Chapter 26 – In conflicts wake – Part One

Chapter 26 – In conflicts wake – Part OneChapter 26 - In conflicts wake - Part One

Having woken up very early in the morning, considerably earlier than I was used to, I blearily stared at the multitude of alerts determinedly blocking the majority of my vision.

[Settlement {Kirk’s Settlement} has been claimed Successfully.]

[{Sanctuary} has been upgraded from Settlement to Capital of {Tim’s Faction}.]

[Additional administrative functions are now available through the Capital Totem.]

[Faction Alert: All Tim’s Faction {Overseers} have voted and approved {2/0} to enact {Mandatory Quest: Faction Militia.} Faction wide.]

[{Mandatory Quest: Faction Militia} All minions are required to choose a Class of at least Basic tier from the list approved by their {Overseer} and engage in mandatory group training exercises.]

[{Mandatory Quest: Faction Militia} Success: Exercises and activities will be assigned to unlock the chosen approved Class. Earn Exp by completing designated exercises and activities within allocated timeframes.]

[{Mandatory Quest: Faction Militia} Failure: Be flagged for corrective punishment or expulsion from the Faction. Appeals may be requested from those with {Underlord} or higher authority.]

[Faction Alert: {Kirk’s Settlement} has been renamed {Port Gidian}.]

[Faction Alert: {Overseer} Gric and {Overseer} Kirk have agreed to the transfer of {4} {Underlords} and {1241} minions citizenship from {Sanctuary} to {Port Gidian}.]

[Faction Alert: {Port Gidian} has doubled the minion requirement for {Underlord} promotions and gifted the difference to {Sanctuary} under {Overseer} Kirk’s authority. Currently providing {0 (-2)} {Underlord} promotions.]

[Faction Alert: {Port Gidian} has founded the {Port Gidian Council of Lords} under {Overseer} Kirk’s authority.]

By the time I finished reading through the list, I was well and truly awake.

It was obvious that Kirk and his forces were successful. Furthermore, Both Kirk and Gric had been busy in their positions as Overseer, apparently formalising agreements that had previously only existed as verbal agreements.

With the port Settlement now established, I would soon be leaving for the fourth floor. Provisions had already been prepared, so once the others were awake and gotten dressed, we would be leaving.

“Lash?” I rocked her shoulder and couldn’t help but smile a little as her snoring came to an abrupt halt.

“Mrm?” Lash rolled onto her back, her mouth opening wide enough to reveal her perfect teeth and the sharpness of her canines. Blinking sleepily, Lash’s amethyst eyes slowly came into focus, “Tim?” She slurred groggily but almost immediately snapped to full wakefulness a moment later, “Leaving today?” Lash asked, an undertone of disappointment in her voice as she sat up in bed and gave me her full attention.

I nodded, the same sense of disappointment very likely mirrored in my own dour expression, “The port Settlement on the river has been claimed. Once the girls are up, it won’t be much longer till we leave...”

Despite my incredibly poor choice of words, Lash didn’t show any signs of jealousy, only a conflicted sense of longing. She would have offered to come with us, but Lash had a duty to her people, and I respected that. With roughly fifty surviving adults, preserving their peoples' culture now firmly rested on her shoulders. With so many Deep Orc children running around, it was even more important to pass along the traditions before being overexposed to the more dominantly represented culture of the Bleak-Fang.

“Wait here,” Lash stiffly got out of bed and released a muffled growl as she stretched her arms and back.

I did my best to imprint the image in my brain. With a bit under two months at most until we would return, I wanted to make sure I had some good impressions to draw on when on the road.

Lash left our room and I could vaguely hear her heavy footfalls descending the stairs. After a few minutes, Lash returned and was now wearing a heavily beaded necklace. Moving in close, she sat herself down on my lap and then draped a nearly identical one around my neck. Lash began rearranging the beads until they matched her pattern exactly, and once she finished I realised what the beads signified.

“This is the count until our Mothers Moon?” I asked as I took a closer look.

Lash nodded demurely, “Help remember,” she blushed and I felt a shiver pass through her thighs and a rising warmth.

The necklace was genius, considering how low tech it was. The beads each hung from four different cords off the necklace. Each cord had a thick, but not impassable knot. Using the knot, beads could be raised or lowered to keep count, like a crude abacus. Similarly, the beads were allocated in groups of ten, except the first column, which only had one bead. Assuming each cord progressing from the left represented a denomination of ten, the leftmost cord was thousands, the next cord was hundreds, the next was tens and the final cord was single digits.

Lash had set them both to fifty-four, clearly representing the number of days remaining.

“Clever girl,” I praised and drew Lash closer.

Excited by the praise and closer proximity Lash shoved me down to the bed and leaned down until her face was inches from my own, “Don’t forget!” she purred dangerously then fiercely pressed her lips against mine.

After getting dressed, I knelt down by our bed and gave Lash an affectionate kiss on her cheek.

Already half asleep, Lash murmured something unintelligible and snuggled deeper into the large sheet that served as our blanket.

“I will be back with time to spare, I promise,” I smoothed a sweaty lock of hair from her face and tried to imprint the feel of Lash’s skin to memory.

Picking up the small bundle of personal belongings I would be taking with me on the journey, I quietly made my way out of our room and began heading downstairs to the mustering point.

