Chief Clennais of the Starlight Tribe was no stranger to negotiations. It was he who had stopped the Wizzos encroachment on their tribe's territory last year, after all, through some of the hardest diplomatic efforts he'd ever bent his will upon. He had built up trade routes between his tribe and the Oomphs to the south, and even the Techies were… Well, truth, they were still the same xenophobic isolationists they'd always been, closeting themselves in their Community and scraping the island for 'Tech' that came through the portals on occasion.

But he had managed to at least speak to one outside of their walls once. That was practically miraculous where interactions with the Techies was concerned.

At least, he'd always considered it miraculous… until a Techie stripling descended from the Kel'Darshein's canopy and greeted the Sojourner family with mute but still evident joy.

And yet even as he saw it happen, he felt his Administrator Fairy's mind take over and adjust. No, he could not gawp like some Oomphin' bumpkin from the deep tunnels come to the surface for the first time. These were Sojourners. The miraculous, the world-altering, the impossible, all of these things were going to be commonplace around them, and so he must adjust himself and his reactions accordingly.

So when he was introduced to Seeker Tempest as 'a friend', he did not goggle. He merely bowed from the waist and swept his hat off in a gesture of respect.

"I see thee and greet thee," he intoned in the Techie introduction he had been taught those many moons ago. "May the march of progress guide us together on this auspicious occasion."

The elf jerked in surprise at the formal greeting, her jaw dropping open slightly before she shook herself and responded with the traditional "May the shine of technology illuminate the way for us both."

"One of these days," the smaller boy, Lucas if he remembered correctly, said as he eyed the elf, "you're gonna have to explain how a bunch of elves got all agog over tech stuff."

"Not now Luc," said the tallest daughter, the one with the flask of that sweet smelling brew, said in a tone of chastisement. "There's some high level negotiations about to start."

"Which means," said Isabel, the daughter who most closely resembled the image Clennais had had of Sojourners in his mind before meeting these strange folk, "that we should probably make ourselves scarce while the adults do the talking."

"What? No!" Olivia practically wailed. "I want to stay and–"

"Poke your nose into things," the older daughter–and by the wings of the lord didn't they sound like sisters–said with a smirk. "Come on Godzilla, let's go help Dinah clean the weird dear. Leave the high level negotiations to the grownups."

"Mom, Dad!" Olivia turned to appeal to her parents, then deflated as she was met with identical stares from Matthew and Alejandra Albright that communicated volumes without needing words.

"Fine," Olivia growled and kicked a stone. "Be that way. See if I care. Come on Dinah, show us how to slit up a weird deer while the grownups talk. Come on Hoolio."

Hoolio? Who was–

A young Seraph Owl said "hoo" and dropped onto Lady Olivia's shoulder. Clennais had not even noticed the creature, but it must have been resting on a branch somewhere. He felt his eyes trying to widen, and he chastised himself firmly. No. Expect the miraculous. So what if the child appeared to have as a familiar one of the most revered avian messengers on Seroco. She was a Sojourner. Such things were to be taken in stride… Weren't they?

Then all thoughts of the celestial avian were blown away as the girl unscrewed the cap from her flask again and took a drink–and again, every one of the Folk there drew in a breath through their nose as that scent… that scent…

Clennais took in the girl's scowl, her hunched countenance, her pure anger at being dismissed. And he wondered…

"Lord Matthew," he heard his voice say before he even realize he'd made the decision. "In our culture, it is customary to allow those younglings interested in a trade access to those who practice it. If the Lady Olivia wishes to sit in on our negotiations, neither I nor any with me would raise an objection."

The Lord And Lady Albright shared a glance with one another, then back to their daughter, who had stopped and turned and was gazing upon Clennais now with shining eyes and a hopeful smile that she turned upon her parents.

"If you're okay with it," Lord Matthew said after a moment, "then so are we. Liv, you want to sit in?"

"Yes!" the lady Olivia darted forward to embrace her father, and then her mother, and for a gut-wrenching moment Clennais feared he was next on the list, but she stopped just short and bowed to him instead. "Thank you for this opportunity," she intoned in much more subdued and respectful tones.

