Crossover Escape: Gotta be more than Lucky to survive

2.25 Centaur Camp

The Centaur’s main group returned in the late afternoon. There where about forty of them and they came from three different directions. Fifteen from the north and south and ten from the west. They brought it dog sized rabbits and horse sized sheep. They tossed the game to the slaves and forced them to handle and cook it while giving them barely scraps to eat. They were each given a cup of water while the Centaur’s drank from large barrels in front of them.

What Luca found off was that the meal seemed wasteful. It didn’t fit with what Luca had seen of tribal groups before. It seemed more like they were putting on a show.

“Are they trying to break their spirits?” Tails wondered. The rest of the group had shifted so they could glance at Räv’s tablet that displayed the footage from the butterfly drone. While at the same time the looked for anyone that might be approaching their safe zone.

“That’s what it feels like to me.” Luca agreed. “More than forty people is a hard job for our numbers without being noticed.”

“Especially since we don’t have weeks to sit on this.” Räv muttered to herself about missing cars after she spoke. Luca really wanted to agree with that but didn’t want to focus on things they didn’t have. Just as the sun started to set though an interesting opportunity arrived. Namely a large flying boat.

“Harpy airship,” Shade hissed. Luca narrowed his eyes as he looked at the boat landing just beside the camp. The harpies jumped from the upper deck railing and glided to the ground to meet the waiting Centaur leader.

“I didn’t realise the Harpies were such good builders.” Luca mentally re-evaluated their threat level if they could construct something of that degree then they could be more of a threat that he’d originally estimated.

“They didn’t, they stole them from the dwarfs and gnomes, then started enslaving them to repair them.” Shade sneered as he spoke. Luca slid the glasses back up his nose and then directed the butterfly into the airship after the Harpies had entered the centaur’s camp.

“Räv you send another butterfly into camp to watch what they are doing,” Luca directed as he looked around the airship itself. As he suspected since it was made by the dwarfs and gnomes there were several areas that the harpies with the extensive wingspan would be unable to enter. They looked like maintenance shafts and the like.

“On it.” Luca looked around carefully and found more than enough useful hiding spots. The question was would they be able to get to them without being noticed.

“Oh, oh no,” Räv whispered, and Luca jerked his glasses off to turn and look at her.

“What?”

“They’re setting Nano out to run as sport, if he gets away, he’d free. Free to die at the other things that come out a night,” Tails gritted out between clenched teeth it took no guessing how he felt about that.

Luca calculated quickly, maybe this could work. “What’s happening with the collar?”

“Centaur waves a cuff at it and the collar turns blue and comes off.” Luca received a narrowed eyed look from Tails as he responded while the others glanced at him before turning back to continue lookout.

“Shade, do you know if there is anything special about the centaur or if the cuff is just the key?” Luca needed to know if they had to subdue a Centaur of just needed an arm with cuff attached.

“Just the cuffs work as a key, they don’t need anything special to be done but the cuffs aren’t easily transferred to a different holder. Luca considered his apathetic feeling to that and wanted to wince. He’d tried so hard to maintain a sense of worth for life not treating obstacles like vegetables to be diced for stew and a few days here and he already basically surrendered.

He justified to himself that they’d started it that they’d kill or e*****e if given the chance. That he was limited in resources and time to do anything the nice way. Really though he could be certain that he just wanted to take the quick and easy way. The main problem was that once you settled on that mentality once it was much harder to go back. Luca looked at his friends and thought of the people that had already died, those that were captured. He closed his eyes for a second and when they reopened that hint of reluctance and regret was extinguished.

“Near as I can tell there are only ten harpies in total. That is something we can handle in a semi- enclosed space. There is room on their ship to hide a large number of people as well.” Luca looked around as the group turned to face him. He noticed the same determination in Ghost’s eyes as he gave a sharp nod.

“It looks like almost all of the Centaurs and half of the Harpies are going to participate in the hunt.” Räv looked up from her table with sharp eyes. Luca nodded slowly.

“How long?”

“About an hour, when the sun is almost down.” Räv estimated based on what she noticed. Luca gathered his thoughts and then listed what they needed to accomplish.

“We need to free the slaves and hide them and ourselves on the airship without being discovered. Including freeing the Pegasus and the unicorns. I would also like to save Nano. To do that we need the cuff of one of the centaurs. For convenience preferably not attached to the rest of the centaur. We need a distraction that will draw all attention away from the slave pen and stables and we need a way of getting Nano clear of the hunters and into shelter. All before the Elementals come out to play.” Luca finished his description and looked around Shade’s expression was somewhat horrified. It strangely made Luca want to laugh where was the mysterious and unflappable gentleman that had jumped in front of a pack of beasts to save people?

“I.. You… Why?” shade eventually stammered out. It was such a big change that Luca had to wonder if he’d just been well rehearsed for that first encounter.

“What?” Luca thought about his confusion for a moment before he guessed what the issue was. “You want to say that we could send you in to intimidate them somehow like with the beasts?” as Shade nodded Luca smiled ruefully. “For one your presence wasn’t intimidating to the Sirens. For two if we use that hand now it is wasted if we really need it. For Three there is no guarantee that it would get all the results we need. Besides I assume that if there is something you can and want to do to help with things you’ll say so. What would be the point of joining our group otherwise?”

Shade stared at Luca and then looked at the amused expressions on everyone else’s faces before he slowly nodded. Luca decided then and there that if he was a setup and was trying to entrap them in someway that he would recommend he take up professional acting. It would be too much of a waste for someone who could pull off that degree of shocked disbelief and then hopeful determination to not be an actor.