27 Girls’ Ambitions

Carrie arrived with no less than twenty wolfcats; Eight Tier 3 adults, five Tier 2 half-grown wolfcats, and seven Tier 1 cubs. To be clear, these wolfcats were not joining the Guild; they were willing to dig and guard in exchange for cooked food, but they were not willing to join forces with humans or help defend the town when the Beast Wave came. They were there to watch Carrie or something. Remian wasn't too clear on that, and Carrie didn't elaborate, but basically they would be willing to work for her, but not for him. Also, they wanted a territory where they could live in peace.

"Fine! We'll take whatever we can get." Remian looked about. "Maybe we can build them some kennels or something on George's Farm."

[Or we can hunt the nearby Chief Blood Rabbit and take his burrow.] Carrie added.

"Or that." Remian agreed. "That sounds like a better idea. I'm actually quite impressed that so many of them are willing to follow you. I thought Wilds hated humans in general, what with the Beast Waves and such."

Carrie shook her head. [They come from beyond the Rainbow Falls. This area belongs to Shadowflash.]

There! What a golden opportunity! Remian leapt at it. [Who, or what is Shadowflash?]

Carrie fell silent for a moment. Then, she answered directly. [Shadowflash is the Lord of the Desert Edge territory. This area, and all the Wilds here, hail him as their ruler.] She sounded proud. [He is my mate, and Vigil's father.]

Remian nodded. He had the sense that most wolfcats did not grow as big and strong as Carrie did. [So that pack…]

[Shadowflash is their Alpha of Alphas. The leader of their leader.] Carrie explained. [Actually, their Alpha is also a son of Shadowflash.]

[Their pack leader is your son?]

[Not mine. Shadowflash has other mates.]

Remian thought for a moment, then, [Carrie, why do Beast Waves attack us?]

Carrie looked at him directly. [It is because all the Wilds hate you. Except for the followers of Shadowflash and a few odd Wilds like Buff, all other Wilds hate and fear the destroyers of the world.]

[Destroyers…?] Remian felt like he understood, even as he asked for their meaning.

[Your kind kill and destroy everything and everyone they come across. Left unchecked, every hill will be crushed, every river sucked dry, every living thing consumed without a second thought.] There was a stark coldness and a darkness as Carrie answered.

[But… you're not afraid of us?]

[Shadowflash believes that there may be humans who are different, that there may be a way to communicate and reason with the Destroyers.] Carrie glanced at him. [That is why of all the ten thousand territories, only this one tolerates a human town. Every Frenzied Wave that strikes here comes from another Lord's territory.]

Remian froze. Ten thousand territories… and only one was willing to so much as 'tolerate' humans?!

There wasn't much history recorded of the Frontier, but Remian recalled reading of previous attempts by large powers to colonize the Frontier. They had sent hundreds of airships, built city after city, forts and fortresses, brought tens of thousands of colonists…

Today, there were only the ruins that explorers like Joshu investigated and looted.

[Shadowflash protects us…?]

[Not exactly. He simply left you alone because he had more important matters to deal with. His instructions were, except for the natives of this area like the Blood Rabbits and the sentinels watching you, everyone else was to steer clear of town.]

[There are sentinels watching us?] Remian shivered. [What are they like?]

Carrie glanced down. [Uh… four paws, sharp snouts with whiskers, long tails, and fully covered with fur.]

Well, that was obvious. [You?]

[And my children.] Carrie said softly.

[How many children do you have?] Remian wondered.

[One.] Carrie turned away. [One that still lives.]

Remian gulped. [The others…]

[Some lost to Wilds. Some lost to weather, or hunger, or heights. Some lost to humans.] Carrie glanced back at him. [Those humans no longer live.]

The image of Carrie chomping down Simmons came to mind. Remian let out an involuntary shudder. That had very nearly happened to him.

Another question popped up in his head. [Buff mentioned back then that Shadowflash was gone. What happened?]

[We don' know.] Carrie said simply. [He goes where he will. He returns when he will. Sometimes he goes farther, returns later. That is all.]

[How long has he been gone?]

[I have not seen him since…] Carrie paused. [Six moons. Vigil has never met his father.]

[If he came back… would he be able to stop the Beast Waves?]

Carrie shook her head. [The way you are now, he probably wouldn't bother.]

Right. In spite of more Legionnaires arriving, the overall population had actually dropped a lot. Three out of five gangs were completely wiped out. There simply weren't many people left here, so the trouble they could cause was similarly small.

If the Legion grew stronger, however, and kept order in Frontier Town, there was a chance the Town would finally flourish. That had actually been Remian's general intent. With enough local support and a reliable supply line, the Legion could pretty much take over the whole town. Having the Adventurers Guild support them and turning the whole north side into an airport… it was all to strengthen and encourage the Legion.