Clennais merely nodded from atop Kriel's back, and very carefully did not let the spark of triumph he felt within him show.

As the histories told, rare were the downsides of being on the good side of a Sojourner. And this one held the secret to untold wealth upon her hip.

A good friend to have.

"In the mean time," Lady Alejandra said, gesturing to Clennais' retinue, "would your party like some refreshments? We've still got some breakfast stew left if that's to your taste, or if not we've got plenty to offer from our, er, larder, I guess?"

That made Clennais glance back at the rest of his party. His knights, of course, would stay nearby as guard against… well, against. But the rest…

They had been volunteers to a fae, and had expected to end the day as servants at best and slaves at worst to Sojourners out of the history books. Some of them he had asked personally to serve as spies and possible assassins if the worst happened. But now, with that prospect very firmly off the table…

The relief he saw on their faces and in their stances was palpable, and he felt a jolt of shame that he had caused them such distress followed by a sigh of relief that such distress had not been warranted after all.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"My guard will stay with me, they have rations of their own if need be, but it is my sincere hope we will not be that long at negotiations," he said affecting a joke. "The rest… If you do not mind, I see a river not far from here with very nice banks. Might they be allowed to take their respite there?"

"By all means," Lady Alejandra said, making a magnanimous gesture. "And if there's anything you need, just ask."

"Chief," Pennat murmured into his ear. "The young ones appear to be going to butcher a recently killed Torpah stag. With your leave, I will accompany them and assist in the matter?"

"As long as our hosts are amenable?" Clennais looked at the Lord and Lady.

"Sure, don't see why not," said Lord Matthew. "Hey Di, got room for one more over there?"

"More the merrier!" the one called Dinah called back, making a sweeping gesture of beckoning with her arm. "C'mon over and get stuck in!"

The little delegation broke up then, with the now-unneeded tributes going to the riverbank, where they would report to the magically concealed river sprites there what had transpired, and the sprites in turn would fly upstream under the water to the ready squadrons of warriors positioned just outside the territory claimed by the Albrights and tell of what was happening.

They would not stand down, of course. Not until they were all safely back at the Tribe's village. But they might be able to unclench just a touch with news of the way things were progressing.

Maybe just a little.

* * *

Dinah Costigan watched in rapt attention as a little man in pink armour with a knife the length of the first two joints of her pinky finger slit up a fantasy deer carcass like he'd been born to it.

"Mister Pennat, do you got a wife?" she asked as guts and entrails spilled out of the deer's–No, he'd called it something else… A Topah? Yeah, that was right–stomach.

"I have a fine mate and two wonderful children back home," the little guy in pink armour with a voice that sounded like dark chocolate poured over a double-neck bass. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh, I was just wonderin'," she said, twiddling her thumbs. Dang. All the good ones was always already taken. "So it looks like pretty basic butcherin' to me. What was the reason you asked to go first?"

"Because," the little fairy reached into the vertical slit he'd made in the critter's belly, fished around for a second, and pulled out something that was round and green and glistening and connected to other stuff by some funky-looking tubes, "if you do not know how to safely extract the poison sac, it can become quite dangerous."

"Poison sac?" Dinah echoed, staring at the glob. "Like, actual poison?"

"Oh yes," the fairy guy took another knife from his belt, this one with a stone blade, probably flint unless she missed her guess. "The Topah is one of the most venomous creatures on the island. Delectable meat, especially when roasted with chawfruit sauce and nirntos, but not something to be trifled with. I am honestly impressed you were able to bring one down."

Dinah glanced into the jungle brush a little ways, and thought she saw a flicker of movement as a feathered form ducked out of sight.

"We-ell," she said, drawing the word out. "I'd like to take full credit for it, but I reckon I had a bit of help baggin' it."

"Unsurprising," Mister Pennat said as he used the flint blade to carefully trim away the fleshy tubes connecting the glob to the rest of the guts. "It usually takes a full lance of skilled fae hunters to take one down." The little guy glanced up at her and smiled a toothpaste-commercial smile. "I will say, if you are able to bring down Topahs with regularity, I would not be surprised if you could get that included as part of trade negotiations between your family and the village."