Nadine was already awake and chatting quietly with Lt. Kestrel, our official liaison to the Asrusian army. Or former liaison, since her honorary position was made redundant with the founding of Port Gidian. However, Nadine had suggested bringing her along to serve as a communications officer. Since none of us were familiar with the codes to effectively communicate with the morse code communicators, I hadn’t really resisted the idea all that much.

Of course, that did change our travel arrangements somewhat.

Dhisi had stopped growing yesterday, which was actually something of a disappointment considering how huge she had grown in around a week. Easily twenty feet long from snout to the tip of her tail and around six feet at the shoulder, Clarice had gotten the epic mount she desired, and more besides.

The Gnolls and Deep Orc smiths had managed to piece together a truly impressive set of saddles. More or less the same as the saddles used by the Asrusian army, they had gone a step further and added a ring of iron to the back of the saddle and bound it with thick hide cording. Effectively, they had added a complete backrest to Clarice’s saddle. A half dozen large and reinforced hide satchels were hung off Dhisi’s sides as both storage and emergency barding.

The original plan had been for Clarice to run interference while Nadine, Toofy and Ril to ride on a sled that I would pull through the swamp until we reached the beached boats along the river. With the addition of Kestrel, someone else besides me would need to walk.

By the looks of things, Nadine had talked Kestrel into changing into lighter armour to better accommodate our intended travelling pace and the no doubt arid climate of the fourth floor. We had bought and stowed away other provisions too, but we had reserved Toofy’s entire extradimensional space for clean water. This meant that our smoked meat and vegetables were stowed on the sled for the time being, and would be transferred to Dhizi after we reached the portal.

We left Sanctuary with minimal fanfare, besides being bestowed a refuelable Ward by Ushu’s apprentices. They had yet to choose a successor from amongst themselves, but Asra had insisted on remaining in Sanctuary until they did. His prolonged training under Gric had signalled the end of Asra and Toofy’s one-sided infatuation. Apparently, Toofy preferred someone who was less serious, and Asra hadn’t exactly made an effort to win her back either.

Setting out into the swamp, it didn’t take long for Clarice to begin charging Dhizi into trouble. Thankfully, the giant lizard was more than capable of handling herself and came to little actual harm.

By the time it was midday, Clarice had learned her lesson and wasn’t actively seeking out trouble anymore. Dhizi’s size and horrifyingly effective bite made short work of just about anything, but she lacked practice using her tail and nearly cracked one of my ribs when Dhizi missed a Swamp Lurker and stuck me in the chest, sending me flying into the muck.

Making camp that night, I made sure to eat a double portion to regain my lost HP and dull the pain in my side. I honestly hadn’t expected Dhizi to be able to hurt me so badly, in spite of the fact that she was basically a tank with legs. Judging by her own lack of evolutionary progress, I assumed Dhizi was probably a similar Tier to myself, maybe higher.

The next four days passed rather uneventfully, but upon reaching the river, we encountered a problem. None of the beached boats were in suitable condition to make the journey across the river.

“I’m pretty sure Dhizi can swim across, assuming we go with the current,” Nadine suggested while inspecting one of the closer boats dubiously.

“Probably,” I agreed, “Ril can swim, so she can stay with Clarice and Toofy, just in case.”

Ril nodded determinedly and Toofy continued to snore, having fallen asleep almost an hour ago.

“We, uh, could make a raft?” Kestrel suggested nervously, “There’s plenty of raw materials...” Without the other soldiers around, Kestrel had grown quite timid whenever she tried joining in conversations. This was somewhat understandable considering Toofy rarely let her get a word in edgewise, Clarice was too busy perfecting her riding technique to listen, and Nadine and I were already very familiar with one another.

Kestrel was right, there was no shortage of materials. “Alright, I’m going to drag out some of the more intact boats. Maybe we can lash together an outrigger or something.”

I spent the next few hours dislodging damaged boats from the edge of the bog and dragging them up onto the relatively dry land where we had made camp. This was when Kestrel surprised me by presenting a handmade wooden hammer and wooden nails. Or at least that’s what she said they were. The hammer looked like a rolling pin that had been cut through the middle, and the nails were three-inch wooden spikes.

“If we can, uh, bore some holes, we can try to patch the holes,” Kestrel suggested hopefully.

Nadine scratched her head uncertainly, “I dunno, what do you think Tim?”

Both women looked at me expectantly.

“We can try it,” I agreed hesitantly. I hadn’t seen any iron nails on any of these boats, so presumably, they had been put together with wooden nails too. However, without tar or some other sealant, we would probably still need to bail water out of the boat for the duration of the crossing.

Unsurprisingly, it was agreed that I would be the one to strip out the usable planks from the more damaged boats, while the girls made more nails.

By late evening, we had just about finished repairing one of the crude boats. But as I had feared, no matter how thoroughly we applied additional nails, there were still gaps. I had suggested burning dawn moss sap, but Nadine had shot that idea down quickly. Apparently, the sap became unstable when exposed to too much heat, and was already water-soluble. I attempted to extract sap from the nearby swamp trees, but after an hour of work, I had barely anything to show for it.

Leaving the issue until morning, Clarice took the first watch and we all hunkered down to sleep.’

