Isekai Family Robinson: A slow-burn Isekai

Toraline's plea seemed to have shocked the little fairy delegation, and for a second Alejandra saw genuine fear cross the tiny faces. At least, she thought it was fear. It was difficult to tell, given that they were still a dozen feet away and their features, while humanoid, were just as small as the rest of them and difficult to read. The sudden jolt that went through the whole procession though? That was easier to read.

These little ones were prepared for many things. They were not prepared for this.

She carefully kept her face neutral as the fairies looked at one another, their winged snakes undulating in the air lazily.

"I…" the little fairy in the tophat and purple tails started to say, but Toraline's voice came out again suddenly.

"No. No, I apologize." The sword sounded sheepish, but Alejandra heard the undercurrent of need still twanging softly in her voice. "That was inappropriate for such an auspicious meeting. Please forgive my outburst." There was a brief pause, then she continued; "But I would still, with your permission, wish to speak to you after this meeting, if you are willing."

"Er, yes. Yes, of course," said Tophat, and for the second time in as many minutes Alejandra had to force herself not to react, because the foot-tall fairy in a purple suit and with ruby-red hair had a voice deeper than any man she had ever heard. "I would welcome such a… conversation," he continued, stumbling slightly over his words but recovering quickly.

"I…" he paused, then glanced over at one of the pink-armoured fairies next to him. "Pennat, where was I?"

"I greet your auspicious selves, chief," the other fairy said, and Alejandra felt her jaw wanting to drop. This fairy's voice was even deeper, to the point she could almost feel the rumble in her gut.

"Ah, yes, of course. I… Greet thee," Clennais said to Matty, who was clearly having almost as much trouble keeping a straight face as she was. "First Sojourners in over three hundred years to grace our shores, we of the Starlight Tribe come to you to offer our fealty and our tribute, and ask that you take us under your banner for the coming conflicts. Long has our clan stood with the Sojourners when they come to Seroco, and we would do so again, for the glory of your empire."

Alejandra felt Matt's hand tighten on her own, and she squeezed back, not looking away from the fairies as they started to break formation. The flying snakes stayed in the air, but the ones in the rear, the unarmoured ones riding what she identified as beasts of burden, came forward.

"We offer you," the chief fairy continued, "the first fruits of our land. Rinberries from our fields, chawfruits from our finest trees, the finest nuts from our storerooms. Seeds, stalks, and tools for growing things."

The unarmoured fairies lifted the lids of their baskets in practiced sequence, revealing fruits and vegetables that made Alejandra's mouth water. They were strange, not a carrot or cucumber among them, but some bore a passing resemblance to earth veggies, and they all looked delicious.

"We offer too, mithral from the Oomph's finest veins, bought and brought at great price. Enchanted silverstone, gold from the river bottom…"

The gifts kept coming, and Alejandra had to suppress a whistle. She didn't know what any of these things were–well, except the gold of course, but she had to believe that what was being offered them was a small fortune. Dio, it was probably a big fortune.

"And of course, the bearers of these gifts are yours as well," Chief Clennais finished, bowing low over his saddlehorn again. "As is custom in your world, taught to us by your predecessors. We hope, I and my entire clan, that these tributes are worthy in your eyes."

Alejandra Albright blinked. And it was only when her husband's grip tightened painfully around her hand, and his growl rumbled in her ears, that she realized what the fairy had just said.

She squeezed his hand back twice, their signal for "I've got this." Then she released his hand and stepped forward.

"Chief Clennais," she said quietly in her serious Command Sergeant's voice, pitched to carry despite its softness. "My family and I," she swept her hand to encompass the various Albrights and their associates, "appreciate your gracious gift. It is clear you have put a significant amount of thought into it, and that your intentions are pure."

The fairies straightened at their words, and the little top-hatted one seemed to let out a breath he'd been holding. Relief rippled through them like a sigh.

"However," she continued, raising a finger, "I am afraid you may have been operating under some misconceptions about us."

