Dao Divinity 2 Chapter 30 (Patreon)

“I’ve looked everywhere. He’s nowhere to be found. Nobody has seen him.” Kro’s mother looked like she was fraying at the ends of her sanity.

Dar bolstered himself with what mana he had left and looked to the two maids. “Let’s go hunt for him.”

Dar knew that Marcie and Amber weren’t going to be able to be much help with how weak their bodies were, so he first worked to get them back to the central hearth so they could eat food and work to regain some of their energy. Then he began scanning the area, working to come up with a plan.

Kro’s mother hurried off aimlessly, looking everywhere her head could pivot for the mop of red hair. Most of the village seemed to be engaged at that point in the search for little Kro, which made Dar more uneasy. With that many people looking for him, Kro should have turned up already.

“Kro!” A worker shouted by the palisade and turned to him. “You seen Glump’s little one?”

“No, sorry.” Dar moved on and spotted Shelia patrolling by the wall. “Shelia, you’ve probably already been asked, but have you seen Kro wander over this way?”

“Huh?” She shook her head. “Sorry, must have zoned out. Getting a little tired here. But I haven’t seen the kid.”

“You okay?” Dar asked, seeing the bags under her eyes.

“Yes?” It came out as a question before she shook her head. “No, I’m beat boss. We’ve had two more visitors creep out of the forest during the night.”

“Ettercap?”

“No, spiders. And something built that while watch was on duty last night.” Shelia pointed up to a large web in one of the trees closest to the village.

Dar immediately understood what that meant. “That means something slipped by our watch last night. Can we tear that down?”

“Could, but I don’t want to give up my vigil. We’re too short staffed to do anything about it.” She responded.

Dar nodded. Circling the tree in question himself, Dar didn’t see anything up in the tree and decided to do it himself.

Swinging up, it was quick work to cut a branch and use it to collect the web and throw it back down to the ground.

When he finished, he looked back at Sheila, who was swaying on her feet. She looked like she was about to pass out. “Why don’t you go rest, Sheila. I’ll keep watch while you find a replacement?”

“No boss. I have a replacement that should be here shortly. I’m at the end of my shift. Normally I’m more alert, I swear.”

Dar gave her a level stare before deciding she could make her own decisions. Shelia knew herself and her limits.

As he walked back, Dar’s stomach rumbled. He realized he probably needed to take the same advice that he’d given Amber and Marcie, and swung by the central hearth for some food. He wasn’t surprised to find the meal of the day was giant hunks of bison. Russ had flooded their stores with meat.

“Dar.” Sasha looked up from her task at a table, the scissors in her hands held perfectly still.

“Please don’t let me ruin what you were doing.” He ripped off another hunk of the meat.

But Sasha ignored that, putting down the tool and coming around the table to hug him and kiss his cheek. “You’re never a bother. I’m glad you are okay. I saw the girls grab a bowl and head to their hut. They looked pretty worn down. I figured you’d be around soon.”

“Of course, I’ve come to check up on my favorite companion.” He squeezed her back. “And to show I’m okay. The meditation went as I hoped.”

“You know, you are going to make me jealous if you fly past me on your dao path so easily.”

He breathed in her scent for a moment before letting her go. “Is it really a problem?”

“Yes and no. I love that you are soaring, though, I worry about little ol’ me keeping up.”

“You don’t have to keep up, Sasha. I love you for exactly who you are.” He tried to give her the reassurance she needed, but he knew they hadn’t had much time together to reinforce it. With winter, things would hopefully settle down and give them more time to spend together.

He changed the topic. “What do you know about little Kro going missing?”

Her mane of black hair fluttered as she shook her head. “They’ve been looking for over an hour. At this point Glump is worried sick. I… don’t know how to help so I’ve just been keeping at what I’m doing.”

“That’s about all we can do sometimes.” Dar could see over half a dozen people from where he stood walking about, shouting for Kro to come out. “Hopefully he’s just being a silly kid, and we can laugh about this tonight.”

Sasha rolled her eyes. “Kids are so much trouble sometimes.”

He noticed Sheila dragging herself through the center of the village, off her shift. She somehow looked even more worn.

“Shelia, get some sleep.”

She raised a weary hand at Dar and disappeared into one of the huts. He could have sworn he heard a solid thump of someone falling into bed shortly after.

“We really need to get them some relief.” Dar commented. Hearing the guard was worn down was one thing, but they were at their breaking point. And the enemy was starting to get more daring.

“You heard about the two spiders last night?” Sasha worried her lip. “You don’t think Kro might have…?” She trailed off, not wanting to give voice to her thoughts.

