Team 17 stood on a roof top over looking the Gray Distinct. There were hundreds of tents scattered over the distinct. Ralph spotted several dozen people roaming through the sea of tents, some of them staggering like they were drunk or seeing things that were only in their imaginations. There were members of the Police Force going through the nearby tents, dragging out the homeless from the tent, dragging them over to a medical nurse before they either took them to a cart with a large red cross on it where there were several more nurses working together with the Police Force or over to a wooden cage where they were locked in. On the side of the wooden cage was the symbol for the homeless and several people stood around it with stone slabs, taking down notes.
Growing up, Ralph knew going to the Gray Distinct was a guarantee grounding at the Orphanage for a minimum of two weeks. It was something the higher ups at the Orphanage taught them, no matter what career path the children took - Going to the Gray Distinct was a bad thing. As he aged, he began to understand the reason the Orphanage did that. The Gray Distinct was not a safe area for children or women in general. Over the years, Ralph had heard rumors of children, women, and the non-humans were sold in an illegal slave trade, but he never had some hard evidence of those rumors. Hopefully, those ill rumors were tall tales and didn’t have a lick of truth to it.
He turned his gaze to a group of nearby tents where there were two teams of ninja were destroying the tents in groups of 6 to 8 while another team worked to cleaned up after them, shoving broken pieces of tents onto a large cart Ralph knew the local sanitation people used to gather trash in. Attached to the cart was a team of oxen with a driver sitting in the seat, watching what was going on.
Ralph turned to Raizen, asking, “Sir, what was our mission?”
“We will join Team Quill in the process of clean up,” Raizen explained, “We will work until sun down and this mission will last a week before we will get a break and a new team will take over until the Community Day happens.”
“Whoa,” Enzo breathed, “I didn’t know we would be able to get a week long mission within the Village walls.”
“Yeah,” Raizen nodded, “It’s possible, but the Village Elders prefer not to have long missions in the Village, exciting we have enough people to help each other out and would like the long missions outside the Village walls where the pay is a lot better for our ninja teams and the Village itself.”
Ralph stared at the sea of tents and understood why they got a week long mission. It will take them a long time to clear the Gray Distinct, even with help from another team. He asked Raizen, “Do you think they will send a couple more teams out through the week to help us?”
“Of course,” Raizen said, “In the past, the Mission Board would send out four more teams tomorrow and the following day until they have a grand total of 50 teams clearing out the Gray Distinct. Right now, with us joining them, there are a total of 8 teams out already. 4 of the assigned teams started yesterday and managed to gain a small foothold, allowing the Police Force to move the homeless to the various apartments and medical buildings.”
Ralph resisted the urge to stare at Raizen with surprise. He knew the homeless were being moved to the various cheap empty apartments in his area of the Village and those who needed medical treatment were getting it, but he didn’t know the Mission board would send that many teams out for a week long mission within the Village walls, but he understood the reason why they did. It was a seasonal based mission, according to Lord Jackson. Maybe Team 17 would be able to do it again in the Fall or at the beginning of Winter. He sighed. He needed to stop thinking so far ahead and focus on the here and now. There was a chance it would be a long week a head of them.
“Alright,” Raizen turned to them, “Do any of you have any questions or concerns I can address right now?” he paused, looking at them, “From the point forward, I may not be able to since we will on mission time until sunset.”
Lilian shifted before she spoke up, “The rumors I have heard about this area not being safe for women and children - Is that true?”
Raizen sighed, “For the most part, yes. It is a part of the reason why the Village Elders and Lord Jackson has a seasonal clean up of this area. We were able to recuse 15 women and over 3 dozen children at the beginning of Spring. There is more to the story then I can tell you right now. We are out in the open and despite our best effects, ears can appear and disappear.” Ralph frowned at that. Ears can appear and disappear? Does his teacher mean someone can be listening in on their conversation? “We can talk more about this later. My wife has invited you three to eat with us tonight.”
Ralph’s eyebrows raised. He was not expecting that, but was he going to turn down free food? He replied, “That’s cool. I’ll join you guys.”
Enzo looked thoughtful before he commented, “I’m sure my parents weren’t mind if I had dinner with you and your wife, Master.”
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Lilian didn’t say anything, but she nodded before she started to head toward the other team of ninja were in the process of picking up the destroyed tents. The men followed her.
~~~~
“Howdy, Quill,” Raizen called up the other Team Leader, standing on a large pile of destroyed tents and other supplies as they approached the Rogers Team, “How is it going?”
The tall Elf turned to the leader of Team 17 and gave them a small smile, “It is going slowly.” He jumped down and landed on his feet. “There are a lot of more of homeless folks and addicts this time then they were last time.” He walked to Raizen, still talking, “It is like there was a mass migration of people coming across the barrier or from across the sea, desiring the Mainland.”
