Bob, the finest thing Mork had to offer, was once again arguing his point in front of the assembled caravan. They needed a lot of things and he was coming up short.

"Not only are we going to need lots of winter coats if we keep doing these trips back and forth; we need to think about if we can't make this ship fly, can we take it south anyway through the sea? I'm told that there is a river that goes all the way to the great ocean below."

Behind him, Valerie was displaying a map of all the tributaries leading to the quiet sea and the great river below it that led to the ocean. They knew they were going to have to cross it eventually if they wanted to get the help they so desperately needed.

It wasn't that they weren't a tough and trained military force. They were just so few.

The past two months had been like boot camp for some of them, molding them into a team that worked together seamlessly. Even their dark humor started to syncing up, as the macabre situation which had spawned so much trauma initially now seemed so removed from reality.

Sure, there were zombies, but Bob could deal with them. They spent a lot of time getting away from them.

If you didn't see the zombies then were they really a threat?

It was the other things that he couldn't deal with. Mainly, the dragons, the sea monsters, and the goats. Those kept him up at night.

Zombies on their own were predictable and defeatable.

"Do you think that the goat faction are going to want to travel overseas with us?" Bob said, looking to Finley, his rock in this situation.

"Wouldn't you?" Finley replied.

The response caught him by surprise. Sure, he didn't want his to be next to a bunch of smelling boy goats on a sinking ship. But Finley? The elf had told him extensively about how much he regarded traveling by boat. Which is to say not at all, don't do it unless there was a clear threat of bodily harm.

He was not kidding about his need to not be stuck in the middle of an ocean without a paddle.

"I guess, I would. But to your point, aren't the zombies avoiding the goats? Or at least I don't think of them as something worth pursuing?"

"They're not in a fated pairs romance!" One of the girls yelled from the back, and he was certain it was Stella. "They are just trying to make their way through this world."

"How would that work exactly? Would one of the zombies realize that they're fated for destiny and to marry a goat that they'd never met before?"

"Yes?" The voice said, hopeful now.

"Well we can let them choose. I'm sure that we're going to find some space in there if they want to come with us, correct? Anthony?"

Anthony, nodded vigorously. This wasn't an airing of grievances though.

This was the normal meeting they had every few days to make sure that everyone was on point. It was up to all and it required the top three leadership positions to attend. Hell, they had pushed this one back because today's expedition had taken Bob a little bit extra.

He knew that they were getting close to exhausting everything that was left at the Plainsmount area.

Then they had two other places that they were going to have to hit up. One of them housed the military academy that Valerie had come from. The other was a town that had little to offer. When they left, they had already picked it clean, but it had no zombies.

"I hate to say this, but we're going to have to think about branching out a bit further. We're going to tap Plainsmount dry soon. I'm thinking that we either need to go back to Dunnamore or find some place else new to gate to. But that would necessitate splitting the party."

"Don't split the party!" Stella yelled from the back.

"Thank you, dear. That's entirely my point. We have to make some decisions soon."

Anthony groaned. It wasn't loud enough to be heard over the rabble. Bob got it from their proximity and his posture.

They had talked about this at length before.

Bob was of the mind that they needed to keep moving around. Anthony didn't want to risk his people when there were so many opportunities close to them.

"We have the whole port city here," Anthony said. "Or half of it. I'm still of the mind that we need to get everything out of it before we move on. Also with the understanding that we have a person here who knows the academy in and out."

The unspoken thing was that the town that was since the academy hadn't been fully opened. And inside of it, inside of the walls that were reinforced was a pressure cooker of even more zombies than could be found where they were. But also potentially more treasure as more nobles had sent their kids there. There were also a smattering of mansions that hadn't been picked clean yet.

There was little problem that it caused them to leave early.

A dragon had shown up and caused things to be completely turned on their heads. It caused them to move out far earlier they intended to and they couldn't have the chance that they needed to pick more things out that would be useful.

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When they returned to the academy grounds, the dragon was missing but the city was notably slightly darker than it had been before. Bob had an inkling that it was the same green undead dragon as the one he has summarily sent into the quiet sea. This might mean that there was another greedy green dragon out there looking to profit from the current situation.

He shuddered at the thought.

"There's no dragon there anymore," Anthony said. "And it's our fall back point, especially once we are able to anchor the gate to something bigger."

One of the biggest problems they had was that the gate spell could only transport one person at a time. It made one portal that was about the size of a door. Their horses couldn't fit through a gate until Sonya figured out how to widen that skill.

Finley and Valerie said that it was possible, but the people who had designed any of the gates that predated the collapse were long gone.

"There is always the option of heading into elven territory and trying to examine one of the gates that they've set up all over the place there. Finley how far are we from the closest gate?" Anthony said, clearly knowing the answer.

"We are about two weeks away from the closest gate and it's on the quiet sea," the elf said. "It would be a bit faster if we took a boat. Remember, we always had the option of giving her a monk class or running skill card and having her run as far as she can everyday and then portal back from where she ends up."

They had talked about that option at great length in their council meetings. The monks that were in the Caravan could run exceedingly fast pace for a long amount of time.

