Displaced

Chapter 83

Tehlmar Esmae stretched his tired body as he sat outside his small, one-person tent. With a small cloth, he wiped away the sweat beading on his brow and let out a weary breath. He felt exhausted and wanted nothing more than to go to sleep.

After several days of hurrying through the Stragman forest with his local "escorts", he couldn't help but once again be impressed with just how quickly Stragmans could move through the jungle they called home when they really wanted to. This particular squad had been assigned to ferry him to the edge of the forest quickly and quietly so that he could take care of his end of the bargain while the Stragmans marched north. According to his new buddy Akhustal Palebane, the squad was composed of the best scouts the nation had to offer, and it showed. It was like they had some sort of sixth sense that kept them from getting turned around in the thick underbrush and a seventh sense that let them detect and avoid threats so far away from the group that Tehlmar never even got to find out what they were.

The end result was that they crossed distances each day that he would have thought impossible in such an ecosystem had he not traveled those same steps right alongside them. The other end result was a body sore from head to toe. He had never had to work this hard physically since reverting to his original form, and he hated it.

Jaquet had, in many ways, been built for this sort of thing. Large, strong, and with plenty of fat reserves for the long haul, the old "Jaquet" Tehlmar would have been able to handle such hardships with relative ease. His current body, on the other hand, was slight and short and rather lacking in strength compared to the others, meaning he had to work extra hard to keep up.

The weather didn't help. Even in the winter, the jungles of Stragman never seemed to stray below "muggy and hot". The humidity clung to his skin and made sweat leak from every pore. He wasn't looking forward to the plethora of rashes he'd have by the end of the journey.

Sadly, the ambient heat did nothing to warm the icy looks sent his way by the rest of the party. It was obvious from the start that the group resented being ordered to assist him in returning to Drayhadal. He found the whole treatment quite irritating. Beyond the glares, they refused to talk to him outside of the bare minimum required and every so often, when they thought he wasn't paying attention, they'd do something to try to trip him and send him falling face-first into the mud. He hadn't fallen—yet—but still, he felt it was time to do something about it and he knew just what to do.

The next time he caught a glare—which wasn't long at all—he stared right back at the Stragman, refusing to avert his gaze. "See something you like, tree-fucker?" he asked the man. Tact had never been Tehlmar's strong suit, but he'd stopped caring about diplomacy since the second day of the trek.

The man stiffened from the unexpected rebuke. "What was that?" he asked, rising to his feet as the rest of the camp went still.

"You heard me the first time," Tehlmar replied, taking a nonchalant swig from his water pouch and looking around the camp. "Seems like you all have something to say, so stop being cowards and just say it already."

"Everybody halt," the voice of the squad leader cut in as the first man took a step towards Tehlmar and several others got to their feet, malice in their eyes. "Don't fall for the sharp-ear's taunts."

"That's an awfully rude way to speak of a friend of your leader," Tehlmar sent back.

The leader, a tall, muscular man in his mid-forties, stepped forward. "I don't know what trickery you used to fool the Chos, but it won't work on us!" he declared. "We would never make peace with the likes of you! Drayhadan aggression will not be forgotten so easily!"

Tehlmar couldn't help but laugh. "You Stragmans are all the same. You attack us and yet we are the aggressors? Typical treelickers."

"Your people set fire to the forest first! The forest is as much a part of us as our flesh and blood! How could we forgive those who would lay waste to our home?"