Reclining in the copilot’s seat, Ronin grinned as they flew. He was enjoying Sam’s whoops of excitement as much as the flight itself. She clearly preferred the gunship to the dropships, and Ronin had to rein her in more than once when she started edging the speed up.
“We’ll have plenty of opportunities to light er up,” he said with a chuckle. “But right now, we need to stay with flight one and two. Besides, Owl five is flying flight one. I don’t want to put too much pressure on her with so many people on board.” His emotions were still a jumble regarding Owl five. He’d put them on the back burner of his mind though because he had too many other things to worry about.
“Ok boss,” Sam said with a pout. “But you’re gunna love having this baby as your primary ship. She’s fast, agile… well more agile than the dropships anyway… and packs a punch. We’ll need to train up a few dedicated gunners. It takes three people to supply this puppy with ammunition and keep the guns firing. With that big tank gun back there, the queens…” Ronin let her ramble on about the ship as he looked out the window. He was glad Sam was happy with the gunship. Morale was an area he knew he needed to focus on. With so many new people coming to the valley, it would be more important than ever.
Flying over the valley, Ronin saw several armed and armored figures on top of the inner wall. Then he saw the gardens. There looked to be hundreds of goblins swarming over them, pulling weeds and swinging shovels. Then they passed the mine, more armed and armored men stood guard outside of there. Ronin frowned, wondering why there were so many people on guard duty. Upon reaching the camp, Ronin looked down at the milling mass of people in a daze. It hadn’t struck him until now, just how many people they were bringing back compared to how small the tent city was.
Settling down beside flight one and two, Ronin bid farewell to Sam and exited the craft. Outside the ships he saw several humans, some collared and some not, holding clipboards and shouting.
“Line up please, one at a time off the ship. Find one of us with a clipboard and report here before departing. We’ll need your name, age, sex, profession, along with a few other details to get you settled into our temporary camp.” Looking at the speaker, Ronin recognized the captain of Charles’s Guard. The man who’d called him a peasant and threatened him. The thing he really noticed, was that the man wasn’t wearing a collar. Frowning darkly, Ronin approached the man. Causing the wood elf, he'd been interviewing to take a step back.
“Captain Frank,” Ronin said pulling the man’s name from somewhere in his memory. “Why aren’t you in a collar?” he asked the question directly, not bothering with niceties.
“My lord,” the startled man said with a deep bow. “It’s just Frank now, my lord.” He said with an uncomfortable expression, “ah, the collar… Owl two put me and a few of the boys on parole, for good behavior, sir.”
“Good behavior?” Ronin asked with a raised brow.
“Yes, my lord.” Frank was quick to explain, “you see, not all of us was happy with the way we were doing things back with lord Charles. It was just how it was though, so we did it. But, after coming here and seeing how you did things. Well, it got a lot of us thinking on how it could have been before. So, when it came to training or our work details, we gave it our all to show we was loyal. Owl two noticed, said we deserved a chance to prove ourselves. And since we could read and write, he sent us here to help sign in the new recruits.” He said, finishing with another bow.
“I see,” Ronin said thinking about what he’d been told. “Very well then, Frank. Keep up the good work, I look forward to the day you get off parole for good.” With a nod to the now beaming man, Ronin walked back over to his party. He didn’t know how to feel about those men being uncollared. He would have to talk to Owl two about it, but for now, he needed all willing hands to help carry the load.
“Welcome back, my lord.” Owl two said, having appeared out of nowhere. “You’ve brought back more mouths for us to feed I see.” Sarcasm didn’t come across well on the android’s monotone voice synthesizer. For a moment, Ronin contemplated getting the android an upgrade, then discarded the notion. He didn’t think he could handle that much snark, even from his irreplaceable assistant.
“Hello, Owl two.” Ronin said, with a wan look around. “I didn’t realize it out in the field, but we really don’t have enough room for all these people, do we?” The dinosaur hide houses they’d gotten from the small town were over-flooded with people. Smaller tents had been set up at random and there were several more people just laying on the ground.
