3-27

Somehow, someone had given Finley, the tallest person in the group, the task of holding all of the things they bought. He didn't mind, as he had brought the large sack to put everything in. He just wished that everybody else would help him out.

Their next stop was to speak to Captain Tasha, and it was going to look odd with all of their shopping list, but he wasn't willing to risk not having fresh ingredients. He could live with people thinking that he was weird. He could not live without freshly baked things provided by Bob.

It was pretty easy to retrace their route back to the distinct building with the guards. By the time they got there, Finley was ready to trade off the sack to somebody else. Everyone else thought it was his responsibility, so he just left it by the guards. He offered them a common card each, but he had a bunch of copies of cleave to give up.

This was exactly why had his wagon. He didn't want to have to do this kind of thing. He did it because he cared. And because he didn't want to have to pay someone to watch his gear.

Once inside, Valerie led them in. She began taking charge, much to Finley's surprise. He had expected Anthony to take a larger role in the proceedings, but he, too, wanted to sit back and see what the dwarf was going to do.

After all, it wasn't everyday you got to train a queen, or at least a potential queen. Even the dark days had some sunshine.

"Good day to you, Captain Tasha," she said, bowing.

"Adjutant Lightfoot," the lizard folk man said. "I'm pleased to say that our messages would hit the first of our neighbor tribes. If they've heard about the movings of the foreign legion, then they will report back," He glared at a scribe who held up to fingers. "...in about two days. I understand that this is of the utmost concern for you. I have sent word to the chief, but she is far inland on a monster quelling quest. She will return with the rest of them when she is ready."

"Thank you. My quartermaster here would like to set up shop. We would like to resolve that today. As well, I have brought the commander of our forces," Valerie pointed out Anthony. "Anthony has a request if you have the time."

"Commander Anthony?"

"Just Anthony is fine," he said. "We want to set up shop here. More specifically, we want to set up a staging grounds and recruit. But seeing as how this job was just given to me, I don't want to impose, a and I understand that it's strange for a human to come into your lands and request for people to sign up on a mercenary venture."

Although Anthony hadn’t mentioned that Yil had appointed him, it was understood. He also had intentionally not showed that he was Valerie's superior in the ranks. That might complicate things. Their current story was that Valerie was the adjutant to an ambassador and had now assumed their role because of the calamity.

The red face lizard man rubbed at his scaly chin.

"You are trying to recruit other humans and dwarves, I take it? There aren't many of those here."

One scribe pulled up a sheaf of paper that had to be a register of humans, elves and dwarves. He began flipping through it.

"We don't know what we want. But we'll take whoever wants to sign up. The pay will be good, and they'll get experience fighting undead," Anthony said. "They'll get cards to fight and full bellies."

"Ahhhh. That is something that many people sign up to do. You're offering the opportunity to kill the undead?"

Tasha leaned in, sniffing deeply at Anthony's musk. Finley had to stifle a chuckle.

"The...er rewards would be great. There's just so many... There's just so much we have to deal with. Even finding the legion can only do so much," Anthony said. "Can you step back a little?"

"Sorry. It's a card scale that tells me the truthiness of someone's statement. It doesn't help if the person doesn't know the thing isn't true. So you are serious about people coming to help you kill Undead..."

His eyes were hungry. Finley was surprised, because he had never seen true hunger in a lizard folk before. He remembered the adage about wanting to sell to a hungry crowd. Perhaps the lizards might be interested in the cakes that he had to sell? He was going to have to ask Bob about what it would take for them to prepare everything so that he could sell cakes.

The idea made him giddy. He realized he had missed a bit there when everyone looked at him.

"Hey Finley, are you okay?" Anthony said.

"I'm sorry. I was thinking about all the cakes that my pack is going to make."

His stomach gurgled.

"Cake?" Tasha said.

"Anyone who signs up will get cake," Anthony said.

"You guys are not making this easy for me, you know. I worked my tail off for this position and then you off me an opportunity to kill undead and eat cake? Gah!" Tasha said. "It's enough to make a grown lizard cry."

This had the effect of disarming the surrounding Caravan members. Even the scribes looked up, awed at how easily the lizard folk seemed to be captured.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"If you'd like cake that much, we can have some delivered," Valerie said. "We can consider it a gift between nations."

"That would be fitting," Tasha said, wiping away a tear. "I would humbly accept any cake as a gift to my peoples."

"I suppose you will submit to being the official taste tester as well?" Valerie said. "Of the Yellow Tails, of course."

"This humble guard captain would.be so honored to do so," Tasha said reverently.

If that was all it took to open diplomatic relations, Finley would be a professional in no time. He checked and his bartering skill had already risen to level five.

The scribe came up with an answer in short order.

"There are a few dozen dwarves in Yellow Tail as well as less than ten elves. There is only one human family," he said. "This information is as of the last census, which was several months ago."

"That's great to know. Now as to the other thing. Perhaps we can find a spot for an official...." Anthony leaned towards Valerie.

"Diplomatic Mission from the Irumian Kingdom. Or the MIK for short," she said.

There was something about an acronym that pleased the humans to no end. Finley was indifferent to them, but apparently the dwarves military had the same persistent urge they did. That she had already come up with the name on the spot gave credence to her ability.

