The New Era Chapter 21

IN THE FIRST YEAR OF THE NEW ERA
"But if the score is at twenty, why would I want to lay this card?"
Pericula shook her head. "Never mind, just never mind. I think you've played enough Roku for one day."
"Just help me finish this game?" Kile pleaded.
Pericula sighed. "Oh all right."
"Thanks," Kile turned to Drusus. "Are you sure you don't want to learn how to play?" he asked.
Drusus nodded. "I'm positive. Once we get back to Calet, knowing how to play Roku is going to be of little value."
Kile nodded. "You've got a point there. Nobody else in Calet knows how to play, and there are no Roku decks." Kile paused to think over what he had just said. "I don't suppose you could give me a couple decks?" he asked Pericula.
"No problem," she replied. "I can even give you a written copy of the directions if you want."
"Could you? I'd appreciate that, I don't think I'll learn this anytime soon, do you?" Kile waited for Pericula to respond, but when she didn't he looked up from his cards at her. He saw her starring behind him, and he turned his head to see what she was looking at. It was Lauto and Livius, returning back to the ship.
Livius and Lauto were moving slowly, encumbered by the many sticks and branches they were carrying. All three ran out and helped them with their load. "Well, we're all set with firewood for tonight, if we need it," Pericula observed, taking a good share of the branches.
"There's plenty more were this came from, and it's not too far of a walk," Livius said. "Finding wood isn't going to be one of our problems. Are Hans and Kyoko back yet?"
Pericula shook her head. "No, not yet. Kile and Drusus just got back about fifteen minutes ago."
"Really?" Livius turned to them. "Was your venture as successful as ours?"
Kile smiled smugly. "Tons more, we came upon a house not far from here. The couple who lived there was quite helpful actually, not distrustful of us at all. We told them of our situation, kind of. We changed a few things around so they would believe us."
Livius nodded. "I understand, please continue."
"Well, like I said they were very trusting. They supplied us with enough food to last us all for two days, and they said we could come and get water from their well anytime."
"Amazing, anything else?"
"Actually, yes. They gave us this dagger for protection,' Kile removed the weapon from his belt, and gave it to Livius, who turned it over in his hands.
"Very nice, I hope we don't need to use it."
"So do I. They also informed us that there's a town not to far away, about five miles from this location."
"Did you go to the town?"
"No, by the time we had found the house, our two hours were almost up. We did find out one more thing though, the country we're in. It's called Dishon."
"Is that good?" asked Pericula.
"Very," Livius answered. "We couldn't have asked to land in a better country. Now that Marram has been shattered, Dishon is in complete peace. It has a very low crime rate, as well as a good king. We were lucky to land here."