She took a second to look at Matty, who gave her an encouraging nod. She smiled at him, then turned back. It was sweet he thought that she needed the encouragement. This was practically old hat to her. After all, she'd had to deal with the local leaders back in the Desert on an almost weekly basis back in the War. This? This wouldn't be that much different. Show them respect, try to understand their culture and their point of view…

And don't, for one instant, bend on the important stuff.

* * *

Chief Clennais struggled mightily to keep his face calm and impassive as the female Sojourner began to speak. They were going to reject the offer of tribute. They must know of what happened to the Tutorial Tribe, so far back in history as to almost be legend now. And because of his ancestor's part in it, they were going to cast them out as forced neutral parties at best, or mortal enemies at worst.

Damn his ancestors for their rash actions, even though he understood why they had done as they did. Emotions had run wild amid the devastation, and…

"First, allow me to introduce my family to yours," the Sojourner said, and rattled off quick and formalized introductions of all those she had with her. And yes, they were a family, just as Peat and Bindea had said. He had been tempted to bring those two along, but they had just returned from a grueling patrol, and the trek to this place was a two-day move, and they had needed their rest.

"It is a pleasure," Clennais said, bowing his head and trying to keep the gibbering panic in his gut from spilling over. They were going to reject him. Would they even get out of this meeting alive? Sojourners were storied to be mercurial at best. Was all this just a prelude to slaughter?

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Now, I believe there has been a misunderstanding," Alejandra Albright continued, turning back to him and dropping into a wide-foot stance with her hands clasped behind her back. It struck him as militaristic, even in its relaxed pose. "We are not like those who came before us. They sought to rule this world, to, as Toraline has said, 'raise their banner over all the land'. They came as conquerors. We," and here her eyes speared his own and held them with a type authority he had only ever encountered twice in his life, "do not."

There was a stirring amongst the other fae beside him, but they took their cue from him and he forced himself to sit impassively, merely arching a single eyebrow.

"No?" he asked, and was proud of how that single word did not quaver.

"No," Alejandra Albright said. "Because the land we come from is very different from the ones those other Sojourners came from. Let me tell you of our home."

* * *

Olivia tuned her mother out as she started to launch into her 'America The Great' schpiel. It wasn't that it was a bad schpiel, it's just that Olivia had heard it before. And fairly recently too, when Seeker Tempest had asked about the world they had come from. The elf had been as shocked at the description of their home as the fairies–and can we just take a moment to squee internally about the fact that those fairies look so cute with pink armor and purple suits and pastel hair eeeeeeeeeeee so cute!–seemed to be.

Instead, she let her mind wander. The Fairies were cute, sure enough, but they were also dead serious. She had a feeling that those bubble-gum armoured knights knew exactly how to use those lances they held, and a couple of the… tributes, her teeth ground at the very idea, looked like they were a little less 'cowed' and a little more 'waiting in case they had to get their hands dirty.' Boy, she hoped Mom saw that.

Although, if Olivia saw it, it was probably a lead-pipe cinch that Mom saw it too, and had already figured out seven different ways to counter it if things got messy.

She glanced over her shoulder up into the foliage, and saw Seeker Tempest peering at the whole meeting from the platform Dad was planning on turning into the most awesome treehouse in the world, and gave the elf a little wave. The elf waved back, and Olivia felt good about that. She was still kinda kicking herself for ever suspecting the girl was an enemy spy. Not after hearing what her people had gone through at the hands of Sojourners.

Which was probably why the Fairies were here, come to think of it, she thought and turned her eyes forward again to survey the little–heh–delegation. They'd probably figured it was better to get on the murdering slaving genocidal bastards' good side right away before they became targets instead. Better to live as a slave than die in a horrible way, kind of thing.

