I looked at him coolly and motioned for him and his sister to sit back. They did so slowly and reluctantly but did so eventually.
“As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted.” I paused looking meaningfully at the twins. “Walking Coyote, you have everything well in hand here, so I will be taking Dusk and Dawn with me as well.”
I sat down, grinning at the twins as the pair gasped when my words finally registered and the whole group around the fire burst out in laughter. They offered their thanks over and over until I had to threaten them with not going to shut them up, that triggered more rounds of laughter. After that, the night quickly ended, and we all retired to our beds for the night, tomorrow was coming early, and we had a big day, it was launch day.
TRACK 25 – LAZY EYE – SILVERSUN PICKUPS
MOON FLOWER
Last night was intense and I woke up feeling like I had just laid down, yet I was full of restless energy even though the escapades in my dreams were exhausting, so I decided to head down and check on Winston and the other horses. To my surprise all the other Riders were down there, saddling their mounts and getting ready for our journey in the dark of the predawn morning.
“Morning sister.” Ice Blossom said, a small smirk on her face.
“Morning.” I replied, walking by and nodding.
“Hello Moon Flower.” Dancing Lion called out as I walked by, a smirk on her face as well.
I arrived at Winston who whinnied in greeting, and I patted him down as I studied the women this morning. All of them were whispering and giving me hooded looks and grinning as they did. I saddled Winston and then mounted him thinking on the weirdness. Once I was done and mounted, my sisters, Dancing Lion, and Stone Fox came over, all grinning like idiots.
“What is going on? Why is everyone looking at me askance and grinning like fools?” I asked the four of them.
“Well, to put it simply, your dreams were quite explicit, and you were extremely vocal about them.” Night Star said, stone faced but with laughter in her eyes.
“What?” I said, mortified.
“Oh Shakaru! Oh, my goddess!” Dancing Lion mimicked in a voice in the throes of passion.
All four women burst out laughing at my expense, and then the rest of the Riders as well. I turned beet red and turned Winston, who seemed to be huffing in laughter with the rest of them.
“Traitor.” I grumbled. “Move out!” I yelled, putting my heels to Winston’s flanks and taking off, the sounds of laughter falling away behind me.
We rode out of The Springs and headed north across the newly cleared land around my newly upgraded home. So much change in such a little amount of time, I mused as the land flew by below my Familiar’s hooves. I let Winston have his head and we rode full out for a few minutes, letting the massive horse stretch out his muscles tight from the sleep of the previous night.
We slowed down and paused at a small stream a few miles north of The Springs. Winston bent his head to drink and I pulled up my mini-map, it was still hard to get used to pulling an imaginary floating map up in thin air, studied it while I waited for the rest of the Riders to catch up.
Law had our maps updated at the Fortress and I now had access to pretty accurate maps of North America and local maps of Colorado. That combined with my own knowledge of the area gave me an amazingly good idea of which tribes were where, how far, and so on. I zoomed in on our current location, ten miles north of The Springs as the crow flies. We had gone about twenty miles, but we had to go around bends and up hills, around streams, and so forth.
We still had another hundred miles north, and fifty east at the least before we got to our first tribe, the Crow’s, territory. It would shouldn’t be hard to get them to come. The Crow and Ute were close, always had been, some of our Chief’s and some of there’s were of the same blood. Legend had it we were of the same tribe way back, before coming across the endless ocean.
Also, Thunder Foot and Lightning Fist were of the Crow and they were my brother-in-law’s, and Night Star and Ice Blossom were along. The land we were crossing for the next twenty miles was supposedly cleared according to Cunning Wolf. While I trusted the old man, I wasn’t going to take any chances. Ten miles away from The Springs was being more than fair, before posting a guard and scouts.
As I expected Dancing Lion was the first to arrive, her horse breathing heavy but no worse for the wear. The goddesses really blessed the animals, thought they were nothing compared to Winston. I closed the window as the Jicarilla, my fiancé called her a princess, but he called me a princess too so whatever, approached.