Sonya had two class cards which meant that she could potentially use a third. If they gave her one of the monk class cards or made one for her then she could run a long distance everyday. Even though it wouldn't be nearly as long as a horse could do, it would get faster everyday as she leveled her skills.

Then she would just portal back home at the end of the day, slowly getting a network of connected places where she could get further and further away from the Caravan.

With the combined abilities of her card anchor and her gate skill, she was able to leave little anchors along the way pointing the directions she was looking for. According to Finley, they only needed to come to touch one of the gates in order to get access to the rest of them.

That is of course, unless they were all locked out of the network that had been set up.

"And again, I'm offering," Sonya said from the other side of Anthony. "I just need a monk class card and I feel like I would be better suited on just about any other task that we have for the Caravan. If we're going to be here for the long term that I can start taking some long walks with some friends in the middle of the day and try to bridge the gap."

"I feel like we can wait until we see how fast we can make these ships go while they're in the air. Especially since Finley has now made several air bending skills cards."

Stella smiled at the mention of this very specific air bending skill card that they had put feeling up to making.

Everyone liked the little changes that were apparently due to their presence in the world. He hadn't thought that they would make something like this happen, but he accepted it. It would all work better if they had skills to actually propel the thing that they were trying to move.

"I'm going to be kind of honest here," Bob said. "I don't know why we need to put the ship in the air. You can just take a regular old ship through the water and-"

"Sea monsters!" Several people said at once.

Bob hated Vanessa, the large Quiet seas resident sea monster.

They had done a collaboration before with him giving the sea monster the ability to throw a dragon around. It would make him a formidable friend, but right now he didn't know if the sea monster would attack them on sight or not. The last time it made an appearanc, they'd mostly run away and it had mostly taken up a snack of several dwarves off of the areas closest to the quiet sea.

It was already running low on zombies that were willing to sit around and within range. Something about the ones next to them being eaten changed things.

"I could see how that's a strong reason for us to not stick around in the water. But also I'm thinking ahead to how we're going to land and looks like we're going to have to make a water landing as well. Joe, there doesn't seem to be a reason for us not to take the river if it is actually an option. If it's not an option, someone tell me. Because I really don't know," Bob said, getting ready.

The arguments continued on for a little bit and no accord was found.

"Because we reached this stand still here. I think we need to take two days off and come back to the drawing board. I am specifically telling the scouts to take two days off and really think about how we're doing because we've been here for a while. We've been on the road for a while and it looks like we're going to be on the road again soon," Anthony said.

"In that case, I will call for ending the meeting. Can I get a second?" Bob said.

"I will second that," Stella said.

The council and they assembled members broke up in short order.

Bob was faced with Stella and no one else. In a few hours, they were going to have to make dinner. But right now? They had free time and Stella was coming in ever closer.

When she got a few feet away from him, she pulled him into an embrace. They were about to do something for date night but he hadn't the foggiest idea. It was hard to do things in the middle of a medival apocalypse.

Stella led him up to one of the mansions, holding his hand and taking her time. She led him up to one of the solariums that the dwarves was used to sun themselves.

In this area, they were two easels set up with paint and wine. Bob, raised an eyebrow, remembering that her favorite movie was Titanic. To get a little bit of a show but he had an inkling that he was going to be the subject of her painting. If he said the wrong thing. It would be better if he just volunteered.

"All right Stella, what's going on? Are we painting? Wine and sip? And is this a Titanic moment? Do you want to draw me like one of your French girls?" He said.

Stella, a woman who was accustomed to asking him for dirty naughty things on the regular, blushed. Then she pulled out a case of wine. There were three bottles, a make of which he could not say no to.

Behind him, a table already had several glasses and he grabbed two. Just the feeling of the glass itself felt luxurious as if the thing it cost several hours pay.

And so, Bob found himself stripping down and drinking some wine while his girlfriend painted him. He had to admit that it was nice and relaxing and she had chosen the lighting and pieces that were on the couch very well. When she got tired of painting, she took a turn with him doing the same thing, giving him a little thrill as she undressed and lay down on the couch.

Bob had to work overtime to concentrate on what he was doing because there were so many reasons that he would be diverted. It wasn't until the second glass of wine that both of them decided that they could get back to the painting part later. They wanted each other right now.

Bob approached her with intent and she nearly threw her glass away, trying to pull him in for a kiss. Her fingers were like a sick metal pincers on his back, needing out the tension that had come from that day. Even though he knew that Stella was her own woman, he really worried about how to keep her safe. It wasn't his job, and he had taught her but there was a little voice in the back of his head.

At that very oment, she was drowning that voice in a bathtub. His focus was on her and her focus was on him and he did not care that all of a sudden there was pain all over his back

All that he cared about at that moment was her and getting through all this together. Because they had started out trying to survive and he had never expected to get nearly as far.

He had also never expected her to be able to do the thing with her tongue that made his toes curl. But he was a man who was looking for a little bit of adventure with his new girlfriend. Of course he was going to give her everything that he had.