, but Jenn got the sense that this creature would attack at the slightest provocation.

"Maybe you just weren't looking when I went there," Jenn suggested, hoping that the point of 'when' wouldn't come up. After all, she wasn't there when Jenn had gone into the cul-de-sac before, so naturally the creature in front of her hadn't been 'looking' then.

Jenn wanted to laugh at how confused the heads of the creature looked. Though, at the same time, she felt a little bad for them. If this individual was any indication, these creatures certainly weren't the sharpest tools in the shed. Jenn couldn't be sure if they just naturally had low intelligence or if they seemed that way because they didn't have much of an education system on this world that they could access.

Although, she had a feeling that she was able to understand them due to magic, though she had a feeling they were at least partially aware of it, otherwise they might be questioning how others understood them. The question left was just how well they understood it or if they were merely taking it for granted.

"When this be?" the head with grey hair asked, sounding a little uncertain.

Jenn merely shrugged. "I can't really say," she answered, not sure if she really should say even that much. "Time can be hard to follow sometimes."

The expressions on the creature's face let Jenn know that what she was saying wasn't something they understood. Which she hoped was a positive for her. That if she made it too complicated for them, that they might just let her continue on without any real troubles.

"You trying to leave?" the white haired head asked, her voice full of anger.

Jenn had a feeling making things complicated for the heads might be creating more problems. That they might be taking Jenn's statements as a way to confuse them so she could slip by them.

"If I was trying to leave, why would I go to the-" Jenn stopped as she was about to say 'cul-de-sac' which she was pretty sure they might not understand that. While magic allowed them to understand each other's words, Jenn wasn't sure how thorough of a job it did. If it allowed them to understand more complicated words, so long as she understood what the word meant, or if it would just leave them wondering what it was that Jenn had said.

"-no exit," Jenn continued after a heartbeat. She didn't want to have to fight her way past this creature. Especially since she was merely doing whatever job she'd been assigned. "Why would I try for somewhere with an exit?"

The heads of the creature looked at each other, clearly not sure how to respond, though the anger and hostility was leaving their expressions. Which Jenn was going to take as a win for the moment.

"Would it be alright for me to go so I can talk with my chief now?" Jenn asked, hoping that they would let her go. She didn't want to be rude, especially since she couldn't be sure that they wouldn't take issue with her if she did that. Though there was always the possibility that they might take her to someone else to make that decision first.

"You no explain why you here in first place," the white haired head answered, while the other head looked like she might be on Jenn's side with this matter.

"I'm here because I had been sent by my chief," Jenn replied, not wanting to say more, just in case she might let something slip that she herself was that 'chief' she kept referring to.

"These tinys have no chief," the white haired head declared. "Or their chief is scared and weak."

Jenn merely smiled gently, hoping it would confuse this creature in a different way. One that it wouldn't be able to fully react in the same way to.

"My chief will act once I speak with her," Jenn said firmly. "She only stayed hidden because it wasn't time." Jenn looked towards the building she wanted to go to, as she started to shiver in the cold wind. "My chief is waiting to hear what I have to say. Once she hears that, she will come out to meet with whoever your chief is so this whole mess can be resolved."

"You speak lots of words," the head growled. "How you learn so much?"

Jenn looked at the two-headed creature again. "It's just the way of my people. The more we learn, the more we can help each other out and survive at times when we might not otherwise be able to."

The expressions on the heads before here didn't fill Jenn with confidence that she had convinced them, but she was pretty sure that the head with steel grey hair was wanting to be done with this conversation and the white haired head was just pushing it forward.

"Go speak to your coward chief," the holdout head spat, her voice letting Jenn know just what she thought of Jenn's people. "Unless you want to fight now and show you not as coward as your chief."

Jenn reached out and patted the creature's arm, as high as she could reach. "I would fight you if it would bring me any benefit. It's just that if I did that, I just can't see that your people would take it very well. As we were told that your people wanted to see our chief. So, if I fight you before that happens, then your people might come and attack mine, no longer waiting for our chief."

