The Chained Watcher

The Village

~~~

Morning had arrived, and it was now time to go speak to the villagers. Approaching on foot in an attempt to appear less frightening, Grian and Philza walked to the entrance of the village. Once they spotted them, the villagers looked nervous and defensive, with curious children being hidden behind their mothers' backs.

One of the villagers spoke, but neither of them knew the language being spoken. Well this just threw a wrench in their plan. Should Grian try his hand at translation magic? It's rather finicky... Worth a shot, right?

Okay, he had forgotten just how annoying translation magic was. It took a full minute to get it working, which meant a full minute of awkward eye contact between the two sides. Finally up and working, he checked to see if it functioned both ways, "Testing, testing, is this working?"

The villagers' heads snapped to look at him, and a leader-looking one spoke up. "Like I said before, who are you? Our village doesn't welcome strangers, so don't bother expecting room and board."

"Ah, we're not here looking for any food or shelter, we just saw the village and thought we might ask for directions since we've gotten a bit lost."

The villagers looked a bit suspicious, but then a smart-looking old lady slowly walked over. "Now, now. What have I said about being rude to people you've just met, John?"

"B-but elder-"

"Don't you 'elder' me young man, they've shown no signs of attacking despite you generally being unpleasant, so you have no good reason to justify being rude." She turned towards the two avians. "Sorry about little Johnny" A noise of protest rose from John. "He can be a bit overly cautious about strangers sometimes, had a bad experience with bandits as a child. Now, you said you were looking for directions?"

"A-ah, yes, we were. Do you know where the nearest town is?"

"If you head Southwest from here about three day's walking distance, you should find the territory lord's town. Do take care though, most towns don't welcome beastkin like yourselves, no matter how friendly you are."

"Thank you for the directions and the warning, but we should be fine. We'll be careful. Take care!" With that, Grian spread his wings and took off, a confused Philza following behind.

"Uh, so... What just happened?" Huh? "You did something with magic, then started speaking in their language. I have no idea what you said." Oh.

Releasing the translation magic, he laughed awkwardly. "So, it might have been a bit since I last used translation magic, and I might or might not have forgotten that it means you speak in the target language... Umm, oops?"

~~~

They were heading southwest at a leisurely pace, and several hours later the town came into sight. It looked properly medieval, with a decently sized mansion in the center atop a hill. Nothing like Grian's mansion was sizing up to be, but it would be a respectable starter base for Hermitcraft.

There was an outer wall surrounding the entire settlement, with guards patrolling the top and watching the surrounding area. No hybrids were immediately visible down below, though that didn't mean much considering how subtle some features could be. If hybrid discrimination was a problem though, then it would probably be best to sneak in at night under the cover of darkness.

Which meant more waiting. They spent the time playing around with the air currents, doing aerial maneuvers high enough up that their silhouettes should look like birds. Eventually, the sun went down below the horizon, and it was time to sneak in.