by Han Yang
The flap to the tent opened, revealing a concerned Asha and a curious Delsy.
“I need to bring Tarla here. She needs to know Caitlyn has returned her brother to Litroo, as a free man,” I said.
Asha’s brows raised in shock, and I merely nodded. I saw Lumpy and the other dragging the brownie bodies into a pile.
“I came to tell you your death was epic,” Delsy said with a smirk. “I ran into a ward trying to get into the tent, and now it makes sense. Um… becoming a skeleton and fighting with the jenix was amazing. The brownies used all their magic on you. When the battle was clearly going in our favor the rest jumped over the cliff to risk the waters.”
“Excellent news. You still owe me for the cost of the bandits. Going forward, we will figure out some system to split loot, part of our advancing as one people. I…” I paused mid-sentence, retreating to the trunk I had set in the tent.
I scribbled a note on the parchment for Tarla to join me, telling her that she’d be going home soon. We needed to talk, and I needed to be there for her.
CHAPTER 51
Kalo Island
“What now, Boss?” Asha asked.
We had just watched Tarla vanish into the portal. My lovely lady had left to focus on Seqa, her home. I may have misjudged her. I figured she’d be a fragile and broken woman. Jark was her twin, but… I was wrong.
We had shared a nice lunch, discussed politics, and then she had gone home. I could tell she hurt, but it wasn’t tortuous to her. Maybe she had expected this. Maybe she was happy for him and ready to be her own person. Either way, I was there for her, and she knew that.
Asha’s elbow nudged me from my thoughts.
“Um… not sure,” I admitted.
“She seemed nice,” Delsy mentioned, sorting the tools into a rack. “I saw how you two looked at each other. My fears you would drag me out to the wilds appear to be unwarranted. I’ve… Thank you. I’m going to adventure as my skeleton.”
“Right, let us know if you need anything,” I said, seeing her hop onto the wagon bench. I knew better than to prod her about her past and set a good example going forward.
The dead brownies burned on a side pit, their deaths adding nearly fifty Zorta to the trip’s collection. The entire time I had chatted with Caitlyn and then Tarla, my minions had continued to process the jungle.
The clearing stretched enough that the large wooden caltrops were pushed from the church to Kalo. Their creation had been the priority since I left for Lind. Defenses mattered, and finally, we had some.
I returned my bowl to my bag by the large tent and worked on setting up the perimeter. After twenty minutes of setting up the spiked wooden walls, I tossed in the painted green rock.
A dozen goblins, five trolls, and forty dwarves arrived. The counter on our side had a big 1 on it. I knew the other side would be displaying a 110. That meant we had room to add more help or room to find worthy live animals to trade or domesticate.
“Nee,” I said excitedly, seeing the proud goblin wearing full armor, her belly swollen with child again. “What brings you here?”
“The Boss is wise and good. He is also my Boss. I’m here to work and to avoid those annoying Clydesdales,” Nee said.
“I heard they love you,” I said with a snicker.
She shook her head. “They’re so damn needy. Goblins do this, goblins do that. Argh… I needed to get away from Seqa and some work seemed fitting.”
“You sure Nessio hasn’t upset you?” I countered, and she smirked.
“We reached a deal. She will be a Duchess of Seqa and I will respect her as such. In exchange, she will be one of your official advisors and manage in your absence,” Nee said.
I smiled, knowing Tarla had likely worked the deal. Nessio became the number two of the town, meaning that when I was gone - which was almost always - she was the boss.
“Final count on new arrivals and explain to me what happened?” I asked.
“I told ya our scent would carry,” Nee said in a confident tone. “The vents above the town cover a big area.”
I listened, walking over to the tool rack to get a shovel. The dwarves had arrived with the dirt carts, heading to the areas just inside the fence lines to dig. As the minions cleared more jungle, the digging area would push out, not in.
I headed to a team setting up, and became another body working the soft and rich, soil free of the island.
