Chp.4: Return to the outpost

"We're almost there. Everyone get ready to disembark!"

The boat traveled rapidly over the river waters, making slight movements as the waves crashed against it. Thora was on the prow, surveying the surrounding landscape, which was growing increasingly barren and deserted.

"Eager to meet your husband?" Sarah asked as she approached and leaned against the edge of the ship.

The lizardman shrugged. "A little. I haven't seen him in too long" she answered with a smile. "I hope he's not too angry that I've chosen to spend the last few months with you"

Sarah giggled and looked over her shoulder, where Rhaegal was arguing bitterly with Corgorin, probably over something she had done. "Spending so much time with those dragons I realized one thing: no matter how angry you are with someone, if you see them again after a long time you don't think about such trifles"

Thora was silent for a moment, then she smiled. "Yeah, I guess you're right" she said, looking back at the barren landscape. "So this is where your base is? Pretty bad of a place"

"It's actually perfect if you want to hide away. Even before we arrived very few people went near this place as the land isn't good for cultivation or for plants to grow in general" Sarah replied. "And to ward off any onlookers... we brought here a couple of basilisks"

Thora's eyes widened. "Seriously!? Isn't it dangerous?"

"No. Those animals aren't stupid; they don't come near our outpost. They tried a couple of times… but after the dragons beat them good they stopped trying" Sarah replied. "Their presence is only useful, as no one dares to approach them. In this place where there are no guilds of adventurers and the soldiers are busy with other things, no one would try to fight a basilisk"

Thora wasn't very convinced initially, but after thinking about it she realized it was quite obvious: even if from what she understood the dragons in question were only kids, they still already possessed the strength necessary to face a level diamond soldier, the which meant they could fight on par with a basilisk; add to that their intelligence, strategic tactics and knowledge, then the beast didn't stand a chance. After being brutally beaten several times, even the most stubborn of animals would give up and learn to avoid the area where they knew those deadly predators were.

As Thora reflected, Sarah couldn't stop smiling. She was happy that, finally, she and her husband would meet again. The memory of his despair when she first met her was still fresh in her mind. She couldn't return her son to her, but at least she could reunite her with her beloved husband. At least, she could give her some happiness.

After Haku had agreed to collaborate with Zamor, about four months before, he had immediately thought of a plan, and within a few days he had already outlined all the details. Sarah, as well as Efren, Carlos, Lisah and Martha, had never understood why the dragons claimed that Haku was extraordinarily intelligent (since from their point of view all of them, even Darbi, were incredibly cunning and calculating), but after seen in action they realized how huge the gap was between him and his siblings. While it took his siblings a year to gather the right amount of information and formulate an efficient plan, Haku within just a few days had created a pretty good plan, even if it was missing some parts due to lack of information, but obviously the dragon had thought of that too and already knew how to solve such problems. Sarah had to admit she was impressed by such strategic ability; she understood now why Rhaegal, Corgorin, and Serengal had always given her the impression of respecting their brother so much. If ordinary dragons were geniuses compared to other races, Haku was like a god in thought.

After formulating the plan, Haku immediately started distributing the tasks. First he had assembled a hand-picked team, consisting of Darbi, Brenno, Gord and Isaac, which he had sent to the Baudonia City Alliance to look for something Sarah hadn't understood. After that he had asked Zamor to show him a safe but at the same time easily accessible place, which could hide them for months; after much discussion, they had decided to go to a small rocky plain within the Baudonia City Alliance, located slightly south of the border with the desert, where there were numerous stones several tens of meters high which formed hollows where it was easy to hide . Since it was a barren place, nobody went there, and consequently it was perfect for an outpost. While Zamor had therefore begun to prepare an efficient refuge, Haku had entrusted Rhaegal and the party 'One day' with one of the most important pieces of his plan, which essentially consisted of three steps: save Thora, get enough soldiers to create a small army and to make the king understand their intentions without letting others understand. When they had heard these orders the first time even Rhaegal had been somewhat confused, but obviously Haku had already thought of everything and had taken care to give them all the necessary instructions. Thanks to them, everything had gone right.

