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AR Chapter 378
🕑 Added 2025-05-01 04:00:08 +0000 UTCBTW: On RR, if you favorite/follow/rate, you'll help push this closer to getting bonus chapters. They're already written!
“Push them uphill!”
“That’s why I’m here. It’s damned hard, and if it was so easy, I would, you fangless worm!”
“Then I’ll do it!”
As soon as the skies stayed clear, the thickfeathers’ migration south began. Fortunately, we’d had some small amount of forewarning from the Tala citizens. The large birds sprinted all day, the light of the suns protecting them from the wyrms’ attacks. Even so, nights were crawling with thousands of the writhing beasts. The more I saw them, the more I wondered how so many of the twisting, shadowy beasts survived in a land so generally inhospitable. Even so, I knew that the thickfeathers were a large part of that.
The few large birds that came near the city were quickly rounded up and forced to integrate with the herds. Even so, very few strayed so far inland, instead staying where the land was smoother and they could sprint to the best of their ability. Those that came even somewhat close to the Shandise were summarily swept higher up until more and more Kha, Khatif, and Keel surrounded them. The burgeoning numbers of Kou’Tal herders helped, if not to domesticate, at least to calm the creatures. Their continuous screeching didn’t stop, though, as the rest of my people fought to keep ants from getting infuriated with us.
When the snow faded to a chilly memory dusting the peaks of the mountains, the ants had burst out of the earth with obvious intentions. Though they were presently mollified by Joral and Shemira working in tandem, even Sybil was frequently called on to keep the expansionist and ravenous beasts pointed away from us. Again, I had no idea how they survived or what they wanted, but I was coming to regard them as a force of nature more than anything else. The ants existed, and they’d swarm over whatever they so chose. All we could do was prepare our home to be as protected as possible while continuing to “communicate” with the ants nearest to our home.
While we continued to expand our efforts to ensure that the Empire was well-fed, dozens of creatures were pulled from their wildfaring lifestyles and pushed into our stables. There, the thickfeathers seemed to get along with the ostriches, though the thickfeathers were smaller with larger bodies and, of course, thicker feathers. Two types of large bird scratched through the dirt, looking for anything to eat, and I was, again, struck by how difficult it had been to feed the herds through the winter. Funnily enough, it was the predators, those that we’d worried about feeding before, that caused the least trouble once winter fell in truth.
With the exception of a few goats we’d captured, every animal we kept was from the desert, and they struggled with the cold and the herbivores from the lack of food. Desperate attempts at feeding had resulted in lackluster crop yields and daily fights between different animals as they strove to take more food that they desperately wanted. Finally, we’d sent packs of Khatif and Kha ranging through the forest to gather what remnants of food we could lay sight on. The sprouts and long-frozen plants barely served to sate their appetites, and it was easy to smell from far off that the food we provided didn’t agree with the creatures’ stomachs.
As the plants returned to life and pushed through the snows, the herbivores happily stalked through the forests to find what meager greenery could be found. There was plenty for them to sate some of their hunger, and when they returned to the stables at night, they were provided with even more food. After a couple of weeks of spring, the starving creatures stopped their angry lowing and bleating, instead returning to a semblance of normal. I was glad to have their constant feeding be something taken from the forefront of my mind, as there were so many other hundreds of things to worry about.
I smiled. We were making progress. Another brood of hatchlings had joined the ranks of the Khatif in being trained on how to act in the Empire, some of the scouts I’d sent out had found signs of keelish I hadn’t met on my initial journey, and my people continued growing.
Against my better judgment, I let my guard down. The anxiety I’d felt regarding the ants was unwarranted as they hadn’t grown more aggressive to us. They were still stripping thousands of pounds of leaves from the trees nearest to their other burrows every day, but they carried loads of the greenery deep underground and only attacked whatever creatures they happened to come across in the course of their leaf harvests. They weren’t a clear and present danger. That was reserved for the conversation I had with Percral.
He rushed towards me one day as I worked on cutting a log to the correct dimensions to serve as a wall.
“Zaaktif!”
My General’s voice was strained as he ran towards me. I could feel his heartbeat thrumming so painfully that his feet shook with the vibrations.
“Speak, General.” I attempted to calm him. “Tell me what’s happening.”
“An entire pack of 15 disappeared. When we sent out scouts to verify their position, we came across a sight that you need to see.”
Though he reported quickly and fought to present the facts without becoming hysterical, I could feel the quivering filling his body as he said so. Whatever it was that’d happened to my people was horrifying enough that a hardened Keel was on edge. This wasn’t a mere surprise from a wyrm or something like that. He wouldn’t demand my presence for something like that.
“Very well.” I agreed. “Lead me. Brutus!” I called for the first of the Alqat, but I didn’t need to. He’d been listening to the conversation, and he leapt into action the same second that I spoke. He’d served as the muscle carrying large loads for various teams, but that was merely something to do to fill the time for now. His job was to guard me, and that was what he’d do.
With two Hak’Tal Keel at my side, we ran into the forest to the south. As soon as we got more than a couple hundred feet into the forest, a dozen more Khatif melted out of the shadows and joined us. I quickly recognized them as Percral’s soldiers, Sou’Tal and Hak’Tal mostly. Each carried a spear, and one of them passed a spear to me as we stood all together. Just as soon as we were all together, Percral whistled a series of three commands to the assembled soldiers. I understood the commands to mean, “Stay together, keep watching, kill on sight.”
I smiled approvingly as we continued on our path. The sole Sik’Tal included in the activity ranged out in front of us, her attention focused on the forest more than merely moving towards our goal. She didn’t notice anything, nor did any of the rest of us. The forest I was only passingly familiar with disappeared behind us in quick easy lopes. While we jogged into unfamiliar territory, I smelled something on the air. The scent of blood, and lots of it. As I cocked my head, Percral flared his frills in acknowledgement.
“Yes, we can follow that trail. It is where we are going.”
There was no surprise hearing that, as I’d already expected to find a gory scene where we went. Just a few minutes later, we ran into the clearing where 15 Khatif and Kha were slaughtered, and I understood why Percral had hesitated to speak about it in detail in front of the rest of the citizens of the Empire.
Comments
No_Creative_Name
Edited. Thanks!
Veldorn
"eat,a dn I was, again," and I was
