Umbral Feast

<~> Chapter 6 - Helena

Okay, now what do I do?

I watched the group of three standing in front of me. They still had their weapons drawn but they didn't look like they were planning on attacking me, I would hope not after protecting them. I wasn't sure if I should get involved when they were running away from those creatures but when they were about to get overwhelmed I decided to step in. Now that the monsters were gone I didn't know how to handle the aftermath. Part of me was happy to see people at all but the way they were dressed further hammered home that I wasn't in the world I knew anymore.

The one in front and the only male of the group was wearing a dark brown tattered cloak over his medieval looking armor. He reeked of blood from those gross monsters but I could tell the scent was coming from his clothes and not from his breath, at least he wasn't eating those disgusting things. I don't want to talk about how I could tell, my senses were sharper than I liked sometimes. He was carrying a plain looking sword that looked well used and a large shield, from what I saw he knew how to use them. He had bright red hair and brown eyes, from their matching hair he looked like the other one's sibling.

She was standing next to him, also wielding a sword but she had a smaller shield, she also had much less blood on her. Her sword smelled strongly enough that I could tell she had been killing the monsters with it too but she seemed to have fewer kills than the guy. The woman stood almost as tall as her brother but looked a bit more stringy because of it. That wasn't to say she looked weak, hardly, she looked strong enough to wipe the floor with most of the people back home. Her piercing green eyes held a lot of determination in them as if she was ready and willing to fight.

The last of their group made me do a double take. The woman was shorter than her friends but the height difference was made up for by the tall fox ears on top of her head. My first instinct was to think they were fake but the way they were twitching and turning to listen for sounds reminded me of a cat I used to have, combined with the swishing fox tail behind her, they looked real. She had bright blue eyes that sparkled in the white glow that followed everything I looked at. The next thing I noticed were the horrible scars across her throat, partially covered by a thick black choker. She wore a dark red cloak that covered some kind of padded armor underneath. Unlike her friends, she didn't carry a sword but rather a small scepter with a rounded red stone at the end.

I slowly raised my arms in what I hoped was a placating motion. "Hey guys, I helped you out. Do you think we can talk about this? I'd rather you not point your sharp looking swords in my direction."

The guy in front squinted at me before speaking in a strange language to the one I assumed was his sister. I couldn't place what language they were speaking. I wasn't exactly an expert on languages but I could usually at least place the region languages were from. This one didn't sound like anything I had heard before. In a weird way, it sounded the most like English because it didn't seem to have any unfamiliar sounds but what they were saying was complete gibberish.

The two had a short back and forth with each other while the fox girl kept looking at me, only occasionally glancing at her friends without contributing anything to their conversation.

"What language are you speaking? Do any of you speak English?" I kind of felt like a stupid tourist but I didn't know what else to do.

The red-headed woman flinched a little when I spoke again so I took a step back just in case. They still hadn't put their swords away and while I had a suspicion I could move faster than them, I didn't want to put that to the test. I barely survived being eaten by a wolf, I'd rather not get stabbed in the gut only a few days later. ...Or however long it had actually been.

Out of nowhere, they both turned to the silent fox girl who nodded back at them, the gesture was odd because as far as I could tell she hadn't said anything. Could the fox girl read minds? She swapped the scepter to her offhand and began digging through a satchel hanging on her waist. I watched her warily, not sure I liked where this was going. What she pulled out though was a bit unexpected. She took out a metal ring, a bit large for my fingers, and placed it on the ground in front of her. Then their entire group stepped back to give me space to pick it up.

I was confused, I looked down at the ring and back up at them and noticed the male was pointing at a matching ring on his own finger. I wasn't really sure what they were expecting but I picked it up without taking my eyes off of them. I hoped this wasn't some kind of elaborate trap or something. The only thing that bolstered my confidence is that the three of them looked scared shitless by me.

...I couldn't really blame them for that.

When I held the ring in my palm it looked too big for my finger but the male was now pantomiming putting the ring on. I glanced at the fox girl who nodded at me as if that would be reassuring. I decided to risk it and slipped the large ring around my left middle finger. I stared in shock as the ring shrunk down and fit my finger perfectly, like it had been made for me.

("Can you understand me?")

I jumped when I heard the unfamiliar voice and looked at each of the people in front of me again.

("Hello?") I asked.

The fox woman turned to the others and the two redheads suddenly started speaking excitedly to each other.

I looked at the fox girl, was she speaking through the rings? ("Can you understand me? I can't understand the language the other two were speaking.")

The fox woman smiled. ("Yes, it's not what the rings were created for but they let two hearts speak directly, not truly with words.")

I looked back down at the plain metal band, suddenly much more in awe of the simple looking ring now.

("How do they work? How did it shrink to fit my finger?")

("That's part of the enchantment.")

I looked back up at the fox girl. ("Enchantment? Like magic?")

She furrowed her brows and then I assume relayed something to the other two who replied something to her. It was a bit frustrating to see them talking about me in their own language but under the circumstances I was amazed we found a way to communicate at all.

She turned back to me. ("Is your kind not aware of Enchantments?")

("My kind? What do you mean?") I asked.

("umber hounds.")

