TNL 44 – Company Part Three
Slowly Arana starts to become a thriving village. A few dozen people from all over the province have come over to build a new life here. Many of them lost pretty much everything during one of the raids. Although the province has become a lot safer these days, some would rather start again in a place that is far away from their old life.
To accommodate all these poor people, everything has to be taken from the mainland. The pirates left a lot of household goods behind when they were defeated and those were things that were not taken to the mainland as loot. Tables, chairs and everything has been left behind. To make things even better, many of the former slaves are able to stand on their own again.
The small garrison in the village nowadays focuses entirely on the safety of the village. The last people in the infirmary are cared for by three midwives who have moved to Arana.
Aulis is still the temporary mayor of Arana. Since the village has grown so much larger, he has to divide his time between the village and the farms he has taken charge of. With the new influx of people, they managed to save almost the entire harvest. Dew the hunter also started to explore further and further from the village. He is convinced that there is a lot of wildlife around, but he has found few traces around the village. According to Dew, this is because the animals are people-shy. What he has found in traces indicates that there are wild farm animals such as chickens, pigs and other cattle around, but also that there are predators such as bears.
On one of his longer explorations, Dew even found an old watchtower. Completely ruined, but apparently some of the infrastructure of the old legions still exists. Enough so that there may also be other useful structures nearby.
When Aulis brings this up with the commander of the garrison, squad leader Mateo, he tells him that Captain Raidon has found a small village during his pursuit of the pirates. There are also places near Centurion where parts of buildings exist. According to squad leader Mateo, there are more such places on the other side of the mountains than on this side. There the old road still partly exists and it is possible to follow the small side roads to former villages and other buildings.
Aulis decides that he should take a look at that village. Maybe there are still things they can use in Arana. Or maybe it's a nice place where people can move to. Aulis asks the squad leader what he thinks.
"Mateo, I would like to take a look at that village with Dew and a few others. We can probably find some things there that we can use here."
"Aulis, you know I don't think the island is safe. I only agree with the hunter exploring, because he is a good ranger. All others have to stay within sight of the walls."
"But what if we take two soldiers with us? I know your garrison isn't exactly big, but two men for a day or two shouldn't matter that much, should they? Then you know that we are safe and maybe we can show that the island is no more dangerous than other places in the empire."
Squad leader Mateo eventually changes his mind. And only an hour later, a group of seven men is on their way to the village in a cart. With Aulis, Dew and the two soldiers are three other men, a lumberjack, a tanner and a former owner of a tavern who drives the cart. The group has decided that they will spend the night in or near the village and go back the next day. When they arrive at the village, the disappointment is great when they see what kind of state it is in.
"You can't call this a village, this is a hamlet," says the innkeeper.
"Yes, it's not much," Aulis agrees, "but who knows, there might still be something useful. Let's take a look around and take the stuff we find back to the cart. If you two want to stay outside to watch for danger, then it should be safe enough as I see it."
The latter Aulis says to the two soldiers.
It only takes a shot time to search the entire village. The pirates have left very little behind. Even though they were on the run, they apparently had enough time to take the important items with them. The only useful things left behind are tables and chairs. That is, until they arrive at the last house. They have loaded very few things on the cart, but the last house appears to be in better condition than the others.
"The leader must have taken this house for himself," says Aulis.
In the house, the tools of the pirates appear to be stored. Not only do they find a bunch of knives, but also axes, bows and other tools. Apparently the pirates felt so hunted that they took everything that was close to hand, but not that which was stored under lock and key in this last house.
"With this house and the tools, I could do my job here," says the lumberjack. "Then I could transport wood to Arana so that can start building again. If there is also a sawmill nearby, it would be perfect."
"Dew, would you mind making a round nearby? Who knows, maybe there's something close by."
Aulis has a suspicion, but does not yet inform the others.
Dew doesn't stay away for long. Even dinner isn’t ready yet when he comes back.
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"How did you know?" he asks Aulis. "Nearby is a stone building where the remains of a sawmill can be found. Complete with a rusted saw blade."
"Ha! I knew it." Aulis can't believe his luck. "I already had an idea when I heard what a great place this would be to arrange building materials. We will probably also find places at the foot of the mountains where they used to extract stone. Maybe even a few old mines! We have to go back to Arana tomorrow to get people to move here. Among all the new inhabitants of Arana, there are probably a few who would want that."
"I'm one of them!"
The lumberjack does not hesitate for a moment. He even decides that he wants to live here, especially if Dew wants to stay a few more days to explore a bit more.
"Sorry, gentlemen, but we have received clear orders from the squad leader. No one is going to stay here. This is just an exploration."
The larger of the two soldiers throws a spanner in the works.
"But you can also see that it is safe here, right? If Dew and I stay here, there is little that can happen. Together we can make a start for when the others arrive."
"As I said, this is an exploration. I agree with you that there is a lot of potential here, but for now we have to stay together. We will help you to persuade squad leader Mateo, but that's all we can do."
And the men have to make do with that until they are back in Arana.
