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Tam grimaces and nods, his face white with disgust. "He's still running around?" He opens his eyes and reaches for the boy, then lets his hand fall as he sees how he has withdrawn into himself.

"He's a war god... but one who reflects the savage brutal side of conflict. More of a god of destruction, than anything. Very evil... very very nasty... and rules his followers with an iron thumb. And they were going to do what with the boy."

The small black skinned creature uncurls enough to look at Kerobian with a world of sorrow in his eyes. He gets the impression that the child would be whimpering had he been capable of doing so. And even though the young serpentine's thoughts are in turmoil, very little is leaking through. His control over his thoughts are both amazing and frightening... amazing that a child so young would be able to shield so much hurt and pain away and frightening that he needs to do so.

The child curls up against him, silently shaking, clinging to him in desperation, a faint ray of hope in his heart. He sees Kerobian as his savior and it appears from his rapidly flowing thoughts he wants him to go save his people. But as Kero glimpses his thoughts he begins to realize something. Adding his fearful remembrances to what he had learned from the merc chieftain, he probably doesn't have any people left to save.

Not much remains of the village, Comprised of man made caves cut into a bluff and kept safe behind a thick mud palisade, the village blends into the terrain. But this is ore because it is already overgrown with vines and fast growing jungle plants. Several gaping holes in the palisade shows how the wall was breached, but beyond scattered pieces of broken pottery, wagons left standing full of rotted vegetation, and an echoing hollow sounding wind, Kerobian finds nothing, the gardens have been salted, the well poisoned. Who ever did this wanted to be certain no one survived. Had it not been the greed of the merc chieftain, who saw the child as a possible source of income, no doubt he too would be one of the many small piles of bones that litter the central court.

While exploring one cave, fortunately ignored, no doubt because it had little by way of loot, Kerobian stumbles across a small chest of clothing, approximately the boy's size, and several odd shaped instruments.

He is still asleep and Tam is nursing Mara. She (he... or whatever) looks up at him with a sad smile and nods to the boy. "Didn't find anything, did ye? Garagos rarely leaves much behind. Though in truth.. the god himself may not be so blood thirsty. He's really not one I ever wanted to study, but fanatics have a way of magnifying their deities bad faults beyond all comprehension"

Tam frowns. "badly I'm afraid. He's exhausted... mentally and physically... I had to resort to a spell. His nightmares were waking the babes. Ari seems more sensitive than Mara, but it was affecting them both. Bez came back about an hour ago, carrying some things he scavenged from the merc camp. You... you won't have to worry about the three any more. He's also seen signs of other visitors, other than the two we've see so far. One he claims is someone we both know, but he won't say who it is. The flyer is in a tree sleeping, the pirate is collecting fruit from the orchard. I told him that if he wanted to eat he had to work." He grins at Kerobian and shrugs. "I don't mind the company but I sure don't need extra work right now."

For now the child's dreams are calm, lulled into a peaceful state by Tam's music. But Kerobian can sense the horrific cauldron that seethes just below the surface of the boy's dreams. Does he dare re-triggering them or does he let the child sleep. On one hand he'd learn something of the boy's fears and what he's been through... on the other, the child needs to rest, to gather his strength.

Tam smiles gratefully at him as he changes Mara and then puts her back into her cradle. It is quiet in the cave, perhaps the quietest it has been since the birth of Tam small babes. Kerobian's piping, although soft, drifts gently about the three chamber complex and out the entrance way.