Abhat said this all very fast, such that all the while I was staring into his rapidly moving mouth and at his whiskers that shook with his rage.
“Wow,” I found myself saying. “You seem to totally hate him.”
“That is a truth,” Abhat accepted with ease, “I not only hate him, but I am totally disgusted by his habits. He is so unlike his father. The most uncharismatic leader I have ever seen. All he does is eat and sleep. About the truce, there have been many a truce of a similar nature with the dogmen in the past years, and all of them lasted barely half a year before the dogmen began to attack us again. I believe every word of the letter that you brought us. I also believe that the dogmen are preparing for something big this time which is why they are taking their time. I suspect they plan to absolutely wipe us,” Abhat let out a sigh, his gaze moving over to the lantern. “To be honest I have grown tired of living in this village. I curse my luck for having taken birth in a village that borders the land of the dogmen.”
“So is there anything we can do to fix the situation?” Junaki asked with some curiosity.
“We must take action regardless of whether the idiot chief sides with us or not,” Abhat replied, “I hate this village, but at the same time I also love it for it is my birthplace. I refuse it to be beaten by the vile dogmen. I would rather die fighting than to be chased out from here. Now, the reason I invited you two to my home is to ask you if you would help me. You are outsiders, but you took so many pains in bringing the letter, which I believe was written by a friend of mine since the writer of the letter says he went north as did my friend. Would you also help me in preparing this village for the attack? Whether you actually fight in the inevitable battle is up to you.”
A quest message appeared in my vision.
New Quest available!
Help Abhat save his village from the attack of the Dogmen.
Reward: 20,000 gold, plus a hidden reward
Would you like to accept the quest?
Yes/no?
A coughing chuckle filled my throat, I couldn’t help it at all. I heard Junaki gasp, while Abhat looked at me with bulging eyes as though I had insulted him. But I was in a totally different state of mind at that moment, and found the whole situation utterly humorous though in reality it was probably not humorous in any way at all. I had been accepting the different quests ever since I respawned, hoping to make decisions that were similar to those I would have made in my previous life. I was quite certain by now that I was quite a swashbuckler in my previous life. How on earth otherwise would accepting such crazy quests be the right decision?
“What is this? Why are you laughing?” Abhat asked me with suppressed anger.
I held out a hand, trying to control myself. It took me almost a minute to get rid of the laughing bug in my throat.
“Please do not mind,” I said, “I am not laughing at you, but it’s just that I, er, remembered something funny. Anyway, yes, I shall help you. Damn, I will fight when the dogmen come to attack the village, but…” I turned at Junaki, “you should really leave me and go, Junaki. If you stick with me, it will be a very, very long time before you can go to seek help from your uncle.”
Junaki sighed.
“I am sticking with you until I find if you have other girls in your life— or had in your previous life to be precise.”
Damn, she was one crazy girl, wasn’t she?
But it was her decision.
“So be it,” I said. I accepted the quest message.
Abhat meanwhile was still looking at me like I had gone crazy, though the slight anger that had come over him was slowly leaving his eyes. I inhaled deeply before I spoke anything again.
“So, do you have any plans how we will accomplish protecting the village from the dogmen?” I asked, this time more seriously.
Abhat nodded.
“I do, but it is a very rough one,” he said, “it basically involves arming all the villagers, plus stocking up our medical supplies. You see, very few people in our village possess swords or any other weapons, thanks to the truce which involved both the dogmen and us throwing most of our swords into the river of milk.”
“But how can you be sure the dogmen didn’t get weapons later on?” I said.
“That’s the thing, isn’t it?” Abhat said. “The chief is placing too much trust on the vile dogmen even though they have proved time and again how low they can go.”
“How will we get swords and other weapons?” Junaki asked.
“There is a wizard who lives in the forest,” Abhat said, “he is a cat but he openly admits that he has no brotherhood with anybody. Not cats, not dogmen. He lives his own way. Through his magic he should be able to get us at least a couple of hundred swords.”
“But aren’t there more than two hundred villagers here?” I asked. “I recall seeing quite a few homes on our way to your house.”
“Yes, there are much more than two hundred villagers,” Abhat said, “Probably closer to two thousand if you consider the kids besides the adult males and females. Two hundred swords wouldn’t do, I agree, but I have another plan to get weapons into the hands of the rest of the people who do not get the swords.”
“And what would that be?” I asked in curiosity, for I was seeing what I believed was a small grin on Abhat’s face.
“There is a tree that grows in the forest, one of a very rare kind,” Abhat said, absent-mindedly rubbing his paws together, “a special kind of resin can be obtained from the tree which can be used to make explosives with relative ease. We’ll have to obtain the resin from that tree and make as many bombs as we can and give them to the villagers.”
I nodded thoughtfully. Abhat sure had his plans in place.
“Would the other villagers assist us?” I asked.
Abhat pursed his lips.