Now there was a funny idea. Back home, Dinah had hunted for food. But come to think of it, Paw always took the hides an' the antlers an' even the bones and stuff and made stuff out of 'em to sell at craft fairs, or to the local dumba–tourists–who thought that stuff was 'cool'. "Thanks mister Pennat, I might just… Oh for heaven's sake Luc, it's only guts!"

Lucas tried to reply, but all that came out of his decidedly green face was a groan and a burp that had nothing to do with food going down and everything to do with food trying to come back up.

"Iff'n you're gonna be sick, go do it over there," she pointed behind one of the rubble piles. "Don't want you foulin' up good meat with your throw-up."

"I don't get it," Isabel chimed in from where she was leaning up against a little tree watching the whole scene. "Luc, you've seen monster guts all kinds of times, and now you're getting sick?"

"That stuff… Urp… Wasn't as bad as this stuff," Luc managed to bite out before he suddenly leaped to his feet and dashed behind the rubble pile, and the retching sounds that came soon after just made Dinah roll her eyes.

"And he was gonna learn how to butcher this proper out in the field," she muttered.

"Sometimes it just takes a moment to become accustomed to it," Pennat said, finally holding up the glob, now free of any lingering gut connections. "There, one Tobah poison sac, for you Lady Dinah. I shall show you the proper way to handle it, if you wish, as it must be done with greatest care. Do not pierce the sac, as even a single drop of the venom within brings with it a calamitous fate."

Dinah blinked. "That don't sound the same as 'it'll kill you if you touch it'."

"Oh, it will absolutely do that," Pennat said, holding the glob gingerly. "And once it has slain you, it will consume your flesh to spawn forth as many more juvenile Topahs as your corpse will support. Looking at you, I would guess that number would be near a half-dozen, and the juveniles are even more venomous than the grown beasts."

"Wait, what?" Isabel pushed off of the tree and came up to stare at the little guy. "Are you serious?"

"Deathly, I'm afraid," Mister Pennat said grimly. "A single fairy will only spawn a single Topah, and an undersized one at that, so we do not fear the poison as much. But for you? It would be very dangerous, both to you and to anyone around you should you be struck by it. Fortunately, the poison is only transferred upon death, they have no method of utilizing it as a weapon while living."

"Okay, now that's a good predator response mechanism," Dinah said a little weakly. "Don't eat me or else you'll just make more of me. It's almost Star Wars, kinda."

"Crossed with zombies," Isabel agreed, looking at the little gray-green glob in Mister Pennat's hands with respect. "What do you do with the venom sac now that it's out?"

"Oh, it is a valuable reagent for alchemy, and it can also be processed, removing the deadly properties of the venom, into a truly stunning purple dye."

"So it's valuable?" Isabel asked with a certain light in her eye.

"Oh aye, very." Pennat said easily.

"Why are you tellin' us this? You could'a just said 'nah, it ain't worth spit," Dinah said in her usual direct approach style.

The fairy shrugged, making his armour clank a bit. "Because friendship and goodwill with a Sojourner is worth infinitely more than this bit of flesh," he said simply.

"Are you supposed to just out and say that?" Isabel asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Your father's speech has shaken much of what we believe," Pennat said. "Before that, perhaps I might have tried a different tack. But here? Now? How else can I proceed save for honesty, when that is what has been offered us?"

"Uh, guys?" said Lucas' voice weakly from behind the rubble pile.

"I dunno," Dinah said, frowning, "Still seems like you're bein' awful straightforward considerin' you guys was just about to give us some of your folk as slaves a minute ago. You sure this ain't some kind of trick you're playin' on us?"

The little fairy smiled. "Oh, rest assured, it's all part of the game, my Lady. But–"

"Guys? Hey Guys? I think something's–"

He was cut off by a scream from the direction of the river, and a dozen high-pitched voice suddenly crying out in unison.

"RIVER SLADE! GET OUT OF THE WATER!"

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