Most of the augmented mice had gathered outside of the large vehicle. So far as appearance went, it was deliberately nondescript, with no signs of mouse technology anywhere upon it, making it practically indistinguishable from a common Maker vehicle. It was also highly unlikely that it would ever move again. The citizens and soldiers alike (in truth, there was little distinguishing between them) had worked tirelessly to pack up assorted supplies and weaponry, stripping virtually every machine, power source and other devices from their former home before preparing to continue their advance, on foot.

"Be careful with those power cells!" Gwendolynne called to a cloaked group who were lugging a series of heavy crates with no small amount of difficulty. As useful, downright life-changing as many of those machines could be, they weren't without their risks and most of them would not have responded kindly to being dropped. Their simply failing to function in the future would be among the best possible scenarios in that case. Vania stood alongside her co-general, arms limply draped to her sides, as always.

Despite the occasional inevitable accident, things were progressing smoothly. Under the cloudy night sky, there was minimal risk of being interrupted by humans, and everyone involved had been well trained and were working in an efficient manner to ensure that nothing and nobody was left behind.

"General... I... I have news." A green robed mouse, one of the elite troops said in a mildly distorted, digitized voice. His manner was one of great apprehension, but then that was a rather common reaction when dealing with the half-mechanical mouse. Even if largely professional, her power and the lethal threat which she had posed, if she so desired, could not be denied. "It is about your father."

Gwendolynne sighed and shook her head. "I worried this might be a problem. Just tell him that we're going for a walk. Even if he is concerned or suspicious, he'll forget again soon enough if you distract him with idle conversation."

"No, no, it isn't that, it's..." The soldier said, hesitantly, "We called to him as you instructed, only to receive no response. Upon further investigation, well..."

"What? What is it?" The general replied, her expression suddenly turned tense.

"I regret to inform you that he appears to have..." He paused, struggling to find the correct word which he was almost certain didn't exist, "...passed during the night."

The cloaked and masked soldier backed up a step, not fully retreating, as that would have been folly, but very much prepared for a violent reprisal.

"I... see." The half mechanical woman said, looking away from the subordinate, her face without expression. "See to it that the proper burial arrangements are made."

"Do you wish to pay your final respects? Our preparations are running smoothly, I have no doubt that even someone as important as you wouldn't be missed if you were to..."

"That's not necessary." Gwendolynne said, curtly. "He was sick for a long time, and this was inevitable. I still have too much work to do to allow myself to be distracted."

The soldier seemed to be about to offer an objection, but in the end decided against it, simply nodding in acceptance. "As you wish, general." He replied, giving a quick salute before slinking away.

Beep.

The sound came from her side, from the strange box-headed mouse who always looked to be oblivious, but in truth, never stopped watching or listening to everything which happened around her. Her comrade smiled softly, looking towards the woman with her own red glass eye.

"I'm okay. As I said, this was coming for a long time, and while it's not exactly how I wanted to start off the day, isn't such a shock. He had been suffering for a long, long while now, and it's probably for the best. I'm okay." she said in a soft voice.

Beep.

Translation: You don't have to be okay.

The mechanical mouse chuckled softly to herself, and shook her head. "Yeah. I do. Come on. We've still got a job to do. There will be time to grieve later."

<3~

With an abundance of new allies in tow, the army had finally begun its final march towards the forces of the shadow king. There was some debate over whether it would be better to simply fortify and defend the kingdom, but it was ultimately agreed that there were too many non-combatants there, and while there might be some strategic value in trying to endure a drawn out siege and allowing the attackers to slowly exhaust themselves, it would also result in an excessive amount of damage. There was also the very real concern that the enemy force could simply hold out, indefinitely, while our own supplies steadily dwindled.

Besides, with such a large force, most of the combatants were eager to end this long war in one fell swoop, and in their minds, facing and overwhelming the enemy in the open field was the most effective manner of accomplishing this. In spite of those bold intentions and the eagerness of the soldiers, especially the newer ones, perhaps even because of this, morale was steadily falling. There were a few reasons for this. For one, there was clearly much more walking than the newer soldiers were prepared for, and while it was tiring and rather boring, the bigger problem was that it gave them a lot of time to think, and time to think leads to time to worry and reconsider. It was one thing to join in alongside the excited crowd, but another to find yourself far from home and facing uncertain odds.

