Louisa's POV
"Are you going to touch my brother?" The tuna head winked his giant eyes and stared at me.
"Are you sure? He's pretty slimy. Your hands and dress will be dirty," he added.
OK. So he's the one who's having priority issues. I thought to myself.
"Your brother's life is on a thread. You don't have to worry about my dress and hands getting dirty. Come on, he's too big. I can't move him by myself. I need your help," I said and pulled his brother's arm.
The tuna head looked at me as if he was about to cry. Then, he moved right in front of me and gave his brother a push.
The tuna head's brother rolled over and started to cough violently. I patted his slimy scaled back, trying to help him to cough it out.
After another episode of coughing, he finally spat out some pus-like sticky fluid on the ground.
Something was shining in the fluid.
I picked it up and saw it was a diamond ring, which I saw Akela wearing earlier today.
"That's why you were in the tent. You weren't hungry. You were just trying to steal the jewelry." I said, feeling a bit angry. "You've lied to me. I should make you into canned tuna!"
tuna head smashed his brother's head and said indignantly, "Ahhh! You've done it again! I knew we would get into trouble because of your pathological stealing habit!"
tuna head's brother covered his head and said, "Ouch! I'm sorry! I like shiny things and I can't help taking them away!"
tuna head shouted, "What else did you steal?! Spite it out!"
"Nothing else!"
tuna head smashed his brother's head again and shouted, "I don't believe you! Spite it out right now or they'll cut your stomach up!"
"Ouch! Please don't punch my head again! I'll cough it out!"
Then, he started to cough again and spat some more sticky fluid from his mouth.
I picked up another pair of pearl earrings, a few diamond necklaces, and a gold bracelet.
"Damn you! Dickhead! How did you manage to take away so many things within such a short period of time?!"
"Because I'm very good at doing it, OK?! Stop shouting at me! Potty mouth!"
"You two! Stop talking!" I said.
They became silenced immediately and looked at me with fear.
"Why did you come to this camp?" I asked. "Be careful what you're going to tell me. One more lie and I'll let the soldiers smash you into tuna paste!"
They looked at each other for a brief moment. It seemed that they were trying to come up with another lie by staring at each other.
"I need new truth! Now!" I raised my voice.
Both of them were taken aback and immediately cried out -
"We really don't know why we are here!"
"We were living on an island, fishing and living our ordinary lives."
"Then one day, some traveling druids came to our islands."
"They burnt down our houses and broke our webs."
"They confiscated our boats and asked us to pay a fine for fishing in their sea."
"We couldn't pay for it, so they took us away."
"They shipped us to the mainland and asked us to work for them."
"We didn't want to work for them, so they beat us!"
"We wanted to cry for help, but nobody on the mainland could hear us."
"And wherever we go, people shout at us and throw stones at us."
They looked very sad and lowered their heads. Then, one of them started to cry out loud.
I saw the scars on their arms and body and immediately felt very sorry for them.
I patted the crying one and said in a soft voice, "Please don't cry. I really understand."
"I know we look ugly, but we don't belong here. We just want to go back to our island." He cried even harder.
"What did they ask you to do?" I asked.
"Mostly, they asked us to wait in canals or waterways. Some people would give us some packages. We had to swallow them and swim away."
"Then they would find us and force us to throw the packages out."
"That's it?" I asked.
"That's it!" They nodded their heads while looking at me.
"Why didn't you run away from them?" I frowned and asked them.
"They have our boats."
"We want our boats back."
"They told us we could get our boats back when we've paid up our fine by working for them."
"But I guess they'll never give our boats back to us and we'll be forced to work for them until we're killed!"
Then, both of them started to cry.
I looked at them in silence.
I didn't know what to say.
I really understood the way of being treated as a freak, exploited, and bullied.
Lucian looked at me and said, "What did they tell you?"
I bit my lips and said, "It seems that they were captured by some traveling druids, who took away their boats and forced them to smuggle things for them through the waterway. They didn't know what was inside those packages and they just wanted to get their boats back."
"Do you believe them?" Lucian asked me.
I said, "I don't think they're smart enough to come up with such a sad story to win my trust. They could have hypnotized me, but they didn't. So, you know..."
Lucian looked at both of them for a while and said, "You two look very hungry. Do you want to have something to eat?"
They immediately stopped crying and nodded their heads.
Lucian said, "The soldiers will take you to the canteen and you'll be fed. You can sleep at our camp tonight, and tomorrow morning, you'll be taken back to your island. We'll buy your new boats and help you rebuild your houses. They might not be the same as your old ones, but at least you can get your lives back on track."
The two druids were listening to Lucian's speech without blinking.
After he finished his speech, both of them looked at each other while wiping their tears.
"Beta Lucian is going to buy your new boats and bring you home. You don't have to be enslaved by those bad people," I explained to them.
They stared at me with their big watery eyes for a while.
"Is he Beta Lucian from the White Walkers?" One of them asked me.
I nodded.
"You should tell him that his wife and brother are in danger." The other said.