“We will just have to use our helmets I guess?” Nadine shrugged anxiously, “It’s not like we brought proper buckets or anything.”

I nodded and turned my attention to the sail, or more specifically, its absence. From what Nadine and Clarice described, the hostile Deep Orcs and Serpent-Kin had predominantly used rowing as their means of propulsion. The prospect of rowing, steering and bailing water for up to twenty-four hours was thoroughly unappealing. The design of the boats wasn’t what I had expected from their descriptions either.

Flat bottomed and around twenty feet long, they looked like a cross between the amphibious D-Day landing craft from world war two films, and an airfoil missing the giant fan. The boats all had wooden runners on the bottom as well, suggesting that they had likely doubled as sleds as well. All things considered, I couldn’t help but think of them as wooden skips for dumping trash in.

Technically, we could probably cross the river by just steering and cutting an angle through the current. But that would land us much further down river and result in even more travel time to the portal.

We didn’t have much recourse, since none of us knew how to attach a mast without compromising the boat even further. There had been a few salvageable oars found in the boats, so after setting one aside to serve as a rudder, and firmly tying it to the boat so the person steering only had to angle it around without fear of losing the oar, we were just about finished. Since the current would be headed south, whoever was steering would need to aim for as close to an easterly heading as we could manage, while one person rowed on the right-hand side and another swapped between rowing and bailing.

Since there would be precious little opportunity for eating, myself, Nadine and Kestrel had a hearty breakfast of our more perishable supplies.

As a Scout, Kestrel would be in charge of steering. Apparently, Scouts had a Class Ability that gave them an unerring sense of direction.

I would be our dedicated oarsman, and Nadine would alternate between rowing and bailing out water as needed.

As I expected, Dhizi didn’t seem to have any problems maintaining her buoyancy, so Clarice, Toofy and Ril were all sorted.

Launching and entering our boat proved much more difficult, for me anyway. Lifting the Clarice and Kestrel into the boat had been relatively easy and avoided either of them having to deal with the bog that was up to my waist. Unfortunately, I had not fully considered how I would board the boat myself afterwards.

After nearly capsizing the boat a half dozen times, Clarice brought Shizi up alongside the boat and I was able to board by climbing onto her large back first and shimmying carefully into the boat.

With everything stowed away, we cautiously set out into the river. Contrary to my expectations, the current was quite tame to begin with, requiring me to alternate rowing on one side to the other as we began pulling northward.

Kestrel had insisted it was a good problem to have at this point, arguing that we would rapidly begin losing that northern progress if the current picked up further out.

Clarice had maintained progress nearby, allowing Dhizi to take it easy while we had the chance.

After experiencing a swamp full of aquatic monsters, it was a little unnerving that there only seemed to be piranhas in the river. The piranhas wouldn’t be a threat so long as Dhizi remained relaxed, but it didn’t stop Clarice from anxiously scanning the water around them with a near manic intensity.

Ril and Toofy seemed to be having a fun time from their vantage behind Clarice’s saddle, skipping small stones Ril had brought from Sanctuary in a special hide pouch worn at her waist, and engaging in light snacking.

As we had feared, our boat began taking on water once we cleared the bog. I had jammed the gaps with compressed moss, but that wasn’t enough to stop water from slowly filling the bottom of the boat. Making things worse, Nadine couldn’t begin bailing water until it reached about ankle height.

As Kestrel had predicted, the current began intensifying after a couple of hours of rowing and our heading began shifting from northeast to east. A few hours after that, I was struggling to keep our boat heading east. By midday, I had largely surrendered to the current and was rowing to increase our speed of progress rather than trying to correct our course, although it was much the same activity.

Maintaining the course with the rudder was proving more strenuous than we thought, so Kestrel and Nadine had to begin taking turns.

Despite the increase in current, Dhizi still seemed fine enough more or less mirroring out progress ten feet or so downstream. It didn’t occur to me until another hour later that she was likely benefitting from reduced pressures from the current by swimming so close to the boat.

“We should be able to pass the worst of it in a few hours!” Kestrel grunted as she continued leveraging her bodyweight against the shaft of the rudder.

“Really?” Nadine was taking a break from bailing and stared pessimistically out over the river, “I thought this river normally took a full day to cross?”

Kestrel grinned in spite of the strain, “It would,” she grunted in agreement, “Depends on how heavy the boat is, and how many are rowing...” Kestrel groaned and grunted as she carefully shifted her grip to make use of less tired muscle groups, “Or if they were just sailing,” she added.

All valid points, and there was another I had thought of as well. “It depends on whether you are fighting the river or not too, and how much. Right now the river is doing most of the work since we don’t have a precise location in mind for landing on the opposite side.

As the hours passed by, I found myself growing increasingly worried by the lack of resistance we had faced thus far in crossing the river. If Kestrel was right, we had made it roughly halfway and were now angled towards the southeast, unable to compete against the strength of the current. To make things worse, our brief attempt at competing with the current had broken the oar we were using as a rudder and opened gaps between the planks on the sides of the boat.

I managed to replace the rudder by lashing together my oar with Nadine’s, which was just as well, since she was now actively engaged in bailing alongside Kestrel while I tried to maintain heading with the new thicker rudder.

On the upside, Dhizi still seemed perfectly fine, and I was beginning to regret having underestimated her.