Then there was the fact that they were encroaching deeper and deeper into the human city. Not to the extent that the towering buildings had closed in from all sides, but there were more vehicles, more buildings and more hiding places from which any number of potential threats might lurk. Most mice avoided these places, even if they were famed for being excellent sources of quality foods. It was safer to remain on the outskirts of human communities, where even if threats were still abundant, the wider open terrain meant that they were a little less likely to catch you unaware, and easy sources food still remained within reach. In the middle of the night, the intense contrast between the glare of the street lamps and the deep, menacing shadows left by the nearby structures had kept everyone on edge.

There was also the disappearance of Meryll. While nobody in the army had any official rank, aside from arguably Jebediah (much to the annoyance of Samson, who felt that a more efficient structuring of the forces was needed, even if he was unwilling to arrange such things himself), the original founding members of the group had all been elevated to near legendary status by local rumor. Even Dave was seen as a mysterious, stoic and determined warrior by no shortage of the new recruits. As for Meryll, while in principle she was just a soldier like anyone else, her presence was greatly missed, especially considering her rumored strength. Few believed that she had fled from the coming battle, however, most instead accepting the idea that she had gone off to embark on some secretive, last-minute training. That's the sort of thing that heroes were known for doing, after all.

Finally, there was significant issue of supplies. That's always a drawback of trying to mobilize a particularly large force. Keeping them all fed can require a full caravan of rations and other tools, which, of course, they did not have. Individuals packed up what they could, but it still didn't last nearly as long as they had expected. Starvation wasn't likely to be an issue, as they had only been traveling for a couple of days now, and word was that they didn't have much further to go, but hunger still left the people moody and further grated on their already frayed nerves.

"I worry that we won't be at our best when the time comes to destroy the minions of the Devourer." Sellas said to Jebediah.

"Well, I'm still hoping that we can resolve all of this without destroying anyone, but you're not wrong." The farmer nodded. "I guess it's not surprising that not all of these mice were prepared for the realities of the situation. There's not much we can do about it, though. It shouldn't be too long now, and the sooner we arrive, the better."

"Why just settle for your people only being kind of cranky and exhausted?" Tanzra asked, stepping up alongside the leader, atop her loyal mount. "We should take some real action to help remedy the situation."

"And how do you propose we do that?" Samson grumbled at her, "Unless you have some way to get enough food to fill the stomachs of an entire army?"

The scavenger mouse grinned wide. "Of course I do! Where do you think we are?" She rose up from her seated position, leaning forward, standing atop her cat's head, and scanned her surroundings intently before finally finding what she was looking for. "Ooh, this is perfect! Augustus, this way!"

The orange feline obediently bounded across the dark, empty street, and after some brief hesitation, Jebediah had begun to follow. Of course it was a given that, at this point, everyone else would naturally follow him.

"Here we are!" Tanzra smiled, proudly, pointing a raised paw towards the storefront.

There was some natural confusion, as nobody quite knew what they were looking at. It was simply a giant building, like any other. A thick, glass window, which might as well have been steel, revealed the dimly lit interior, in which assorted unrecognized shapes were visible, including the centerpiece, a strange, multi-leveled round tower.

"You want food? Well, here it is!" She called out in a voice loud enough for even the most distant members of the crowd to hear, "And I'm not talking about old stale crusts or bits of bread. I'm talking about delicious treats, the likes of which you've never even imagined! Enough to feed not just an entire army, but an entire world!"

Annabelle raised her head, sniffing the air from Samson's side, "This place does smell rather familiar." She said, "I think I've had something from here before, or at least somewhere similar. It really was quite good!"

"Hmmm, I don't know." Jebediah said, "Are you sure that stealing from the Makers is a good idea? I've heard that it's bad luck."

"It's not a big deal. We do it all the time, right Reginald?" The pitcher asked.

"Indeed! Sure, relying on discarded scraps is well and good, but the only way to get the really good stuff is by taking a more proactive approach!"" The batter nodded in agreement.

"Of course you agree with him..." Samson sighed, looking between the two player leaders, "Are you sure that you two are enemies?"

The two uniformed mice looked to one another with shocked expressions. "Why, of course! He's the absolute worst!" The batter said,

"No, you're the worst!"

"No, you are!"

"No, you!"

This ended with both of the mice chuckling, arms about one another's shoulders, and the one-eyed mouse simply shaking his head in dismay.

