"Can we land anywhere? The horses need to eat," Finley said. "And it would give us a good reason to check out that seam on the starboard side. Plus Valerie thinks that we will hit the southern coast tomorrow."

Anthony gave him the look.

"Might as well. Sophie had been clamoring about a union meeting anyway. We can have the monks scout out a good field."

The tension of the dragon the day prior had evaporated. It was the hunger of the horses and their desire to roam free that had brought new worry to Finley. Even the goats were a bit stir crazy. If he had some time today, he would make some of the base cards to create more druids. Once his horses were happy, he would be happy.

He hoped.

Sophie was waiting by the front, trying to scout out landing sites and talking.

"Sophie, Anthony said something about putting a union meeting on the schedule. We're about to land. If you want to assemble them, I'll be ready to meet your demands."

Sophie smiled and he knew that he was in for a world of hurt.

"As it so happens, we have an agenda," she said.

"Wonderful. I'll be grazing the herd," he said. "So come get me when you're ready."

Sophie rubbed her hands, a sign that Finley would once again be scratching his head at human antics.

----------------------------------------

Sophie helped set out the picnic. A crane with pulleys had been set up on the starboard side. Its ability let her put her box easily on the ground.

She stuffed her box full of meat. A lesser box wouldn't have been able to take so much sausage, but she wanted it filled up. Of course, not everyone could handle so much meat at once, but she had a plan. She had enough lubrication to fit it all in.

Some of the meat had been beaten yesterday. Beaten thoroughly and marinated with some dwarves' special sauces.

She couldn't wait to cook the meat over an open fire.

Charcoal briquettes were laid out on a raised barbecue grill.

"You've really outdone yourself here," she told Andrew.

"I did what needed to be done," he said. "I want your meat in my mouth."

"I'm going to deliver."

"Good, because I have been craving sausage. Stella has been going on about Bob's special sausage... Or was the sausage special?" He said.

"I have a feeling... she was raving about something else," Sophie said, putting the first of her meats onto the grill.

They sizzled.

"You know back on Earth... They say that if you eat a sausage? You become a sausage because you're like a larger casing for the sausage," Sophie said.

"Earth is a weird place. Is the grill to your specifications?"

"Yes. I just hope that no one asks about what kind of meat this was."

She raised an eyebrow to the dwarf, as if asking him to comment. He did not rise to the occasion, much to her amusement. The grill was large enough for a commercial operation at a county fair, exactly what she needed.

Bob arrived with his gear. Cutlery, knives and most importantly spatulas that wouldn't ruin the faux cast iron. Both Sophie and Bob were on the side of not scraping the cast iron.

Two new dwarves joined them to help. They had decided to use their half hour of wild shape time to bus the picnic and also serve a copious amount of beer.

The only person that Sophie had expected to see that hadn't shown up was Stella.

"Have you seen Stella?" She asked Andrew.

"She was on the night shift. Then she asked to scout things out with the monks," Andrew said.

"There are no zombies within about five span," Bob said. "She was looking for signs of life. Also, confidentially, I think she's trying to cut back."

Sophie nodded, working her way around the grill to make sure that it was fully lit. It was evenly cooked.

"Alright, Bob, we are set up. Anything in particular that I'm missing?" She said.

"Yes," he said, rummaging in his side bag.

He pulled out three aprons and three chef hats.

"This may not be strictly necessary, but I thought that we could use these. I have one for Stella when she gets back but-"

"I love it. I think she will love it too," Sophie said.

"Thanks. It's kinda hard to get someone a meaningful gift when you are fighting for your life on the regular," he said. "It's the everyday things that matter. This caravan of people, we are all here together. It might look silly but it's...things like this matter."

"Aww Bob, that's super sentimental," Sophie said. "You sure are a romantic. How does this sausage look?"

She turned over a sausage. It was either browned or burnt, but she wanted an expert opinion.

"My mouth is watering. That dwarfs' spice pallet is going to make us run out of beer and water."

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"Hot sauce?"

Sophie used a pair of custom tongs to grab and move her meat. She picked a good specimen and gave it a nice old sniff.

"I don't think it will need it," She said, letting Bob had a sniff of her sausage.

"Oh this will be good. I'm so glad we went the extra mile with that grinder last night."

"I know! We should turn more animals into sausage!"

Bob smiled. He took the tongs from her gracefully. He began to check through the meat, mostly ribs, that would make or break their cook out.

----------------------------------------

Sonya squealed. Their small picnic was off to a good start, and the food was good.

"This actually tastes good. Fuck, we need to find more crocodiles," she said.

"Spoilers!" Brianna said. "Like we all knew that this was something we killed but that's giving away the game."

"Sorry? Should I have kept that from you?"

"Look. I was vegan back on Earth but I saw that crocodile. He was an asshole. I don't mind eating him one bit," she said.

"Ah yes. Back on Earth."

Brianna leaned in.

"We all know that you used to be a social worker. It's one of the most endearing things about you. But I worked as a dispatcher and yeah, this place feels like something else entirely."

Brianna had long braids that Sonya wanted to touch, but they hadn't been that close.

"Are you saying that this place is heaven? Hell?"

"Closer to purgatory? With magic?" Brianna said. "Look, we level our cards fast here. We have an impact even if we can't see it much. We're going to have to kill what, an entire continent? One that has already died once?"

