~Day 171~

Today I got to work on Alvirs saddle straight after breakfast. I started off by cutting off the pieces of leather I needed. Then I proceeded to treat each part. I also needed some metal from somewhere for the stirrups, but I’m sure Odwiff has some lying around someplace. If not him someone has to, right?

The first piece of the saddle I got to work on is known as the saddle tree, at least that’s what I was told. It appears to be the basic framework for saddles. I had no idea saddles had multiple parts to them, but if I want to do this right I should follow the experts advice. Although how much an expert a Dwarf can be on saddles I don’t know.

Just treating the leather takes a long time, in fact it’s really supposed to take several weeks, but I don’t have that kind of time. So I may have cheated a little with a bit of the Demons magic. Even so, there wasn’t much I could do with the actual saddle tree today. I suppose I’ll have to get to the proper work tomorrow. For the most part though that was all I did all day, Alvir and Vinn came by for a short time. Although Alvir was disappointed that the saddle wasn’t somehow already finished. Like he could give anyone a ride whilst we’re up here.

Whereas Vinn just seemed kind of enthralled from watching me, his eyes were practically sparkling. Not sure how a giant mushroom can get any joy out of leatherwork, but I suppose that’s exactly what I am doing, so maybe he’s no different to me.

With the help of the demons magic, one of Cadizes subordinates to be exact, the the treating will be finished by tomorrow, then I just have to concentrate on getting it all finished. I’m not entirely sure what the magic is that this Demon is using, but it seems to be a combination of several elements. Water, Earth and Fire. He must be a bit of a magic expert, which makes me question if it’s really worthy of his skills to help me make leather a bit quicker. Still I am thankful for it.

So I left the leather out as I headed for food, then for bed. Seems as though this whole process might take less time than I thought it would. I guess I’ll probably need something else to keep me occupied once this is done.

~Day 172~

Whilst there was no plan to land for today, we actually came across civilization. The continent may be a huge one, but there are still cities dotted around. This seemed to be one of them. We weren’t stopping, but it was interesting to see another city. We had actually flown nearby a few villages on the way here, but they were in the distance, whereas this one would have been a stop on our way to the capital if we had walked.

Cadiz told us it’s name and lord, but he was quite a minor lord and his territory was essentially just this city and one village. Although frankly I would have thought having so little territory would make him likely to join the rebel faction surely? Cadiz insisted he was satisfied with his lot in life though.

Anyway, we passed over that small city in a short amount of time, so with that spectacle over I of course got on with the saddle. Or more specifically, my goal was to finish the saddle tree today. I just about started it yesterday and I have all day to do the rest of it.

I had Odwiff with me now just to make sure everything I was doing was correct. He was starting to deal with the air sickness a bit better now, he could even go a few hours without running off to find a bucket.

Gial also decided to stop by. As someone who travels a lot he has seen and experienced many different kinds of saddles. Although he hasn’t made them before, so he was more of a visual assistant, to make sure it looked the part.

After many hours, the saddle tree was finished. I’m still not entirely sure if it is just the basic frame for the saddle or if I’ve done something wrong, but that’s what it looks like. I still need to add in the support for the tree using metal, but the basic shape is all done.

Unfortunately I didn’t have time to do add on any of the metal supports as Cadiz called together a little bit of a meeting before dinner. We all sat down in the eating area as Cadiz stood at the front of the ship with Aedi by her side.

When everyone was present Cadiz cleared her throat. “Now, first of, I want to assure everyone that this is nothing to worry about, but we may have made some unfortunate miscalculations with our travel plans.” She sighed.

There was a murmuring in the crowd. She did say it was nothing to worry about, but she’s still warning us, huh? “It’s cus’ we’re going swooosh for the capital.” Aedi interjected making a zooming motioning with her hand.

Cadiz smiled. “Quite, Aedi is correct. Simply put, as we wished to reach the capital as soon as possible, we decided on a straight shot for it straight across the territories. The only issue is that by tonight we will be reaching known New Monarch rebel territory.” She told everyone looking over us. “And Gama is going to have to stop tomorrow.” She finished.