"Yeah! It's like whats-his-name and whosit said! It's no big deal! The Makers have got tons of this stuff! They won't even notice it's gone. Think of this as a much needed team-building exercise." Tanzra said. As for Augustus, he rose up on his hind-paws to get a closer look into the window, staring inside with a hungry expression. His rider didn't seem to be inconvenienced by this in the least, still standing effortlessly balanced atop his head.

There was a little bit of trepidation among the crowd, but far more of them were both hungry for action and, well, hungry for food, of course. After two days of walking, they were almost universally eager for a little bit of excitement, not to mention the potential rewards that it would offer. At that moment, even the prospect of the Makers didn't frighten them.

"Hmmm, fair enough. Alright, so how do we get in there?" Jebediah asked.

Tanzra shrugged. "No idea." She said, as everyone looked to her with confused expressions. "What? I've never done this before, even if I always wanted to. Like I said, this is a team-building exercise! It's up to the team to figure it out!"

And so they did, some more enthusiastically than others. The more experienced scavengers took the lead, looking for any potential openings within the structure, with the less knowledgeable following their example. Through sheer manpower, it didn't take long for them to cover every bit of the outer perimeter of the store in search of a mouse-sized opening. It hardly came as a shock when none were found, however. Such convenient entrances were far from unheard of, especially along the outside of the older structures, but they couldn't be expected.

Of course most of those existing entrances weren't natural to begin with, and were instead created by mice which worked to slowly widen even the smallest existing cracks until eventually a full passageway had come to exist. Normally, this would take a lot of time, but there is something to be said for having a massive and very much eager workforce at your disposal. After an additional assessment which had revealed that none of the obvious entrances were even vaguely accessible, it became clear that going straight through the wall would be their only option. Near the base of the back wall (conveniently pointed away from the main road, so even if any Makers did happen to pass by, they would be out of sight), was a barrier of crumbling brick, not the sort of thing that could simply be pried away, but which could be gradually chipped apart.

Normally, this would be a rather difficult task with paws and teeth, or even with plastic weapons, but the new, metal tools were very well suited to the job. Nobody was even concerned with wearing them down or otherwise damaging them, as most of the mice were, instead, eager to put them to practical use. It was noisy, dusty work, but not nearly as slow as one might expect, what with so many hands contributing to the task. Even the smallest paw-fulls of the red stone being removed at a time steadily contributed until finally the wood was reached beyond it. This also had its own issues, as it didn't crumble away as easily when struck, but it was a material which mice had no shortage of experience in dealing with.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

There were other obstacles as well, of course. Pink, scratchy cloud-like material which the mice knew better than to try ingesting. A few frayed electrical wires which the mice absolutely did not know better than to try ingesting but Tanzra had made a point to warn them about the dangers. Finally, a single, ceramic barrier was all that stood in their way. This wasn't a trivial obstacle, however, not as prone to crumbling away bit by bit as the outside brick, nor as soft and easily cut as the wooden supports.

"I'll handle this." A vaguely feminine voice called to the inspecting workers, as a large, heavily armored woman approached the barrier. Her earlier unsalvageable armor portions were replaced, but not with anything any nicer or more symmetrical than the old. It seemed that she had spent all of her money on weapons, and her armor was, as before, made up of leftover scraps of whatever solid materials that she could find. It was almost entirely different in appearance, but you'd be hard pressed to pick out any specific details which had varied from her the earlier version.

"I'm glad to see that you're returned." Jebediah said to her, "Did you find what you were searching for?"

"Yup. Well... maybe." She replied to him, "I'm not entirely sure. I still don't know whether or not I can win, but I do know that I'm prepared to give everything I have, either way!"

"Well, be sure not to give everything. You need to keep at least a little bit for yourself." The farmer smiled.

Meryll grinned back as she cracked her knuckles, drew a powerful arm back, and smashed her armored fist into the center of the barrier. It stopped with a solid thunk, seemingly inflicting no actual damage at first, but then a series of heavy cracks appeared throughout it, until the entire wall shattered away, bursting outwards, flooding the darkened tunnel with, well, the slightly less darkened interior of the shop.

"That was easy." The armored woman smirked as she dusted off her paws, and turned to the surprised onlookers. "So, uh... what exactly are we doing here, again?"

