But for a Slime

Chapter Eighteen

When Joe had seen the gem kind of ooze into the man’s fingers, he had been a bit shocked by what he had seen, but then he took in the people around the square, and noticed that most of them were a bit afraid and that many, including the village elders confronting the man, where a bit roughed up, some showing black and blue. The blacksmith even had a bloody nose and the beginnings of a pretty bad black eye.

The man continued walk through the middle of the square, the crowd of people pressing away from him and surrendering the entire square to him. The village elders in the middle that confronted him were completely ignored as he focused on throwing his propaganda at the crowd. Even the elders seemed uncertain, slight fear in their shoulders while the blacksmith seemed the only one who stood firm despite his hurt. In the blacksmith’s hands sat some kind of iron tool, a circle of some kind, although Joe couldn’t quite get a full look at it since it was hidden by the smith’s body. Joe looked around at everyone crowding and decided to simply watch, the triple gem of the last slime he had killed still playing in his hands.

The man continued his haranguing as he walked in a slow circle to face everyone equally. When he came to the direction where Joe was, the man’s eyes lit on him and then began smirking. His speech quickly cut off and then he pointed at Joe and began a mocking tirade which Joe didn’t understand anything of, but knew enough from his tone that it was not kind to him. What does he have against me? He’s the one that stole from me!

Joe’s genial nature soured, and he didn’t really feel like being a very nice guy anymore. If the guy’s going to be an asshole, I’m not going to be that nice! Joe pushed his way through the crowd, feeling Garnedell on his heels. He made it through the crowd and came to stand beside the smith and the other elders. When he arrived, Joe noticed the palpable sense of relief that seemed to wash over the group of men. The crowd had been listening to the man silently before, but the usual susurrus of a rustling crowd overlay everything. It wasn’t until Joe stepped into the center that absolute silence seemed to have fallen, like a gasp of surprise that follows shock then stillness of the wary.

Joe didn’t say anything, although he looked around with a bit of wariness himself as he felt the unusual stillness, his three months of combat in the forests having conditioned him to be cautious of silence. No one else seemed to react to the stillness and Joe could not find anything to merit caution so he relaxed and turned his attention back on the gem thief. He opened his mouth to begin speaking again, but the man started once again on his mocking speech and Joe simply crossed his arms and waited. The man seemed to go on and on, for quite some time, continually pulling out his gems and making them flash and melt into his skin. The man abruptly laughed in the middle of tirade, then held up the pouch and emptied it out on the ground, but nothing spilled out. It was empty.

“So… You just used all my gems for some weird reason. I’ll make sure to figure out how and why, but you are going to pay me back for the thousand plus you stole from me!”

The man looked at him with some confusion for a bit before looking towards Garnedell. The boy stepped up to Joe’s side and looked up at him. Joe smirked a bit, realizing that Garnedell was going to have to translate. So he made it easy, shifting to the local language as much as possible.

“Pay me!”

Garnedell understood that easily and simply repeated it with much more elegance, firmly and loudly. Joe wasn’t expecting much, but the man’s reaction did surprise. He immediately began laughing and mocking.

“No… do… the… Arg! So, that’s a no then?” Joe finally swapped to English in frustration.

Garnedell looked at him and cocked his head with some confusion.

“Ah… right… you don’t get it,” Joe muttered quickly to himself and Garnedell easily understood that Joe was not expecting that part to be translated, waiting attentively for the part Joe wanted him to translate although Joe simply spoke the local language again.

“So, yes? Or no? Pay me.”

Garnedell spoke bluntly and shortly to the man as well, and Joe had to hide his humor at having Garnedell simply repeating a lot of his statements. His humor faded at the thief’s mocking laughter as it took on a hard edge, his hand pulling out a dagger as he settled into a very poor fighting stance.

“Right. I get that answer, no need for translation!”

Joe looked towards the smith and saw that all the other elders had taken a step back except for the smith, although he seemed especially wary. Huh… is this guy dangerous? Joe’s confidence remained, but his caution ratcheted up significantly and asked the smith and elders for permission to deal with the thief.

“Is it alright if I deal with him, eerrmmm I do action him?” Joe asked as he nodded towards the man.

The smith replied in some way, but made it obvious when he waved his hand towards thief and nodded in acquiescence. Really glad that some body language symbols seem to be universal, although it does seem weird they are? Joe put that oddity aside for consideration at a later date, and turned to Garnedell.

