Finley's barter skill had gotten to level six. It was a testament to the amount of wheeling a dealing that he had to do with the tribe. The fact that they had only made real contact with two of them so far and there were 13 tribes meant that he had a lot of work in the future, but right now he had to focus on developing relationships. It was a rare time when all of the tribes would get together to talk.

"I've only seen it once," Steve said. " Representatives from every tribe were sent to the peace turtles to keep the peace. The hardest thing they had to agree to was when the next meeting would take place and where because the peace turtles are the most equidistant."

The continent of Sunderland was long, but eventually it ended on either side giving way to ocean. The two furthest tribes to the east and west had circumnavigated the globe and found out that they could make their way across the rift. The distance was far, but there was no other way to get to the southern hemisphere except for heading through hundreds of span of thick jungle.

"So when is the next one going to be?" Finley said.

"Too far in the future. You should be asking where."

"I suppose it's going to be here? This is close enough to the peace turtles that it makes sense. Especially if their people are coming from east and west far distances."

Steve looked pleased. Of course he did. He loved getting in those little jokes and innuendos that led to better jokes. He was also committed to getting people on his side which is how he became fast friends with Finley. There was no faster way to emergency heart than to commiserate about how things were going. That or buying something from their shop, or in the most extreme case like Finley did basically hiring a shop full-time to work for him because they needed the meet and he had the connections.

"Well, if it's not going to be anytime soon, I'm not going to be worried about it. But us having an airship makes travel a lot easier and safer, especially if there are so many terrible lizards around as you think there are," the elf said, stacking another crate for the shipment.

It felt strange. Stacking up crates of meat that we're not going to be eaten where he was but it was needed on the front lines so he was going to do his best to get it out there. He wasn't one of the children so we didn't have to participate in the fighting anymore. It was both a relief and not the same time. He could do more for them just by doing what he had to do out here. Once they had enough supplies and land they could start farming and then he would make his exit back to his home continent. He might swing by the dark elves first though.

"There are a lot of lizards. And when we don't set up a city like this, they are more willing to head out to the beach to go catch some fish or any adventurers that have decided that their lives are not worth it anymore."

Having only eaten the meat of the terrible lizards, Finley could only guess what that would look like. His best guess was that it would look delicious. He liked delicious things. Those sold well. But it was probably just his Tinker brain trying to remind him that before all this he was just trying to get better at selling, having failed so much.

Tinkers didn't have to pay for their wagons, but if he hadn't had one handed to him, he probably would have been in arrears for a loan to an orcish accountant somewhere. Then he remembered how many orcish accountants had died recently and his face returned to a mask.

At that time the gate opened up. Through the aperture, Finley could see a new area.

"Hi Finley!" Sonya said, stepping through. "We're coming straight from the front line here. My guys are hungry. Do you have anything for them?".

It was not yet lunch time where Finley was but he had already prepared the meals for the two companies that were in the thick of it.

"This right here is ready for you," He said pointing to four crates and a large pot. "Of course he going to need to have a specialist move the pot because the stew is getting to that point where it's almost ready to eat."

Steve disappeared to the front and returned quickly with a barrel under each arm. His scaly arms couldn't fully reach around either barrel so it looked a bit precarious.

"Here are two barrels of water for you," Finley said as a handful of dwarfs stepped through the portal. He motioned to the barrels which were quickly picked up.

"Do yee have another?" A bushy bearded dwarf said.

Steve indicated for the dwarfs to follow him. The dwarf returned with two more full barrels.

"I'm going to need the empty ones too. A pleasure doing business with you," Steve said.

The dwarf grunted a reply before heading through the gate.

"How's the fighting going?" Finley said.

"You know what I never expected? A trained group of soldiers without any classes. It's like some of them only have a card or two. Sure. They're like good cards but I expected them to all have like a warrior class or something like that. Turns out only some of the more veteran ones could afford those things."

Sonya took a mug out from beneath some of her robes and walked over to Finley's personal water supply. She poured herself, a mug, drink it, and then filled her mug again.

"We really need to figure out how to get more beer into production," she said.

Sonya, having been very pale when he met her, supported a deep tan underneath her brown mousy hair. That accented her full sleeve tattoos on both arms. Those tattoos were on full display as she flaunted her sleeveless mage robes that sat over a pair of hospital scrubs. She was from some far northern province on earth where they took the cold seriously.

"Aren't some of the dwarves locals to Gloucester?" Finley said. "They would know where to find more of those small breweries."

Finley was itching to find a brewery where he could just sit for a few hours safely. Sure, he was safe in the lizard folk lands, but they did not cater to the specific needs of the more humanoid races. Everything was meat and complimentary of meat. Only small group of humanoid merchants in town where able to commiserate with him.

"I'll put a call out for the location of a brewery. We're going to have to seize the beer before everyone else shows up and tries to drink it dry. These soldiers have already done that to two breweries and I just hadn't thought to mention it to you."

The nature of soldiers everywhere was to drink. The natures of these specific soldiers was to drink him out of any ability to stock up beer. If he was able to get any, it would disappear faster than the Steve's meat did. This meant that though he was able to get some things to keep the army moving, the things that they really wanted they couldn't get. He could take care of the needs pretty easily.

"Any chance we can get some beer?" A dwarf loading a crate into his arms said.

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"We're fresh out. I'm sorry," Finley said.

"It's okay."

The dejected dwarf carrying a large crate of meat.

