Enna is a Land God: Book 3

The Needs of Monsters

Despite the murder, and the lack of concrete suspects, the summit had to continue. Mainly, the faster we could finish it, the faster everyone could go home, and the lest likely it was that another person would be found dead.

Lagdon wanted me to be sent home, immediately. It was 'too much of a risk', and 'What if you are the next one targeted?', again and again, until i was ready to smack the hobgoblin upside the head. Luckily, Kishi was on my side in this matter. Or, rather, she seemed to had accepted the fact that they would not be able to convince me to go home and leave them here, so what would be the point of continuing the argument. The fox guardian was pragmatic like that.

So, I sat though another long day of talks. It wasn't boring this time, however. I could almost taste the tension amongst the monster's gathered in the colosseum, and could see how tightly everyone was wound. while they all seemed angry and worried, they also seemed to want to put up a front of indifference, as if the death of the day before meant very little to any of them.

The biggest change I had seen was in Margund. The hobgoblin king no longer sported his usual easy smile and, instead, sat back in his chair, arms folder over his massive chest with a cold frown on his face, fairly glaring at Astrid, the ogre's representative.

I supposed that I could understand Margund's animosity. Of the races gathered here, all were capable of killing, but only two could physically pull a man's arm off: the goblins and the ogres. Margund- and myself for that matter- was sure that it had not been one of the hobgoblins. Though, I had to admit that I was biased in that thought, given my closeness with them, and my own (probably) overly trusting nature. And, of course, Margund was not willing to blame the attack on his men either.

That left the Ogres as the main suspects. They had not hidden their over all disdain for any sort of cooperation between the races, and had openly threatened many of us. Still, I could have been wrong... but I did not think that Astrid herself was the culprit. During the limited time I had spent observing the ogres and speaking with her daughter, I had grown a level of respect for the red ogress. I had seen how she cared for her people and, in her own way, guided them in a way that she saw as honorable and just.

Did my views and the ogres completely align? Well, no... but that was just how cultural differences worked. I found their ways fascinating, much the same as I did the other monsters gathered here. And I also didn't think that our core values were so different or incompatible that cooperation was completely off the table either.

In my opinion, the real issue here was Varda, and her Drallda tribe.

As we all dispersed after the last meeting, I saw the yellow skinned ogre outside once again. As we passed she sneered at us, her eyes gleaming wickedly, and almost tauntingly. Lagdon glared right back, and directed me away from them. Instantly, there were many people around me, as a matter of fact, and I didn't just mean my selected guards either. It seemed as if Speaker and his gang suddenly had the urge to walk the same way that we were, he and his two unicorn muscle flanking me on one side, while Kishi trotted along my other side.

I even noticed that Yevette, who had left before Lagdon and I, was walking a little ahead of us and kept looking back, as if to be sure I was still there.

I almost groaned in frustration when I also heard Brixie and Margund having a suspiciously pleasant and upbeat conversation near by, despite not being able to see them. After all, my view was blocked by about five or six tons of accumulative muscle at this point.

"Really?" i sighed, a hand on my forehead for dramatic effect. They were not even good at acting like any of this was unintentional. "You all do realize that I am really the least vulnerable one here... Right?"