Chp.2: Infiltration

"Come on, slackers! Get to work, or I'll win you over with the whip!"

In a remote corner on the eastern edge of the Baudonia City Alliance, a building was slowly appearing on the side of a tiny peak. It was a fortress, and thanks to its geographical position it would have been easily defensible. When completed, this fortress would be an impassable bastion that would defend the entire region; it could have housed up to five thousand soldiers and would have had huge warehouses where tons upon tons of food could have been stored to withstand a siege. On the contrary, any assailants would have found themselves in a barren and resourceless terrain, and therefore would soon have been unable to continue their attack. Moreover, the fortress would have been impregnable: being in an elevated position and protected by high walls, being able to take it would have been almost impossible for any armed army. Furthermore, the towers were purposely designed to house large numbers of huge crossbows and catapults, which would also make it difficult to attack with wyverns or other winged creatures.

When the fortress was completed, another piece of the defense against the east would be in place. But obviously, to build such a building required not only good will, but also resources and, above all, a lot of manpower. Normally finding both of these things would have been difficult, and in fact such a project would have taken many years to complete… but that all changed if you could force people to work.

In the Baudonia City Alliance, the army of the Jurao Kingdom was now the absolute dominant force: there was nothing and no one who could oppose them. The difference in strength was so great that any word from them could now be considered law. Therefore, if the army ordered someone to work, that person worked even if he received no salary and received only little food and a very squalid place to sleep in return for his work. And if the army also threatened with torture or even death... then they could work even without receiving anything.

This was the case with the lizardmen, tigermen and lionmen. Their warriors had been the ones who had contributed most to hinder the conquest, therefore they had been heavily punished. High royal general Carrion had decreed that they would only be pardoned for their misdeeds if they worked to build fortresses, walls and ramparts, as well as dig canals, pave roads and build bridges. So all of them had been moved from their old territory to the border of the country, where they had started their backbreaking work. They had to get up early and go to bed late every day, and received very little food and water. The men were normally sent to a quarry or a mine to extract the necessary materials and then transport them to the construction site (a journey which was normally very long and tiring), while the women had the task of arranging the stones and bricks at their place and to pass lime and other hardening substances over it. Only the children were exempt from that job, but not out of charity but for the simple fact that they would have risked dying too soon, becoming in fact unproductive; it was much better to entrust them with lighter tasks such as the production of ropes and fabrics that would be used to improve the living conditions of the fortress their parents were building. When the work shift ended, all of them were crammed into small huts erected in the previous days, which didn't guarantee any protection from the cold and weren't cleaned regularly.

This, essentially, was the life of all the lizardmen, tigermen and lionmen who up until a year before had been free people: scattered throughout the eastern border, they had to work incessantly for the construction of the human defenses. In such an environment, mortality was high: those who didn't work enough were beaten and often their wounds became infected, the lack of food caused their bodies to waste away from malnutrition, the cold risked hypothermia and the dirt allowed the diseases to thrive. Mice, crows, vultures, and all manner of scavenging animals continually roamed the vicinity of the labor camp, waiting for someone to die in order to feast. Very often the weaker workers felt the hungry eyes of those slimy creatures who were watching them, waiting for their body to finally give in and deliver them a lot of food. The dead were never buried: they were thrown into a common grave away from the field, where the animals could take advantage of it to feed themselves.

In such a context, any hope of regaining freedom seemed to be crushed. But if there was one thing all newcomers possessed, it was hope, and it was nearly impossible to truly eradicate it from people's hearts. And indeed, in the shadow of a mine, someone was already moving.

"You there!" a guard shouted pointing his sword at a lizardman. "Why aren't you working?"

The lizardman immediately lowered his head and resumed picking at the rock. "I'm sorry... I just had a little cramp, I'll get right back"

"Mh! It will be better!" the guard grumbled, then turned and went to scold other lizardmen. But the one who had just been reprimanded, instead of getting back to work as promised, slipped away at the first opportunity and made his way to a very deep and dark corner of the mine.

Normally, no one would have dared to venture into the underground caverns. When they found one, the miners blocked it with wooden stakes or ignored it. They rarely ventured into such natural formations, since it was possible that within them were creatures that it was better not to disturb. From time to time the guards chose a sacrificial victim among the miners and sent him to explore these unknown areas, and if he returned then it meant that there were no great dangers and that cave became another piece of the mine.

The cave the lizardman had just entered had already been partially explored, but was still considered unsafe; it was dangerous to venture more than a few dozen yards into it. However, the lizardman carelessly descended through the darkness and reached a large boulder, and hit it hard with the pickaxe several times following a certain sequence.

