Amity and Enmity

Chapter 15

Day: 994

Days Left: 4886

Lives Saved: 5

"Well," Sumit began. "Based on that reaction, it seems they don't get a lot of visitors."

"I don't think most prisoners would dare go near their camp," said Lili, still looking around at the area for weaknesses and retreat paths. "That fence is easily breakable. It is more of a garden picket fence than a protective barrier-"

"Lili," Kai hushed, still putting on a friendly smile despite having no audience. "Please remember that we're here for peace."

The two 'guards' returned, straightening their backs and heads raised as if gaining some semblance of courage and now knew what they were doing.

"This way," said the guard with long hair. "But leave your masks and weapons."

Kai, Dex, and Sumit looked to Lili expectantly.

Lili narrowed her eyes, her hand hesitating over her tiger mask clipped to her belt. "Why should that be necessary? You outnumber us; we are hardly a threat."

"The boss will not make any trade if you do not follow our rules," answered the guard. "We will not let you pass."

The other guard bit his lip and glanced away, his courage from before disappearing as he adjusted his mask on the side of his head; it was completely blank, a colour matching perfectly with his pale skin.

"If we want any hope of getting more food, we need to do as they say," Kai whispered to Lili. "But if you think it'll be too risky, we can just leave."

Lili was silent for a moment, considering, before deattaching her mask from her belt and placing it down on the grass.

The guard with the plain mask went to retrieve it, but she shot him a look, and he backed away.
To the guards' surprise, Kai, Dex, and Sumit copied and placed their masks on the ground along with their weapons.

"Right, this way," said the long-haired guard. "The boss will see you now." He headed through the gate in the fence, with Kai, Dex, Lili, and Sumit following and the bald guard bringing up the rear.

Closer to the fence, Kai could see how weak the construction was, how thin the wooden planks were and how shallow they were embedded into the ground; Lili was right about them being a mere picket fence, not to mention that most of these planks were heavily damaged. There were marks on the ground clearly from fighting, likely from blood moons, Kai thought. In a group this size, it was unavoidable to be attacked by monsters that had lost their mind.

Inside the large fence ring were numerous tents and makeshift shacks scattered haphazardly with no structure or intentional placement. Then, in the centre of the encampment was bare soil outlined in broken twigs, where the food would drop from the closed portal above.

As they trudged further into the camp, more of its members emerged from hiding in their tents. All of them were of varying ages and genders, some in their monster form, others blatantly showing off their masks and weapons as if to prove they were still a threat.

The two guards stopped in front of the largest tent in the camp and said something inaudible.
After a short pause, a person emerged from the tent wearing a mask of a green-scaled creature, her hair short in light fluffs at her shoulders. The oversized grey coat made her frame even larger and broader than reality. Her metal-tipped boots thudded with each step.

The masked woman was quiet for a moment, seeming to study the newcomers, before finally saying, "state your masks' abilities." Her voice was deep and husky as if she was forcibly speaking lower, a tactic to seem more authoritative, Kai noted to himself.