Aetherios System [Slow Build OP MC, Isekai LitRPG/Cultivation] Chapter 18: Chapter 14: Shame-Holes

Read chapter 18 of Aetherios System [Slow Build OP MC, Isekai LitRPG/Cultivation] by TTReynolds on NovelPedia.

Chapter 14: Shame-Holes Chapter 14: Shame-Holes Tom-Tom sniffed at the air. He cringed at the odor that hit his nostrils. It was not meat-smell and not danger-smell. Just… wrong-smell. With a small huff to clear his nose he crouched lower into the brush, belly to the ground. Leaves and dirt got stuck to his scales, but he didn’t mind. Leaves were good camouflage. Doudra said so once, and Doudra knew everything. Well, not everything, but lots. Way more than Tom-Tom. He turned back and motioned for Klik and Red-Snout to follow. Klik simply scratched his belly. Red-Snout chewed on a twig and blinked the wrong way, slow, then fast . Tom-Tom made a mental note to teach him better blinking later. If he remembered, that is. They each crept forward on quiet claws, their ears twitching and tails brushing low. Tom-Tom gripped his spear, sweeping it in front of himself to peer through the foliage. That's when Tom-Tom saw them. Three dirt-mounds. Carefully shaped with rocks stacked on top of themselves, more and more rocks. Each of the mounds had a tall stick in it, with bits of fabric tied at the top like a sad little flag. The sight sent a chill down Tom-Tom’s tail and he froze. “Oh no,” he whispered. Klik caught up behind him, squinting. “What are they?” “Graves,” Tom-Tom said. “Trash-holes for the forgotten.” “But they look neat.” Klik frowned. “ They are not! ” Tom-Tom hissed. “They buried them like you bury shame. Like you hide mistakes. You burn the honored, Klik, but you bury garbage. ” Red-Snout scampered forward and sniffed at one of the sticks and sneezed. Tom-Tom crept forward as well, his ears flat with claws flexing nervously. His spear he left in the dirt a few feet from the rock mounds, forgotten. All of his attention was now on these rock mounds. The monuments to shame. He sniffed again. There was old blood. Two different kinds, one Kobold and one…. Human. Woodsmoke... and metal. That strange sharp smell that human body-water-stuff. And something else… a sorrow-smell. He pressed a claw to one of the mounds and the rocks shifted slightly under his touch, the stick slanted at an angle. “Ghirzu,” he said softly. “And the twin-scales. This is them.” Klik’s tail curled. “The southwest scouts?” Tom-Tom nodded solemnly. “They didn’t come back. Now they won’t ever.” He stood up, his spine straight, chest puffed just a little. “They were brave. Good climbers. Ghirzu told me once that he saw a bird in his dreams. That’s rare, Klik. Birds don’t come to dreams unless you’re important.” Tom-Tom’s tail twitched and curled as he spoke. His emotions making him momentarily lose control of the appendage. Klik nodded slowly, like what Tom-Tom had said made perfect sense. Red-Snout chewed on a rock. Tom-Tom closed his eyes for a second. He wasn't praying exactly, just... being quiet. Finding this was a lot for the kobold. He hadn’t expected to be confronted with such depravity. He would have to report it back to Doudra. *** They returned to camp by sundown. The kobold den was a mess of twisted tree roots and burrowed-out holes nestled in the crook of a ravine. Smoke rose up from the cooking pit, thick with moss and rabbit bones. It was a chaotic display, but not an unfamiliar one for Tom-Tom. A few of the younger soldiers, the new-scales, were throwing acorns at each other. One of them was even wearing a mushroom on his head like a hat. Doudra sat at the center of it all, cross-legged and eyes closed, her scepter lying across her knees. She was muttering something slow and strange, words just out of reach to Tom-Tom’s understanding. Her feathers swayed in the firelight. Tom-Tom stepped up and cleared his throat. Then he did it again, louder. She didn’t open her eyes. “What did you find?” “Graves,” he said. “Three of them. Our scouts. Buried like old fish. Covered in rocks and forgotten.” Now she looked up. “Who did it?” “Humans,” Tom-Tom said. “They left smells. Smoke and iron. They made shame-piles.” Doudra’s eyes narrowed at his report, he