“To that I cannot say yes,” he replied, “the villagers would fight to their death when the actual attack happens, but I doubt they would actually help us in preparing the village for the dogmen because they wouldn’t believe us that an attack is forthcoming. That is what the majority would do, but some of my friends would help us. They are disgusted of Jurim as much as myself. Heck, even some of the elders would assist us. You recall the cats who accompanied Jurim to the gate?”
“Yes,” I said, “Some of them looked quite serious about the letter.”
“Because they believe every word of it. I will talk to them about my plans. But it would take time, and we must not tarry in preparing the village. Thankfully, I do not need to be at the gate for the next three days as they are my off days. We must accomplish as much as we can within these three days. Who knows how long ago the letter of warning was written? The dogmen can even attack us tonight!”
“So what do we do first?” I asked Abhat. “Get the swords or the resin of the tree?”
“The swords,” Abhat said. “And we would need to do most of the preparations in secrecy. If the chieftain comes to know what we are doing, he wouldn’t be very kind to us. I would disclose my plans only to those villagers whom I trust.”
“I assume the wizard wouldn’t give us the swords for free?” Junaki said. She had raised an important question indeed.
Abhat chuckled. The expression made him look younger than what he was.
“Of course not!” he said, “He would want gold, for he is greedy and has no affiliations with cat kind.”
“How much would he want?” I asked.
“One hundred gold per sword,” Abhat replied, “So about twenty thousand gold in total provided he is able to give that many swords to us. I do not have the money as of the moment, and I will be going out to ask some of my friends if I can borrow money from them. You two can wait in my house. I’ll return and prepare dinner for you.”
“I think I can give you at least a little gold,” I said.
“So can I,” Junaki added. “I’ll give you five thousand gold.”
Abhat’s eyes widened a bit.
“You two sure look like rich folk
,” he said, “but after all you are doing for the village, I think it will be wrong to take money from you. But on the occasion that the wizard, Tali his name is by the way, says he can make more swords, then you can pay for the extra swords with your money.”
Abhat left the house after a while. He asked us to let all the doors and windows remain closed as he thought it was best if fewer people knew about us. “You never know what kind of rumours might spring,” he said.
“What do you think about Abhat?” Junaki asked me almost in an undertone. It was rather dark and Abhat had only left us the single lantern. The dark did not inspire to speak in louder voices.
I shrugged.
“He seems like someone who can be trusted,” I said. “He hates the chieftain, and the chieftain didn’t seem like a great leader to me either.”
“Well, I hope at least that by the end of all this you will at least get your memory back,” Junaki said. “You know, I have a feeling you were someone great in your last life.”
I felt my cheeks flush at these words. Me and great?
“What makes you think so?” I asked.
“You have been making decisions that are more or less noble,” Junaki said, staring at my face so that I felt a bit uncomfortable and was glad for the darkness, “you help everyone. I reckon you were making similar decisions in your last life that were perhaps even greater.”
I drummed on the table with my paws, not knowing what to say. Then I recalled the fragments of memory that sometimes came to me. I had never told about them to Junaki.
“You know, I haven’t been telling you something,” I said.
“What is it?” Junaki asked with a small frown.
“I have been getting these… dreams? I don’t even know what they are,” I said, “but I think they might be memories of my past life.”
Junaki leaned in closer towards me, her curiosity piqued.
“What do you see?”
“Random things really, fighting with dogmen sometimes. Once I saw a friend die and it hurt. I don’t even know what the name of my friend was.”
Junaki took a very understanding look when I said this.
“I guess I finally understand why you are so desperate to get your memory back. The flashbacks tease you and haunt you and that’s make you thirsty to know more about them.”
I nodded. The memories were a pain for sure. But I knew now that there was another girl in my previous life, and my heart sank when I realised that Junaki would be quite hurt when she came to know about the other girl.
***
Chapter 22
The next morning, just after sunrise Abhat took us with him to the forest. There was barely anyone out since it was early morning, so nobody saw us. Only the guards at the gate noticed us. They were the replacement guards that had taken the place of Abhat and the other two yesterday. They had seen us yesterday as well and seemed to be on good terms with Abhat, so we were able to smoothly exit the village for the forest.
For nearly three kilometres we trudged through dense forest. Abhat told us there were other cat villages in the region but they were few and far between. Not far from the home of the wizard it seemed the land of the dogmen began.
We finally reached the home of the wizard. It was merely a small hut. Abhat knocked on the door. A frail looking cat with extremely long whiskers that fell all the way down to his shoulders opened the door. His eyes widened slightly when he recognised Abhat. He invited us in, and lo! The inside of the hut was so big! It was evident that the wizard, Tali, had cast some charm over the house to make it look small from the outside.
“How may I help you?” Tali asked once he had given us chairs to sit. The way he spoke seemed to say ‘I am a business person, I do things for money.’
“We need as many swords as you can produce within today,” Abhat said. A small frown came over the wizard at this.
“Swords? I thought the dwellers of Duarga liked not to arm themselves too much.”
