Kingdom of the Weak 195 Strays

"Stop!" the voice calling him from the side was low and urgent. "Camp ahead!"

"What?" Remian turned to see a young boy, very dirty and very worried waving at him from the bushes.

"There is a Bulraki camp ahead! Don't go that way!" he urged Remian.

Survivors? "Who are you? Why are you out here on your own?"

But the boy didn't reply. He just turned around and ran.

"Hey, wait…" Remian followed him. Meanwhile, he contacted Mindy. [Third checkpoint, hostiles suspected. Don't come over yet.]

[Understood. Shall we send backup?]

[Stand by…] Remian huffled after the boy, carefully leaving a mark on a tree as he passed it. They went into the sparse woods, then around a hillock…

"Freeze!" A long, rusted pike was suddenly pointed at him from the side. Remian turned to see a bigger, graying man there wearing a helmet and a baking apron with spoons sewn onto it as reinforcement.

Remian didn't freeze. Instead, he leapt aside, and drew his own weapon.

To be fair, Remian's weapon was even older than that pike. The long-hilted sword (c.f. nagamaki) was downright ancient. He triggered one of its three still-functioning runes; a shield of light flickered into being in between him and the pike.

But the pike did not stab forward. The elderly man did not strike, or charge. He just narrowed his eyes. "That nagamaki… it's a runic weapon?"

Remian didn't reply. His senses spread through the area, finding several minds nearby filled with wariness and fear… and two others which had gone completely numb and apathetic.

None of them were warriors. None of them were Bulraki or Bellai. They all seemed to be in the same situation as the boy and the old man; denizens of the neutral zone caught in a war they neither asked for nor wanted.

"I'm not here to harm you. I'm just passing through when your friend there showed up." Remian pointed out.

"Why did you follow him?" the old man asked.

"I just want to know about this camp ahead."

The older man exchanged glances with the young boy, who was now looking rather guilty. Slowly, he lowered his pike.

Remian likewise turned off his shield and put away his weapon.

"So… can you tell me about this camp?"

***

Sandra, Gammie, and their Comrades (a wolfcat and a Feelo-Wasp prince leading his own entourage of flying hand-sized bugs) arrived as Remian got to know the survivors and their leader, the pikeman veteran Alex.

They came from three different villages all located up this very road. When the Bulraki came raiding, they fled for their lives, and tried to make their way to the Bellai forts for shelter, but were crudely turned away and were basically just trying to survive by staying away from the fighting, foraging in the wild and praying that the war would be over quickly.

"That doesn't seem likely." Remian confessed.

Then it was his turn to share information with them.

"From what the Iron Legion told me, this war already involves thirteen nations on two different sides." Remian explained. "Germat, Auria, Otta, Bulrak, Ira and possibly Kuasa Besar are on one side. Ashdale, La Vive, Bellas, and the Nine Mountains are on a different side. Itarim just switched sides from the Germat-Auria side to the Ashdale-La Vive side, and the Sea People claim to side whatever side Itarim stands on, except I haven't actually seen any of them around here yet. Mendev, Liberatria, Romania, Ecclesia, Ceres, the Rainforest Commonwealth, the Saudara Nation and the Dragon Empire all have large forces present in the region, but they have yet to declare a side and are mainly just observing. Everyone else is steering clear."

"Any idea how long it will last?"

"Not a clue. Last week, the Germat side was winning, but now Itarim has changed sides, and the Nine Mountains are going all-out, so depending on whether they can establish a strong momentum, the war could either be over tonight, or it could turn into a stalemate that lasts for years."

"And you say you're not on either side?"

"I'm from the Wildlands. I'm just trying to get my friends out of here."

"How do you intend to do that?"

"We have an airship." Remian said, and left it at that.

The survivors exchanged glances. "The Wildlands, you say? I hear it's a dangerous place."

"South of KarGoth, it is a very dangerous place indeed." Remian nodded. "But KarGoth itself is a fortress built into a hill. It has never been breached by the Wilds. Fort Spoas has fallen and every other human settlement in the Wildlands has fallen, but KarGoth remains underground and safe."

"Underground?" the old veteran perked up. "How do you live there?"

"Quite comfortably, actually. It's built into a hill, and there's a wide open space from above, we used to dock airships there, but now the new airport is being built…" Remian paused, trying to describe it. "It's a town shaped after the largest malls in Ashdale. Even though it's underground, we get plenty of sunlight. There are Sand People, Sea People, folks from Ashdale, Itarim, the Dragon Empire… all sorts."

"Do these people fight each other?"

"Each other? I've only seen verbal fights between them, so far. Everyone protects each other against the Wilds when the Beast Waves come. But the Beast Waves have stopped now, so…" Remian trailed off.

"The Beast Waves have stopped… there is a town… it's got people of many cultures who live together in peace…" The old man began to tremble visibly. Tears actually began to streak down his face. "That… that's all I ever wanted… I came all this way to the Neutral Zone, built my house with my own two hands, thinking that this was the place… but now…"

"Join us." Remian invited on the spot. "Come to KarGoth. I have some say there. I'll personally make sure you have a place to live. There's plenty of work, or you could even open your own business."

"What about them?" Alex gestured at his friends. "Most of them are farmers…"

"We have huge farms and could definitely use more hands." Remian assured him. "You're all welcome. There's fishing, and an Adventurers Guild, and mining, and lots of construction work that needs doing…"

"And you'll take us there? On your airship?"

"If you want, yes."

***

That night, Mindy received the Signal.

[All Clear. Come on over.] Remian messaged her telepathically.

"Here we go." Mindy breathed. With a flicker of power, the Wasp took off, flying low and quickly in the twilight, even as darkness covered her and afforded her the protection of night. She locked on to Remian's position by sheer Psionic tracking, trusting in his word that the way to his position, at least, was clear of dangers.

It was a short flight for the Wasp, barely half an hour. It pained Mindy to think that Remian would have taken the entire day to cover just this distance, without the help of an all too conscpicuous ME-frame.

"I'm here." Mindy greeted him as she got off the Wasp. Sandra and Gammie, along with their Comrades, likewise got off and secured the aircraft.

"Good. You have passengers." Remian gestured.

Standing around the clearing were ten staring faces, three hopeful, five wary, and the remaining two completely uncaring. They were battered, bedraggled, and bruised more often than not, but they were alive, conscious, and very much capable of revealing their location…

"Can you make two trips back to the Red Fang?" Remian asked. "We're taking them with us to KarGoth."
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"What…?!" Mindy stared. "But Talia…"

"Her, too." Remian nodded. "So here's what I was thinking. Bring these survivors back to the airship first, then come back here for the night. The Wasp is definitely capable of at least that much, isn't it? We can continue on our way tomorrow."

"The Wasp can do it." Mindy agreed. "But can we really trust them?"

"They seem to be good people. Also, I think they saved my life." Remian shifted. Mindy wasn't entirely sure she believed him, but she didn't argue. "I owe them."

Mindy grunted. [Are you sure they're good people?]

[Not entirely, from what I can sense. I've been monitoring their thoughts. They're desperate enough to steal our food, but they won't kill us even if they tried. The worst they'd do is grab a loaf and run. As long as you keep them well-fed, I think the promise of a better life would ensure their good behavior.]

[They'd steal out of hunger, but they wouldn't harm us. That's about as much as we could ask of anyone.] Mindy conceded. "Fine. Let's do this."

Chapter end