One by one, the mice slowly piled into the unknown environment, each one shocked by the sheer size and spectacle of the place, few of them having ever visited a Makers shrine themselves. The entrance was, of course, a small one, barely enough for an average sized mouse to squeeze through, at least until Augustus grew tired of waiting outside, backed himself up, and charged straight through the wall, turning the small hole into a wide chasm. In hindsight, the mice likely should have asked the dark lord to try that from the beginning, and saved themselves a lot of effort, but what was done was done.

"Welcome to the bakery!" Tanzra called, sweeping her open paws across the open landscape, "There's more food here and in greater variety than any of you can possibly imagine... but we're not going to settle for the smaller prizes. No, that, there is our goal!"

She pointed to the great tower displayed in the window, a wide, round, white base with ever narrowing pillars set atop each layer, each painted with brightly colored wisps. It rested on a grand, metal display case, high above the floor, the lights from outside of the window gleaming against the glass shell which encased it. There was no disagreement. There were no particularly easy targets nearby, aside from the occasional floor crumbs, and the mice were feeling very ambitious. At first glance, they couldn't clearly even identify the object as food, but recognized it immediately as something precious and desirable, nonetheless.

Reaching that high up surface might have been somewhat difficult for a lone mouse, but proved trivial with their abundance of resources, as Jebediah and his inner circle (there was little room for more beyond them than a few eager onlookers) stood, staring into their own reflections within the glass case.

"Heh, a simple fastball will tear right through that barrier!" Archibald said.

"No, it might be trapped!" Tanzra warned. "I've seen the Makers deal with these before. They lifted it up from the top, which might be the only safe space to handle it from!"

"And how, exactly do we reach the top of this thing?" Samson asked, but even as he did, the answer became clear. While rather high up (but not nearly as high up as one might fear), there were a series of pipes and landings, placed overtop one another, an easy road for travel, assuming, of course, that they could be reached. From there, the hunt began. The mice scattered, looking for useful tools or points of entry, and before long, found both. A series of long, brightly colored ribbons were stored in a nearby drawer, and as for the entry point? Well, even the smallest cats are famed for their impressive jumping abilities.

They also, of course, came upon many other food displays, far more easily accessible, and the temptation very much existed to raid them, but they all had their eyes on the grander prize. It wasn't a simple task, but the lengths of ribbon were bound together into a single, extremely long length which was taken into the mouth of the orange cat, who, through a series of seemingly impossible leaps found himself up ever higher until he, and Tanzra, of course, were standing with a clear birds eye view of the entire structure. Speaking of birds, of course the flock could have simply flown up there, had they been asked, but none of the mice had thought to do so, and the birds themselves had significantly less interest in the whole scheme, not actively refusing to offer aid, but not willingly volunteering it, either.

Once they slowly lowered down the ribbon, it was easy for Tanzra to tie the tip around the bulbous glass portion which acted as a handle. With the other end of the ribbon draped across a pipe in a sort of crude pulley, from there, all that was required was a lot of brute strength to slowly lift the glass shield away. Normally, this would have been a good job for Augustus, but he enjoyed the high up space. Fortunately, he wasn't needed. If you add enough mice together, no feat of strength proves impossible.

Length by length it was slowly raised, the strange scent wafting from beneath it. Many were tempted to try to rush in, but there was always the risk of the ribbon breaking or the others losing their grip, which could have left a mouse trapped inside, or worse, crushed beneath the heavy glass. That didn't happen. Not only was the container raised to an appropriate height, but the still secure ribbon was tied off. All eyes turned to Jebediah, waiting for his command. He offered not a single word, instead just a light nod. That was enough.

Carnage ensued, but a delightful sort of carnage. There was no need for greed, as while there might not have been enough of this particular item for everyone to fill their stomachs, there was still more than enough to give each and every soldier a generous taste of it. Perhaps it was due to the expert crafting of the Makers, or maybe it was just the satisfaction of a prize well earned, but none of the participants would have described the flavor as anything short of blissful. Well, aside from the flock, of course, who ate what was offered, but were relatively unimpressed. Their diets tended to be much more varied than mice, and as a result, the cake had offered them little novelty.

Of course now that the main prize had been revealed, it was time to check out the additional variety. It was much the same but different. A lot of it less moist and light, but very much flavorful, and more than enough to fill every stomach in the room a hundred times over. More than just fed, and high on sugar, people were happy. They had worked together to accomplish a monumental task, and had earned themselves a much needed victory.