Stuck relying solely on the current of the river for propulsion and the improvised rudder to provide a heading, it was late evening before we spotted the eastern shore in the distance.

According to Kestrel, we had apparently drifted further south than we had wanted and were headed almost straight for Sunrock, the abandoned home of the Sunrock Forest Goblins.

“What do you think?” I asked Nadine, while Kestrel shouted out the situation to Clarice. “Should we risk making camp in the open tonight? Or find shelter in Sunrock?”

Nadine seemed truly conflicted as she squinted into the gloom of the last light from the setting sun. “We don’t really need supplies and aren’t in a position to take on much loot...Then again, we need time for the Ward to drive off Wilds, so it might be our best option for shelter tonight...”

I nodded in agreement and grunted to express my own misgivings about our options.

Clarice coaxed Dhizi closer, “What are we gonna do?” She seemed emotionally drained and incredibly tired.

Seeing there was no way Clarice was going to last much longer past reaching shore, let alone long enough to establish the Ward, it made our choice clear. “We are headed for Sunrock to make camp.” I pulled a rope out of my pack and threw it to Ril.

Before I had a chance to explain what I wanted, Ril had already taken the rope and begun tying it off to an iron hoop on the rear side of Clarice’s saddle. Unfortunately, there weren’t any good tie-off points besides the rudder. So, with a lot of misgivings, I tied the rope around my waist, moved near the front of the boat and took a firm hold of either side.

Some life returned to Clarice’s eyes and she began to grin when she realised what we were up to.

“Hurk!” I nearly pitched forward into the river as Dhizi suddenly quintupled her earlier speed. Hunching my back and leaning my weight backwards, I took on an embarrassing squatting position as I tried to maintain sufficient friction with the boat.

Thankfully, Dhizi slowed her speed after a half-hour, allowing me to straighten my legs and take a look ahead of us. Unable to see much by moonlight alone, all I could make out was a large lagoon full of shadowy wrecks, big and small. A partially collapsed and blackened wall of stone on the shore made it impossible to see anything else beyond.

“I see movement!” Kestrel pointed in the direction of one of the sunken wrecks and quickly set about stringing her recurve bow.

“Clarice! There’s something in the water!” Nadine called out in warning and pointed frantically towards the wreck Kestrel had singled out earlier.

Large ripples were now headed towards our boat and there was no telling how deep the water was beneath us.

Our boat was already in rough shape with water pooling around our knees and filled about halfway up the sides.

*Splash*

“Something else is coming from the other side!” Kestrel called out, now drawing an arrow and tracking the progress of something I couldn’t see.

We were still at least a hundred or so feet from shore but growing closer with each passing second.

*Twang, Thwack*

Kestrel fired her arrow and it struck something alarmingly close by. “River Lurkers! Don’t leave the boat till we reach land!” She called out in warning.

*Thump*

“AEII!” Nadine cried out in panic as something struck the right side of the boat and caused her to fall over.

Trying my best to ignore how close the impact had been to my exposed fingers and hand, I looked to the left instead and quickly wished I hadn’t.

Even in the poor light, I could clearly make out the forms of four large reptiles swimming towards us, one of which had the broken shaft of an arrow protruding from its back. By no means as large as Dhizi, they were easily over six feet in length and had every advantage in this environment.

“Flare!” Kestrel hissed and fired another arrow.

*Thwack*

A gurgling rumble was accompanied by a surge of water spilling over the side of the boat as a brief intense white light lit up our surroundings, only to disappear a moment later.

*Thud, Crunch*

An impact from the right side rocked the boat and caused two of the planks to splinter inwards, spilling more water into the boat and causing us to sink faster.

Nadine began frantically bailing water, but it was not enough. At any moment, our boat would become nearly fully submerged below the water.

*Thump*

The front of our boat struck something solid, causing the damaged side to buckle inwards as Nadine and Kestrel lost their footing and pitched forward.

*Thud*

Something struck the rear of the boat and caused the splintered planks on the right side to give out entirely, immediately flooding the boat.

Expecting the boat to sink, I was surprised when two feet of the oars forming the rudder remained above water level. “Land!” I called out, hoping that Nadine and Kestrel had enough wherewithal to realise what the warning meant. Fumbling with the knotted rope at my waist, and keenly aware that crocodiles were going to be on us in a matter of moments, I barely registered the fact that Dhizi must have stopped and turned about in order to enable the effort.

“Tim!” Nadine’s cry and her frantic gaze locked over my right shoulder made it clear that I was out of time.

Stiffly pivoting on the spot, half falling in the effort as the boat lurched along with me, I channelled mana into my right fist and swung blind, wrenching my back in the process.

*Boom!*

My fist connected with something solid and water erupted everywhere.

[You have slain {River Lurker: 2 } +600 Exp]

I staggered and nearly lost my footing, leaning heavily on the right side of the boat and causing the topmost planks to almost fully pull free of the frame.

*Splash*

A large croc launched out of the water to my right snapping its jaws and latching onto my arm. As I had seen happen all too many times on nature documentaries, the croc immediately began its death-roll, powerfully rotating its body in an attempt to drown, disorient, or cripple me.

*Splash, Thump*

My arm rotated clockwise and as I belatedly attempted to resist the sudden wrenching spin force, I was thrown backwards into the water again, striking my head on the deck of the submerged deck of the boat.