The murmuring grew louder, I noticed a few angry faces, but no individual could be heard over the growing moans and complaints of the crowd. I can’t exactly blame them, if we get involved when we land I’m going to be forcefully involved. I have no idea what the Light Elves would do then.

Cadiz raised her hands calling for silence. “Now now. Settle down darlings. There is nothing to worry about as long as we don’t make a scene. We’ll land somewhere quiet and if any travelers or rebels come across us, we’ll just have to act innocent. Remember no one here is strictly enemies with the rebels. At least not yet. They would have no reason to attack us.” She explained to us.

She’s not wrong, rebels aren’t necessarily villains, even if the Queen is doing the best job she possibly could be doing as the Queen it doesn’t mean there won't still be commoners disappointed with her. There will be plenty of perfectly normal people within the rebels ranks, after all It’s impossible to please everyone. So, simply put, if we just act like travelers to any rebels that come across us we should be fine.

Although with that thought in mind, looking around the room I’m not sure that’s strictly true. Can we really get away with just being travelers with this group? Me and Venya alone would be a sight that requires investigation, then you bring everyone else in to it. We’re an odd group that would surely need to be investigated, right?

I caught a glimpse of Cadiz staring at me with a knowing smile. “Now. I realise that some of you maybe thinking, that with a group as… varied as this one we’ll attract more attention than wanted, correct?” She asked scanning the room.

I felt a twinge of relief as several others in the group began to nod or murmur in agreement. I was worried Cadiz might actually be a mind reader for a second. The demon in question shrugged her shoulders.

“Truth be told that is a factor we have taken in to account, but the only way to fix it would be to hide anyone that looked out of place. Which would leave me, Aedi and the few guards I brought along with me. Which when you think about it makes us even more suspicious. What do you think a small group of well dressed Demons making use of a powerful Magnabird looks like?” she asked us.

I lent back in my chair resting against the small back of the chair and folded my arms. Simply put, they would look like spies, or nobles, or somewhere inbetween. Whatever the case is, they will look extremely suspicious. So, even with our strange rag-tag group, we’ll actually look less suspicious than we would if just the Demons showed themselves. We could pass as a group of travelers from different places all heading to the capital to sight see or something. That is if people go to the Demon Capital to sight see.

I suggested that we claim to be sightseers, I doubt I’m the only one to have thought of it, it’s quite an obvious choice really, I bet most people are just worried that it’d be too simple. Sometimes simple is the most convincing though. There was a bit of discussion amongst the group and after a few minutes we had come to an agreement.

With that out the way, we all tucked into dinner which had been sitting in front of us the entire discussion. The smell had been wafting in to my nose, which was quite distracting. Why we had the meeting just before we ate, with the meal already on the table I don’t know, but it did mean I got to eat right after.

After dinner, everyone began to prepare a bit for tomorrow. We would be landing early afternoon according to Cadiz and we needed to be ready in case any rebels do turn up. Of course, we’ll still be in the wild, so the chances are slim, but it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

~Day 173~

With the time I had until we landed. I decided to try and put on the finishing touches on the saddle tree. Just as I thought Odwiff had a bit of metal stored away. Iron to be specific. Although even with that I had the problem of needing fire so I could heat the iron and mold it. Well to be honest I could do with more than just fire, but I doubt I’ll be able to get any of the proper tools in the middle of the desert.

After a bit of trial and error and with Odwiffs help we managed to shape what I needed, although even with Odwiffs smithing skill it still ended up quite crude. It will do the job for a time though. Besides, we can get all the metal work done properly when we reach the capital anyway. I think Odwiff is looking forward to being able to use a real blacksmith forge, it’s been a while for him.

So with the very basic saddle tree done, I thought I should check to see how well it fits on Alvir, best to make adjustments early after all. I called the giant wolf over and rest the saddle gently on his back. It actually fit better than I expected, but I did take measurements before I started. The only trouble is it may be a little loose and might slide off, I know I’ll be able to tighten it with straps, but even so it might be a tad to loose.

