After a lengthy prayer, the children, the older ones who lived here before Lee arrived, happily cheered and rushed to the other side of the huts. They sat there in neat groups around a large item that looked like a kettle, but was over four feet tall and five feet wide.
The newcomers followed them and also formed two groups, watching their older peers in confusion.
A moment later Lee guessed what was the substance in his bag.
Two of the four men began to bring different things out of a smaller hut, carry them over and throw in the kettle. There were pieces of meat and strange plants, but everything had already began to rot.
A disgusting smell filled the surroundings, but the three groups of kids couldn't hold back expectant gulps, and even began salivating as if looking at a mountain of their favorite candy.
But then it got interesting. The other two men carried over something that looked like large water blobs, except they were of greenish color and not fully translucent. The things seemed a bit heavy, but the weird part was – they moved on their own as if they were alive, although without making a sound.
Nevertheless, they got thrown in the kettle along with the smelly ingredients.
When men thought the kettle was full enough, one of them began to fiddle with the stones beneath it, and even from a distance Lee could sense they became hot.
'At least they are not cooking the kids.' Lee half jokingly thought.
Actually members of one of the older groups of children did look as if they could easily eat the newcomers. They had four yellow fangs sticking from their moths, and the glances they threw around made the rest feel uncomfortable.
Clearly their race was pure carnivores, and this stew diet went against their natural instincts.
***
It took a while to prepare the meal, and that included the time to let the food cool off. When it was finally ready, children formed orderly lines and three of the men began to fill their waterskin-like bags with the contents from the kettle.
Afterwards most of the kids rushed to the side and greedily drank, except for the newcomers, of course. They still couldn't digest the food, and even though many tried to drink it, everything was immediately vomited out.
Lee's waterskin was over two thirds full, but after pondering for a bit, he also got it filled up. He had no clue when the next meal would be and was not willing to risk it. He did sample the substance again, but it was still as disgusting as before.
Nevertheless, he forced himself to eat it bit by bit, until to his great surprise, he realized that the thirst was gone! Obviously it needed a further testing to verify whether it was not an illusion, but if it wasn't, maybe the things weren't as bad …
But the next moment he felt like slapping himself. The things were bad! Not only he was in the middle of nowhere, he had no clue where the red-eyed bitch was or how to get out of here. They were basically slaves, except they didn't have to work, at least not yet.
"Aaaaa!!!" A cry of pain returned Lee to reality.
While he was daydreaming, the four men gathered the two last groups and began to burn some kind of a round symbol on their shoulders. They used a two feet long rod with a glowing tip and ruthlessly marked each newcomer.
Children were hysterically crying – both, the one who got branded and the ones who were about to get the painful burn, but only a couple decisively tried to run away.
That, in turn, greatly amused the kids from the other three groups, and for a good reason. Within moments the runaways were caught, brought back and immediately branded like the rest.
Lee, seeing there was no way around it, went over, got the painful burn and retreated to the side. It stung and smelled like an overdone steak, but he was more worried about the next day when most likely his mark would be healed. But that was the tomorrow's problem.
The two scale-faced covered men gathered the new groups and, ignoring the sobs, began to patiently teach something. This was the part Lee was waiting for, but unfortunately the other two men, the ones with the oversized eyes, led the rest of the kids away, and ordered Lee to join, specifically the group with the fanged kids.
At first they were surprised, but a moment later began to openly eye Lee's waterskin. It was obviously almost full and the newcomer didn't look too capable. His face was fair, hands soft, and even if he was as tall as they, his movements seemed kind of heavy.
Luckily no one tried anything funny and the crowd rushed off to somewhere without any incidents.
Lee was certain they walked over two miles until met another big-eyed man. He happily received the group, exchanged few sentences, and then joined for another half mile. Then they came to what seemed to be the final destination.
There were around fifty children there who, after one of the men whistled, rushed over while loudly cheering. They carried three feet long rods, thick as a grown man's finger, threw them in a pile and then orderly gathered to the side.
Meanwhile the kids from Lee's group picked the rods up, and rushed away towards what looked like a field filled with large watermelons.
Lee also grabbed a rod and that turned out to be heavier than it looked. It was hard to tell what kind of metal it was made of, but it was too heavy for aluminum, but too light for iron.
"Oras thrish loham." One of the men said, and also picked a rod. Then he beckoned Lee to follow and went towards the green field.
The closer Lee got, the wider his eyes grew. There were no watermelons here nor any kind of vegetables or fruits.
It was a wide field filled with similar dark green water blobs the guys earlier threw in the kettle. They were in a size of half a barrel, some smaller, some bigger, but the shocking part was that they slowly moved around as if alive.
And there were hundreds upon hundreds of them!
"Loham sidas, sidas!" The man said to Lee, and casually poked few of the blobs.
They didn't blow up nor he damaged them, but as if gotten a mild electrical shock, they reacted and began to move more actively.
"Alright, my job is to tap them. Why?" Lee asked, and the guy guessed the meaning by Lee's expression.
He observed the field around them, and then rushed over to a spot. There he pointed at one of the blobs that stood there unmoving.
It looked just like any other, but then it began to change the color, although it happened very slowly. From the dirty green it began to transform into gray, but before it lost the green tinge completely, the man smacked it several times, and it began to lazily move again. At the same time, the dirty green color returned.
"So I can't let them turn dark. Ok, I guess." Lee said, and began to casually poke blobs around, making sure they kept moving at least a bit. The man watched him for a while, then said something with a smile, and left.
'Now then … what's the easiest way to kill myself around here?' Lee joked to himself.
He had gotten himself in a bad spot to say the least, and urgently needed a plan to get out of here.
He didn't have the time to get suicidal though.
When the big-eyed man walked further away, three kids rushed over and surrounded him. The tallest, a girl with rather mean looking fangs, pointed at his waterskin, and said something in a commanding tone.
It was way too obvious what was going on, but Lee wasn't going to give away his only supplies nor he was interested in teaching manners to the foreign children.
"Fuck off!" He said, stepped out of encirclement, and began to poke the blobs, ignoring the three.
After he reincarnated for the first time, he stopped to consider any children … well … at all. They were small humans, learning about life and waiting to grow up, but he had done it before. He couldn't accept them as his peers, to not speak as friends or playmates. In fact, he didn't take children of any age seriously.
But the three were dead serious. The tallest girl came at Lee with the rod raised high, and he was forced to realize they were not playing around.
He was reluctant to hurt a child though, especially a girl, so he jumped back and evaded a couple of slashes, but that only angered the attacker.
She kept hissing at him, making angry eyes and her two supporters did the same, but when Lee realized he couldn't avoid one of the hits, he kicked her in the abdomen and the whole momentum was disturbed.
"Leave me alone!" He said, without any hope that anyone could understand him.
And they didn't. For a few moments the girl was confused, but then jumped to her feet, and along with the other two, rushed at Lee, loudly screaming.