Chapter 26: Chapter 26 - Deal with the devil
A few days had passed since I talked with Raven, and while we didn't have any attacks, we still met some packs of dinosaurs that roamed way too close to our camp. Thankfully, no one died when they encountered these creatures since almost all of them were either herbivores or didn't care at all about us.
Today was a special day for the people of the Ark since it was supposed to be Unity day, the day when 12 stations joined to form the Ark, but not many know the truth about this day. There are rumors that there was a thirteenth station that had to be destroyed to force the other stations to join together or else humanity would have died.
Since we, the 89 survivors sent to Earth weren't on the Ark due to some obvious reasons, Jaha asked Raven to make a screen that could be connected to the Ark and create a video call, letting us watch the holiday together with some of the parents of the delinquents, which I guess was a good thing, especially for the younger teenagers that were sent down here.
As I was walking around the camp, carrying various boxes to the storage area inside the dropship, I saw Octavia sneaking out of the camp, walking god knows where. Knowing her, she was probably going to meet her favorite grounder which made me remember that Lincoln should soon give me an answer regarding our deal.
Unfortunately, I didn't see Finn following Octavia out of the camp with a grounder's knife strapped to his belt.
By the time I was done storing the boxes away, I saw Monty and Fox writing down in their small notebooks. These notebooks were the ones, Finn has found back when he opened the art bunker for the first time. The two of them were writing down all the things we had in our storage and how much of each was so that we could know exactly what we had to work on in both the winter and right now.
"Hey guys, how's it going?"
"Slow as hell, Leon. You know how much stuff we have stored here?"
"More than we can easily count, I guess."
"We have more than one hundred pelts that we can't use since we don't know how to properly transform them into cloths or quilts. Also, don't get me to start on the amount of smoked meat."
"Leon, didn't you meet a grounder girl that was interested in trading with us?"
"Yes, Niylah, why?"
"We can trade the pelts and maybe some food for things that we could actually use. Such as quills, clothes, antidotes, etc. We can use almost anything and seeing that we don't know much about, well, most of the flora and fauna around here, Niylah could be a great help to us. Of course, if she's willing to help us."
"She will help no doubt about it. The only problem is Anya and the grounders that see us as invaders. "
"We can send a small team or even one person to negotiate with her before we send the rest of the stuff over to her."
He wasn't wrong, but in our current situation, I can't let anyone out alone which leaves me as the only person that would be able to reach Niylah's trading post alive.
After telling them my plan to head out to talk with Niylah about this trading deal, I left the camp taking with a rifle and a small back that had rations for two days, just in case something happens along the way.
When I arrived at Niylah's trading post, I found her talking with a woman bearing the tattoos, the warriors usually had on their faces, which made me stop in my tracks and wait for the woman to leave before I'll continue my mission.
Sadly, Niylah saw me looking at her as she continues to talk with the warrior woman. From her point of view, it looked as if I was carefully thinking through what she was saying to the other woman which only made me smile at her attempts to decipher what was going on in my mind since that wasn't the case at all. While it was true that at first, I tried to see if I could read their lips, I quickly got my answer and since I wasn't going to interfere, I just looked around, trying to see if I could spot some grounder that was hiding amongst the trees.
After the warrior left, Niylah signaled me to come out and after a few moments of silence she spoke up.
"You are nothing like us that for sure. A trained scout wouldn't have made so many mistakes as you did and even for someone like me, who lived their whole life amongst scouts and warriors, it would be hard to actually find a scout if he's hidden."
"Auch, point taken, but still, you didn't have to make me feel so useless."
"As if anything else would have made you better, at least now you know why I saw you. So, why are you here Leon? Did you miss me so much that you left your people alone so that could visit me?
But I didn't listen to her teasing. Instead, I went to lean against the opposite wall and folded my arms together in front of my chest while angrily staring at her. Niylah looked at me and she simply smiled.
"Seems like you aren't that tough as the warriors say that you are."
"Fine, I'm not angry, I just tried to play the hurt card so that I could make you give me a better deal."
"Better deal? Have you finally decided to actually trade with me? Thank heaven, I thought that you'll never trade with me since a few days had passed already."
"Maybe I'm not the one that wants to trade with you? Maybe someone else asked me to deliver his or her message to you."
She opened her mouth to protest again but realized that I may be right. This only made her angrier at me, but she knew that I was right all the time. Sadly for me, I didn't manage to enjoy my victory for too long since as soon as she realized that was I just teasing her, Niylah simply went inside, leaving the door open for me to follow her.
Sitting at one of the tables, Niylah and I were looking at each other without saying anything at all for the past few minutes, but surprisingly neither I nor she does want to be the first to surrender in this childish fight of ours.
"You win, I'm too busy to play this game anyways."
"Sure thing, darling, sure thing."
"Tell me more about the deal. What can you provide and what do you want from us?"
"Well, for starters, my camp can prepare at least 100 pelts ready to be used and a few kilograms of smoked meat.
"Hmm, not bad at all. Now, let's move to the hard part, what do you want in exchange for those things?"
"Antidotes, information about various plants and animals, points of interest, factions, conflicts, clothes, quills. Just basic things that could keep us alive and away from any unwanted fights between your people."
"Who would have guessed that you can negotiate some good terms for your people? Most of the people that are coming here to trade with us, usually only ask for one thing for a lot of random things. Remember that warrior that I talked about earlier? She was one of Anya's scouts and she gave me a lot of valuable herbs in exchange for any information about you."
"She didn't ask you about my camp or my people?"
"No, Anya had specifically mentioned you and you alone when sent the scout here, whatever she is planning is going to be for you. I have to say, the amount of attention you are getting can make a man jealous Leon. You better watch you back outside or who knows when you'll get stabbed in the back by one of my people."
"Just great, not even a month since we were sent down here, and look at me, being recognized as a leader by your people…"
"It's not that bad, you can always just join a tribe and be done with it."
"That would mean that I'd have to abandon my friends, so no thanks, I'd rather fight alongside them than against them."
"You may not know Anya and while I can't say that I've talked to her that much, I know that she would react in the same way as you just did. You may not want to admit it, but the two of you are pretty similar in some aspects."
"I guess you are right. From what I've heard about her, she does seem to have the same mentality as me which kind of makes us similar in some strange way."
With the trade deal made between us, Niylah and I continue to talk for a few more hours and even ate dinner with her. Since her father was away on some business, Niylah had to take care of everything here alone, and sometimes she felt lonely, especially when days pass without anyone coming here to trade.
Thanks to Jasper and Monty, our camp had a constant supply of moonshine of the highest quality we could ask for and because of this reason alone, I've brought a few bottles with me. After all, it would be a shame to drink alone when I can drink with a new friend. Before we realized both of us got drunk telling each other stories of our past and without us even realizing it, we both end up dancing to a song I kept humming.
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