There was only an hour or so until we’d land, so I thought I might just go ahead and adjust it with the time I had. I kept Alvir with me so I could test the saddle after every slight adjustment. I have no idea if I’m doing this how you’re supposed to do this, but it seems to be working, at least for the moment.

Today, we landed literally in the middle of nowhere. Gama took us slightly off the beaten track so we wouldn’t even be near any roads. Even so if there were and guards patrolling said roads, it would have been hard for them to miss the giant bird carrying a ship full of people flying by.

Still, we reached the ground without any interference and even managed to unpack all of our camping equipment from the ship with no trouble. Obviously that only took a few hours and we would be here until at least tomorrow morning so there was plenty of time for us to be found.

Alvir and I had to promise not to go hunting for monsters to train against, that might attract too much attention, so with my spare time I decided to carry on with what I was doing earlier. It was finally time to get to work on the next part of the saddle, the stirrups. The place where the rider places their feet. It features a lot of metal, so I had to once again rely on Odwiff. I just hope he has enough iron to help me out.

The stirrups actually went quite well. Or at least the start of them did, we didn’t have much time to do much more than that as it was already getting a little late and there was one more thing the group had to have a discussion about.

Fires. Do we make fires. If we don’t and get spotted, it will make us look even more suspicious, if we do we’re more likely to be spotted, however we should be less suspicious. We would probably look more like a group of travelers if we played dumb.

In the end, it was a majority vote to keep the fires on. I mean, it would make it more difficult to cook food without the fires anyway. So that’s exactly what we did. Unfortunately due to the discussion and due to how late the fires were started, we had to wait until a little bit later for food, still even then no rebels turned up. I don’t want to jinx it, but we might actually get lucky for once.

With that said, the rest of the evening passed by without a single incident. Before it was time to retire for the night, I even managed to add a little more to the stirrups, although I could have done that without the fire due to my nightvision to be fair.

Everyone was a little cautious when heading to bed. We actually made sure to have a few more guards on rotation than usual, the rest of us had to take part in the guarding too. It would be mine and a few others turn a few hours before dawn. For now though, it was time for a bit of sleep.

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~Day 174~

It was bound to happen. I kept saying that we were lucky, but I shouldn't jinx it, which obviously jinxed it. We’ve been found. It happened just after midnight, I was awoken by a commotion on the corner of the camp. Two patrolmen belonging to a nearby lord spotted our fires from the road, maybe we should have put them out before bed, that wouldn’t have been that suspicious. It’s a dumb mistake, but it’s too late to change it now.

The soldiers bought our sightseer story, as Cadiz pretended to be a wealthy merchant bringing some clients with her to see the sights. Although the rebel guards didn’t seem too happy about ‘foreigners being her best client’ in their words. Still, even if they did believe us, they said they would fetch their commanding officer to investigate us due to the rebellion and everything. As they left they told us to stay put, which was probably their worst mistake.

With the threat of someone of high rank coming to investigate us, there was only one thing for us to do. We ran. Of course we could most likely take on whoever came our way, but it was unnecessary attention which we wanted to avoid.

As we hastily packed everything up and practically threw it on the ship, Gama and Cadiz got to work on her harness. She told us she wasn’t fully rested so couldn’t fly as far this time, no one could blame her, but we didn’t have much choice in the matter.

So with record time we managed to take off just as the day began to dawn. I’m pretty sure we forgot a few supplies, maybe a bit of wine or food, but even if that’s the case, we did the right thing in the situation.

Honestly most weren’t happy with the situation, most were still tired and we were all hungry. Luckily there was a quick breakfast being cooked up, just bread and butter which was better than nothing, but still wasn’t quite as filling as what we’d usually expect.

Since today was a close call, Gama has decided to fly hard for the next day so we can get out of rebel territory. Simply put, if she didn’t push herself she would need to rest in less than two days, but we might still be in the rebels territory. If she does, she’ll be tired a lot faster, just less than one day in fact, but we should be out of hostile territory.

With that plan, there was even more grumbling as we would be landing before dawn tomorrow morning. It would just mean that everyone would have to sleep a bit earlier tonight. We would also be staying on the ground for a little longer to give Gama a real rest, which I’m fine with frankly, I think she deserves it to be honest.