Nee kept pace and said, “Four hundred and seventy-one. Most were starving and wouldn’t have made it through the winter. They came from, well, everywhere. Some even as far as human lands in the south. Aye, I told them prissy ladies I could get more scouting done. I have news you’ll want to hear, but I saved it for you first.”
I drove the shovel head down, scooping up a nice chunk of soil. When worms moved around, I became distracted, glancing back to where the fishing poles rested.
“Nee, grab a bucket, collect the worms, and then by all that is holy to Caitlyn, tell me of this news,” I belted out in a jovial tone. “Asha, you wanna go fishing?”
“Tomorrow, sure. We need to build a defensible shoreline capable of keeping brownies out,” Asha replied from near the fire pit. One of the jenix cats returned with a colorful bird. “And so it begins.”
“The foxes should be done with their scouting soon. Come help me shovel,” I ordered, and he left his whittling to grab a shovel.
I hadn’t told him about my offer from Caitlyn, and I didn’t feel like I should. The downside, if I did, could be resentment and anger. In reality, the offer was never an offer. Caitlyn knew before she asked what the answer would be.
Jumping on the shovel’s head, I sunk it into the stiffening soil. I shifted, not scooping, choosing to edge out a big chunk from the growing pit. I hoisted the clump of dirt, setting it on the cart.
Nee returned with four goblins who hopped onto the growing dirt pile.
“The worms can be bred, help breakdown waste, and most importantly - farmed and then sold,” Nee said, digging into the dirt. The goblins' efforts caused some of our hard work to tumble back down. “Sorry, there will be a second team doing this in Seqa.”
“I think a few bits falling are fine, especially if it earns extra gold,” I said, unsouring the puckered dwarven faces. “Please, the news.”
“I haven’t forgotten, Boss. Goblins are flocking to your leadership. The south is in upheaval. Even as far south as Litroo is having issues. Let me introduce Mari. She is a new citizen,” Nee said, slapping a mucky covered hand on another goblin’s shoulder.
This goblin didn’t have the jungle stripes or the dark green I had grown accustomed to. She had a tan coloration with bones showing, and she may have been eating a worm when Nee called her out.
“Ugh, my life and delays. Grab a bowl from the common tent and eat slowly. Only when your hunger is partially sated are you to return,” I said, knowing that she’d overeat.
“After, if that pleases the Boss,” Mari said, and I nodded. “I come from the southern part of Ikara Valley. When the great herd failed to return in a timely manner, bands of goblins stopped being fed or traded for their gains.
“I was a young adult goblin when my mother kicked me out of the tribe due to a lack of food. I ventured away and up, finding an area humans and centaurs avoided. It didn’t take long for a minotaur to capture me.
“I was hauled into a vast human city, the structures in ruins and the people mostly gone. Human dead were roasted as food, feeding the massive army. I was tasked with trying to find hiding humans. I eventually did, and they bribed me with bread to ignore them.
“Our deal lasted for a week, and the minotaur army pushed south for a place called Litroo. I didn’t want to go with the army, and instead I snuck away like many others. I never saw the great battle, but on the second night, the skies erupted with a magic barrage so bright I couldn’t sleep.
“Additional goblins retreated, finding me with a full belly. They, um… hm… asked how I got fed, and I lied. I said
the gods gave me food, and I lied, saying they told me to flee the fighting. So, I traveled north. Learning that the magical explosion in the night saw the minotaurs win but not in a way for them to continue their push.
“We ran ahead of the retreating minotaur army and ate the spoiling food they left behind from their march into human lands. I played it off as god offerings, eating first and growing the biggest. After arriving in a valley, a light scent caught my nose, and then the rest of the trip was easy. Except we became so hungry. So, so hungry.”
“Excellent, thank you for sharing, and please go eat until you pass out,” I said with a chuckle.
Mari raced off the dirt pile, running for the common tent. She’d leave a mess, but that was fine by me.
