“Don’t worry boss, I’ll take good care of her.” Hunter said after she’d escorted him back to the cave entrance. “I’ll be getting with Owl two once I get her settled in. Me and Guts will have all the wood elven kids that got abandoned taken care of soon...”
“Dang right we will,” Guts said nodding his head along with Hunter’s words.
“Thanks guys,” Ronin said with a smile. Before he turned and entered the cave with K3. He’d had to be careful to be sure he lost that game. It was a shame that his opening hand had been such a good one, he’d pulled himself and the locust queen. He was considered rare, but the queen was an epic card. The only one in the deck apart from a few epic gear cards like his truck and flight one.
“That was well done, White flame.” Elyria said once the three of them were alone. “Getting that poor orphaned kid out in front of everybody and letting her beat you at that game.” She laughed darkly, “One could almost think you were just one of the people. You even ate with them and everything.”
“What’s your point, Elyria?” Ronin asked tiredly. “Yes, I ate at the camp mess to seem more relatable, and yes, I played the game with her to show how much fun it would be… but so what? Owl two and Benjamin didn’t explain what the cards were for. I’d rather see them playing a game then getting into trouble. But I didn’t take Dandelion in because of any plot. The kid needed someone to take care of her.”
“Dandelion… do you know why she has that name?” Elyria asked Ronin, then proceeded to answer before he could say anything. “Because dandelion seeds are among the farthest traveling seeds there are. The wind picks them up and away they go. That’s what she is, a lonely forgotten Dandelion seed being blown about on the wind.” She said, her hands fluttering around as she walked as if mimicking a seeds flight.
“Not anymore.” Ronin said flatly, “Guts and Hunter are going to gather up all the lost seeds and plant them in out of the cold.” They’d reached the little tent set up behind his pod at this point and Ronin entered with Elyria and K3 still trailing him.
“Doing that out of the goodness of your heart I assume?” Elyria pressed, her voice sarcastic.
“Not at all,” Ronin said thinking about the credits the kids could net him in addition to their plight. “Though I’d be lying if I said it didn’t play a part in it. Those kids really do need someone to take care of them. But the reason I gave you over Lily’s kids holds true as well. In a handful of years, those kids are likely to be the most loyal soldiers in my army.”
“You know what?” Elyria asked, her voice going serious. “I don’t think I believe you.”
“I’m going to take a bath now Elyria,” Ronin said. “So, unless you would care to join me?” He asked as he pulled the grime covered shirt over his head.
“In your dreams,” he heard her say, but she was gone by the time he’d gotten his shirt off.
“I don’t know how to feel about that woman.” K3 said as he began to undress for his own bath.
“You and me both.” Ronin said, climbing into the hot water. It had been a long day, and he was tired. Unfortunately, he couldn’t rest yet.
“We still going to go check out the mine after we get cleaned up?” K3 asked, scrubbing dirt out of his hair.
“Yea, but I want to poke around the cave for a bit first and find the hobat. The map showed his figure being here, and the fact that Owl two hasn’t mentioned him at all since he came back has me a little curious.” Ronin didn’t need sleep every night, so he planned to use his nights to catch up on the duties he’d neglected.
“You know boss,” K3 said looking over at him. “You weren’t here when the ships started dropping the refugees off. In fact, we didn’t get here until the last ship back. It’s not like you were off having a vacation or anything, you were working hard. And even after we got back, you didn’t take a break, you realized the people were being mistreated and went right after helping them… So, try not to beat yourself up like you’re some huge failure alright?”
“I know all that, up here.” Ronin said pointing to his head, “but in here I feel like I failed.” This time he touched his chest. “Since day one, I’ve been going off halfcocked to the next big thing, leaving Owl two behind to take care of everything. I never even thought to check up on him. What if we’d had the gun ship before we got back to the wall? We wouldn’t have come back with the others, we’d have kept going. Leaving all the people we brought back for Owl two and Benjamin to deal with.” K3 only grunted, knowing Ronin was right. They might have come back to a food riot of their own if that had happened.
Having finished getting the dirt off himself, Ronin climbed out of the water. Wrapping a towel around his waist he nodded to K3 before he headed back to his tent to get his armor back on. The sun hadn’t quite set yet, so he had plenty of time. Entering his tent, Ronin finished drying off and hung the towel by the door. He knew it would be taken care of by someone later. Then he went about the time-consuming process of putting his under armor, then his armor on, piece by piece. When he was finished, he topped it off with his new cloak. It would be the first time he wore it outside, and he was excited to feel its weight on his back. The goat’s face with its swept back horns had him feeling a little like a fantasy Viking, but it would be a lie if he said he didn’t feel cool despite that.
“Looking good boss,” K3 said as he exited his tent to find his guard already waiting for him. The Kaldarr was dressed the same as ever, in his white flame armor, full faced helmet, and with his massive hammer and shield.
