Chapter Three Hundred and Forty-Eight — Onto the River and Through the Woods
Chapter Three Hundred and Forty-Eight — Onto the River and Through the Woods With Admiral Orange’s assent, Caprica and I figured out a formation that our fleet could take as we travelled. The Beaver Cleaver as the fleet’s flagship, got to sit pretty in the middle of the formation, with the slightly-faster Featherfall ahead, and the Lunch Box behind. The idea was that we could create an area with less pressure for the Lunch Box to keep pace with us.The two sylph frigates kept pace on either side of the formation. They were the best-armed ships in our fleet and could outpace even the Featherfall when they pushed themselves a little.The Royal Pride split from the formation relatively early on. It was going to head west, then circle north and wait for Caprica’s signal to fly past the place where we suspected the pirates to be. That was our big decoy.As for us, our heading was north-northwest which had us fighting a cool wind from the northeast.The first day of the trip was simple enough. After a few hours of figuring out optimal speeds and getting used to flying in a formation, we made good progress towards our ultimate destination.As night fell, the air grew colder and I found myself switching out from behind the wheel to let Clive have a turn, though I made sure to bring him a warm blanket because I didn’t need him catching a cold.When it became too dark to see, we slowed down, descended, and came to a stop above an area barren of any sort of grass or shrubbery.According to Calamity, that was because of the Greenstone. We weren’t in the area of its effect, but we were close enough that there wasn’t anything growing here. It was safe to stay, but not for a long time.I was a little worried about that, so I kept my Cleaning aura up to make sure the ship stayed clean. It was surprisingly hard to do that though, and after asking around, Amaryllis conducted a test with some spells that showed that the mana in the area was much, much lower than it should have been.Maybe that explained why nothing was alive around here?It didn’t really matter. The next morning saw us pulling up our anchors and taking to the skies once more under Grand Admiral Orange’s careful watch. If everything went well, we would be reaching the Snowlands a few hours before nightfall, hopefully a good ways east of where the pirates were located.That’s when I got a pleasant surprise.Congratulations! Through repeated actions your Captaining skill has improved and is now eligible for rank up!Rank D is a Free Rank!That was a heck of a boost! I wouldn’t say no to it, especially not now that we were working with so many other ships.It gave me a bit of pep to my step to know that I was improving, and I worked extra hard to keep everything in tip-top condition. It wasn’t too hard though. The sylph troops aboard the Beaver were already on their best behaviour since they were sharing a ship with a princess and a paladin.The day passed surprisingly quickly. There was a million-and-one things to take care of, but I still had a few moments to take in the scenery as we continued flying on. There was something nice about the smell of spent fuel in the crisp-cold air. The world below was spread out far and wide, huge plains eventually giving way to old-growth forests.The biggest change though, happened when we reached a sheer cliff-side. It was like the whole world was split apart, with a sheer wall of stone rising up a hundred metres off the ground. Above that rise was another forest, but this one was different to the one below.The trees were much larger around, and significantly taller. They reminded me of maple trees on a scale that dwarfed even a redwood, and I ended up ordering us to climb a bit higher to avoid brushing too close to their tops, even if that meant dealing with slightly thinner air.It was colder here too. Some of the trees further north had brushes of snow on their topmost leaves, and the ground I could spy between them was covered in a white blanket protected from the sun by the canopy formed by the trees.“The pirates should be to the west of here,” Caprica said. She had a clipboard out, with a map of the region on it. “If they have as many ships as we think, then they’ll need a place to dock them, and the only place like that nearby is the Lightning Watch.”“What is that?” I asked.“It’s an old Snowlander keep. From what I remember of their history, they used to live to the north of here, but they moved into these woods at some point. Then, for some reason, they moved westward and settled their capital near the Bay of Storms.”