“Here, kid. Can take stuff mine?”

He pulled off his … fanny pack… it really is a fanny pack!!... and handed it to the teen, also tossing the triple gem to the boy. As he began working off his harness of weaponry, he suddenly heard Garnedell shout in surprise, his words echoing loudly throughout the village space. At the same time, Joe almost felt the intense overwhelming shock that seemed to literally echo out from everyone around him. He froze in a bit of fear. What just happened?!

* * *

Garnedell held that triple core in his hand, his shocked shout still echoing through the entire village agora. Everyone froze with surprise and stared at the object in his hand even as hisses of surprise and awe echoed throughout the crowd.

“That’s got to be impossible!”

“Are you serious? He can take a master monster? That’s…”

“How is that…”

Even as the ripples of surprise echoed throughout the area, the thief who had been rather cocky suddenly seemed stunned, then fearful. He then seemed to steady himself and charged towards Joe even as Joe was struggling to remove the weapons and harness he had on. Garnedell shouted a surprised warning and Joe seemed to leap into action. He dropped his hands to the side, arms coming into a stance that Garnedell easily recognized as one of the many they practiced in the evenings.

The thief sprinted across the agora with surprising speed for who he was but seemed so painfully slow compared to Joe. His master slid up to him almost as if he had glided across the ground, his feet unmoving. An arm came up, Joe’s left, and it slapped hard against the wrist of the knife hand, pushing it aside with great force, even as the right hand formed a fist that swept up from Joe’s side, brushing in for an incredibly hard punch to the gut, right under the ribs, centered directly below the sternum.

The man dropped like a puppet with its strings cut, breathe whooshing explosively from lungs even as the dagger leapt from the man’s hand as the wrist shattered under Joe’s hard parry to his wrist. Joe slipped around the man with ease even as he folded forward and slumped to the ground. Joe’s right hand pressed down upon his neck, the left hand grasping the man’s left wrist, and he pushed him firmly to the ground. In only seconds, the man was pressed to the ground, contained.

Silence reigned. Only the sound of the thief’s pained cries echoed around the area for several moments, then pandemonium. People began shouting in surprise, outrage, shock, anger, and grief. The elders quickly brought the crowds under control while Garnedell ran to Joe’s side, cautious to be ready to attend him as needed. Smith Kargallen came forward with the criminal collar and fiddled with Joe’s hand until he had moved it out of the way, quickly snapping the collar down upon the thief’s neck. Joe continued to hold down the man, but the smith finally convinced him to move away. Joe seemed cautious in his movement, and Garnedell realized that he was afraid that the man would try to harm others. Why is he… Has he never seen a criminal collar before? The thief is down for good now!

Garnedell said nothing as Joe had moved by then, and the collar was firmly in place. The blacksmith walked away and stood before the crowd. The thief stood slowly and simply waited, head bowed. There was nothing he could do! The criminal collar was placed and he could do nothing. Joe, however, didn’t move, standing behind the prisoner with caution, watching everything that was going on carefully. Garnedell watched him with attentive focus. He’s always careful, even when it’s not necessary! Garnedell realized that even in this, Joe was training him, and he began to avidly watch Joe’s actions, wishing to make his master proud as a student. But only minutes later, he found himself already distracted by the proceedings of the crowd and the elders of the village.

The crowd had burst into frenzied cries of shock and awe at Joe’s actions, but Kargallen the Smith called for all to quiet and brought order to the crowd.

“We call the crowd to witness the punishment of the known minor criminal, the thief Shukan. We call for the Shrine Priest to verify his villainy.”

The priest Darnua came forth and called on the ways of his god to reveal the man’s criminal status, his hands waving in arcane weavings to bring forth his status. When Shukan’s status came up in view of all who were watching, his status display was a dead grey, the sign of a minor criminal.

The crowd all breathed in a sigh of shock, some a bit amazed, others sighing with sadness. The crowd’s response was not for Shukan’s criminal status, but it was the first many had ever seen a grey status display before. The village was not a perfect place but even minor criminals were unknown here. The village was small and the people were too well known for criminals to easily hide. Kargallen allowed the crowd to murmur amongst itself for a short time, parents raising children to shoulders so they could see what a criminal status would look like, taking the moment to offer their kids a teaching moment.