In the days that followed their escape from the cave, it became harder and harder to avoid bands of roving qek. The packs of small beastmen seemed to grow in number every time the pair encountered them. Erin had no way to be certain what was or wasn’t normal, especially when it came to a race of literal monsters, but her gut told her they were gathering for some purpose. What that purpose might’ve been, she had no way of guessing, but the creatures did not do well in these large bands. More than once they’d stumbled upon the aftermath of one of the groups tearing itself to shreds.

So when Erin found herself crouched out past the edge of the largest group she’d seen yet, easily numbering in the hundreds, she was baffled. Everything she’d seen had led her to the conclusion that qek were individually, powder kegs of violence and rage. Surely any group of this size would tear itself to shreds at any moment. As she knelt out of sight, she caught her first glimpse of them. Normal qek were squat, fur covered humanoids, with long snouts and yellow eyes. Barely taller than a ten year old child, though much bulkier. This one was different. Easily the size of a man, he towered over his fellows. Glossy white fur covering him from head to foot and blue eyes that practically glowed from within their sockets as he cast his gaze around.

Some sort of leader type?

Erin questioned, as she watched the others shy away from it, their body language deferential. A monster among monsters.

[That seems reasonable.]

Lisa agreed, but Erin sensed a lack of certainty behind the statement.

What is it?

[Nothing]

The word had a finality to it, and Erin had come to know that tone well. If Lisa said she wasn’t going to talk about something, that was it.

So what’re we going to do?

[That is for Sigrid and yourself to figure out. I am simply your liaison to the system.]

At first, Sigrid had been lethargic and mostly unresponsive, as she struggled to come to terms with their new reality, but the dark haired woman had begun to come around, and had been a big help in taking down the first animal they’d found since Erin’s giant weasel thing.

[Also the spider.]

Lisa chimed in, and Erin shuddered at the memory of its shiny, hard body cracking and crunching under her staff until it collapsed. If Lisa was less than helpful at times like this, she was also right. Erin moved as quietly as she could as she retreated from the edge of the monster camp, which wasn’t as difficult as it probably should’ve been. Qek, for all their beast-like qualities, did not seem to have any sharpened senses, and they did not do anything so organized as post lookouts, so Erin was able to sneak away with relative ease.

Days prior, another such group of qek had descended on the hole she’d originally liberated from the aforementioned weasel. Luckily, neither herself nor Sigrid had been hiding there at the time. Still they had been forced to abandon the only shelter Erin knew of, with the exception of the cave. As it was, they’d found a thick copse of trees and pitched the sad little tent she’d looted from one of the qek she’d killed.

Sigrid sat around their small campfire, skewers of meat sizzling over open flame, and Erin’s stomach growled as the smell hit her.

“I never thought I’d be so happy to eat unseasoned meat.” She said, sitting across from Sigrid who shrugged with a small smile.

“Hunger is the best seasoning.” Erin nodded, as she watched fat drip from the cooking food, sizzling as it fell into the fire. After a moment her expression turned serious.

“There’s more of them. Another camp to the west of us. We never planned to stay here, but if we don’t leave soon, we’re going to get pinched between them.” Sigrid looked up, a frown on her face as her brow krinkled in thought.

“Every group we’ve seen, has been moving in a south-westerly direction.” Sigrid said slowly, and Erin raised an eyebrow. It wasn’t something she noticed, or even thought to look for. “It seems like they’re gathering for something, and whatever it is, it’s in that direction.” Erin waited silently for Sigrid to continue. Erin hadn’t known her long but as Sigrid had emerged from her grief and shock, she had demonstrated remarkable insight into how to survive.

“Gathering for what?” Erin prompted, after Sigrid lapsed into thoughtful silence. Sigrid slowly began to shake her head as she replied

“I couldn’t begin to guess. I don’t know enough about them. It could be some sort of ritualistic behavior, or migration. It could be mating season for all I know. Given how prone they are to killing each other over just about anything, I’m baffled how it’s even possible for them to gather like this.” This last part brought Erin back to her other discovery.

“Right. I saw some sort of leader qek. It was bigger than the others, and it looked different.”