“For some reason?” I turned to Caprica..All she gave in answer was a shrug. “I don't have any better information than that, sorry. It's not like I'm carrying the palace library around with me. I could write a request back home.” She tapped her ring.Amaryllis nodded. “That might not be a terrible idea. If we intend to approach this keep on foot, then we might as well learn what we can about the environment.”“I’ll pen something in a moment then,” Caprica said.We continued across the forest until a fog started to collect on the ground around us. It was probably the sun’s warmth touching the few snow-covered rivers we were passing, combined with a warmer breeze from the east.One of the lookouts on the Featherfall signalled back to us that there was a glade, so I ordered the fleet to slow down to quarter speed, and we coasted ahead until we came to a large river bank.Two rivers met below us, both shallow, but fast-moving, especially where they met and the competing currents splashed against each other.“Seems like a good enough place to make landfall,” I said.Orange hissed at the ground, but I think it was mostly the idea of taking a dip in all that water that didn’t amuse her.We parked ourselves as close to the ground as we could, lowering ladders to splash into the river’s edge while our anchors fixed themselves onto the stoney ground. The clearing was only barely large enough to fit all of the ships, but we managed to squeeze them all in.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.Hiding five airships just wasn’t really doable under normal circumstances, but the trees here were so tall that it might just be possible to go unnoticed if we sat the ships low enough.Because I was the captain, I had to be one of the last ones off, at least according to the sylph. The Beaver Cleaver’s normal crew-which meant our harpy friends and the Scallywags-were left onboard, as well as a team of six sylph who pulled the short straws. Every ship had a small crew and a number of soldiers onboard to defend them. The last thing we wanted was for someone to come around and steal our rides back home.My shoes hit the water with a splash and I gasped as water raced around my legs. It was cold!I raced to the river bank, sloshing through water that ran all the way up to mid-thigh in places. I used that trick to warm myself up as I left the water... and then I realized that I could have enbiggemed myself once I was on the opposite shore and felt quite silly for not thinking of it earlier. On the shore, a sylph gave me a hand, and I noticed that a few of the soldiers were wet all the way to their shoulders. Their packs were dry though, so they’d prioritized keeping their stuff warm. Some of them were burning mana in their off hands, using self-heating spells that warmed their clothes enough that the water soaked into their armour was wafting off as a light steam.“I haven’t been this cold in a while,” I said with good cheer as I found my friends to one side.“It’s not too bad, it gets colder in Goldenalden during mid-winter,” Caprica said.Awen didn’t say anything, but the clatter of her teeth spoke volumes about what she thought of the forest’s temperature.I wrapped an arm around her shoulder to share some of my warmth. “You’ll get used to it,” I said. It was a partial lie, it took a while to get acclimatized to this kind of cold.Amaryllis huffed and tugged her jacket tighter. “We should get moving. We have half a day of travel time left if we pace ourselves. We couldn’t see the keep from the air, so it’s going to be a good distance away.”Bastion nodded. “I’m sending scouts ahead. We don’t have many, but those we do have are pretty talented. They’ll give us the lay of the land. Otherwise, I suggest we move as a single group. A three-long formation.”“A what?” I asked.As it turned out, the sylph had a lot of formations and such that they trained. A three-long was a long row, with three soldiers walking side by side. The one in the centre would look ahead, those on the sides would look to the sides. Each threesome stayed within weapon’s reach of the one ahead, so as we started to walk into the tall forest, we did so as a long, thick snake of people.I ended up somewhere in the middle, with my friends by my side and Caprica just ahead, flanked by two of the more experienced royal guards who’d come along with us.The forest was wild, but there was far less underbrush than I expected — instead, we had to cut our way through fallen branches to walk in a more or less straight path.The size of the trees made me feel absolutely tiny, and I wasn't even using Proportion Distortion. These weren’t the big maples and such I was used to seeing back home. They had more in common with sequoia than anything else. If an animal came out from around a tree, I imagined that it would have to be enormous just to be relative to the trees.But we didn’t see anything.Not even a squirrel or a wild bird.In fact, now that I was paying attention, the forest was eerily quiet once we were far enough from the river that the murmuring of the water was far enough back that I couldn’t hear it anymore.