Julius frowned. "Now don't be spreading rumors," he said with a scowl, lifting his chin to them.
Pat winced and turned to him. "I wasn't spreading them I was asking about them."
"Ah, well, tis not our concern. Getting the catch out before the storm makes the roads impassable is," the berger stated.
Jer leaned around to note that draft animals were being led to the other side of the warehouse where dock workers were wrestling barrels into carts and wagons. "That was fast."
"When you are prepared, everything runs smoothly. Best for us, best for the village," the berger said. "Have a hand?" he asked, waving to them meaningfully.
"I've had a full shift already," Pat said, looking at Jer.
Jer grimaced. He could turn the work down. He had his pay but he knew better. You didn't turn down work. People took note of that, and it was harder to get work when you needed it. Especially when you were someone like him who occasionally lost a lot with the dice. "Um, sure, catch you later?" he asked Pat.
Pat hesitated but then nodded. "Saving up for a home and a dos ?" she asked, eyeing him.
Jer shrugged. "Why, you thinking of making an honest man of me?" he asked.
Pat gasped and he looked up, ready to say he was only teasing. But she cocked her head. "Well, if you could stay away from the dice and you keep your nose to the grindstone, I just might," she said instead.
He stared at her. So did the berger .
"Just remember, my family is bound to charge a great deal for my hand, so you best have a lot saved up," she said, poking him.
His jaw dropped. She giggled slightly. She played with the string on one side of his tunic before letting her hand drop. "Something to look forward to," she said huskily.
She winked and then took herself off, humming a tune. Jer snorted and shook himself, breaking her spell with difficulty before he went to check the loading docks.
Julius rubbed his jowls slightly. "Well, well," he murmured in amusement. His mate would love that little tidbit to titillate the other women in the village.
~~~^~~~
Pirates
Captain Hasan Cao checked the position of the three ships in his little flotilla and then the map. So far so good, they were a bit behind where they wanted to be, but that was to be expected. He stroked his scarred cheeks and kept thinking about what to do next.
He had spent years building up to this point. Years working with the other survivors of their ship and years in the crew of one pirate vessel or another until he'd worked up to get his own ship. Back on Earth he'd been a pirate, so adjusting to the life on the alien world had been easy. In fact, other than the language and the poor technology, it had been a dream come true!
It helped that he was a ruthless bastard and knew his way around the ship and a blade. And it hadn't hurt that he'd introduced a few innovations to improve the sorry state of life on the ships. He'd thought it had been bad back off the coast of China and Indonesia!
He shook his head at that. Sure, the square-rigged ships were slow, and they were hardly what some would consider seaworthy. But there was no navy to interfere with them. More importantly, the prey was easy to attack and strip of their belongings. He had switched them to raiding the fishing villages over trying to hunt down ships.
He was still building up his little fleet. He was down a dozen men. Ten were off sailing two prize ships back to the land they called home; two had died from ailments and their bodies had been fed to the beasts.
By his best guess, he had been on the planet for a dozen years. Along the way he'd seen all manner of alien beasts. Things like sea dragons and whale-like creatures to make your blood run cold. Storms that would have frightened him in his old sloop were utterly terrifying in the wooden deathtraps. But he had no choice. There was not enough metal to build another metal ship. And of course nothing like fiberglass or other materials.
The lands the pirates favored were what Djong had called New Zealand. It had been circumnavigated several times. It was a massive break-away island, quite possibly a continent in its own right. Geysers and boiling acid lakes peppered one coastline facing the mainland. Volcanoes were on the northern tip. Vast stretches of boiling mudflats led to a chain of volcanoes that dotted the coast to the south. Alien mudskippers called that place home; no human did.
The native pirates used the location of their villages to their advantage. The mainlanders had no clue where they were based out of and the pirates liked to keep it that way.
Steep cliffs were in other areas of the coastline. Only a handful of beaches were dotted with the pirate villages they called home during the long winter months. The ones to the north tended to get iced in when the winter turned especially bad.
The ringing of the triangle alerted him to a problem. He turned and saw one of his sailors pointing to the port. He looked in the indicated direction in time to see heads rising out of the surf. The creatures looked at his ship and men with angry eyes.
"Fire!" he growled, waving to some of the men.
The beasts in the holds barked and snarled. He heard them clawing at their crates but ignored it as a pair of sailors broke out bows and torches. He lit each of the torches and they fired them at the beasts.
One of course missed but another hit a beast and sprayed the oil-filled fish bladder all over it. The oil instantly lit despite the gusty wind, and the beast roared in fright and pain and dove.
The others did after a moment. He grunted but was wary until they were well clear of the area.
