Leeroy crouched low as he crept forward, falling to his stomach as he reached the top of the hill. With all of his practice, Leeroy thought he was getting pretty good at being quiet. There was hardly any noise from the swaying grass, rustling of dried leaves, or breaking of twigs as he moved.
He knew better than to say he was skilled, but he was getting the hang of all this sneaky stuff. And apparently, the other agreed because he was ordered to go scout, though it could be that he was up taking a piss when the optio decided it was time to get moving.
Looking down the hill and then to the north, Leeroy took in the road winding along the bottom of the hill. On the other side of the road was a stream that mirrored the road until it disappeared into the distance.
On the banks of the river was a strip of colorful flowers, with the field of grass further into the valley, a pale green heading toward yellow as spring turned into summer. The wind blew through the valley, causing the grass to dance.
All said and done, it was a pleasant view.
Leeroy wouldn't have minded laying in place and relaxing in the warmth of the sunlight. As long as he convinced some village maiden to come with him for a picnic, but such wasn't Leeroy's lot in life.
Besides the fact that the remnants of his squad were a few dozen feet below the summit of the hill and were waiting for his report so their optio could decide where they would go next to escape the roaming beastkins, Leeroy couldn't relax while under the threat of death.
Call him crazy, but something about it just made him anxious. Sure, he could fall asleep when he had a moment of free time, but sleeping and relaxing weren't the same. One was required, the other a luxury rarely granted to legion grunts.
And there was another problem. How could Leeroy enjoy the sight when he was constantly ignoring that the road was littered with broken and partially burned wagons. There was no blood or bodies around the destruction, not that he expected any. Bodies lying where they died in a pool of blood would be too normal for his life right now.
Finally, he turned to look at the south side of the valley. The first thing his eyes darted to was the fortress built in the center of the valley alongside the road and river. The fortress was an over hundred-foot tall rectangle. What it looked like besides that sole fact was hard to tell.
Because there were so many gaping holes dotted the structure, there was more hole than an exterior wall. And by a minor miracle, the upper portions of the building were still standing.
And if Leeroy wasn't on the job, he wouldn't mind hanging around to see if a bird landing on the tower's roof caused the entire structure to collapse just to have another drinking story.
However bad the fortress was, its destruction was nothing compared to the rents covering the ground around it. Impact craters and trenches were everywhere around the structure, stretching for what must be a mile in every direction. In three places, it looked like open pit mines were attempted to be made, as piles of dirt at least thirty feet tall and too long for Leeroy to properly see were around the holes.
It wasn't ore that they were looking for. No, after the fortress fell, the beastkins went digging for the survivors hiding in their tunnels. Leeroy already knew they had succeeded. Otherwise, they would still be here.
He also knew why they wanted the people, but he pushed that thought away as quickly as it appeared.
Turning away from the destruction, Leeroy moved back the way he came, this time being far less careful than before. There was a battle that raged here as little as a couple days ago, but now their group was the only living creatures around.
Leeroy could easily be wrong about the danger level as he wasn't a scout, but he didn't feel like he was and didn't have the unknown of peaking into some miles-wide valley to make him cautious. As he strode down from the ridge with no concern, Jankens stood up from where he was hiding nearby and moved to join him.
"Is the fortress still standing?" Jankens asked with only weariness in his voice.
"Destroyed." Sighed Leeroy in answer.
"Figured. Where do you think we're going next?"
"North." Stated Leeroy, getting a grunting chuckle from Jankens.
After a moment, Jankens said, "There ain't much further north we can go." Leeroy agreed but didn't say anything, letting the thought hang in the air. Somethings you just left unsaid.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Their squad — there was no pretending that there was a century anymore — fled from the battle, which led to what felt like months but was only a couple weeks of close encounters.
When morning dawned, everyone accepted that they could not complete their mission, and Lun rightfully decided to circle back to the legion and report what they learned.
They wouldn't be able to cross the river, but then again, they didn't have to. All they had to do was follow the river north long enough until they reached an area patrolled by the 14th Legion.
Leeroy and the others had been on those river patrols enough times that they should be able to find the spot from across the river. And if no one was around, a pulse or smoke fire should get enough attention for a squad to come out from one of the nearby forts. Though there would be a decent chance it would be a squad of goblins with a dark elf leading them… But that would be a risk they had to take.
However, the first step of that plan was never taken, as what seemed like an army of goblins was pouring north, cutting them off from the river with an equal number of beastkin trying to get in front of the goblins to trap them in a pocket.