With my back pressed against the deck of the boat, the croc seemed to lack the required strength to build the required momentum to accomplish more than wrenching my arm into a painful angle. Unfortunately, this still left me submerged in the water and no doubt soon to be surrounded by more hungry crocodiles.

Rolling onto my right side, and pulling a few muscles in my shoulder in the process, I fumbled in the dark to find a handhold on my assailant. Through sheer luck, my questing fingers brushed against the crocs toothy maw and I was able to then wedge my fingers inside. As sharp as the croc’s teeth were, they had not managed to pierce my skin. So, ignoring the pain, I fumbled for a grip with my other hand.

Perhaps guessing at my intentions, or more likely attempting to secure a better hold, the River Lurkers mouth opened just long enough for me to get a grip on its lower jaw with my previously pinned right hand.

Having secured the best grip I could manage, I Ignored the burning pain in my shoulder and the stabbing pain in my hands and began wrenching the croc’s jaws open with brute force.

I felt tendons snap and bones crack as the croc’s jaws were violently torn apart. Blood pumped into the water and made it impossible to see.

Releasing the thrashing form of the River Lurker, I scrambled backwards and pushed my head above water to expel the water from my lungs and replace as much of it with fresh air as possible.

*Splash*

A cascade of water and mud-spattered against the back of my head and a few moments later, Dhizi’s electric green stripes passed by on my right side.

*Splash, Thump, Thump*

[Dhizi has slain {Swamp Lurker: 1 } +300 Exp]

Still gasping for air, I fumbled through the submerged wreck of our boat and headed for the front, hoping that the land was not much further beyond.

“Flare!” Kestrel’s voice rang out in the darkness somewhere ahead. Half a second later, a small glowing orb arced through the sky and illuminated the surrounding area.

Clarice, Nadine, Kestrel and Toofy were about twenty feet away on the shore, but the light had revealed a crude stone jetty a short distance to my right. Already waist-high in the muddy water and still trying to expel it from my abused lungs, I immediately shifted directions and headed for the jetty.

*Clack*

The orb of light skidded along the length of the jetty and was revealed to be a stone while also demonstrating that the jetty was far longer than I would have thought.

I barely managed to heave myself up onto the jetty before the stone’s light winked out and plunged the world back into darkness.

“Tim! over here!” Nadine and Clarice called out in unison.

“HERE! HERE!” Toofy echoed, the oscillations in her voice suggesting she was likely jumping up and down while waving her arms.

Sparing a moment to shrug off the rope from around my waist, I quickly realised that I needn't have bothered. I could still make out Dhizi’s bright hide some distance away and could tell it was further than the length of rope would have reached and still allowed me to stand on the jetty.

Nervously following the image of the jetty in my mind's eye while listening to the calls of the others for a reference point, I anxiously limped along the jetty and did my best to avoid thinking of the water below. The jetty was barely three feet above water level, so the crocs could easily lunge and grab an ankle or calf if I strayed from the centre. Of course, having close to no night vision whatsoever, I had no real idea how close to either edge I happened to be with each passing moment.

The girls had all been huddled on what looked like a larger intersection of the jetty, so they were probably fine for the time being.

Dhizi easily would have outpaced me, but after clambering up onto the jetty, she seemed content to match my pace instead.

*Whip-crack! Splash”

[Dhizi has slain {Swamp Lurker: 1 } +300 Exp]

Dhizi released an irritated and aggressive hiss, although I was unsure if it was a signal of her impatience with my slow pace, a signal that more enemies were near, or both.

“Tim!” Toofy cried out happily and tackled my waist, “Water dangerous, no swimming!” She scolded, giving me a thump on the thigh for good measure. Judging by how tight she was hugging my waist, I could tell she hadn’t meant it as a joke and was in fact deadly serious.

“Okay,” I agreed happily, “No swimming.”

“Good,” Toofy’s voice was muffled by pressing her face into my sopping wet shirt.

“Are you hurt?” Nadine asked anxiously from close by, no doubt just as night-blind as I was.

“Just my shoulder,” I replied a little stiffly as I reflexively tested the assumption and received a plethora of pain responses as confirmation

“We just gonna wait til sunrise?” Clarice asked as she passed me by, “I’m guessing that most of our supplies are still in the boat right?”

I flinched and came just short of cursing aloud as I realised Clarice was right. Kestrel had been wearing a small pack with a bedroll strapped on top, but Nadine and I had left our larger packs tied down in the boat. Nadine’s pack had been filled with the desert supplies, predominantly consisting of alternate clothing and a lightweight tent. My pack had contained our food rations, which were no doubt now thoroughly ruined.

“We should wait a while for our eyes to adjust to the dark again,” Kestrel advised, “Then we can leave this dock and try to find a defensible position inside the walls to spend the night.”

I nodded in agreement but realised nobody besides Toofy and Ril would have seen it. “I think that’s our best option,” I agreed and stiffly sat down on the jetty.

“Alright,” Clarice grunted resignedly. “Here Dhizi!” Clarice’s voice raised an octave as she called for her pet and slapped her thighs as she walked back towards the centre of the walk space.

Dhizi hissed eagerly and followed Clarice, obediently laying down where Clarice indicated, curling her body and tail in such a way that she encircled our entire group.