“Ah, that was a fun run, it still amazes me that our partners can run so fast.” She said, patting her horse on the neck as it bent down to drink.
“Have you named her yet?” I asked, as Ice Blossom, Night Star, and Stone Fox, in that order, burst into view.
All three were grinning from ear to ear, it was good to see my sisters smiling again, and not laughing at me.
“Nice of you all to finally join us.” I joked.
“Well, not all of us have a horse god like you sister.” Ice Blossom replied, sticking her tongue out at me, a behavior she learned from Law.
We all shared a laugh and the girls let their mounts drink. A few minutes went by and I enjoyed the serenity and beauty of the surrounding stream and glade, letting the peace infuse me, I had a sense this would be one of the last times in a while before I would have it again. I took a deep breath and let it out, time to get serious.
“After the horses have drank their fill, and you all eat and stretch, send out riders. I want scouts and outriders, no surprises. I know we have great new weapons and horses and all that but be careful, don’t get over confident.” I commanded.
I thought back to Law and my first fight with the Teihiihan. More importantly, I thought of my father, his loss was all the proof I needed that this was life or death. That my actions had consequences. Law kept telling me it wasn’t my fault, but he didn’t see. He was too far to do anything, but I could have… I stopped my train of thought. That road led only to one direction, and I didn’t have my fiancé to help me fuck my way back to happiness.
Dancing Lion began shouting orders, I turned Winston and headed up to the closest highest point, a small hillock overlooking the glade. I crested the top and was treated to a beautiful vista spreading out before me. Although, the hillock was only about fifty feet high on the glade side, it dropped down, a thirty-five-degree grade for thousands of feet. I could see for miles and miles. Flat scrub land spread out beyond, all the way to the horizon, under the bright blue sky.
Three riders galloped across the plains before me, each heading north but each going in slightly different directions. Good the outriders were out, I recognized all three, my sisters and Stone Fox.
“They wanted to go, each volunteered.” Dancing lion said, riding up to my side.
The remaining riders came into view, riding in a loose diamond formation, I approved. Dancing Lion did a good job.
“They must have a god, or at least someone or something telling them to move, that’s the reason they came early.” I said.
“Yes, that’s what the War Shaman and my mother said. There is no room for failure.” She replied.
“Law and I talked about it and he said I should Alexander the Great it.” I said, nodding at her words.
Dancing Lion gave me a puzzled look. I forget that not everyone was graced with a lifetime of knowledge like I was.
“One big rush, picking up troops as we go, offering the hand of peace, but fighting, showing now mercy, if we have to.” I explained.
“Ah, I see, Alexander the Great it.” She replied, musing.
“Come, let’s join the rest, I’ll tell you all about him as we ride.” I laughed.
We rode through the day across the sun kissed prairies and hills without incident. The lonely brown bear or elk in the distance. The pace I set was fast and we covered miles and miles the first day by the time I decided to call a hal
t. The main village of the Crow was over a hundred miles away north west, one hundred and fifty-two to be exact, and we had covered a hundred and twenty in a day’s travel. We could cover the rest tonight, but it was already dusk, and I didn’t want to get to the Crow home in the middle of the night riding beasts of legend. I’d save that tactic for another time.
We camped out on the northern most edge of the Denver plateau, the highest point in the area, with a copse of aspen trees nearby, and a small stream that ran down along the bottom of the hill. It was the perfect place for our first attempt at camping in the Roman style. Law said it was mandatory, so we would do it.
“Ok, Dancing Lion let’s do it, fort style.” I told my second in command.
She nodded and began to call out orders. Eventually, we would be able to just set camp up without calling instructions, my fiancé said it would become second nature. Well, be that as it may, we stopped with plenty of daylight this time, I wasn’t taking chances.
