Forerunner felt far less terrified on their second flight. Not clutched in the talons of the mighty dragon, they rode on her back—but held no less reverence for her. The world, now that they had a chance to look at it from altitude, was far too big. Forest stretched in every direction, with only a single road—and Northridge—to break it up.
They wore some of the gifts the strange dragon dungeon had given so freely. Amazing metal armor that was lighter than it should be, but still turned away steel blades. Though the armor wouldn't turn away a blade the likes of which they carried. The metal was heavy and would cut anything, or so they'd been told.
The forest near its home did a reasonable job of hiding the dungeon entrance from the air, but the gnolls working the forest were a dead give away that its home yet existed.
"Hold on." Penelope liked seeing that the dungeon was still active. It would have been horrid to come back to a goblin raid. She sighted on a rise that didn't have a gnoll currently on it, and surrendered to the pull of gravity with only a minor concession to using her wings to steer.
The gnoll dungeon felt marginally less panic now when the dragon crashed into the ground just beyond its entrance. It looked through the eyes of each of the gnolls—and had an odd extra angle that it assumed was a minion that had climbed a tree to be able to look from a higher vantage point.
When that high-angle minion jumped down, revealing it to be standing beside the dragon, the dungeon felt more confused than shocked. It looked like the minion it had lost days earlier. A moment of reaching out to the gnoll revealed it was definitely that minion.
"Stop!" Forerunner lunged forward to intercept the charge of a gnoll carrying the adamantine blade, ruining its chance of truly annoying Penelope by stabbing her with something that would definitely hurt her. "She not enemy!"
The words were like a rush of power to the dungeon. It surged with new ability and felt its thoughts coalesce from the base concepts it had been working with to conveyable language. "Explain yourself," it told its minion.
Dropping to their knees, Forerunner told their story. It wasn't long, or complicated, but it spoke at length of the way it had been treated and clarified that Penelope and her dungeon hadn't harmed them at all. Finally, it set out the weapons and armor that it had been gifted. "These dungeons, Travis and Breeze, as well as Northridge—want to be ally."
"Dungeons and cities? Together?" The gnoll dungeon mused on the prospect. "Did they give me resources?"
"Yes. Breeze is deep. You got resources for each floor."
That was a moment of shock and terror for the gnoll dungeon. It had known numbers before it knew words. Numbers were more real than words, somehow, and it had counted each time it had gotten those mystery resources. "Breeze is mighty. What of other dungeon?"
"Yes, Breeze is mighty. Strong and deep. Travis is shallow, but stronger." Forerunner could feel the confusion coming off its dungeon in waves. "Penelope the dragon is from Travis. Her home fought off an army of warriors almost twenty thousand strong."
"There is another dungeon. I can feel it." The two dungeons and city were seeking an ally, but the gnoll dungeon couldn't figure out what that meant for it. Compared to them, it was tiny. Barely a blip. Not even a resource-meal.
"Yes. Goblin dungeon. It is not the challenge they face."
Penelope cleared her throat, which to the gnolls nearest her, sounded more like a mountain deciding whether it should spew fire, rocks, both, or explode into devastation on a mass scale. "We seek another ally, your home, because it is wasted effort and resources to fight. If you trust us, we will share everything with you. Guns. Traps. Safety. We have enemies, but we are already engaging them and winning."
"Then why?" Forerunner asked, speaking as its dungeon did with the same question.
"Because we're stronger together and because it's nice to not live in fear. But in all honesty, you'd have to ask Trav to find out the full reason. Sometimes, when I think I start to worry that things aren't working, he shows me a way to do everything better." Penelope did her best to explain it, but now she regretted not sending Stephan. Or, better, both coming, so Stephan could talk and she'd pretend to be the big brute who wasn't nearly as eloquent.
The honesty behind the dragon's words came through to the gnoll dungeon. It thought about the problem and asked its gnoll to relay a question.
"How dangerous is the goblin dungeon?" Forerunner asked.
"A team of bosses from both our dungeons are killing its minions now. We thin them out whenever we can, and we have patrols to keep them from roaming. I would consider them the equivalent of half the army we fought, when they're at the peak of their power." The only thing Penelope was fighting with herself not to do was give the new dungeon an ultimatum. Not that they wouldn't start attacking it, too, if it became hostile. She liked Forerunner, and didn't wish to have to kill them and their home. "If they find you, they will kill all your gnolls and turn you into another goblin dungeon. If you see them, send someone to get help. Don't try to fight them alone."
"I need time," the dungeon told its minion. "Tell them I need time. Ten risings of the sun. Tell the dragon to come back and I'll give it an answer."
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Nodding their head, Forerunner delivered the message to Penelope, who took a moment to wish them well before flying off. Forerunner wanted nothing more than to return to their home and let it worry about the big decisions, but given the nature of things—if fighting started, they would be the one dying to the city and its two allies.
"Minion, I have more need of you," the dungeon told Forerunner. It was an important moment in every dungeon's life, but none more so than a dungeon with its focus.
"Forerunner. My name is Forerunner."
"Come to my core, minion Forerunner, it is time we have our first boss, and you will make a great matriarch."