Lord it was hot today. Well, not 'hot', but the rain yesterday had saturated everything, and the humidity had gone from 'Florida Everglades' to 'Hey who clamped this hot wet towel over my face', and she was sweating like a pig. She let her eyes wander over the 'tribute' baskets as she pulled a canteen from her belt and unscrewed the top. The faint sent of artificial strawberry came from within. She and the others had found the stash of drink-mix packets in the kitchen the last time they'd been at the Dilligaf, and she had made sure to mix up a batch of her favorite flavor before the day's work had begun.

She took a drink and sighed as the lukewarm liquid flavored with chemical strawberries and added caffeine slid down her gullet. Yeah, that was good. She was gonna hate this place when they ran out. Maybe they could find a substitute somehow. It wouldn't be the same, obviously, but maybe–

She paused in the act of screwing the lid back onto her canteen and blinked. Because it was right about then that she noticed that every single one of the fairies–except for the chief who was still focused on Mom–had snapped their eyes right over to look at her.

Okay, that was creepy.

* * *

The heavenly scent upon the wind almost broke Chief Clennais' concentration on the Sojourner's words as it wafted to his nostrils on the breeze. He had to fight, and fight hard, to keep his attention on Alejandra Albright and not turn his head to seek its source.

"And so," Alejandra Albright was finishing, her eyes hard as flint and her jaw set, "We will come not as conquerors, but as neighbors. We will keep no slaves, we will claim no occupied land, we will demand no tribute. We are not here to mold this world into our image we are her…" and here she paused and looked to her husband, and this time he came forward and took her hand.

"We are here to survive and thrive," he said simply, taking up her narrative. "We are here to make a home for ourselves after we have been torn from our own. It is not what we chose, and we will not play the games this world seems to have set us into. We will protect what is ours, we will fight for our right to survive, and we will defend ourselves as fiercely as we can. But we will not raise our banner and try to conquer this world."

This was not going as Chief Clennais had expected at all. He had come here hoping to ally himself with powerful Sojourners, and not just Sojourners but a family of Sojourners. The histories were clear–if you went far back enough and knew what to look for–on what that meant for their world, and he had hoped and prayed for his people to be on the side of that change from the beginning that they might reap whatever crumbs of rewards would fall their way.

But this… This was not in the script.

"Truly?" he had to ask, because it was so foreign a notion as to be unbelievable. "All other Sojourners, upon arriving here, have–"

"Been murdering conquering bastards," Matthew Albright spat with a venom that surprised Clennais. "No. We will not be like them. We will not take your land, we will not take your tribute. We will neither keep slaves, nor suffer any to be kept if we can help it. We thank you for your gifts, but no, we will not take them."

Chief Clennais's mind clicked into gear and he focused on a single word the Sojourner said. 'Take'. It seemed that these Sojourners, against all odds, were egalitarian. It was in the story Alejandra Albright told of their home, it was in their flashing eyes when they spoke of 'slavery'. It was in the set of their jaw when they spoke of 'conquering bastards'.

They would not take.

Might they do something else?

"You will not be lords over us," he said slowly, choosing his words with great care and still not quite believing what he was hearing or the path he was suddenly upon. "And you will not allow us to submit to your rule. Might there be another option you would consider?"

The Sojourner's eyebrows raised an inch. "Such as?"

"You are new upon our shores, and while you have the services of the Tutorial Tribe," he nodded at the sword, and a shock of fear ran through him as he realized he would still need to speak to her afterwards. "But you will lack current information on the island, its politics, its regions. We can offer advice and counsel to you. Maps, lines of communication to the Wizzos and the Oomphs and the Techies. And if you will not take tribute, perhaps you might trade for it?"

"Trade," Matthew said, frowning thoughtfully. "Now that's not a horrible idea."

There was a soft scraping sound, and this time when the scent came to his nostrils he couldn't help himself. He found his eyes drawn to one of the younger female Sojourners–Olivia, was her name?–as she opened the flask on her belt and took a drink from its contents.

Its heavenly, heavenly contents.

"Perhaps," Clennais said, licking his lips and tearing his eyes from the girl–something none of his kin seemed able to do–"we might retire to someplace more comfortable, that we might discuss… Mutually beneficial agreements?"