When Lengdu got out of his tent, he first thought that his nephews were playing near the campfire. But then, he realized that, indeed, the Balseraphs were arrived, like Vungu had told him a few moments ago. She was standing near two children who were babbling and playing with each other. Lengdu approached. He was uneasy. Many humans were standing behind the children and, albeit calm, they were at least as upsetting. They had strange bodies, even for humans, and some wore bags on their heads, or something similar. Among them, Lengdu saw some monsters. He didn’t know what kind exactly. It didn’t matter, anyway. He was scared and wouldn’t be afraid to say it. But he couldn’t, right now.
The camp had been made at the easternmost point of their territory, near Shwa, his town, as he liked to call it. He was indeed its ruler and that’s why he had to come to Vungu’s camp to meet the Balseraphs. They had some urgent matter to discuss. Vungu wanted him to take a more important part in the political activities of their country… But he didn’t like that. Politics? Nah, he was an adventurer, a singer, a leader. He wanted to roam the wilderness with his troops, not to seat and talk with two human children.
Those two were girls. Unlike themselves, human females were smaller, curvier and weaker. There, one was smaller than the other. The smaller one had a red fur on the head; it was long and tied in a cone. The bigger one had an untidy black fur. Vungu talked suddenly:
“This is Lengdu the Drummer—“
“I don’t want to hear drums, Kee--!”
“I don’t want either. Send him away.”
“You’ve mistaken me, my ladies.” Vungu did a thing Lengdu knew wasn’t easily saw by humans. She slightly curled back one side of her lips, usually done when annoyed. Inside, Lengdu was laughing. “The Drummer is his title. You don’t want to know why, though.”
“Fine, then, we don’t want to.” ‘Kee’ looked to the other human.
“Who’s he, then?”
“I- I am the ruler of Shwa, the town just a few pounces over the hills.”, he said, still uneasy. “And you are the Balseraphi rulers?”
“I am the Balseraphs ruler, Keelyn.”, answered the big one.
“You’re kidding, right? I’m the ruler too!”
Keelyn looked back at the other with a bright smile and nodded. She then looked straight into Lengdu’s eyes and said: “She’s Nell. She’s mine.”
Lengdu and Vungu stared at each other during a small moment, enough to share each other’s thoughts about those weird humans.
“Why are you here, ladies?”
“Well, Vungu, isn’t it?” She nodded at Keelyn. “We want you to go and fight… what’s his name already? Big Fat Green?”
Nell giggled.
“What… Wait, you mean… Hafgan the Purger?”
“No no no, silly Vungu. Aren’t you listening? Did I say Big Stupid Green?”
Nell giggled again and then said her lady was talking about Jonas Endain. Vungu’s eyes met Lengdu’s once more. They were wide opened, full of fear.
“Why would we do that?”, he said.
“Why?!” Keelyn had turned her face towards him again. This time, she seemed more like a Ngomele than like a human. She looked like she was going to pounce at him. Nell quickly grabbed her arm and whispered something. She then looked at Lengdu by the corner of her eyes:
“We own you, that is why.”
Vungu and Lengdu stood right there, speechless. The Ngomele that were attending whispered at each other.
“Can I touch your nose?”
Lengdu was confused. Surprised, too. And then, he was shocked when she came near him, stretched on tiptoe and petted his nose. He repelled her with his arm, pushing her away towards Keelyn, making her lose her balance and fall down. Keelyn’s face became red, but that wasn’t due to her anger; flames were rising from her hands. She screamed!
When he opened his eyes, Lengdu saw a corpse burning on the ground, behind Keelyn, among the Balseraphs. Their leader was down, taking care of Nell. Lengdu couldn’t take his eyes off the poor guy she killed of anger. He thought he should have taken the fireball. The soldier hadn’t been guilty of anything, while he did. He looked at Vungu; she was down and terrified. Lengdu stepped forward.
“Don’t ask for pardon, silly wolf.” Keelyn stared at him with anger. “I won’t give that to you. I want Big Fat Green’s head or Cheval will be burned down along with your entire petty kingdom.”
“That’s Shwa.”
“Whatever.”
They stood up and left without saying anything else. Well, they left a burning body, but that was all.