Swamped

Regardless, nobody can agree on precisely what it is.

Nope. Just a curious grebling kid.

For just a moment, you see a large reptilian face and freeze in fear. Has a tunneler surfaced?

But then you realize it's a lizard-worm and it's just very close by. In that it seems to have knocked you over just as you were getting your bearings.

"Are you the human who brought this here?" someone asks. "Don't worry, its teeth haven't grown back yet. It's safe to just push it off."

You do so, and then you get up to see a very tiny grebling. A child? They've got the lizard-worm on some sort of leash.

"Well, it wasn't my idea, but I guess it was with my group," you say. "Last I saw it, it was still missing its head."

"Yeah, they don't usually grow back this fast, that's what Max says. But the teeth are usually fully formed by the time the head comes back. Not this time. Max thinks whatever sped up the growth doesn't work on teeth, or not as well."

"You don't say."

"So Max asked me to help feed it stuff that it doesn't need teeth for."

"At this hour?"

"I'm old enough to stay up until midnight," the child shoots back. "Besides, I'm hunting sand beetles to feed it, and they don't leave their nests until it's dark."

"What's your name?"

"Max Junior, but everyone just calls me Junior," says the kid. "It's not a very good name, Max just couldn't think of anything better."

"I see. Well, nice to meet you. I'm Corvus."

"That's a way better name," Junior says, sounding a little jealous.

"I could call you something else if you'd like. Where I come from, most people pick their names. Well, sometimes they can't think of anything and they ask for a name. When that happens, they usually get stuck with a name they don't like."

"That sounds like a cool place," Junior says, awestruck. "I wish I could pick my name. I'd be..."

Junior seems lost in thought.

"I don't know, actually. Never realized just how hard this was. I guess that's why Max gave up."

You figure you may as well get some information out of this kid.

"Well, you don't have to answer right away. By the way, have you seen any other humans around tonight? I'm trying to check on the rest of my group."

"Had you seen some priest-likes? Just sayin'."

Huh. Corvus doesn’t actually know if greblings lay eggs or not. Does this kid have a mom?

This kid doesn’t know much about humans. Does Corvus have a Broodtooth?

"Well, there was that human being dragged around the camp in ropes. That's the only one I really saw up close before now." Junior pauses. "Is it true humans don't have claws?"

"Pretty much," you say. "I mean, we've got something similar on our fingers, but they don't get nearly as sharp."

"Must be hard to climb trees, then. Not that I've ever seen a tree."

"It's not that bad. We've got bigger limbs than you, so we can reach around the tree. That helps quite a lot."

"Have you climbed a tree before?"

"Plenty of times. I live in a swamp, we've got lots of trees there."

Junior seems intrigued.

"What's a swamp?"

"Well, basically it's a big patch of water with lots of plants growing out of it. Ours is a real big patch of water, only it's so thick it's nearly mud."

"Sounds like it'd be easier to get food there than it is here," Junior says. "We get most of our food from the supplier. Not a lot grows here, and we can't really eat meat."

"Right, your teeth aren't made for it. To be honest, we don't eat much meat out in the swamp either. Not because we can't, but because we have trouble storing it and we couldn't make enough to feed a whole fortress on one day's hunt. Mostly we eat swampleaf because that's plentiful."

"What's that taste like?"

"Like a really flavorless leaf. Keeps us fed, though."

You feel like this isn't really getting anywhere, even if it is educating the kid. You're probably better off letting Junior here go on their way while you get your work done.

But before you can work out how to excuse yourself, they ask a question that, frankly, startles you.

"Can you help us?"

Do you know any silver people? Max said he knew one.

"So... can you humans really help us?"

You feel like you missed something here.

"Uh, sorry, I'm not sure what you need help with. If it's the science stuff, probably not. That all goes way over my head."

"With the church. They've never liked us much, Max says, but the people they've been sending lately have been very unfriendly. Rudolph thinks they might be getting serious about shutting down the camp."

As soon as they say it, you feel like a big missing piece to a puzzle has popped into your mind. That's why everyone here gives off the impression of being an outcast - it was probably the grebling church that forced them out.

Why they did, you can't say. But the overall shape of it sounds really familiar.

A powerful group scares off its dissidents, and many of them escape to a remote place. After a long period of largely leaving them be, they suddenly start getting more aggressively interested in quelling the isolated rebels.

It's so much like what Kandria is doing at the Marsh Fortress that you have a hard time believing it's a coincidence.

