Good things could gestate just as well as bad ones. Bob, Mork's good thing, itched to branch out. Around him, the horses grazed and the dwarves druids all had began to expand the earthen fortifications.
There was something there. The idea of slowing gaining ground back in a more permanent fashion itched.
"Are you brooding again?" Stella said, coming up besides him. They had picked out a balcony that let them look out over Gloucester and the work that was being done. She pressed her chest against his back.
"Why can't a man brood alone?" He said before realizing that she wasn't wearing a shirt. He wasn't either but he knew that already. It was later afternoon, but they didn't have anything in particular to do.
"You ever think about what it's going to be like after all this is over?" She said. " Or is that all you're doing? Because that's all I can see you're doing right now. Not that I don't think it's hot."
He growled at her, a low guttural thing.
"Oooh."
"It's just that we have to kill some of these dwarves. I know they're already dead but there's just so many when I think about it. I just get weary. Even if all the other death knights were here right now and I killed them? There would still be millions left and the smell?"
He didn't want to admit that the smell was getting to him but they both knew it. Because they were back hit the promontory, they had been given the cleanse gas card. Finley was doing his best to find a replacement but coming up short. The fact that they were on the front line against the zombies meant that they got something great. They got to be able to be clean and feel it. Who cared if they smelled like they were horny teenagers?
Stella surely didn't.
"Were you a pacifist before, Stella?"
"I mean I'd fight a bitch but I wouldn't murder anybody," she said.
"I really want to go track those death knights down. Like this... this isn't me speaking. I want to be safe. I want us to be safe."
She squeezed him closer.
"I want that too. It feels a lot closer now. If all else fails, we can head to Sunderland."
"Oh you want to be safe? Then you need to respect the safe word!" He said.
She pushed him against the sturdy railing. He pushed back, playing along.
"I'll respect the safe word. But this whole thing? Look I know you want to run off and go slay monsters. I get it."
He turned to face her. She was tearing up.
He gently lifted her chin up so her mouth was just underneath his. Then he summarily pushed her against the interior wall, leading her with his hand on her back.
"Stella, you are the best thing that had happened to me here, probably ever. I wish that we had met back on earth. I would have died happy. You're-"
She kissed him passionately, pulling in closer. Her arms gripped his back as he grabbed her by the waist picking her up.
She in turn, wrapped her legs around him.
"There's so much more to look forward to," she said, biting his ear. "I know we said not to make promises in the heat of the moment but..."
"But?" He said, taking in her warm scent.
He kissed her savagely, then let her up for air.
"What would you think about our own cake shop?"
---
Anthony and Cedric had been talking about what could be done once they were together. Their mere arrival had changed so much that Sonya barely got a moment alone with him.
She knew that he felt it too.
They were both tired and wired, the dwarves having a secret stash of coffee that they had given to the chosen. The secrets of their hot bean was was going to be something of great import for the remaining chosen.
The familiar old wood of the cabin called to them.
"Can we stay with the legion tonight?" Gigi said. "It's been a while since we have been around this many dwarves and..."
"You don't need to spell it out. I get it. We are old potatoes."
"It's just that Valerie needs a wing woman and-"
"They are not going to spend a day mourning or something? And isn't she underaged?" Sonya said. "She looks underaged. Do I need to give you both a curfew."
Gigi looked at her ward. She was chatting excitedly with all of the dwarves at the bar. To the rest of world, she appeared to be holding court. Anthony and Cedric were still going on about potential troop movements using the map that Valerie was projecting in the center.
"Well if you don't let her stay, that new commander will be sad," Gigi said. "He keeps her using her powers in several different ways. Some of the guys are calling her the princess general."
"Better than the princess bride, I guess."
The map was impressive, but what was most impressive was that none of the dwarves had walked through the image.
"She's been holding that map up for hours," Gigi said. "But every time she tries to take it down, Cedric gives her a look and I swear she has worse PTSD from the academy than from the calamity. He just had he shut right up."
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"That's a feat right there," Sonya said. "It's hard to make her shut up when she's on about her special interest."
The women shared a knowing glance. Sonya would have diagnosed her with something common, but it was easier to just help her along with it. It was comforting to see that she was among both her people and her dwarves.
"She's changed so much in such a short time," Gigi said. "But we all did, I guess. Gods, I remember not even having the consciousness to know I was on board and now the seventy sixth is going to be a part of this?"
Sonya raised her mug, this time a strong beer.
Seeing her, Gigi raised hers.
"To the princess general!"
"To the princess general! Long may she serve the kingdom," Gigi said. She then slammed her entirely full mugs. "Another!"
They waited for the bartender to come back around.
"How about you? Are you going to make an honest dwarf-er man out of Anthony?" Gigi said.
Sonya gave her a look that was intended to make her with her beneath it's intensity. Of course she has wants ans desires, but they had only been together for so long and they had been through so much.
"I'm just using him for his body. For now," she said.
"I mean technically Cedric is using him for his body right now. His brain ia part of his body. Also his body is there," Gigi said.
"Should I even ask about you?" Sonya said. "Are you going home with anyone here tonight?"
"To their tents? I should think not."
"It would still be an upgrade. I mean you could use our cabin if they won't freak out being that high up."
Gigi smiled back at her.
"Don't offer something that you're not ready to give. I've seen your guest bed."
"The guest bed is yours if these two men take any longer."
