PeaceMaker

Litian looked a bit taken aback by his comment but brushed the thought away and continued, "Second commander Feline thought about that and recommended we take a small group of medics with us and some guards,"

"Hmm?" Dominic asked, cocking his head, "why medics?"

"Small villages are prone to diseases because they are easily spread when there's a small space but a large number of people or even small amounts of people," Litian began.

"So she wants to make a trade?" Dominic asked to no one in particular. He grinned after a moment of thought, "that's quite clever. Help them in exchange for trust and use a small number of medics so we can prevent them from taking most hostage since the ratio of medic to guard will be quite tipped... plus reducing the loss if some medics get sick too. I like it."

Litian stared blankly at Dominic before smiling. 'it seems your son has really grown, your majesty,' she thought to herself before letting out a brief sigh, 'it's a shame you weren't there to see it.'

"Litian?" Dominic called out again.

"Yes my lord?" Litian replied, her head jerking slightly as she was snapped out of her thoughts.

"Get ready, we're leaving as Feline suggested," Dominic grinned, "it's time for a change of scenery."

*

Much to Dominic's surprise, it wasn't much of a change in scenery. The dreary atmosphere was still there.

The village was very small in size, as expected, but was only a little bit better than the situation at the camp. One of the differences being that there weren't a lot of dead bodies lying around like decorations for the earth, and the other that the excuses of a house actually had bricks. Most of them.

It was basically an empty shell of a once jubilant village, with the theme of gray and barrenness. The brightly colored houses now had sprinkles of the darker version of the paint it was, the rest were deep gray. The streets were worn down from usage over the years, once clean and sturdy was now bumpy and covered with dust and mud. The trees were probably the only thing that added color into the town, their bright green leafs seemed to be unaffected by the deadness surrounding them.

Dominic had his group walked down the road, looking for signs of life on the streets but was only met with silence. He headed towards the center of the town, hoping that he would hit the jackpot, and surprisingly, he did. There, in the middle of the town, resembled more of what the village was supposed to be. There were people everywhere, all crammed into that little square, running up and down the place, doing so many but similar things at the same time. They all turned to Dominic when they noticed his presence, astonished that there would be visitors who would have stumbled upon their village and then continued into it after seeing the horrible state of the village.

They examined him curiously then stepped back when they noticed the swords on their sides.

"What the heck…" a voice muttered from the crowd, heads turning and bodies stepping away as a girl walked out, "again? It hasn't even been a month."

Dominic examined the girl in confusion, "what? What are you talking about?"

The girl rolled her eyes, stopping in the middle, in front of Dominic and her people with an annoyed pose, "what's the theme this time? Naiveness? Are we supposed to act like we have no idea what's going on and pay up?"

Dominic stared completely devoid of what was going on, "what?" he asked again.

"Your Majesty," Litian called out, tapping his shoulder and leaning into his ear, "I think they've been raided monthly by tax collectors."

"Ah… and I guess they think we're one of them?"

"I'm guessing so…" Litian sighed.

"How great," Dominic grumbled, running his fingers through his hair.

"How much this time?" The girl yelled, "HOW MUCH ARE YOU GONNA TAKE FORM US?!"

She pointed to the people behind her with trembling fingers, "WE CAN BARELY FEED OURSELVES! BARELY ANY WATER LEFT IN THIS WASTELAND TO KEEP OUR PLANTS ALIVE AND YET YOU STILL WANT TO TAKE FORM US!!"

Dominic flinched when she pointed at them.

"You know what?" The girl muttered with a quivering voice, "just take me.. Take my body as your fee and just end this."