“It’s worse than that, lord Ronin. They’re starving.” The android said with a sweeping gesture around the tent city. “The valley can’t support this many people. We’ve already hunted as much of the local wildlife as we can safely take. The farms should go a long way to alleviate the problem, but the crops won’t be ready for several weeks. With the addition of the refugees getting off the ships now, I’m afraid there will be rioting soon.”
“Well, damn.” Ronin thought, thinking through his options. The lake at the center of the valley had fish. There were mushrooms and giant ants from the mushroom forest. The river underground was also filled with odd-looking fish the trogs had been eating. He ran those ideas by Owl two while he kept thinking. Guts, who’d wondered over during the conversation piped up.
“What about the trogs?” he asked, “from what Grub was telling me they’re still thoughtless rage monsters.”
“I don’t think that would go over well with our elven guests.” Ronin said with a shake of his head. The stink they made over eating locusts… now that was a thought. He turned it over while Guts piped up again.
“How about their eggs then? Those haven’t hatched either and they’re still dropping them. And what about those big rats? There’s a ton of them up there now.”
“No, Guts.” Ronin said again. “Though if you’re right and they haven’t shown any improvement, we need to cut our losses there. Those beasts eat more than we can afford to feed them. But what about locust limbs?” he said, posing his own question. “There is a lot of edible meat on one of those bugs. We could send flight two back to the bugbear clan city with K1 and K2 along with a group of soldiers to farm more meat.”
“I agree, my lord.” Owl two said. “I’ve just finished reviewing all the data you brought back with you.” Ronin tried not to whistle at his assistant’s processing speed. It was a good thing, it meant that Owl two could always be up to date on everything. At least he hoped it was a good thing anyway.
“There are several things that require our immediate attention. The first and foremost priority however is food.” Owl two took charge of the conversation then after his few minutes of silence. A few minutes in which he absorbed a weeks’ worth of information. “We have already been fishing the lake, lord. But we haven’t utilized the mushroom forest for food yet, I’ll put together a team of scouts and food corps. The stone carver rats are inedible I’m afraid. The heavy metal toxicity in their blood would do more harm than good.” He continued to spout off thoughts and insights that Ronin had to strain to follow.
“I will dispatch the trogs immediately. I had wished to break them, but there are plenty more in the undercity if I want to try again. Unfortunately, we can’t fish in that river. Not until we conquer the undercity anyway. We would be discovered right away. The locust limbs though. That’s an idea I hadn’t already thought of. Good job Guts,” Owl two praised. “I’ll get both dropships loaded up with a mix of our men and the most helpful members from the new group. If we keep them busy than they shouldn’t find it to hard to stay loyal to us.”
“Lord Ronin,” he said once he’d wound down a little. “I suggest you get some sleep in your pod. You have been on your feet constantly and you will be needed at your peak to assist with matters in the camp. I will deal with the food situation based on what we discussed here. But be ready to solve more problems when you wake up.” having finished speaking, Owl two strode off without a backwards glance.
“Well then,” Ronin said with a shake of his head. “Guess I’m going to go get some sleep.” He might have argued, seeing just how hectic everything was, but he was tired. The trip had been an emotional rollercoaster, as well as incredibly taxing on his body. A few hours in the pod would do him a world of good. Nodding to his people, Ronin set out for the cave with K3 in tow.
The entire place was a cluster. He didn’t know how they could possibly settle everyone in. The valley just wasn’t large enough. There was the town of valley’s pass, but Owl two hadn’t put anyone in there for some reason. He’d have to just trust his assistant; sleep was his order for the day. Arriving at the southern tunnel he found it guarded by a mixed group of human soldiers and Kaldarr warriors.
They bowed low at his approach and moved aside. Ronin noted that none of the humans wore collars and one of the four Kaldarr didn’t either. It looked like the loyalty conditioning that they’d been putting the men through was having an effect.
“Thank you,” Ronin said giving the men a salute. “Your service is greatly appreciated during this hard time.” He was parroting the star ship captain with the words, but they seemed to work. Smiles and nods broke out between the warriors, and they all stood a little straighter. Moving passed them, Ronin found that the whole cave had been marked out of bounds. He was relieved, if someone untrustworthy got their hands on some of the Kaldarr weapons they’d stashed in here. Well, he didn’t want to think about it.