"It's tough when you can't get the thing that they want," Finley said.

"We're not going to win this based off of beer alone," Sonya said. "It just helps with morale. And yeah they are killing their countrymen but... This is about as tame as we can get. Killing a man or a dwarf...It just feels unnatural now. Like it's become commonplace."

Finley nodded. She sounded like she was in a venting mood so he wanted to let her have that.

"Have you ever thought about it? Just like how money we've killed? We all had families and hopes and dreams before they became zombies and now they are a more."

She got a little choked up. Dwarves moved about her. He knew that she was holding the spell open for them and would probably do so for about five minutes before she needed to take a break. That she could hold the gate for so long was ridiculously overpowered in his view. Just the amount of strength to talk to hold the gate open for a minute- that felt like an unattainable goal.

"Why would we not feel terrible about this? It's like it takes away from you to kill somebody. But the thing that it takes away you never get back."

"That is a little real for lunch time," Finley said.

"Sorry to just dumped it on you right there. I know we were talking about beer and I got a little bit carried away. I'm just... I'm ready. Take a break from all this."

Definitely not at it. Were there activities ramping up now that they were moving troops forward to the battlefield and moving the battlefield around? Trying to get a look at the Irumian Capital. All the chosen had been asked to go to the front lines. This meant that they didn't really have a break like they used to when they were just taking the Caravan around. Even Anthony, the leader of the chosen, had to ground the airship and hand over control of it to the seventy sixth legion so he could set up a field hospital.

The illusion that they had of time to rest had quickly and been dashed. Travel time had dropped to zero.

"Where are you headed to next?" He said.

She sighed.

"I'm headed to the peace turtles land. At least I'm going to be able to take a break there because they're going to have to assemble a full platoon to send through. I might be strong but I can only do this holding open the gate thing a couple times a day. They have Zan moving troops around the front lines all over. She's also relaying reports from the four commanders back. And then once the reports have come then she has to take the orders back to the three companies so they can adjust what they are doing and... It's just a lot."

Finley blinked several times. She had the card, which meant that she was going to have to do a lot. Zan's ability to learn the gate spell had done a lot to alleviate the groups burden. Of course this just meant that they could do more with more once the dwarves figure out how to employ their powers. Valerie had already been working them nearly to the bone regularly.

"Cedric and Valerie are doing this to you guys aren't they?" He said, completely knowing the answer.

She shrugged.

"She's good. I'm afraid of getting a skill up now that will enable me to do more between the defense walls and the gates...then Valerie will find out and 'optimize' me."

"I too live in fear of the coming optimization. Damn dwarves always trying to get more out of people. Ah it looks like that is the last box, then. I don't suppose you can stick around for a bit longer? It's getting a little silly here is all and I miss you guys."

"It might be the forced trauma bonding, but I miss you too. We all miss the easy life traveling across the continent. Still, duty calls."

They embraced and said their goodbyes. Sonya would be back the next day and he was going to have to have more meat for them then.

He regarded the camp beyond the gate. It looked like it needed a bit of work and he itched to join the dwarves. He didn't want to fight, but he missed the camaraderie.

The gate closed and the view of his home continent disappeared. There had been a bit of the smell of sweaty dwarf, something that he didn't want to miss but it felt contemplative.

"Hey boss," Tumble said, his snout poking out from behind the front door.

"Tumble. Why are you here?" Finley said.

"Checking the order for tomorrow," the lizard folk said.

Finley found his desk with the requisition stamp on it with the official seal of the office of the legions commander.

"Oh, well isn't that interesting?" He said. "They're asking for double rations tomorrow. Do you think that is possible?"

Tumble shrugged.

"I don't know. I just get the meat. That's what like two of the larger beasts, right?"

"Based on the weight alone, yes. We're going to need more boxes as well. Ah, they didn't bring back the old boxes. Of course they didn't. I gotta yell at them."

Finley looked around. He had precious few boxes left. They had to be specially prepared.

He had been looking to standardize the box sizes as he was working with whatever he could get his hands on.

Well if they could ask for food, he could ask for them to return their boxes and get more.

"Tumble do you have a lead on anyone who makes boxes in town? Know any wood workers?"

The lizard folk purses his lips. He shook his head no.

"How were the walls made, then?"

"Card skills."

"Of course. It would be card skills."

"Ah. Then those cards must still be around then?" Finley said.

"Unless the carpenters that had them died gloriously in battle," Tumble said.

For a moment Finley realized that the young lizard folk had been serious.

"Seriously?" He said. "Wait what does the tribe do with cards when elders die? Especially soul cards."

Tumble was great at combat. He and his brother were not great at planning long term. They had come to the caravan because they thought that they might make a quick study of their airship and make off with something valuable. They both learned a strong lesson that day about not crossing the chosen.

Both brothers has signed up with the Caravan of Blades company, acting as recruits to help out the larger campaign. As they were locals to the Yellowtail tribe and the sons of the tribal chief, they had gotten the dubious honor of checking that the requested supplies arrived in a timely manner.

They also potentially knew a lot about the political reality inside of the tribe. It seemed however, that they were not understanding some fundamental things about how cards got into circulation.

"That... Uh....hmmm."

"If you can't tell outsiders, then I understand but most cultures pass down their cards."

Tumble looked adrift.

"Well how about I explain how things work for the Tinkers and then you can tell me if that is how things work around here?"