A normal Roman Legion consisted of five thousand men, so their camps were way more advanced then what we would be building, but the intent and basic outline was the same. There was only eighteen of us so what Law came up with was a hybrid Roman Legion and American Frontier Cavalry style fort. This was actually made easier due to the Jicarilla portion of our force, which was what our entire core consisted of, my sisters and I, being the only ones not Jicarilla. That would change as the Riders grew but for now, it was what it was, as Law would say.
Why did we do this? The main reason was safety Law explained. You can only die once. The next, was that we had a prepared defensive position for the future, that could be added upon on each subsequent visit, or garrisoned in the future. All good reasons I agreed.
We broke into preassigned teams of three, giving me six different groups to set up camp. The first three were assigned to resource gathering and delivery, wood mostly. The next three were dedicated to building. The Jicarilla’s earth magic was able to shift and move the dirt and stone in the ground with amazing ease. After resources were gathered those teams would join in finishing the building. The scouts were responsible for bringing back food for the rest.
In practice it had taken us an hour and a half to do this back at the Fortress of Earth. By the time the last sharpened palisade was finished, and earthen berm complete, it had taken a total of three hours, and the sun was just setting. The Riders were all tired and irritable, not to mention hungry and sore from riding in the saddle all day, then building a fort afterwards.
I wasn’t going to get mad though. The end result was a perfect five-pointed pentagon, with five-foot tall earthen berms, topped with a three-foot long wooden spiked palisade, complete with paddock for all the horses in the center, and cooking area, with benches for eating around it. Not only that, but each wall had a three-foot firing platform atop it, with a four-feet of the five-foot high wood and earth rampart for cover. A four-foot wide space left in the berm and a gate finished the fort. Three people could hold each side, and two could hold the gate.
Stone Fox and my sisters had returned with an adult deer dressed and ready to cook when they returned, that helped lighten spirits and fill bellies. Since everyone was so tired, we set guards for the night and turned in. A productive first day completed.
“Wake up Moon Flower.” Ice Blossom whispered in my ear.
My sisters voice woke me from my slumber and by her tone I knew it was more than just morning. I was immediately alert but calm.
“What is it?” I whispered back in the same tone, slowly sitting up and getting my bearings.
“We aren’t sure, but there are lots of them, we thought you should see. Night Star and I were on watch, she’s still there.” She replied softly.
“Wake up Dancing Lion and then the rest of the Riders, I’ll go to Night Star. Tell everyone to ready for battle.” I whispered.
I stood up donning my weapons and armor, I could hear the horses whinnying softly, they could smell something. Winston’s emotions pushed at me and he sensed danger as well. I made it to my sister and crouched down by her side, staring out into the night.
TRACK 26 – TAKE A PICTURE – FILTER
I had crazy dreams that night, involving Moon Flower and a trio of beautiful women, but it faded as I woke before dawn as usual, Freak snoring by my side. He had taken to sleeping next to me now that Moon Flower was away. It was nice, the fact that he was a giant space heater kitty, so I was warm, but the drawback was that he snored like a son of a bitch. It was a like a chainsaw fucking an Emphysema patient. I quickly donned my clothing and weapons and stepped out into the dark of the predawn morning.
The weather was cold, spring was turning to fall, but it would be nice when the sun came up, that was the way in Colorado. Cold as balls in the dark, hot as shit in the light. At least, until winter, well even them sometimes too.
I made my way down to our boatyard, nodding to guards I passed on my way. I made a quick pitstop at the kitchen area, it pretty much ran twenty-fours now, due to the huge influx of people now at The Springs. All the surrounding tribes of the Ute had been coming in daily. I discussed it with Walking Coyote and we worked out plans to enlarge The Springs. There were almost double the amount of people now and it would continue to grow as the days went by.