“Where are all the little beasties?” I asked.“Hibernating?” Awen suggested.I shook my head. “Not cold enough for that.”“It’ll get even colder?” Awen asked, aghast.“Broccoli’s right, there’s nothing but plant life around. And insects,” Amaryllis said. She swatted a few little bugs away with a sweep of her wings. “Nothing bigger than a beetle.”“Could it be that Greenstone thing?” I asked.Calamity, who was in the group right behind us, spoke up. “I doubt it. The Greenstone’s effect doesn’t go that far, nor in this direction, I don’t think.”“Do you know this area?” I asked.“Nah, sorry. If I knew nya’d drag us here I’d have asked around a bit more. Heard some stories, but mostly about how the forest is filled with monsters and ancient dungeons.”“Oh,” I said.Monsters and ancient dungeons. Neither sounded good at the moment. We didn’t have time to go exploring a dungeon. Especially not an older one, which would undoubtedly have more floors and more dangerous challenges.I imagined that a dungeon in a forest like this, so far from anything, might have gone unchallenged for a very, very long time.My ears twitched around, and I felt the fine hairs on the back of my neck rising. Was something watching us? I looked around, and noticed some of the soldiers doing the same.At the very front, Bastion raised a hand and made a few quick gestures.“Quiet,” Caprica muttered for our benefit.The soldiers carefully shifted, hands casually alighting on hilts and shield arms moving as if to make sure they were limber and ready to move. Any chatter down the line, which wasn’t much to begin with because they were professionals, died down to nothing at all.We didn’t stop moving though, not until something stumbled out ahead of us and we came to a stop without anyone communicating that we should.One of the scouts returned, covered in sweat, with a gash on his forehead and his wings buzzing loudly in the quiet as he came for a hard landing before the group. “Sir,” he gasped.“Report,” Bastion ordered.“Spiders, sir. Big ones.”
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Chapter Three Hundred and Forty-Nine — Food for Thought
Chapter Three Hundred and Forty-Nine — Food for Thought It took Bastion half a second to come up with a plan. “Phalanx, I want a grid. Spears out ahead, swordsmen, be ready to take to the air. We’re going to need wide sweeps of fire to clear out any webbing.”“Oh no,” Calamity said. “Nope, nope, nope.”“What’s wrong?” I asked as the formation shuffled around us. We were being positioned near the rear, along with an obviously irate Princess Caprica.“I’m not, ah, fond of spiders. In fact, I’m very not-fond of them.”“Really?” I asked.“Yes, really,” he said. He reached for his pack and pulled out his unstrung bow, then quickly and expertly looped a string through one end and over to the other while bending the bow on the ground. “We have spiders out on the plains. They’re bigger than both my hands together and will pounce on any birds that fly too close. Whenever I see their nests I go the long way around.”“That is kind of spooky,” I agreed. I shucked off my pack and set it down to one side. A lot of the soldiers with extra equipment were doing the same. Then I pulled out Weedbane and held it close, ready to snap the blade out whenever I needed it.Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.“Broccoli,” Bastion called back.I jumped, then looked over the heads of the sylph between us to see the paladin waving me over. “I’ll be right back,” I told my friends before I pushed through the formation and towards Bastion. “What’s up?” I asked.He nodded to me, then gestured to his side. The scout from earlier was there and from up close I could see that he wasn’t in as bad a shape as I’d feared. Sure, his armour was dirtied up and a bit rough, but he didn’t seem wounded other than the gash on his forehead.I pushed a bit of Cleaning magic out, which startled him before he realised that his uniform was clean again.“Best to keep your magic reserves topped up,” Bastion advised. “We might be needing every spell we can muster soon.”