Dar started to deny it, but he was starting to have the same uneasiness in his gut. If Kro had wandered off outside the town… Dar stopped going down that line of thinking, wanting to stay positive. “I don’t think so. We have two people patrolling the palisade. They would have spotted him if he was anywhere near the forest.”

Even as he said it, Dar didn’t completely believe it. Sheila had been exhausted at her post, and there was already clear proof a spider had gotten past the guard. But he had to believe they would have spotted the rambunctious little boy.

As he even considered it, Dar paused in eating, staring at the palisade. The town was pretty well covered in their search. He might be more useful in extending the borders of the search.

“You’re going to go look, aren’t you?” Sasha probed.

Dar scratched the back of his head. “Caught me.”

“I’ll come with you. I feel useless right now.” Sasha folded over the cloth she was working on and tucked away the scissors in the spatial pouch under her dress. “Let’s go.”

Devouring the rest of the hunk of bison, Dar walked with Sasha out toward the southern woods.

Sheila had just left her post. But as Dar scanned the palisade, he didn’t see a guard patrolling the south side. Frowning, he wondered if they were both around the other side.

As he went to look, the sound of metal drew his attention immediately. There was a fight in the shadows at the edge of the forest.

“Come on.” Dar rushed around the palisade and into the woods. Reaching them quickly, Dar took in the situation.

Two spiders had the guard cornered, and one of his legs was bound in web, preventing him from escaping. The guard looked up to see Dar running and shouted. “Watch out!”

Not hesitating, Dar summoned his ax from his inner world and swung up with all his might. His ax cut made contact with something, and he ducked into a roll as a spider fell from the tree.

“I got this.” Sasha sprang forward, using her enchanted wand like a dagger and stabbing into the spider on the left.

Seeing she was handling it, Dar turned back to the guard. In that moment of chaos, the other spider had sprung on the guard, digging its mandibles deep into the demon’s back. The guard screamed as the spider thrashed open the wound.

Sasha’s ribbons shot out, trying to encase the second spider, but it managed to walk along Sasha’s ribbons like a spider would its web. It used her ribbons like a highway straight to her.

The spider moved with its maw wide open, and Dar watched in horror.

But Sasha wasn’t as soft as she might have once been. Her palm slapped up at the base of the spider’s head and knocked it backwards, a move he’d seen Mika teach her, giving her enough time to ready herself and stab through its abdomen with her wand.

The moment of confusion was the spider’s end as the ribbons curled back on it and tangled its legs while Sasha finished it.

Dar was already picking the guard up and removing the webbing. “Are you okay?”

The guard’s eyes fogged, losing focus. “Where?”

“We need to get him back.” Dar said quickly, hauling the guard back out of the forest and to the village. As he approached, he spotted two men and waved them over.

“Stand watch at the southern edge of the village. If you see anything funny, all you do is shout and come get help. No heroics, like this guy.”

Their eyes flicked to the guard, whose back was soaked in crimson blood. Both of them nodded rapidly. “Of course.”

“What happened?” Tabby was near the hearth when Dar strode in, the crowd parting as he carried the injured man in.

“Looks like he went to check the edge of the forest and got attacked.”

Tabby clicked her tongue. “Alright, come set him down. Sasha, can you get some water boiling for me? We’ll need to clean out his wounds.”

Sasha stepped away and brought back a bucket of cold water. Dar dipped his hands in and got it to a rapid boil in only a few seconds.

“Useful.” Tabby muttered as she used a knife to tear the man’s shirt off and get a better look at the wound.

Puss was already puffing up around the wound, and there was an oily sheen of poison dripping out.

Tabby took the hot water and poured it into one of the wounds. The guard screamed, seeming to come to consciousness just enough to know the pain.

Dar wanted to stop her and help the man, but he knew that she knew what she was doing. He had to trust the process to her.

Curious, he did ask, “Isn’t that going to leave burns?”

“A mild burn from this will heal in a few days. That’s not his biggest problem. We need to get the poison out of him.” She got up to fetch a sewing kit and went to work trying to close the wounds.”

Feet pounded on the packed dirt as Rex showed up, looking down at the injured guard. “What happened?”

“Spiders. I think your guard had the same idea as us. Probably went to see if Kro had been anywhere near the southern forest.”

Rex’s avian face went through a series of emotions and finally settled on anger. “We can’t keep going like this, boss. We need to strike back.”

Dar clenched his teeth and looked at the guard. They both agreed something needed to be done. Hearthway was in real danger of the ettercaps.

“Get people together. It’s time we take the fight to them. At the very least, we need to cause enough trouble to drive them out of the nearby woods.”

Rex’s eyes flashed with excitement as he hurried off.

Dar had hoped to put it off until winter, but after this attack, there was no way they could increase the guard. And the danger seemed to be mounting with each day. They had to strike back and drive the ettercaps from their home.