“Good girl!” Clarice kneaded the underside of Dhizi’s neck with her knuckles, causing the giant lizard to hiss appreciatively in return.

With how badly everything had gone, I was sorely tempted to have Ril open a portal and take us back to Sanctuary. However, turning tail the moment things got difficult would set a bad precedent and likely tank morale.

Taking a few minutes to clear my head, I realised things weren’t actually that bad. Sure I had pulled a muscle in my shoulder, but Nadine could probably fix it well enough once we had some light to work with. Granted, the bulk of our combined food supplies were waterlogged in the lagoon and was likely to be rendered inedible, but we could always make more. Hell, once we had some light to work with, we could cull the River Lurkers and get the desert supply pack back and turn the crocs into our new rations.

As the minutes dragged onto hours, the sun began to rise and illuminate the lagoon. Unsurprisingly, there were close to a dozen River Lurker’s of various sizes silently watching us from the water below. They had spent most of our downtime cannibalizing the remains of their wounded and slain kin, most likely too intimidated to attack because of Dhizi’s substantial size advantage.

On the upside, I had kept my own combat supplies with Clarice and Dhizi. My morningstar and recently repaired warhammer had been stowed away in a thick pouch behind the arching backrest of the saddle to try and keep them out of the water. Already prone to rusting because of the climate, I didn’t want to exacerbate it further by drowning them in the river. Although it did serve as a good reminder to assist Clarice in regreasing the exposed iron buckles of Dhizi’s saddle and cinch the cords that may have slackened from softening in the long swim through the river.

The jetty, or dock, as the light of day had revealed, was not a comfortable size to undertake such maintenance. So after retrieving my warhammer, as it had greater reach and the blunt end was less likely to become stuck, I made my way towards the rocky shore.

The others followed from a comfortable distance, distracting the majority of the River Lurker’s while the more aggressive or alert matched pace with me instead.

I had a fleeting regret for leaving the magic spear with Lash, but it disappeared just as quickly as it had arrived. None of us were specially trained in using a spear and the risk of accidental injuries was far too high to justify bringing it.

If we had absolute need, I could break Shiverfang’s bond to Lash and summon it, so long as I had the time to do so, but my limited MP made using it myself less than ideal. Similarly, Clarice didn’t have MP to spare either, and Nadine’s MP literally translated to healing, so leaving it to her wasn’t a great idea. Giving it to Kestrel was completely out of the question. As for Toofy and Ril...Well...I would very much prefer they stuck to using slings and stayed at the back.

*Crunch*

[You have slain {River Lurker: 2 } +600 Exp]

Using the longer reach of the warhammer, I had brought it crashing down on the croc’s skull as it began scrambling up the rocks.

With a few moments until the next croc would arrive, I shifted to a better position slightly further away from the docks and readied to attack again. While I was not lefthanded, and by no means ambidextrous, the predictable movement of the River Lurkers heavily compensated for my reduced accuracy.

*Thwack*

[You have slain {River Lurker: 1 } +300 Exp]

I caught the next croc in the side of the head with a low backhanded swing, the head of the hammer shearing through the left side of its skull and spattering brain matter across the dirt and rocks..

Falling into an easy rhythm I tried to use this opportunity to become more familiar with fighting using my left arm rather than just relying on my right.

*Crack*

[You have slain {River Lurker: 3 } +900 Exp]

I was forced to dodge out of the way as two River Lurkers surged up the shore at the same time, despite missing the skull of the larger croc as I intended, I managed to land the blow on its neck instead, dislocating or sheering through the spinal column in the process.

Ril and Toofy had begun pelting River Lurkers with stones from their slings while Nadine and Kestrel took defensive positions on the dock slightly closer to the shore.

*Snap, Fwip, Splash*

While prowling down the dock, Dhizi had struck like a snake, her jaws biting down on a River Lurker and then threshing it about before her teeth sheared through the flesh and sent it flying a short distance away into the water.

“Good girl!” Clarice thumped the giant lizard's neck affectionately and then began to urge her along the dock and towards the shore again.

As I had expected, a full half of the approaching crocs diverted their approach and were now headed towards their fatally injured kin.

Once Dhizi made it to the shore, the fight was a foregone conclusion. Larger, faster and more deadly by far, she made quick work of each River Lurker that attempted leaving the water. Dhizi rarely killed with her first strike, but she maimed her targets so thoroughly that they rapidly exsanguinated or succumbed to shock.

In the aftermath, we allowed Dhizi to gorge herself before attempting anything further. Reptiles on earth could go weeks at a time without eating, depending on the size of the meal they had eaten beforehand. True enough, Dhizi’s tail became noticeably thicker as she stockpiled energy and nutrients from her feasting.

We sawed off and kept seven River Lurkers tails for our own rations with the plan to smoke them later once we made camp and the Ward was properly activated.

Under intense supervision, Ril retrieved Nadine’s pack from the wreckage of the boat. She would have retrieved mine as well, but apparently, the crocs had caught the scent of the food and just about tore it to shreds to get at the meat inside.

With no immediate threats, we now had the opportunity to take a closer look at our surroundings, although there was admittedly very little to see on this side of the wall.