First, they needed a very fast means of transport, which would allow them to move from one part of the kingdom to another in a few days. A boat had been the solution. With all the money they had saved up, both from profits from the party 'One day' and from 'The dragon's shop', they could afford not one but dozens of boats. After buying the first one, the party 'One day' had started its work: first of all he had saved Thora and all his companions, but he had done it in a non-glamorous way as he was ordered. After all, the perfect dichotomy between acting overtly and going under the table was also part of Haku's plan. Thanks to the boat they could carry all the lizardmen, and since Teramon was with them too, every time the boat was checked she used the rune of invisibility to hide everyone (thus avoiding generating suspicions, as some might have wondered why Rhaegal, Corgorin or Serengal always disappeared during inspections; since the members of the party 'One day' were known, the only solution was to entrust the job to someone unknown). The plan was to take Thora to Zamor immediately, but she refused and insisted on helping them instead, as she didn't want the plan to be delayed because of her. Although with a lot of reluctance (and according to Rhaegal also a good amount of curses from Haku and Zamor when he, returned in his real body, had told them about it) in the end they had accepted her help. And so, they had been able to devote themselves to their other two tasks: recruiting soldiers and attracting the king's attention.

The plan was simple but at the same time brilliant: to attack the slave markets and take away exactly the slaves belonging to the lizardmen, tigermen and lionmen races, always using a symbol that distinguished them to be recognized as a single group (precisely the Rampant Dragon) . The cities were attacked following a precise pattern, so that they formed a code which, however, would only have been evident if someone had the means to investigate, not in a single city or territory, but in the entire Jurao Kingdom. The only ones who possessed such means were the king and some dukes, therefore only the sovereign would have come to know the true purpose of those attacks. However, they certainly weren't going to settle for just lizardmen, tigermen and lionmen: even if they were excellent warriors, it was essential to create a bigger army. But recruiting this army was not their task, but of Sisna and her sisters, or rather of the criminal organization 'The spider' which they now controlled. Within a short time, using intimidation and tracking down the leaders of all the organizations, they had subdued all the crime of the cities they wanted to plunder, after which they had ordered them to buy all the beastmen prisoners of war. While they weren't directly punished like the lizardmen, tigermen, and lionmen, Carrion's plan was still to cause an uprising that would lead to the downfall of the entire Baudonia City Alliance, so all the beastmen were somehow involved, and therefore everyone would have fought. Teramon had bought more ships to carry them, and she was soon something of an admiral. Thanks to this, hundreds of beastmen warriors had been brought to the outpost of Haku and Zamor, forming their new army. And at the same time the constant attacks, the shifting of the ships and the signals left would give the king a clear warning that surely he wouldn't ignore.

However, there was still one problem to solve: if the party 'One day' indeed appeared every time just before the attacks, this would clearly have created suspicion. While they wanted the king to become suspicious, they didn't want the same thing to happen with regard to individual city detectives. After all, they still didn't know who was loyal to the king and who favored Carrion's cause. Therefore, it was necessary to find a way to divert the suspects, so that they would avoid being accused and captured. They basically needed a good alibi. The best solution would have been for the other dragons to follow and impersonate them, but it was unthinkable that Sisna and her sisters, who still had to coordinate the movements of 'The spider', could help them continuously. So Haku had found another alibi for them: the time factor. If the party 'One day' had been seen on the opposite side of town less than a minute earlier, and then reappeared exactly one minute after the attacks, who could ever say they were responsible? Just a nut. But how to travel so fast, something that not even level adamantium soldiers could do? Easy: creating avatars so fast they can almost get lost in the wind.