Once things settled down, he checked the map and then used his sextant to check their location. They had a bit of time to go before they got to their destination. He checked the holds and then ordered the first mate to cut rations by another 10 percent and pass the order to the other ships. It was best to stretch what they had. It would make the men hungry for what was to come.
Chapter 9
Doctor Nate Billings and his partner in crime, Doctor Mary Delouse, were excited as their expedition got underway properly. They'd planned the expedition carefully over the winter and early spring. They'd headed out due west along the king's road but had ventured out from there on a road west when the main road turned south.
Nate wanted to see some of the mountains; he'd read intriguing tales of beasts that were there including some sort of mega raptor that rivaled a Queztoquatal. Some called it a dragon or wyvern. The very idea of something that big swooping in and snatching a goat let alone a cow or person was alarming … and exciting.
He had seen plenty of shark videos over the years and had at one point managed to get to south Africa for a brief visit. He'd been on the shore though when a Great White had struck a towed decoy by one of the ships that catered to scientists and tourists in the area. It had been spectacular in real life. Unfortunately, the one run he'd managed to get on had come up dry.
It would be awesome to see a great beast, though scary. Definitely scary. He had no intention of killing the beast unless in self-defense no matter what some in the group wanted. They were there to learn, not on a great hunt for trophies.
Mary got them on to a routine early on. They would wake, breakfast, and while the camp was breaking down, some of the budding scientists would go out to take samples. They would catalog their findings carefully, location, pictures, measurements, drawings, and what-have-you, and then return to the convoy to move out.
They would stop somewhere for lunch to eat and go over their findings. The wagon master and team would feed and water the draft animals, swapping the fatigued ones out and care for them if necessary. While they did that, Nate and Mary would send their people out to again take samples.
Their students learned over time to not overlook anything, right down to bugs. Nate tried to impress upon them the lessons they could learn from bugs even if it was just in how to prevent them from becoming pests to people and crops. Mary checked the samples of plants carefully against their catalog. Most were known, but the occasional difference in size or shape was noted.
In the evening, they would find a safe place to camp for the night and then set up the wagons in a defensive ring. While the cooks were working on dinner, the teams would spread out in a spiral search pattern, usually spending only an hour before they had to head back. They would then sit by the fire eating their meal and debating what they had found that day.
Mary was amused by Nate's jokes of being on safari. He regaled their students of stories of his explorations on Earth. Both were relieved to be able to continue their mandate to explore and to catalog the creatures of the world while passing on nuggets of Terran knowledge to the people.
"It's really what it's all about. Yes, science for the sake of learning, but what point learning if at the end you are the only one to know it?" Nate shook his head. "We need to eventually pass on what we have learned. That is the goal of every generation, to make it better for the next in line."
His students nodded at the wisdom of that statement.
~~~^~~~
Nate of course was focused on seeing new fauna and chafed at being in known territory. He had heard stories of some wild creatures in the capital and wanted to know if they were true. One he was intent on was the dragon or wyvern; there were stories of giant raptors in the mountains. He assumed that the untouched areas in the Imperium would be in the mountains and deep forests. Occasionally, they'd seen something big, a big shadow, but they never got a clear look at it.
Bic the wagon master flat-out refused to take their wagons and carts up beyond the foothills. He made it clear the wagons were not suited for being pulled up the steep hills of the mountains where there were few roads. It would also be unfair to ask of the draft beasts. Nate had reluctantly agreed.
On the outskirts of a forest, they saw something that hadn't been cataloged. Apparently, the locals had known about it; they just didn't bother with the thing.
"Just when I thought this world couldn't get any stranger …," Mary murmured as they heard the soft honking and watched the creature as it ambled along on short legs.
It looked like a vacuum; it had a flat head pressed to the ground. Two sets of eyes were on the sides, indicating it was most likely an herbivore. It had a set of horns, short shoulders, and big hips and legs. The odd thing was that it had giant horns on its rump. They were curled and twisted like ram horns.
"Odd fellow," Nate said.
Their driver called it a Hippolow, disappointing him. "They are pests; they go where they want and will batter down a fence with ease. They are temperamental beasts, best left alone. They tend to the waterways," the driver said with a shrug and wary eye to the beast. "Stay away; they can charge you."
"Ah." Nate took pictures and a short video anyway. He wished he could get something to scale, then realized they could go back and scale items in his shots later.
Later that afternoon they paused at the road into a dense forest. He was not keen to go in; he wanted to see the fauna but not encounter a basilisk. Once was quite enough. Mary and their native team heartily agreed.
They had just decided to camp well clear of the forest for the night when something came out of the forest and hugged the edge of it. It seemed majestic at first, and he got his camera out.