Raizen hummed, thinking about what Quill said, before he spoke, “That may be a problem. We may not have enough empty apartments to house them or medical rooms available.”
“Yes, my thoughts exactly,” Quill said, “I sent over a report with my observations to the Village Elders last night before going off duty.” There was a loud yell and Ralph turned his attention from the two Master Ninja to see a male of some kind with wild shoulder length hair flying around his head, a matted beard extending down his neck, running toward the two teams of ninja. He flanged an arm around him, windmilling the right arm as he darted through the makeshift road. A cloak drifted out behind him.
Ralph spotted two members of the Police Force chasing after the wild male. He blinked. It should have been easy to overwhelm the male when he only had one arm. He sensed Raizen and Quill shift. Ralph turned his head, slightly to see, out of the corner of his eye, both trained ninja had pulled out their kunai, slipping into a defensive position. Alarm flashed through Ralph before he fumbled for a kunai to defend himself. He heard both Lilian and Enzo muttered soft curses as they did the same. He turned his attention to the running one armed man and noticed he wasn’t running in a straight line - he was zig zagging in order to avoid the Police Force, holding something in his remaining hand. The morning sunlight glinted off of the item.
“Anakin! Ben! Padme! Get down here!” Quill shouted, “Defensive position!”
“Yes, Sir!” the reply was echoed by Quill’s three students. Ralph sucked in a breath as one of Quill’s students landed feet away from him and slipped in front of him, causing Ralph to take a step back. He recognized who it was - Ben, the half Tiefling. He glanced at his own teammates to see the other team were standing guard in front of them. Ralph redirected his gaze at the wild man.
The one-armed man ignored them as he ran between the students, heading to the teachers. He leaped at Raizen with what Ralph recognized a dagger of some sort, swinging it in a wide arc and engaged Raizen. The teacher of Team 17 raised his kunai and blocked the dagger with a clang as the wild looking man landed in front of Raizen.
“Surround,” Raizen started, “And you will get the help you need.”
The wild man spoke in a different language causing Raizen to blink in surprise and the man took an advantage of that, drawing back and tried to slash at the teacher’s midsection. Raizen bounced back in time to avoid taking damaged to his body, but the shirt he wore was cut.
“Have you heard that language before?” one of other students whispered. Ralph thought it was Anakin.
“No,” Ben replied back.
“I think it’s language from the barrier,” Padme answered, “You know from Earth.”
“Not from Avalon or Mars,” Anakin asked.
“Mars?” Enzo asked in surprise, “You mean there are other worlds connected to Avalon beside Earth?”
“Yeah,” Ben answered, relaxing from his stance as the teachers engaged the wild man. Padme and Lilian walked closer to the young men. Ralph glanced between the older students. “However, it’s a challenge to get there, to the other worlds connected to Avalon. I have family who lives on a world called Aries. It was a dangerous trip for my small familial unit to arrive here in Avalon when I was young.” He paused, looking at Team 17 before he went on, “Did you know there is a very large dragon roaming the void between the worlds?”
Ralph stared at Ben in wonder. A dragon roaming the void between the worlds? That would be amazing to see. Aries and Mars - they sounded powerful names, giving Ralph a feeling of battle. He remembered learning a bit about Earth while he was in Basic Training. It was a part of the History of Avalon and had influenced Avalon through the numerous people who had arrived in Avalon over the many years. He wasn’t aware of Aries and Mars though. Now, he did think about it. It made sense. Tiefling Community, according to the history books he had been forced to study, had appeared one day in a large group of 250 or so - he forgot the correct number - but it was a shock to the community they had arrived close by and the Tieflings had to fight for their lives for nearly a century before the communities they had came across and came to accept them as another race, living in Avalon.
“A dragon?” Enzo breathed, “I would love to see one or get my hands on some of their scales.” Ralph noticed he looked off dreamily. “I bet the scales would make some of the best armor out there.”
“It sure does,” Anakin said, “I have talked with some of the Dwarves of the Flaming Heart Mountains. They got some dragon scaled armor. It’s very rare and expensive since most of dragons are not living in this world.” He frowned, “I think they live on a world called Draco and as far as I know, the Dwarves are the only race in Avalon that know how to get to Draco.”
“Amazing,” Enzo breathed.
“Mermaid scales are almost just as hard as Dragon scales,” Padme commented, “But they tend to be more protective and dangerous when it comes to taking their scales.”
Lilian blinked and turned to Padme before she started to ask questions about mermaids, their location, and how to get a hold of their scales. Ralph glanced toward his teacher, seeing they were still in combat with the mysterious one armed man. He turned to Ben, asking, “Should we help them?” he pointed at the fighting trio.
Ben glanced in that direction, “Na. Quill has it handle if Master Raizen can’t.” He walked back over to the pile and went back to gathering the broken tents before setting on the cart to haul away. Ralph blinked at him before he turned his attention to the fight.