“I got this one. Go meet up with my husband and get it done.” Tabby huffed, and rolled up her sleeves.

“Go, love. I’ll join you soon.” Sasha smiled before giving Tabby and the guard her full attention.

Dar set off, grabbing men as he went and telling them to meet at the central hearth. It was time they did something about these ettercaps.

“Bart.” Dar caught the old blacksmith measuring a piece of lumber. “Get a weapon and meet me at the central hearth. Bring everyone.”

His face fell. “What is it?”

“The ettercap problem is getting worse, and now a guard is injured. It’s come time. We can’t put it off any longer.” Dar didn’t leave room for argument, nor did Bart argue. Instead, the old blacksmith picked up a sword that had been laid to the side.

“I was thinking we’d be needing this soon.” He drew the sword from the sheath to check on it. “Hate that it’s come to this.”

Dar gave the man a solemn nod. “But we will protect our village; I’m not about to let these devils push us out.”

“Aye. I’ll be at the hearth in a moment.”

Dar saw masses of people with whatever weapons they could find gathering at the hearth. Content that word had gone out and people would assemble, Dar walked slowly towards it, giving people time to assemble, but also trying to figure out what he was going to say to rally them.

Everyone in the village was gathered as Dar stepped up on a bench and scanned the crowd. Rex, Russ, and Samantha all spotted him and came up to stand alongside him.

“We are going to move against the ettercaps. All who agree, say, aye.”

They looked at each other a moment before all but Samantha agreed. “I don’t like this one bit. They aren’t bothering us much yet.”

“A guard was attacked and nearly killed. And their numbers could overwhelm us if they organize. We can’t afford to wait.”

“He’s right dear.” An aged man with a paunch and a sword came up behind her and grabbed her by the shoulder. “Sometimes things like this, you need to be the first to strike. You have my sword Lord.”

Dar hesitated. “Thank you for it, but I’d ask that you stay behind. We’ll have to leave some behind to keep a watch on the children. I can’t think of anyone better than you and Sam.”

He opened his mouth to argue, but one look from Sam shut the old man up. “Of course.”

Dar smiled, knowing the man had likely fought and won countless battles in his youth. But he also needed to accept the limitations his body now put on him. He’d trained the young men; they would now pick up their swords and fight for the village.

“Alright, all of you, listen up. If you are able to march through the woods, get a weapon. If you can’t leave, or if you have a little one, leave one partner behind. Sam and her husband will be looking after the kids while we are gone.”

There were nods in some groups, but more than a few couples started bickering in the crowd. “Ettercaps attacked us today. We have a guard that’s severely wounded. Spiderwebs were placed on the palisade wall this morning. They are getting through our defenses. Right now it’s just a few, but it could be more quickly.”

Dar paused, letting it sink in. “We will protect this village, and we will make it a safe place to raise our children. Today, we drive them back and make sure they understand that Hearthway isn’t their next stop for a meal.”

The villagers pumped their fists. “Yeah. Squash the buggers.”

“Everybody needs a weapon and torch. Gather those now. Kiss your loved ones. We head into the southern forest in half an hour. We’ll start out from where the palisade wall ends down there.”

As he finished, a series of shouts erupted, especially among the young men. They were pumping each other up, preparing for battle. Dar could see some fear across their faces, but they also seemed eager to prove themselves. He hoped the training they’d gotten would be enough to keep them safe.

About to head that way, a commotion at the edge of the crowd caught Dar’s attention. At first he thought it might be related to the fight, but the voices sounded happy and excited.

As the crowd parted, out emerged Kro, covered in mud and dripping from head to toe. He was being dragged into the village by his mother, Glump, not far behind.

“You found him?” Dar called from his stump.

“Stuck in the river bank. Stupid kid worried us sick.” Glump stopped, and it looked like he was just now realizing something was up. “Did I miss something?”

Dar smiled. “Glad you got Kro back. We’re organizing a group to go attack and push back the ettercaps. It’s escalating, and we need to act now..”

The old demon sighed. “Well, at least we found Kro first. I was starting to…”

“None of that.” Dar cut him off. The last thing he needed was for anyone to lose their spirits before they went out. “Get a weapon and get a torch. We leave here in twenty minutes.

“On it.” Glump gave his wife a hug and bent down to talk to Kro.

Dar saw Cherry coming with an armload of torches, and he met up with her, heading to the southern opening in the palisade. When he met her eyes, he let his leader mask slip from his face, showing her the fear he had for the men he was about to take into battle.

Cherry simply nodded, kindness and understanding in her eyes as she leaned up and kissed his cheek. “You were made for this, Dar. And we all stand beside you.”