"Can you set up the official mission West of Yellow Tail? I will need to confirm this with the Chief, but once she signs off on it, you would be clear to set up walls."

"We can set up there. For now, we wanted to sell in the markets," Finley said.

“Unfortunately, the merchants guild oversees those.”

"Where is their area?" Anthony said.

“Technically, the entire interior of the city is part of their area.”

Of course it was. Finley was going to have to work against these dark mysterious merchants, who definitely didn't have the same purity of cause that he did. All he wanted to do was kill zombies and make money. Or rather, have someone else kill zombies and profit from the entire enterprise.

"That's something that we'll have to work with then. You'll see us when we make our move," Valerie said. "But we are going to take a few days in a land that isn't infested with zombies to rest."

"By all means, take your time. When the chief arrives I will send a Messenger to your ship?" Tasha said.

That would be great. I think we may park a little closer to the docks now that we have an understanding," Anthony said.

The group exchanged pleasantries and departed from the city center.

-—

Sonya was having a heck of a time linking the two anchor points. They were far from each other. When she used the skill to look at where she had been so far, the entire map of the world had now gotten so large that the anchors meant so much to her.

She tried to zoom in on her location and it got a lot easier to make a gate back for everyone. Anthony had them move the ship close to the docks. It was the calm ride by the docks that let her get back into the groove.

The horses needed to heat. The Sunderland jungles were completely inhospitable for any horse. She had even seen dinosaurs roaming around on the beach now and then. These truly fear some terrible lizards towered over what her height would have been and we're quickly driven off by a contagious cards using card skills.

She knew it was a card skills when they started flinging large balls of flame and lightning. She took a li of pride in seeing how they ran the large scaly reptiles off. This was definitely a mature operation. Without these specific interventions, that the city would have been offered on within a day. Two tall walls but if it had nothing towards a dinosaur with enough leg muscle to end it on below. Thankfully, it seemed like there was a pleasant stream of warriors and guards ready to defend the city and tribe. However, Sonya had a job to do. The horses need to be fed and Finley was going to yell at her if she didn't take them out today. She was just waiting for him to arrive back so she could escort him with the horses and the goats back to the promontory. While they were gone, someone was going to go through and use the cleanse skill to make the boat smell like new. She could not wait.

On the other side of the gate, the air was no longer a stifling humid. She welcomed the cool crisp air that made her feel like it was autumn.

As soon as the gate was open, the goats charged through fell by the horses. Then she stepped through, waving to Zan. They had an unspoken agreement that one of them was going to have to stay with the airship for the time being, while the other one would have to be on call. Either way, the fact that two of them can now use the skill or spell meant they had so many more options.

The first thing that Sonya did was to take a stroll with Finley down to check out the fortifications. They had closed off the Tower Defense when it was built, but there were still zombies lumbering around. Bob had joined them for this expedition as he needed to get some target practice in, so he slunk over with Stella in tow.

She at least looked happy to be back here.

Sonya was happy to be back, but was almost certain that her face didn't show it.

She had gone from the jungle beach all the way back to the land of dwarves and men. One thing that had come up in their time on the road was that the Kingdom of elves and humans were close enough that they had just missed them by a bit. The elves are east of the promontory and the humans were southeast across the water. Finley has been very cagey about the elvish kingdom and she had to ask Anthony to have Valerie fill in some blanks.

Instead of speaking with the queen regent, she was just taking the time to raise the horses and make sure the goats had enough to eat when they were in their goat for him. Apparently, they could eat more while they were humanoid, but it wouldn't carry if we're back to their goat size. Thus, their goat sizes remained static.

Once Bob gave the all clear, she could freely walk about. With his ability to sense how close any zombies were, all he had to do was to pass by the other large mansions on the raised bluff to make sure that none had made their way in during their account way. It had really only been two days and every time they returned; they spent more time trying to make sure that the zombies from the Port City never made it past the sheer volume of Earth that they had placed between them. However, the grass around here was looking a little off. They're going to have to find another place to graze soon if they kept turning here. That or they were going to have to find the farm that had stalks of hay.

She found a pygmy goat in the crowd and approached it.

She nodded to the goat. She might return to dwarf form and speak with Sonya. If so, Sonya had several questions. But if she didn't return, she was going to ask them, anyway.

"Now I know you can hear me, understand me. But I don't need an answer right away. I'm thinking about our problem if we overgraze this area and what we can do next. My first thought, and you can correct me if wrong, is to find the closest farm that has bales of hay that we can take."

She patted the goat’s head.

"If we find that farm, we can solve us having a damn chair in here every time. But also you're from here and you might know if there were any farms nearby without having to look it up. I like a local starch. Plus, I know you will not bullshit at me."

Gigi bleated.

"Of course we can go apple picking. We can go to the winery. I don't particularly care. But if it's less than an hour's walk from here? Then if we can make any girls’ trip. After all, the Earth is my domain."

Sonya smiled, blinked several times and watched as the little goat turned into a fully grown adult dwarf.

"That felt really great," Gigi said."Let's talk about this winery thing, as I have several options for you that are within striking distance."

"Truly? Well, this has been an interesting test of our teleportation powers, no matter what we do."