Chapter 5

The next morning Maximus had gotten up really early. The plan was to slip out early in hopes that the soldiers wouldn't have started their patrols by then. He managed to wake Hedger up as well and drag him outside, but it looked like just the sight of a comfy pillow would send him back to dreamland. He had told Rex to meet them in front of the cannon but when they reached the street he was already waiting there. He wasn't alone either – at least a dozen people were also standing there staring at the same piece of paper.

"What's going on?" Maximus asked Rex. Rex just snorted and stood there for a few seconds then he said "The reward for the manticore is out, 400 gold pieces." That finally woke Hedger up, "Did you say 400 golden beauties, man,the sellers' council really wants this thing gone." Maximus was also surprised at the reward. He had never seen such a high bounty before in the trenches. Then again they never had to deal with such a strong monster before. The world's money system was easy enough to understand. Ten pieces of bronze made a silver piece and ten silver pieces made a gold piece. This was the same under all the Olympian kingdoms under the order of the God-King Zeus. And four hundred gold pieces were a lot, at least in the trenches. With that kind of money a person could really restart his life. But he knew that the risk was too great, but then again he had already done something today against his rational instincts. He had brought along with him the cursed blade.

They started to move towards the east part of the trenches, there was an old junkyard at the end of it. It was a place where a lot of the kingdom's scrap metal got sent, and in Mars, a large portion of these included war vehicles such as tanks, Jeeps and armoured cars. After anything useful was taken from a destroyed vehicle, whatever was left was hauled off to the junkyard. Out towards the back, where the larger vehicle shells were stored, there was a small opening which led to some underground caves that in turn led to the outskirts. The caves seemed to be built by dwarves, but had been abandoned for years.

Dwarves were an underground dwelling race. They were also natural born excavators. They had powerful front claws that were excellent for digging and they also had a keen sense of smell so that they could navigate the tunnels even without light. Dwarves also made the best blacksmiths, mechanics and building constructors. Anything that needed building or fixing was their thing. Maximus had read somewhere that most of the Dwarven population resided in the kingdom of Vulcan. But you saw quite a few in Mars as well. The problem was that dwarves only grew to about three feet tall, which made most of the tunnels inaccessible to them, especially for a big guy like Rex. But a few of the tunnels were made to move equipment and they were big enough for Rex to squeeze and crawl his way through. Obviously he wasn't looking forward to this.

"Damn it, wish the army would just take out that manticore instead of blocking off the entrance," Rex said. But Maximus knew that wouldn't happen. The outskirts just weren't considered as valuable territory. There was no way the army would waste resources there. And even though the blocking of the entrance was an annoyance to scavengers and sellers he knew that a lot of people slept better at night knowing that the army was guarding the entrance. Hedger glided down to shoulder level from a tree. He was munching on an apple; he tossed one each to Maximus and Rex. He took another bite and said "If anyone has the right to complain here, it's me. I can't believe you guys talked me into doing this again."Hedger didn't usually join them on their scavenging hunts, but the dwarf tunnels were way too complex and it was easy to get lost or stuck. Neither Maximus nor Rex could go through them easily. That's where Hedger came in; he was small enough to fit through all the tunnels and lead the way for them. But he hated this more than Rex did as he couldn't use his wings there. And not being able to spread his wings made Hedger kind of claustrophobic.

As they reached the entrance of the junkyard a familiar metallic smell surrounded them. Maximus liked the junkyard. It was filled with old relics of the past, each broken piece of equipment here had a story to tell and most would be Great War stories. When he was still in the army he used to admire the tanks and other battle machines used by the army. He always preferred his sword but it was hard not to feel the power radiate from a R.A.M. tank. The R.A.M.'s or the Region Annihilation Mega-tanks were the army's ultimate weapon. Those double barrelled mega tanks could probably even take out a ground manticore without a scratch.

As they started walking through the junkyard, Maximus noticed that Rex wasn't really joining in the conversation and he had a serious look on his face. "What's wrong?" he asked Rex. He didn't respond right away, then in a low voice he said, "I think we're being followed." Maximus turned around slowly to take a look but he didn't see anyone. The junkyards were almost always empty; somehow the rusty machinery didn't exactly make it an attractive hang out spot. "I don't see anyone," Maximus said.

"Neither do I," Hedger said in agreement. But Rex still seemed unconvinced. "I don't know, somehow I feel it in my snout."

"Maybe you just got a bug or something stuck in there, your nose is sure big enough for it," Hedger said, "guess your instinct isn't just what it used to be." But before Rex could respond to that with some rather unconventional words a voice said "I wouldn't say that."