"Hans, what took you so long?" Pericula asked, as Hans and Kyoko came back to the ship.
"We found out about a nearby town, only about five miles away from here," Hans answered. "We went over to it."
"Yeah, we heard about it too," Kile said. "Did you find anything interesting there?"
"Well, there was a variety of things to buy there, if you had the money," Kyoko said.
"What's money?" asked Lauto.
"A medium of exchange," Livius answered.
"That doesn't help."
"Never mind, I'll fill you in later. Continue please, Kyoko."
"Well, we told people we were travellers from a distant land, and asked them what was going on. We found out some really interesting things."
"Such as?" Pericula asked.
"Well, as you probably found out already, we're in the nation of Dishon. Now Livius is the expert here, but I believe Dishon is a land of relative tranquility."
"That is correct," Livius said.
"Then this may prove interesting," Kyoko continued. "Every person we talked to told us some version or other of a story about some kind of monster killing everything it sees. This monster can not be killed, and is very strong."
Kyoko stopped, looking at Livius for a response. "That is interesting," Livius said. "I've never heard of that before. If the stories are true, this is a recent development."
"Are the stories true?" asked Lauto.
"All the people we talked to seemed sincere," Hans said. "And everyone we talked to confirmed the story."
Livius nodded, thoughtfully. "Undoubtably they are sincere, that doesn't necessarily confirm the validity of their statements. In cultures such as these, communication is extremely poor, rumors are the only way these people get there information. Also, scientific objectivity is low. This monster thing could simply be just a big misunderstanding Nevertheless, strange things do happen out in the real world. The city may be only populated with humans, but Fabulae has a great diversity of lifeforms. There may well be a monster out there."
"Well, aside from the monster, this town also opens up some new possibilities," Lauto said. "First off, Drusus and Kile can go to this town and arrange transportation to Calet. I believe Calet isn't too far away from here."
"That's correct," Livius said. "You'll have to travel through Grarap, but that shouldn't be too big of a problem. Of course, you'll need plenty of money to hire transportation for that distance."
"Well, right now we don't have any," Drusus said. "What little I had managed to take from the camp I lost when Gaius transported us back."
"And the rest was taken by Gaius' men, along with what I had," Kile finished. "So until we can get our hands on some money, I guess we're stuck with you guys."
"Don't be so sure," Lauto continued. "The second use we have for this town is to set up shop there as doctors. We could charge whatever we wanted, and have no lack of business as long as we used that medicine ball."
"What about the people who can't pay?" asked Hans.
"Oh, well we wouldn't be able to help them of course. Once word got out we we're giving treatment away, we'd never see a coin again." Hans opened his mouth to protest, but Lauto new what he was going to say and cut him off. "Hans, for once, just once, live in the real world here. If we weren't here, those people wouldn't get help anyway. The only thing we're doing is offering an option for those who can afford it, we are not hurting the poor at all. Besides which, if we can return Kile and Drusus to Calet with the money we raise, we will be more then justifying our actions."
"I'm not sure I like the idea, but I can see its advantages," Hans said. "I would be willing to go along with it for a short time."
"I agree with Hans," Pericula said. "The ethical questions of using our technology to get money should be treated with great care. After all, we don't want to expose the outside world to anymore of our technology. Who knows what the long term effects on their culture could be?"
"This is a matter of survival," Lauto exclaimed.
"In that case, I don't think anyone would refuse you support, but lets explore our other options first."
"We could argue all night," Kile said. "But I have a feeling we're going to need our sleep. I'm sure we can discuss all this in the morning." Kile's comment caused everyone to take notice of the weather. Night was indeed rapidly closing, the sun had already set and darkness was racing in.
"I guess some sleep would do us some good," Livius agreed. "I don't think it will get that cold tonight, so we might want to save this firewood for another occasion."
"We may want a fire tonight anyway," Pericula said. "During my short stay in Calet, I learned that not only can the temperature significantly drop at night, but that it can get awful dark. We better build a fire."
"Sounds good to me," Lauto said. "I suppose we ought to take turns standing watch. You never know whose out there."
"I don't know if that's necessary, but you can't be too careful," Hans agreed. "I can take the first watch."
"If it's alright with you, I'd just assume do it, and get it over with," Lauto said.
"No problem, go ahead."
"Thanks, I suppose I better keep the dagger with me."
"If you think it would help," said Kile, handing it over.
"I'll stay up with you," Livius said. "Two sets of eyes are better then one, besides, we can help keep each other alert, and give each other company. That way, we can go longer without switching guard."
"Good idea," Lauto said. "Good night everyone." Everyone mumbled their goodnights as they settled down on the ground to sleep.


"Enough!" In the heat of the moment, Lauto had spoken the word louder then she should have. She looked around to see if anyone had been woken up. Drusus rolled over in his sleep, everyone else remained still. "I am not going to listen to anymore of your cowardly excuses," she said in a much softer tone. "Stand aside if you want, but I know what my job is."
"Lauto, for the last time, this is madness. Even if you succeed in killing one of them, the noise you make will wake up the rest."
"Watch me Livius, I won't make a sound." Lauto, knife in hand, began creeping towards the sleeping Kyoko. Livius silently rushed up and grabbed her by the left hand, the one without the knife.
"I won't let you do this," he said firmly. "If you take one more step I'll make enough noise to wake up everyone in the camp."
"Let go of me you fool!" Lauto whispered harshly as she pulled her arm free. "You can die with them, but not me. I'm getting out of here on the next ship, and killing those two is my ticket."
"Then I'm afraid you're out of luck."
Lauto whirled around angrily and continued walking towards Kyoko, much faster then before. Livius ran forward and tackled her. The soft thud of their bodies hitting the dirt awakened Drusus. Seeing all chances of surprise was lost, Lauto reserved nothing in her struggle against Livius, and soon everybody was awake.
"What's going on here?" Hans asked.
"Get him off of me?" Lauto demanded. Kile and Drusus grabbed Livius and roughly pulled him to his feet. Lauto remained on the ground, moaning. The knife was sticking out of her side. Kyoko sprinted for the medicine ball.
"What is going on here?" Hans repeated.
"He attacked me," Lauto moaned. "He tried to kill me with that knife."
"That's a lie," Livius said. "She stabbed herself to frame me."
"Then what really happened?" Hans asked. Livius was hesitant, not about saying anything. "What really happened?" Hans repeated, in a firm but calm tone.
"I have a confession to make," Livius said. "I've been sent here to kill you."