Plague Doctor

Chapter 198: Land’s Travellers

“Our people are once called the ‘land’s travellers’, Mr. Nightmare Man should know about this because after our ancestors arrived in this world, they have spent many years as nomads. They travelled from the Northern land to the eastern land, and crossed the sea to land on the western land. About 50 years ago, they finally settled at the Bnazic Desert.” Inside the tower, Peacock began slowly but her tone was filled with melancholy and anger. “Our people just wanted a place to stay but Elder Atal, you should know that the Bnazic Desert is not Shangri la by any stretch of imagination. The desert consists of the Bnazie who had settled at the desert earlier than we did, they occupied the oases, leaving us with the barren lands and even so they often oppressed us. But the bigger threat—the same threat for everyone that lives at the Bnazic Desert came from the brutes residing at the Ossaran Steppes that was connected to the desert on its eastern side.

“Those brutes with their yaks never started farming, they survived fully on stealing and pillaging from others. They can’t be reasoned or communicated with. They are brutal, ruthless and their population number is far higher than our people. We have settled at the Bnazic Desert for 50 years already and every year we would be invaded by the Ossarans.”

Pain slowly etched its way onto Peacock and Malachite’s faces.

“My father died in the skirmish with the Ossarans.” She continued, “My mother was taken away by them, who knew what kind torture they would have put her through. When the Ossarans are done humiliating their captives, they would be sold to the black merchants as slaves and the slaves would be exiled to god knows which part of the world.” Peacock glanced at the mysterious man in the white mask. “Mr. Nightmare Man, when we decided to help you, it is not only because we are of the same race, but knowing that you might be the victim of the Ossarans, we could not just sit idle. Bringing back our people who have been exiled is one of our missions and it is something that our people have been constantly doing.”

The nightmare man did not budge from his seat. His glassy gaze did not change, his expression was hidden behind the mask so it was unclear what was going through his mind.

“Every year, with the invasion from Ossarans, we continue to lose more people. But with a stringent determination, our people still manage to settle down and our population has reached 30000 people. The growth in our size has unfortunately attracted the suspicion and caution of the Bnazie. Every autumn, the Ossaran tribes would join together to launch a fronted assault. In the previous years, the separate tribes of the Bnazic Desert would cooperate to resist the onslaught. But this year, we have gotten the news that the Ossarans and Bnazie had made a secret pact. The Ossarans will mount a genocide on our people come this fall and the Bnazie will not do anything to help.

“Elder Atal, there is less than 2 months away until the Moonless Night that signifies the advent of autumn. Without your help, our whole tribe will be wiped out!” Peacock said desperately, her beautiful features were scrunched up by stress. “Migration is not an option because other places will bring its own danger. If we could move to Ulthar, we would have done so already but the kingdom forbides that. For better or worse, the desert has become our home and our only solution is to defend it. We are all disciples of the Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan, but Elder Atal as you should know, without The Pnakotic Manuscripts, we can’t progress further than the 5th chapter to glean its deeper understanding. Therefore, our tribe has sent us out to seek foreign aid to help us survive this ordeal.”

Hearing her story, Atal sighed and he announced quite plainly, “But I really do not have The Pnakotic Manuscripts.” At the same time, Gu Jun was busy parsing the information he had just heard. If Peacock was telling the truth, their ancestors were a group of people who entered the dream world a long time ago... But even after so many years, their population had only grown to 30000 people, survival must have been difficult. However, Gu Jun was not surprised by that. He had been to quite a number of places in this world already, with the exception of Ulthar which was quite peaceful, all the other places were lurking with danger.

“Mr. Atal.” Gu Jun thought about it and then enquired from his host. “Do you think she is telling the truth? Do you know of their people?”

“I’ve not been to the Bnazic Desert myself but I can confirm certain details of her story, the Ossarans are not a tribe that deserve anyone’s prayers.” Atal affirmed. “I have heard of the land’s travelers before because this is not their first time coming to me to ask for The Pnakotic Manuscripts, they would come visit me every few years. But.” Atal sighed, “You can turn this whole tower upside down, in fact, any visitor can do that but you will find nothing of value here.”

Well, at least now Gu Jun knew the land’s travelers have been in activity for years already. If everything Peacock said was true, then their tribe must have low hope in acquiring the tome from Atal because they only sent two people here considering the urgency of their situation.

“Have your people considered leaving this world?” He used Chinese to ask Peacock. “To return to your ancestors’ world?” Actually Gu Jun was trying to find out if they knew such a method or not.

Both Peacock and Malachite were stunned. Peacock hesitantly said, “Mr. Nightmare Man, has your happenstance made you forget about our people’s history?”

“We have a home but we cannot return anymore.” Malachite who had been silent for so long finally spoke in a hoarse voice.

“Why?” Gu Jun asked, he had a feeling it was more than simply they did not know the method to return...

“Because our ancestral world has already been destroyed.” Peacock said with dampened spirit, “That was why our ancestors have migrated into the Dreamlands in the first place.”

For some reason, Gu Jun’s heart sank. The way she phrased it was very weird, ‘the ancestral world has been destroyed? By what? Meteoric crash in the dinosaur age or the great flood described in the bible? And did they just refer to this world as Dreamlands?’

“Perhaps the earth’s gods and other divinity will not heed our prayers.” Peacock continued but with determination, “But our ancestors will look after us. We will follow Gu Jun, the Phecda Hero’s path and stay in the Dreamlands to flourish.” When they mentioned the name Gu Jun, Peacock’s face filled with reverence and Malachite’s eyes were shining with religious fervor.

On the other hand...

Gu Jun’s brows were highly raised behind his mask and chill ran through his spine. “What do you mean by that? What is this Phecda Hero?”

Once the questions left his lips, both Peacock and Malachite’s expressions changed. Malachite even glared at him with unbridled anger.

“Mr. Nightmare Man.” Peacock said icily. “Have you forgotten even the Phecda Hero? I need you to mind your words. Just like how Ulthar has its law to bring no harm to their cats, our people will not allow anyone slander the name of our ancestors, even if it is from our kin. Furthermore, it is a great sin to even forget about the deed of the Phecda Hero.”