Thariel felt out of place. She's been in meetings before so she wasn't unfamiliar with them but all of those felt pointless when compared to the one she's currently attending.

  For some reason though, despite this, the negotiations taking place weren't all that different from all her previous meetings; mainly in the way that everyone involved is basically asking to get better stuff.

  "I want a bigger cut!" Some Kobold she forgot the name of said, his declaration further emphasized by him slamming his fists down to the table.

  Thariel looked at him snarl and wondered if he was angry for the possibility of his men dying in the war and wants proper payment or that he is just being plain old greedy.

  Either way, lives would be lost and she didn't think whatever compensation this guy would get is enough to pay for that. The way he says his demand didn't sit right with Thariel as well.

  She wasn't part of the conversation, and she didn't want to be. She stood behind Sylka to show that she picked a side to ally with sure, but it was so far back that she stood next to the tent's wall.

  "What about the other Kobolds?" She decided to talk anyway. Everyone present faced her.

  "They can get their own loot during or after the war," Sylka answered, "that's how this goes."

  "Yeah! If they want anything for themselves, then they better take it from the goblins they kill! And if they want to keep it, then they need to survive!" A particularly muscular Kobold added fervently, he had a grin on his face that begged the others to see what happens if they disagreed with him.

  "And that means I can also get my own loot right?" Thariel asked.

  "What do you even need from the goblins?" Asked a shrewd sounding Kobold. She's always thought of this one as smart. It was just how he acted in the meeting so far, this is the first time Thariel saw him look confused.

  "Nothing," Thariel admitted, she just wanted to see how they would react. With that being said, how far could she take this? She asked her question again, "but can I take stuff?"

  All of them turned to Vrix, the side that she picked in the meeting, but it was his daughter, Sylka, who answered for him. "If you want something, then we'll give it to you,"

  "Why?" Thariel asked.

  "As a Damphir-" and she emphasized this particular word, with her pronunciation biting on the tone very harshly, "- you are one of our greatest assets and with the gear you're wearing this fight would be trivial,"

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  Sylka didn't say it outright but Thariel caught the second question in her words; you have better gear, what could you possibly want from a bunch of goblins?

  "I wouldn't mind if she looted something and kept it for herself, that's her right," said another one of the chiefs, he nodded at her, "get something for yourself if you want, I'm not gonna bother fighting you for it."

  That same chief shot a harsh glare around the table, "but I don't feel the same way for everyone else."

  When one of his fellow chiefs rebutted him, he snapped back with words just as harsh and that basically got all of them to go back to arguing about their part of the loot and Thariel could only sit there, listening as they bickered like children.

  After the meeting, they all started heading back to their respective tribes without any further discussion. And this is concerning because Thariel never heard them talk about what they should do during the war. They didn't plan at all, they just discussed who should get what.

  She raised this concern towards Sylka and in response got; "we do not need to worry about that,"

  "Why?" Thariel asked, didn't need to worry?.. This war concerned them all and they're treating it like it didn't even matter!

  "Because we're going to fight, there's no need for any kind of tactic here is there?" Sylka clearly felt bitter about that but was just going along with what everyone else wanted, "you shouldn't worry about this regardless,"

  "Right..." Thariel replied, not knowing what else to say beyond that single word.

  They walked along in silence and had started to pick up their pace at some point, when she noticed that they were far away from the chief and his group, Thariel asked Sylka about her true feelings on the matter.

  "You wanted to discuss tactics." Thariel factually stated, "why didn't you tell them about it? There was one other Kobold back there right? He also seemed related to their chief, you two could have done something."

  "We already tried that and know it wouldn't work," Sylka admitted, "it's fine, at least I can rest easy knowing that we'll win this through brute force alone."

  "How?" Thariel looked at Sylka and she in turn stared at Thariel. The latter broke the silence, "You think I'll turn the tide of the war?"

  "Not think- know." Sylka emphasized, "I know you'll turn the tide of war,"

  "Turn the tide huh?.." Thariel murmured, well, she liked the vote of confidence but personally didn't feel the same way Sylka did.

  The conversation ended there and Thariel didn't feel like continuing it in a bitter topic so she didn't mention her lack of confidence in beating the goblins.

  They did eventually find a topic to talk about though.

  "Have you ever killed someone with a bow before?" Sylka suddenly asked.

  "Yes," Thariel nodded, "just recently actually, I used this bow to kill a large reptillian-" do these guys call dinosaurs with the same name as she did? They do right? She decided to mention it by name, "- a dinosaur."

  "I've heard from Trivok that those things can grow large," mentioned Sylka, she then eyed the cloak over Thariel's body in an observant manner. "That coloration also seems familiar, I've heard of it before."

  Well it wouldn't shock her if Trivok saw a Thostasaurus during his many pilgrimages in Amori Falls.

  Thariel nodded, "yeah, it's made from the body of a creature I decided to call a Thostasaurus,"

  "What's that?" Sylka raised an eyebrow.

  "A giant- it's the thing I hunted with my bow, it's pretty big, larger than a Timber Drake actually," she explained.

  Now that she's saying it out loud, the thought of her being scared of goblins felt trivial when she's casually talking about killing a freaking dinosaur.

  "If you can kill that, then I know we shouldn't worry about a simple Satyr." Sylka's tone was that of relief as she smiled at Thariel, "I'm glad you're here to help."

  "I guess?" The logic checks out, she can kill larger creatures than a Satyr so this war shouldn't even be a problem for her.

  A round of silence passed before the topic shifted into something more sinister.

  "Don't vampires commonly summon demons?" Sylka turned away from her.

  Thariel hesitantly nodded, "they do yeah, but only as servants and they only summon weak demons." She answered, "the ones who summon stronger demons use them in warfare and..."

  And Thariel knows how bad that sounds but still.

  "I'm pretty sure the Satyr we're fighting wasn't summoned by the local brood though," she's sure of that, Vampires don't summon Satyrs, they're hedonistic enough as is.

  They both looked at each other for a split second before breaking eye contact. Then Sylka nodded and put that particular topic to rest by never mentioning it again.

  The ensuing silence did make Thariel wonder if the Satyr was actually brought here by one of the brood members though. However unlikely, there's still a small chance that this might have been the case.