---
"What we want to do here is open up a dialogue about potentially using you as a vendor of choice. Now we understand that you rely on Hunters to supply your meat," Finley said to the meat lizard man. "We're going to have a lot of needs to fill and I've been told that your meat can our needs. Honestly, we're hungry for your meat to fill our holes."
"And I want to fill your holes too. I think we can come to an arrangement where I get to meet and I stuff it into your calls and we both walk away satisfied."
The vendor, who went by Steve relied on a network of people selling him meat directly. He would then prepare it and using some card skill make it more shelf-stable. Finley just wanted some meat, and he knew that he was going to need it in volume. That laughing with few options. He wasn't going to raise cattle. He wasn't going to raise a herd of goats because of the implication.
That left asking somebody else to Ranch for him or just just getting a third party to take care of that on his behalf. He didn't have any experience with farming beyond getting things to start growing. I think her lifestyle wasn't one that let him sit around in an open field all day herding something. Learning how to take care of and bring up horses was a part of Tinker culture but they came along with the wagons on their route.
If legion was actually going to show up and help out, they need to figure out a way to feed them. If they had a way of treating that many dwarves already, then he just needs to bridge the gap. Plus, Caravan have been traveling a long distance and without any towns that could actually serve them food, they had been used to eating very salted fried meats.
They couldn't trust any of the meat that they've got on Novaria so this was a huge change. Sunderland, the southern continent did not have a zombie outbreak. Nothing there was suspect.
"Steve, let me ask you another question. Do you have any experience ranching?"
"Ranching? A big commercial Enterprise? There are a few Yellow Tails that can do that but only two of them here do. You need a lot of land. And it's much easier to hunt. Mostly what they do is they raise up bait for the other animals. That seems to be lucrative."
Finley gnawed on his velociraptor leg. The Tinkers had a policy of non-violence, but they wouldn't let any meat go to waste. There was enough violence in this world.
That was why he had sought out Steve. If they were going to actually wage war on continent than they needed help. They needed connections to suppliers that could actually come through with what they needed. Money wasn't an issue. They can get all the money they wanted. Even if they had to change their common and uncommon library into local currency, they would still have whatever they needed. What they didn't have was a guy that could supply them fresh foodstuffs.
What it did have was a local who knew everyone in the market by their first name and scent. Who would know better than the guy who lived off of selling his wares in the market?
"Would you be able to provide some introductions?" Finley said, already knowing in the answer. The best questions got answered before they were asked.
"Of course we could do that. I'll always take care of my friends," Steve said.
"And I'm pleased that you call me your friend. Because that means that we're going to get their friends and family discount, right?" He said, fully knowing that he was about to get stuck with an unimaginable bill.
"Everyone that gets their friends and family discount. It's just what we do."
The bill itself was going to be five common cards. Finley had already checked and he was down to eight hundred commons. It was going to be a daily bill for continued service. Steve would deliver as much meat as he could prepare to them and Finley would have to get more and more cards to pay the guy.
It might be cheaper to just send out his own hunters. If they owned the means production, then things would be cheaper.
"Steve, what would it cost if we brought you the meat to prepare?"
"I could go thirty percent less," he said. "But you understand that I have mouths to feed too."
"They can eat what we catch," Finley said. "You have a family?"
Steve shuffled a bit looking like he was put upon.
"I have two little ones. They're in school now but eventually they're going to need to follow in their father's footsteps, or their mothers. It's a tough life out there, either way."
With the threat of imminent riches coming his way, Steve was going to make damn sure that he was able to get a piece of that pie. Finley, on the other hand, just need to make sure that they were taken care of. If he had the recruit Steve into their organization then that was a whole other thing.
Steve looked like he wouldn't be able to hold up in a fight despite his angular clawed hands and sharpened beak. He sported a gut that made Finley thought that the lizard man had been eating well for quite some time. It was either that or he was pregnant. He didn't know which one was more likely though and he sure as heck wasn't going to ask.
"Steve, we're going to need to open up a dialogue with the other tribes. You understand the situation. What are your thoughts? We need their support to reclaiming the continent."
"I only really know of deals with the peace turtles as they have a good established trade route over sea. You outside is wondering if you were all together but each tribe is its own nation into itself. We send representatives back and forth to discuss monster quell missions that are larger than a single tribe can handle, but that's about the extent of our cooperation."
Steve shrugged. Behind him the market was bustling with activity. Finley would have appreciated it more if he hadn't picked a spot next to Steve. Steve had been talking his ears off all day, and it was only now that they were beginning to get serious. He felt like he was courting the married lizard man with the amount of work that he had been putting in.
"What do you think about the peace hurdles then? We just sent a team over there to make contact and negotiate trade with it. I understand they try the Yellow Tail is a tribe of warriors and hunters. What is the peace turtle tribe about?"
Steve grimaced.
"They are about fleecing you of your money, unless it's in their interest. They are the shrewdest negotiators.... something that we both can appreciate."
They had bonded over both being merchants. For Finley it was a family affair that he had grown up into. For Steve, it was mere survival. Of Elizabeth tribe were smaller than the women, leaving the women to do all of the hunting. Lizard men were faster and better as back on fires where they could wield a spear or a bow to defend.
They just lacked the musculature and
fat stores that the women had that kept them fighting on the front lines. It was those same things that made them able to have clutches of eggs.
A young lizard man stopped in front of Finley's booth.
They cut off their discussion and finally looked directly at him.
"Hello there! Have you considered joining the Caravan of Blades?"