The grebling kid seems to have taken notice at your startled expression.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," you say quickly. "I just have some questions about what you just said."

You do, in fact, so this isn't too bad an excuse. What should you ask first?

When did this camp get started?

Why don't you guys live underground? Greblings are burrowers. Crosswinds had who knows how many secret passages he dug out, but everyone here lives in tents on the surface. It'd be cooler underground as well.

Is there something underground that the adults don't want to see?

"So when did this camp get started?"

Junior shrugs.

"Dunno. Pretty sure it's older than me, though I can't exactly remember my first two years all that well so I guess it could have started up sometime then. But the earliest I remember, I was here. So, eight years, at the least?"

"Why the tents? Aren't grebling colonies usually underground?"

Junior gives you a look that suggests you didn't really think about it.

"They're in caverns. Places that are already hollowed out. We can't exactly live our lives covered in sand, y'know. And if we dug far enough to get below it, well, that's where the tunnelers are. Anyhow, it's not like we want to live underground in the first place, we only started doing that because humans kicked us out of everywhere else."

Oh. Right. That makes a lot of sense.

"I just figured you'd get less of the desert heat underground. Actually, why are you all in the desert in the first place?"

You know parts of the answer to that question already, but you don't really know the reason for running off to a desert instead of somewhere else.

"Because the desert is what we're researching. Obviously."

"To what end?"

Junior just shrugs.

"Dunno, I'm not old enough for them to tell me the details, apparently."

"Well, apparently it's something your church doesn't like."

"From what Jeb told me, they don't like a lot of things. So I can't say that really narrows it down."

Hmm, maybe you should have some more words with that priest. On the other hand, you've still got the job Rider asked you to do. Or maybe you're not done talking with this kid yet.

What's your next move?

Teach Junior a swamp jingle.

The maybe go look for and/or be Rivers

Better get on with delivering the package.

Junior: Have stolen the package.

You contemplate thanking Junior with a swamp shanty, but it occurs to you that you don't know any with lyrics suitable for children. Besides, they might just go singing it to everyone and making a nuisance of themselves.

So you just thank Junior for indulging your curiosity, and head off towards Marshall's tent.

Before poking your head in, you check your pouch, in case you have to get the package out.

That's when you realize it's missing.

Well. You'd better find it. But first, you opt to check in with Rivers. Maybe you can get her to help you look.

You're now Junior.

You've never really understood a lot of the things humans like to carry around with them, but this funny little box is a new one entirely. You're a little curious what's inside, but it's kind of hard to open.

But you're not really interested in opening it. You're just looking to play with the human a little, after all.

You only did this once before, on some pilgrims stopping by for a rest. But they were really boring and they got upset with the director lady afterwards, even though they got their stuff back - it was just greener. Maybe this guy will be a better sport, or at least more fun to watch.

You just need to think about what to do with this thing before you slip it back where it's supposed to go. This might be your only chance to pull a good prank for months, so you'd best make it count.

Slip lizard-worm poop into the package.

This top part looks like it twists off, and maybe a human could do it by hand, but you're gonna need the wrench.

You consider slipping some lizard-worm droppings into the package, but all the humans you've seen out here wear gloves regularly. Disposing of it would just be a mild inconvenience. You might see a disgusted expression for a few seconds and that would be it - hardly worth the effort.

Oh, but there is that spare spring Theo wound up not needing for one of his projects. You might be able to do something with that... if you could open the package first.

It looks like there's a lid that can be taken off, but it requires both turning and pulling at the same time. It wouldn't be all that difficult for a human, probably, but your claws aren't made for that.

Theo's got to have at least one wrench you can use for this, though. And you did see him leave his tent earlier. You slip the package back into your pocket, and resume walking the lizard-worm through the camp.

You don't see anyone around outside Theo's tent, so you slip in and...

"We're not trying to steal anything!"

You leap back in surprise. There's two humans in here. The one who cried out at you only has one arm.

"Then what exactly are you doing?" you ask, hoping neither of them will realize you're not supposed to be here either.

"That's none of your business, kid," says the other human. She's glaring at you fiercely. "What are you doing in here? I don't think Theo wants a lizard-worm around his delicate equipment."

Well. So much for that.

I was going to ask Theo for a tool to help adjust the lizard worm's collar. What happened to your arm?

"I thought Theo would be here," you say defiantly. "I wanted help adjusting this lizard-worm's collar."