“Yes well—” Abhat began but was cut short when Tali raised a finger.
“You do not need to answer that,” he said. “If you need swords I have nothing to do with it. I shall be able to create fifty swords for you today.”
“Fifty swords?” Abhat said. He stood up from the chair in his surprise.
“You need more than that?” Tali said and there was just the slightest trace of unease in his tone.
“Of course!” Abhat said, “The last time we came to get swords from you, you created two hundred swords for us in a day.”
Tali smiled. It was a very forced smile, the kind a sly person uses when they try to hide things.
“That was almost two years ago,” he said.
“Your powers have dwindled over the past two years?” Abhat said, almost angrily.
Tali shook his head, taking Abhat’s anger gracefully. Tali was one clever person, I could see it all through his smile and grace.
“Alas, that is true,” Tali said, acquiring a look of fake sadness, “I am slowly losing my powers, friend. But I can still provide you with more swords by next week. You see I need to create a special powder to make swords, and the process takes an entire week.”
Abhat was fuming by now. But he sat back down and nodded at Tali, in a bid to control himself.
“Fifty swords be it then,” Abhat said.
“The process will take a couple of hours, will you wait or should I have the swords delivered to your home by the end of the day?”
“We’ll wait,” Abhat said. He sounded strict.
“Excellent!” Tali said with a little clap of his paws. And then he went out of his house.
“He feels like a cunning cat,” I whispered to Abhat. But the latter gestured me not to speak with his paw. I nodded, though I didn’t understand why. Tali was definitely out of earshot.
In about fifteen minutes the door opened. Tali returned and behind him exactly fifty logs of wood of the size of one’s arm came floating by magic.
Tali led the logs of wood into another room and then he closed the door.
For nearly two hours we waited without doing anything. Occasionally I would stand up and stretch myself to get the blood flowing well in my body again. Abhat did not allow either me or Junaki to speak.
Finally the hours had passed. The door of the other room opened. Tali appeared. This time he looked tired and moved with a slight stoop. Behind him came fifty floating swords, their blades glinting. I couldn’t help but gape. I was certain that the logs of wood had turned into swords!
“So who will carry these swords?” Tali asked us.
“I will,” I said before Abhat could. I was just too amazed by the fact that mere wood would could be turned into swords.
“In your bag?”
I nodded.
I opened the mouth of the bag. Tali made some complicated gestures with his paws. The swords began to float into my bag one by one. In a few minutes all the swords were inside my bag.
“I hope you have brought the payment?” Tali asked us.
“Five thousand gold it is, I assume?” Abhat said.
“Unfortunately the prices have risen. It is 150 gold a sword now.”
Abhat made a visible grimace. A fat gold coin marked 7500 materialised in his paw and handed it to Tali. The wizard took it with a slight bow.
“I hope you come again,” he said, his words quite oily.
After we had come a short distance away from Tali’s house, I couldn’t contain my curiosity any longer.
“Why were you stopping us from speaking anything?” I asked.
“Tali’s a wizard, and a cunning one at that,” Abhat answered, as he avoided a fruit rotting on the ground, “it wouldn’t be an understatement to say that the walls in his home have ears, and I mean it literally. You don’t want to say bad things about him in his own home for he is powerful, and even though I hate him the village of Duarga needs him. I reckoned you would only talk poorly about him after observing his manners. One oily guy isn’t he?”
“He is,” I agreed. “but I have a feeling he didn’t want to give us more swords than fifty.”
“It’s not that he didn’t want to give us the swords, “Abhat replied, “I suspect it had got more to do with the fact that he couldn’t give us more swords than fifty because he had already sold a considerable number of swords to the dogmen and he didn’t have the powder at hand to create swords from logs of wood.”
“But he is a cat, isn’t he?” Junaki asked, “Why would he help the dogmen?”
“Like I said earlier, he’s on nobody’s sides,” Abhat replied, “and he will never disclose the information about his buyers to anyone.”
The sound of thunder reached my ears. I looked up to see that the clouds had considerably darkened. A drop of rain hit me on the forehead. Abhat suddenly stopped me in his tracks. Only then did I realise that he had been taking us in a direction that was not towards the village.
“Shit,” he muttered, “I’d thought we could get the resign of the tree today itself, but looks like it’s going to rain. I guess we’ll have to do it tomorrow.”
By the time we reached the village gate a light drizzle was already underway, the rain drops becoming bigger and bigger with every passing moment.
We were quite wet by the time we reached Abhat’s home. He gave us towels to dry ourselves. I caught a chill. Later that day one of the guards came to Abhat’s home and told him that he would have to stay guard at the gate for the next two days.
Abhat let out a grunt of displeasure.
“What for? It’s my free days!”
The guard said that his companion had fallen ill and so Abhat would have to take up the position at the gate and he could have his free days later on. Abhat reluctantly agreed, though after the man had gone, he began to grumble.
“How will you identify the tree without me?” Abhat said.
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