Ball of Nothing

Chapter 450 The Way of Desert Dwellers

Zero was extremely interested and didn’t care if the cacti-folks were odd. He simply accepted their way of living and dubbed it "The Way of Desert Dwellers".

"Let’s talk to them," he grinned and looked at three very unenthusiastic faces over dinner.

"What?"

Bob was the first to break the silence. "Do you really think that this is safe? We don’t know anything about cacti-folks. They could be cannibals."

Zero blinked. "But they plant vegetables. Besides, we don’t really have a clue about the gnomes. If the gnomes travelled west, they must have also passed by this village on their travels. It’s better to ask about the gnomes and maybe these natives might know about the desert poppy."

Truen hated to admit it but Zero was right. he gave Bob a glance and shook his head. Backing down reluctantly, Bob went back to his food.

Jermine was the only one undeterred by the idea of visiting cacti-folk. When it came to destroying plants, nobody was better at it than moles. While she doesn’t kill them directly, she was able to move around very quickly underground and use the tunnels to her advantage. Cacti-folks were part plants so they formed roots in the soil to drink from underground water sources. Most of them have a limited range of movement and Jermine didn’t think that it would be a big problem even if they were a little prickly to hug.

"It’s settled then," Zero said with finality. "We will stay in the village for one night and ask around before we leave. We can do trading with them too to make their opinions of us improve. What is the thing they need the most in their primitive village?"

Truen thought back to what he saw when he ran around. There really wasn’t much these cacti-folks needed. They didn’t need clothes and didn’t need furniture or entertainment. They planted food of their own to supplement themselves and could be satisfied with just standing in the sun to photosynthesise. The only thing Truen thought they might want was a ready water supply on the surface because honestly, that practice of beating themselves up to squeeze water was highly disturbing.

"How about a water pump?" he suggested and Zero thought that it was a marvellous idea. We can definitely install one for them."

Jermine perked up. "I know where the underwater source is, I can help to dig and install the pipes!"

Zero was very pleased with the idea and Bob wondered if they would be alright. Cacti-folks were relatives of tree ents. They were closer to dryads in a cacti form but their temperaments were almost as bad as their mountain cousins. Tree ents were known to be gentle and helpful at times and also violent during the war against humans. He didn’t know if they would be well received as elves, beast folks and a dragon. Tree spirits and faes are very capricious creatures.

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The very next morning after a hearty breakfast, Zero and his group set off towards the village, pretending to be travelling merchants on a mission to find some gnomes. Bob changed to resemble a lizard beast folk to match the story of merchants with their mercenary guides.

The village was very peaceful when the group arrived Zero was surprised that nobody took notice of them and continued doing what they were doing as if they were invisible.

"What’s going on?" he whispered to truen who was equally puzzled.

Without a choice, they dismounted and walked through the village, trying to talk to someone but each time they tried to approach a villager, they would immediately root themselves to the ground and pretend to be an ordinary cacti.

Finding this behaviour strange, Zero told the group to split up and look for someone willing to answer questions. The children ran away, the ladies doing the washing froze up. The men froze up and increased their spikes when the travellers got close and Zero groaned. Eventually, he gave up trying to find a willing person to talk to. If they wouldn’t entertain him, he would make them want to entertain him.

Any sane traveller would quickly leave but Zero was far from sane. Hence, he told the group to make themselves comfortable in the village from taking a bath to harvesting their vegetables for lunch without taking into consideration how rude this was to the villagers. If being nice didn’t work, Zero would force their hand by going overboard. Baits work best with a stick as Hua Tuo liked to say. Zero hoped that this would work. Else, he was going to make Truen shoot someone and force them to start answering questions.

Jermine started digging holes, Bob patted the ground and made them a lovely pool for bathing. Truen helped himself to the vegetable garden and started bringing out ingredients to make an amazing stew for lunch in front of the cacti-folks. He kept an eye on his surroundings just in case any of them turned hostile. Just to be cruel, he harvested more than four people would ever need. If anything, he harvested enough to feed the entire village and looked satisfied when the garden was almost bare.

Zero started to talk to the cacti-folk. He never seemed to run out of words and the sharp spines of the cacti-folks started to become limp after standing there to listen to Zero talk for two hours without a break. Truen, Bob and Jermine had long tuned out to Zero’s chattering. They took turns preparing lunch and taking a bath. From the looks of it, it shouldn’t be long until the cacti-folks gave in.

Now that the torture session was over, it was a good time to start tempting the broken wills. "Wow this smells amazing!" Zero exclaimed loudly and tasted the stew.

"Mmm! Absolutely divine! Amazing stew, I wonder if we can finish it all. You’ve cooked a little too much. Such a shame none of these cacti-folks are willing to move. Else we could have invited them to join us. I guess they’re just really shy of strangers. What a shame we’re going to have to throw it all away if nobody helps us finish this..."

Hearing that their precious vegetables were going to be wasted by these infuriating travellers, the cacti village elder pleaded for them to stop.

"Please no! This is our hard labour... adventurers, why do you do this to us? We’re not the cannibalistic cacti-folks that people talk about. We mean you no harm..."

Zero smirked. "I should be the judge of that. Why did you ignore us? We just wanted answers to some questions. Those who can tell us what we want to know may join us for a meal. If we are happy, we will give you a gift to your village."

Humbly, the elder thanked the generosity of the adventurers and spoke in a dialect to command his fellow villagers to stop playing dead.

"Tell them to join us for lunch," Zero said and Truen spooned out stews for everyone as the cacti-folks lined up with bowls in their hands. Zero counted. There were around thirty villagers, it was a really small village.

When everybody settled down for lunch, they hesitated to eat until they saw all four adventurers eating without hesitation. The village elder started eating it first and when he deemed it safe for consumption, everyone else followed.

Zero grinned. The villagers must have never eaten something so tasty before. As they were vegetarians, Truen didn’t add anything with meat. However, he did add one ingredient that wasn’t found in the desert - mushrooms.

After filling their stomachs, the villagers felt slightly better about the adventurers. The village elder also kept his word and told Zero to ask them what he wished to know.

Now that they were on talking terms, Zero smiled.

"I wish to know about the whereabouts of gnomes who travelled towards the west many years ago. We have business with them, how can we locate them?"

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