For a few moments nothing happened, then suddenly the boulder was enveloped in a strange blue aura; an instant later, it was lifted into the air as if it were a feather by two huge arms, revealing a hidden tunnel inside which there was a human in whose hand was a magic circle and a minotaur who was the one who was moving the boulder. "Thanks for the help, Isaac" the minotaur murmured, setting the boulder down a bit away.

"A simple lightening spell. Nothing special, Brenno" the human replied with proud, then he became serious again and turned to the lizardman: "Did you take it, Gord?"

The lizardman nodded and pulled a thick sheet of paper from a pocket he had hidden in his pants. "Here you go. I won't tell you what I had to go through to get it. This place is even worse than Zamor described it to us" he replied with a grunt of disgust.

"Really? What happened up there?" Isaac asked curiously.

Gord snorted. "If I say 'I won't tell you', I obviously don't want to talk about it, don't you think?" he snapped, then he headed for the entrance to the tunnel. "Come, I want to leave..."

"Hey, you! Who the fuck are you!?"

The three turned around and saw two guards approaching with crossbows. Evidently they had heard the sound of the pickaxe and had decided to come and check. "Didn't you hear us? Tell us immediately who you are and what you are doing here!"

"Oh, noooo... we've been discovered..." Brenno said with feigned desperation, then he asked: "What should I do? Should I crush them?"

"No, if someone found the bodies they might notice the marks of your fists" Isaac answered, then he turned to the guards: "As for you, I would point my weapons at what's behind you"

"Tsk! Do you take us for complete morons?" one of the guards asked, but then he felt something touch his shoulder. Something hard, like a huge shield filled with sharp straws. And from above a gush of hot air began to arrive and a few drops of water began to flow... or rather, saliva. The two guards raised their eyes and saw that a gigantic lizard head had appeared above them, with a mouth full of teeth and enormous horns, which was watching them with a hungry gaze. "Hi" he greeted them.

The two guards frantically raised their crossbows at the creature, but didn't have time to fire their arrows; the beast descended and with one bite completely devoured the head of one of them, while the other was instead struck by a clawed paw that shattered his skull and pulverized his brain. The two dead bodies fell to the ground with a soft thud. "Nice work, Darbi" Gord said as he approached, then kicked them both hard. "Filthy bastards, this is what you deserve!"

Darbi, Brenno and Isaac let him. No one knew what Gord had seen in the mine, but it sure as hell wasn't looking good. It was obvious that he wanted to vent in some way. "Okay, I'll take care of them from here" Darbi said taking one of the bodies and starting to tear off and swallow large chunks of flesh. When the corpse was mangled enough, he tossed it into a random spot in the cave, and then broke his crossbow and threw it beside him. He did the same with the other corpse. That way, when the other guards noticed their companions were missing and went down to look for them, they would be convinced that they had been attacked by a wild beast that lived in that cave.

Gord, Brenno, and Isaac tried not to vomit at the spectacle. "Seriously, I still don't understand how you eat that stuff" the minotaur murmured.

"These bodies are made of meat. Meat is food. Even if it doesn't taste the best, it's edible" Darbi replied as he finished chewing on the second guard's arm.

Brenno sighed. "You and your siblings are really survival specialists. One day you will have to tell me what you went through to become like this"

"Believe me, it's better that you never know"

"Oh, come on, we're friends. Nothing surprises me anymore. Do you think I haven't noticed how often you eat ogre meat? After I get used to that, I can get used to anything"

"Believe me, eating ogres isn't the worst thing we've ever done"

Brenno looked a little surprised by those words, but then he shrugged. "As you like. But sooner or later you'll have to tell me about it. I don't feel like playing cards with someone whose past I don't know"

Darbi sighed. After Haku had decided to help Zamor and they had all decided to follow him, he had reconnected with Brenno and Gord. He had expected that the two former gladiators would have been more rancorous towards him, but after a short period of mistrust they had returned to treating him as always. According to them, they had realized that the person they had known and used to consider a friend was still the same, had simply changed his appearance and 'put on a ton or two' (although it would have been more correct to say ten). However, there was still a lot they didn't know about each other, and Darbi wasn't sure that opening up and revealing all the things he and his siblings had done was a good idea. Maybe in the future… but certainly not in that moment.

Fortunately, Isaac saved him from that awkward conversation. "If you're done, let's get out of here now. We need to get the map to the boss as soon as possible, and I personally don't like staying here"

Darbi, Gord and Brenno nodded and went back into the tunnel; Isaac chanted the lightening spell again, and Darbi reached out his tail to drag the boulder back to its previous spot, so as to hide the tunnel. Once the entrance was sealed, the four of them turned and ran.