“Make sure you get someone else to stand guard.” He told K3 when they reached the pod. “You need to sleep as well, and I can’t have my right hand too tired to fight with me.” The Kaldarr snorted at the jab but nodded his head.
Climbing into his pod, Ronin let out a relieved breath. He’d made it home. He knew that tomorrow was going to be a nightmare, but he couldn’t worry about that now. The comforting hiss of pressurizing air lulled him to sleep within seconds.
“… that’s why I think we shouldn’t pursue that course of action.” Benjamin said thumping his meaty fist on the hardwood table.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“But the food corps is proof the training is effective. Besides, it gives everyone something to do.” Guts shot back glaring up at the military man.
Ronin kneaded the flesh between his eyes as he tried to suppress the growing headache. The meeting was dragging on far longer than he was comfortable with. He looked at his self-proclaimed personal cook. Guts was arguing with Benjamin about the benefits of offering schooling to anyone who wanted it. Benjamin on the other hand, thought they should focus on military drills to get everyone ready for the upcoming campaign.
Letting their voices drone into the background, Ronin took a moment to look around the room. Owl two was seated across from him like normal, next to Benjamin. Guts sat to Ronin’s right since Owl five was off flying flight one on the food gathering mission. That left Samantha, who’d stayed as his pilot and was present for her participation in the goblin crossbreed experiments. Harken, who’d become the spokesperson for the White flame clan’s people, and Unyielding oak for the wood elves. Finally, there was Elyria, who never strayed far from his side, and Lily… who claimed that she was his new wife, since she submitted her clan to him.
That was another headache all on its own. Ronin had been shocked that morning when his pod opened and he’d found Safie, Vasylia and Lily all standing around. They’d been arguing over who was first, second and third wife. Being held back all the while by a confused scout team. Ronin had thought six guards was a little overkill, but he hadn’t managed to hold onto the thought with the commotion taking place.
The results had been Lily as first wife, Vasylia as his second wife, and Safie coming in third. That’s why Lily was at this meeting. Strangely enough, Owl two had endorsed the coupling strongly. Telling Ronin, it would tie him to the bugbears tighter than putting collars on them all could have. Though he did warn him that it would take longer.
“I chose who among my clan would live or die under the understanding that there was to be a school for them to attend.” Lily said, speaking up for the first time. Ronin looked over at her, she was wearing the thin purple robes again but had the dagger sheathed at her waist as well. Ronin supposed it was some custom or another from her clan.
“I understand that it might be difficult, but we simply can’t spare the manpower on that when the people are starving.” Benjamin said with fraying patience. Ronin looked to Owl two and Elyria, who were the only ones who hadn’t spoken out on the issue. Owl two was just sitting there quietly, who knew what his computers were processing behind his helmet. Elyria, in contrast, had her chair tipped back on two legs and had her feet resting on the wooden table. She was twirling her knife between her fingers carelessly and staring at Ronin meaningfully.
“Ahem” Ronin cleared his throat to get the others’ attention. He didn’t know what Elyria meant by that look, but he knew he needed to do something. “I’m sorry Benjamin.” He said, deciding to just go with his gut. “But I told Lily there would be a school. I also told Guts that we’d teach the goblins about first aid, and cooking and well everything else.” He paused, looking around at the other faces present. “I know we’re in a tight spot, thanks entirely to me bringing back more people than we could sustain.” He decided that taking full blame was only fair, since it was his fault.
“However, we have them here now. I agree that we need to make capturing the undercity our number one priority. But the food shortages and the non-combatants being left to their own devices caused a civil war in the old White mane clan. I don’t want that to be repeated here. Maybe they can’t fight… or won’t…” he added for Harken and Unyielding Oak’s benefit. “But they can make clothes, forge armor or tools, work in the mines, or the fields, hell we’ll be swamped with Locust bodies soon. we can make armor and weapons from their exoskeletons and talons. It’s not as good as steel, but we could arm more people faster that way.” He looked around at everyone again.
