"And what will you do when they come for ores? For their weapons? Wood for their furnaces? When their hunters scour the forests for food and game, finding our fields? What will you say and do then?" the old woman asked the crowd.

For a small moment no one answered, not even her opposition… though it was rather clear that said opposition was losing both their position and their numbers.

This morning most of the room, most of the village, had been on the side of staying here. To wait the nearby war out. To risk their lives, even though the two human nations were waging in brutal scorched earth tactics only a few dozen miles away.

Now though, not long before dusk, the room was now somber. And few if any voices spoke in favor of staying here anymore. Now most were like her, stating the obvious reasons to leave.

I myself believed in leaving… since, the entire reason this village was holding a vote, was because of a prophecy. To me that prophecy alone was good enough reason to abandon this village and move elsewhere. Why risk such a thing? Why risk going against the powers left behind by the gods…?

Anyone who thought they could go against the gods was stupid. Only Vim could do that. At least, only he could do it and survive. It was still up to debate if he actually did it in a way that was a victory, and not just him simply surviving the wrath that followed such sacrilegious actions…

"I do not wish to abandon our home… I was born here. Just as all of you… but does that mean we should die here too? What of our children? Their children? If we stay here and perish, we rob the world of all the lives that we could be leaving behind. I can think of no greater sin than that!" the old woman finished her speech, and then with a firm nod and huff she sat back down. A few of the people near her nodded and clapped, though quietly, in agreement.

Although I agreed with her, in spirit at least, I didn't clap. It was not my place to. I'd only been here for about a year, but I wasn't an official member of this village. I was just a visitor, and although I had a right to vote in anything concerning the Society I didn't have the right to vote on this here and now.

This was their vote. For their own futures. I had no say in it.

A chair made noise as someone stood. The whole room turned to look at the new speaker, a younger man. One with white horns on the top of his head. I recognized the horns, though not him. His wife had visited me recently concerning, what she was hoping, was her new pregnancy. She had wept in joy when I had told her it was highly like she had indeed conceived.

"I remember when this village was but a few families. Back when we had simple little wood huts, and argued over who got to milk the cow every day," the man said, making me frown.

He wasn't a young man at all! Did that mean his wife had been much older too…? But she had said it was her first…!

Gosh our people were so odd sometimes…!

The whole room was silent, hanging onto the horned man's words. I rubbed my temple as he turned a bit, to point at his wife. She was sitting a few seats behind him, for some reason. "After all this time… I've finally been blessed with a child," he said, a little somberly. He sounded a tad sad over it, instead of happy, for some reason. A few people clapped, making small noises as they congratulated him. He ignored them though as he shook his head. "I would give anything for the child to be welcomed here. This wonderful home we have built. This place of quiet, but gentle, peace. But just as I am old enough to remember settling here, I am also old enough to remember the chaos before those days. The long days of traveling through wilderness, doing all I can to avoid the humans and monarchs who hunted me. Well… I fear those days have come again. I will not stay here. Most of my kin have their horns adorning walls; I'll not allow my child's horns to join them."

The man then sat back down, and although it took a few moments… people clapped rather strongly in agreement.

I gulped a little as people whispered, mostly about agreeing with the man's statements.

Many here were those like him. Although thick in the blood, they were not warriors. Not strong, at all. They were all simple people, who spent their days farming and fishing. So I knew his words had resonated deeply with everyone here, even the few hotheads who had been so vocal about staying a few hours ago.

In fact where were those people…? I glanced to the other side of the room, to one of the older men. The man with the large beard of white sat in silence, his face lowered and sunken a bit… and not just from age.

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Was that remorse on his face…? About his earlier statements, I wonder, or something else? Or would he stand to argue again that the village should not flee, and try to fight and protect their homes?

"I too would give anything to keep our home."

I turned my head, to see the new speaker. A pretty woman in a thin dress. She had fur running up and down her arms, which is probably why her shirt had no sleeves, and she had fluffy ears on the top of her head. She was likely some kind of forest animal.

