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[Swordstar]

"If people are avoiding our island, that is fine. If they attack, we can fight. Our guards number more than just a royal guard that you are assuming. But even beyond that. Pick a fight with our trees then. See how well that goes for you. I recall hearing about how it went for the young one in your party."

She glanced over at the new woman who was speaking and gave a shrug of her shoulders.

"Does it matter? You were armed strangers who did not surrender and instead responded to the calls of surrender with assumptions that we were going to kill you despite claims otherwise and with threats of your own. Why would we trust you? As for how many others, seven in the past nine years alone. All of them unable to leave us in peace. I am new to this post so I have only fought a few, but others under my command have fought many times. And yes, they all attacked first before you get back on your high horse... Cyryl."

[Blade Master Model 42]

"Please, I never left it." Cyryl folder his arms over his chest. "Look, if people are attacking you almost once a year, there's probably a group with a reason. What happened with them? Do you rout 'em, or are there survivors who retreated and went home?"

[Tiruin]

"Also you have any longbowmen then? That can easily dissuade 'pre-emptive striking' from any strangers you meet. I get that trust is hard to build up when you see everyone in a common eye (and then they break it), but I wonder how you'll see outsiders after us, now. It cheers me up to know the perception of our hosts. But I'm the quiet type, and people like me have good memories. What I recall is our first speaker was Aenbarr (that cute wolf-person?). He said something along the lines of..."

"Hello! Our ship beached here and we want to bury our dead."

"And then what I remember was that we were called weirdos after that, along with being roughly requested to be subdued. I'm not contending against your claim of surrender, but that's adding insult to injury. Your report is correct...but I feel it's somewhat, um, lacking. Anyway! The past is the past, I trust you're a good enough leader to instill respect in your soldiers and compatriots in the future. Any details on those who attacked you by the way?"

[Swordstar]

"They appear like you do. Wrecked on a beach. Some ships in better shape than others but still. So no. No survivors. The ones we tried to take as prisoners refused. The ones we subdued threatened our king even when he was trying to find a reason to spare their lives. We took their ships apart for supplies and their goods were distributed among our people."

She turned back to the woman.

"Apparently you weren't listening previously. Dissuading preemptive strikes, allowing people to simply 'go about their business' all of that has been tried. You appeared very similar to the other groups that appeared here. The only difference was you had some monsters with you. That alone was not enough to make us believe that you would be peaceful."

[Blade Master Model 42]

Cyryl just stared blankly at Nantale for a moment before continuing. "That is... That is absolutely insane. They wreck on your island and their first thought is to try and murder you? And the ones who actually manage to live long enough to see your king don't even try to lie their way to safety? That goes beyond bigotry, that's... That's nuts."

[Swordstar]

"They all were from the same country, I do know that much. Red armor, a flag with two crossed swords and a spear behind a shield. But yes. They all fight. Only once have we needed to call in the royal soldiers. Several times one of our mages has called on our trees, but there was one ship that arrived... It was barely damaged and filled with soldiers. So we needed help. They were the worst. Refused to surrender. Wounded men, barely able to stand throwing themselves at us..."

[Blade Master Model 42]

"Well shit. I bet you'll never guess what flag our ship was flying when it first came to our borders?" Cyryl rubbed his thumb across his chin. "Well, they're committed to crossing the ocean. And killing monsters and anyone else who associates with them, I know that much."

[Swordstar]

"... So you faced them too. But yes. They appear fairly regularly. Often enough and with enough force that we do what needs to be done. I... We were wrong with you. That is all I will say."

[GiglameshDespair]

"Sure!"

Transforming back to spider, the mighty talons made short work of the soil, and soon she'd hacked out a deep pit.

She changed back, arms coated in mud.
"This spider is going to wash the mud off."

She headed back towards the beach, emerging again by the jerk and the pervert Nan and Cyryl.

[SeriousConcentrate]

Even in her monster form, Val didn't find any particularly interesting smells, so she padded over to the beach and turned around a few times to get settled before lying down and placing her muzzle on her paws so she could watch the rest of the team.

[Caellath]

"But is he not correct? It is something that separates monsters and humans. We are not the same."

"What I meant is that you should listen and learn more by living with us." Aenbarr replied, as politely as he could. "Repeating racist drivel is not a good thing. There are different traditions among us, it is not as simple as lumping all of us as 'monsters' and thinking that's a good description of us as a whole."

[Blade Master Model 42]

  Cyryl raised one hand to scratch at the back of his head. "...Yeah. Aenbarr killed one of their prince's actually. Captain of the ship told us that there's a bunch more though. I think he said they were from somewhere called Relin. I'm not actually familiar with the place."

[GiglameshDespair]

At the sight of the mauthe, Larini forgot about cleaning her arms. She changed back to spider form and skittered over, lying down nearby and gazing towards the dog.
 She was hungry. The sight of a furry, edible creature - and one that looked vute and vulnerable - made her mouth-parts water slightly.

Wait, no eating team mates! This spider was pretty sure they wouldn't want to be friends afterwards if she did that.

[SeriousConcentrate]

Valerie looked up at the spider and gave a friendly yip, her tail wagging slowly. Maybe Larini wanted to play chase?

[Tiruin]

So the line wasn't drawn when the King was threatened...we've a long way to go in cultural sensitivity. "Cyryl, do you know anyone who is familiar with symbols and flags? Thanks Nantale for that info. Thing with outsiders is, we're all different. But those flags usually mean allegiance or that we come from a certain place, which makes us behave differently from others. Any direction they generally came from? The ships I mean? We could probably chart a good route back from there."