Lord Lazarus, I Like Your Wife!

"For the rest of you, please meet Uriah and Abubakar, both are Commanders who I believe can fill in a role of within our current ranks. Subutai and myself can discuss this later, but I believe that everyone will be moving up a rank so these can both join as Majors. I am currently thinking that Uriah will support Lucius with the defences of Riverside, whilst I am thinking Abubakar can deputise for Subutai so he can continue being Subutai and looking at the bigger picture." Dom continued, "Seeing that we haven't been gone long, I'm assuming that our original plans are still going ahead?"

"Unless you want to change anything, I was just getting ready to depart." Gan Ning replied, "But I'm happy to delay and help here for now if that is needed."

"It may be." Lucius stated, "With over eight hundred new members joining Riverside, a lot of work will need to be done to create housing and work out where they will all fit in our current growth. I may need you and some of your assigned unit to help."

"That's fine." Gan Ning replied, "I'd rather get everyone settled in and know what is happening, before leaving and potentially coming back to chaos later. We have a lot of work to do once we depart, I want to have the Underground Ancient City completed soon so we can move on to more important things."

"I also want to get moving again soon." Tomyris added, "But I'm happy to stay and help for now."

"Thank you both." Lucius commented, before looking over to Tomoe, "Today may be a lost day, but we have made huge gains. I also saw the large chest of jewels that Tomoe had brought, I'm sure you guys can help look through that."

Gan Ning and Tomyris both had big smiles on their faces at that point, more than happy to help their colleague count the riches that had been gained.

"I also need to introduce Princess Meritamen to you all, she is the daughter of King Rameses II of Egypt and will also be joining us." Dom continued, "I believe she will be a great asset to work alongside Advisor Shang Yang and Mayor Lucius with any potential diplomatic situations going forwards."

"Oh wow, you know me so well already husband!" Meritamen said excitedly from her seat. "I would gladly accept this role."

"Husband?" Tomyris asked, her face contorting in to a look of confusion.

"I'll tell you about it all later." Tomoe replied exhaustedly, just wanting to sleep after a long couple of days.

"For now, let's discuss the new forces that have arrived." Subutai interrupted, moving the conversation away from Dom's marital situation. "We have two hundred Elite Hittite warriors that have joined us, they surrendered under Uriah during our quest and were a great asset in clearing out the remaining enemy forces. They are hardy, but their weaponry and tactics are basic in comparison to the rest of our forces. Similar to the warriors we gained from Tongpai town, I believe that we should retrain them and dissolve them as a unit."

Uriah sat up at this, as these were the warriors that he had brought with him. When Dom had mentioned he had a short time to decide if he wanted to bring his family or not, he had decided that they would and had said this to Subutai. He had never expected to have been reunited with them so suddenly and in such a strange location.

"I don't want to be rude, but could someone explain to me what is happening?" Uriah asked politely, "A short while ago we were in Kadesh, and now we are in your Kingdom of Riverside. You are talking about disbanding my force, but what will you do with us? We are warriors and we want to fight."

"We have two options for them." Subutai replied, "They can retrain as the Tongpai Town warriors have, and become Legionaries. We are slowly building up a large force of elite heavy infantry and I think after seeing your men fight, that they would be a great asset to them. With the two hundred warriors, you could potentially have two and a half centuries or units of your men, so they could continue to fight together."

"What is the second option?" Uriah asked, sitting back in his chair and being in deep thought.

"We are starting to build a small naval force, we have Trireme, a form of battle ship that we are constructing. We plan to explore up the river and around the coast. With a naval force we can better control and grow our territory." Subutai explained, "It's an exciting development and is many steps ahead of where we planned to be at this point, but we are lacking in crew and warriors to manage them."

"I will speak with my men, both sound like interesting opportunities. It is for the best that I let them make their own decisions." Uriah replied.

"What of my men?" Abubakar asked, "We have been assigned as Princess Meritamen's guards and that is the task that we should complete."