I snagged some meat, bread, and fruit, thanking the cooks as I did so, and thought about our plans to enlarge the village. Right now, it was a perfect size and could hold up to three hundred people comfortably, four hundred uncomfortably. The idea was to enlarge everything to hold up to five thousand people. Walking Coyote had scoffed at that, but I insisted on it. When I explained we’d have warriors and workers from every tribe on the plains and the Great Lakes, which he only knew by hearsay, he finally agreed.
Based on my calculations and knowledge learned from modern historians, archeologists, and other scholars, not to mention Coyote’s info, there used to be around three hundred and fifty million natives in the Americas. Now, with nine in ten people killed by the Great Suffering, that left seventeen million people left, in all North America, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.
If you broke that seventeen million down even further, it put most of the population in Central America and South America, about seventy-five percent, so about thirteen million. That left four million in North America and the Caribbean. Put about a million in Caribbean, that left three million in just North America, that’s the U.S. and Canada.
If we extrapolate even more, most of the people live on the west side of the Rockies and then east of the Appalachians. We know more people lived on the eastern coast then west, and that the Great Lakes area were highly populated. Put one and half million on the east, then a million on the west, and we have only five-hundred thousand people.
That meant from the great forest of Canada, the great plains, from mountain range to mountain range, to the Caribbean ocean, were only five-hundred thousand people. That’s less than half the people in Orlando or Colorado Springs in modern times. My plan was to have strategic forts, The Springs and the Fortress of Earth, being the first two, that could hold ten thousand workers and warriors each. These would be the hubs, and initial bases of my people. They would be where I supply and rest my armies, they would also be the manufacturing and population centers for The People, eventually.
All that was for later, for now Walking Coyote was to lay the foundation. Today, was for launching my new toy, slash attack boat, and the beginning of my journey on the river. Coyote and Wolf had told me that I needed to get the Ojibwe of the Great Lakes, and I would, but I would also get all the tribes we encountered on our way there.
I wanted a road and waterway travel connection across the country. Moon Flower would get all the tribes on the plains and I would along the rivers all the way to the Great Lakes. After this, we’d handle the east and west coasts, but that was for later, those mountains were formidable, and I wasn’t taking them lightly. It wasn’t like modern times with paved passes and such. You literally had
to wait for the winter snow to melt to get through at all, plain and simple.
I shut down my musings as I approached the boatyard and saw my new lovely. I had decided on a name during the night and settled on the WSS, that’s War Shaman’s Ship, the WSS Enterprise. I couldn’t let my nerd roots go, and had to go with my beloved, ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before.’ Besides, it was only my first, I was sure I’d have many other ships to name in the future, Millenia Falcon anyone?
The sun was just beginning to rise as I walked across the newly built dock and stopped, taking in the view of my boat. The dawn was just starting to turn purple and pink and illuminated the dark lacquered colored wood and clean smooth lines of the vessel. I was still amazed I had built it. The four harquebuses, turned ships guns, sat in their niches on each corner of the boat. The armored shields glinted in the dawning light.
“Aye, she’s a right beauty, isn’t she, never seen her like before.” Patty said, appearing at my side.
“Fucking right, she’s the best gods damned looking whore in the house!” Billy said, from next to his cousin.
“You guys are spot on as usual. Did you eat yet?” I asked.
“Aye, we asked the kitchen to start getting our rations ready as well.” Billy replied.
I nodded, turning at the sound of steps on the deck, then I saw the rest of those chosen for the trip coming. It seemed everyone was excited, and no one was able to sleep in. I greeted everyone as they came, then directed them onto the Enterprise. When they all had arrived, I joined them on board and walked to the mainmast, all eyes following me as I did.
“All Navies have traditions when commissioning a new ship. That’s what we are, the beginning of a new Navy. I decided that with the new beginning should be new traditions. We will start with the divvying out of rank and then the naming ceremony. First though, when we are on this ship you will call me Captain.” I paused, as everyone looked around at each other in confusion, no one knowing quite what to expect, even the cousins were quiet for once.
I Am Gamer II Page 14