“You think they have a caste system of some kind?” Sigrid asked with one dark eyebrow raised, and Erin shrugged noncommittally.

“I have no idea. I didn’t watch for long, but something felt off about it. Like it…” Erin trailed off, trying to fit words to the feeling the large monster had given her. With a slow drawl she finished with hesitancy. “Like it didn’t belong.”

“Maybe it’s invasive.” Sigrid said with a thoughtful expression.

“Whatever it is, I think it’s the reason we’re seeing so many of them together. If there are more like it, it would explain how they’re able to keep the small ones under control.” The dark haired woman nodded along slowly..

“It doesn’t tell us what they’re gathering for, but it’s a start.” Erin frowned her gaze drifting up from the cooking meat.

“A start to what exactly?”

“Figuring out what’s going on here. If these monsters are gathering into large groups, all headed in the same direction. It definitely can’t mean anything good.”

“So what, you wanna follow them?” Erin asked, her tone skeptical.

“No,” Sigrid said with a shake of her head, as she rotated the spit. “I’m proposing we head that way and try to get there before them. Wherever there is.” Erin crossed her arms and briefly considered the idea. It was reckless, and Erin wasn’t certain what purpose it would really serve.

“Okay,” she agreed with a nod. Sigrid shot her a questioning look and Erin just shrugged. “I don’t know if it’s a good plan, but I don’t have anything else, which makes it our best plan.” It really was that simple for her. She had no idea where to go from here. If she just picked a direction and started walking, it could turn out to be the wrong one, and qek had been arriving from everywhere it seemed like. As far as Erin could tell no direction was safer than any other, and at the very least Sigrid's proposal had them moving with a purpose.

“So,” Erin continued, “when do we leave?” Sigrid turned the skewer and inspected the meat before lifting it away from the flame and sliding a piece off and handing it to Erin.

“After we eat.”

Snow crunched underfoot with every step they took, the sound making Erin cringe as sweat prickled across her skin. She wasn’t sure how much of her survival had come down to blind luck, but she suspected it played a larger role than anything else. If the pair of them stumbled into the cluster of metal spiders, or the giant monster she’d never gotten a good look at, they’d be dead.

So as they moved roughly in a south-westerly direction through the trees, Erin couldn’t shake the sense of vulnerability, and every crunching step took on the volume of gunshots. Sigrid seemed only a little less on edge, her eyes scanning the tree line as they sought out potential threats. Erin glanced up to the tree tops briefly, but shrugged internally when she didn’t spot anything. The metal spiders had used some sort of magic or trick that rendered them mostly invisible.

They had outpaced the local bands of qek only a few hours after setting out. Even with the leader caste it seemed that getting them all moving in the same direction for any length of time was difficult. This meant the largest groups traveled slowly, and the few bands they’d snuck around recently had less than a half dozen qek in total, and none of them were the giant leaders. Erin had even proposed taking down one of these groups.

Sigrid, it turned out, had selected the water jet spell as her first, and though Erin had had a vague idea about how much damage a pressurized stream of water could do, the magic variety had really driven the point home. Sigrid’s spell sliced through flesh like a blade, and she’d used it to great effect while they had been hunting for food.

Sigrid had shaken her head at the proposal, reminding her they weren’t out to kill qek, just to see why they were all traveling in this direction. Erin had shrugged and nodded, it was true. They were not heroic adventurers taking on monsters in a story. They were a couple of previously ordinary people who had come to possess magic powers they barely knew how to use.

As they traveled through the forest, the pair came upon a series of footprints that had stomped the snow down, creating a wide path. Erin was well familiar with the distinctive footprints that qek left with their padded toes and feet.

“That’s a lot of them.” Erin said softly, her eyes following the path.

“And they’re already ahead of us.” Sigrid pointed out. Not for the first time, Erin began to have doubts about this course of action, and she was on the verge of saying so when Sigrid spoke again.

“Smoke.” she said, pointing. Erin’s eyes tracked her finger and she saw a pillar of dark smoke rising between the trees. It’s source further along the path the qek had left behind. Erin grimaced, but steeled her resolve.