Or that was what Optio Lun was saying.
Regardless of the reasons, the maneuvers of the two forces pushed them to the northwest, and the roving bands of beastkin, goblins, and… moving piles of flesh, continued to chase them. Or, at the very least, remain nearby.
The few supplies they had quickly ran out, and it was thanks to psy pulses that they were able to catch enough small game to keep them going as they moved. It was surprisingly easy to map a rabbit burrow with a pulse and then use a small wooden stake to maneuver through the network of tunnels and kill the hiding animals.
A week ago, all signs of goblins vanished, and the only beastkins they saw were at a distance, moving along the roads of the Cradle. Not that it was any comfort.
The first town they encountered was abandoned, so they stayed off the roads. A decision was reinforced when they found one razed homestead after another razed and partially abandoned homestead. They were able to search the towns for food to help them travel, but it was quite a small silver lining.
Most of the destruction didn't look new. And some looked like it was over a month old. And yet the 14th knew nothing about it.
Sure, technically, no legion was designated to defend this area. But there were enough Cradlers in their Legion that they should have heard something. Shit, Boik was one of them, and seeing his home in ruin put him in quite the fowl mood.
Over all of the distance they had traveled, they hadn't seen a single human or elf yet.
And this was the fourth fortress they found destroyed.
"What's the situation," Lun asked when they walked into easy talking range.
"Destroyed, I doubt we could salvage anything." Lun nodded, expecting the answer.
No one in their group was surprised. They were so confident that the fort would be destroyed that they camped on the other side of the hill from the fort, not even bothering to check until Leeroy was ordered to do so first thing in the morning.
"Let's go, boys," Lun ordered as he got to his feet, hefting the pack he had scavenged.
Without complaint, the others got to their feet and started moving after Optio Lun. They had blankets and packs now, as they scavenged what they could while traveling, but they looked more like a small band of mercenaries than proper legionaries.
They marched along the side of the hill on the opposite side from the road.
It was a risk, but none of them had the expertise to wander off and ensure they were staying in the right direction. Even with a compass, you can get surprisingly lost as one mile after another built upon itself, so staying near a road it was.
One hour after another passed as miles were beaten to dust under their feet.
"Is that smoke?" Jankans asked anyone in the afternoon sun as they crested a hill, and he squinted at the distant sky. "Or the Broken Peaks?"
"Smoke," Boik said, his voice filled with grim assurance.
"Then why is it stretched across the horizon?"
"Because the Chain still holds." He said with a hint of pride.
"Explain Legionary Boik." Ordered Lun.
Shrugging like it was obvious, Boik said, "Those forts," gesturing behind us to take in all of the destruction we had passed, "are the ones built within the last two centuries."
"Meaning?" Lun prompted after Boik stopped as if what he had said explained everything.
The squat, blocky man turned, his bushy eyebrows scrunched up in confusion like he could not understand why he was being asked the question.
When he saw that everyone was looking at him with expectant looks, he cleared his throat in embarrassment. For the first time in days, he wasn't scowling as he rubbed the back of his neck with his calloused and tanned hand. “Umm… Hee… It-ts the Chain?"
"Yes," said Lun, "You said that, but what does it mean?"
“Ohh… It means that every half mile, there is another fortress. Most have towers at their borders to act as watchtowers and provide areas to retreat to for the farmers in the field. The Chain stretches almost from the Northern Forest to the Twins, and the widest section is… forty miles? Something like that, I never really cared to find out. Though that is nothing to the maze of tunnels under each fortress." As he talked about his home, most of his anxiety faded away.
"Are they all connected?" Lun asked, some shock at the explanation leaking into his voice.
"Most aren't. And only the ones that have close family relations are connected by tunnels. After all, it's quite the show of trust to have a backdoor into the fort when a beastwave is at the gates. And it's hard to properly seal off the tunnels once the beastkins take a fort."
"So all that smoke?" asked Lun.
"It's the fields burning. Maybe a few keeps. But the Chain still stands." Conviction filled his voice when he said the last part, and it put a little pep in Leeroy's and everyone else's step.
They all knew the only reason they were still alive was because they were too inconsequential to try and kill.
Leeroy knew for a fact they were spotted more than once, but nothing ever came of it.
"You think we can sneak through the lines," Leeroy asked Lun, voicing everyone's question.
He took a moment to answer, his eyes locked on the line of smoke billowing into the sky across the horizon. "All we can do is try."