The scowl on the white haired head made Jenn wonder if she'd hit the nail on the head there. That that particular head had been trying to goad Jenn into doing just that. Although, Jenn wondered if that head thought she'd be able to take Jenn if she did attack.

So, without saying anything else, Jenn turned and continued to walk towards the main building. Though, she couldn't help but wonder if she really should have fought that creature. After all, that one head was itching for a fight, so it wasn't like she was trying to start a fight herself.

Still, she was confident walking away from that situation was the right choice. That at best any confrontation there would have mere ended up with nothing really lost. At worst, she'd have potentially started a fight that she wasn't sure that her people would have been able to win. Especially with that search party still being held captive by these creatures.

When she reached the building, she immediately entered, carefully avoiding those who were relaxing on the floor. Though, she could see a few trying to be intimate without drawing attention to themselves, which Jenn quickly looked away from when she noticed. Though, she was pretty sure that anything going on in this room was noticed by everyone, no matter how they tried to keep it from being so obvious.

It took her longer than she'd have liked to pass through that front area and reach the stairs, even with others moving out of her way when they saw her. She didn't think that it had taken this long when she'd had to go through this before, when she'd returned to find that winter had arrived in the settlement.

As she finally was able to start to climb the stairs, she took a deep breath. She couldn't help but wonder if she was just tired at that moment and that might have been why she didn't get through that room that quickly. It was possible, but it didn't really matter at that point anyway. She was there and she could now do what she could to get the scouting party released.

When she entered her room, she nearly ran into Cithis. Jenn wasn't sure what Cithis had in mind to have been doing, but when she saw Jenn, her face brightened up. It was clear that she was happy to see Jenn, and Jenn was pretty sure that it wasn't just from the fact that she had adopted Jenn as her mother.

"Saelea made it?" Cithis asked, though Jenn was pretty sure that Cithis had enough confirmation about that subject with Jenn before her right then.

"Yeah, but she didn't really tell me everything that was going on, so I'll need you to get everyone here that knows anything about what's going on. I need to talk with everyone about what I need to do next."

Cithis blinked. "What you need to do?" she echoed, her tone letting Jenn know she wasn't going to make this easy. "No, you can't be the one doing… whatever it is you're going to decide to do. That's why you made your stand-ins, right? It's too dangerous for you."

Jenn smiled at Cithis and pulled her into a hug, not caring at Cithis' struggles or the fact that she had an audience. "I chose my stand-ins for things that I didn't need to do myself. If they could have handled this on their own, they would have already. Because they haven't, then that leaves it to me. Especially since I know what I'm willing to trade to get our scouting party back safely."

After a moment, she released Cithis who stepped away from Jenn, looking a little unhappy, but pleased at the same time. Jenn was about to continue on into her room, when she felt smaller arms wrap around her. Arms that she saw belonged to Haln when she turned to look.

"I see you're at least happy to see me," Jenn said softly, returning Haln's embrace.

"Don't go yourself, mother," Haln begged. "Don't go away."

Jenn kissed the top of Haln's head as Cithis moved past Jenn to ostensibly carry out Jenn's directions. "If I do go, I promise to come back, okay?"

At those words, Haln merely held to her tighter. Jenn doubted that she'd be able to convince him about her dealing with this situation personally. She only knew that she couldn't let others handle this themselves. Not only was there too much at stake, but she was pretty sure that they would have a way to tell who the chief was and if she didn't go herself that it could make this more complicated and problematic than it really needed to be.

"Some things I won't be able to leave to others," Jenn whispered to Haln, hoping he would understand, despite him being so young. "Even if it means I have to do something I can't be sure if I'll come back from. In fact, there might come a time when I'll have to do something where I won't expect to return."

"Don't go," Haln merely pleaded as Jenn felt his body start to shake with sobs.

Jenn wasn't sure what to do about that. The most she'd had to deal with in regards to another's fears had been her sister's issues with severe weather at night. Which wasn't something that really applied here. As it wasn't the same kind of fear. With this one, Jenn could tell that it might be more troublesome for her than her sister's was. Even though she couldn't really blame Haln for feeling this way.