The Forgotten Faithful: A LitRPG Adventure (UnderVerse Book 2) by Cajiao, Jez (little red riding hood ebook TXT) 📕

I regarded Cai as he jogged toward me. The description of ‘the cat’ was accurate, even though I automatically bristled at the use of the casual racial slur. However, I also remembered Cai and Oren drinking together last night and considering Cai had been a slave held aboard Oren’s ship a short time ago, I knew that any real bad feelings would have been evident by now. They were just two men getting on without thinking about it.

Was speciesism really an issue here? I stood watching as Cai came to a stop, nodding his head at me and Oren in turn.

He stood a little taller than my own six-foot eight frame, which slightly dampened my recent enthusiasm over the physical growth that my leveling up had provided. Black fur covered him head to toe, and he was dressed in worn but serviceable clothes.

His face was a mixture of human and panther, with a wide feline nose, sharp teeth, and whiskers. He grinned at us both, and rather than any instinctive fear from facing such an obvious non-human, I always found myself grinning back at him.

Cai was the unofficial leader of the former slaves and seemed to have settled himself into the role of middle manager for me. Last night, he’d been the one that had organized the food, the few people that could cook, and even limited the booze at one point.

“Jax, Oren,” he said, ducking his head and gesturing expansively around us. “It is a glorious morning. The birds sing for us, and the sun shines!”

“It be unnatural!” said Oren, shaking his head. “He always be like this, too damn happy by half!”

“Bah! I know you love the sun as much as I. What can I do for you, Jax?” he said, shaking his head at Oren and looking at me questioningly.

“Food.” I said abruptly. “Do we have enough of it? Oh, and good morning to you too…sorry. I was enjoying the view when I had the horrible thought that we might have wasted food we needed last night…”

“Ah! No, we have, perhaps not a surplus, but enough for everyone for several weeks at present now that I’ve checked the ships over. More than that, if we are permitted to supplement the stores with the bounty of the Tower?”

“The trees, and so on?” I asked, getting a nod in response. “Yeah, of course, people can have what they want from the fruit trees and gardens; don’t worry.”

“Ah… maybe a little caution is in order, Jax?” Cai responded, looking at Oren and getting a grimace before carrying on. “Most of the fruit trees are in bloom at this point, and if we are to harvest them, we would have plenty. However, some of the trees are rare varieties, and I have already heard of people stripping them to hoard for later.”

My attention snapped back to him sharply from where I’d begun to look back down at the garden below, my attention pulled once again by the laughter of the children.

“Remember, my friend, these people were slaves. Slaves don’t know when they’ll next eat, so they tend to think in the short term with any opportunities they find. It’s not intentional, I’m sure,” Cai said soothingly.

“Well, we need to figure out what we have, and what we can take safely. I don’t want the trees stripped, and certainly not damaged. We need them.”

“As to people hoarding, we need someone to look after the food stores, gather everything together, and store it somewhere safe,” I said, grimacing.

“That was one of the things I wanted to talk to you about today. I know you’ll have a lot to do, but we need to consider the future. Especially if you’re planning on adding the people of the village to our total?” Cai responded, nodding in agreement.

“Do they want to join us? Where are they, anyway?” I asked, looking around and spotting a few faces I vaguely recognized from last night.

“The majority of them are a few floors down; They found a reasonably intact series of rooms and set up a camp in there. I’d suggest you talk to them, if you don’t mind me saying so?”

“Hell, Cai, I’m new to this whole ‘lordship’ thing. You know that,” I said, shaking my head as I met his gaze. “I know there’s a hell of a lot I don’t know. In fact, the only thing I do know is that I don’t know enough! I’m going to need a lot of help from you, and you, Oren,” I finished, looking from one to the other.

“Of course, Jax!” Cai said, even as Oren responded with a gruff “Aye, well, might as well, I guess…”

“Thank you both. Okay, first things first. We need to plan things out a little better than we have up until now. We had the ship to fight, and now we kinda have a war with that prick Barabarattas…” They both nodded at me, and I went on. “So first of all, we need to meet the new people; more than we did last night, I mean.” I got a nod from each, and Cai spoke up.

“The majority of them were very pleased to meet us all yesterday, my lord, especially after you told them there was no debt between them and you for their freedom, and you let them out of the cages they had been kept in. I know a few were unhappy about the soldiers and ship’s crew you imprisoned in those same cages, and the rules you imposed on not harming them. But overall, they have an exceptionally good impression of you, and by extension, us, at this point.”

“Yeah, well, let’s go meet them.” I said, putting the issue of the prisoners aside for now. I’d had the surviving crew and soldiers of the warship tossed in the same cages and brig that their own prisoners had vacated last night, ordering they be given some food