“Whatcha thinking?” I asked Asha.
I shoveled another load onto the cart. A second later, the dwarves kicked the goblins off the dirt, hauling the cart for the portal. I leaned against the shovel, eager to hear his thoughts.
“They combined armies, sacked Tarb, and then met something strong enough to force them to go home. Sounds like Arax has his churches warning of the direness of the north. Maybe they sally forth, maybe they don’t. Either way, if you have assassins after you, the route is clear now. If that goblin lass can make it then so can anyone,” he said.
Nee shrugged, not bothering to argue the merits.
“If I’m Arax, I’m relocating assets to the Karn realm, bribing the minotaurs for land passage, and then asking for aid from the neighbors. I forget the Empress name,” I said, trying to recall.
“Elva rarely venture far enough to memorize the local politics that change so frequently,” he said, and I sighed.
Lumpy arrived by the portal, carrying a mole of some type. A few seconds later, one of the skeleton foxes carried a lizard.
“Our food problems have grown. We’re really going to need to shift our farming to catching only local animals and using the excess slots on portals for farming creatures,” I said, thinking about all the new mouths we had to feed.
Delsy popped up and said, “I found some sort of hard-skinned lizard that was huge. Big teeth, stubby legs, dark scales, and a long wide snout. They ate my skeleton. One bite, gone. All I did was steal a few eggs.”
Her astonished tone and words didn’t match.
“A gator killed you for stealing her young? Makes sense to me. How big?” I asked.
“Um… bigger than the wagon. Not too far from the brownies. My notifier is saying I can claim the Z I owe you,” she told me.
“Meet me in the common tent, and I’ll teach you how to do so. And it’s time we started to draw the map of the island. We need to notate everything we find,” I said.
She left the wagon seat, not loving my answer. “We’re not going to charge in there and kill the gator thingy?”
A jenix cat pranced over, spitting out a dead hawk.
“No. Will we kill one, likely. A big dead animal is massive bait for scavengers. Patience, patience is key and something even I miss at times,” I said, leading the way into the common tent. “Now, let’s go over how to claim from a distance. This might take some work. If you revive a dead animal just have it come here and dismiss it.”
And so, I spent the next four hours going over cultivation techniques I had learned. I practiced different chants with her, tried different abilities, and explained everything I knew.
By the time we finished, she started working on the map, and Nee had a delicious set of kabobs cooking over the fire. Poor Mari snored under the main wagon, her gut bloated to a maximum.
The fire crackled, exuding its heat while the fading sun and the gentle sea breeze allowed for a cooler evening. The minions never slowed, continuing to widen our circle of deforestation. The pile of dead animals certainly grew the biggest I’d ever seen.
I proceeded to grab a snack, blowing on the still simmering meat. The stick cooled while I inspected the jungle. If we kept this pace, there’d be an underground jungle in Seqa.
I had to wonder if the major cities did this sort of thing. Tarb didn’t lack trees when I was there, so would they use their portals to harvest? Or was it too noisy and therefore risky to their adventuring teams? We happened to have a whole lot of new expansions to fill, and trading partners wanted more which put my mind at ease.
My other thought was… would this devastation be repaired by the gods? Or would we stumble upon something similar in the future? I knew the local wildlife would suffer and the land would become scarred.
“Death is life, Zorta is power,” I whispered.
“It’s going to be a problem,” Asha said, arriving from the woods.
“The ‘going fishing’ or the gators?” I asked.
“There’s a lake teeming with fish further inland. If you want to fish, do so where the threats are known. The beaches are infested with brownies and matogators. At least that is what the book calls them,” Asha replied, waving the book. “The good news is that both populations, if farmed correctly, will reap good rewards for minimal efforts.”
“You got a plan?” I asked.
He told me his plan in great detail.
From inside the tent, we heard Delsy say, “I hate that plan.”
