All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 94: Terror on the Prairie

Over the past day or so, I learned quite a bit. I learned about humans, their behaviors, and how they interacted most of all. It was a fascinating process, one that currently had me tending to a crying Leanne to get some sticky tar out of her hair. It was the result of a cruel prank, one that I had to scold the young twins for playing on their younger sister. Luckily, before I had to dish out any discipline, Mary stepped in and had them working hard in the kitchen. She had also confiscated the roofing tar and put it out of reach to avoid future incidents.

Meanwhile, I was left with a sobbing little human and a hairbrush. Mary was worried she would have to cut the mess out of Leanne's hair and asked me to save as much as I could. The brush was useful for separating out the clean hair. However, I didn't think that cutting it out would be necessary. My Domain was already getting to work and separating out a ball of the gunk. It would be out of her hair in another 20 minutes at this rate.

The fact that it would take that long was a testament to the quality of the tar. I beeped comfortingly as I ran the brush through the girl's light brown hair. Eventually, Leanne started to calm down and began babbling about how mean her older brothers were, except for Tony. She liked Tony. But the twins, who I learned were named Moe and Boe, were apparently jerks. Leanne hoped her Ma was right and that it was just because they were ten-year-old boys, but I didn't understand what that had to do with anything.

Leanne apparently had mixed feelings about her youngest brother, who was only a year older than her. Unfortunately, I didn't get to hear the rest of the story as I picked up the sound of Beatrice and her party approaching the castle. I remembered that Beatrice wouldn't be able to get in easily, as I had closed the portcullis and decided to make my way over. I hoped she didn't have to wait too long.

Of all the people who could understand me, Leanne seemed to do it best. It only took a couple of seconds to get her to follow me. As we walked through the castle to the entrance, we chatted about how to unstick tar. I was glad to see the youth taking such an interest in cleaning.

When we arrived in front of the gate, Leanne let out a squeak. Beatrice was stabbing her way through a group of rotting humans with her improved broom.

“Z-z-z-z-zombies!” Squealed Leanne, pointing at the bad humans. Zombies? I wasn't familiar with that word. I would have to ask Beatrice about it when we had time. She seemed to be doing okay, but I would wait for her to clear them out before opening the gate. I didn't want them to get into the castle again. They would track mud and bad odors everywhere.

Leanne fell into a sitting position, so I went back to working on her hair until Beatrice needed me.

—

Bee may have overestimated her own abilities. She had managed to remove about half of the zombies so far. Unfortunately, they were the lower leveled ones, and the remaining ones were not getting in each other's way like they had before.

The only thing that was keeping her moving was the pathing skill. That and her broom. The improved broom worked wonders. It still had all the defensive abilities that it did before and excelled at blocking attacks, plus it gave her a large reach. It was barely enough to keep her safe, though.

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Each time she lunged into the group, it threatened to surround her and prevent her from moving back. Her pathing ability kept her ahead by just a hair's breadth. Several times she received scratches from overgrown nails but thankfully avoided any bites.

The only saving grace in this situation was that Trent and Tony had stayed back, so she didn't have to worry about saving them. She danced around the group, trying to bait one into overextending and chasing after her. Them being zombies, that wasn't too hard to accomplish, but they also never moved alone. Still, she found a pattern that would isolate one just long enough for her to finish it off with a stab to the head before backing away, which worked about 60% of the time.

Sometimes she had to settle for just hobbling the zombie instead of finishing it. They were animated mostly by magic but still needed some sort of intact muscles for that magic to animate them. Without tendons, they were drastically slowed. Soon there were few enough that could actually keep up with her that picking off the rest became trivial. The worst part of the whole ordeal was that the zombies were so much lower level than her that she was barely earning any experience.

This was the first time that she really understood why most people leveled up slowly. Void had carried her hard. If this was Tony fighting these, he would have for sure died a long time ago. Even though these zombies were around his level. Normal people either fought so far under their level that they barely got experience, like she was doing now, or they died quickly. Most people just chose professions that didn't make them risk their lives constantly, which also usually came with lower gains.

Bee envied those people. Devotee was not supposed to be a combat class. With her master, though, it was impossible to avoid, it seemed. At least she was well prepared.

Taking the last of her frustrations out on the remaining level 25 zombie, she was finally rewarded with a halfway decent amount of experience. It was nowhere near enough to gain her next level, but at least she would make noticeable progress.

