I saw Avalon's camp from miles away.

Forget about defenses or camouflage, their tents were thrown together from the most flashy colored fabrics I've seen. Two wagons lazily parked in the middle of the imperial road, and the rest of the encampment was randomly thrown around them. The old shaman shook his head in complete disbelief and complained.

"What a mess. It makes me wonder, how they survived for so long." He sat ahead of me, holding on to my wyvern's neck. "Are we really that short on skilled commanders, Captain Gorgon?"

"The Demon Lord regards him as a strategic prodigy, but Avalon is a rather problematic officer in my opinion," I explained, circling over their so-called camp. The Fire Witch flew on her beast, bringing most of our supplies. "I have to say, they marched quite far though."

Their fort was almost a hundred miles south. They must have only gotten my crow four or five days ago, but we had to fly all night to catch up with them at dawn. I pulled the reins, driving my mount into a dive.

There was no visible movement on the ground. They all seemed to be sleeping still, not even a guard posted. We touched down next to the carts, in the middle of their encampment, but it was hard to call it that. I dismounted and helped the elderly shaman as well when a goblin finally stuck his head out. He yawned without any sense of urgency.

"Captain Gorgon, you made it." He mumbled, rubbing his eyes. Did not strike me as a commander of a whole company, wearing nothing, but a loincloth. He jumped off the carriage to greet us. "Who are the others?"

"This is High Shaman Chaga, and that is Ember, the Fire Witch." I introduced him to the magicians sent by the Demon Lord. The old goblin just nodded, and Ember still circled above our heads.

"So I take it you are that famous Avalon." One goblin sized up the other. "What kind of security is this? No guards either?"

"I led a forced march all day, and it came at a cost, my Lord." The captain explained, scratching his round belly. "Our order was to travel as fast as possible, so at the end of the day, the soldiers were too tired to set up proper encampments. That said, our shaman burned incense to keep the wild animals away. It's not as bad as it looks."

"What about the locals though? They could have easily ambushed you at night." Chaga grumbled, showing absolutely no sympathy towards his peer. The other wyvern finally landed too, stirring strong winds around us.

"This is lizardmen territory." Avalon shrugged. "They are reptilians and can't stand the cold at night. But they are rather territorial, so the other races did not set foot in this area. It has been called Draconia lately."

"They proclaimed their kingdom?" I asked, somewhat surprised.

"What, what? Lizards have a kingdom now?" The Fire Witch joined, jumping off her wyvern. "Bullhead, you didn't say anything about that."

I struggled to understand the Demon Lord's choices.

While all beastfolk looked eternally young, this brunette cat girl was almost a child. Only six years old when the old capital disappeared, she was rumored to be the next one to be invited into the Magic Academy. Had things turned out differently, she might have become the successor of Alexandra, the first wizard of the Lesser Races. But that was not to be...

She was taught by the sorcerers of the New Order instead. And she had no issue overtaking them in the past decade. She displayed an outstanding affinity towards magic but was only interested in fire. Her red robes and large, pointy black hat were also full of fire motifs.

"I don't think that their country would be recognized by anyone, young Lady." Avalon bowed his head towards her, smiling widely. "But they gathered here from all over the continent. This area used to be empty."

"Seems rather inhospitable," I noted, looking at the barren plateaus and hills. While the deserts ended a few miles back, the topography ahead seemed even more hostile. "No wonder the humans left it alone..."

"It is the perfect place for the lizardmen though." The captain explained. "It has sun, warm rocks, and cold rivers. That's all they need. They hunt and raise their stock in small highland tribes."

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

"How come they didn't join the New Order?" Chaga asked, a most loyal servant of the Demon Lord. He borrowed great powers from the spirits but seemed to have little experience in military, diplomatic matters, or geography in general. "Are they hostile towards us?"

"I wouldn't say hostile, but they refused to negotiate with us." Avalon shrugged. "Whatever their reasons, not everyone is keen on the idea of the New Order. It is somewhat understandable considering how they were treated under the previous continent-spanning empire."

"Indeed, most of the Lesser Races still live in small tribes with their kind," I added, handling lots of these negotiations. "But they are at the very least neutral towards us."

"Well, we had a few skirmishes with them before, and drove them out of the desert two years ago." The captain noted. "Their species is a mere century old, and multiplies quickly. They don't like the other races."