"I understand." Subutai stated, "And we are looking at building up a Generals Guard unit, however we have Spartans who we are assigning to that task. Your men will have the same options as the Hittites, I have fought alongside them and value your men highly, but we currently have defined troop types and can not defer from that."

"We also have the town guard." Dom added, "Who are currently normal villagers who are from a military background, we should look at potentially training them into Legionaries and creating a town guard century."

"That's actually a really good idea." Lucius agreed, "I'll speak with Crixus and Paul later! Pullo is going to be very busy in the coming days!"

"Are they our only options?" Abubakar asked, looking over to Meritamen and hoping she would assist him, as they were assigned as her guards.

"It's fine Commander Abubakar." Meritamen said to him, "I have trust in my Husband and his men, plus look at how everything is working together to help the Hittites settle and all of the different colours and clothes that the Villagers are wearing, this is a safe place."

"Alternatively Abubakar, if they don't want to become Legionnaires or join our growing Navy, they can become farmers, lumbermen, miners or builders." Lucius added, "We are always in need of people to fill those roles."

"It's a shame we don't have a training section for the Cavalry or the Hoplite's yet." Tomyris commented, "It would be great to grow those parts of our forces as well, but I am of course happy that the army is growing regardless."

"I believe this is where we should change the conversation to the six hundred civilians that came with them." Dom interrupted, "Uriah, please can you tell me about them?"

"Mayor Lucius has kindly had them go towards the School to register themselves within, everyone I have seen so far from Riverside has been very friendly and treated us kindly." Uriah replied, "We have a large range people that have come, our wives, our brothers and sisters, some mothers or fathers, and in some cases our sons or daughters. We have a range of skills amongst them, from weavers and farmers, to carpenters, fishermen and many others."

"That is great news." Lucius added, "I'm looking forward to seeing the reports from the teachers and getting everyone placed within jobs around Riverside. I feel things are going to get very noisy very soon."

"Did you say sons or daughters?" Shang Yang asked suddenly, "What are their ages?"

"We have a range of ages, some new-borns up to some in their early teenage years." Uriah replied confused.

All of the original members of Riverside looked at each other, before looking back to Uriah. They stared at him with serious eyes and Uriah had a feeling that he had done something seriously wrong.

"We have no children here currently." Shang Yang stated before Uriah had a panic, "No one has brought their young children here, only those of adult age. We are on the periphery of civilisation, where war and death could strike us at any moment, a place not suitable for younglings."

"I didn't know!" Uriah replied, "I just said I would bring the families, and then we all arrived, what do we do?"

"We build up our defences." Lucius interrupted, "Once we have our defences in place and a stronger force, it would be nice to hear the sound of children running around and playing. We already have the school and we have enough food to last us for a few months before the crops are ready."

"We brought you some seeds." Uriah stated, "They came with us, lots of them."

"Any grapes?" Lucius asked excitedly, his eyes wide and glaring, like a tiger about to devour its prey.

"I'm unsure." Uriah replied in panic.

"There are grapes." Meritamen replied sternly, "Father was preparing seeds as requested by General Subutai, there will be grapes. He would not see me without grapes."

Lucius suddenly grabbed Meritamen and gave her a huge hug, pulling her in tightly and almost squeezing the life out of her. Her eyes went wide in shock, having never been grabbed so tight before, nor did she have many memories of being hugged. From birth she had been handed to a wet nurse, so as to not damage her mothers body from feeding, she had been educated and grown to be a servant to her family or to be used as a political tool. Her father was a deep thinking and a monster in disguise, training her and showing her the skills she needed to surpass and grow the families empire. But a hug was a new thing to her.

Lucius released her and grinned, "Lord Lazarus, I like your wife!"

"Back to the Children." Shang Yang interrupted as everyone laughed at Lucius's response. "We need to make sure we have a safe environment for their growth, but this may trigger the other members of Riverside to bring their families, this could create another huge influx of members of Riverside."

"Then we have a lot of work to do." Dom stated, before looking at Lucius, Shang Yang and Meritamen, "I'll leave this to you three then as the leaders of our Civilian arm."

"Now then, let's discuss the key reason we are here." Subutai stated, "Quest rewards!"