“Thanks, you too big guy.” Ronin said with a grin, “now let’s go find that hobat.”
The pair started the search at the southern entrance, deciding to do a complete walk through. Looking around, Ronin could see the dropship in the middle of the cave. To his right, towards the northern tunnel, he could see the command tent. While straight ahead was the massive scrap pile and the standing suits of armor.
“Well, he’s clearly not in the command tent.” He said with a chuckle, “let’s check out the scrap heap. I’ve been wanting to look through there anyway.” At K3’s nod Ronin moved forward, moving his way through the standing suits of armor. They stood three rows deep with ten suits to a row for a total of thirty suits. He’d remembered there being more of them, but as he looked, he saw that these were complete sets. Owl two must have been repairing them, using the worst damaged sets as material to salvage the best ones.
“This is great” he thought as he looked at them. “I thought it was a waste due to their size, but some of these would fit the bugbears with a few modifications.” That was good, because they were still short on high-end equipment. Passing through the armor field, however, left him a little disappointed.
“This really is just a pile of scrap,” he said after walking around for a bit. Almost everything was the twisted wreckage of the two Kaldarr dropships that had been destroyed by Owl five. “He isn’t here regardless, lets move on.” He said to K3 who was back in his bodyguard persona.
The next stop on the trip around the cave was the stone carver rat enclosure. It was a large room made from the material Owl two had found the rats didn’t like to eat. Inside the large area were several stacks of cages holding individual rats as well as a few that held a mother and a litter of babies. There weren’t any experiments going on at the moment, so they were all locked safely away in their cages. All except the ten that were off at the mine. Ronin still planned on looking into that when he was done in here.
Not finding anything, they moved on around the outside wall. The next area of the cave contained several large stacks of crates. Many of these were brought in from the caravan Benjamin had arrived on while several others looked like they had been printed from the drop pod fabrication unit. Each was labeled with the contents they supposedly held. Out of curiosity, Ronin popped the lids off a few of the larger ones to double check.
They each held exactly what the labels indicated. Mostly ammunition, weapons, armor and the trade goods they hadn’t found an immediate use for filled the crates. Not that Ronin had honestly expected to find the hobat in one of these crates. He’d changed his goal to include exploration somewhere inside the scrap heap. Realizing that he’d spent far too much time ignorant about his own camp. Clamping the lids back into place, Ronin moved on.
The pair were now mostly around the small cave, coming up to the tents. There were ten of them in the cave still. One was the bath house he’d been using. Although he hadn’t thought about it before, the fact that the room held four tubs indicated that it was a communal building and not solely for his use. He hadn’t thought about that prior for some reason. He’d have to start knocking before he just strolled in, wouldn’t want to walk in on anyone and make them uncomfortable.
“Hey, K3” he asked turning to his Bodyguard.
“Boss?” The Kaldarr asked, still scanning their surroundings. Even here K3 was keeping him safe. Ronin didn’t know who the big guy thought was going to attack them here, but it seemed like a good habit to develop.
“Who do all these tents belong to anyway?” Ronin asked, feeling really dumb. He’d gone right to his pod like a good little boy when Owl two suggested it, and since then he’d been in one meeting or another until he discovered just how badly the people had it. “Stop focusing on that,” he told himself angrily. He knew he’d messed up; all he could do now was move forward.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“That one belongs to you.” The giant said helpfully, pointing at Ronin’s tent. He continued before Ronin had a chance to say anything though. “The next one is being used by K1, K2 and myself. Next to our tent is the one assigned to your bugbear…wives.” He said the last word with an exaggerated wink.
“Very funny,” Ronin said. “How bout the next row?” He asked, looking at the nine tents set up in a three-by-three grid.
“You’re no fun boss,” K3 said with a chuckle before continuing. “The one closest to your tent in the next row belongs to Elyria… she said she needed to be close… in case she needs to kill you.”This time the words were accompanied with a grimace.
“Let it go, big guy.” Ronin said with a half-smile. They both knew that the elf was mostly safe, despite her sharp tongue. Still, for someone whose life’s mission was to keep Ronin safe, he understood K3 had a hard time letting her so close.
“Next to her is one Owl two gave the visiting elven couple.” K3 continued pretending like he hadn’t heard anything. “The last one in that row belongs to unyielding oak… neither she nor the elven couple have used the tents yet, but it was thought diplomatic to let the leadership have them.” As they talked the pair moved through the tents until they arrived at the final row of three.
“Harken was given this one. Like the elves, he hasn’t used it. I think they are too worried that their people will cause trouble if they don’t keep an eye on them.” Ronin didn’t like hearing that. Still, they hadn’t been back here for very long. He hoped to have the camp settled down before too much longer.