“We have a few good people who know how to do a few vital tasks. We also have a lot of untalented people who don’t know how to do anything. That’s the whole reason for having a school. It’s no different than the drills you want to run Benjamin. Only for different skills. We’ll be attacking the undercity soon enough, until then, I want everyone busy.”
There were murmurs of agreement from a few of those seated at the table. Benjamin didn’t look happy, but he nodded his agreement. While Lily actually reached over and squeezed his hand. That was a strange experience, to be sure. The reaction he was most interested in, however, was Elyria’s. Unfortunately, her expression had blanked again, and he couldn’t read anything in her eyes.
“Understood my lord.” Owl two said from where he had been sitting like a statue until now. “I’ve been tabulating options for either side of this debate and now that we have settled on a course of action, we need to decide who will lead each group. You mentioned forging armor or weapons. Unfortunately, we don’t have someone in our original camp with this skill, any suggestions for the post of smithing instructor?” He gestured at the map of the valley, to the area around the landing cave. There were so many statues clustered there that Ronin could hardly see the map below them.
“Vasylia,” Harken said after the silence had dragged on for over a minute. “She is very talented and loves the craft. She would make an excellent teacher.” Ronin had a hard time seeing the gruff woman as a good teacher.
“That sounds wonderful,” Lily said with a smile. “It will be good to have my sister wife in such a high position.” Since no one had any objections or other candidates that one was easy to settle.
“Very well,” Owl two said. “Next, we need an herbalist, a medic, a tanner, a potter…” Owl two continued his list until Ronin started to forget the first professions he’d mentioned.
“Time out, Owl two” he said with a raised hand. “Let’s just take it one at a time. The rest of us don’t have your head for numbers and memorization.”
“Speak for yourself, I was keeping up just fine.” Elyria said with a scoff, causing Ronin to pinch the bridge of his nose again.
“… So, an herbalist. Who do we have in mind for that?” he asked, ignoring her entirely.
“I’m an herbalist,” Elyria said, shocking Ronin. He turned his attention to take in the elf with a frown.
“Elyria?” he said her name as a question, not sure if he’d heard her correctly.
“I said, I’m an herbalist. Having trouble hearing now too?” she said with a glare. “I won’t do it full time, so you’ll need somebody else too, but when I’m not following you around, I’d enjoy teaching young minds the love of plants.” Ronin looked at her again, sitting with her feet up and her chair tipped back. She still had the same untrusting expression on her face, but since she’d gotten her own equipment back, she looked different. Ronin couldn’t put a finger on it but, she looked, more refined perhaps.
She wore silks in a smoky grey and her silver armor had been patterned in flames. Ronin didn’t know when she’d had time to have her wardrobe redone in his colors, but the moon elf wore it well.
“My people are also well versed in herbology.” Unyielding oak said after Elyria had finished. “We may not be as advanced as our celestial kin, but the wood elves know the forest. We also have candidates for the medic, tanner, and tracker positions.”
“We have several excellent crafters among our people as well. We can teach stonemasonry, carving, and the best way to get usable blocks from a quarry.” Harken said when Unyielding oak had finished.
It looked to Ronin that neither the bugbears nor the wood elves wanted to be outdone by any of the other races present. Which was fine by him, because in short order they’d filled all the teaching positions. After that it was just a matter of ironing out class size and attendance, while being sure there was plenty of time left for Benjamin’s drills.
“Good.” Owl two said once that subject had been settled. “Now, we need to discuss our hierarchy and titles. Lord Ronin has expressed concern that he doesn’t have a formal title. Also, that we don’t have a name for our settlement.”
“A little vain, isn’t it?” Elyria said with a sneer, “wanting a formal title, I mean?” Ronin wasn’t the only one at the table to shoot the elf a dark look. Lily seemed to take the moon elf’s presence as a personal insult, while Guts and Benjamin looked like they wanted to boil her alive. Ronin felt gratified at their support, but he didn’t want to make waves with the moon elves if he could help it either.