The two-armed human looks at the lizard-worm suspiciously.

"Adjusting it how? It's not hanging loose, and your little pet there doesn't seem to be having any trouble breathing."

Shoot. You didn't think that far ahead.

"It's fine right now, sure, but something's wrong with how it's on there. It keeps getting tighter every once in a while," you lie desperately. "I was hoping Theo could fix it. Now, what are you humans doing in here?"

"Listen, kiddo. You're not half the liar you think you are. Or pickpocket, at that."

"Pickpocket? What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about how your free hand is firmly planted over your own pocket. Pretty standard tell for youngsters just starting out, they're worried someone is after their own stuff. Especially if it's something they just nabbed. So, let's see it."

"This?" you say, pulling it out. "This is mine, that's all."

The one-armed human seems surprised.

"If that's yours, how come it has my family crest on it?"

Uh-oh. You definitely weren't prepared for that question.

Now what do you do?

Well now you're curious. It's not like human thieves (whom you caught where they weren't supposed to be) are going to get you in much trouble, but maybe they can keep you from being bored. Ask them if they know what it is, and stick around to see if they can open it.

"Okay, so maybe I found it," you say. "So what? You say it's your family crest, but you can't prove it, and I still caught you sneaking into Theo's workshop."

"No, we caught you sneaking in," says the one with two arms.

"Whatever. Look, here's my offer. You don't snitch on me, I don't snitch on you, and to sweeten the deal I'll let you have this thing. But, you need to let me see what's inside."

"No deal. We're not doing anything wrong, unlike you."

"But hang on, I'd like to take a look at that package," the one-armed human interjects.

"Then this little squirt can just hand it over, because clearly it's got something to do with you. Right?"

"Tell me what you're doing here and maybe I will," you say, digging in. You may be in deep, but you're not letting these two walk all over you.

"We don't gotta tell you squat," says the one, and then the other says "We just wanted to check a map, that's all."

"Goddamn it, Marshall, you didn't have to say anything," the two-armed human grumbles.

"What? I didn't say anything about why, I thought that was safe enough. And I figured the conversation would just keep going in circles if we didn't explain something."

"So why did you want to look at the map, then?" you ask.

"That's none of your goddamn business. Now hand over that thing, because I'm pretty sure it's not yours."

"It's not yours, either," you retort.

Then the two-armed human just picks you up and holds you a couple of feet off the ground.

"Okay, I'm tired of playing nice," she says. "Marshall, take the stupid box, and let's forget the map. It wasn't anything important anyways."

"But it's not mine," Marshall protests.

"You're the one whose family crest is on it. At the very least, I know you'll take better care of it than this brat."

The one-armed human hesitates a bit, then takes the box. Great, now you can't give it back to that other human.

"Okay, now let's see. I think Belle mentioned Max had a troublemaking kid, so let's take you over there." The human grabs the leash from you. "I bet you don't even have permission to give this sucker a walk. Later, Marshall."

You're now Marshall and you're a little bit baffled by everything that just happened. You just wanted to look at Theo's map of the continent and figure out the intersection Rivers got her name from.

But, without her around to tell you the route, you can't really get any further with that idea. And now you have this strange box with your family crest on it - specifically, the Laikenne crest.

So what do you do now?

Screw off that top!

Well, you decide to start by at least seeing what's in this package. Then you might be able to figure out what to do with it.

It takes a little work to open, but it's not too hard. You reach in and pull out the contents.

It's... a sketchbook? Flipping through it, you mostly see a number of people in noble clothes. One of them has a crown, must be a king or something. There's a few soldiers, too...

Wait. Here's someone who looks like Captain Long, though a bit younger. Here's another one who looks like Mudviper. And this picture has "Captain Long" shaking hands with a man who looks distinctly like your father.

You don't see Henry in any of these, though. But towards the end you find an incomplete sketch of a face. It seems awkwardly done, much worse than any of the other pictures. Maybe it's a self-portrait, and the artist had trouble working with a mirror?

The very last page has another sketch of the king, holding an infant. He isn't wearing a crown in this picture, but he appears often enough that you're pretty sure it's him.

There are some notes, but you can't read any of them. Maybe they're in Kandrian or something.

You're not sure what to make of this. Should you show someone else? And if so, who?

Your first instinct is to show it to Long, but now you get the feeling he might not have been honest with you about your father.

Do the Greblings have a linguist?