"Life certainly takes some strange turns." Reginald the batter mused, sitting, legs spread on the floor, munching on a large piece of one of the many huge, crispy disks that were to be found. "Not so long ago we were destroying one another, with, even I must admit, no end in sight. And yet here we are, on the verge of ending two wars at once."

"It's true. Rather than wasting our strength, we're growing ever stronger and more experienced. We initially joined these mice due to the unsportsmanlike behavior of their enemies..." the pitcher replied,

"Horribly unsportsmanlike, no question."

"Indeed. But we really do owe them a debt. Soon this will all be settled, but I want you to promise something to me, my most hated of enemies: That you will fight as hard as you can. I fully intend to demonstrate my superiority in the coming battle, but the victory won't be satisfying unless I can surpass you at your absolute prime." Archibald said.

"You know that is a given. So much so that I won't even ask you to make a similar promise. I know full well that you don't intend to let me win."

"Heh. You're not wrong. Regardless of the victor, although I have little doubt that it will be me... not none, but little, I am certain that a glorious new age is on the horizon, and no matter how things turn out, I am eager to see it."

The batter nodded. "You'll have no arguments from me."

Both raised their halves of half-eaten cookie to one another, and resumed their well deserved meal.

Meryll was also enjoying herself. While she was, perhaps, not quite as confident as she might have hoped, and not entirely secure with her newfound self acceptance, she still considered it to be a step in the right direction. That, combined with the truly luxurious meal, was enough to put even the most apprehensive mouse in a good mood. She looked up from the large chunk of cake within her paws and smiled at the sight of Augustus messily devouring a sizable portion, well earned due to his contributions. His cheeks and whiskers were nearly coated in the creamy, sugary icing, but that didn't seem to bother him in the least, nor did it his rider, the equally content, but somewhat neater scavenger who laid back against his thick, furred body.

"Hey... we haven't really chatted much, but I wanted to ask you something." Meryll said, making the other woman perk up from her near napping state. "Why exactly are you here? Don't get me wrong, I'm don't mean to imply that you and Augustus aren't welcome. You've been a big help, and we're glad to have you with us!"

Tanzra smiled in response, reaching back to scritch the fluffy orange belly of the cat who purred loudly in response.

"I was just wondering, well, what do you get out of this? You said that you just came along because we gave you some food, but that was a while ago. It's clear that you are capable of feeding yourself, and any sort of debt you owed, even if there ever was one, has long since been paid. So... why have you been traveling with us all this time? Why are you helping us fight a war that doesn't involve you at all?"

Tanzra hmmed, giving the matter some thought before smiling up at the larger woman. "Well, Augustus seemed to like you guys."

Meryll waited for a little more elaboration, only to frown once it was clear that none was coming.

"Really? That's the only reason?"

The cat rider nodded. "Yup. That's all I needed. He's a very good judge of character!"

The armored woman nodded and smiled up at the cat, who similarly looked up, even if neither of his eyes were pointed towards her, to let out a happy meow from his still full mouth, and resumed gorging himself on the baked goods before him.

"Heh. Fair enough." Meryll shook her head. "So, how did you two meet?"

"It was a long time ago. My village had been destroyed by a dark lord... oh, it wasn't Augustus here, of course! It was a different one. Much bigger and nowhere near as sweet." Tanzra said as she continued to lovingly stroke the orange striped coat. "I'm not sure if I was the only survivor. There might have been others, but if so, we were scattered, and my parents certainly weren't among them."

"That must have been rough." Meryll nodded. "My own parents were also killed when I was very young."

"A dark lord?"

"No." The larger mouse sighed, "An internal struggle. A powerful tyrant rose from our midst and seized control. They wouldn't tolerate the existence of anyone who refused to bow to them, and, well..." She chuckled, "My folks never were the bowing type. Anyways, that was a long time ago. You were talking about Augustus here?"

"Oh, right! Well, I just kind of stumbled on him. I was scared at first, and really hungry... and it turned out he was scared and hungry, too, but he didn't even consider trying to eat me. From there, it just made sense that we might as well be alone and hungry and scared together, and before we knew it, we were none of those things! Well, maybe still hungry on occasion, but we can live with that. I don't really know much about how Augustus here ended up alone. He doesn't talk much... more of a man of action!" She grinned up at the cat who gave a long, messy lick to her ear in return, "I assumed he was just young since he was so small, but he hasn't grown at all since then. I think that maybe he was sick and abandoned by his parents."