"Will it be all right, cutting through their territories?" I asked, rather worried. The terrain ahead seemed difficult, even without fighting our way through. Avalon shook his head.

"I'd prefer if we turned west until we reached the coast." He said. "A much easier route, with much less dangers to account for."

"That would be almost doubling the distance we have to travel." The high shaman protested angrily. The captain just shrugged again.

"Better late than never..." He claimed and walked back to his cart to return with a map. "They have settlements nearby, and I doubt we'd get a free passage. If the men march all day, they'll become vulnerable."

He dragged his finger towards the west on the map. Traced along the coast, then back towards another old imperial road, all the way to the old capital. I could see the merits of that path, but it would have taken long.

"The coasts are mostly abandoned. The remaining human settlements are small, and we can easily bypass them. The climate is also nicer near the sea..." Avalon pitched his idea, but the other goblin vetoed it.

"It would take half a year to reach Cranta Proper that way," Chaka noted, and it wasn't a bad estimate. "The Demon Lord's order was to get there in less than a month. And five days have already passed..."

"In a month? Hmm..." I knew how tall that order was, but he seriously considered it. "It's not entirely impossible..."

"Do you have a plan?" I asked him curiously. He looked around and waved for us to follow him. The camp started to get alive too, orcs and goblins watched us as they prepared their breakfast.

"This is a raptor," Avalon claimed, pointing at a strange animal. It stood on two sturdy legs, with a pair of short ones on the front, almost like a human-sized chicken, but without feathers or wings. It had a long tail though, definitely a reptilian. "This is what the lizardmen use as their pack animals. It's too small for them to ride, but perfect for a goblin... Or four of them could pull a wagon. They usually run alongside them..."

"It's so cute!" Ember yelled, rushing closer to pet it, but the creature almost bit her hands off. It had nearly a hundred very sharp teeth and strong-looking jaws. "Woah, maybe not so much..."

"I can't say if it's cute, but they are pretty nimble little devils." The captain claimed, keeping his distance. "We captured it a while back, and our scouts reported that the villages nearby all have at least twenty to forty of them each. If we raided them at night, we could snatch them away..."

"What good it would do if they are too small to ride them?" The high shaman asked unsatisfied. "They don't seem to be docile anyway..."

"As I said, we'd put them in front of our carriages and mount the entire company." Avalon proposed. "One can run an entire mile in just a minute, or up to thirty in one hour. Four of them could pull one of these carts at a decent speed, maybe fifteen miles each hour, and up to a hundred if we drive them all day... The problem is, that they are carnivorous, and we only have two wagons. We'd need twenty at the very least."

"Don't they have carriages that we could steal?" I pondered. This plan seemed risky, but we could reach our destination within a month, and outrun any possible harassing attacks as a bonus.

"Another one or two at best." The captain shook his head. "And it's not easy to run away with them, like with the animals themselves."

"Do you have the tools to build more?" I asked, looking around. A lush forest was nearby, and not much else on the road ahead. Carts could not be transported by wyverns either, and if we had to fly home for tools, that would have taken another two to four days.

"We do, but only a few, so it would take days to build that much." He noted. "Then there is the issue of feeding these. The beasts eat a lot, especially if they travel a great distance daily. Four oxen pulled our wagons until now, but they couldn't keep up. If we were to feed them to the raptors, they'd only last a day."

"We have four wyverns too, send out the hunters riding them..." I thought hard about how to make this plan work. "We have three magicians in total, maybe they can help with the tools too..."

"Tools? The best I can do is burn down the forest." Ember shrugged. I knew she'd enjoy that, but it didn't help us.

"The spirits can speed up certain natural processes, but can't magically create tools or entire carriages." The old high shaman stated as well. But I had an idea that could take advantage of such limited spells too.

"You can use them to grow trees in certain shapes, right?" I asked, pointing at the cart behind us. "It doesn't have to be luxurious, just a large, hollow log cut in half, then a thick enough trunk to be used as wheels, and strong, straight branches as axles. It could spare most of the manual work and be done by the regular soldiers..."

"Such a primitive wagon would not be comfortable or durable, but it might last long enough until we get there." Avalon pondered too. I didn't like to deal with his lax attitude back in the Ghell fortress, but talking to him in person made my brain go into overdrive. Maybe I was harsh on him, and the Demon Lord had the right idea to give him command.

Only time could tell, and now we worked together against it…