The wall was around twenty feet tall at its highest point and arced around the lagoon, effectively cutting off any travel by land. However, the attack that had driven the Goblins from their home had also caused a few areas of the wall to collapse, leaving gaps in the wall and

Kestrel took it upon herself to scale the wall and try to find a good place to make camp, but my own curiosity drove me to look upon the abandoned settlement with my own eyes.

I wish I hadn’t...

Stumbling down from the breach, I sought solace in the shadows of the wall, trying to unsee what had been concealed on the other side. I wanted to vomit, but my stomach was empty. “We need to leave...” I croaked weakly.

“Why? What's wrong?” Nadine asked with concern.

I shook my head, unable to speak of what I had seen, refusing to make it any more real than it needed to be, “We need to leave,” I repeated and began walking towards a breach in the wall farther to the north of the lagoon. Sёarᴄh the Novёlƒire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

*****

Kestrel cinched her bandana tighter to help ward against the smell. The forest of impaled corpses looked to have been rotting for the better part of a week or more, fully exposed to the elements. Out of reach of predators, the corpses would probably last another few days before the black rot allowed their bodies to fall to the ground.

At first, Kestrel had been surprised by the Ogre Tim’s sudden disappearance, then she had seen the smaller bodies hanging from the tree and felt a wave of bile rising in her throat.

They would find no shelter here, and certainly no rest. On that, the kestrel was certain.

Returning to the group, as she crested the wall, Kestrel found that they were already slowly headed towards a breach in the north wall.

Quickly catching them up, Kestrel fell into step alongside the group’s Surgeon, Nadine.

“Is it really that bad?” Nadine asked quietly, her eyes filled with worry and fixed on Tim who was maintaining a solid lead on the group.

“It’s bad...” Kestrel agreed quietly, “Leaving is the right call.”

Nadine gave Kestrel an intense scrutinising look, her eyes revealing a keen intelligence and disturbing lack of understanding. She left Kestrel to herself for a moment and jogged to catch up with the fiery redhead Clarice and her giant lizard. Speaking briefly with the Goblin, Tim’s assumed adopted daughter Toofy, Nadine pointed to Tim for emphasis.

A few moments later, Toofy climbed off the giant lizard, leaving behind what intelligence reports had suggested was a subspecies of aquatic Goblin, Ril, Toofy’s own daughter.

The complex relationship of the group hadn’t made much sense until Kestrel had a chance to observe it up close for herself. While some senior officers and analysts had their own opinions, Kestrel could see that they had been seriously overthinking the data. By all accounts, Tim was alone, the only Ogre to have appeared outside of the tenth floor. That level of isolation, combined with his uncharacteristically high level of intelligence? There was a simple answer...He was lonely. Tim did what just about any human would have done in his circumstances, reaching out to others and establishing friendships to try and fill the void.

As the Goblin streaked towards Tim, scrambled up his arm and gave him a tight hug, it only served to confirm Kestrel’s assumptions.

“We probably need to keep an eye on Tim for the next few nights,” Nadine whispered to Clarice, a deeply concerned look on her face.

Clarice frowned but nodded in agreement, glancing back towards the Sunrock settlement, “What do you think was in there? I mean, Tim’s a soft touch, but he ain’t a lightweight.”

Nadine nodded in understanding and then shrugged helplessly, “He wouldn’t talk about it. I’m going to ask the Lieutenant later. Better we know what we are dealing with, you know? I figured Toofy will help keep him together, but what we really need is a solid rest to recuperate.”

Clarice grunted in agreement and then eyed Kestrel suspiciously, no doubt assuming she had heard every word despite the distance.

Kestrel felt guilty for activating her Keen Senses Ability. She hadn’t meant to eavesdrop for its own sake. Kestrel was just trying to separate the assumptions in the reports from the facts, and one of the best ways to do that was by judging their personal interactions.

Once they cleared the wall, Kestrel took point and began roving far ahead of the group. As she had begun to suspect, the Wilds were giving the massacred Settlement a wide berth, primal instincts compelling them to avoid the area to avoid disease. The River Lurkers had obviously been an exception, likely drawn in by the group's activity on the river.

After a couple of hours of searching, Kestrel found a suitable location to establish camp in a small cave beneath a rocky outcropping. The nearby treelines would block line of sight and prevent humanoid Wilds from assaulting them with ranged weapons.

Leading the group to the site, no one had any complaints about the rough terrain, so they set about making camp almost immediately.

Nadine gathered firewood while Kestrel began building their fire to cook and smoke the River Lurker Tails.

Clarice removed her mount's saddle and gave the giant lizard a thorough rubdown with a damp cloth that smelled of olive oil.

Tim had laid out a bedroll in the cave and settled down to sleep, joined a few moments later by both his daughter and granddaughter.

After collecting enough firewood to be getting on with, Nadine began removing the sodden supplies from her pack and laying them out to dry.

It wasn’t until midday that Nadine seemed ready to ask the question, and with the camp completely set up there was no justifiable reason for Kestrel to avoid it, so she didn’t. Kestrel quietly gave an account of everything she saw, omitting nothing, but making sure to leave the worst for last.

As expected, the mood of the camp fell significantly. A week or so ago, being told about a Settlement of monsters being executed and impaled on pikes probably wouldn’t have phased Kestrel. Even learning of the children being hanged en masse from the same tree might only have given her pause. However, after watching the monsters of Sanctuary go about their daily lives more or less the same as the people from her home village, it had changed things...