The fur covered woman nodded as she gestured towards me, or rather in my direction. She was angled where the man with white horns sat between us, and it was he she was actually gesturing towards. "But as Grovo says, if we linger here… if we risk it, and stay here, all that will happen is our doom. We are not warriors. We do not outnumber the humans. Even if we defeated the ones who found us, culling them before they could do any harm, all it will do is draw attention to our forests. And before long, the human nations will send their armies. To track us down, and hunt us, as they have done to so many more. We all know what humans do. They will abandon their war against their own kind, and ally with one another, just to hunt us down!" she quickly shook her head, and shivered. "No. I do not think it wise to risk it. I say we leave. We can make a new home elsewhere. Find new forests, and new rivers and lakes. We can till new farmland, raise new cattle. We need not die for soil, dirt is dirt. Let us find it elsewhere."

"Well said," a woman a few seats from me said as the fur covered woman sat back down, and people clapped for her.

Crossing my arms, I leaned back a bit in my chair and wondered if this was the typical way such votes were going all throughout the Society. I myself had been involved in many votes, of course, and have seen plenty in my life… but this was the first one I'd ever sat in on that involved such a momentous decision.

Choosing to allow someone to join the location, or banishing a problem? Sure. Deciding on if to build a new building, such as a new well or warehouse? Of course. But deciding to abandon the whole location, to essentially uproot their lives and flee for their lives…?

This was a first for me. And it was unsettling. In ways I couldn't understand.

It should be simple for me. I was used to triage and making hard decisions. Sometimes you had to… cut your losses. Sometimes a limb couldn't be saved. Sometimes a child's innocent mistake couldn't be fixed. Sometimes you had to just… look a person in the eyes and tell them the truth. One that they might not want to hear.

So I shouldn't be bothered over this. Since that was all this was. They were making a decision. A hard one, but still a necessary one. If they wanted to survive, to see another day, they needed to abandon their home.

The human wars were too close. Too dangerous. Too volatile. They had no choice.

It was either stay here and die, or flee and survive.

Yet why did I almost feel as if voting to survive was the wrong choice…?

It was a weird feeling, since I wasn't even allowed to vote. Although I was here, and had been here for a year, I wasn't a member of their village. Not a proper one. I was simply here to help them prepare. Vim had brought me here, with the warning from Celine, that the fires of war would reach their doorsteps. I had joined Vim so that I could tend to the inhabitants here, as a doctor, to ready them for a long journey. One that might be slightly difficult, since they'd have to head north into the cold during winter.

So I had no right to vote. Even if they'd let me do so. But… I couldn't help but wonder how I'd vote, if given the chance.

I was a doctor. Every move I made, every decision, was supposed to help save lives. And as such, it was clear to me that I should… if I could, vote to leave. To survive another day. To not try and risk the ire of the human's wars.

Yet I felt sick thinking such a thing. Enough so that… well…

Maybe I was not as wise as I thought. Maybe I was emotional. Maybe my long years of training, and forcing myself to put emotion aside, has made me a little more reactive and touchy about certain things, such as abandoning a home…

Though it wasn't as if I had a home to act so over. Although there were many places I've spent a long time at, such as the village where I learned how to be a doctor or Telmik where I always spent time in-between my tasks and duties, I honestly haven't ever seen any of them as a home, have I?

"All those in favor of leaving?"

I blinked and sat up straighter as I watched hands quietly rise all around me. I had drifted off in my thoughts and hadn't noticed they had begun their vote.

One didn't even need to glance around to know the vote to leave had won. I couldn't even see a single person around me who didn't have their hand raised, it seemed. Even the people who had voiced the opposite had their hands raised, like the old man with the white beard.

After a few heavy heartbeats, the old man with the beard stood. He suddenly looked decades younger as he took a deep breath and puffed out his chest, suddenly looking strong and firm. He nodded as everyone lowered their hands, and they all awaited his words.

"Then so it is. We shall summon Vim and begin the process… let us begin to pack and say our goodbyes, with our heads held high."

I nodded as everyone else did, but for a different reason.

That meant it was time I left. To let Vim know it was time to come back here, as to help these people.

Doctor's were overworked, I swear.

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