An early night, however, means I wont have as much time to work. Having that in mind, I decided that today I would just attempt to finish the stirrups and if I have the time test and adjust them. The stirrups should surely be build with adjustment in mind though, considering the different lengths of legs that would be using them.

With easy adjustment at the forefront of my mind, I got to work on that aspect of the stirrups, using the harness I made for Alvir as an example. It’s something I’ve done before, so I can certainly do it again, but I want to make sure I get it right and the harness works quite well. Of course that’s for tightening, this is just for adjusting, but the principle should be similar if not the same.

Luckily, there was more than enough time to finish the stirrups, as we lifted of so early. So I spent the last portion of the day making sure they fit with the saddle tree okay. I also had Odwiff, Venya and a few others test the stirrups out to make sure they were doing their job. Although the only one to have ridden any animal with stirrups on was Gial, he said they were crudely made, but they’d get the job done at least.

As the night began to crawl over the horizon, it was time for us to go to bed, with the speed we were going, the ship had quite a noticeable rock to it that only got more noticeable as everyone crawled in to their respective sleeping arrangements. Odwiff was actually the most comfortable for once with his custom hammock. To be honest though, the rocking didn’t bother me for some reason. It actually kind of helped me fall asleep. Am I a baby or something?

~Day 175~

It was before I was even fully awake than I heard the dull thud of our ship hitting the ground. A dull thud that sounded like a ground a bit different to the usual soft sand we’d gotten used to over the past week or so. Along with a few others already awake and just waking up, I made my way outside to see where we had landed.

It was an oasis. One of the many spots of beautiful trees, water and luscious grass dotted around the southern part of this continent. Somehow, Gama had found a spot hidden in the oasis large enough for her and the ship to land. Right next to the ship was a body of water, too large to call a pond, but not large enough to call a lake. Already relaxed inside this body of water lay the exhausted body of Gama.

She stretched out her wings and sunk down in to the water until just her head sat above it, resting gently in the shallows. Several waterside monsters looked confused and scared by the strange giant bird that just stole their home.

I heard a laugh from my side as Aedi jumped from the ship. “She looks like she’s been deflated. Like a balloon!” She laughed running up to Gamas face.

Well. She’s certainly not wrong. Her body is lying completely loose and with the clear water it does look wide and flat. Although I wouldn’t go as far as balloon like. “Are you alright?” I asked her with a smile as I walked to their side. Aedi was now cuddling against Gamas neck.

Gama smiled sleepily, her eyes half open. “Ah.. When you reach my age there’s nothing better than relaxing in water.” She responded, clearly content.

I mean. Technically both Venya and I are older than her, but I suppose our bodies aren’t. “Shall we just leave you to sleep then?” I asked the giant bird.

With an incoherent mumble Gama nodded her head, she was quite clearly already in bliss. I turned around to see Cadiz and a few other wading slowly through the water towards her harness. Let her be as comfortable as possible.

As Cadiz returned with the harness in tow, we were already midway through setting up camp. The plan was to stay here a few days, to properly let Gama rest. We are already at the halfway point, maybe even over. Birds have an inherent ability to navigate and know which way they’re going, which means we’ve relied almost purely on her to navigate. So where we are is purely a guess from how many days we’ve traveled. Cadiz, Gial and Alka got to work on the map figuring which oasis we could possibly be in. Apparently over hundreds of years almost every single oasis on this massive continent has been mapped out.

Since this oasis was quite large, I decided to do a bit of exploring. The chance of finding monsters in a oasis is much better than in the desert. There is a much bigger concentration of them around here. Of course they’re probably mostly the weaker monsters that prefer to stay in the shade, but we won't know until we look.

I had quite a little party come with me today. Alvir, Vinn, Venya and Wrok. Seems as though the two of them were a bit worried about getting rusty too. Before we left, however, Cadiz had a warning for us. Apparently there was some sort of protected species here, a type of Wolf to be more specific.