The news staggered Forerunner for a moment, before it let out a cackling laugh and broke into a run. It would stand as its home's protector!
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"I think the railway extension should be the highest priority right now. It took us almost a week to get to Far Reach, and in that time we're almost to the capital." Elanor was adamant on that fact. "It's not simply a matter of convenience, either. The trade opportunities and new settlers that Northridge is missing out on with that added time will stunt the city's growth."
"I'm not going to argue that, but the fact remains that Northridge needs to finish expanding its walls. An influx of new settlers won't happen unless there is room for them, and with that goblin dungeon still being a blight on the land, no one would be willing to live outside the city wall." Having long since mastered the art of splitting her focus, Brevity kept revising her submission to have a second dungeon sanctioned at Northridge. "If this application is approved, of course, the goblins will no longer be a threat."
Stopping her line of thought on the railway, Elanor asked, "How often do dungeons get sanctioned?"
"It's not done lightly. Even if sporting six hostile dungeons, no city would ever dream of sanctioning them unless they were a threat to the city's existence. However, I agree with Travis and his reasoning. They don't need other dungeons than himself and Breeze. Between the pair of them, Northridge will become a major power in the kingdom—rivaling the capital for resources." Modifying a few words here and there, Brevity saw the movement under Elanor's duster again. "I can't believe you have a cave scorpion hugged against you like that."
"Snipsnap is careful not to use her claws, tail, or pincers anywhere that would hurt. Besides, I'd rather have her with me if we encounter any of my former family."
"I could arrange for that too, you know?" At the surprised look from Elanor, Brevity shrugged. "Disowning your family is a minor process that only requires you be present to make the announcement before a Lord of the Court."
It seemed huge. Elanor slumped back and felt Snipsnap squirm a moment before settling again. "Sorry," she said, patting at her tummy where the scorpion was soaking up her warmth. "If we have time, I'd like that. My parents— They aren't as bad as my uncle, but they didn't stop him from sending me away."
Not exactly a new story, Brevity thought. There were bound to be other black sheep who were being coddled and used by their noble families when they would make amazing people of themselves otherwise. "I'll ask my old friend if he can help."
"My family might try to stop—"
"Constance wouldn't let them. He's impartial to a fault." He'd certainly kept her from enacting some of her less aboveboard legal claims. Not that she'd try to get something dangerous past him, but there were ways of pushing things through the court system a little faster, and he knew about all of them.
Elanor's hand rose a little and she straightened in her seat. She lifted one finger and pointed down the train car. When the man approached, she tensed and readied herself for a fight.
"I was told to head back here and let you know we'll be another half an hour out of the capital." Rubbing the back of his neck, the train conductor nodded to the door that led to the wagon car behind the passenger one. "You'll be able to disembark your wagon there."
"Thank you. We'll disembark the moment the train stops." Elanor's fingers remained on the handle of her gun, though she didn't intend to draw it unless the man came closer or showed any sign of aggression. She tilted her head downward a little, though her eyes never left him.
Aware of being dismissed, the conductor turned and left the two women to their conversation. They had paid for two cars to themselves, and it wasn't worth his job to keep annoying them.
When the door closed behind the man, Elanor took her hand off her gun and Brevity breathed a sigh of relief.
"In case I forget, thank you. I had no idea that being in Travis' employ would be this inflammatory. It's nice to know that he has people trained to operate in these situations." Brevity didn't want to ruin the moment by adding anything about Elanor only recently having prepared for this. She liked the woman's moxie and wanted to help her break free from the family that had tried to crush her spirit. "When we arrive, we'll head directly for the court. I'll lodge my applications there, then we'll go to the castle."
The entire walk from the station to the courthouse, leading her horse and the wagon, had Elanor on edge. Every time someone walked in front of them, her fingers twitched and she wanted to draw her gun.
At the courthouse, which was two city blocks of buildings that Brevity had explained to Elanor held all the day-to-day administration that a kingdom could desire, she curried both horses and spent some time talking to Bite, Bark, and Snipsnap. "You'll have to wait here. I'm sorry, but if I get caught in the castle with monsters, the best I could hope for would be a fast death after they take away my talismans."
A little shiver ran through Elanor, and she knew instinctively that Ripper was circling far overhead. "I promise, nothing will hurt me on the way to the castle and back. Then I can talk to Miss Brevity's friend, then we can go home again. I want to get Priest leveled up to full, then swap to Soldier. Hopefully, Mr. Travis will have the Tank class ready to go by the time I get back. I want all that armor like Miss Fife has."
Specifically, Elanor wanted some of the fancy new armor that Tinpot made embedded. She pondered more on it, then revised her opinion to something lighter. Just like Fife, she could wear armor over the top. Movement beside the wagon drew her attention and she made a hand gesture to her companions to be still.
"We'll be speaking to Constance first thing in the morning. Once that's settled, I will be presenting my case for a second sanction. It should be sorted by midday." Brevity spoke before she reached the back of the wagon. She'd seen how jumpy Elanor was in the train, and didn't want to sneak up on her. "Shall we go see if we can get an audience with the King?"
"With the King?!"
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