The funeral passed, and Tuarine declared that a meeting would hold in a couple of minutes, and that people should not stray far.
Most lingered around, exchanging words of comfort. The place was suffocating, and Ren felt he had to leave midst, he would come back when the meeting began.
He was by himself staring at the trees before him, the rustling of leaves and the cool breeze soothing him.
Ren caught a familiar whiff, someone was in close proximity with him, and they were stealthy. He slowly turned to see that it was his insufferable guardian angel.
"You don't always seem as happy as I am when I show up. Do you detest my presence?" Ren thought it was perhaps annoyed, but the manner at which it asked the question did not relay that, it seemed just as cheerful as it had always been.
He gave no response, instead he maintained his stoic countenance and shifted his gaze away from the teddy-bear looking angel.
"Your first failure! Remember, there's truly no progress without moments of failure, or how is it said? Anyways, how are you feeling? How far have your stat points drop? The gods hate failures you know, and your favor points must have fallen."
"No, it didn't." Ren interjected.
"Hmmm…" The angel cupped its fat chin, "What even was it that you failed at? I have seen many instances where failure resulted in death, but all that you have now is a terrible mood. Let's see."
Enoa drifted off, and after about a minute, it appeared back, homing about Ren in mild worry.
"Could you have saved them?" Enoa asked, and Ren nodded in response. The angel then proceeded to sit atop Ren's right shoulder, and it was surprisingly lighter than expected.
"Are you just a ball of fur?" Ren questioned, chuckling slightly.
"Maybe, maybe I am. You will never know unless you hold me yourself."
Ren smirked. Enoa had always been nothing but a talkative prick, but now, he appreciated her presence, coupled with the softness of her body, he felt at ease.
"Do people die where you come from?"
"Not exactly, angels like me simply reincarnate into new bodies after some thousands of years. Our bodies age, and when we have grown to the point that it is disadvantageous to remain in the body, we go through a door that strips our soul from our bodies, and life begins afresh once we settle into a new body."
"That is convenient, I too would like to switch this body for a more impressive one."
"You would start all over, beginning from an infant, would you like that?"
"I have been an infant once, I will be fine if I become one again."
Enoa suddenly drifted above Ren's shoulders, circling around him when a voice called out to him.
Tuarine stood with her arms crossed, looking at Ren like she was mad at him, she wasn't however, she was just angry like everyone over the deaths of innocent children.
"The meeting has begun." She said, and Ren nodded.
"She cannot see you?" He questioned Enoa.
"Only if she's a mage, and she clearly isn't. She doesn't seem too bad however. There's ample mana in her."
"You should go now."
"No! I want to listen to what you people have to say."
The meeting was held at Eldrad's backyard, those who had come earlier sat on benches, and the others who came later were made to stand. Eldrad stood, moving his arms animatedly as he spookj to the people.
"We have endured so much, we have tried to wait out their mischief, we have tried to convince them that we were harmless villagers. They slaughtered our animals, stole our food, but that wasn't enough, they had to kill our children."
"Are we going to stand for this?!" He asked loudly.
"No!" The crowd cried back in rage.
"Are we going to stand for this?!"
"No!" They cried jointly again. The bandits had crossed a boundary, and with it came terrible repercussions.
"How do we hope to find these men? They could be anywhere, they could be more armed than we are, why don't we focus on protecting ourselves? If the well had been locked, this wouldn't have happened."
The crowd turned to the direction of the voice, and it was no other than old man Doyan, the oldest of the village, some speculate that he might be the wisest, but one thing was certain, Doyan was one of those wise men that prefered to stay in all day reading books, those that abhor any means of violence, even that which is justified.
Nobody could get angry at him, if it was anyone else, they likely would have been smacked out of the meeting and gotten hurled insults, but not old man Doyan, which was why he said the statement, he was the only one who could.
"We will take that into account, I'll have Doma make a lock when the new well is dug, for now, we would have to get water from the well at the Imstone winehouse. We have reason to believe that they might come again soon, Mr Erigald." Eldrad called out to Erigald.
"I hired Evo as soon as I got the news of the dead children." As soon as Erigald mentioned those words, the whole crew gasped, and Ren turned about wondering what the matter was.
'This Evo is popular?'
"I had to pay him a great sum, but he mentioned that he saw figures camped farther in the woods, in Combec. He believes they must be responsible, and I have no reason to doubt Evo, do any of you?"
Nobody gave an answer, only murmurs flew. Ren could deduct that this Evo guy was popular but he was not the well-liked type, the scorn on many faces tell that they detested whoever this Evo guy was.
"I have a map here with their location marked on there, this could be our only chance to get justice, and curb this menace once and for all, or would you wait until they begin raping your wives?!"
Erigald spoke right where it hurt, and the crowd were all riled up. It was decided, the bandits would face swift brutal justice.
Erigald quickly left the spotlight, and Tuarine took his spot, her face sterner than ever.
"Evo mentioned that the bandits are few in numbers, less than six. He believes that they may not even be bandits but assassins, or soldiers hired to carry out clandestine acts for the sake of their kingdom, but they made a mistake, they thought we had no fire burning in us, that we would roll over should they hurt us. You!" She pointed to Jonan, the strongest man in the village, and then she pointed to some others, eventually reaching Ren.
Ren had proved to be competent, dubbed the beast slayer, he was the most impressive of the men gathered, but he was new, where did his loyalties lie? They even barely knew him. He stood when Tuarine pointed her fingers at him. She chose nineteen men, nineteen men that were the best of the village, the team that would go enact justice before the next morning cock crow.