But now it seemed that a prosperous town might incur greater wrath from the Wilds. Already, a population this small had dozens of Wilds coming after them every other week. What if their town grew to a thousand people? Ten thousand? What would happen when heavy industries covered this whole area and black smoke began to pollute the sky?

Would even Shadowflash be so tolerant of humans then? Remian suspected he would not.

But Carrie and Vigil offered him other options, possibilities he had only glimpsed during their brief time together. Now he had to look at them fully and consider how they might best work.

In short… [If we ever want Frontier Town to prosper, we must find a way to get along with the Wilds.]

***

"The third generation Wandering Egret airships were built for cheap and easy maintenance." Charlie explained to Mindy, tapping a chart and a drawing. "The Deutero company likes to use them because most of the time the patch job would be enough for repairs. It is held up by sixteen separate air sacs. Half of them could be damaged and the airship would still be able to cross the continent in a single flight. The crew would simply pull in the damaged sac, patch it up, have the resident Wind Mage fill it up with super-light gas, and they're good to go. They wouldn't even need to stop.

"Damage to the lower hull is a bigger problem. Newer airship models these days like to use heavier materials for greater durability, but the Egret III series were built with lightweight, low-cost materials for cheap replacement. The problem is that less and less airports around the world today have these cheap replacement materials on hand. As newer, faster, tougher models become more popular, this trend only increases. Eventually, I fear there will be a day when the Egret III will be obsolete simply because nobody will stock the materials to patch them up any more."

"Aww." Mindy paused. "What are you going to do then?"

"Me? I'll just be assigned to another airship." Charlie snorted. "Maybe one of the new Egret V's. That thing uses Cloud Steel plating for the hull. Replacing them is a cinch. Just toss the old one and fasten the new one in. You really have to watch out for thunderstorms with that sort of hull, though."

Remian finally stepped in. "I thought you were teaching her wind magic."

"We're taking a break. Have some patience." Charlie frowned. "This isn't scroll-casting we're talking about here, this is the authentic draw-a-sigil-with-your-own-hands wind magic. It will take time for her to learn."

"I thought you were going to leave soon." Remian pointed out.

"I am. She will just have to practice without me." Charlie nodded. "I'll be back again next week. I can check on her progress and teach her some more then."

"So… what do you think of Charlie?" Remian asked.

"He's awesome!" Mindy jumped up and down excitedly. Charlie actually turned a bit red. "I wanna fly an airship already!"

"We'll have to build one first." Remian told her. "Can you do it?"

"What? Build an airship? Me?" Mindy stared.

"Just a basic one. Hot air in a balloon, driven by wind magic." Remian outlined. "It just has to be able to move stones from the new quarry farther west to the airport building site."

"But… but I don't know how!" Mindy protested.

Remian wordlessly pointed to Charlie.

"Why are you pointing to me?" Charlie asked suspiciously.

"Uncle Charlie!" Mindy pounced. "Help me!!!"

Remian grinned and left them to it.

***

"Jane? Do you have any dreams or ambitions? What you want to be or do when you grow up?" he asked her.

Jane lit up. "Of course! I want to marry a prince!"

Remian almost face-palmed. "Whatever for?"

"Because princes are rich, aren't they? We'll never need to worry about money." Jane explained patiently.

Remian stared. "So it's about the money, then?"

"Well… yes. I mean, a handsome prince and a white horse is great and all, but at the end of the day, there's no point if you're left cold and hungry." Jane faltered. "Maybe it's mean to him, but I… I just…"

"If you could have the money without the prince, would you want it?" Remian queried.

"Yes!" Jane exclaimed at once.

"Then why not just run a business? That way you can get plenty of money all by yourself."

Jane hesitated. "How? I mean… I don't know anything about businesses. Don't you already need money to start a business first? You need money to make money… right?"

"You can make money from doing a job and use it to start your business." Remian pointed out. "Starting one is easy. The hard part is actually succeeding in the business."

"…right." Jane's face fell.

"You'll need to learn to sell. That's probably the hardest part." Remian continued thoughtfully. "How about we start a vending stall at the town center? We can sell our goods there for Lir. You can get a commission for every sale you make."

"What's a commission?"

"A small percentage of the price. If we sell a six-pack of Tier 2 rations for 10 Lir, 1 Lir is yours. How about that?"

"That's… so little."

"Then you'll just have to sell more, won't you? Better yet, sell the more expensive items."

"But we don't make any expensive items. We only have that one Fire Ball Wand."

"Then we'll just have to improve the Guild until we can make and sell some really good stuff, right?"

Jane thought about it for a full minute, then finally nodded her head decisively. "Right!"

***

"Kavitha?"

"Me, I just want to eat good food…" Kavitha yawned.

"Can you cook?"

"Not a chance." Kavitha sighed. "Tim can cook it for me. I'll just… go hunt stuff for him to cook."

"…"