My brief visit to the New Empire complete and the Republic of the Indlovu’s city-states behind me, I made my way into Shandr once more. In the years since my last visit, nothing had seemed to have changed. Still, the city was surrounded by magically reinforced stone walls that are constantly manned, and still, at the first sight of any strangers, the men and women tending the farms that surround the walls flee back to the relative safety behind walls. On the surface, a small, self-sufficient city with nervous, weak citizens without anything worth taking from them. Those with any level of political savvy, though, realized that Shandr has depths that belie its first impression, just like its current and long time mayor, Drolick.

-From the seventeenth entry of the epistolary travel journal of Kayuktuk the Landlocked

After three days’ travel, the swarm began to accustom ourselves to our new lifestyle. As much as I wanted to press on and travel for over half of the day, we couldn’t begin to manage to do so without starving the vast majority. My ever-more foggy memories of my human life recalled being able to travel much longer in a day and the thought of our apparent inferiority rankled me. In no way was I inferior–I cut the thought out deliberately. I knew that I was young, and inexperienced, and, perhaps most importantly, my fierce but unintelligent swarm hadn’t had any clue or plans about this traveling. Beyond that, I knew that the Viertaali tribe were fewer than 400 in number, and I’d grown up living a nomadic lifestyle.

My keelish, however, had begun to grow fat and lazy in our successes. There was enough food, and when it began to run low, Redael had always had a plan. The food was easy to hunt, and if anything threatened us, Redael had always had a solution. Everything was perfect for us to simply exist, and while every one of the keelish in the swarm was as large and strong as the biggest ones I’d seen as a human, we weren’t hardened.

Rulac had come to me after the first night spent walking, not even trying to hide his exhaustion and gasping, “So, Alpha… When can… we go to sleep? I’m… done.”

I’d spent the night with my vision set to normal view, so when I’d strained my eyes, I could barely see the first hints of the suns’ rise in the east coloring the sky. “It’ll be a little while. Keep moving.”

At that, Rulac had stepped closer to me, and while he still stood quite a bit shorter than I, it felt as if he was leaning down conspiratorially. “If you keep pushing us like this, you won’t be Alpha of nearly so many keelish.”

“You do not threaten me with insubordination and attempted takeover!” There wasn’t a single moment’s clear thought before my voice raised enough for those surrounding us, mostly my elites, to whip their heads towards me, ready to follow my every command. I didn’t care, and stepped closer, menacing Rulac, and he raised both hands in an attempt to placate me.

“No, you misunderstand me. Nobody in the swarm will ever challenge you the way you did Redael. Nobody.” His tone was matter-of-fact and I felt my raised scales on my hackles begin to lower as Rulac continued, “But if you don’t let the keelish rest and recover and eat, then they’ll run off. At least half of ‘em don’t really think of you as an ‘Alpha’ right now, just a tyrant strong enough to kill Redael. If they don’t begin to think and believe you’re really their Alpha, then they won’t follow you.” Rulac paused, allowing me to think for just a moment, before finishing, “Up to you though. I’m on your side forever.”

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I shook my head, but couldn’t help but flare my frills in acknowledgement of his point as I looked around at my elites, much less the dregs of the swarm. First, I looked over at Foire, who stood nearby and I noted Trai sleeping fitfully in his arms, her nostrils twitching as she dreamed. Foire looked at me, and I understood his visceral need to keep his daughter full and healthy. Next was Sybil, and though she hid it well, she was exhausted and obviously unable to function at her usual top level. Even Shemira, large and strong as she was, refrained from teasing Vefir, Sybil, or even Joral, who had long been a favorite subject of hers. The only member of the swarm who wasn’t obviously flagging was Took, who had doggedly carried on without any obvious change in attitude or energy.

“At true suns up, those who wish to hunt can do so. I’ll lead one pack, and Took another. If you wish to eat, I suggest you participate.”

In response, I’d led Arwa and a couple others, Brutus, Wisterl, Percral, Ilne, and Katre, on a hunt. There wasn’t any interesting prey or geography that I cared to note nearby, but we were lucky enough to stumble upon a small herd, seven, of terrorbirds. Though we were matched in number by the large birds, Brutus easily charged into one and laid it low as it screeched for support, and the rest of my little pack followed suit. Most interestingly, though, was how Percral and Arwa worked together.

I’d never thought much about it, but both had access to lightning magic, and they easily complimented each other in battle. Percral’s magic was much less developed and controlled than Arwa’s, but with both working together, arcs of electricity danced between and through four of the other six terrorbirds. Since all but two of the terrorbirds were laid low by our initial assault, I gestured for Wisterl, Ilne, and Katre to continue towards the little herd, and Wisterl, as always, shifted into an unnerving blend of frenetic energy and efficient slaughter. With two steps she buried the beaks of two twitching terrorbirds into the dirt, then, with an easy slash of her jaws, Wisterl flayed the muscle from one of the terrorbird’s thighs.

It flopped to the ground, screeching in agony as the combat aficionado leaned down and bit through its throat and most of its neck. Looking disappointed, Wisterl left the terrorbird to its terrified gurgles as it bled out and watched Ilne and Katre’s hunt. Though nowhere near as impactful as Wisterl’s own movements, the two females had long since evolved to becoming khatif, and with their strength compared to the terrorbird’s mounting panic, they quickly dispatched the flightless avian.

With my own lack of participation, I contributed by carrying Arwa’s contribution back to the gathered swarm before letting Sybil decide which meat would go where. I took my own serving and settled to the side as I chewed over the fleshy thigh and thought about how best to lead the swarm onward, finally deciding to slow our pace and then, if possible, beginning to scale up our speed as the swarm acclimated ourselves to this new normal.

That was, of course, when complications began to arise.