Hey guys, remember me? That's all of my exams over, so I felt it necessary to update this after so long of ignoring it. This is the 'plan of action' chapter. After this comes the 'putting it into action' chapter and then the 'travel and development' chapter. Fun, no? I hate repeating the word 'monster' in this chapter. Make me want to set it on fire.

CHAPTER TEN: Plan of Action

The blind man stood in place, listening closely to every word she had to say as though he actually believed what she was saying despite how far-fetched it appeared. After Lydia finished explaining her situation, he still said nothing. Then, quite suddenly, he exploded with laughter. Lydia, knowing that he did not believe her, followed suit.

"Not that bad a story, is it?" Lydia said jokingly, even though deep inside she felt hopeless. No one would believe her, and no one could help her. Didn't that girl say that somewhere out there there were other people like her? So where were they?

"But in all seriousness, why are you here?" The blind man ordered, all the laughter from his voice gone. The change was startling, to say the least.

"I had some information to relay to the king. It was something about the monster that attacked him last night." The man knelt down, even though it would be unnecessary.

"If you tell me, I shall relay it to the king." There was no point in fighting anymore. No point in trying to get involved in the meeting, so she might as well just tell the blind man what occurred last night.

"That monster, before he became a monster, was a little boy sitting at the edge of the pond. He didn't turn violent until I touched him. Before that, he was just crying, so I was thinking… maybe these monsters have human shells or something that are destroyed when they turn into monsters. Or something like that?" Lydia had no idea what she was saying. At this point, she was just rambling; bursting with random thoughts at the slightest implication or hint.

This time, the blind man took a moment to think what Lydia said more carefully. It seemed… likely. After all, there were already many signs of them being connected to that long abandoned village. It was possible that the monsters were using the villagers as hosts…

"I shall inform the king immediately; this may prove to be useful. For now, return to your duties." With that, he entered the meeting room leaving Lydia by herself. Well… that was the end of that.

She didn't like staying inside the destroyed throne room, so she asked for permission to head to the market to buy food since stocks were running low. She had no shopping list, given an order to memorize what she had to buy, so when she got to the market she was overwhelmed by the crowds of people shoving past each other demanding cheaper prices for things they would be buying and making prices more expensive for things they were selling. An old man with a goat shoved past her, making her stumble slightly. Coins were no good in a place like this, so she had to improvise slightly. Fortunately, one of the more experienced servants had come to assist her; a tall boy, a year older than her, with very dark skin and almost black eyes. His name was Pepi, although he preferred to be called Pep.

"Pep. I am lost, with no preparation, surrounded by malicious trade marketers with the intentions of stealing all my money. I feel like I'm in my home country again." Pepi laughed at Lydia. She was new to the market experience, even if she was known for demanding cheaper materials in a rather threatening manner; one you wouldn't expect from someone who screamed whenever they saw a snake or a scorpion.

"Then I shall lead ahead." He offered his arm, knowing how easy it was to get lost in the crowd, and supported Lydia on her way towards the necessary stalls. He too was told what to get and what was necessary, so at least Lydia didn't suffer that burden. The mistress could be quite a strict person.

"Tell me, why do we need a whole oxen? They never eat the whole thing anyway!" Lydia burst out as Pepi bought an ox. It originally cost 60 Deben, but Lydia was in a foul mood and thought of leaving it be for the time being until the man cut the price down to 40 Deben. She was quite useful in making things easy to buy.

"The wealthy like to show off their wealth while the lower classes barely survive starving." Lydia let out a sigh. Ammon was just like any other child, but when it came to things like this she couldn't help but feel slightly annoyed. "Look at it this way, the food that they don't eat goes to us, and what we don't eat goes to whoever can get it first, and it's usually some of the street beggars that get to the front of the queue." That was something Lydia had never heard before. Did he mean that they just tossed the remaining food out and whoever was the closest got it? That was probably what he meant… "Well, we need to return the live animals to the kitchen. If I handle all the animals, you can take the other things."

"Heaving a basket full of dates onto my shoulders. Sounds like fun." Lydia replied sarcastically, but she couldn't really complain. At least she wasn't carrying roughly 100 kilogrammes of meat onto her back.

The trek in was slightly slower than the trek out, but nothing too noticeable. Everything was taken into the kitchens and noted down by the man who checked the stocks. Why they felt the need to hire a specific person to note the stocks, Lydia still did not know.

Ammon and the other members of the council left the meeting room, having concluded their next course of action. In a week's time, they would start a trek to the village and investigate the numerous cases of monster activity there. It was a brash course of action, but Ammon knew that sitting in his chair thinking about it would solve nothing, and with the recent information Apis had gained from one of the servants (possibly the one that recently saved his life) they knew they had to act fast. If they were indeed using human vessels, then the chances were they had already broken through the barrier and were now waiting to attack. If the village was the main source, then they had to find out how to eradicate whatever allowed the monsters to exist at all. And he wanted to see its destruction with his own two eyes.

There was nowhere for him to sit and think it through except for either his room or the open garden, but the open garden was where that beast emerged from. He had no intention of going there to meet another one. Perhaps… perhaps he could just sit in the throne room and watch the servants working. They wouldn't feel comfortable with him around, but he liked seeing how they lived in the palace. It interested him.

He followed this plan of action and entered the throne room, sitting on one of the broken pillars. No one had noticed him yet, and for this he was grateful. The girl from earlier was also watching the scene from across the room. She didn't seem like the kind of person to slack off. Maybe she was just taking a break.

"Lydia! Help with this will you?" Yelled one of the men. Lydia hopped off the ruined staircase and ran to help the others. She was grinning, although for what reason Ammon did not know.

"Step aside, weaklings. This is a job for someone with inhuman strength." She shouted arrogantly as she tried to heave up the broken piece of wall. It barely moved. So much for inhuman strength. The others burst out laughing; it was rare that Lydia managed to publically embarrass herself. Some of the stronger men assisted her after they decided they had embarrassed her for long enough. Once everything was cleared away, some of the workers would start repairing the damage. Until then, they had to make sure everything was cleared away.

After clearing away as many pieces of the wall as possible, and heaving them outside of the palace through as many means as possible, the remaining work was to be left to the repair workers.

"So now what do we do?" Lydia asked without hesitation; she was the kind of person that always had to be doing something.

"Now we get back into our usual routine." Lydia pouted slightly, puffing out her cheeks. Shabaka laughed, ruffling her hair. "What's the matter, sick of the palace routine?"

"We're simply repeating the same thing over and over again. That's so dull!" She protested, kicking a tiny piece of wall. She wasn't usually so stubborn, having settled into the routine for six months. Maybe it was with the most recent turn of events that she no longer wanted to settle into her normal routine; she wanted something spontaneous. Something different! The market was a new experience for her, and she loved new experiences! "You get the day off for now. Feel free to explore the town, but don't get lost."

"I promise nothing, Shabaka and you know it." He sighed. Of course.

"Then don't get killed."

"That I will try to avoid." Lydia turned on her heels and began walking out of the room when she spotted Ammon watching her. She grinned and waved at him. He waved back, although only half-heartedly. He must have just come back from his meeting for her to only have noticed him just now. She wondered what they had decided to do. Well, sooner or later rumours would spread, and when that happened she would start her plan of action.