“How about the final two?” He asked when K3 finished speaking. “Let me guess, Benjamin and Owl two?” He added with an edge to his voice.
“No,” the Kaldarr said with a shake of his head. “Owl two doesn’t sleep. He has to recharge occasionally though, and he does that in his pod. Benjamin chose to bunk with his men, and Sam and Eric both chose to sleep on their ships when they’re not on childcare duty. No, the last two tents are taken up by a rotating scout and food corps team. Owl two wanted to have them close at hand in case you required something… and the food corps members take care of the cooking, laundry, bath water and so on.” He finished his explanation as they passed by the last tent.
“So, three of them are empty and two of them are for the help,” Ronin thought. “Well, three of them if you count the K brothers as help.” He added with a smirk, not being able to think of his people as ‘help’ for very long. It just wasn’t how he thought of his people, regardless of their actual jobs in the cave.
“Thanks big guy,” he said as they moved passed the tents and arrived at the northern tunnel entrance. “That’s everything in here then.” He said with a sigh, looking around the small cave.
“Not quite sir.” K3 said, pointing towards the center of the cave. “There is also the shop.” frowning, Ronin motioned K3 to lead the way to this shop. K3 led the way back to the drop pod, where he stopped at a work bench next to the fabrication unit. The side that held the unit faced the back of the cave, towards the rat enclosure. Ronin looked at the bench with a frown, it was just a wooden bench with an enclosed storage space beneath the table. A place to work on whatever was being run through the fabricator and to store the raw materials that hadn’t been fed into the unit already.
“Is this bench the shop?” He asked, not knowing what his guard was getting at. His question trailed off as the Kaldarr looked around casually before pressing a few inconspicuous buttons and shifting the bench out from the pod, revealing a stone staircase. “What the hell?” He asked, looking down the stairs. It wasn’t a long way down. Perhaps thirty feet or so, where the stairs ended, and he could see flat floor stretching out of sight.
“Owl two built this place a while ago, he brought me down there to work on my upgrades. I think he stores all the sensitive stuff away down there.” K3 said, motioning Ronin to proceed him down the stairs.
“Why didn’t I know about this?” Ronin asked as he moved his way downwards. Getting angry again at the secrets his people had kept from him.
“Sorry boss,” K3 said from behind him on the stairs. “It never occurred to me that you hadn’t known about it before. Owl two didn’t treat it like a secret, and he’s your assistant, so… well, anyway… I’ve only been down here a few times while he was working on me after the ambush.”
Reaching the bottom of the staircase, Ronin paused to look around. The shop was a small square room, perhaps twenty feet to a side. The walls were lined with shelves and a large work bench took up a large part of the room’s center. There were a variety of things filling the shelves; ranging from odd bits of tech brought back from Andy’s reef, including guns and tablets. To the bodies of stone carver rats and plant matter from the forest. Nearly all the important equipment they’d brought down on the dropship was here too, including his deceased companion’s weapons and armor. Oh yea, there was also an android standing at the workbench. Typing at high speeds on one of the recovered tablets.
“My lord?” Owl two asked, continuing to type as he turned to their entrance. “What brings you down here? If you give me a moment, I am almost done updating the operating system on this primitive device you brought back with you.”
Ronin stared at the android, speechless. Rage started to bubble up again at the thought of his people keeping more secrets from him. Even K3, the one he was closest too, knew about this place. His mouth worked, trying to come up with something to say.
“Oh, very good, I see you are wearing the cloak. Lily came down earlier and grabbed it from the tank.” Owl two said motioning to a large square tank that looked a lot like a hundred-gallon fish tank. Except this tank was filled with an undulating silver mass of metallic… liquid? Ronin shook the thought aside; the tank didn’t matter. What mattered was his people keeping secrets from…
“Wait,” he said startled. “Did you say Lily came down here to pick up the cloak?” He asked, pointing his finger at the floor of the workshop. She’d only been here a few days; how could she know about this place too?
“Yes, my lord.” Owl two said without inflection, “she brought me that goat hide and asked if I could perform my magic on it. I explained to her in detail that what I do isn’t magic, but I’m afraid she simply couldn’t comprehend. Still, she was so excited to give you a gift that I couldn’t refuse. It seemed like a good idea anyway, so I used the nanites I collected from Owl four’s under armor and infused them into the cloak. It will now act like armor and help reduce damage taken from blunt and bladed weapons. Besides…”
“Stop.” Ronin said, raising his hand to stop his assistant. “Why is it, Owl two, that even a newcomer like Lily knows about this place when I don’t?” He asked, heat coming into his voice.
“Sir?” Owl two asked, “we have talked about my work several times over the months. Where did you think I did all that? I might have shown you earlier if you’d shown any interest in the process, but since you didn’t seem to care I never bothered you with it.” Ronin blinked at that, taken momentarily aback. It was true that he hadn’t really worried about how Owl two made the things he asked for.
