ht, a disturbance was reported. The missing fifth member of the group that we were looking for apparently otted on the vilge wall at one point. They shouted something to the group in the jail cell, and the group yelled something babsp; After which the person wasn't spotted again.

  In the m, before I went to the group in the jail, I prepared a few different fish options and multiple buckets of fresh water. The biggest I have moving forward is that wherever these people came from, there might be more. Even if tured these few individuals, we have no idea about how dangerous others might be. With the lizards and eagles, they were just beasts, and although the eagles showed some intelligence, we were able to easily outsmart them.

  With other intelligent beings though, there is a much higher ce that they just swarm us, much like hoarmed these four. Given their armor and on position, they likely e from a detly sized society. That means that if they get reinforts and want to fight us, we're screwed. Even if we take down a lot of them, there is no in any war, even if individually we're strong.

  Which leaves us with oion, peaegotiations. The hope here is that we bring them around to iate on our behalf, and prevent some form of eradication campaign. Of course, there are a lot of potential pitfalls involved with this. If they're religiously motivated, or have a deep seated hatred for us, then we're probably doomed. Which means we'll o work on a backup pn as well.

  Unfortunately, I'm still quite unskilled at the demon nguage, which means I'll need Zeb with me to trahings, sihe one member of their group who seems to be able to speak some amount of demon does so only slightly better than myself. I really don't want to leave survival up to any misuandings at this point, as I've already learhat lesson once.

  When we arrived at the jail cell, it appeared that the two that weren't injured were attempting to treat their injured patriots' legs. Although it actually appeared that they were using some form of magic to do so. The legs both looked signifitly better than they had yesterday. Healing magibsp; That would be veo have. We'll have to keep a better eye on the group moving forward though. If they heal themselves up, there is no reason they couldn't forcibly attempt to escape, which would be a nightmare in and of itself.

  Through Zeb, I attempted to open unications, "We've brought some food options and water. It's good to see that you're helping to treat each other's wounds. I would have preferred not to harm you at all if we could have helped it though."

  The robed dwarf approaches the food trays that we've slid into the cell, along with the water. The others look at us with quite a bit of suspi though. The dwarf speaks to us, in a voice a bit higher than I was expeg, and then begins tasting the food.

  Zeb looks over to me and asks, "Do you want the direct transtion, or what I think they meant to say?"

  I think for a moment, and say, "Why don't you ask them which they would prefer. I'd personally prefer what you think they meant, but they might have a preference."

  Zeb nods and asks the dwarf. The dwarf looks between Zeb ah a fused look before saying a few things to Zeb.

  "They want to know if their Demon is so bad that I'm having to tra for you. They don't actually care which I choose." Zeb says.

  I let out a chuckle, then say, "What you think they meant is fine. You let them know that I don't speak demon very well, so that's why you're transting. I don't think hiding that fact is going to be particurly useful. Besides, they clearly tell I'm speaking a different nguage between us anyway. They could probably piece it together on their own soon enough."

  Zeb nods, and speaks to the dwarf again. At this point, the dwarf had brought the food and some of the water back to the other prisoners, who had each begaing. The dwarf says something back to Zeb.

  "They want to know why you don't speak the demon nguage well." Zeb says.

  "Just tell them my reason is probably the same as theirs. It's not my first nguage." I say.

  Zeb nods, ahe information to the dwarf. The dwarf looks over at me for a little while, seemingly thinking about something. They then shrug aurn to eating.

  I tell Zeb, "Ask them if they want any furniture or anything. Although they'll have to make do with things made of stone, I don't particurly want them just sitting on the floor here."

  Zeb nods and asks them, to which the dwarf seemingly asks the rest of the group before replying to Zeb.

  "They would like chairs, a table, and pces to sleep, if you're ." Zeb says.

  I respond to Zeb, "Yeah, we make those pretty easy, so I don't see why not."

  Zeb then asks in English, "I know you said that we o be cautious of bad retions with them, but they did kill a few goblins. Please keep that in mind. The oblins in the vilge probably won't take too kindly if prisoners are treated better than themselves."

  I reply, "It's good to keep that in mind. We don't need another Kurg i. That said, we could deal with another Kurg. I suspect though, that we would be uo deal with what's ing in the near future reted to these four. So the bang act is going to be difficult."

  For the hour or so, Zeb and I furheir cell with the items the prisoners had requested while they ate. Although I was ied in tinuing versation, I think it's probably best to slowly build up trust. I don't want them to think we're easily exploitable. Instead, I want to earn their respect if possible. If that means waiting until we bring dio them to get more info, then so be it. I had a feeling if I asked them about their fifth member at that point, they wouldn't give me real information anyway.

  So, for the rest of the day, I began work on the guardhouses, while Zeb tinued widening the sewer tunnel. For the time being, trips to the o tide pool have been put on hold, and the vilge has beeo high alert. Thankfully, we have a lot of food stored up in the smokehouse. If we don't have any issues after a few days, we send rger, escorted groups to the o to get fish to replenish our food supplies.

  By evening, I'd gotten some work done on the first guardhouse. Thankfully, we didn't have any interruptions throughout the day. Unfortunately, the vilge had gohrough most of the fish we had left, so the only meat on hand now is smoked eagle meat. So for the evening meal, that is what was brought to the prisoners.

  After giving it a taste, the group begaing, so I figured it was a good time to ask, "So, who is the fifth member who on our vilge wall st night, and what did you tell them?"

  After Zeb trahe dwarf clearly had a rea, but replied, "I don't know who you're talking about."

  So, they're pying it that way huh. Fine. From their perspective, I'm basically asking them to rat out their ally. I move on with questioning, "Alright, so why did you kill the defenseless goblins who were merely fishing? Before, you said something about hoould have attacked first, but I don't fully uand why you would think that. We're a retively peaceful group, unless we're attacked."

  Zeb transtes again, and the dwarf responds after a little bit, "Every iion I know of between demons and non-demons has resulted in bloodshed. I don't see why this would be any different, although right now is a bit of an anomaly."

  I ask, "What do you mean, every iion?"

  The dwarf looks about through the jail wall at the vilge for a little while, eating some food. They eventually reply, "This pce is a bit weird. You really don't seem to know much about anywhere outside of here."

  I'm a little bit frustrated by them dodging the question, so I ask again, "What iions? Enlighten me on what your experieween demons and non-demons has been."

  The dwarf lets out a chuckle and begins a long story, "Well, the most ret major event was the invasion of the Demon Lokura." At this point, during transtion, Zeb gives me a worried look and tinues, "That was ht years ago now. Whenever a new demon lord invades, it's always the same story. They nd somewhere ihree Kingdoms, sughter and devour everyone near where they nd, and a united front is formed to eventually push them babsp; Then a new demon lord will show up eventually. Sometimes it's over a hundred years, sometimes its less thay. Every time though, it's devastation."'

  After I finish listening to Zeb's transtion, I think babsp; Gokura... Gokura... Where have I heard that before? Oh. I fot because I don't use it often in English. Everyone here has that name. Gokura.