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Raidon takes Brandon and the recruits to Centurion. Aran is now under the command of Sergeant Lenn, while Fort Alpha has Sergeant Indigo as commander, with John to help him. This frees Brandon to help Raidon. When Raidon and Brandon return to Centurion, they immediately find a new situation waiting for them.
Gareth is waiting for them in the harbor.
"Captain, sergeant, I see that you have won some new souls for our little army."
"Indeed. Brandon has taken the liberty of bringing some friends from the capital," Raidon replies jovially.
Despite Raidon's humor, Gareth continues to look serious.
"Captain, I fear that my position as squad leader will become vacant."
Raidon can hardly believe his ears.
"Why is that? Are you going to quit the legion? What happened?"
"Calm down, Captain, I'll stay with the legion but in a different position. Let me explain. While you were away to wait for the sergeant, I poked around the forge a bit. There I found a secret room. There turned out to be a secret temple for Mithras, entirely with books, armor and everything else. When I went in there and touched the altar, there was a bright light. When I came out again, one of the soldiers told me that I had this new sign on my harness."
Gareth points out a sign on his shoulders that looks like a hammer.
"When I went to look it up, it turned out that the hammer is the sign of a smith-priest of Mithras. I'm apparently going to take that independent position within the legion."
Raidon doesn't know what he's hearing. On the one hand, he loses the friend that’s always right there next to him on his adventures, but on the other hand, as a legion, they now have a priest who will soon be able to repair armor and even make completely new ones. There is nothing they can do about this and Gareth himself seems to enjoy the thought to work as a blacksmith. That was also the reason he was snooping around in the forge. The priestly part still seems difficult to him, but as he says himself, he will probably succeed.
"Now that I have informed you, I will go back to the forge. There are dozens of books I still have to go through."
Now that he has made his report, Gareth is immediately less formal.
Since Gareth is busy with the many books in the temple, Raidon and Brandon go to the barracks. The new recruits are assigned a place to sleep. Morris almost has his hands in his hair when he hears that there are now fifty new recruits and another fifty to be added within a week. But a little later, when Brandon also informs Morris of the situation at the southern border, Morris pales.
"The south? But they can't give up the whole south, can they?" Morris continues softly: "My family lives there. If Chakra attacks in the south and the line of forts at the border fall, then Linh, my hometown, will be the first to fall. They don't have a garrison there apart from those in the forts. They just have some city guards and a wall!"
Morris seems really depressed, but then Brandon suddenly asks:
"How big is that city, Morris?"
"Uhh, Linh has several tens of thousands of inhabitants. Why?"
"How many of them are normal citizens?"
Then a light also goes on with the others.
"With the city threatened by war, many people may want to join the legion there!" Raidon enthusiastically shouts. "Maybe enough to actually make a difference in the war!"
The decision is then quickly taken.
"Morris," Raidon begins, "you go straight to Linh. With your contacts there, it will be easier for you to find recruits than for us. Bring a bunch of your cavalrymen. We still have enough harnesses for two new platoons after the arrivals from the capital. That means you can recruit a hundred people. Furthermore, we can also use people for the cavalry and other support. Try to find as many people as possible, but do everything you can to get at least those hundred people. That will bring us to three hundred and thirty soldiers! That is enough to go out with a full company and also leave enough soldiers behind to man everything here. And if Gareth can make more harnesses, we can expand even further!"
It is difficult to find the best route for Morris to take and then also the route back with a hundred recruits and all the other people and stuff that Morris can arrange. From Aran it takes six days on horseback to get to Linh. The way back will take at least twice as long, perhaps even longer because new recruits are not used to walking such stretches. Eventually, Raidon makes a decision.
"Morris, you are going on horseback from Aran to Linh with ten of the cavalrymen. Doing so, you will follow the route that leads around the wilderness. One day we will probably make a shorter route, but for now you will have to stick to the existing roads. Once in Linh you get a week to recruit. After that week you have to go directly to Peredur. That's a city on the coast. There we will pick you up with one of the ships. That way we can halve the time to get back. This solution is the best because the recruits may get a first experience of marching, but they don't have such a long journey that they need weeks of rest afterwards."
"Why can't he go straight to Peredur with the ship?" asks Brandon.
"Because the ship has to pass the pirate islands. Here, I'll show you."
Raidon picks up a map. He then points out the pirate islands.
"Look, if Morris is going in that direction with the ship, then there must be a large unit of soldiers on board. Otherwise, they might board the ship. To achieve that, we have to remove soldiers everywhere, while we are already quite understaffed."
This is where Morris takes over. "Before you think to, Brandon, the recruits are not nearly far enough along with their training to be deployed. We did your training as quickly as possible, and even doing so your training was not yet completed when Captain Bras threw a spanner in the works. The recruits we have now have not even completed half of that shortened training."
"Indeed," Raidon agrees. "In addition, it takes almost as long traveling by ship as on horseback, so it does not make that much of a difference. It would just mean that we don't have enough people for a few weeks."
Morris immediately gets to work to pack his things and arrange for the crossing to Aran. The next morning he leaves as soon as the sun rises.