The Wolves are called ‘Oasis Wolves’ since that’s where they usually reside and that’s their name. They’re intelligent as far as wolves go and it’s not very far in their evolution until they can talk. The reason they’re protected though, is due to their low numbers, which was caused by over hunting. Apparently their pure white coats were a popular fashion item for quite a while. Ordinarily one species going extinct wouldn’t bother most nobles, but thanks to it’s beautiful appearance the Oasis Wolf found it’s way onto many a noble houses banner, so said noble houses now protect them.

Simply put, if we see any Oasis Wolves, don’t kill them. Obviously that’s not a problem for me, being a Wolfmother and all, but it was a helpful warning for the others. Although Wolves usually avoid attacking anyone with me too. Luckily, we didn’t actually run in to any Wolves the entire day, instead, however we found something a little worse.

Poachers. Or that was our guess at least. That’s what Wrok said they must be at least. Those that hunt monsters illegally are known as poachers, it’s the same in any world as far as I know.

I’m not sure how hostile poachers might be, but we thought it best not to cause a scene. So we hid in the bushes. We also have no idea how strong they might have been, hunting a relatively strong breed of wolf requires relatively strong fighters.

After they passed we carried on with our own hunting, making a mental note to let Cadiz know what we saw for when we returned. By the end of the day we hadn’t seen them again, but we had got sort of lucky with our own hunting. We even brought back about five Bark Dear for dinner. An oddly violent breed of Dear that have strong bark-like skin and very sharp antlers, which Venya learnt the hard way.

Overall I came back with a comfortable two levels, but Alvir only got one. Maybe I shouldn’t have hogged so many kills for myself. Still it wasn’t a bad day for anyone, both Wrok and Venya seemed quite pleased with their outcomes.

When we arrived back at camp, dinner was already well underway and poor Gama seemed to already be fast asleep. Before I sat down to eat I made sure to tell Cadiz what we saw.

“If you go out tomorrow, stop them, if possible.” She told me after listening.

I scrunched up my brow. “Stop them?” I asked, confused. I entirely understand not wanting them to wipe out the last of a species, but does she not think the priority should be a low profile right now.

“You seem confused darling.” Cadiz commented tapping my arm. “Are you curious as to why I’m invested in keeping these wolves alive?” She asked me. I nodded my head in reply, her banner isn’t a wolf, so I can’t understand where her investment comes from. Cadiz smiled. “What I can’t just be in it to keep the beautiful creatures alive?” She tilted her head in a cute manner.

I folded my arms. “Well, I can imagine there’s some element of that, but I don’t think you would ask us to go out of our way to stop them just for that.” I explained.

She raised a single finger. “You are correct. I have a bit more of an investment in keeping them alive. You see, there are quite a few nobles with wolf banners that are on the fence about the rebellion. Obviously they are just a few out of all of those on the fence, but if we can assure them that we off the Queens faction assisted in keeping the wolves safe, it should strengthen their loyalty to the queen. Whether it’s out of actual belief and trust or out of obligation.” She told me.

I scratched my chin. So they know who the loyalists are and who those on the fence are, so surely they know who the rebels are. I mean, they knew that the territory we just went through was rebel territory, so why don’t they just stop them? “I’ve been thinking something for a while, but if you know who your enemies are, why doesn’t the queen stop them?” I asked.

Cadiz let out a long sigh. “If only we could.” She whispered sitting down on a nearby stall. “Listen darling, what do you think the public would think to the queen declaring a bunch of nobles rebels and banishing them or even worse executing them. What do you think other nobles would think?” She asked.

I tapped my chin briefly, the answer wasn’t hard to come to. “They would think she’s some sort of tyrant, probably.” I answered.

Cadiz nodded. “Precisely darling. Those of us on the queens side would obviously support her, but others would use it as evidence that the rebels are right.” The large demon shook her head. “No, I’m afraid we have to be tactical about this. We must figure out the ring leaders, find out their motivation and punish them. Not before making sure the public knows of the rebellions misdeeds.” She added at the end.

I sat down against a tree nearby Cadiz. “What if the rebellion isn’t performing any misdeeds, what if they genuinely believe the queen is a bad queen.” I asked Cadiz looking her in the eye.

