“Iris, the survivors are the army. They’re the Flint-Singers, and they’re about to go to battle.”
Looking defeated she said, “then… I don’t know…”
“I do. One way or another, I’m gonna stop them.” He wipes his tears away. “I’m not letting this happen. I don’t care if the Raiders killed my tribe and crippled theirs, no one deserves to have their lives be at the mercy of the Grimm . . . and no one deserves to die to war.”
“but how?”
Yalani thinks for a moment before giving in. “I don’t know . . . but I’m gonna try one way or another.”
“and I shall help, no matter what.”
“. . . No. I can’t risk you losing your life for something I don’t have a plan for.”
“you can’t stop me,” she said as she grabs his arm, “because I’ll be by your side, no matter what.”
“And I’m not willing to bring you with me to the grave. You’re staying where it’s safe.”
“if I don’t go and you die, it’ll haunt me for the rest of my life.”
Yalani stared into the distance, faced with a dilemma. “Let’s change the subject. How 'bout a story?”
“okay.”
"This story’s actually about a tradition. It’s about how dancers dressed as ogres would frighten those who misbehaved, mostly children.
OOC: This kind of ogre:
She sits on the couch.
“See, these beings would have powers of observance and could sense when a child has misbehaved. They would visit the house and demand an offering of food from the child, and if the offering isn’t satisfactory, the ogre would eat the child. In reality, the parents would tell the dancer beforehand and them eating the children is just a way to scare them into not causing any trouble.”
“so, like Santa?”
“Pretty much. However, people in the tribes have been equating the ogres to the Grimm. When there’s fear or anger or just bad emotions, they’d arrive. The only difference is it didn’t matter what the offering, they’d devour and destroy anyways.”
“that sounds horrible.”
“Which is why I can’t risk you getting hurt. If this vision has any truth to it, this new Grimm could be even worse than the others, and definitely worse than an ogre. Even if the ogres were real, they could at least be reasonable, unlike the Grimm.”
“i thought we were changing the subject…” she mumbled.