After having the realization about the name Gokura, I realized why Zeb made that worried look while transting. Before we tinue diving into this issue, I think I o talk to Zaka again, and try to get a better uanding of exactly what might have happened. Rather than try to dive more into this, I ged the subject slightly by asking, "If you keep having these 'demon lords' invade, why don't you try to find out where they e from, and take the fight to them? You've already shown up on this isnd after all."

  The dwarf chuckled for the sed time before talking, "You really don't uand much of this world do you? Searg for where the demons e from has been done many times in the past. Every time, the expeditions never return. It's not that big of a surprise though. The o is teeming with Leviathans. We were lucky to even make it to these isnds holy."

  Again, I've got more questions than answers from the versation, so I asked, "What are Leviathans then? Why do they make travel across the o difficult?"

  The dwarf simply replied, "They're giant sea monsters. They don't all look the same, but they have ohing in on, they're plenty rge enough to sink aire ship in one go, and they sure do seem to enjoy doing that."

  I asked further, "If they're such a threat, why did you bother ing to this isnd? What was worth such a risk?"

  The dwarf shook their head, "You probably wouldn't uand, but a number of creatures we sider a guardia has retly been disappearing from one of it's two habitats, and two were spotted flying out to sea a few months ago. These beasts are sidered quite important to the prote of our try, so an expedition repared to attempt to figure out where they were going, and as luck would have it, as we were setting out, another beast took flight in this dire. We've stopped at two isnds before this one, but found no evidence of the beasts."

  I started to get even more ed at that point. The timelines are lining up that these guardias were likely the eagles that we've been killing... For that matter, it's what they were given to eat for dinner. I had a sed dilemma now. Do I tell them what I know immediately? They might be more angry with me if I do. If I don't though and they find out ter, it'd probably be seen as disingenuous, and any hopes I have of gaining their trust will likely be shot.

  After evaluating my options, I decide to tell them. If long term retions are going to succeed, they o be built on trust.

  "About those guardias... We, most likely, killed them. They're really rge birds right? They've been ing to this isnd si winter, and started killing us demons, so we, or rather I, devised a way to kill them. It was either us or them. The meat we gave you to eat today was harvested from them. I'm sorry that you had to find out about it like this." I said.

  I watched the dwarf carefully as Zeb transted for me. Their face went from disbelief, to shock, then disgust. They immediately said something to the rest of the group, and they all stopped eating, aurhe tray of food to us. I suppose that robably to be expected.

  "I'm sorry, if I'd known the circumstances, we wouldn't have given you that to eat." I said.

  The dwarf only responded with a stare and no longer wao talk.

  Things did not go well, clearly. To mend this bridge, even more effort is going to have to be put in pbsp; I left their prison cell, ae it being evening, I personally went out to hunt some of the ground birds nearby that had bee rampant i months. I brought them batact, and butchered them in front of the prison cell, so that the group could see I wasn't feeding them more of the eagle, then cooked and gave them the new meat. Hopefully that gesture will at least indicate that I really didn't mean any harm before.

  After a day, the prisoners still weren't talkative. I've tio spend my own time hunting other meat for them just outside the vilge. I'm not particurly pleased about that fact, as I've personally grown aced to not needing to hunt small game all the time anymore. On the bright side, it's probably keeping my skills with the spear sharper than they would be otherwise.

  I took the opportunity today to talk with both Zeb and Zaka about all the information the prisoners revealed to us. There are a lot of questions that the versation with the prisoner's presented me with.

  "It sounds like Gokura isn't just a family name." I state bluntly before asking, "What is the full backstory behind that name?"

  Zaka states, "That name belongs to everyone who trace themselves back to the noble Gokura. The individual who was in charge of the territory I was born in. Famiruck our nds, so many of us fled."

  "From what I uand, the seas are dangerous. Surely famine wasn't as bad of a threat?" I asked.

  "The famine isn't what we fled. It was the other demons. There are two options when famine or disaster strikes, by rule of the emperor. The first option is to die, and be devoured by those strohan you. The sed option is to go and ew nds for the emperor, and gain yht to live." Zaka said, "I chose to try to live, as did most of us."

  "Just how many are we talking about here." I asked.

  "I couldn't say exactly how many. We set out in longboats holding twenty individuals each, but they stretched further than I could see. Many, many individuals set out." Zaka replied.

  "Wait, I thought you came here alone?" I asked, fused.

  "No, when we left, there were many in my boat, and many more about on the waves. Not long before I nded on this isnd, there were only half of us left alive in the boat. Hunger had taken most of us, I do not wish to say more about it." Zaka said sternly before tinuing, "Theorm hit. Mahrown overboard, and I was the st to g to the boat before eventually crashing here."

  "Did no one else crash here?" I asked.

  "I searched for a long time. No one else seems to have nded here." Zaka said, "I earned my right to live, I've fulfilled the sed optioed by the demon emperor."

  "I ask all this, because our prisoners speak of the demon lokura, whed their nds, eating and killing all those they ied with." I said.

  "Well, they are liars then. Lokura remained on the tio face fate. Uhey refer to the vist who did flee with us." Zaka says.

  I had a sudden thought, and asked Zeb, "Just how certain are we about the transtion you gave me? The prisoner's demon nguage seems pretty broken."

  "I'd say it's more likely than not that the information has been lost due to their poor uanding of the nguage." Zeb replies.

  So there is a ce it's not actually whatever noble Zaka served under, but just a lesser noble, or some other powerful demon that they are referring to, who shared the family name.

  "Okay, assuming they aren't referring to the actual Gokura proper, why would they all attad eat everyone indiscriminately?" I asked.

  "It is the natural order to fight for nd. As to why they ate them, I give a bit of insight." Zaka said, "Within the demon tradition, to eat another demon is sidered an honor to their memory, although I personally disagree. It is said that by ing aheir essence will tinue on within your core forever. By the end of the jourhose of us left were incredibly starved, so it likely was a natural result, honor the dead and serve as a meal."

  That's... a bit messed up. I ask, "Why do you personally disagree with that?"

  Zaka replies, "I already said I would rather not go into the final details of my what happened in my boat, but it was reted to that. There was no honor there."

  I think I might have an idea as to why he doesn't want to talk about it, so I won't press the issue. Given starvation and the long ship ride though, likely they resorted to ibalism to live. More importantly, why did their longboats survive the trip? Aren't the Leviathans supposed to be incredibly deadly? The mysteries keep piling up. At least I have a bit more information as to why the demons keep invading our prisoner's homends. If they'll talk to me again, maybe we e to a closer uandiween us based on this new information.