Well of course he does, you monster, why wouldn't he?

Tally nodded his head, and Quelm gave him a thumbs-up. “Of course we can, Sarah, good idea,” Quelm said soothingly. “We can be on our way as soon as we find the general.”

“The general?” Sarah said, suddenly panicked.

“Don’t worry,” Tally assured her, “I’ve also turned her friendly.” Sarah relaxed. “Quelm, why don’t you give Sarah some proper food,” Tally suggested. Quelm got to work fixing her a meal, while Tally went through Quelm’s belongings looking for anything that might prove useful on the journey ahead. Quelm saw him rifling through her stuff, but raised no objections. After a few minutes, Quelm presented Sarah with some mediocre steak that wasn’t even warm, on a wooden tray. “Shitty rations,” she explained apologetically. Sarah was still grateful, and tucked into the mediocre steak as if it were the best thing she’d ever eaten.

“Need some help there?” Quelm asked, coming up behind Tally as he struggled to open a wooden barrel. “What’s in this?” Tally asked, panting, “is it worth taking with us?”

Quelm smashed her fist down into the top of the barrel, caving in the lid. “You decide,” she said, “what’s mine is yours.” Tally peered into the barrel, removed some pieces of wood, and found it to contain something that looked and smelled like beer. “Hey listen, I gave Sarah some proper food like you said,” Quelm continued, as Tally considered whether or not the beer would be useful. “What should I do next?”

“You could go out and find the general,” Tally suggested, “that could be good.”

“Got it,” Quelm nodded. She made for the entrance flap to the tent and started undoing the buttons. “If my roommate comes back, just get back in the cage and pretend everything’s normal,” she hollered over her shoulder, “I’ll be back.”

When Quelm did return, it was with Mi Iau, who still had all of Tally’s belongings with her. Quelm had explained to her the changes of the plan on the way back, and so Mi was ready to help rescue Sarah’s grandson. In the meantime, Tally had been through all of Quelm’s stuff and assembled everything he thought might be useful into a second sack. Quelm made a few amendments to the pile of things that she personally wanted to bring along, like her personal journal- which Tally had refrained from opening, even though he was sure Quelm wouldn’t mind if he did.

Resuming the guise of prisoners and escort, Quelm and Mi pretended to be taking Tally and Sarah to be hunted for sport, through the enemy encampment. Mi used her position of authority to demand two horses, which were granted without question from her inferiors. Mi took one horse, with Tally sitting behind, and Quelm took the second, with Sarah sitting behind her.

“Human prisoners are most likely to be at 'the camp',” said Mi, who had access to more knowledge of her forces then Quelm did, “Sarah’s grandson is probably being held there.”

“Which way is 'the camp'?” Quelm asked, “I didn’t know we had one of those.”

“Follow me,” Mi commanded, and led the way back down the hill to the gate that Tally had been trying to get through. The guard opened the way, but instead of going straight onward, like Tally was originally aiming for, Mi made a sharp left turn to take them even deeper into her people’s territory. Poor old Sarah was not very well cut out for horseback riding anymore, and her frail frame quivered like Jello on a massage chair as she desperately wrapped her arms around Quelm’s midriff and held on for dear life. Tally, too, held on around Mi’s stomach, making sure to stay below breast-level, despite Brim’s constant temptations being whispered into his ear.

The mysterious camp was a captured and repurposed human prison about five miles inwards from the frontier they had just left. Its existing inmates had all been carelessly turned loose for the humans to deal with, while at the same time providing a clean slate for re-using the building itself. Mi pulled her horse to a stop once it was close enough to take a good look, and Quelm followed suit.

“My grandson is in there?” Sarah asked, peering over Quelm’s shoulder to look at the distant looming prison.

“It’s the first place we should look for him, at any rate,” said Mi. “Tally,” she lowered her voice and spoke under her breath, turning her head away from Quelm and Sarah. “Tally, there’s something you should know about this place, that poor old grandma over there might be better off not knowing.”

“Yes, what is it?” Tally asked, just as quietly.

“That place is where we take suitable human men and keep them around for… well… sexual reasons.”

“What? Doesn’t your species have men? Why do you need humans?”

“Sexual dimorphism is a lot higher for us,” Mi explained. “Ever wondered why you’ve only seen women doing all the invading? The males of my species don’t have the intelligence to contribute to society. We have to keep them, of course, to have kids with, but they don’t make very fulfilling partners at all. By comparison, human men are more appealing, so we use them whenever we have the chance.”

“I see,” Tally mused. “So Sarah’s grandson was deemed suitable for this… institution?”

“If, of course, he’s even here at all,” Mi corrected. “But this would be the number one reason why I could think he would have been taken away.”

“Well, then we must find out,” Tally said.

“Ideally without Sarah finding out what this place is for, if we can avoid it,” Mi added, “That’s going to be one hell of an awkward conversation. I can go in there by myself and get him released, no questions asked, because of my rank. How about I just leave the rest of you out here and bring him back? You’ll have Quelm to protect you in the meantime.”

“But how will you be able to pick him out, when you’ve never met him before?” Tally pointed out. “If we all went in, Sarah would be able to recognize her own grandson for us.”

“Hey!” Quelm hollered over from her horse, interrupting Tally and Mi’s mumbled discussion. “So Tally, what are your orders? How are we going to do this?”