She lent forward locking eyes with me. “It is precisely the fact that they started a rebellions against our queen that we know they’re performing misdeeds. The fact they’re traitors in the first place is a misdeed.” She answered a gentle smiled clearly filled with irritation on her face.

I stroked my cheeks and looked away momentarily. “Okay. That may be true for the ring leaders, but is it not also true that some nobles may have joined the cause because they believe the lies?” I questioned. It was more rhetorical than anything, but I’m sure she’ll have an answer.

Cadiz lent back, a look of surprise on her face. “Hmm… Well, most certainly. It’s not as if our countries nobility is directly split by good and evil. Living beings aren’t so simple, so yes it is more than likely more naive yet good hearted nobles may have fallen for the New Monarchs spiel. Although I don’t see how that effects anythi-” Cadiz eyes lit up, then her smile turned to quite a malicious grin. “Naive members of rebellion. Naive lords, that are easy to manipulate, that could possibly be our inside man.” She finished grinning.

I nodded my head. It wasn’t something I wanted to say outline, it was kind of a cruel thing for me to think up, if I’m honest. I think this is also related to my last life. High ranking officers in Ein were akin to noblemen in this world. So perhaps I was involved in more political maneuvering than I remember.

Cadiz nodded her head. “Yes. Yes. I don’t know how none of us thought of this before.” She turned her eyes to look into mine. “You’re much more sly than I give you credit for my dear.” She commented.

I shook my head. “Please don’t say that. I just hit things with a large stick, my good ideas are few and far between.” I replied.

Cadiz mused on that for a second before slapping her legs and standing up. “Well, whatever the case maybe, I’ll have to bring this up with the queen when we reach the palace, see what she thinks.” The large demon began to walk towards the pot of boiling soup we would be having for dinner, before turning her head to me. “Oh. It might best not to discuss what we just talked about with anyone, just in case. I know you trust your friends and I trust my people too, but you can never be too careful. Understood, darling?” She asked me as she began to turn back around.

I shrugged my shoulders.”I don’t think I have any reason to discuss it anyway.” I told her. To be honest, I’m more worried about what the Light Elves thought of that. Technically, I didn’t say anything to help Cadiz, technically it was all her idea… technically. Let’s just hope they see it that way.

With that, our first night in the oasis was over. We would be spending at least one whole more day here and thanks to Cadiz, that day would probably be spent hunting poachers. I’m not too sure how I feel about that, they’re not strictly cruel or evil, so I’d rather just scare them off if I’m honest. I suppose we’ll just have to see how it goes, or if we can even find them again actually.

[Name: Ellena Orcsbane]

[Age: 174 Days]

[Species: Arbor Ferrous, Dryad]

[Height: 7'-6"]

[Sex: Female]

[Title/s: Kin of Ellephwen, Wolfmother, Slayer.]

{Level: 62] +2

[Health: 53570/53684] +1239

[Mana: 8550/8807] + 193

[Stamina: 39850/40124] +816

[Hunger: 40010/40124] +816

[Attack: 35898] +794

[Defence: 63996 + 22000] +1438

[Magic Attack: 9558] +170

[Magic Defence: 18400] + 304

[Skills:

[Pain Resistance lvl 10 (Max)] [Poison Resistance lvl 8] [Mind Resistance lvl 2]

[Venom Resistance lvl 8] [Lightning Resistance lvl 5] [Paralysis Resistance lvl 4]

[Night vision lvl 10 (max)] [Amplified Vision lvl 9] [{Mushroom Helmet lvl 73}] Up!

[tough stomach lvl 8] [Unarmed Combat Expert lvl 9] [Polearm Expert lvl 5]

[Demifoot lvl 10] [Warriors Heart lvl 51] Up! [Warriors Will lvl 36]

[Warriors Strength lvl 43] Up! [Greater Regeneration lvl 8] [Guardian lvl 10 (Max)]

[Dryads Charm lvl 17] [Skinning lvl 5] [Tanning lvl 5] Up!

[Leatherworking lvl 8] Up! [Carving lvl 3] [Earth Magic lvl 9]

[{Wolfmother lvl 17}] [{Pillars Aura lvl 15}]