“Not the reason I brought it up.” He said patting the air with both hands in a calming gesture. “White flame, lord white flame, my lord, patriarch…” he rattled off a few of the titles he’d been given, “half the time I’m not even sure if their talking to me or not. I’d just like to settle on one title so that everyone knows what to call me. Not only that, but we never named our settlement. I’ve just been referring to it in my head as the valley, or home.” He shrugged, not seeing anything wrong with wanting to name his home.
“Will you be retaining the valley once you’ve captured the undercity?” Unyielding oak asked sharply, eyeing him like a predator eye’s prey. He knew what she wanted. The wood elves had lost their home, and unlike the bugbears, the concept of living underground didn’t excite the elves.
“I’m not sure yet Unyielding oak.” Ronin said, “honestly this valley doesn’t even belong to me. It belongs to the Mountain’s embrace kingdom and if it wasn’t for the locust war, I’m sure they would be at our gates already, asking for it back.” Her eyes tightened in anger, but before she could say anything he continued. “That doesn’t mean I don’t want the elves to have use of the forest or that we intend to force you underground.” He said placatingly.
“But honestly, you must already know that this place isn’t naturally sustainable. It’s too small for the population you have for starters. Plus, the dinosaurs populating this place aren’t native to the area.” Ronin could tell from her expression that she already knew this, so he finished by trying to give her a little hope. “You can access the forest while we’re still here. The more people you have teaching classes on various woodland activities the more of your people will get to explore… also, Owl five and I discovered a small opening near the mushroom forest that led out onto an actual forest. We didn’t explore it since we didn’t want to open up a possible avenue of attack, but I can have a scout team take you down and show you. Once we capture the city, we can explore that forest. Perhaps it’s unclaimed” he said with a shrug.
He honestly had no idea; the forest might just as easily be inside the Mountain’s embrace kingdom as well. He had the feeling somehow that it wasn’t though. Benjamin and Charles had been heading from the southern towns to the northern ones, where they planned to escape from the kingdom by some secret route. Only Charles had known the route unfortunately, but the fact that there was one somewhere in the mountains led Ronin to believe the forest he’d seen was actually outside the kingdom itself. At least he hoped it was, there was little adventure to be had in the kingdom’s backyard.
“Very well,” Unyielding oak said. She didn’t sound happy, but she didn’t look like she was ready to fight over the matter either. “I will ask one of my own scouts to accompany your team down for a look. We know forests, just the sight of the trees and the smell of the air should be enough to tell him if the place is inhabited or not.”
“Very good,” Owl two said. “Now, perhaps we can get back to the matter at hand.” Ronin was annoyed and grateful at his assistant. On the one hand, he’d changed the subject but on the other he was such an ass about it.
“Can we even name a place we might be leaving boss?” Guts asked, scratching his head.
“That’s a good point,” Harken said. “Perhaps we should name the group instead of the place? We named our cities after our clans. What you have here patriarch isn’t a clan, but the naming convention could stand.”
“We’re like an organization then… like a cartel?” Sam asked, speaking out for the first time. Ronin looked at her, wondering about that. She was normally more animated than this when he talked to her. She was giving Lily a cold look as she spoke, “Why can’t the women around me get along?” Ronin asked himself with an internal sigh.
“This rabbles more like a syndicate.” Elyria said, “There’s goblins, Kaldarr, humans, bugbears, elves and a slew of crossbreed kids running around. Not to mention the hobgoblins and batlins you said you plan to add into the mix. A group of organizations, or races in this case, coming together for a common cause.” She got several nods at that.
“It should have White flame in it somewhere,” Guts added. “I know the moon elves started calling you that because of the armor Owl two designed for you boss. But it sounds really cool, besides everyone is already calling you that anyway. I’ve heard people talking, ‘did you see the White flame’s battle with the queen? He leapt onto her back eighty feet off the ground and put that weapon right into her skull…’ and things like that.” Again, more mutters of agreement. Though the mutters this time caused Ronin to feel like his face was actually aflame. He’d hoped ardently to avoid that name, it sounded so pretentious.
“Let’s put it to a show of hands, shall we?” Owl two said, taking control of the meeting again. “All in favor of our group being called the ‘White flame syndicate’ and our lord to be ‘Lord Ronin the White flame’?” Every hand went up around Ronin, and he knew he’d never escape the name now.