“Great, then we will work on perfecting it tonight and give it a go in the morning,” I said with a smile.
I decided to let the others work, heading into the tent to find a book on mythical creatures to study. This one was written by a healer and covered his adventures in a desert. I shuddered at the thoughts of fighting a thirty-foot tall scorpion.
CHAPTER 52
Kalo Island
ROAR!
“Here she comes!” I said with excitement.
Delsy bolted through the underbrush, weaving between the trees. Her skeleton pushed its frame at a breakneck pace, and she jumped a bush losing an egg. A gator the size of two wagons crashed through the jungle hot on her heels.
I watched her slide under the caltrop, slowing a smidge. I stared at the gator and then the wooden defense. While she figured she was safe on the other side, I wasn’t so confident. The gator crashed directly into our trap.
Crack!
The wooden spikes broke, dealing damage, but not slowing the matogator in the slightest.
I grew worried.
The beast charged a few hundred feet away, smashing through our second trap with ease but slowing this time. Delsy sprinted, driving momma gator further inland. I frowned, not sure if I wanted to risk my army.
The decision to sacrifice Delsy or to charge altered when the matogator slowed further before stopping. The gator’s chest heaved, clearly winded, and at the end of its sprinting range.
“Unleash volley,” I commanded.
Forty wooden spears arched up before speeding down toward the beast.
The matogator raised its head, turning its neck to notice. An attempt at a sprint resulted in a waddling forward.
Her flight slightly worked. About half the projectiles sunk into the forest floor. A quarter slid off the thick scaly hide while at least ten punctured the outer hide.
The matogator revealed that she could shriek.
For a long minute, it cried out as additional spears zoomed from the jungle toward the target.
To me, the complaint meant the wounding was significant. For a fleeting moment, I cheered at its pain.
Then... the jungle erupted.
Not from the shoreline. Nope.
That would make too much sense.
From the interior.
Each step shook the platform I hid in. Each breaking tree cracked loud enough to ring my ears. The bright early-morning sun was blotted out for a fraction of a second when trees flew over our heads, racing to land in the distant ocean.
Whatever came from behind us was huge. I quaked, truly frightened when the large head of a cyclops revealed itself, semi-jogging toward the injured cries.
The cyclops towered over the tall tree, the angle only revealing a snarling face and a double chin.
I blanched, knowing I very well might lose my entire army trying to get to safety.
“Oh shit,” I muttered.
“What do we do?” Asha, the battle expert, turned to me for guidance.
“The… shit… What?” I failed myself, disbelief not registering. “There’s no signs of a cyclops on this damn island…”
Delsy, using her skeleton, rushed to meet the cyclops head on.
She raised her sword like a heroic knight. A foot the size of a house stomped her into dust. Her sword left a mark, though, causing the cyclops to hobble.
“Attack the hamstrings. When it falls, go for the eye!” I commanded, finding my strategy. I placed a hand on Asha’s shoulder. “I’m going to the portal. We have fifty of us, and that cyclops is fat and out of shape. Bring him down then go for the kill.”
Asha hopped off the platform, tucking into a roll to absorb the drop. I scoffed at his deft maneuver, watching him speed away.
Delsy returned to her body, visibly angry with a snarl.
“We have to run now,” I commanded, yanking her to her feet. Our little tree fort was meant to be a fighting station to observe killing matogators. In our fight against a cyclops, it left us at perfect kicking height.
I leaped off the platform, pulling her off the perch and into a tumble.
The hybrid woman recovered quickly, outpacing me.
I never said we were running for the portal, but she assumed correctly, blazing the path away from the fighting. A glance over my shoulder showed a confused and upset cyclops.
“Undeads! Leaves my island and returns to your… Ouch! Stops that this instance,” the cyclops shouted with a stomp.
We adjusted our run, reacting to the tremors. Based on the lack of a notification, the fat cyclops’ slow movements were dodged. Hell, he sounded winded just from walking over to us.