Louisa's POV
As soon as the soldiers poured the hot oil into the well, I heard screaming and screeching coming from it.
Then, I heard the splashing sound of things getting into the water.
When the sound disappeared, I quickly ran to the other side of the canal.
Just when I arrived there, I saw two dark shadows shooting out of the darkness in the water.
"We caught them!" the soldiers shouted.
"Cover them with sacks! Now!" I raised my voice.
Several soldiers jumped at the two creatures and covered their heads with sacks.
As we walked closer, I saw their hairy legs kicking in the webs.
"Ahhhh! I can't see anything!"
"Shut up, dickhead! You're stepping on my feet!"
"We are trapped in the webs and me stepping on your feet is the only concern on your mind?!"
"Let's kick the webs and get out of here!"
"Strap their legs! They try to break the webs!" I told the soldiers.
They used ropes to tie up their feet.
"Damn it! Who's out there?! A woman? Can she understand us?!"
"Nobody on the mainland can understand us! They can't even hear us talking!"
"We're doomed. We're done. We're going to be boiled alive."
"Well, that's very encouraging. Positive thinking, dickhead!"
As they were talking to each other, I heard Akela's voice from behind -
"Oh, Zack! Those horrible, horrible creatures! I recognized their legs! It's them! The creatures in my tent! I told everybody that they were there, but nobody believed me except you and that servant girl! Shall we give her some money to reward her? I only have dresses..."
A soldier kicked their legs and asked, "Who are you and why did you hide in the well?!"
The two creatures panicked and shouted, "Ahhhh! Someone's kicking us! He's going to torture us! He's going to peel off our skin and put us in salt water until we become pickles!"
"No one is going to change you into pickles," I frowned and said. "Please stop struggling and answer his question."
The two stopped moving and for a brief moment, they became completely silent.
Then, one of them asked in a trembling voice, "Can you hear us, woman? Are you talking to us?"
I said, "Yes, I can hear you and I am talking to you. Apparently, I am the only one here who can hear you and understand you. So you really need to tell me what's going on here, or else they will peel off your skin and put you into a pickle jar."
"No!!! Please don't do that! We'll talk! We'll tell you whatever you want to hear!" a voice said.
"I don't want to hear what I want to hear. I want to know the truth," I said.
"OK, OK! We'll tell you the truth!" the other voice said.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"We are druids," both voices answered together.
"Why did you hide in the well?"
"We don't want people to see us," a voice answered.
"We're very ugly. When people see us, they shout at us," the other added.
"Why did you go inside the tent?" I asked.
"Because I was hungry and I thought there might be something to eat in the tent."
"I told him we should go directly through the canal, but he wouldn't listen to me. He's such a dickhead."
"We've got a lady here, potty mouth. Mind your language!"
I frowned and asked, "Are you lying to me? There was a piece of cloth stuck in the frame of the window. Someone must have put it there in advance, so they could get in and out of the tent."
"I'm not lying! I'm just very hungry!"
"Cloth? What cloth? We didn't put any cloth in the frame. We pulled the window and it just opened like that."
I took a closer look at the dirty ragged pants they were wearing. They didn't look like someone that took a silk handkerchief with them all the time.
"Why did you come to this camp?" I asked.
"Could you please remove the sacks from our heads? I feel suffocated!" a voice said.
"Don't try to be smart with me! I know you can hypnotize people with your eyes!" I said. "I'll find a knife and a pickle jar right now!"
"No!!! Please! I beg you! It's just I really can't breathe right now! I have asthma... and I am... out of breath..." I heard the hissing sound coming from the inside of the sacks.
"My brother's dying now! We need some help! Please help us!" The other voice sounded totally freaked out.
I bit my lips and told the soldiers, "Please remove the sacks from their heads. One of them is having an asthma attack."
"Sorry, we can't do that, Miss." The soldiers shrugged and said.
I looked at Lucian.
"Druids are very deceitful. I don't trust them," he said.
"My brother is dying now!" the voice shouted.
"But if they're dead, we might never know why they are here on the camp," I said to Lucian.
Lucian thought for a brief moment and nodded to the soldiers.
They removed the sacks.
The faces underneath the sacks shocked me.
I had never seen such ugly creatures before. Their heads were bold, deformed, and scaled, with protruding snouts and gills under both of their pointy ears. Their eyes were proportionally large, with dilated dark, glassy pupils which almost took up their entire eyes. Their wild chapped mouths were open and closed, trying to draw in more air, with the gills opening and shutting.
They looked like human beings with tuna heads. And they looked very scared and confused.
"Ahhh! No! Fish with human legs!" Akela shouted at them and passed out in Zackery's arms.
"See, that's what I'm talking about." One of them used his webbed hand to point at Akela and said. "When people see us, they shout at us."
The other one struggled to breathe and then started to wheeze.
"What am I going to do?! My brother is having an asthma attack! Dickhead! Are you going to die?! Please don't leave me alone in this cruel world! I don't want to be pickled by myself!"
"Stop panicking!" I stomped my feet and shouted at him.
The tuna head immediately shut his big mouth up.
"He's just choking on something in his throat. All we need to do is flip him, so he can cough it out by himself," I said.
Then, I rolled up my sleeves and asked him, "Can you give me a hand?"