Nadine had excused herself and vomited in their latrine, while Clarice just nodded with a sour expression before returning to caring for her mount.

Tending the fire, Kestrel wanted to lift the mood, the importance of unit morale having been drilled into her since enlistment. However, doing anything besides providing some good food seemed like it would be crossing the line, disrespecting the memory of the dead. At least in that regard, there was something Kestrel could do. While their initial rations had been lost when the boat sank, they had close to ten pounds of exotic spices stowed away in one of the waterproof sacks stored on the giant lizard’s saddle.

Hacking off small chunks of the meat onto the flat pan from her pack, Kestrel tried her best to emulate the different tips and tricks she had witnessed the cooks use while stationed in Sanctuary. Since they didn’t have much salt, Kestrel focused on encouraging the meat to char slightly to draw out more of the herb and spices flavour while making the meat chewier.

“Is for eating?” A voice asked hungrily, nearly causing Kestrel to jump in fright.

Looking over her shoulder, Kestrel could see both Goblins had silently crept over to investigate the smell. Knowing she needed to make a good impression, not just for her own sake, but for Asrusian and Sanctuary relations in general, Kestrel did her best to smile and nodded, “Sure is! Do you want to try some?”

Tim’s daughter Toofy had a reputation amongst the cooks, and it depended largely on how they treated her when approached for food. Those who were generous, and smartly shared what they had been cooking, would find themselves the recipients of princely gifts of spices and interesting trinkets. Those who ignored and disrespected her, or worse, failed to offer food, would begin to notice their personal effects going missing the moment their backs were turned. The lesson was simple, feed the Goblin.

Kestrel spiked a large chunk of meat with one of her twisted fire cooking forks and offered it to the salivating Goblin princess.

Toofy grinned and eagerly snatched the fork from kestrel’s hand, but rather than eat it herself, she held it up to her daughter's mouth, “Ahhh,” Toofy prompted and waggled the meat in front of the taller Goblin’s mouth.

“Ahhh,” the aquatic Goblin hungrily opened her mouth, revealing needle-like teeth for all of a second before snapping her jaws shut over the meat and pulling it off the fork. Ril rolled the meat around in her mouth before swallowing it whole.

“Good baby!” Toofy affectionately patted her daughter's head, who in turn preened and leaned into her mother’s affection like a large cat.

“More,” Toofy held out the fork to return it with an expectant look on her face and a silent challenge in her eyes.

Working hard to keep up her smile, Kestrel moved to make room for the two hungry Goblins, “Please, help yourselves1” She offered, motioning to the cooking plate.

Toofy grinned and dragged her daughter with her to sit by the fire, licking her lips and eyeing the food like she hadn’t eaten in days.

Kestrel tactfully decided to give Ril her second smaller fork and was a little surprised when the aquatic Goblin gave her a grateful smile in return. Even though her black eyes and needle-like teeth were disconcerting, Kestrel was surprised not to feel intimidated.

“Is good!” Toofy smiled and rubbed her cheeks while chewing, “Sho yummy!”

Ril nodded animatedly in agreement mimicking her mother and wiggling her hips.

Within a few minutes, the pair demolished the ten pounds of meat kestrel had prepared thus far and were contently rubbing at their slightly distended bellies while they trotted back over to Tim in the cave. Draping themselves over his stomach like he was a large mattress, Toofy and Ril quickly fell asleep.

Kestrel sighed in relief and set about carving another tail for fresh meat. Within a few minutes, she had managed to fully spice the meat and cover the cooking plate again.

“So, when’s dinner?” Clarice asked expectantly as she plonked herself down on the opposite side of the cooking fire.

“Something smells good!” Nadine called out while stowing another small sheet that had finished drying.

Kestrel looked back to the cooking plate and then back at the two hungry women. Before she could even say anything, her stomach gurgled loudly in protest. “At least another twenty minutes,” Kestrel confessed, her anxiety mounting as she began to realise that she had accidentally delegated herself as the group's cook. Normally a rather well-respected position with relatively light duties, Kestrel doubted she would have such an easy time of it with only one cooking plate and needing to feed the entire group each day. After all, if two little Goblins could eat that much, how much would the Ogre be expected to eat?

No doubt picking up on Kestrel’s anxiety, Nadine patted her on the shoulder consolingly, “Don’t worry, Tim doesn’t tend to eat all that much unless he gets hurt...wait...” She glanced back towards the cave, “Uh, it would probably be a good idea if we just char the tails on the coals,” Nadine suggested nervously as she moved to do just that.

“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea,” Clarice agreed with the same nervous energy, “In fact, I’ll get another fire going. No telling how bad that shoulder injury is.”

Kestrel’s anxiety continued to mount as the two other women diligently set about establishing a second fire and expediting the cooking process. The records hadn’t mentioned anything regarding Tim’s recovery periods from injury, only that he would disappear for a day at most before returning to full health again. However, Kestrel had done more than a little research on Ogres, and if there was one thing they were known for, it was their voracious appetites and lack of self-control regarding food.

Nervously edging away from the cave, Kestrel worriedly considered the two Goblins draped over Tim’s belly, and whether she had in fact just fattened up two pigs and sent them to slaughter...