“Oh, alright,” I said. I was pretty sure my Cleaning magic would work on spider-webs. It worked on cobwebs well enough. Though maybe those were different, in a way? It wasn’t hard to agree to hold back though. “What did you need me for?” I asked.“Negotiations,” he said.The scout looked as surprised as I felt.“I know you well enough,” Bastion continued. “You’re going to try to talk to the spiders whether or not I tell you not to, so I might as well nip this in the bud. When the spiders arrive, I’d like for you to open a dialogue with them.”“That makes sense,” I said. And it did sound like something I’d do. “We are invading their home, so it’s only polite to say hello.”“Yes, I’m sure,” Bastion said. “Mostly, my concern is trying to get past the forest without losing life or equipment, and perhaps even time. We’re on a schedule here.”“Right,” I said. “We might be able to ask for permission to peacefully cross their territory. And they might know about the pirates too.”He nodded. “That would be a great boon, yes. But keep in mind, if things don’t work out, or if the spiders are mere animals, I don’t want you interfering in the fight to protect them over us.”“I know. I’m not that silly.” Turning to the scout, I smiled before I asked him a few questions. “Did you see the spiders for yourself?”“Yes, ma’am,” he replied immediately.That was good. “What do they look like, exactly?”“They’re quite large, ma’am, easily the mass of a sylph, I’d guess. They are brown and black. I believe their... chitin might be a natural camouflage in these forests.”“Right. Are they more like ambush predators, like normal spiders, or are they more jump-in-your-face spiders?”The scout shrugged. “I’m sorry, ma’am, I don’t know.”“Either is bad, but ambush predators would be worse,” Bastion said. “We need to stay sharp, but if we're constantly expecting an ambush, crossing the forest is going to wear down everyone's nerves.”That sounded about right. The forest was already a bit on the creepy side. I couldn't imagine walking through it while expecting a big spider to drop down from above or spring from a bush at any moment. Dangerous rescue missions were already stressful enough, if we added any extra stress, people might start cracking.A second scout came hurtling down from above. Not from ahead though, but instead from the side. “Sir,” she said as she landed at a jog. “Spiders, left flank.”“We’re being surrounded,” Bastion said. “Alright. Round formation everyone. Keep the VIPs and our range-experts centred. Eyes up. Keep flight to a minimum. Prepare to fight stealthed enemies. I want sense magics on full blast. Buffs up.”I felt a queasy sort of pressure in my tummy, and my skin tingled. I... had no idea what had just happened, but I could tell that it was magical, and it was coming from... Caprica? The Princess was standing tall, eyes closed, a fist over her heart. I noticed most of the soldiers standing a little taller, too.“That should help a little. Don’t rely on it alone though,” Bastion said.He didn't explain what Caprica had done, he was too busy moving to help the sylph form up into a perfect circle. The sylph with swords and shields were on the outside, with an inner circle of sylph with spears ready to poke out of the gaps in the shield wall. In the very middle my friends and a few sylph archers were getting ready to help as best they could.“Get into the formation,” Bastion ordered the two scouts and they both took to the air, flying over and into the centre. “Broccoli, if you would stay with me, please.”“Yeah, sure,” I said.“If I order you back into the formation, I do expect you to listen,” he warned.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.I nodded. I could do that. Bastion had a lot on his plate, dealing with a silly bun who couldn’t listen to orders-even if that silly bun was me-would just add to his burden in a way that wasn’t very kind.We waited, Bastion with his hand on the hilt of his sword, and me with Weedbane held like a staff while I swivelled my ears around to listen.When the spiders arrived, it was only someone in the formation saying “look!” that let me notice.The first spider to show up was a big one. They were about as tall as I was, though they though they seemed much, much wider due to their long, thin limbs that reached way out from its body. The limbs were quite hairy, all covered in spiky bristles, and it scanned the clearing with eight beady, pupil-less eyes that made it impossible to tell what, exactly, it was focusing on.“Hmm,” Bastion hummed. “Second tier.”I winced. “Does that mean that the spiders have access to a dungeon?”