There was some debate over whether they weren't heaven or hell for a while. Sonya fell strictly in a camp that was outside of that normal rhetoric. And as such it should be treated separately.

"You're thinking that this is purgatory? This isn't some long running NBC drama series where the writers don't know how to end it," Sonya said. "We can write our own ending."

"All I'm saying is there's just a lot going on and if I was going to design a hell I would make it a bit more hellish. By extension, if I was going to design heaven, it would be much easier than this. This isn't going to stand for the fact that I could have asked for this and then had my brain wiped."

"That's a very far leap. But yes, I understand what you're saying."

The two of them went back for seconds.

"Has Stella come back yet? I haven't seen her and it's not like we used to be where there was only like sixteen of us. With all these goats around and horses, they can easily hide. I didn't know she's mad at me or something. I doubt it," Sonya told Sophie.

"They're due back in any minute now. I can hear the horses off that way..."

So when it was earlier to see your friend coming back over the ridge. She was happy to see the monks with her as well. Had she been paying attention? She could have seen them, floating around. That small perspective shift made her remember. Now everyone had a lot of powers related to movement or air affinity. She needed to take those things into account.

"Do you think they found anything useful?" Brianna said.

"That'll be great. But I really hope that they are excellent. Absolutely nothing of any I know. I would love for them to come by and have some meat."

Brianna did a little dance.

"I would love some more of your offering. Being out of the cell is safe and sounds nice. I am sure that you want to talk to her about all the things she's seen."

"If we stay here any longer, am I able to start creating a Tower Defense to mess here. Maybe you should start to create one- a memorial."

Those words came spilling out. She wanted to honor the dead. She also wanted to bury them to make sure they did not rise up again.

So I didn't know what to do about a memorial. She'd thought about it at a great length.

Though she had seen many good ones at a time, the calamity that had caused this had done so much to upend society here. It was effectively gone, only some remnants remaining.

"A memorial," Brianna said. "Like a stone slab with all of the victims' names? No, there were far too many. It would have to be a simple, universal design. Something that would stand the test of time. There's no icon for this. There's no pre-made artist rendition of the morning after the zombie apocalypse. But if there was one, I would hope that it looks something like hope. This place eats hope. It may never recover."

"The best we can do right now is to make sure that it doesn't spread further. Then we can take stock of what's going on here," Sonya said. "Ah I see that Sophie is about to call this meeting to order. Good stuff."

----------------------------------------

There weren't that many things to address. People asked for more of the same meat. People asked for more druid cards. People asked for warm mug cards. The only thing that everyone was satisfied with was their bending cards. As Finley had gotten really good at making those, he was able to fill in this demand very easily. Now he had six druid cards for the goats.

He was going to have so many new friends that he wasn't going to know what to do with them.

The union talks peered out without resolution or direction. Perhaps it was the excessive amount of alcohol that they had brought or perhaps it was the fruit, from all the meat. Either way, the uproar that he was expecting to have happened did not show up.

He was really hoping for something like that. But in the end he didn't get it.

Oh well, there was always next week. He was going to have to find another crocodile, if this one worked so well. Again, the people to be happy and content, what would another one do?

Soon, they would have finally reached the southern ocean and passed into Sunderland.

That part he was dreading the most. In their travel he'd pick up a book or two about Sunderland. There wasn't much about the people.

It was mostly lizard folk villages on the coast. With some elvish and dwarfish enclaves as well. He did not expect them to be able to get what they wanted.

There was no big industry. He was hoping that Valerie would be able to recreate what they needed, once they got closer.

Finley made a mental list of what he was trying to put together. First of all, there was another butt load of meat. Then there were the cards for the rest of the goats. That would have to be on the highest priority as it would help the goats do even more for them.

Then there was things that he thought they would need to get their way in Sunderland. If they were trading, dwarven ale was very favored by the lizard folk. Dwarven beer as well would be great. What would be great would be to raid a winery or some noble wine cellar.

He wasn't surprised. That was his next step. Several mansions held a good supply of wine he could offer.

He had wanted to drain them out with a supply. But once they were fully in Sunderland it would be child's play to get all the wine to the people that needed it. That he would have to make sure that he got some beer going as well.

Come think of it, if he found the people that knew how to work a brewery? He could just take over one of the many breweries that dotted the kingdom of the dwarves. Who would challenge him for that? Nobody.

If he combined his idea for air delivery air and fire benders? He had a viable business opportunity. He would use his airships to ship beer, wine and ale. Then he would use those connections to complete his plan for economic domination.

His biggest outstanding question was what did the lizard folk actually like. He had no context for this. The best he could guess was probably just something that everyone knew, we just to say their preference on how they do meat. He only had rumors to go off of.

He had avoided any ridiculous questions from the humans when he sat down. That was what he got the attention of. He waved it off, trying to make sure they knew that he was there but he just wasn't available for that right now.

It was the second voyage. Watching the air might be more appropriate.

He settled in to pet the horses. He brought his fresh. Just see if you could arrest you on some mains. The entire time that they had been with the ship, he hadn't gotten a break.

Now? When he had a chance to pick a break, he doesn't even take one. This was something that he must have picked up from humans. They almost seemed a crazy way away from normal, Just the same as he was. Perhaps? They were rubbing off on him. It explained so much.