Once she finished with the group, the portcullis started to rise. She saw her master working the winch. It had watched her fight the whole time and hadn't helped. Was this its way of letting her know how far she still had to come? After all, she was fighting a group of enemies with an average level of 15 under hers. She should have had no problem with them. But still, she was running around and batting out attacks instead of storming through them with force as her master would have.

Bee bowed to her master, "I promise to work harder, Master."

As the way was still being opened, Bee turned and called Trent and Tony over. They brought the animals behind them, and Trent gawked at the unmoving bodies lying around with holes in their skulls.

Once Void had the portcullis all the way raised, it trundled over and quickly hoovered up the zombie remains. Bee also noted that the rotting scent disappeared almost instantly after it finished. For that, she was quite grateful. Right after they all made it in, Void lowered the portcullis again.

"Master, have we had issues with zombies coming in? We have never closed this before." Bee asked. It was a good idea either way, but she was curious about what had happened in her absence.

—

I welcomed Beatrice back with a warm chime. Honestly, I was happier to have Trent and Tony back. Someone needed to monitor these little monsters that posed as small humans. Someone other than me. Still, I was glad Beatrice had made it back in one piece.

Hearing her curiosity, I did my best to explain what had happened when she was gone as I continued my work cleaning Leanne's hair. Leanne had calmed down a lot as she watched Beatrice deal with the zombies outside. Her lack of squirming around had allowed me to continue without rushing, gently pulling out individual strands of tangled hair.

Beatrice knelt next to me and helped remove the gunk. Between our efforts and my Domain, it didn't take long to get the whole thing cleaned. By the time I looked up, I saw that Trent and Tony had led the animals away. Freed from our attention and tar, Leanne turned around and gave Beatrice a huge hug and started babbling about how cool she looked while fighting so many zombies. Despite the fact that the event had just happened, the little human seemed to get a surprising amount of details wrong. I was pretty sure there had been fewer than a hundred of them, but I didn't correct the excited girl.

Once she finished her hero worship, she leaned down and thanked me for helping with her hair. After touching my claw in thanks, she ran back inside.

I let out a long low beep in relief that I was no longer on the hook for watching over so many humans. Normally I wasn't one to shirk hard work, but I really wasn't built for this. If this was standard family work, was I suddenly even more impressed with the large female human at home. As I was considering what we should do next, Beatrice piped up with a good idea. "Master, I need to get stronger."

That was true. I conveyed my agreement. "I don't just need more levels, but I need to get more practice fighting. That fight was way more difficult than it should have been for someone my level."

I wasn't sure exactly, but her getting stronger was always good. I asked her what she thought she should do about it. To my wonder, she understood my question perfectly. "Hmmm. The best way is to get more experience. I think that it's clear the zombies are coming from the south of here. I should head that way and find some to fight. There is a good chance I will find people in need of help as well. Maybe I can protect them."

This wasn't a bad idea. Of course, I couldn't let her go alone. Now that I saw how effective just closing the gate was when we left, I felt better about leaving the family and Felix behind.

I agreed to her plan. Hoping to replicate my previous success in negotiation, I tried to convey that we should leave in a couple of days. Sadly it seemed to have been a fluke as Beatrice appeared worried. "Uh, master, I need time to prepare. There are so many potions I need to make and things I need to learn. I'd rather go in ready for anything, if it's alright with you."

Beatrice waved her hands in front of her as if I was about to rush her out of the castle. Frustrated, I just beeped my assent, and she relaxed a little before bowing and running off. Presumably, she was heading to the library to begin preparing. That was one of her best qualities; she had a great work ethic.

I rolled off back to the castle. I already sensed the youngest boy was about to draw on the walls with a rock he had found. If it was chalk, I wouldn't mind too much, even if it would have been a pain to remove, but this literal rock might do some more permanent damage.

It was clear why Mary and Trent had their kids spend most of their days outside. They were little destruction machines. I was sure that my little humans back home were not nearly so disruptive, but that might just have been my personal bias. After confiscating the rock and giving the child a piece of slate and a chalk nub from a nearby room, I finally had a second to myself.

Trent had called all his kids outside and put them to work storing the food and working in the fields. It was getting pretty late, and I dearly hoped he would wear them all out.

To calm myself down, I went to settle on my favorite rug. It had miraculously survived the big demon fight, much to my relief. Now I was pretty sure that this was my favorite room. The beautiful obsidian one was now a sad wreck. Even my Domain wasn't really working on it. Though even if it had been untouched, I didn't think that I could have seen it in the same light again. That fight really did put things in a different perspective.

As I gently ran my bristles along the fibers, feeling them tickle my undercarriage, I considered what I wanted to accomplish next.