“It’s possible,” he said. “It could be a natural level. They’re all around the same level range. Or the few I’ve seen. It puts them on par with most of our soldiers. I was hoping to have a clear level advantage to leverage against their own advantages.”The spiders probably had a heap of natural advantages here. Plus, they were on their home terrain. Yeah, I could see why Bastion was worried. “Let me see what I can do,” I said.The big spider was clinging to the side of one of the trees, the claw-tips on the end of their legs hanging onto the bark so that they could stay in place, even if that place was on a vertical surface.I hopped forwards and away from the group until I was about halfway between us and the spider. Just one big backwards bounce back to the formation, if I had to run. I cleared my throat and looked at the spider.That’s when I realised that this would be one of those weird situations where I couldn’t just talk to someone, at least, not verbally... well, not only verbally. I took a deep breath, then clicked my tongue as hard as I could.The spider paused, his attention turning towards me as I clicked my tongue a few more times and tried to get the right sound and pitch.“Got it,” I muttered.Then I bounced into a wide squat, stuck my butt way out, and raised my arms above my head straight up, parallel to my ears.I clicked twice more while shifting to the side. “Hello, spider friend,” I.. didn’t so much say as I signed.The spider turned a little, then one of its rear legs moved up and wiggled while his thorax shifted. It clicked. “Stop. Wait.”That... wasn’t addressed to me, I don’t think. I glanced around, and started to notice that a number of the shadows nearby were moving in a way that didn’t match the wind passing through the canopy above.I shifted my arms again, this time at fixed angles, then I twitched my ears the same way. I was so lucky to be a bun. I was already two limbs short for a proper spider conversation, so my ears were invaluable at the moment. “Hello. We are friends. Not food. Passing through. Hello.”More spiders appeared, scuttling around tree trunks to come and stare with their many eyes.There was a faint echo of clicks that I would have dismissed as branches creaking if I didn’t know any better. It was kind of the equivalent of a crowd murmuring.“Broccoli?” Bastion asked.“We’re chatting,” I said. “Or I’m trying to. They talk in clicks and with their bodies. It’s kind of complicated.”“Tell us if they seem to be turning aggressive,” he said.I gave him a thumb’s up and returned my attention to the first spider that had shown up. It eyed me in turn, then it clicked and wiggled its thorax in a way that was actually kind of cute until I parsed what it was saying.“Food clicks at us. Strange. Dangerous. New food.”I wiggled back as soon as I could, and tried not to think of the group of people behind me watching me shake my bum. “Not food. Friend.”The spider twitched at me. “Look like food. Smell like food. Will taste. See if food.” Then it started to skitter down the tree until I danced faster to get it to pause.“Don’t eat. Not food,” I said. “Group is passing through trees. Group is looking for other food.” I was running into a pretty big problem with spider vocabulary. Also, getting called "food" was giving me flashbacks to meeting Savan.The spider let out an irate set of clicks. “All food in forest our food.”“Our food not in forest,” I replied with some clicks of my own. “Looking for food that looks like us.”“So is food?”Oops. I’d fallen into that trap feet-first.“No. Friend!” I signalled. There was more clicking from the forest, and I had the impression the peanut gallery of giant spiders were finding this exchange very amusing. Hopefully not in the predinner entertainment kind of way.“Confusing. Is food who says isn’t food. Is looking for food in our trees. Small. No webs. Not enough legs, but can still click,” the big spider said. “Will bring to Mommy.”“Yes,” I agreed. Was Mommy their leader? Maybe they were matriarchal.In either case, talking to their leader might be helpful. They might be older and wiser, or maybe just be better at communicating. That would be super helpful all on its own.“Broccoli!”I gasped as a large web shot out towards me, white silky material spreading out to envelope me. Then, faster than I could blink, Bastion was there with his sword singing and the web was sliced apart into a thousand ribbons.I gasped and turned to the spider. “Why web?” I signalled.“Cocoon the food for Mommy,” it clicked back.I had the impression it wouldn’t be getting any easier to communicate.
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