Editing Grimdark Tarzan (section)

== Chapter 6 ==

Months of living in the jungle had made Janna aware of her surroundings in ways that she was not before. For example, right now she was aware that there was someone in the tree above her. Looking up, she saw the figure that she had become used to.

"Tarzan? What are you doing here? You must leave before the Inquisitor finds you! We do not wish to harm you, but we are sworn to him"

Climbing down from the tree, the death-worlder came to a stop with his face only inches away from her faceplate. Unused to the extreme closeness, she found herself backing away before she stopped herself. She was a member of the Adeptas Sororitas, and they did not retreat from anything, not from savage xenos, not from creatures of the warp, and certainly not from a man from a feral world, even if the man possessed several attributes that she found pleasing.

"Has something happened?" A dark feeling gripped her heart. She did not think that the Inquisitor was a man who gave himself over to his passions, but if scouts had found Tarzan's village... well, there were certain inquisitors who were known for their pettiness in settling scores.

"If you find thing you looking for, you leave?" Tarzan asked.

"The ''Greystoke''? You know where it is? I must inform the rest of the camp at-"

He simply pressed the question. "You find, you leave?"

"I cannot say." Seeing his face freeze up, she continued, "Most likely. After the Mechanicus seizes the artifact, and if the Inquisitor does not feel there is anything wrong, we will likely leave."

"You go, I come?"

"You come? There is nothing greater than to give yourself to the Emperor's service, but what of your tribe, your family?"

By this time, Tarzan had come to sit on the ground, his body hunched over, "I... no have family. I human. I not tribe."

She knelt to hear him better, certain that she had misheard something. Although there was much that she had not understood many of his conversations with the Dialogous, she knew that he had not been raised alone. "What do you mean?"

So he told her. Of the Gorils, of his upbringing, of how he, nor anyone he knew, had not known what a "human" was before the arrival of the Imperials. She clenched her fists in rage once she heard of how he was considered "weak" for being a human, but felt a short thrum of joy when he told her how he had proven himself despite his physical shortcomings. Once she was told of how he had been labelled a mutant for being a human, her mind was filled of thoughts of filling the forest with sacred flame to eliminate the blasphemous xenos.

"So you wish to be with your kind, and for that you'll lead us to the sacred artifact, yes?"

He nodded.

"Then I will do all in my power to make it so."

----

"And how can we know that he is telling the truth? He did, after all, claim he knew nothing earlier." Janna had taken the matter to her sisters, and more specifically Sister-Superior Portia. It would better to try and win her over than take chances with the Inquisitor.

"My spear. It made of shikk-la" The man volunteered.

"Shikk-la?"

"The closest translation is 'hard not-rock' , the peop- creatures of this planet have yet to advance beyond stone age technologies. It's hwhat they call metal" Sister Brigitte explained.
"Right. So, do you trust him, after he lied to us before?" Portia asked Janna and Brigitte.

Sharing a quick look, Janna spoke "We do. This is an extremely important religious artifact to them. It took a great deal for him to tell us about this. Normally, even speaking about the artifact is forbidden, for fear it shall call down their god's wrath."

Portia closed her eyes, and thought about what she had just been told, "I suppose if a mysterious stranger came to a Shrine-World and demanded the artifacts they kept, they would be turned away as well. I shall bring an edited version of our conversation to the Inquisitor. Pray that he does not lose his temper or doubt what he has been told."

----


"So that's it then? He was told about the artifact by his chief when he asked, and is willing to take us to it?"

Portia nodded.

"So we could have been done so long ago, if people had just bothered to tell him what we were looking for. Idiots. We strike out in the morning, I've had enough of this cesspool of a planet."

"And what of the magos?"

With a sigh, Callen answered her, "It'll prove to be trouble if we do not alert him of this. He'll probably come with us. Tomorrow promises to be an interesting day".