Just the name made me shiver and it was not hard to piece together what she was implying. She thought I was a wolf like the one that tried to kill me. ...I could understand why, I had its eyes. The name of the creature seemed fitting, giant wolves made of shadow with glowing white eyes that pierced the darkness.

("I am not an umber hound. I am a human.")

Her eyes went wide and turned to her companions who immediately started having some sort of argument. As that continued the fox girl turned back to me. ("You protected us from the goblins... are you an ally?")

I glanced at the swords her friends still held. ("I don't want to fight and I would prefer if your friends put their swords away. Swinging them around like that is making me nervous, especially while they're arguing.")

The fox caught their attention and pointed at their swords. They looked at me and nodded. Then something unexpected happened, the man's voice appeared in my head just like the foxgirl's had, ("You say you are an ally then? You won't attack us after we put away our weapons?")

I turned to the man and nodded. ("I promise.")

The man stared into my eyes for a moment before turning back to his sister and speaking to her in their language again. They argued a bit more but after a moment the two of them watched me as they slowly sheathed their swords.

I turned to the fox. ("Why were you speaking for them if they could speak to me too?")

She smiled. ("The rings take mana to use and Maxwell doesn't have a lot of it. Piper can use them a little bit but her regeneration is slow enough that she needs to save most of her mana for healing. I'm the only one who has enough mana regeneration to use the rings freely but it takes mana in both directions so they would have run out of mana if they tried to talk to you more.")

I looked over the other two again, finally able to put a name to a face. Maxwell and Piper. I turned to the fox woman. ("What about you? What's your name?")

("Luna. And you?")

("Helena Miller.")

She tilted her head. ("You're a noble?")

("No? Do you not have a last name?")

("Usually only nobles and wealthy merchants are allowed to have a last name, though I've never heard of the 'Miller' family.")

I shook my head. ("I'm not a noble or anything like that. Where I come from everyone has a family name.")

("I've never heard of a place like that. Where do you come from? Why do you have the eyes of an umber hound? Oh wait, do you have enough mana to keep talking like this?") She suddenly looked flustered.

Before I saw the girl hurling fireballs I didn't know magic even existed.

I shrugged. ("I don't know, I didn't know that I had any mana. I don't know anything about magic at all.")

Was it wise to tell them where I come from? Maybe I would be better off keeping that to myself for now. It was obvious this world was a lot different, would I be in danger if I talked about how I got here? Would it make them more accepting of someone who acted like a monster sometimes or would it make them less likely to trust me?

Maxwell spoke to Luna for a moment in their native tongue, when he finished Luna turned back to me. ("Maxwell wants to know what your plan is? He saw the... territory markers for the umber hound and wanted to know if we need to be worried about another one hunting us. He also wants to know if you wanted something in return for saving us.")

Territory markers? I looked at the deep grooves I cut into the stone with my claws for a moment before turning back. ("I only ever saw the one umber hound that tried to kill me, it's been dead for a few days now. If you're talking about the scratch marks in the walls those were just me trying not to get lost in the caves over there.") I pointed in the direction of the tunnel I had come from. ("As for a reward... would it be okay if I came with you guys? I don't know how I got here and I'm lost. It would be nice to get out of this tunnel system and breathe some fresh air again.")

She stared at me a little perplexed by my answers before turning back to her comrades. After a bit of time, my replies seem to have started another argument between the two siblings, clearly aimed at me from all the pointing.

The fox waved to get my attention again. ("Don't mind them, but first, you're on the sixteenth floor of a dungeon, you know that right? There is no fresh air here, you'd have to go back up to the top and leave before you could get out.")

("Dungeon? Like a prison? What do you mean? Did someone send me here on purpose?")

My answer clearly left her even more confused because she tapped Piper on the shoulder and I assume started talking to her next through the rings. This led to another conversation between the two siblings, this one looked a lot less like an argument.

After some back and forth the fox spoke to me again, ("This isn't a prison, this is a place where monsters spawn and hunters come to gather rare materials to sell to the city up above us. Or, in the case of goblins, where we can grow stronger to fight more dangerous enemies. If you're not a hunter you shouldn't be down here, or well, I guess with your strength that wouldn't matter...")

The two humans got the fox's attention and told something to her before she spoke again, ("My friends say that if you want to come with us you'll have to help us fight. But if you do, then Maxwell wouldn't mind giving you a standard split of the money we make and lead you out of the dungeon. He's essentially inviting you to our party.")

I looked over the group who were waiting for my response expectantly. ("Sure? Seems fair to me.")

For the first time since I'd met the group the two red-heads smiled and patted the fox on the shoulder. It seems that whatever I agreed to just made the two humans pretty happy. And the shy blush on the fox girl's face was pretty cute...

Saine

Hello! So, I've decided that I'm going to post chapters for this story twice a week instead of just once a week like i had originally planned. I've been able to keep up consistent enough to pace that I shouldn't have any issues keeping up with two chapters for each of my two stories. The only downside is that I'll have less leeway if something goes wrong. Not too big a worry, I don't think I've ever missed an upload of my other story yet so I think it shouldn't be a problem. I'll now be posting this story on Mondays and Fridays! I hope you've enjoyed reading so far!

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