Haku had asked Zamor and several other gladiators what were the fastest animals they knew. All of them had given the same answer: the mafdet cheetahs, a species of feline that lived in a plain that was located slightly west of the Jurao Kingdom and that were often bought and sold as pets for the rich and noble, so it hadn't been difficult obtain some specimens in the market of the nearest city. They were smaller and more docile than tigers and big cats, but much faster; however, this speed could not be maintained for more than a few minutes. Haku had immediately identified the problem: thanks to his superior senses that allowed him to perceive the temperature, it was agreed that beyond a certain limit the temperature of the mafdet cheetahs rose to the point that it risked burning the flesh. How to fix it? Easy: by observing the creature that could instead maintain extraordinary speed without thermoregulation problems, namely the dragons themselves. Thanks to his thermal sense, in fact, Haku knew that dragons, although they could run at speeds just slightly lower, did not increase their body temperature uncontrollably; the reason was thanks to a series of sweat glands hidden under the scales which converted the excess heat into mucus and expelled it making it evaporate instantly. By modifying the body of mafdet cheetahs and giving them similar sweat glands, then also adding ogre muscles, tiger paws and bones reinforced with great basilisk plates, Haku had created a creature capable of traveling over a hundred meters every single second. To complete it all, a level adamantium core favored the continuous exchange of energy and the repair of damaged tissues, allowing to triple this speed. Rhaegal, Corgorin and Serengal just had to hide in an alley, extract these avatars and possess them, and then place their human avatars inside the dimensional bags; after which their 'friends' adventurers attacked behind them and let themselves be carried away by them. Thanks to ogre muscles and strengthened bones, these avatars could support large numbers of people, thus allowing them to transport any slaves they rescued. Once they reached their destination, they swapped bodies again and re-entered human ones, completed the mission and then returned back in the same method. With a speed of three hundred meters every second, moving throughout the city took seconds. However, such speed would surely have created a very strong shock wave, so Maldor had supplied them with some magical objects she created that moved the air around them in order to create a sort of 'container' without air inside. internal; no air, no shock wave. This risked causing someone to die of asphyxiation, but since the journey was so fast it wasn't a problem and all you had to do was hold your breath for a bit.

Thanks to these avatars, the group always had the perfect alibi and no one could accuse them of anything. Only recently had someone tried to interrogate them or inspect their boats, but once again the runes of invisibility had come to their aid: not only they hid soldiers, but they could also create illusions of the 'One day' party members themselves. Since they didn't have a living body, Rhaegal, Corgorin, and Serengal were virtually immune to any lie-detecting techniques (he couldn't sweat or accelerate his heartbeat or breathing), so nothing could be made out of them. The five adventurers were less fortunate... but since they were normally interrogated one at a time, once their shift was over, the dragons simply replicated the appearance of their companions and returned to the investigator pretending to be them. In this way, it was not possible to discover that they were lying. Haku knew that Marcus wouldn't let himself be deceived, and indeed that was exactly what he hoped, but normal detectives weren't so clever and therefore no one else would have noticed the deception.

Finally, as their last task, the group had looted some natural places. Periodically they stopped the boat near a wood, a plain or a lake, and Rhaegal, Corgorin and Serengal used their feline avatars to hunt anything. It was part of Haku's plan: it served as an additional code that only the king would decipher. And at the same time, the food supply increased enormously. After all, the dragons had no intention of sharing theirs, so they had to feed the army somehow. They had partly bought food, but that wouldn't be enough, so they had decided to hunt indiscriminately as dragons were good at.

Periodically one or more ships of their small fleet would leave them to carry food and freed slaves to the outpost, and would return after some time. In this way, over the course of four months the party 'One day' had efficiently dispatched enough resources and soldiers to their hideout, and now they could finally get back. Theirs was the last boat to land; it did so in a rather hidden cove and as soon as everyone was landed they used ropes and logs to drag the vessel into a hiding place where many other boats were already there. After that, they continued through the path filled with rocks. "Shouldn't there be sentries?" Thora asked surprised by the lack of surveillance.

"There's no need for sentries when you have the strongest nose there is" a voice said. Thora looked up and saw a huge silver lizard appear on a rock. "Hello, guys" she greeted Rhaegal, Corgorin, Serengal and Teramon.

"Hi, Tikka" they said back. "Are you on watch today?"

"Yes, Kialandì asked me if we could switch because she had something to do" Tikka replied, then she looked at Thora amused. "By the way, I notified your husband of your arrival the moment you disembarked. From how excited he was, I'd be surprised if we didn't see him appear at any moment to run towards you"

Thora blushed slightly at that comment. She already knew that dragons didn't mince words, but she still couldn't get used to it. However, Tikka's words turned out to be correct: the group continued for a few more minutes, and then a lizardman followed by some bodyguards appeared on their way. "Thora, my dear!" he exclaimed running out of breath towards her and grabbing her by the waist.

The lizardman didn't refuse the hug. "Zamor, my love" she said smiling with happiness, and then planting a kiss on her husband's face.

The others let the couple enjoy themselves for a few minutes, then Corgorin commented: "Please, if you have to go further, at least go behind a rock"

This made them both blush, and out of embarrassment they stopped exchanging effusions and composed themselves. "Yes, right. Duty first" Zamor said, then took his wife by the hand. "Follow me, my dear. Let me show you the resistance!"