As usual his driver cut down his enthusiasm. "Just a woodpecker," Shri said with an indifferent shrug.
At that announcement, the thing began to move out of sight and then loud rapid-fire pecking could be heard. "It best be knocking softer or the basilisk will get him," Shri said with a shake of his head.
"That's not a cutter," Nate said. He pointed to something moving in the trees. He squinted until he saw the long-legged creature. It was gray on the back but light tan on the belly and throat.
"Nay, tis the pecker as I said," Shri replied.
Nate blinked and then watched the thing through the zoom on his camera, snapping the occasional shot when it got into focus.
It had long legs like a giraffe but a lean greyhound-like body. The thick neck had some sort of crop in the throat. It had a pointed beak. But what was most distinctive was the massive crest at the back of the head. It flared up and out with fingers like antler tips.
As he watched, one bobbed its head, cocked it at a tree, and then began to peck at the tree. When it stopped, it looked again, so much like a bird, and then stuck its beak to the hole and darted a long tongue in.
"They eat pests that kill the trees. And they sip at the sap. They are mostly leg and bone, so we believe the basilisk do not bother with them," Shri said.
There was a roar, and everyone looked up.
"Of course, we might be wrong about that," Shri said dryly as the woodpecker creature turned to locate the source of the roar and then headed off in the opposite direction at a trot.
~~~^~~~
Every evening when they stopped and made camp or arrived at an Inn, Nate reported into the capital via their HAM radio. Sometimes he got through; usually it was to a local operator if there was an obstruction between them and the capital.
He actually preferred to camp out over a stay at an inn. The inns were expensive and dirty despite the advances the Terrans had offered. The ones nearest the capital had been cleaner but the further afield they went the more rustic the inns had become.
One of the problems with camping out though was the problem of bandits and predators, especially in the grass. The fires and strange spells kept them mostly at bay as did the alert guards. Just to be on the safe side they kept a fire guard up all night long and tried to find a defensible position each night.
Predators weren't the only problem. Twice they had to chase off a herd that wanted to graze in their direction. One time they had to deal with bandits. The bandits harassed them with arrows and slings before they retreated under fire from the guard force. Two of the bandits were killed.
~~~^~~~
The further afield they got, the more often they had to pause at the local villages and towns to give away some basic technology, usually to the village elders, local smith, teacher, and local medicus. They had care packages, each they handed off helped to lighten their burden, though they had to stay overnight and sometimes for an extra day to explain some things.
Some of the stay and food they paid for in coin. When an elder was willing, they gave them a special script that let them get half again the value of their stay taken off their tributerium. Their local dominus could turn it in. Nate was well aware that they and the dominus would inflate whatever value they could in the IOU … which was why he kept records.
The local medicus and teachers were given a printed book each; something they treasured but invariably had questions about. Pamphlets with drawings and printed pictures were given to the local blacksmith and village elders as well. Some were very skeptical of the changes.
It was nice to sleep in a bed, though they had quickly learned to secure their belongings and to spray the beds for parasites. The spray was one thing they were happy to have plenty of.
On the second week out, they had to search the village when things were found missing from their wagons. The thief was caught and turned over to the local dominus for severe punishment. Nate and Mary wanted to intervene but were warned by their own people that it was not advisable.
Mary wasn't happy but she realized that they had to let the local justice work itself out. Besides, hopefully word would get around. But she insisted that they mount a guard even while in a town or village just to prevent a reoccurrence.
~~~^~~~
Bad weather, like the threat of severe thunderstorms in the afternoon, usually forced them to stop. Nate had a lightning rod system since they set up on high ground where possible. It never took a strike but he was still glad of it.
Twice they were bogged down when the rains turned the roads to mud and muck. They had to spend hours, one time an entire day digging a wagon out and then finding a way around obstacles. Nate learned that when it rained they needed to hold up and let the ground dry out a bit, not press on immediately. It was hard; he wanted to see
more and knew that their time abroad was limited. But it was better to wait for the mud to dry out a bit then get stuck in it all day.
~~~^~~~
Mary occasionally had them stop at a farm to help the farmers out briefly. She tried to time it when they had reports of the afternoon thunder showers. They could sometimes rig it so they could take shelter in the local farm's barn.
Once they saw a twister, a tornado off in the distance. It had awed and terrified everyone. "We are not going storm chasing," Mary growled at Nate.
For his part, he put his hands up and shook his head. "You will not get any argument out of me; that is not my field."
Twice they had to deal with injuries. Once a cow kicked one of their people, breaking an arm. One of their students ran into a herd of Near Deer and had been chased off. The duo had managed to evade the buck but one of them had been injured by a sprained ankle.
Hostage Rescue (Princess Rescue Inc Book 2) Page 13