“What about the key code K3 used to unlock the staircase?” He asked, coming back on track after a second.
“All our most precious and irreplaceable equipment is stored down here, my lord.” Owl two said, “as the prior day’s bugbear problem and execution amply demonstrated, we can’t trust everyone that you brought back with you. Why wouldn’t we lock away the dangerous things?” That took the wind out of Ronin’s sails. He supposed it only made sense to lock away the weapons. The rebel bugbear might have actually posed a threat if they’d had better equipment.
“Fine. I guess I can’t argue those points. Especially if Lily has been down here too… but where is the hobat?” He asked, looking around the shop. There was a lot of cool stuff down here. He didn’t recognize most of it but thought there were some of the more delicate items from the Kaldarr drop ships along with several items from Andy’s reef, including the motorcycle Owl five had wanted. Thinking of her caused Ronin’s chest to twinge uncomfortably. He was pretty sure she would be back today, but he didn’t know how he would talk to her. That went doubly true now that he was ‘married’ now too. “Gosh, my life is so strange anymore.”
“Ahhh,” Owl two said drawing the word out. It sounded very odd in his synthesized voice. “Unfortunately, the hobats are exclusively loyal to the ruler of the city. Trying to get anything out of it, even with the collar on, was impossible. It ended up starving itself to death without giving us anything worthwhile… unless you count how hard they are going to fight us when we go to take the city that is.” Owl two moved over to the undulating mass of metallic silver in the fish tank as he spoke. Picking up a pair of tongs, he dipped them into the liquid and pulled up a familiar hide.
“Hunter heard about the cloak Lily asked me to make for you. She asked if she could get a cloak too. Since she captured the hobat and is the de facto leader of your scout teams I saw no reason to refuse that request.” Owl two let the hide slip back into the silver liquid, that Ronin now suspected were actually an untold number of tiny nanites. Setting the tongs back down, the android turned to him.
“I see that you are upset my lord.” He said, giving a slight dip of his head. “I apologize for the oversight. Had I realized you cared about my work process and not simply the results. I would have told you about my workshop.” Ronin sighed, beginning to recognize the android’s emotional manipulation for what it was… Still, he had a hard time staying angry. The tin can had a point after all, he really hadn’t cared how Owl two made his gear.
“Fine,” he said at last. “Tell me about your current projects then.” Ronin regretted the words as soon as he spoke them. The android’s eyes quite literally lit up as he began walking him through each of the experiments he was currently working on. Nearly three full hours passed before Ronin was able to make his escape. Owl two was still talking when K3 swung the work bench back over the staircase.
“I gotta tell ya boss,” K3 said as they made their way out of the cave. “I don’t think Owl two was ever meant to be in charge of anything but a lab.” The poor Kaldarr had been bored out of his mind. he’d ended up just standing by the stairs while Owl two moved from shelf to shelf to show Ronin their contents.
“I think you’re right.” Ronin said with a sigh, “he does hide things from me, but most of the time it’s because he didn’t think it relevant. Like now, I was ticked I didn’t know about the workshop… but he went overboard telling me about everything he was doing down there in great detail. He wouldn’t have done that if he was trying to hide something… I’m not sure what to do going forward. It’s clear that Owl two and Benjamin aren’t suited to lead in my absence, but who is? I can’t always stay here, and even if I did, I’m not much better at it then they are.”
K3 only shrugged, apparently, he didn’t have an answer either. They walked in companionable silence from the cave. Ronin’s mind distracted by all he’d seen in the workshop and on how to lead his people going forward. He nodded absently to the guards who saluted them as they passed. His mind was running through everyone in his inner circle. Trying to find someone who was suited to a leadership role.
“Sir?” K3 asked after a while.
“Hm?” Ronin answered the question with a questioning noise of his own. “What is it?”
“Are we still heading to the mine sir?” K3 asked now that he had Ronin’s attention. “We spent a long time in the workshop, at the pace we’re going it will be day before we get there. Do you want to run, or take the truck sir?” Ronin’s eyes lit up at the idea of driving his truck for the first time, but he ultimately shook his head.
“Let’s run.” He said at last, “I’d love to take the truck, but it’s the middle of the night. Driving it through camp right now would cause a commotion.” That was doubly true since he hadn’t driven it before. Now didn’t seem like the best time to experiment.
“Understood,” K3 said with a nod. “Then shall we make it a race?” Ronin grinned as he looked up at his friend. The unhappy thoughts fleeing his mind as he anticipated the competition.
“Alright,” he said taking off in a dead sprint. “Go,” he belatedly called back over his shoulder. Laughing as the Kaldarr cursed and tried to catch up.