"I... see." Meryll said, looking to the large feline with a pitying expression.

"Well, it's their loss. We've been taking care of one another ever since. I guess maybe he thought that you guys needed taking care of too, in which case, hey, who am I to argue?" Tanzra smiled, "As usual, he had the right of it. Sure, sometimes our instincts, maybe usually, in fact, just scream to take care of ourselves and not worry about anyone else, but where's the fun in that? Life is just so much rewarding when you have people that you can count on, and people who can count on you, in return."

"Yes... that must be nice." Meryll nodded. "I hope to be able to experience that one day."

"Heh, look around. This place is filled to the brim with people who see you as a shining example. You've got plenty of people that are counting on you, and I have no doubt that you can rely on them, if necessary, too."

Meryll nodded again but said nothing. It wasn't that she didn't believe the words, more that they were rather frightening to believe. True, she had already pledged herself to defend Jebediah, but it didn't quite feel real until now. It was a terrifying concept, but not terrifying in a completely bad sort of way.

As this happened, Sellas sat in quiet contemplation, her ever-wide eyes pointed skyward, even though she and the others were indoors. The huge, storefront window offered little visibility, the nearby street lamp glaring off it of. What little could be seen beyond it was pure, black sky. Heavy clouds blocked out any hint of starlight, but even were the skies clear of them, there would have been several notable patches of stars still missing from view.

"Is... is everything going to be alright?" A nearby cultist, the scarred young woman asked. "Some of us are, you know... a little worried. About the coming battle." she paused, nervously, "About everything."

Those words had broken the leader from her self-induced trance. She smiled and nodded her head. "But of course. Worries are for non-believers. They have reason to worry, after all. They live in a big, chaotic world which they know they lack the power to control." She paused, "We, on the other hand? We know, beyond a shadow of doubt, that in the end, all will work out exactly as the mighty Starman demands. Ultimately, there is nothing to fear."

There were relieved sighs from many of the other cult members who had similar concerns, for a variety of reasons. Although they had avoided talking about the strange shapes in the sky, it was impossible to ignore, especially for them. Their concerns were alleviated, but I suspect that she wasn't necessarily speaking about the coming battle, and even if she were, she was speaking in terms of what benefited their God, and not necessarily herself or the followers. While many spiritual individuals just naturally assume such things to be one and the same, I knew that she was not the sort to fall for such blatant philosophies of convenience. I'm not a believer myself, so it doesn't concern me too much, but I would be lying if I said that it didn't at all.

All the while, Jebediah had sat on his own, as was often the case. People frequently took his quiet, contemplative nature as one that desired solitude. This, of course, wasn't entirely accurate, but not entirely flawed, either. He was always one welcome polite company, but wasn't one to lament the absence of it, either. Whether desired or not, his solitude was soon broken by one of the birds. As usual, it hardly mattered which one, and even were I there, it was unlikely that I could have identified them. The creature eyed the languid mouse with a familiar expression of contempt.

"Can I help you?" The farmer asked, after a few moments of enduring the cold, blank stare.

"We will soon reach the agents of the Devourer." It said in its monotone voice. "What do you plan to do when that happens?"

"Hmm, I'm not entirely sure. I suppose I'll do my best to reach this leader of theirs. Hopefully convince him that this battle is unnecessary." The farmer replied in his usual, calm tone.

"Do you honestly expect that to work?"

Jebediah gave the matter some thought before shaking his head. "No, not really. Their leader is said to be a raving madman, and even if he isn't? Well, this isn't the sort of thing that one does on a whim. He's presumably put a lot of thought into it, and likely considered any sort of counter-argument that I could possibly come up with. I can't imagine any situation where he could convince me that he is right, so it would be pretty arrogant for me to assume that I could do the same for him."

"So, once again, what do you plan to do?"

The farmer paused once again, shrugging and giving a little smile. "I'm not really certain. What I always do, I suppose. It might not be much, but it's worked well enough so far."

The bird glared at him for a few more seconds before fluttering away without another word.

Naturally, the celebration could not last forever. As the night had begun to fade, they all knew that before long the Makers would begin to arrive, and as confident as they were feeling, they had no desire to deal with the massive and unpredictable creatures. And so they left, resuming their march, stomachs full, spirits high and convinced, beyond a shadow of doubt, that absolutely nothing terrible was going to happen in the coming day.