“We’ve come this far. We should probably take a look.” Erin said as she leaned on the staff she was using as a walking stick. Sigrids lips compressed, as her forehead crinkled.

“Yeah,” she eventually agreed, “but we’re not here to kill qek, alright?” Erin nodded readily, not sure why Sigrid was making a point of it. It wasn’t like she enjoyed the stress of life or death conflicts, or being terrified of dying horribly. She tried to ignore the way her conscience prickled uncomfortably.

Sigrid moved parallel to the qek’s road through the snow, slipping quietly from tree to tree as Erin followed. Erin kept her head on a swivel as they moved, scanning for any sign of qek. She didn’t fear an ambush exactly. The beast men had never shown more than the meanest intelligence, and despite roaming in groups. They had so far proven incapable of working together in a coordinated fashion.

As they approached, the rising column of smoke grew thicker and the crackling of flame became audible, alongside the hooting and growling that passed for language amongst the qek. Then Erin heard another set of voices that made her stomach sink. People, yelling in perfectly understandable English. She shot Sigrid a wide eyed look, who met her gaze with a hard expression. Silently shaking her head. Erin gritted her teeth and moved to the next tree quietly, trying to get close enough to get a clear picture.

It wasn’t long before she made her way to the edge of the forest, and beyond it was a tall wooden wall that formed a barrier to some sort of medieval style village beyond. Part of the wall was burning, and a large group of qek leapt and cheered around the fire. A few of the larger pale ones standing eerily still in their midst. The villagers within were calling frantically to one another. Erin was unable to make out more than a few words, and supposed they must be trying to find a way to combat the flames before it opened a breach in their defenses.

Sigrid moved up behind her and took a firm grip on her arm. Erin looked back at her, and Sigrid whispered so low and fast it came out as nearly a hiss.

“We can’t help them. There are too many of those monsters here.” Erin knew she was right. It wasn’t even a question. Dozens of the beast men were visible from where she hid, and there was no telling how many more she couldn't see. Erin practically vibrated on the spot with tension, as she turned her gaze back on the flames that were creeping further and further along the wall, despite the villagers' desperate attempts to cover it with water. Those within were at least attempting to mount some kind of defense, some of them had crawled up on the roofs of buildings near the wall and were using slings or firing arrows down at the qek. Injuring and even killing a few of them.

This was the first settlement Erin had seen since she first arrived, and a question was beginning to form in her mind as she observed their ragtag attempt at defense.

“Can’t they use magic?” She whispered back to Sigrid, but it was Lisa who answered.

[No, these are Tier 1 souls. The same as you were before you came here. They were born on Jetriser as babies, not reborn.]

“How does that work?” She whispered.

[There are many reasons a soul might not qualify to progress to Tier 2. This is neither the time nor the place to discuss it.]

Erin turned her gaze back on Sigrid to see the other woman's stare had gone vacant. A sign that she was consulting with her own Liaison. Likely receiving similar information. Erin’s hopes for salvaging the situation were diminishing fast. If the villagers had been able to use magic of their own, then a counter-attack of some sort might have been possible. If the best they had was bows and slings meant for hunting small game…

She could feel her jaw threatening to dislocate from how hard she had clenched her teeth, and she had to force herself to relax. It didn’t take her long to make a decision, and Sigrid's eyes cleared.

“I can’t let them die.” Erin told her, “you don’t have to help.”

“What are you even going to do?” Sigrid growled, clearly trying to make her see reason. Erin shook her head and shrugged.

“I don’t know. Whatever I can.” Sigrid pursed her lips, her eyes scanning back and forth across Erin’s face, as if she were reading a book.

“You’re going to die young.” Sigrid said, her voice almost sad. Despite the cold terror that was growing in Erin’ chest, she grinned.

“Well that wouldn’t be anything new.” Sigrid didn’t look impressed with the bravado, and Erin couldn't stop herself from shaking.

“Alright. I’ll help, if you agree to do this my way.” Sigrid said as she glanced back out at the growing flames, and the increasingly excited qek.

“Do you have a plan?” Erin asked, her whisper mildly incredulous.

“Sort of.” Sigrid answered, still studying the qek. “I’ll explain while we move. We don’t have a lot of time.”